Isaiah 42:18-21

BLIND IN THE SUNLIGHT

Isaiah 42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, &c.

Thus the Lord expostulates with His ancient people, and thus He has reason to expostulate with us. We succeed them, both in religious privileges and in the abuse of those privileges. Where does the light of the Gospel shine more clearly? But do we excel other people in knowledge and virtue, in faith and patience, in temperance and goodness, as we surpass them in the means of acquiring these Christian graces? No! There is here no one who could challenge the justice and propriety of this expostulation, if it were addressed to him. In our text we have—
I. A DESCRIPTION.
“Deaf,” “blind,” &c. We are “deaf,” in a spiritual sense, when we do not attend to the Divine admonitions, or give earnest heed to the word of instruction; “blind,” when we do not perceive the glory of the Gospel, and the force and beauty of Divine truth. This description is—

1. Absolutely true of most men. The ignorance of numbers who constantly enjoy the best religious instruction is far beyond what any person can imagine who has not made it a matter of special investigation. Nothing they have ever heard or seen during their attendance upon the ordinance of religion has made any effectual impression upon them. The first principles of Christianity are unknown to them. They have never learned to understand what is meant by repentance, faith, holiness, the Divine character or their own, the evil of sin, the extent of their own sinfulness, or even what is required of them in the common duties of life. Yet some of them delude themselves with the hope that there is before them a future of eternal blessedness! They are not all equally ignorant. Some of them amidst the light of the Gospel and the sound of religious instruction occasionally receive a little. But the whole truth they will not receive. Many doctrines and precepts of Christianity oppose their passions and prejudices, and therefore against these they obstinately close their ears and shut their eyes.

2. In some measure true of all men. The sincerest followers of Christ may be charged with not exercising, as they ought, the spiritual senses which God has given them. The best Christians would have been better still, if they had never, by their siothfulness and inattention, lost the benefits conveyed by the means they have been favoured with (H. E. I. 2570–2584, 2654–2658).

As far as this description is true of us, our condition is a terrible one.

1. It is the result of sin. Is it not a terrible sin even to be heedless of the messages sent us by Almighty God? But many have deliberately shut out the rays of the Sun of righteousness, because light was troublesome, and would not permit them to enjoy those works of darkness on which they were bent.

2. While it continues, all the means intended to deliver us from sin will fail to benefit us. As the most-improving advice given in conversation is useless to a deaf person, and the most delightful objects are displayed to no purpose before the blind, so the word of truth is preached in vain to those who have neither ears to hear nor eyes to see its meaning and excellency. Before one step in the way of salvation can be taken, this hindrance must be removed.

3. Our condition is nearly hopeless, and tends to become absolutely hopeless. [1381]

4. We ought to be ashamed of it. You ought to be ashamed of your ignorance of Christianity in a Christian country, and still more ashamed and humbled for the cause of it, which is always sloth, stubbornness, or self-conceit.

5. We ought to be alarmed on account of it. For the reason already given—that our condition tends to become a hopeless one. And also because the penalty of wilful blindness in the midst of sunlight is consignment to eternal darkness and woe.

[1381] When the habit of inattention is formed, or men’s minds are so armed by prejudice as to be determined not to hear or embrace certain truths which are offensive, their condition is nearly hopeless. He who does not use his spiritual senses, and keep them in constant exercise, must expect to find them impaired, and, in time, lost. Those congregations which have long enjoyed a sound and animated course of instruction without any particular benefit, become in the end more stupid and hardened than those which have not been so favoured. What can be said or done to do them good, which has not been repeatedly tried in vain? As time and increasing years have a happy effect in strengthening and confirming good habits, so they have a still more powerful influence in confirming bad ones. So that those persons who suffer their passions and prejudices, their disrelish for the word of truth, their blindness and inattention, and all their other inveterate habits to accompany them till the decline of life, are likely to lie down with them in their graves, and to be found encumbered with them on the morning of the resurrection.—Richardson.

II. AN ADMONITION.

There is a call to the deaf to hear, and to the blind to look that they may see. This is like the command of our Saviour to the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth, and implies that this deafness and blindness was their fault as well as their misfortune. Every command of God is accompanied with grace and strength. He requires nothing of His people but what He has promised to enable them to perform. In dependence upon His promise, they ought therefore to stir themselves up to the discharge of their duty. The spiritually deaf should endeavour to open their ears to instruction, the spiritually blind to open their eyes to that wondrous display of grace which the Gospel exhibits. The effort will be as successful as that of the man to stretch out his withered hand, when it is made in obedience to the Divine command, and in dependence on the Divine blessing. [1384] And when this fatal obstruction is removed, and we have got ears to hear and eyes to see, the means of grace and salvation will have their proper influence.—William Richardson: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 470–482.

[1384] See Dr. Bushnell’s admirable sermon, “Duty not Measured by Ability,” in The New life, pp. 253–266.

CHRIST A LAW-MAGNIFYING SAVIOUR

Isaiah 42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, &c.

I. THE NAME HERE GIVEN TO SINNERS (Isaiah 42:18). Equally applicable to all unconverted men.

1. Naturally deaf. Do not hear the voice of Providence, of Christ, of pastors (Psalms 58:4).

2. Blind. This word is constantly used in the Bible to describe the stupidity of unconverted souls (Matthew 15:14; Matthew 23:26; Matthew 23:17; Revelation 3:17). They do not see the depravity, &c., of their own soul, the beauty, &c., of the glorious “Sun of Righteousness,” the path they pursue, leading to hell. “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind.” Those who are deaf and blind are generally the least attentive. Attend, for God calls upon you! But you say this is a contradiction, “If I am deaf, how can I hear? If I am blind, how can I look?” Leave God to settle that difficulty, only listen and look up. There is truly no difficulty about it.

II. THE OBJECT POINTED TO. “Who is blind,” &c. Every expression here evidently points to Christ. [1387]

[1387] This by no means certain. The preacher will remember that concerning this passage diametrically opposite views are held by different commentators. The remarks of Birks and Cheyne are here given as specimens.

Birks:—“Vers. 18–21. These words are commonly applied to the Jewish people. Of recent critics, Dr. Henderson, almost alone, refers them to the Messiah. But his exposition of them as ironical, or the language of the Jews, is open to very weighty objection. On the usual view, the title ‘the Servant of God,’ would be used twice emphatically, and in close connection, in two different senses. The objection is only strengthened by the fruitless attempt to join Messiah and the nation together, in both places, as the common subject. The title ‘perfect’ cannot be applied, without great violence, to those whose sin is denounced in the same context, and belongs naturally to our Lord alone.

“The guilt and shame of the people are here enforced by direct contrast with the true Israel, the Prince who has power with God. Blind and deaf in spirit, not in their outward senses, they are to fix their eyes on Him, that sight and hearing may be restored. Theirs was the blindness and deafness of idolatry and self-righteous pride. He, too, is blind and deaf, but in a sense wholly opposite, by unspeakable forbearance and grace. So Psalms 38:13: ‘I as a deaf man heard not, and I was as one dumb that openeth not his mouth.’ The Gospels renew the same picture (John 8:6). It is the same with the divine perfection in Balaam’s message: ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel.’ The person named is the Messenger whom the Lord was about to send (John 10:36). He is the Perfect One, alone pure and sinless; the Lord’s servant, whose gentleness and patience have been described before, and who is to set judgment in the earth. On this view the repeated question, Who is blind as He? has a deep significance. Where sin has abounded grace still more abounds. The marvel of Israel’s blind idolatry and unbelief is to be surpassed by a greater marvel of love and grace in Israel’s Redeemer, who sees as though He saw not, and hears as though He heard not, when He visits His people in great mercy to pity and to save.

“Ver. 20. The blindness of this Servant of the Lord is now explained, with allusion to the promise (Isaiah 35:5): ‘Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.’ It is the free choice of patient love. He can open the ears of the deaf, but refuses to hear the sounds of strife and violence. Every sense is awake for mercy. He gives voice, hearing, sight, to the dumb, the deaf, and the blind, but deaf and dumb Himself in refusing to judge when He comes to save. Thus men are blessed, God is glorified, and the excellence of God’s righteous law of perfect love is for ever revealed.”—Commentary, pp. 218, 219.

Cheyne:—“Vers. 18–20. We are confronted here with an at first sight perplexing discrepancy, viz., that whereas in Isaiah 42:1 ‘the Servant’ is introduced as an indefatigable worker in Jehovah’s cause, and as especially appointed ‘to open blind eyes,’ in Isaiah 42:19 we find ‘My Servant’ and ‘My Messenger’ described as spiritually ‘blind’ and ‘deaf.’ This, however, is one of those apparent inconsistencies in which Eastern poets and teachers delight, and which are intended to set us on the search for a higher and reconciling idea. The higher idea in the case before us is that the place of the incompetent messenger shall be taken by One both able and willing to supply his deficiencies and to correct his faults.’ Israel—the people being as yet inadaquate to his sublime destiny—Jehovah’s own ‘elect,’ shall come to transform and elevate the ‘unprofitable servant.’

“Ver. 18. Hear, ye deaf …] Jehovah is the speaker. He has before Him a company of spiritually deaf and blind. Surely (we may suppose Him to make this reflection) they are not all stone-deaf; some may be able by exerting the power yet graciously continued to them to hear God speaking in history and in prophecy (comp. Isaiah 42:23)!—Thus it would almost seem as if Jehovah Himself had assumed the function of ‘opening blind eyes,’ previously ascribed to the Servant. But there is no real discrepancy. The operations of Jehovah and of His Servant are all one; Jehovah must nominally interpose here in order that the incompetence of His people-Servant may be exposed, and the necessity for another Servant, springing out of but far worthier than Israel, be made clear.

“Ver. 19. Who is blind but my Servant?] The blind and deaf Servant means the people of Israel, regarded as a whole, in its present state of spiritual insensibility. Jehovah is sometimes described anthropomorphically as ‘saying,’ or, more fully, as saying to His heart, i.e. to Himself (Genesis 8:21). It is such a ‘saying’ that we have here. Jehovah sadly reflects, ‘Who among earth’s inhabitants is so blind and deaf as Israel, my servant?’ Strange fact! The servant, who needs a sharp eye to catch the least gesture of his master (Psalms 123:2)—the messenger, who requires an open ear to receive his commissions, is deaf! To interpret ‘Who is blind, &c.’ of Jesus Christ, as if ‘the guilt and shame of the people[were] here enforced by direct contrast with the true Israel, the Prince who has power with God,’ and as if the true, no less than the phenomenal Israel, could be called blind and deaf with reference to His slowness to take offence (Prof. Birks), is to go directly counter to Biblical usage (see Isaiah 6:10; Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Zechariah 7:11). In fact, the only passages quoted in support of this far-fetched view are Psalms 38:13, where the sin-conscious Psalmist resigns his defence to God; and John 8:6, where the Saviour (if this interpolated narrator may be followed), under exceptional circumstances, refuses an answer to His persecutors.”—Commentary, vol. i. pp. 259, 260.

1. My servant (Isaiah 42:1, cf. Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:2; Luke 22:27; Philippians 2:7). He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.

2. My Messenger (Job 33:23; Malachi 3:1). God sent Him.

3. He that is perfect. “He did no sin,” &c.

4. Blind and deaf (also Isaiah 42:20). This describes the way in which He went through His work in the world (same as Isaiah 42:2; and Psalms 38:13; Isaiah 53:7). He was blind to His own sufferings. He was deaf: He seemed not to hear their plotting against Him, nor their accusations, for He answered not a word (Matthew 15:13).

III. THE WORK OF CHRIST (Isaiah 42:21). This is in some respects the most wonderful description of the work of Christ given in the Bible. He is often said to have fulfilled the law (Matthew 3:15; Matthew 5:17). But here it is said, He will “magnify the law,” &c. He came to give new lustre and glory to the holy law of God, that all worlds might see and understand that the law is holy, &c. He did this—

1. By His sufferings. He magnified the holiness and justice of the law by bearing its curse. He took upon Him the curse due to sinners, and bore it in His body on the tree, and thereby proved that God’s law cannot be mocked. Learn—

(1.) The certainty of hell for the Christless.
(2.) To flee from sin. [1390]

[1390] Compare other translations of this verse. Cheyne: “Who is blind but my servant? and deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as the surrendered one? and blind as the servant of Jehovah?” Arno’d: “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I would send? Who is blind as God’s liegeman, and blind as the LORD’S servant?”—See also the translations by Alexander and Delitzsch.

2. By His obedience. He added lustre to the goodness of the law by obeying it. Learn the true wisdom of those who love God’s holy law (Psalms 19)

IV. THE EFFECT. “God is well pleased.”

1. With Christ.
2. With all that are in Christ.
CONCLUSION.—He that wrought out this righteousness invites you to get the benefit of it.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 349–355.

THE LAW MAGNIFIED BY THE REDEEMER

Isaiah 42:21. The Lord is well pleased, &c.

God may be said to make the law honourable by everything by which He shows His own great respect to it. In every government, the sovereign is the fountain of honour: in the Divine government, God is the fountain of all honour. Whatever shows God’s respect to it, magnifies the law. The law is magnified when either the precepts or penalty of it are fulfilled, when the commands or threatenings of it are satisfied. The work of redemption magnifies God’s law:—

I. By the perfect obedience that Christ gave to the commandments of it. What is meant by His obedience to it? In ourselves, holiness and obedience to the law are but one and the same thing; but it is not so, it was not so always, as to Christ Before He came to the world He was perfectly holy; but that holiness could not be called obedience. It was when Christ took on Him our nature that He fulfilled our law. It was our duty that He performed, and our righteousness that He fulfilled, as well as our sins that He bore.

How much this obedience magnified God’s law as to the commands of it, will appear when we consider the following properties of it:—

1. It was perfect obedience. “He continued in all things written in the book of the law to do them.”
2. It was the obedience of the most glorious person that could be subject to the law.
3. It was obedience performed by express Divine appointment.
4. It was obedience performed in a low condition; which served to show, that obedience to the law in any rank or station is honourable.
5. It was an obedience of universal influence as to the example of it.

II. By the perfect satisfaction He gave to the threatenings of it. He bore the penalty of it, by His sufferings and death. Three things show the importance of keeping up the authority of the law:—the Author of the law, the matter and end of it, and the kingdom that is commanded by it. Notice the properties of Christ’s suffering the penalty of the law.

1. It was a real execution of the law. The law was given by Moses, but fulfilled only by Christ.
2. It is a total execution of the law. No other punishment of creatures shall be called such. It is of Him only that it can be said that “he made an end of sin,” of the punishment of it.
3. It was an execution of it upon the most honourable person that could suffer. All the other persons that ever suffered for sin on earth or hell, principalities and powers of darkness, were but mean, low, vulgar, in comparison of this King of kings and Lord of lords.
4. It was also an execution of it upon the nearest relation of the Judge. The relation between God and Christ is expressed in the analogy between a father and a son. But the relation between a father and a son is nothing to that between God and Christ. This serves to show the righteousness of the law. If a judge executed the law only upon his enemies, he might be called partial; but if he executed the law upon those he cannot be said to have any hatred to, that shows him to be actuated by the purest justice and righteousness (H. E. I. 374–383).

III. The work of Redemption magnifies the law, as it is a work of infinite love. Everything that hath the nature of a motive to strengthen obedience magnifies the law. Favours, as well threatenings, are motives to excite to obey God’s law; and this is the greatest favour, and is one of the chief motives to stir up to obedience and restrain from evil. Threatenings are not the only motives to stir up to obedience. Gifts from the lawgiver are also motives to obey the law.

What can be more fit to magnify a law of love than a work of infinite love? If we considered this, we would see nothing a greater motive to establish the law. The law of God commands us to love God, and the work of redemption is the greatest motive to love Him. The law of God commands us to glorify Him: the work of redemption shows us the brightest manifestation of His glory.

IV. The work of redemption magnifies the law by the reward of obedience. The law is honoured, not only when obedience is performed, but when obedience is rewarded. Every person thinks himself honoured when he is obeyed, but doubly honoured when obedience to him is rewarded. The honour that was done to Christ is done to the law; and not only all the honour that was done to Jesus Christ, but all the gifts that His people get by being united to Him for the sake of His merits, that is, for the sake of His obedience to the law. This, indeed, may make us admire the wisdom of God, that the honour that is done to the criminal is done to the law; for the sinner that believes in Christ is made righteous through His righteousness, and the law is always honoured by the blessedness of the righteous.

V. The application of the work of Redemption through the Spirit magnifies the law. The law is magnified by everything that puts disgrace upon sin. That which puts disgrace upon sin puts honour upon obedience. We are justified by faith in Christ’s righteousness; and by the Spirit we are enabled to render obedience.

IMPROVEMENTS:—

1. Every one who despises the law despises Christ.
2. God, having magnified His law so wondrously, will have us always stand in awe of it.
3. We should take encouragement to ourselves, if we truly repent of our sins, if we truly see our need of Christ, to hope for mercy, because justice is so gloriously satisfied.
4. We should be adoring the wonderful, immense wisdom of God in the work of redemption, the manifold wisdom of God, the many attributes manifested in it.—John Maclaurin: “Select Works,” pp. 242–271.

Among all the obscurities about the prophetical writings, the simple fact that there is a mysterious prophetic personage is plain and obvious. He is introduced in the beginning of this chapter in a very solemn and impressive manner. Who this is, it may sometimes be found difficult to determine. Jesus is the key to the interpretation. That this chapter belongs to Christ, would seem to admit of very easy proof: just by the Bible interpreting itself (Matthew 12:17; Mark 1:11; Mark 9:7). This passage is spoken of Christ.

I. A preliminary observation or two.

1. With respect to the “law.” It is a word used in Scripture in two ways.
(1) As a universal thing—the moral law.

(2) As a limited thing—the ceremonial institutions, given to a particular part of mankind, and for a particular time.

2. To “magnify the law and make it honourable” cannot mean that Messiah was to produce any change in it—that what He did was to perfect the law itself; as if the law had any defect about it. The moral law, necessarily resulting from the Divine perfections and government, is incapable of improvement. Christ did not do anything in the way of enlarging the ceremonial law.

3. We cannot suppose that this means, that there was to be any change effected in the conceptions of God about the law—that the work of Christ was intended to affect the Divine mind in relation to it.
4. It must signify the manner in which created minds were to be affected by it. Something was to be done, by which there should be a certain impression with respect to law, produced upon the minds of the intelligent universe—that should, so to speak, give body and substance and visibility to God’s own conceptions about His law.

II. The necessity for this. If sin had never entered into the universe, God’s law would always have been a sublime and grand thing in the estimation of that universe. And if when sin was permitted to enter the universe, the penalties and sanctities of the law had been carried out fully and literally, then law would always have been magnified; it would then have been always a great and glorious thing. But if there is to be the fact, that there are sinners and violators of law, those that on just principle are exposed to the penalty, and yet they are to escape, and to be treated as if they were actually righteous, &c., then law so far seems to go for nothing,—there is danger of a certain effect being produced upon the minds of God’s creatures, injurious to His character, and government, and law. And, therefore, there was a necessity in the nature of things, that this escape from penalty and punishment should not only be agreeable to the principles of law, but that there should be a manifestation of that: that something shall be done, the moral effect of which upon the minds of God’s rational creatures shall be equivalent to the impression which would have been produced by the literal carrying out of the principles of law itself. The work of Christ does this, and this prophetic declaration is realised.

III. The manner and way in which this thing, thus necessary, was done.

1. Christ’s teaching always maintained the authority of the law (Matthew 5:17).

2. His personal character magnified and honoured it. He was “made under law,” and obeyed it, and never wished to be free from it (Hebrews 7:26).

3. But these are but preparatory to that one great act which was the consummation of His work—His propitiatory sacrifice; in which, in a certain sense, He stood forth, as it were, bearing the penalty of the moral law, and in another sense manifesting the substance and casting a light and glory upon the ceremonial. (Hebrews 2:14.) There was a substitution in two senses:

(1) of person—
(2) of suffering—producing an impression upon all moral nature of God’s regard to His own authority, and His determination always to act in harmony with law.

4. His people are redeemed unto obedience (Titus 2:14; Romans 8:3.) Hence, saints love the law—respect it—rejoice in it.

The substitutionary work of Christ expounds those many representations of Scripture, harmonising with the text. The private and personal affections of our nature are not enough as an analogy to the work of God. The case of the king of Babylon and Daniel will illustrate the whole of this subject (Daniel 6. See also, H. E. I. 376, 383, 391).—Thomas Binney: The Pulpit, vol. 40, pp. 234–240.

THE HONOUR WHICH THE GRACE OF THE GOSPEL REFLECTS UPON THE HOLINESS AND AUTHORITY OF THE LAW.
I. It is necessary to have clear views of the characteristics and operations of the two dispensations.

1. The Law of God is simply the revealed will of the Creator. First proclaimed when the first intelligent creature was formed, and it requires from all moral beings unqualified and instant submission. This Law made known to man at his creation, revealed anew at Sinai, renewed and confirmed by Christ. No intelligent creature exempt from it. Disobedience involves condemnation and ruin, arrays God against transgressors. Thus it was with angels who sinned, with Adam, and is with man now. The holiness, faithfulness, authority of this law can never be annulled. It is the law of God, not of Moses.
2. The Gospel is a free offer of actual and finished salvation to man, who is under condemnation of law. It is a remedy for existing, actual evil; restores the transgressor of the Law, not by annulling, but by fulfilling the Law for him; announces a Saviour who has assumed the sinner’s place, and rendered for him the satisfaction and obedience required by Law.

The same Divine Being who gave the Law also gave the Gospel. No inconsistency or change in Him.
II. Consider the direct assertion of the text—that the righteousness of Christ magnifies the Law and makes it honourable. Gospel teaching does not set aside the Law or subvert moral obligations. In preaching justification through grace, we establish, confirm, and honour the Law. For we announce a salvation provided by God, in which He is well pleased; which satisfies every legal demand; makes the sinner secure; and infinitely glorifies the Divine character.

1. The Gospel honours and magnifies the Law by the voluntary obedience of Jesus. The Law is honoured by the obedience of angels, would have been honoured by man’s obedience; but the submission and obedience of Christ magnifies it even more highly.

2. By the voluntary sufferings of Jesus. If all the transgressors of the Law had been punished, the Law would have been honoured. It was more honoured when God Himself consented to bear its penalties. Christ’s sufferings the same in nature as those which unpardoned sinners endure. Those sufferings were a perfect satisfaction to the violated Law (H. E. I. 377–383).

3. By requiring every sinner, as a condition of pardon, to acknowledge his guilt in breaking the Law, and his desert of condemnation under its sentence.

4. In the new obedience rendered by those whose hearts have been renewed.

These the truths which the apostles preached, for which the Reformers died, without which the Gospel cannot triumph over error and sin.—Stephen H. Tyng, D.D.: The Law and the Gospel, pp. 374–390.