Isaiah 42:22-25

But the people in Israel refused to obey the *Lord. So he punished them severely. The *Lord allowed a powerful enemy to take them to Babylon as prisoners.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible. It contains 39 books all from the time before Jesus was born.
Lord ~ God’s personal name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s name ‘Lord’ means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
justice ~ fair decisions by a judge.
covenant ~ special personal agreement that the Lord made with Israel (see Exodus chapter 24).
Lord ~ God’s personal name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s name ‘Lord’ means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
idol ~ home-made image of a god.'human, human being ~ a person.'New Testament ~ the final part of the Bible. It contains 27 books from the time of the first Christians.
righteousness ~ perfect holiness.
holiness ~ the morally pure and perfect state.

1. Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

God’s Servant Saves God’s People

Isaiah Chapter s 41 to 55

Gordon Churchyard

The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. Words in round brackets, (…) are explanations.

Chapter 42

1. God speaks to his servant; then, after a *psalm, God speaks to his people

v1 ‘Look at my servant, whom I will support strongly. I chose him and he gives delight to my *soul. I will put my Spirit on him and he will make fair decisions for the nations.

v2 He will not shout nor cry aloud. And he will not speak with a loud voice in the streets.

v3 He will not break a *reed that has suffered damage. And he will not put out a candle that is only just burning. He will be loyal [to his people] and he will make fair decisions.

v4 Nothing will make him slip over. Neither will he lose his courage, until there are fair decisions [everywhere] on the earth. The islands will put their hope in his law.’

v5 God [is] the *LORD. This is what he says. [He is the God] who created the skies. He stretched them out [like a curtain]. He spread out the earth. [He made] everything that grows in it. He gives breath to its people. And he makes everybody alive that walks on [the earth].

v6 [He says], ‘I [am] the *LORD. I have called you [to serve] Great Goodness. I will hold your hand. I will guard you. And I will make you to be a *covenant for the people. [You will be] a light for the nations [that are not *Jewish].

v7 [You will] make blind eyes to see. You will free the prisoners from [their] prison. And you will free those people who sit in a dark prison, deep in the ground.

v8 I am the *LORD. That is my name. I will not give my *glory to anybody else, nor allow people to praise *idols instead of me.

v9 [I said that certain things] in the past [would happen]. Look! All those things have happened. Now I will tell you about new things. Before they happen, I will announce them to you.’

v10 Sing a new song to the *LORD, you people that go down to the sea. And everything that is in it, [sing a new song]. Praise him from the far places of the earth, you islands and everybody that lives in them.

v11 Let [the people in] the desert and in the [desert] towns use their voices [to praise God]. Let the places [where the people] from Kedar live [be very happy]. Let the people from Sela sing for joy. Let them shout from the tops of their mountains.

v12 Let them give *glory to the *LORD and let them praise him in the islands.

v13 The *LORD will march out like a strong man. He will wake up like an eager soldier. He will shout the battle cry loudly. And then he will defeat his enemies.

v14 ‘I have been silent for a long time. I have been quiet and I have held myself back [from action]. But now I am like a woman who is having a baby. I cry out, I struggle for breath. And I breathe with difficulty [all at the same time].

v15 I will make the mountains and hills into waste places. And I will dry up all the plants [that grow] there. I will turn rivers into islands and I will dry up the pools.

v16 I will lead blind people by ways that they did not know. I will guide them along unfamiliar paths. I will turn the darkness in front of them into light and I will make the rough places smooth. These are the things that I will do. I will not leave them [by themselves].

v17 I will turn back [people] that trust in *idols. And [people that] say to images “You are our gods”, will be ashamed.’

v18 ‘Hear [me], you deaf [people]! You blind [people], look and see!

v19 Who is blind? [Only] my servant [is blind]. Who is deaf? The man with the message that I send [is deaf]. Who is as blind as the person that belongs to me? Who is as blind as the servant of the *LORD?

v20 You have seen many things, but you have not given them any attention. He has opened his ears [to listen], but he hears nothing.’

v21 It pleased the *LORD to make his law great and honourable. [He did that] because he is very, very good.

v22 But [an enemy] has robbed this [group of] people and [he has] stolen from them. [The enemy] has caught them all in holes in the ground or has hidden them in prisons. [The enemy] stole this [group of] people and nobody rescued them. They themselves are what the robber took. And nobody said, ‘Send them back.’

v23 Who among you will listen to this? Who will give [their] attention [to it] in the future?

v24 Who gave Jacob [for the enemy] to rob? Who gave Israel to the thieves? [The answer is] that it was the *LORD. We have *sinned against him because they would not walk in his ways. Also, they did not obey his laws.

v25 So [the *LORD] poured out over them his hot anger. [He did it] with a terrible war. [His hot anger] surrounded them like flames. But they did not understand [what he was doing]. [The war] destroyed them, but they did not realise its meaning.

1. Notes

Verse 1 In verses 1-9:

• God speaks about his servant in verses 1-4.

• God speaks to his servant in verses 6-9.

God does not say yet who the servant is. He only says what the servant will do. In Isaiah 41:8, and 42:18-25, Israel was the servant. But the job of this new servant is to do what Israel failed to do. That job was to bring God’s laws to the nations that were not *Jews. The word for ‘fair decisions’ in the *Hebrew Bible is mishpat. That word seems to show that the servant had to do three things:

• To teach people that there is only one God and that false gods do not exist. This follows from chapter 41.

• To teach people God’s laws that God had already taught the *Jews.
• To make right the wrong things in the world, so that it becomes a fairer place.

Verses 2-4 The servant will be gentle. He will not shout at people. He will not throw away things that appear to have no use. A *reed is a plant that grows near water. And he will not let other people stop his work. ‘Islands’ here is another word for ‘nations’. The *Hebrew word for islands also means ‘coasts’ and therefore the boundaries of a country. Bible students think that it means ‘countries outside the boundaries of Israel’. In other words, ‘nations that are not *Jews’.

Verse 5 Before God speaks to his servant, Isaiah reminds us about an important fact. He reminds us of who God really is. This links back with the *idols of chapter 41. They did none of the things that God did. In fact, they did nothing at all!

Verse 6 ‘Great Goodness’ is the same word as ‘*Righteousness’. Only God is really very, very good. Here, ‘Great Goodness’ is probably a name for God. The ‘*covenant’ is an agreement. It is a name for God’s agreement with his people.

• God agrees to love and protect his people.

• His people agree to obey God. They will also love and serve him.

Here, what God’s special servant does, makes the *covenant happen. He does not only make it happen for the *Jews, but also for the nations that are not *Jews. Simeon repeated the words: ‘a light for the nations that are not *Jews’ in Luke 2:32. By the use of these words, Simeon was saying that Jesus was the servant of Isaiah 42:6 (and Isaiah 49:6). But Isaiah does not tell us who the servant is, yet. He is still simply ‘the servant’!

Verse 7 This reminds us of Isaiah 61:1. Jesus used these words in Luke 4:18. So he too was saying that he was the servant. But Isaiah still does not say who the servant is!

Verse 8 When God refers to *idols, this again links with chapter 41. God’s ‘*glory’ is difficult to describe. It is the splendid beauty of God’s wonderful character. The Bible describes it as a light that is too bright to look at. But God’s ‘*glory’ also describes what God does. What he does is wonderful. God will not share his *glory with *idols, because they have not done anything (Isaiah 41:29).

Verse 9 Again, this verse reminds us of what chapter 41 said about *idols. *Idols cannot do the things that God can do (Isaiah 41:22-23).

Verse 10 Verses 10-17 are a song to praise God. Because many songs to praise God are called ‘psalms’, some Bible students call this song a ‘psalm’ also. In this Psalm Isaiah tells people that are not *Jews to praise God. In verse 10 he refers to ‘people that go down to the sea’, ‘far places’ and ‘islands’. There is a note on islands above in verses 2-4. The *Jews did not like to go to the sea. So this probably means people that were not *Jews.

Verse 11 We do not know which desert or which desert towns Isaiah means. Neither do Bible students know where Kedar was. Sela was a town in Edom, south-east of Judah. This is an important verse, as Edom was always a great enemy of the *Jews. But here, they too can praise God!

Verse 12 ‘Them’ probably means ‘the people that live in Edom’. There is a note on ‘islands’ above in verses 2-4.

Verse 13 This is a word-picture about God. He is going to fight his enemies. They are the false gods of chapter 41.

Verse 14 Now God himself speaks. He says what he will do. He has been silent (or done nothing) for ‘a long time’. In the *Hebrew Bible, these words may mean ‘since God created the world’. But now he is like a woman who is having a baby. He will bring new things into the world, as a woman brings a new baby into the world. The noises are those of a woman as she gives birth to a baby.

Verse 15 Here God describes the great things that he is doing. He will destroy everything that makes the world suitable for people to live in. There will be no food (plants) or water. He does this in order to defeat his enemies, so that he can establish *righteousness on the earth.

Verse 16 In verse 7, the *LORD told his servant that he must make blind people able to see. But Israel, as the servant, has not done this. So God himself says that he will do it!

Verse 17 God says who his enemies (verse 13) are. They are the people that trust in *idols and images. People cut *idols out of wood or stone. And they make images out of metal. They melt the metal and they pour it into shapes. However whether they are wood, stone or metal, they are all false gods. This verse ends the psalm (song to praise God) that started in verse 10.

Verses 18-19 In verse 7, the blind people are a special description. It means the nations that are not *Jews. Israel’s job was to lead those nations to the *LORD. But they have not done this, because they are like someone blind themselves! A blind person cannot lead anyone! Also, Israel’s people are like someone who is deaf. God wanted them to carry a message to the nations. But they cannot do that if they cannot hear that message. This picture of a blind and deaf people goes back to Isaiah 6:9-12.

Verse 20 ‘You’ and ‘he’ both refer to the servant of the *LORD. Verse 23 tells us that this servant is Israel. Israel’s people had the message from God, but they did not obey it. Also, they did not use God’s message.

Verse 21 Deuteronomy 4:5-8 promises to the nations that Israel would show them God’s wonderful laws. Isaiah 2:2-4 describes how this would happen. But verses 22-25 tell us that it did not happen. And God punished his people because it did not happen. Now God would do it himself. He said that he would do that in verses 14-17.

Verse 22 This describes how God punished his people. In the opinion of many Bible students, Isaiah wrote this a century before it happened. But because Isaiah was so certain about these future events, he wrote in the past tense! Isaiah does not name the enemy here, but it would be Babylon. After 70 years in Babylon, King Cyrus did send them back. Jeremiah said that this would happen. Here is Jeremiah 29:10. ‘This is what the *LORD says. “After you have been 70 years in Babylon, I will visit you. I will do the good thing that I promised to you. I will cause you to return to this place (Jerusalem).” ’ Note that ‘visit’ is a special Bible word. When God visits he always does something. He either punishes or he shows his kindness to people. He does not just come without any particular purpose.

Verses 23-24 Here are 4 questions to match the 4 questions in verse 19. Questions are part of Isaiah’s technique. Isaiah asks questions because he wants each reader of his book to answer them. He asks us, ‘Can you hear what I am saying?’ We must always do something after we read the word of God in the Bible. That is necessary because the Bible is not just a book. It is God’s word. Notice another part of Isaiah’s technique in this verse. He changes from ‘we’ to ‘they’ in the same sentence, but he still means the same people. Many writers did this in the *Old Testament. ‘*Sinned against’ means ‘did not obey’. To ‘walk in his ways’ means to ‘do as he desires’. So, the people in Israel *sinned because they would not walk in his ways. That is, they would not obey God.

Verse 25 Isaiah gives us a word-picture of how God punishes his people. He pours his hot anger over them like someone who pours water! But the anger is not a liquid really, it means war. Israel’s people could not carry out their duties as God’s servant because they did not obey him.

2. Something to do

1. Find the verses in Isaiah chapter 42 where Isaiah refers to blind people. In each verse, decide who the ‘blind people’ are. Does he mean *Jews there? Or does he mean people that are not *Jews?

2. Add to your list of Isaiah’s techniques. This started in Something to do number 2, after Isaiah chapter 35.

1. Chapter s 43 and 44: God will save his people

1. heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
   Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
   psalm ~ a song that is like the songs in the Book of Psalms.
   soul ~ the spirit; the part of a person that continues to live after the death of the body.
   reed ~ plants that grow in water or by water.
   LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
   lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
   Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
   covenant ~ the agreement between God and his people. In this agreement God agrees to help and to protect his people. His people agree to love and to serve God. Or, an agreement between nations.
   Jewish ~ a description of something that has a relationship to the Jews.
   Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
   glory ~ something that shines and is wonderful. Especially, it is God’s splendid beauty.
   idol ~ a false god that people made.
   sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
   Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
   righteousness ~ great goodness.
   idol ~ a false god that people made.
   righteousness ~ great goodness.'Old Testament ~ the earlier part of the Bible.