Introduction: This is the third devotional on Isaiah ch 42. I have followed the three divisions in the chapter as shown in the ESV translation. The titles are – ‘The Lord’s chosen servant’, ‘Sing to the Lord a New Song’ and ‘Israel’s failure to Hear and See’. Fundamentally they talk about the promised Messiah (unnamed, but for me, Jesus), the promise of God to be with His people, and now we have a series of five questions, which I have underlined. Are they rhetorical or should we answer them? In considering the passage we have to determine whom the words ‘you’, ‘he’ and ‘we’ refer to.
18 Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind, that you may see! – Is this an introductory call for the nation to sit up and listen to the questions which God will ask? Possibly (but I don’t think likely) they refer to the Messenger whom God has sent.
19 Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as my dedicated one,
or blind as the servant of the LORD? – These questions seem to be addressed to the Nation of Israel! In Hebrew repeated lines are usually for emphasis or sometimes for comparison. Presumably the ‘servant’ and the ‘messenger’ are the same person and presumably the one whom the first part of the chapter refers to – the Messiah who is to come. If it refers to the Messiah being deaf and blind, how could Jesus be called deaf and blind by God? Can you think of any way in which this may be said of Jesus? I can think of a possible way in which Jesus was deaf and blind. Jesus when He came did not come for Judgement but to save. So that He was temporarily blind and deaf to the punishment which the Nation had earned! Does it mean that punishment is held in check for the end of Time!
20 He sees many things, but does not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
to magnify his law and make it glorious. – Is this saying that Jesus (Who is God) delayed judgement in order that Grace and repentance and reconciliation might be highlighted!
22 But this is a people plundered and looted;
they are all of them trapped in holes
and hidden in prisons;
they have become plunder with none to rescue,
spoil with none to say, “Restore!” – But the nation is subjected and plundered – Is this saying that because restoration has not been accepted and become the outcry of the nation, they are still in captivity?
23 Who among you will give ear to this,
will attend and listen for the time to come? – Delivery will come, as promised. Are the people prepared to await the time of its coming?
24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter,
and Israel to the plunderers? – The people by their disobedience, as the people of God and in many ways, brought it on themselves! But don’t forget God is Sovereign! By the next question God answers, by the mouth of the prophet, that He has ordered it!
Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they would not walk,
and whose law they would not obey? – I’m so glad that the prophet included himself with the guilty nation by using ‘we’ as the pronoun!
25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger
and the might of battle;
it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. – My offered thought on this ending means ‘So God planned to pour out upon the Promised Messiah all His anger for the failure and rebellion and sin of the whole world. An individual (he), for whom the Messiah died, wouldn’t and didn’t understand the Cross and all that God was to do at that time when Jesus died. Few saw what God was saying when sending the Messiah!
Possibly the Promised Messiah’s coming all begins in Genesis 3: 15, when God says to the Head of Evil – I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Prayer: Please help me to understand and live by Your writings to us.