Isaiah 42 Study Notes

42:1-9 A number of songs in the latter half of Isaiah focus on the servant of the Lord (49:1-6; 50:4-6; 52:13-53:12). The identity of the servant is much debated, and most modern commentaries give full lists of options. The context of these verses points in the first instance to Israel or Judah filling the role of the servant. After all, 41:8-9 addresses the nation as the servant. In answer to the objection that this song’s description of the servant is much too positive to refer to the nation as a whole, it can be conceded that Isaiah spoke of the remnant that would emerge from the purifying fires of judgment. However, even the postexilic survivors did not live up to the hope expressed in these verses. Accordingly, Christian readers recognize that the NT writers (Mt 12:15-21) applied the description of the servant, both here and in the three other songs, to Jesus Christ (CSB).

42:1 God will choose and anoint his servant with the Spirit. Such anointing in the OT granted the recipient the ability to perform a divinely given task, in this case to bring justice to the nations. God commissioned Israel with this task beginning with the promises to Abraham that included their being a blessing to the nations (cp. Gn 12:1-3), but it is Jesus who will perform his Father’s will perfectly in this regard. Jesus’s work of justice included bringing judgment on sinners (Mt 12:15-21; Rv 19:11).

42:2 The servant will not be loud or obnoxious in carrying out his task. He will not cry out in pain. This assumes suffering as part of the servant’s future (chap. 53). At Gethsemane Jesus went quietly when arrested (Mt 26:47). Later he quietly bore the crossbeam of his cross a portion of the way as he walked the streets toward his execution site: Golgotha (Jn 19:17).

42:3 The servant’s work of bringing justice to the world is also characterized by compassion. Like God who would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if just ten righteous people could be found there, so the servant will not crush anyone, provided there is even a glimmer of hope in them (a bruised reed . . . a smoldering wick).

42:4 The coasts and islands refers to the distant nations, so it is a way of referring to all the nations. The whole earth will heed God’s instruction, bringing justice to the world. In 2:2-4 the same idea is presented in the form of a picture of the nations streaming to Zion to receive the law.

42:5 God is not a part of creation; he is its Creator. He is also not a human being, but the one who created humans. He gave them breath, starting with Adam (Gn 2:7).

42:6 God had entered into a covenant with Abraham on behalf not only of future Israel, but also of the nations (Gn 12:1-3). But history shows Israel’s miserable failure. Again, God’s purposes were fulfilled in the good news of Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection brought hope (light) to the Gentiles. He was the one who established the new covenant anticipated by Jeremiah (Jr 31:31-34; Lk 22:20).

42:7 The servant brought those who were in spiritual and physical darkness into the light of God’s grace.

42:8-9 God is superior to the idols that are really nothing at all. After all, they can neither interpret the significance of past events nor announce what will happen in the future (cp. 41:22).

42:10-17 This song celebrating God’s making all things new through his judgment follows the first “servant song.”

42:10 The expression new song occurs only in Isaiah, Psalms (Ps 33:3; 40:3; 98:1; 149:1), and Revelation (Rv 5:9; 14:3). With only minor exceptions, “new song” is associated, as here, with the image of God as a warrior. It is the warrior who causes all things to become new through his refining warfare (see note at Ps 149:1). All the nations are urged to join in the praise. On coasts and islands, see note at 41:1.

42:11 The litany of the far-flung participants in the song of praise of God continues. Kedar refers to a desert-dwelling Arabic tribe, while Sela was a major city in Edom, a mountainous region. The two sites thus represent isolated desert and mountain regions.

42:12 On coasts and islands, see note at 41:1.

42:13 The first explicit mention of God as a warrior comes at the time of the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15:4) when he rescued his helpless people and destroyed Egypt’s elite chariot troops. Earlier anticipations extend back to the stationing of cherubim at the entrance to the garden of Eden (Gn 3:24). When God appears as a warrior, there is no uncertainty about the outcome.

42:14 God has been silent. He has not made an appearance as a warrior for a long time, but that is about to change. He is about to give birth to his righteous anger toward the enemy of his people.

42:15 God’s appearance as a warrior is often described as having catastrophic results for the physical creation. Fertility stops for a time, and water sources go dry (24:4-13; Nah 1:4-6).

42:16-17 God will rescue his people (the blind) and will make their way smooth. Those who trust in an idol will not be helped but will experience shame.

42:18-25 The chapter ends with a pronouncement that explains why God’s people will experience judgment before they receive the deliverance described in the previous hymn (vv. 10-17).

42:18-20 God describes his servant Israel as blind and deaf. These physical disabilities represent spiritual disabilities; they don’t perceive God’s guidance.

42:21 The people’s inability to see and hear God’s instruction was not a failure on God’s part. He magnified his instruction and made it glorious. Only the most spiritually insensitive could miss it. God had even sent the prophets—men like Isaiah and later Jeremiah and Ezekiel—to make his instruction clearer, but still they did not obey.

42:22 God’s people have become plunder, a reference to the judgment he will bring on them with the exile. No one will help them. The reference to holes is to makeshift prisons, similar to the cistern in which Jeremiah was held (Jr 38).

42:23-25 God is the one who has allowed Israel to be the plunder of the nations as punishment for not following his law.