Behold My Servant, Jesus
42 1 Look at my servant — Jesus — whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. a a v1 Matthew applies this Spirit-anointed Servant directly to Jesus — quoting these verses of his healing ministry in Matt 12:18-21. The Servant of Isaiah's four Servant Songs is Jesus, the true Israel. 2 He will not cry out or raise his voice, or make it heard in the street. 3 He will not break a bruised reed or snuff out a faintly burning wick; in faithfulness he will bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 This is what our Father says — he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am your Father; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon — those who sit in darkness in the prison house.
8 I am your Father; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9 See, the former things have come true, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Sing a New Song
10 Sing to our Father a new song, his praise from the end of the earth — you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. 11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, the villages where Kedar dwells; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains. 12 Let them give glory to our Father, and declare his praise in the coastlands. 13 Our Father goes out like a warrior; like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he prevails against his enemies.
14 For a long time I have kept silent; I have been still and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant at once. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. 16 And I will lead the blind along roads they do not know; I will guide them along paths they have not known. I will turn the darkness before them into light, and the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them. 17 They will be turned back and utterly put to shame — those who trust in carved idols, who say to molten images, "You are our gods."
Eyes That Will Not See
18 You who are deaf, hear; and you who are blind, look, that you may see. 19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one at peace with me, blind like the servant of our Father? b b v19 Israel is named here as the servant — the people called to bear our Father's witness, but blind and deaf to that calling. Earlier in this same chapter (verses 1-9), the Servant is Jesus — the true Israel who fulfills what Israel could not. 20 You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; your ears are open, but you do not hear.
21 Our Father was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness, to magnify his teaching and make it glorious. 22 But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in holes and hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue, spoil with no one to say, "Restore!"
23 Who among you will listen to this, will pay attention and hear what is to come? 24 Who gave Jacob up to the plunderer, and Israel to the looters? Was it not our Father, against whom we have sinned? They would not walk in his ways, and they would not obey his teaching. 25 So he poured out on them the heat of his anger and the fury of war. It flamed against them all around, but they did not understand; it burned them, but they did not take it to heart.