Chapter 42

2023 - I have this labeled "First Servant Song".  It is messianic, certainly, and about the first advent particularly.

1-4 speak of Jesus.  He will not be overbearing when He comes, He will be gentle, and have the Spirit of the Lord.  Yet he will establish justice, ultimately.  This can easily be seen as a near and a far.  A "combination" of the work of Jesus in his two coming advents.

2021 - There are surely clues as to the first advent here.  Thinking of the Chosen, where the Jews were looking for a Messiah to throw off the rule of the Romans, they never read this at all, they never tried to make this fit their understanding.  We have to be careful of that too, as we try to fit prophecy to current events.  It ALL has to fit, not just the parts we want!  Those first three verses we can surely tie to the first advent.  And that last is there to tell us that he was not done after the first advent.  We cannot say the whole earth is in submission to him and to his justice.  That is still future.

2025 - There are some phrases through here - 41, 42 - that seem to go all the way back to Chapter 9.  Some words that just keep turning up in Isaiah.  It would be worth an in-depth word search through this book.  For instance "coastlands", 13 times in 13 verses in Isaiah...but it is not in Chapter 9.  Hmm.

2025 - The name "Jacob" shows up 42 times.  That is a lot.  It is really a lot of the church and Israel are combined now and are not dealt with separately. 

2025 - A lot of what I am reading in 41, 42 seems to be about the Millennial.  Verses about how the enemies will be shamed, Israel will be protected.  This could be about the time the woman is in the wilderness.  That also works with all these verses about rivers on the mountain top and springs in the valleys.  But that hiding part breaks down when we get to cedar in the wilderness, acacia and myrtle and olive trees in the wilderness.  These are going to take some time to grow.  I think this says the land will be blessed in a way that can only be from God.  The desert will bloom and become productive and beautiful and productive, and no one will be hungry.  This has to be Millennial.  Another example of Isaiah seeing up to Jesus and then skipping to the Millennial.  He sees none of what happens in between.

2025 - But wrapped up in all this is idolatry.  41:42 started it, asking the false gods to make their predictions, to say what is coming and to tie it back to the "setup" in the past that is bringing it about.  Explain all that if you are real gods is what it says.  The accuracy of the prophecy of Isaiah seems to be offered as proof positive that there is only One God in charge of things, the same God that made it all in the first place. 

2025 - Look at 42:17:

17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods." [Isa 42:17 ESV].  If Chapter 42 is about the Millennial, doesn't this say that idol worship is going to be big at that time?  We don't have much of that now so is there going to be a resurgence?  The AoD is going to be set up - and worshiped - and so that might be what is in view.  Perhaps during the 70th many will have little replicas of the AoD and pray to them.  But they won't know what is coming.  They won't see the Millennial right at the doors. 

2025 - Or we could look at it the other way, as being about the idol worship that was going on right in front of Isaiah in his own day, and this could be prophecy about how when they return from Babylon they won't ever turn to idols again, as history has shown to be the case in that part of the world.  Or maybe it means both.  Isaiah is just really really difficult for me to keep on the rails.  I feel like I am off of them more than I'm on them, and just reading to say I got it done with little to no increase in understanding as a result.  Maybe it will fall into place some time.

2025 - Today's reading plan that I have used for many years now includes Isaiah 41,42 today, followed by 1Thess 1.  It is interesting, after writing the two paragraphs above wondering if the idol worship in view was from Isaiah's time or from the 70th week - because we all know Israel didn't worship idols after Babylon -  I found these verses:

9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. [1Th 1:9-10 ESV].

So I need to do some revisions in my thinking.  Remember that Isaiah here is talking about the appearances in the future of John the Baptist and the Messiah.  And following Jesus' ascension, the gospel went out to the whole world, which was almost all Gentiles and pretty much all of whom were worshiping idols at that time.  This would be a great argument that these two chapters (41-42) are not about the Millennial at all but about the initial spread of the gospel and how it pulled down and destroyed Gentile idol worship because the idols could not come near explaining how all these prophecies had been "forced" to come true.  This was perhaps a key point in bring the gospel to places like Thessalonica where there was a huge pagan temple with idols worshiped daily. 

2025 - Even so, there is all that about water and trees in the desert.  That is either all symbolic of the effect of the gospel on a hungry, dark, thirsty place - spiritually barren.  Which seems unlikely to me.  Or it means I need to take a close look at the sequential perfects in verses beginning at 41:17 and see if my little "key" to the when of these prophecies can be nailed down that way.

2025 - No, it turns out that almost all the verbs in vs 17 and following are Qal Imperfect.  The imperfect is about continuous, incomplete, or open ended action.  It not only doesn't say when, it makes the when immaterial - because it is still in progress, hasn't finished, and may never finish.  I am not sure we can even be sure it has started yet. 

Vss 5-9 I think this is still talking about Jesus, and what He is in God's plan and purpose.  This verse, that I have not noticed before:

6 "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, [Isa 42:6 ESV]  This seems to be God addressing Jesus.  God will keep Him - while He is a man, so that Jesus does not have to exercise this kind of power.  God is protecting Jesus while He is here.  And Jesus will be a covenant, the NEW COVENANT, for the people.  For "nations", that is, not just for the Jews.  Then some of the miracles Jesus will do - things never before done.  These are the signs that were predicted.  So it was not just that Jesus did miracles that should have made him recognizable, but that the miracles he did were the ones Isaiah had said he would do.  There is a footnote on vs 6 in TCR that says the "you" in this verse is singular.  It is therefore not about the people of Israel, but about the ONE coming to be a covenant for all.

2021 - This saying, that Jesus told the followers of John the Baptist to take back to him:

5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. [Mat 11:5 ESV].  And here:

22 And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. [Luk 7:22 ESV]

Is there a verse in the NT about 7b?  About prisoners being released from dungeons?  Perhaps that part is still future, part of bringing justice at the end?

2023 - Or did Jesus leave out the dungeons part because that is where John was at the time.  Jesus left it out to send the message to John that he would not be freed.  Jesus wasn't there to free him.  Hmm...That is an amazing thing if that's why it is left out...

There is a parallel passage in Luke about this message sent to John: 

22 And he answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. [Luk 7:22 ESV], where again, the prisoners to be freed are not mentioned.

Here is the verse from Isaiah 42:

7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. [Isa 42:7 ESV].  It mentions the blind and the prisoners.  Nothing in this verse about the lame, the lepers, the deaf or the dead, or the poor.  My Harmony of the gospels mentions these other passages:

18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. [Isa 29:18-19 ESV]

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; [Isa 35:5-6 ESV]

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; [Isa 61:1 ESV].

Another point...each of these passages is a prophecy of the coming Messiah.  Signs foretold of the unique and never before seen miracles he would do.  These should have been flashing red neon that Jesus was the Messiah, no matter what else they had come up with that he would do.  These were exact and unmistakable, and John, proclaiming the kingdom, and baptizing so he would recognize the Lamb, would have been 100% familiar with all these verses.  So the message sent back to John was unmistakable.  But the freeing of the prisoners, mentioned in two different verses, Jesus did not quote.  Its absence was a message to John that he would not be freed.  And now, seeing just how significant this omission really was, we have to believe that it WILL be fulfilled, by the Messiah, in the future.  Will the prisoners be church prisoners or Jewish prisoners at the second coming?  If the rapture is pre-trib, this can ONLY be about the Jews!

Vs 9 caps it all off.  Makes the challenge to other "gods" about predicting the future make sense in context.  This is what it says:

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." [Isa 42:9 ESV]

The reason God recounted His greatness, the reason these verses talk about how only God knows the reasons for what is past and what is to come, is to establish that what He is saying here about the One that is to come, Jesus, the New Covenant, is all being predicted here, hundreds of years before it is to happen.

2021 - New things I now declare!  All those quotes from Jesus in the NT about old wineskins, and new patches on old clothes.  This is what it was about.  A new thing was coming, from the time of Isaiah He said it.  He said it SO THEY WOULD KNOW when it happened that it was coming from God!  That is why Jesus kept saying if you don't believe me believe the miracles!  They were the predicted sign of the coming of His "light for the nations"!  This is where all that stuff Jesus said originates.  This section of Isaiah 42 was Jesus' own "proof text" as to who he was!

2022 - I have a pencil note in my Bible at the beginning of 42 that says this is the first "servant song".  No further explanation.  But I think it probably points to this being a prediction of Jesus, not as conquering king, but as the one who will not break a bruised reed.  A gentle, kind, man.  I think God is saying that Jesus is to live AS A MAN, but that God will protect him, so that he does not use his own divine power to bring about the prophecies.  Perhaps, in the temptation of Christ, vs. 6 is another one Satan had in mind when he challenged Jesus to "throw himself down".  God had promised to protect him.  Surely God would even if he threw himself down. 

vss 10-16 seems to start a new section.  A song of praise to God, a worship of God over all.

2021 - 10-13, I think, are to be a celebration of the "new things" God has just declared.  He is to be praised and have songs sung to Him for His greatness and power.

vss 11-17 seem to be God's answer to the praise.  A promise that He will put idol worshipers to total shame.

2021 - No...I think this is now God restating the purpose of this new thing that is coming.  He will stay with the Mosaic a long time.  He will leave them be, and let them push on with that.  But eventually, it will fall, they will in fact so pervert it as to make it unrecognizable.  And at that time, this:

16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. [Isa 42:16 ESV]

Oh my!  Why have I not seen this one before.  This is God's Old Testament description of the gospel that is to come!

This ought to go on FB.

vss 18-25 are charges against Israel because they would not see God all around them.  Would not accept God's chastening as being sourced from God.  They refused to see, to repent, to even acknowledge their God.  So God, having reached the end of His patience:

25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. [Isa 42:25 ESV]

2023- 18-25 seem to be Isaiah's "sermon" preached following all these prophecies.  He is telling them that despite all these warnings they have not listened.  Despite the prophecies already played out in Israel as predicted, Judah is still blind and dumb to the glory of the Lord.  Remember that this is being spoken after Assyria and before Babylon.  How can they not listen?  But Isaiah is very clear that they are in fact NOT listening.

This is about the fall of Jerusalem (2020, no, not really.  This is about Babylon, yes, and AD 70, but more than that, it is about the Jews rejecting Christ, not seeing him for who he was.  It does not say double, but it is about the punishment of the Jews and about how they do not understand their defeat by Babylon and then Rome to be chastisement for first rejecting God, and then rejecting the New Covenant.  They rejected both!  Oh my.  One punishment for rejecting the Mosaic, and another for rejecting the New.  How absolutely clear this seems to be.