Isaiah 42:10-25

42:10

The new song is in response to verses 1-9

The fulfilled promise of deliverance and the fact that a nation (Israel) would be restored where new things that had never occurred before.

As far as deliverance goes, all the nations should rejoice because God would do the same for Gentiles.

42:11

Starting from the outer limits in verse 10 and coming into the close cities rejoicing is called for in this new song.

Kedar was the second son of Ishmael. These were the people who lived in the Arabian desert.

“Settlements” refers to the villages of the Bedouin people.

42:12

Islands would be Gentiles

The whole world not just Israel will rejoice over the servant of the Lord.

42:13

The Warrior/Lord describes his second coming.

This is ultimately when the servant of the Lord is revealed.

42:14

The Lord says he had been silent. This could refer to:

a) the Babylonian captivity

b) the years between Malachi and Matthew

c) all the years leading up until his second coming

The point: just because God is silent it does not mean he is not going to respond.

The War Cry breaks God’s silence.

Like the blood curdling scream/war cry of the attacking army

Like the cry in labor after 9 months of silence.

42:15

The Lord will change things when he responds. Even the things that seem unchangeable like mountains. How much more other things.

42:16

He will open the eyes of the blind. This refers to spiritual blindness.

42:17

Those who refuse to be delivered by this coming servant of the Lord will be shamed.

42:18-25 God’s Chosen Servant (Israel) Is Blind and Deaf; They can not serve.

42:18

The deaf are now told by the Lord to hear

He tells the blind to see

God would lead his servants into light.

42:19

Who is the blindest? Who is the most deaf?

The servants of the Lord!

Isaiah describes the Servant of the Lord who will come and deliver his people.

Now, Isaiah describes Israel who is to be serving the Lord but is not.

God’s servants are blind and deaf. How bad off are those to whom Israel was sent?

42:20

They have seen, but have not paid attention.

Their ears are fine, but they hear nothing.

Their attitude prevented them from responding and hearing

42:21-25 Israel has not understood their own history

It is sad today when history is poorly taught, not learned from or God is removed from it.

We are a culture that is failing to read, understand and apply history.

Humanism, political correctness and anti-Christian bias are idols (false gods, false philosophies) that cloud our understanding and prevent us from correctly evaluating where we are at in time as a culture and what is the next obvious events that God is going to bring to us. When they do come we will be too spiritually dull to understand what is going on. We will misjudge the situation and blame someone or something that our false gods have led us to believe.

We will perish and never know why.

We live in a moral universe with a righteous God at the control center.

42:21

God revealed his righteousness in the Law but Israel could not see it.

God’s greatest demonstration of his glory was not understood.

God wanted to make the Law great because he is righteous and he want the truth to be glorified and honored among men.

Israel was supposed to perceive God’s glory and greatness.

Israel was then supposed to take that knowledge to the world.

The Lord’s messengers have failed to perceive the message.

The knowledge of God was to be planted in Israel’s culture and then spread like a vine into all the cultures.

The world is today waiting and wanting this instruction.

See Isaiah 2:3

Isaiah 42:4

Isaiah 51:4

This is not the spread of legalism. But the advancement of truth, reality and righteousness.

42:22

Instead of delivering people for God, they themselves need to be delivered.

Israel is trapped in holes and can not deliver themselves.

42:23

This verse is an expression of God’s longing for someone to consider what he has been revealing and come to the correct conclusion.

The Hebrew phrase is similar to:

• 2 Samuel 15:4 when Absalom said, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice.”
• 2 Samuel 23:15 where David says, “David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!’”

God is desiring that someone would understand so they could explain it to others.

If someone would learn from history God is saying then things could change.

If they do not then the same mistakes are going to happen over and over and over again.

God is laying down in these verses their situation, his truth and the information they need. But, will anyone even be able to process and understand this chapter?

“in time to come” is “ahor” and means “a later time”

42:24

Isaiah is trying to be the good teacher here and draw on the student’s previous knowledge.

He is trying to lead them to come to the correct conclusion with their own reasoning.

Who handed Jacob over?

This is a reference to the coming Babylonian captivity.

The Lord handed them over.

Why did he do it?

a) they would not follow God’s ways

b) they did not obey God’s law

There were probably a list of incorrect answers to these questions.

Wrong answers that

• created bad theology that led to . . .
• wrong application which led to . . .
• unrighteous living which led to . . .
• a continuation of judgment.

Some wrong answers might be:

• God is not strong enough
• God is not concerned
• Separation of church and state; politics and religion are two different things
• God does whatever he wants; it has nothing to do with us

In Israel’s history it is very important to come to the correct conclusion in order to return successfully from Babylon.

Nehemiah 1:8, 9

Nehemiah 9:32-37 “ . . .we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so they could eat it s fruit. . .Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please.”

42:25

The servant is blind because he refuses to come to the correct conclusion concerning the experiences he has had with his God.

If Israel can not understand the truth then they will not be able to bring truth to the Gentiles who are waiting for the servants of the Lord

God’s anger against them was manifested in war.

God’s anger/war enveloped them but they did not understand

God’s anger/war consumed them but they did not allow it to change them