Isaiah 42:18-25

c. SIGHTLESS SERVANTS

TEXT: Isaiah 42:18-25

18

Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

19

Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I send? who is blind as he that is at peace with me, and blind as Jehovah's servant?

20

Thou seest many things, but thou observest not; his ears are open, but he heareth not.

21

It pleased Jehovah, for his righteousness sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

22

But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

23

Who is there among you that will give ear to this? that will hearken and hear for the time to come?

24

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not Jehovah? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient unto his law.

25

Therefore he poured upon him the fierceness of his anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

QUERIES

a.

Who are the blind of Isaiah 42:18-19?

b.

How did Jehovah make the law honorable?

PARAPHRASE

People of God, servants of Jehovah, open your ears and listen; open your blind eyes and see what I am showing you. But then, who in all the world is as blind as My servant Israel or as deaf as Israel who was sent as My messenger in the earth? I repeat, the blindness of Israel who is supposed to be allied to Me in friendship and peace, supposed to be My confidant, is incredible! You see much but you do not keep what you see; you listen to many things but you do not obey them. To display His own righteousness, Jehovah was glad to give to Israel a great and glorious revelation of Himself in His law. And yet, His greatness and gloriousness is not reflected in this people of the law for they are a people robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, trapped, fair game for all their enemies and, having refused Him, there is no one to protect them. Oh, isn-'t there just one of you who will listen to Me and My prophet? Isn-'t there one who will learn from all the instruction and experience of this nation and obey and avert the ruin that awaits disobedience? Don-'t you know Who let Israel be robbed and hurt? Was it not plain to you that it was Jehovah? It was the Lord this people sinned against when they refused to walk in His ways and did not obey His law. On account of this disobedience God poured out upon Israel His divine fury in war and other calamitiesstill Israel refused to recognize that this was chastening from Jehovah.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 42:18-22 INCREDIBLE: That the servant in this section is Israel cannot be denied when the reader sees the context. The servant could not possibly be the Messiah for it is said of the servant here that he is blind, deaf, observes not, hears not, is robbed, plundered, none delivers, etc. In Isaiah 42:19 the servant is meshullam, the Hebrew word translated at peace, a derivative of shallom. Keil and Delitzsch say it is the passive of the Arabic muslim, one who trusts in God, or the surrendered one. This characterization of what God intended Israel to be in servanthood intensifies the contrast with what Israel is portrayed as being. That Israel should be so blind is incredible. Jehovah has the prophet repeat the rhetorical question for emphasis! (see Jeremiah 18:12-13; Amos 3:9-10).

Israel had been privileged to see many things. Israel had the law of God revealed in human language to read and study; he had the record of the historical deeds of God's miraculous deliverances and chastenings upon his nation. But Israel's response did not match his opportunity. Israel did not keep what he saw and heard. In Isaiah 42:20 two fundamental Hebrew words are used; shemor (from shemar) meaning to keep, and shama, meaning to obey or hear. To the Hebrew, hearing was equivalent to obeying. When a person did not obey, he had not heard!

It was Jehovah's good pleasure to magnify the manifestation of His character and demonstrate the gloriousness of His nature through His holy law. This was the sovereign way God chose to exhibit His holiness to man providing man with a motive and means of partaking, through faith, in that holiness. The law of God was holy and good (cf. Romans 7:12), it was the free rebellion of man against what he knew to be holy that was wrong, not the law (cf. Romans 7:13-14; Romans 8:3). The law of God, humbly believed and obeyed, would have driven the Israelites to trust in the promised and typified mercy of God to comeand that is just where God could have saved them and used them as servants. But, incredible as it was, they chose to trust in alliances with Egypt and Assyria, to worship heathen gods, and as a result enslaved themselves under Assyrian tribute (see comments chapter 7). They would, in another generation or two of rebellion against the law of God, make themselves easy prey for the Babylonian captivity.

Isaiah 42:23-25 INCORRIGIBLE: The question of Isaiah 42:23 is a wish that one might be found among the nation (cf. Jeremiah 5:1-2) who will hear and obey. Is there not one who will learn from history and prepare themselves for the judgment that is to come upon this nation? Have they all forgotten that it was Jehovah who gave their forefathers over to judgment and chastening (cf. Amos 4:6-12). It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word shama is translated obedient in our English version of Isaiah 42:24. The Hebrew word translated law, is torah. The nation, for the most part, was incorrigible. They deliberately and obstinantly chose not to walk in the ways of Jehovah (cf. Jeremiah 6:16-19). They refused to learn from the history of their rebellious ancestors in the wilderness wanderings and the days of the Judges. Time and time again God chastened Israel by slaughter of war, destruction of her cities, drought, pestilencestill Israel knew it not. It was not a lack of an authentic historical record of God's divine deedsit was a moral unwillingness to accept it.

QUIZ

1.

What are the reasons the servant of these verses cannot be the Messiah?

2.

How is Israel characterized in Isaiah 42:19?

3.

What did Israel do with the many things he had been privileged to see and hear?

4.

What did the law manifest?

5.

Did Israel's rejection of the law mean the law was not good?

6.

Did Israel's incorrigibleness stem from lack of ability to know about God's chastening?