42:1 My servant whom I sustain, my chosen one in whom I delight, him I have endowed with my Spirit; he will dispense justice to the nations. So, his mission is to Zion and to Jerusalem, in chapter forty one, verse twenty seven, but it's also to the nations. Why is that? Because Zion and Jerusalem, that entity of God's people that repents, or that portion of the people that renews the covenant with the Lord, comes out of all nations. Zion is born in the exodus out of all nations, on the eve of the destruction of the nations. Kind of like Israel was born in the Sinai wilderness at its exodus out of Egypt. The spirit endowment of the Servant, in chapter forty two, emphasizes his spiritual qualities. In chapter forty two the more the spiritual mission of the Servant is emphasized, whereas, in chapter forty one there was the more militaristic aspect, the conquest we saw in chapter forty one where he and the Lord's people conquer the Promised land, or reconquer the land on behalf of the Lord,. And, in chapter forty six, also, there is the more militaristic aspect. In chapters forty four and forty five you have the more political aspect where he fulfills the role of Cyrus the conqueror. Here, we have a division between the spiritual and the temporal missions, or roles, of the Servant. And Isaiah does that. He divides them up, like that, for a purpose. For one thing, because there was no one, historical, type in Israel's past that captured all of those things that the Servant would do. The Servant has many heroes who serve as types, or many types in the history of Israel who fulfilled various roles. And Isaiah can't draw on any one particular type, because, for the first time, in the end of days, there will be this Servant who will kind of do all of those things that former servants of God accomplished. There are reasons like that for dividing the spiritual and temporal functions of the Servant. So, this Spirit endowment, here, is alluding to the spiritual mission of the Servant. He will dispense justice to the nations; that's a spiritual function. The Lord sustains him and delights in him. The Servant is a Chosen One. But, so are the Lord's people, generally; they're also called his servant, his corporate servant. They're also called "chosen of God." And they're also endowed with the Spirit. They also have that redemptive mission to the nations of the world. The Lord's righteous people do that. They, in that sense, do what the Servant does. The Servant is an exemplar to them, in those particular attributes. He's higher on the spiritual ladder than they are because the Lord sends him to minister to them. Just as Moses ministered to Israel. So the Servant ministers to God's people in the latter days. . Whom did God endow with his spirit, anciently? He endowed Moses with his spirit and he endowed king David with his spirit. We'll see how Cyrus, there in chapter forty-five, verse one, is anointed of God. And that was an Israelite oral succession motif. Which means that the God of Israel anointed the king of Israel through the agency of Samuel the prophet, for example, when he anointed king David. And, when he anointed king David the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David. It is recorded in the book of Samuel. So, we have here in Isaiah a division of those two ideas. In chapter forty five, verse one, the Servant is anointed. But in chapter forty two, verse one, he's endowed with the Spirit. So, you see how Isaiah divides up things of the past to differentiate between the spiritual and the temporal missions of the Servant. The purpose of the anointing of the Servant, or his Spirit endowment, is that he may fulfill a particular role. It's not just because the Lord loves this person and endows him above everybody else, and so forth, and it's for himself, and all of that. No. The Servant is anointed and endowed with the Spirit in order to fulfill his mission, which is a redemptive mission to God's people who come out of all nations. When it says "he will dispense justice to the nations, " it implies that at the present time, or at the time of the Servant's mission, or prior to it, that there is no justice, or there was little justice. And the Servant is sent to restore the idea of justice. And justice has two aspects. Justice means "heralding the time of calamity for the wicked, and also, to intervene on behalf of the righteous –to bring them out of oppression and bondage. That's the justice of God, his two-fold aspect. 42:2 He will not shout or raise his voice to make himself heard in public. He's not going to stand on street corners and shout and bang his timbrels. But he's going to go about his mission in a quiet way. That's God's way. 42:3 Even a bruised reed he will not break; a dim wick he will not snuff out. He will perform the work of justice in the cause of truth. The bruised reed and the dim wick, in Isaiah, are word links, first of all, to the Egyptians. Egypt is called a bruised reed, in the book of Isaiah, as we saw in chapter thirty six or thirty seven, where Pharaoh's likened to a broken reed, which, if a man leans on it, it will pierce his hand, in stead of giving him support. Dim wick is a word link to the Babylonians, in chapter forty three verse seventeen. And so, here we see that the Servant's mission is a universal mission. It encompasses Babylonians and Egyptians, both. And that's consistent with his mission to the nations. Babylonians are up in Mesopotamia, and Egyptians are in the south, historically speaking. So, it's the whole world. The whole ancient, known world was encompassed in the Servant's mission. And, who was that servant, ancient? It was probably Isaiah, himself, as a type for the latter-day Servant. The Servant's mission is to all nations, from one end of the world to the other. And that's the message given, here. But it's also to lift up that which is weak, or, to redeem that which is already bruised, or oppressed, which is almost ready to be snuffed out, it's so dim, whose faith and hope has almost perished. And those are the people to whom he comes, to people who are like that. To people who need to be lifted up, sustained, and empowered. That is his mission. Earlier, we saw that those are the poor and the needy, with whom the Lord makes a covenant, and whom he redeems from poverty and from their needy condition. "He will perform the work of justice in the cause of truth." Again, implying that at that time there may be a work of justice performed, but not in the cause of truth, or that there is a pretense of the work of justice. And also, in chapter forty eight, the Lord's people, there, in their wicked aspect, or in their corrupt aspect are performing works that are not based on truth and in righteousness. And so the Servant takes them back a proper performance of things. He brings forth the truth of God, as we saw in chapter forty one. 42:4 Neither shall he himself grow dim or be bruised until he has brought about justice in the earth. The isles await his law. So, he's a lawgiver, like Moses. And, like Moses he himself doesn't grow dim. That implies that he has extraordinary, new powers. God endows him with new powers, like Moses, "whose strength did not fail, whose eyes did not grow dim," it says in Deuteronomy. So, here there's a close identification with Moses and the type of person that he was. No one will be able to prevent him from fulfilling his mission, as they have prevented others, like killing the prophets in the past by stoning them and so forth. That will not happen, in this case. Chapter fifty two does mention that he will be marred. But also, in chapter fifty seven, it says that the Lord will heal him. So, there's no possibility that he will not fulfill his mission, or that he will be prevented by his enemies. If he is marred and then healed, that would imply that he doesn't have a lot of power, to begin with. But after he's healed, that will be his empowerment. There seems to be the idea that there will be opposition to him, initially, but that God will empower him sufficiently that he will fulfill his mission. The Hebrew word, ad, "until," doesn't mean, literally until like it does in the English. It often means, "so that." So that, he will bring about justice in the earth. "The isles await his law." Again, this shows that his mission as law giver is not like that of Moses, exactly, because Moses' mission was confined to the Lord's people Israel, whom he brought out of Egypt. The Servant's mission extends to ALL nations. He's a lawgiver to all nations, because he comes in the name of the Lord. He's a herald of good tidings to all God's people who are out among the nations, whom he calls from among the nations to Zion, to escape the destructions that are coming upon the nations. How does he do that? By teaching them God's law. How can they escape destruction except by entering into a covenant with God to serve him and to keep his commandments, to keep the law of his covenant. Then they qualify for redemption, or protection. So, the law and the word of God are an important part. As we've mentioned before, the breaking of the covenant was a spiritual thing that led to a physical exile. And, in order to bring a physical return, there has to be a spiritual repentance, a spiritual renewal of the covenant. A spiritual condition precedes the physical condition. 42:5 Thus says the Lord God, who frames and suspends the heavens, who gives form to the earth and its creatures, the breath of life to the people upon it, spirit to those who walk on it: Now, all through these next chapters you'll see this motif of God as Creator. The All-Powerful God who rules in the heavens and who rules in the earth who has complete control over everything. And, always, whenever that motif comes up, something else comes up along with it. And that is, that that is the God who sustains or empowers, or vindicates, or sends his Servant. The heavens and the earth are very much a part of one another. As we saw, earlier, those who enter the covenant, ascend the spiritual ladder, attain to exaltation to become like the stars—or the hosts of heaven. And they're named; they're individuals. And they do the Lord's command. That's very much a part of the whole milieu, here. God can bring those powers of heaven to bear upon any given situation on earth. And he does, at times. And he will, if necessary, in the case of the Servant. This is also a Creation motif, of course. And, these Creation motifs, throughout these chapters—chapters forty through forty six-- keep alternating, one after another. We have chaos then creation, chaos, creation, and chaos, then creation. For example, near the end of chapter forty one, we have those dignitaries, the authorities of the world, trodden upon like mud. They become like clay, which is chaos motif. They are reduced to an elemental state, or to being a non-entity, whereas, the Servant is created, or Israel is created, or Zion is created. And so these motifs keep alternating. And here we have creation: "who gives form to the earth and its creatures, the breath of life to the people upon it, spirit to those who walk on it." And without that breath of life, or that spirit,--which are here synonymous when parallel-- people would be nothing. And Isaiah has said that, earlier, in chapter forty where he calls people but grass and herbage. And the spirit of the Lord breathes within them, and other than that they are nothing. 42:6 I the Lord have rightfully called you and will grasp you by the hand; I have created you and appointed you to be a covenant for the people, a light to the nations, Verse six—The Creator, God, who does all of that, who gives life, now says about his Servant: " I the Lord have rightfully called you," or called you in righteousness,--it's correct, either way-- "and will grasp you by the hand. I have created you and appointed you to be a covenant for the people, a light to the nations." Here, we have the identification of the Creator God empowering his Servant, calling him and grasping him by the hand. Now, the grasping by the hand is an election motif. So he's an elect of God. He's called in righteousness. Here, there's a confirmation of his calling, actually. Israel, or the people of God, are also called; they're called from the ends of the earth to Zion. They're also called to be his servants, as we shall see, and as we have seen. The Servant, here, is their model, or their exemplar, in that calling. They're called in righteousness, or rightfully. He's called, rightfully, because he fulfills all the Lord's will. " Will grasp you by the hand--" that's an empowering idea, an endowment motif. And that was done in Mesopotamia, by the god calling the king and empowering him, or calling him as king. It's called a royal accession motif. There he's made a king by the god—to rule in the House of Israel, in this case, or to rule over God's people. "I have created you"-- so, here the Servant, himself, is created--"and appointed you to be a covenant for the people, a light to the nations." We saw in chapter forty how the whole purpose of God's creation begins to be narrowed down to the idea that there are these exalted beings who ascend to a Celestial exaltation. Or, there are people of God who hope in him, who wait for him, who covenant with him and ultimately end up in that exalted state. And then was introduced, the Servant, as if he is the epitome of such an exalted individual. And the same thing appears here, in miniature. He's the creator of all this—the heavens and the earth, and the people who walk upon it—and he's the Creator of the Servant. As if he's the epitome of his creation. -- "and appointed you." So, the calling and the empowerment of the Servant is for a particular purpose. He's appointed to do something. It is to serve God's people, to minister to them. The appointing is a motif and it's a word link throughout the book of Isaiah that identifies this Servant; it's a rhetorical link to other Servant passages, or other royal passages, like in chapter nine. There's a son of David, who's appointed. And that is a word link to this passage. All these passages are various descriptions of the one individual, as we understand from these word links, and from the structures of the book. These chapters, of forty-one through forty-six are parallel with nine through twelve, in the bifid structure of the book of Isaiah. So, those chapters are more properly read together; they can't be isolated, one from another. He's a covenant to the people, "a light to the nations." Now, it's interesting that covenant and light, here, should be in parallel, as if they're synonymous ideas. The light to the nations is the covenant for the people. The Lord's covenant with his people will come out of the nations; he's like a light. It's the only light that's out there, really. "There are those who light their way with mere sparks," in chapter fifty, verse eleven. And they reject the greater light which is the Lord's covenant, which is also the Lord's Servant. The Servant personifies that light, and he personifies God's covenant. Now, God's covenant consists of the word of God and the law of God, which are the conditions of the covenant. And when a person keeps the word of God, in all fullness, and when he obeys the Law of God in its fullness, then he begins to personify those things. The same as in the book of John, in the New Testament, where John calls Christ "the Word:" In the Beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God." Why would Christ be called "the Word?" Because he, himself, obeys every word of God. And also, Christ says he's the Law, right? In other scriptures Christ said, "I am the Law." How can he be the law? Because he, himself, keeps all the law. And so can we. We can also, or anyone can, begin to personify God's word and law. And to the degree that one keeps God's word and law, to that degree he personifies him, also. And when he does that, completely, he can also personify the covenant, of which the law and word are the conditions. And that is what the Servant does. And that's why he can be called a covenant for the people. He IS the covenant. And when God sends him it means that for the people to covenant with God they must covenant with the Servant, or that he is the mediator of the covenant, as Moses was in the Sinai wilderness. The people in the Sinai wilderness could not make a covenant with God, alone, because God had sent Moses to mediate the covenant; they had to do it through Moses, God's appointed servant, because God's house is a house of order. And so it will be, again, that the Lord will send his servant as a mediator of his covenant with his people, at that time. The Servant personifies the covenant, so he's qualified to be a mediator. And that covenant, and that Servant are also a light to the nations. He personifies light—as Christ said, "I am the light and life of the world"--he personifies those things. How, then, does that tie in with Christ being a light to the world? Well, it depends on how you read it. When you understand that the Servant is on a lower level of the spiritual ladder than Christ, himself, is—then that eradicates the problem. The Servant is a light and Christ a the light. One is the greater light. Christ is. One is the lesser light. Nevertheless, they're both a light. Anciently, in Mesopotamia, the kings of Mesopotamia of Egypt were call the light of their peoples, or the "sun" of their peoples. They emanated light to them. King David was called a light, in Israel. So we have some historical types, here, for that. A light is also a Creation motif. It is contrasted, in Isaiah, with the king of Assyria who personifies darkness. He IS darkness. The one is a power of chaos, and the other is a power of creation. The sun is healing, and beneficial to the earth, to everything upon the earth. And so is light. Light generally is. But darkness is not.; darkness is tending to chaos. God empowers the Servant and recognizes him, or appoints him to be a covenant, or a light, to the nations. For what purpose? 42:7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from confinement and from prison those who sit in darkness. Very much like Moses in Egypt did, who released the captives there and brought them in an exodus, out. Is there an exodus mentioned, here? Yes, in verse sixteen and all through these chapters, actually, the exodus and the wandering in the wilderness are recurring motifs: In chapter forty three, verse two, for example, where they crossed the waters and traversed the rivers, they walked through the fire, and so forth, as they came. In chapter forty-three, verse sixteen the Lord "provides a way in the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who dispatches chariots and horses, armies of men in full strength," just like the Egyptians. All of this is a result of the Servant's mission when he opens the eyes that are blind. Notice the spiritual idea, again, before the physical idea. The eyes of the blind have to be opened so that they can renew the covenant with the God of Israel, and recognize who they are and who he is. And they're released from captivity and from confinement, or prison: "from prison those who sit in darkness." Here, darkness is contrasted with the light, which is the Servant. Darkness, in the book of Isaiah, is personified by the king of Assyria. So that implies that he releases them from the power of the king of Assyria. And we see that in other contexts, in the book of Isaiah, also. The king of Assyria takes captive peoples of the world. He keeps them in bondage, very much like Pharaoh did in Egypt. The king of Assyria is king of like a latter-day Pharaoh, in that sense. And the Servant's job is like that of Moses, to release the ten tribes out of Assyria, or out of the power of the king of Assyria. And of course there are many other levels on which one can read this verse: if the Servant does this, if he is a savior of these people, then certainly God himself does it also and is a savior. Because, on the spiritual ladder there are gradations, and the ones above are exemplars to those below. And the highest exemplar of all is the Lord, himself. He is the perfect Savior. There are saviors, like Moses, or the Servant who saves God's people, or redeems them from their condition of bondage and oppression, and they do so in the name of the Lord, on a lesser level than God does. They, themselves, emulate God to the extent that they are able. And the people emulate God's servants. So there's always this one above who's an exemplar on a higher level, on every rung of the spiritual ladder. Also, "the blind" is a word link. Look over in verse eighteen and you see: " O you deaf, listen; O you blind, look and see!" That tells you who the blind are, there, through the rhetorical connection. "Who is blind but my own servant, or so deaf as the messenger I have sent? Who is blind like those I have commissioned, as uncomprehending as the servant of the Lord—seeing much but not giving heed, with open ears hearing nothing?" Who is he talking about? His Servant that he's just sent who is a light? No. He's talking about his corporate servant, people of God, as a whole who are also called his servant. You remember, in chapter forty-one, verse eight, he says, "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen," Verse nine says: " you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, called from its farthest limits—to you I say, You are my servant; I have accepted you and not rejected you." The blind whom the one servant, the individual Servant releases and whose eyes he opens are the corporate Servant, or the people of Israel, as a whole. They are in a blind and deaf state. They are captive in Egypt, or among the nations of the world. They're the ones whom the Servant, or Moses—in this case—releases, the ones whose eyes he opens. He establishes that idea through word links. 42:8 I am the Lord; that is my name. I will not relinquish my glory to another, nor my praise to wrought idols. This is alluding to the idea of idolatry which is the cause of blindness. All through these chapters we'll see that the cause of blindness is idolatry. The people are so into their material possessions, their idols, that they've become spiritually blind. There's a great parody on this in chapter forty-four, where Isaiah makes a huge joke of the idolaters, where he's talking about all their idolatry and all the things, how they make these statues and these works of men's hands, and in verse eighteen to twenty: "They have become unaware and insensible; their eyes are glazed so they cannot see, their minds are incapable of discernment." And it will come to that. In Isaiah blindness is caused by idolatry, by worshiping the works of men's hands. So, when he says, "I am the Lord; that is my name. I will not relinquish my glory to another," it means he will have nothing to do with idols. In order to see, or recognize God, you have to put away the idols. Just like in the first commandment: "I am the Lord they God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." That's the deal you make. In order to covenant with God you must come to him. You must reject the idols. You cannot serve both. "I will not relinquish my glory to another." Actually he does glorify Israel. He says so. In chapter forty-six, for example, verse thirteen he says: "I will grant deliverance in Zion, and to Israel my glory." How so, if he doesn't give his praise and glory to another? He doesn't, because when the people of Israel become one with him they partake of his glory. They, too, are exalted and glorified. The glory is God's glory that is shared with his people. The glory is God's and the praise is his. It implies here, in this verse, that glory and praise are given to idols, now. You look at any advertisement in the modern newspaper and what do you see, or on TV or in the media? You'll see this beautiful, glossy car, and you'll see all these people going ahhhh, praising this wonderful vehicle, and so on. Modern appliances, or anything on TV sets, on which people place so much emphasis—those things are glorified and praised. Well, that gory and that praise doesn't belong to those works of men's hands. It belongs to God who made all things. 42:9 The prophecies of the former events indeed came to pass, but new things I yet foretell. Before they spring up I declare them to you. This is harking back to the end of chapter forty-one where God, through his servant, prophesied the future. And whatever he prophesied through his servant came to pass, exactly as they said. It was all fulfilled. The judgments of God, pronounced upon God's people, through Isaiah, anciently, for example, were fulfilled in that day. But, because Isaiah can be read on two distinct levels, according to the structures of the book of Isaiah—there are two applications of Isaiah's prophecies: one historical, and one, latter-day, therefore these words of Isaiah have relevance again. So do prophecies of the Servant have relevance: "new things I yet foretell. Before they spring up I declare them to you." How does God do that? He does it verbally, through the Servant, and he does it through the book of Isaiah; there will be new things, again, in the latter-days. And how does he foretell them? He foretells them through the ancient types that are included in the book of Isaiah. And new things, in that sense, are old things that repeat themselves. In chapter forty-six, verse ten it says: "I foretell the end from the beginning, from ancient times things not yet done." The end is foretold from the beginning, through the kinds of things that happened in the beginning, in Israel's earlier history. That foretelling of events validates God, or his Servant. No one else can do that. There are fortune tellers and diviners—and there are people who make statistics who say by the year such and such we'll be at this point. How do they know? God is able to change all that, and he will, and he does, radically and dramatically. He will change things around and it will be totally unexpected, among the idolaters. That validates God—the fact that he can foretell the future, and the fact that he has orchestrated human history so that what happens in the end time will be a repeat of many things that happened in the past. He says, "new things I yet foretell." The fact is that nothing really new happens in the latter days. The new things in Isaiah are generally particular combinations of things that happened in the past--that is new. But, Isaiah's way of prophesying the future is always to take something out of the past and prophesy a new version of it, a repeat of something in the past. That is kind of his methodology; he confines himself to that. He doesn't just go spouting words and say, "the Lord is going to this and he's going to do that." No. He uses things out of the past and kind of talks about them in a futuristic sense as if they would happen again--like a new exodus. So, the new things really are new, but they're based on ancient types. They're new versions of old events, in that sense. "Before they spring up I declare them to you," both in the written word in the book of Isaiah and also by the Servant who declares the future. The Servant, too, confines himself to that. When you look in any prophecies at all, anywhere, concerning the latter days, and you'll have that idea present. The things that are prophesied for the future have types and shadows in the past. 42:10 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing his praise from the end of the earth. Let the sea roar, and all that lives in it, the isles and they who inhabit them. This, here, begins a song of salvation. Because, when the Servant fulfills his mission, and prophesies of the future, people take action. They give up their idolatry, they renew their covenant with God, they come out of exile, and they're redeemed and saved from the destructions of the last days, and they live on into the Millennium. If you went through that scenario, wouldn't you sing praises to God? I would! I would want to participate in that and I would exalt and praise God. And that is what the Israelites did when they came out of Egypt. In Exodus, chapter fourteen, there's a psalm of praise and thanksgiving to God for his deliverance. "Sing to the Lord a new song--" That's a common motif in the book of Isaiah, and also in the book of Psalms. New songs were always sung when God intervenes, in history, in some way, and delivers his people. "Sing his praise from the end of the earth," because from the end of the earth is where the people come from, in the exodus. They don't all come on one, single exodus like the exodus out of Egypt; they come on an exodus from out of all different countries, in droves. So there's many exoduses going on, with people coming in groups, from different parts of the earth. We saw in chapter eleven that they come from the four directions of the earth, on an exodus. He says he will "gather the scattered of Judah from the four directions of the earth. He will dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea by his mighty wind to provide a way on foot. There shall be a pathway out of Assyria for the remnant of his people who shall be left" as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. And all these nations are named which shall come, from one end of the world to the other. (verse eleven) "Let the sea roar, and all that lives in it, the isles and they who inhabit them." Now, the sea is also a metaphor for the people. There are streams of people. Waters that are types and shadows of people. There are the waters of chaos, that are destructive, and also the waters of creation, that are metaphor for the righteous. So we have waters, or seas, as metaphor for the wicked and the righteous. "The isles and they who inhabit them--" These passages of Isaiah, like in verse fourteen, the "isles", isla?, "they who inhabit them", verse ten. There's a lot of mention of the islands of the world. They could also be continents, of course. The idea being that Israel was scattered far and wide, and no matter where they are scattered, even to the most distant places, they will return. 42:11 Let the desert and its cities raise their voice, and the villages where Kedar dwells; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy and cry out from the tops of the mountains. Kedar, anciently, referred to the nomadic peoples who dwelt in the regions of the Negev desert and the Arabian peninsula. And, the inhabitants of Sela—Sela means "rock"--it's also a place, anciently—implies that there are people who are coming, who are responding to the Servant's call to repent and return to the covenant with God, even from those places where one would not necessarily expect because they were also non-Israelite peoples. But those names, Kedar and Sela, could equally be code names for a modern re-enactment of an ancient even. They could be talking of people in outlying places, who were not pure Israelites who also qualify for the Lord's redemption. "And cry out from the tops of the mountains"--So, from both the desert and the mountains they are being saved. 42:12 O let them give glory to the Lord, and in the isles speak out in praise of him. Why? Because he has wrought redemption for them; he has brought them out from places they would probably not be expected to be able to come. Especially in conditions of the latter days when the Servant fulfills his mission. There will be lots of oppression. And there will be similar conditions to Pharaoh's bondage of the Israelites in Egypt. And it seemed unlikely that the Servant, or that anyone, could really do all that gathering, like that. But the fact is that it will be done. And that every living soul, of God's people, will be redeemed, that repents and renews the covenant with him. 42:13 The Lord will come forth like a warrior, his passions aroused like a fighter; he will give the war cry, raise the shout of victory over his enemies. And you might say, "Well, the Lord is peaceful; God is a pacifist." In chapter forty-one, however, we saw that the Servant was a warrior and he conquered the land, just like Joshua did with the Israelites, and God's people, there, were helping him, in chapter forty-one, verse two and chapter forty-one, verse fifteen. On the spiritual ladder there's always an exemplar of everything. And who's the highest exemplar of all? God, himself is. And he, too, is a warrior; he's not above being a warrior, and he, himself, gets involved in the warfare because God's people, alone, don't have enough strength and power to do it by themselves. So he, too, gives the war cry, raises the shout of victory over his enemies. The arousing of his passions implies that he, for a time, doesn't seem to be involved, but then, suddenly, he gets involved, and intervenes. 42:14 For a long time I have been silent, keeping still and restraining myself. But now I will scream like a woman in labor and breathe hard and fast all at once. So, there's been a long period when maybe they thought God was dead, but now, suddenly, he intervenes in the affairs of his people. "Keeping still, and restraining myself." He does so, for several reason, for God is long suffering and patient, and he doesn't get involved in everything, compulsively. There's a plan involved, here. " But now I will scream like a woman in labor, and breathe hard and fast all at once." Well, every woman knows what that's all about. And that's how it will be when God intervenes. It will be dramatic. It will be hard. It'll also be a birth and a deliverance. The birth motif keeps reappearing. And what is born, in chapter sixty-six, is Zion that is born. And before Zion is born, the Servant is born. And that's called "the birth pangs of the Messiah", in Judaism, and it means that when God's people go into travail, because of hard bondage like in Egypt, the whole people go into travail, into suffering, and they deliver a son. And God chooses him, like Moses, as his people's Deliverer. So that the person she gives birth to turns around and delivers her, as Moses did. And all that's kind of implied in the birth imagery, through the book of Isaiah. And here is linking that idea of birth to God's intervention, in the sense of conquest of the enemies. It doesn't happen out there in the desert, somewhere by itself. Part of what's going on here is the conquest and destruction of enemies. Deliverance out of Egypt was not complete until Pharaoh's armies were destroyed. The exodus was the birth canal. Egypt gave birth to Israel, in that sense. And so it will be, again. It will be destruction and deliverance going on at the same time. 42:15 I will lay waste mountains and hills and make all their vegetation wither; I will turn rivers into dry land and evaporate lakes. Well, mountains and hills are also a figure for nations—greater nations and lesser nations. We saw that in chapter two where it talked about mountains being a metaphor for nations. Here, and in chapter nineteen, vegetation also represents people. Isaiah calls them vegetation or herbage, grass, or weeds, in various places. And "the rivers into dry land," in chapter thirty-seven, is the king of Assyria who dries up the rivers. And the Lord does a lot of that through the agency of the king of Assyria; he does this destruction. God uses the king of Assyria as his instrument. And, perhaps he does a lot of it through natural calamities, as well. We're talking of one level as a literal waste of mountains, vegetation, rivers, and hills, but also figuratively, where these things represent peoples—the wicked of the world. And of course it's a chaos motif. We've had creation and now we have chaos, again, alternating themes of chaos and creation. We'll see huge lake evaporated , and very dry places of the earth, and we'll also see huge bodies of people wiped out, just like they were evaporated. 42:16 Then will I lead the blind by a way they did not know, and guide them in paths unfamiliar; the darkness confronting them I will turn into light, and the uneven ground make level. These things I will not fail to perform. So, the blind are a whole entity, like we discussed, earlier. They're not the individual Servant who is blind. His job is to open the eyes of the blind, and then to lead them in an exodus as Moses led Israel. When Moses first began his mission to the Israelites in Egypt, they were blind. There had to be a whole series of miracles performed before they finally began to understand.--hey, they had a God, a covenant God who was willing to deliver them, who cared about them, who acknowledged their fathers , Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as his people. They all needed to indoctrinated into that idea, their eyes opened to those realities. And so it will be, again. There are people out there, now, of the house of Israel, perhaps the ten lost tribes, in a lost and fallen state, and many of the Jews who still don't even know they're Jews. There are many of the House of Israel who assimilated all down the generations, an intermingling of the seed of Israel with the nations of the world, who don't even know who they are. And they'll be alerted, and their eyes will opened to those things and to the possibilities of redemption and the Lord's covenant with his people. Then, when their eyes are opened, then they will be delivered, like it says in verse seven, " To open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from confinement." First, the opening of the eyes of the blind, and then the freedom from confinement, or from captivity. So, when he says, in verse sixteen, " I will lead the blind by a way they did not know," he's really not saying he's going to lead them when they're still blind. Because they don't qualify for redemption, and an exodus, until their eyes are opened, until they acknowledge the God of Israel, until they covenant with him. But they were blind, and so he calls them the blind. Or, a better idea of translating may be, or an interpretation might be," Then will I lead those who were blind, b a way they didn't know, and guide them in paths unfamiliar." Now that will be a supernatural event. And we don't really know all the details of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, and their coming through the Red Sea. We heard that the waters stood on either side, and that the cloud of glory covered them, but what happened under that cloud of glory? Could there be a time vacuum? Could there be a different spatial dimension, there, that happened? When it says, "in a way they didn't know, in paths unfamiliar, "it could mean that there was a special provision made for them to walk through the elements so that they enter into a different dimension. Chapter forty-three, for example, verse two, talks about them again crossing the waters and also walking through the fire. That alludes to the idea that there is a different set of circumstances for those who go on the exodus. "The darkness confronting them I will turn into light, and the uneven ground make level. These things I will not fail to perform." In chapter forty, we saw how the Servant's role was to make the uneven ground level. Meaning there shall be no inequality among God's people. If there's no equality, if they're not one they're not his. They're suppose to be one with him, and therefore they're one with one another, in him. And, that uneven ground being made level is a motif that follows all the way through Isaiah. In chapter sixty-two, verse ten, we have that motif: "Prepare the way for the people," which is the Servant's job: "excavate, pave a highway cleared of stones." His job is to bring down the high things, and lift up the low things, to make God's people one. And it's taught here, through the imagery of uneven ground. Yes, there'll be, literally, uneven ground, and yes, there'll be literal darkness that will be turned into light. But also, those things are figurative. The darkness confronting them is, indeed, spiritual darkness. There may be physical darkness. It may also be the king of Assyria who personifies darkness who tries to prevent them from exiting on an exodus. It will turn into light. The cloud of glory covering the Lord's people at the exodus out of Egypt provided lights for the Israelites. At night, even, it was a light to them. There was physical light. But it's also the Servant; he is the light, as we saw in verse six. So, instead of the king of Assyria having the power over them, God has power over him through the ministering of his Servant. Instead of them being in ignorance, they're brought to the light of the good news, the light of truth. There are several different levels that we can interpret it, all based on ideas that Isaiah, himself, has in his book, not on things that we superimpose out of our own ideas onto Isaiah. We can't do that; we must never do that. Isaiah defines darkness. Isaiah defines what light is. And so we must go by his definitions, not by our own. "The uneven ground, make level" —that is also the way of return, the highway that is made smooth for the Lord's coming. The Servant prepares the way for the people: There shall be highways and roads that shall be called "The Way of Holiness," the way of return, in chapter thirty-five, verse eight. "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, they shall come singing to Zion," verse ten of chapter thirty-five. Those things are all tied in with one another. The book of Isaiah is like a fabric; it has all of these linking ideas. And you cannot simply isolate one passage like this from another. "These things I cannot fail to perform." This implies that there are some who say that that will never happen, or who say how could that possibly be now? But, the Lord says he will do that. We must believe in him. And we must believe him. When he says it, we must not just believe in him, we must believe him, that he will do it. 42:17 But those who trust in idols and esteem their images as gods shall retreat in utter confusion. That's the chaos motif. We have the creation motif, of the light, and here we have chaos, again. We have chaos, in verse fifteen, and we had creation, before that, in connection with the Servant. "The utter confusion," is the lot of the idolaters. Here we have contrast of the wicked and the righteous—the righteous who were blind, who were blind because of idolatry and now qualify for the exodus because they repented of their blindness. They put away their idols. And here, in fact, its still alluding to that idea that there are some who are still clinging to their idols; some did not repent. Some are still holding fast to their old ways that caused the blindness. And, as a result of blindness they retreat in utter confusion. They don't know what is going to happen. They are like a reed blown about in the wind. They will probably not even be aware of the redemption that the Lord has made for his people. The elect will be taken out and the wicked will be left behind and destroyed. And the wicked won't even know that there was another, entirely-different scenario going on for those who were taken out. For those who repented. For those whom they oppressed. "But those who trust in idols and esteem their images as god shall retreat in utter confusion." 42:18 O you deaf, listen; O you blind, look and see! There are still a lot of God's people out there who are blind and deaf, because they're still into idolatry. And he's trying to reclaim them, too. The fact that he talks about the blind, in verse eighteen and nineteen, and about the blind in verse sixteen, and about the idolaters in verse seventeen, implies that there's still a lot of God's people into idolatry. Maybe most of those whom the latter-day Servant will deliver on an exodus, or whom God will deliver on an exodus through the agency of his Servant, will be blind. Just like most of the Israelites in Egypt in their situation of bondage were blind. 42:19 Who is blind but my own servant, or so deaf as the messenger I have sent? Who is blind like those I have commissioned, as uncomprehending as the servant of the Lord— Here, the Lord is challenging, and confronting, and exhorting his people to come out of their blind state. They're his servant. Why do they need to be blind? If they're his servant, they may see. God can heal them. God can reveal to them his revelations. They're his servant and they're a messenger, as such, of God. Who are they a messenger to? To those who are still blind. If they repent, and their eyes are opened, what should they do? Just enjoy themselves? In fact, no. Then, their job is to open the eyes of those who are still blind, as they were. And that accords with the different functions on the spiritual ladder. We saw that in chapter forty. The mission of Zion and Jerusalem was to minister to Jacob, or Israel. And, what are they to minister? To bring them out of their idolatry, out of their blindness, to an awareness of God's covenant, so that they, too, may be redeemed from their blind and deaf state. So that they, too, may be redeemed at the time of God's redemption. So, always, they are a messenger. The Servant is a messenger, as we saw in chapter forty one, the harbinger. He calls him a messenger, in another place . But everybody who has covenanted with God is his servant, and is his messenger on whatever level of the spiritual ladder he may be on. "Who is blind like those I have commissioned?" God commissions them. "--As uncomprehending as the servant of the Lord--" They don't always fulfill their mission, or their commission. They don't always fulfill their role as messenger, or as his servant. They may have, once, or their ancestors may have, but now they're blind and uncomprehending. 42:20 seeing much but not giving heed, with open ears hearing nothing? Of course, that is very much the condition in which the wicked find themselves. People who are wicked generally think they know more than others. Right? They think they see things better than you do, and they have all kinds of reasons why. But they're into deception. They're into self-deception. They see, but they don't see the way God sees things. They don't see with spiritual eyes; they see with physical eyes. 42:21 It is the will of the Lord that, because of his righteousness, they magnify the law and become illustrious. That is the part they don't see and hear, the law of God., or his word, his commandments. But, if they did that, if they kept the law, then they would see, and they would hear. The people of Israel said to Moses, "We will do and we will hear." The Rabbis teach that if you will keep the law, then you will see and understand; then you'll comprehend. Isaiah also gives that idea in chapter six, where he says, "Lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand in their hearts and repent and be healed. They seeing and hearing, the real understanding, comes from repentance, keeping the law of God, keeping the word of God, obeying his commandments. If they do that, if they magnify the law of God, instead of burying it somewhere, or instead of letting it remain only in the back of their minds, then God can bless them. Then the blessings of the covenant will be theirs. And as the blessings of the covenant become theirs, they become illustrious as individuals, and as God's people as a nation. Just like the Israelites in the days of David and Solomon became illustrious people, because they, generally, at that time, obeyed the law of God. They were illustrious in the days of Moses and Joshua. All the blessings of the covenant were theirs because they magnified the law of God. They kept his commandments. Now, here, he says, that it is the will of the Lord that because of his righteousness they magnify the law. What does that mean? If you magnify the law you are righteous. Or, if you want to be righteous, you have to magnify the law. You have to keep the law of God. That is God's definition of righteousness. We'll see, later on, that there are those who, in chapter forty-eight, for example, are going through various performances and ordinances. But, he says, it's not in truth and righteousness. Like a nation practicing righteousness, not forsaking the precepts of their God. You take oaths in the name of the Lord, invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness. You make a pretense of religion, but it's not God's definition of righteousness that you're following. It's your own self-righteousness. And, on another level, righteousness is the Lord's Servant, himself, in chapter forty-one, verse two. The Servant personifies righteousness. He is righteousness itself. How so? Because he keeps the law and word of God. Now, when he does that, he's righteous. And to the degree that he does that or that we do that, we personify righteousness, also. So, righteousness is a personification; it's a person. That means, in verse twenty-one, that the people of God will come out of a blind state, magnify the law, or will magnify the law because the Servant is sent among them as a lawgiver, as in verse four: "the isles await his law." He's also light to the nations who will open the eyes of the blind. Through the Servant's agency, the people eventually become illustrious. Just like the Israelites become illustrious through Moses' agency. When were they? When Moses first came to them. They were slaves in Egypt. What were they when they entered the Promised Land? They were an exalted people of whom all the nations stood in awe. They were an illustrious people, by that time. Did that happen spontaneously, by themselves? No. Moses sent and Moses administered to them to that end. And so it will be again, with the Servant. Verse twenty-one—that is God's will that this will happen again. Instead, in verse twenty-two: 42:22 Instead, they are a people plundered and sacked, all of them trapped in holes, hidden away in dungeons. They have become a prey, yet no one rescues them, a spoil, yet none demands restitution. Does this contradict what was said in verse twenty-one? No. It simply states two different alternatives. Either you can magnify the law of God, through the agency of the Servant who administers it, and become illustrious, go on the exodus, experience God's redemption, or you can suffer destruction and chaos and bondage., and continue in your blindness, to be a people plundered and sacked, in verse twenty-two. It means that you are under a covenant curse. It is the opposite of verse twenty-one which means you are under covenant blessing; you're illustrious. You've chosen something other. In chapter ten, the king of Assyria is sent to plunder God's people, the wicked of God's people, not the righteous. So, if you're coming under a plundered state, it means the king of Assyria has power over you at this point. Darkness rules'; he rules: trapped away in holes, hidden away in dungeons—that's captivity. That's confinement. That's covenant curse. "They have become a prey, and no one rescues them. A spoil, yet none demands restitution." There, again, you have the word links: plunder and spoil, the king of Assyria (in chapter ten), they have become a prey—that's a word we saw, earlier where they had become a prey to lions, to the king of Assyria's alliance, or army. No one rescues them. God cannot rescue them. The Servant cannot rescue them. Why? Because they haven't met the conditions for rescue, for deliverance. They have remained in their idolatrous state, their state of blindness. "None demands restitution." That's the extreme of injustice, in which state they remain. 42:23 Who among you hearing this will take heed of it hereafter, and be mindful and obey? 42:24 Who is it that hands Jacob over to plunder and Israel to despoilers, if not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? For they have no desire to walk in his ways or obey his law. Here, we see the terms, Jacob and Israel, speaking of a blind and captive people, a plundered people. It shows that Jacob/Israel are on that step of the spiritual ladder. They're not the Zion/Jerusalem level. They're not the level of God's people that are delivered. They're a level of God's people that are God's people but they're not in a delivered state. They're still in a fallen and lost state. Jacob, or Israel is that level of the spiritual ladder. In chapter thirty-seven, in chapter forty, and forty-one, you've seen that Zion, or Jerusalem, are those that are delivered. That's the next, highest, level on the spiritual ladder. And we saw that Zion's, or Jerusalem's job, or mission, or commission was to minister the lower level of Jacob/ Israel, so that they might, too, become delivered. This means that if you are not Zion or Jerusalem, and you're not part of that category when these judgments of God happen, then where will you end up? You'll end up plundered and destroyed. You'll end up on the destruction side of things. There is no deliverance for Jacob or Israel. There is only deliverance for Zion, or Jerusalem. Of course, at that point of time, in the end time, the whole world goes up to a Zion level. This wicked world, this whole fallen world is going to be destroyed. It's going to cease to exist. In the Millennium we'll have a Zion society, a Zion level of living And if you're not part of that you'll disappear from the face of the world. How about being mindful of this and obeying? Obeying what? The commandments of God, the will of God, the law of God. Then that won't happen to you. Then you can experience blessings instead of curse. And there will be rescue, and there will be restitution, then you will become illustrious. The handing of Jacob or Israel to plunder and despoilers is God's consigning the wicked of his people to the power of the king of Assyria. Just to make sure that it's not by chance that this consignment to plunder and to destruction comes, it says that: "Who is it that hands Jacob over to plunder and Israel to despoilers, if not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? "This is the sinner category. In chapter thirteen that sinner category was destroyed. It's identified with Babylon, the sinners and the wicked of the world. "For they have no desire to walk in his ways or obey his law." Some do have this desire to be delivered, and some don't have this desire, and so they're not delivered. . The law of God is presented to them by the Servant. And, in effect, they reject the Servant. And they reject God's law given through the Servant. Just as, I'm certain, there would have been Israelites who would have rejected Moses as law giver, and who had nothing to do with him, or wouldn't have anything to do with him. We don't know, but there's always this division of those who leave and those who don't, those who stay behind. We have it all through Isaiah. The exodus of God's people is THE great divider between the righteous and the wicked. It is a physical manifestation of the spiritual conversion and spiritual rejection. And now we have the results, the consequences. 42:25 So in the heat of his anger he pours out on them the violence of war, till it envelopes them in flames—yet they remain unaware—till it sets them on fire; yet they take it not to heart. So, in the heat of his anger her pours out on them his spiritual rejection which envelopes them in flames. Yet, they remain unaware, till it sets them on fire, yet they take it not to heart." They don't see the connection between their actions and the consequences. So in the heat of his anger, in verse twenty-five, he pours out on them the violence of war which envelopes them in flames, yet they remain unaware, til it sets them on fire; yet they take it not to heart." The king of Assyria, who personifies God's anger, is given power over them. He is God's instrument. It also implies that God doesn't angry, himself, in that sense we understand, but he uses the king of Assyria as an instrument for destroying the wicked. Which he does by fire and by the sword. The violence of war envelopes them with flames. Yet they remain unaware and they take it not to heart. This implies that they remain in their state of blindness; they never make the connection between their own actions and the consequences. They never really wake up. I imagine that they still think that they see much but not giving heed, hearing much but not giving heed. They never really awake to a sense of those things, and probably never even know about the redemption of the righteous. Their whole reality, their total experience is limited to this disastrous end.