Part 862

Isaias Chapter 42

The office of Christ. The preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. The blindness and reprobation of the Jews.

42:1. Behold my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

My servant.... Christ, who according to his humanity, is the servant of God.

42:2. He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad.

42:3. The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench, he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

42:4. He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth, and the islands shall wait for his law.

42:5. Thus saith the Lord God that created the heavens, and stretched them out: that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it: that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon.

42:6. I the Lord have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles:

42:7. That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

42:8. I the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things.

42:9. The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I will make you hear them.

42:10. Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are therein: ye islands, and ye inhabitants of them.

42:11. Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains.

Petra.... A city that gives name to Arabia Petraea.

42:12. They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise in the islands.

42:13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his enemies.

42:14. I have always held my peace, I have kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour: I will destroy, and swallow up at once.

42:15. I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools.

42:16. And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them.

42:17. They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our god.

42:18. Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind, behold that you may see.

42:19. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers? Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind, but the servant of the Lord?

42:20. Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?

42:21. And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and exalt it.

42:22. But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore.

42:23. Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend and hearken for times to come?

42:24. Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned? And they would not walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law.