Isaiah 42:9

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROMISE

Isaiah 42:9. Behold, the former things are come to pass, &c.

One may observe, in reading Scripture, the general principle that God usually gives a promise of that which He means to bestow. Before Christ came the Father was continually speaking of His coming. Love meets man as a heralding fragrance before the actual bestowal of blessing.
Why are covenant blessings the subject of promises?
I. IN ORDER TO DISPLAY GOD’S GRACE.
To display—

1. The freeness of His grace. The promise to which the text specially alludes is to open the blind eyes, &c. The blind referred to were not born in the days of Isaiah. God promises before we know our need or seek His face. There are many conditional promises in Scripture; but all God’s promises rest on an unconditioned covenant of grace (Romans 9:25).

2. The fulness of His grace. It is unmerited; Christ died for the ungodly.

3. The power of it. He will open the blind eyes, &c. God is great in nature, but greater in grace. Man is a free agent, but he is not, and cannot be, more powerful in any respect than the Lord of all.

II. TO AROUSE OUR HOPES.

Religious inquirers should find the promises of God unspeakably precious. Some come to Christ easily, others with great difficulty; but there are promises enough in the Scriptures to call forth and stimulate hope in all (Hebrews 7:25). Christian believers, even, need to be told of what God will do, in order, at times, to encourage their hope (1 Corinthians 2:9).

III. TO EXERCISE OUR FAITH.
God desires to educate our confidence in Him. If Christian truth had been made so clear that we could make an axiom of it, there would have been no room for faith. Faith could not then have been the all-important thing it is in the manward aspect of salvation. Faith is the pivot upon which Christian character turns. It is neither a hard nor a wrong thing that God requires from us.
The Lord has told us what great things He is going to do for sinners. Do we believe that He can do what He says? Do we believe in His willingness to do it? Then it is ours to cast ourselves upon His power and will.

IV. TO EXCITE OUR PRAYER.
Prayer is sure to follow hope and faith. Note the order—first, grace, then hope, faith, prayer. Faith soon brings a man to his knees; and while he is pleading, God is hearing. All God’s promises which are not fulfilled are meant to stimulate to prayer.
V. TO FOSTER GRATITUDE AND ASSURANCE WHEN THE MERCY HAS BEEN RECEIVED.

Man is made glad when he sees and feels that God’s Word has not returned to Him void; then comes the inference,—If He has done all this for me in the past, He will do as much for me in the future. In the next chapter the argument is, I will do because I have done. “I have redeemed thee; when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” This is the firm foundation for our hope, our past experience of the faithfulness of God; and strong faith is God’s due.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxv. pp. 685–696.