Isaiah 41:21-29 - 42:1-9 - The Servant's Song: Finding Hope in Failure

Turn to Isaiah.

If you have a Bible with you, turn to Isaiah, chapter 41.

Isaiah 41 · chapter mention

If you want to grab the Pew Bible there, if you don't have a Bible today, you can find our passage starting on page 636.

Isaiah 41, we're continuing to move through this book of Isaiah, and the passage we're going to look at today begins in chapter 41, starting with verse 21.

And then we'll look down through chapter 42, verse 9.

And we'll focus especially on those first seven verses of chapter 42.

Now, it's a little unusual to be in the middle of one chapter or the middle of the next, but keep in mind, there's no chapter divisions.

When Isaiah first composed this, it was all one book.

So we're going to take that chunk of the scripture today Isaiah 41, verses 21, through verse 42, 9.

Isaiah 41:21

I'll read this for us Submit your case, says the Lord.

Present your arguments, says Jacob's king.

Let them come and tell us what will happen.

Tell us the past events so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome.

Or tell us the future.

Tell us the coming events, then we will know that you are gods.

Indeed.

Do something, good or bad, then we will be in awe when we see it.

Look, you are nothing and your work is worthless.

Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

I have stirred up one from the north and he has come one from the east who invokes my name.

He will march over rulers as if they were mud, like a potter who treads the clay.

Who told about this from the beginning, so that we may know, and from times past, that we might say he is right?

No one announced it, no one told it, no one heard your words.

I was the first to say to Zion look, here they are, and I gave Jerusalem a herald with good news.

When I look, there is no one.

There is no counselor among them.

When I ask them, they have nothing to say.

Look, all of them are a delusion.

Their works are non-existent and their images are wind and emptiness.

Look, this is my servant.

I strengthen him.

This is my chosen one.

I delight in him.

I have put my spirit on him.

He will bring justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or shout or make his voice heard in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed and he will not put out a smoldering wick.

He will faithfully bring justice.

He will not grow out a smoldering wick.

He will faithfully bring justice.

He will not grow weak or be discouraged.

Until he has established justice on earth, the coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.

This is what God, the Lord, says.

Who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it?

I am the Lord.

I have called you for a righteous purpose and I will hold you by your hand.

I will watch over you and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

I am the Lord.

That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events.

I announce them to you before they occur.

Let's pray again, lord.

We're seeking you today.

The God who knows our hearts, knows our hearts in ways that we can't even know our hearts.

Yet all things are open to you, the one that we give account, to Give us listening ears today.

Thank you that you give us scriptures that bring us such hope and consolation.

May we find that here through your word in Jesus' name, amen.

What do you do when you fail?

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

What happens when that doesn't really work and you seem to keep failing?

People are often looking for some kind of hope.

It could be something as silly as when I feel down, I just I go eat a Nathan's hot dog and then I know everything is right in the world again.

Or it could be something more significant, like you go and talk to a friend about whatever's going on in your life.

Sometimes people find hope in songs, some kind of combination of the lyrics, the poetry, the melody.

It lifts their spirits, spirits.

In our passage today in Isaiah, we come to the first servant song, and it's a song of hope against a backdrop of failure.

Listen for the song of the servant.

Isaiah has four particular passages that are often identified as servant songs Isaiah 49, verses 1 to 6, isaiah 50, verses 4 to 11, isaiah 52, 13 to 53, 12, and then included in our passage for today, isaiah 42, 1 to 7.

Isaiah 49:1–6 Isaiah 50:4–11

Now they're called servant songs because they're poetic, lyrical passages and they all bring out God's servant, this figure that is described in different and complementary ways.

Who is the servant?

Well, back in Isaiah 20, the prophet Isaiah himself is called God's servant.

Sometimes kings like Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus could be described in some sense as a servant of God.

If you look back to chapter 41 of Isaiah, verse number 8 from last week, even Israel as a nation is called a servant of God.

But then, as chapter 42 begins, this is my servant, or some of your translations might even say behold my servant.

God is pointing us to a servant that is much greater than Isaiah or kings of the world or even nations like Israel.

Some of you that are a little more familiar and acquainted with your Bibles might recognize those first four verses of chapter 42.

The verses that I read there in part.

Those are verses that Matthew quotes in his gospel.

In Matthew chapter 12, matthew cites those verses.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

I read behold my servant.

I put my spirit on him.

He will not cry aloud.

He quotes those verses and applies them directly to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we know where this is going, but don't rush to the end of the song too quickly.

There's these people that always want to rush to the end of the song.

You've got that friend Every time Stairway to Heaven comes on, they want to rush to the conclusion.

Let the song build, but listen for the song of the servant.

It's a song of great hope but, as I said, it's set against this backdrop of failure.

Verses 8 and 9 of chapter 41 from last week Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I've chosen.

Why did God choose Israel to be his special servant?

One of the reasons, one of the purposes that he announced to them was they could be a light to the nations as they loved God and worshiped him and obeyed him.

Other nations could look and see wow, I want to be like them, I want to serve and know this God.

But they failed.

They actually became more like the other nations.

They turned to idolatry, just like the other nations.

Now, before we clock our tongues too much at Israel, have any of us done much better?

I don't mean have you gotten a good grade on a test, or have you ever won a softball championship, or have you ever gotten that job promotion.

I mean in our moral condition before God, when God tells us things like be holy as I am holy, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you.

Haven't we all failed?

Israel's problem is really humanity's problem.

But listen for the song of the servant, listen for this beautiful hope that God offers to us.

Now we're going to look especially at this first servant song today, but before I dive into that song, I want to spend just a little more time talking about the composer of the song.

I don't mean Isaiah.

He's the human author, yes, but I'm speaking of the God who inspired Isaiah to write these verses.

God is the one who orchestrates all of history.

These verses, god is the one who orchestrates all of history.

And, as the passage that we read opens, in chapter 41, verse 21, the Lord says submit your case.

Let me hear your arguments.

This sounds a little more like a courtroom drama than a music studio, but it's important for us to understand the gravity of who this God is.

And the very first thing God does is issue a future telling challenge.

You see that in verse 40, in chapter 41, verses 22 and 23, where God there invites these other so-called gods yeah, come in, tell us the past, tell us the future, then we'll know that you're legitimate.

Tell us the past, tell us the future, then we'll know that you're legitimate.

But they can't because they're worthless.

Then, if you look ahead to the last couple of verses.

I read chapter 42, verses 8 and 9,.

There God reiterates the unique ability that he has.

I am the Lord.

That is my name.

I won't give my glory to another.

The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events, I announce them to you before they occur.

So God's telling Israel this is who I am.

I can tell the future.

That's what makes him God.

There was a movement called open theism.

It still exists.

It was a little more well-known a couple decades ago, but these were people who said we're Christians but we believe God doesn't know the future, or at least there's significant amounts of the future that God doesn't know.

And in their minds that made God more able to live life alongside of you in a relatable way, like if something bad happens to you, god is just as surprised as you are, but he's going to walk right there beside you.

Now there's a lot of problems with that viewpoint, but a big one is that it makes God not really God.

Our passage makes it very clear that that's what it is to be.

The true God is to know the future exhaustively, perfectly, and God does that.

And if God doesn't know the future with certainty.

How can that provide hope?

Why would we think the future is going to be any different than the present?

But God knows the future because he's ultimately in control, and you can see that here in our passage.

Look at chapter 41, verse 25, where God says I've stirred up one from the north and he has come.

God knew that Israel would be attacked by nations like Assyria or like Babylon, because he was in control and because he's in control, when he offers a song of hope, it's bound to come to pass.

Listen for the song of the servant.

When we look at these first verses in Isaiah 42, this first servant song, we see that God's servant carries out God's purposes.

How does he do that?

I'm going to give you four ways.

I'm going to highlight four ways that God's servant carries out God's purposes here in this first servant song carries out God's purposes here in this first servant song.

If you want to think of these as sort of four lines of music that perfectly harmonize if that's helpful to you.

If that's not helpful to you, don't worry about it.

Number one the servant shows the tender heart of God.

That's in verses one to three of Isaiah 42.

Number two the servant establishes justice.

In the first four verses Number three the servant fulfills the covenants.

That's from verse number six.

And then number four the servant restores what was lost.

So let's consider first how this servant shows the tender heart of God.

Verse 2 again he will not cry out or shout or make his voice heard in the streets.

He will not break a bruised reed.

He will not put out a smoldering wick.

He will faithfully bring justice.

Put out a smoldering wick, he will faithfully bring justice.

When the text says here that the servant doesn't cry out or lift up his voice, it doesn't mean the servant is shy.

It means he's not the guy at the beach on the 4th of July blasting music like he owns the whole beach and he doesn't care about anyone else.

Right Proverbs 9, verse 13,.

Proverbs 9:13

The woman folly is loud.

The servant of Isaiah 42 is not a fool, he's wise, and part of that wisdom is a tender heart.

He does listen, he does understand, he does sympathize with his people.

Verse three gives us two additional images breaking a bruised reed.

Additional images Breaking a bruised reed, putting out a smoldering wick.

Maybe when you were younger I did this sometimes.

But you're in a marshy area and you want to build something, or you want to maybe have a play fight with your brother or some friends and you go to grab a reed and you can't always tell by looking at it.

Sometimes you grab a reed and it's wet and just flops over in your hands.

What do you do?

You discard it.

That's not going to work for what I need to do here.

What happens when you've got a candle and the candle's down towards the end and it just doesn't seem to stay lit?

Well, you just discard it and get a new one that works.

Our Lord doesn't discard people that are bruised, he lifts them up.

Our lord doesn't clap a cup over a flickering flame.

He blows on it, he restores it.

It that's the heart of the servant we find here in this passage.

And I say that the servant is showing the tender heart of God because in verse 1 of chapter 42, god says that he puts his own spirit on the servant, not a different spirit, his own spirit.

If you've forgotten Isaiah 30, verse 18, let me remind you of that verse.

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore, the Lord is waiting to show you mercy.

He's rising up to show you compassion.

The servant is not the nice guy who's trying to calm God down.

The servant is the son sent from the father's side, who reveals the very heart of God, same nature, a nature filled with tender mercy.

God wants to show us who he is.

How often did Jesus reach out to touch people that were untouchable, to restore people who were wounded?

Are you sick and sore today?

Jesus, ready, stands to save you.

Are you bruised today?

If you're not today, you will be one day.

The servant's there for you.

God is there for you.

If you're interested in thinking more about this wonderful attribute of the Lord's servant, I could recommend a book called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund.

Or there's another older book by a man named Richard Sibbes.

The language is a little more difficult, but it's a great book of compassion called the Bruised Read, drawn right from the language of our passage here today.

Listen to a few of the things that Richard Sibbes says.

None are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off from that comfort.

Again, there's more mercy in Christ than sin in us.

A mother who has a sick and self-willed child will not cast it away for that reason.

And shall there be more mercy in the stream than there is in the spring?

Shall we think there is more mercy in ourselves than in God, who plants the feeling of mercy in us.

And then one last quote from Sibbes the consciousness of the church's weakness makes her willing to lean on her beloved and to hide herself under his wings.

The servant shows us the tender heart of God.

Second, the servant establishes justice.

You see three different times in the first four verses of chapter 42 that motif.

So listen for that as I read again this is my servant, I will strengthen him.

This is my chosen one.

I delight in him.

I've put my spirit on him.

He will bring justice to the nations.

He will not cry out or shout or make his voice heard in the streets.

He will not break a.

There it is again.

He will not grow weak or be discouraged until he has established justice on the earth.

Now already we're hitting a potential tension between this second way the servant carries out God's purpose and the first way.

When we think of people that establish justice, we think of people that get things done.

When we think of tenderhearted people, we don't always think of people who get things done right.

Imagine just a hypothetical example.

Imagine you have a country and a leader who seemed kind, but he seemed a little bit feeble right Now imagine purely hypothetical example.

Let's imagine you've got a country and they have a leader that seems a little more energetic and effective in some ways.

But maybe compassion isn't really his strong suit.

What's impossible with man is possible with God and with human politicians.

We don't know what's in their heart, we don't know how much of their display is in their heart or what's just for show.

But God is showing us his heart here.

He's tenderhearted and yet he's able to accomplish all of his holy will.

He's able to bring about justice.

So the servant establishes justice and as he does that, he carries out God's missionary purpose.

Let me unpack that argument In this particular passage, isaiah 42,.

I don't think here that Isaiah is emphasizing God's final judgment against his enemies.

That's true, that's coming.

Christ returned with a rod of iron to take vengeance on those who don't trust in him.

But here Isaiah is focused on the servant's redemptive rule, his saving rule.

Now why do I say that?

Well, first I'll give you a few reasons.

First, in Hebrew, the word that's translated here as justice multiple times in this passage, is a word that has a lot of variety in Scripture.

It's used an awful lot in the Old Testament.

It sometimes does have the idea of retributive justice.

In other words, you did something wrong, now punishment's coming, or tribute of justice.

It has that in scripture, but that's not the only way that it's used.

It's also used at other times to refer to laws or ordinance, god's plan for what justice would look like as it's lived out.

Leviticus 18.5 says keep my statutes and my justices.

To say it kind of literally like that, a person will live if he does them.

Here in Isaiah 42, the servant's bringing about a right state of affairs where his law is loved and honored.

And what does the Bible prophesy about the new covenant?

And what does the Bible prophesy about the new covenant?

He'll write his law on our hearts.

Another reason I emphasize this saving rule of the servant is in verse 4, there are parallel clauses.

Not trying to bore you with fancy words, but I want you to see this.

This is a section of poetry words, but I want you to see this.

This is a section of poetry.

Often in poetry one line says something similar to the previous line to help expand it and confirm it in some way.

So if you look at the second line of verse four, it says that he will establish justice on the earth.

And then the third line running parallel to that says the coasts and islands wait for his instruction or for his law, depending on what your translation might be.

So earth in that second line goes with coasts and islands, all people everywhere.

But then that means that justice goes with instruction or law.

Do you see that how?

Instruction and law is another way of talking about what God's justice looks like here in this passage, the people far off need to hear God's instruction, his law.

That was true in Israel's day.

It's still true in our day.

They need to know who God is and what he wants for them to know him and how to honor him and love him and obey him.

A third reason I'm arguing that justice here is focused more on God's rule of redemption is because it fits the context of the following verses.

So if you look at verse six, it says the servant is a covenant for the people, not a covenant against the people.

He's a light to the nations, he's not judgment against the nations.

And then verse 7 also speaks more of his saving activities.

Okay, so the servant is establishing justice, he's bringing about a right state of affairs, the well-ordered desires that God wants.

You might say, okay, mike well and good.

You might say, okay, mike, well and good.

The servants?

Peace on earth, goodwill to men.

He's bringing in God's rule.

I don't see it.

What I see are wars and rumors of wars.

Keep in mind we haven't seen the end of everything yet.

God is patient.

He's slow to establish his work and his rule and his reign.

And in this age, the age before Jesus Christ returns, where we should see God's laws lived out the best, the best are in our churches, not in our parliaments.

Now we want politicians to be saved.

We want movie stars and athletes and social media influencers.

We want them to get saved.

We want God's law everywhere, but where we see it especially lived out are the people who have those new hearts and the law written on their hearts.

So that should be first and foremost in our churches in this present age.

That should be first and foremost in our churches in this present age.

And yes, sadly, sometimes even churches can look more like an ornery and bickering world than like this redemptive rule of God.

But we want to ask if a church is a place more about division and discord than about Christ's tender heart and just laws, we have to ask are we really, then showcasing the glorious rule and reign of Christ, the way that we should be?

Or you could personalize that question.

If I'm so consumed with my own personal idea of what I think justice needs to be and there's no aroma of Christ in my life, do I really know him?

Has he given me that new heart?

Or am I just saying I'm a Christian?

And this is where I have to warn you, as Isaiah does often throughout the book if we live simply professing to know Christ but our hearts are really far from him, we don't know him.

If we live under that hypocrisy, then there's only an expectation of judgment.

If you're here today and you just don't listen for the song of the servant you just plug your ears to that song then there's judgment coming for you.

Then there's judgment coming for you.

But when you come and kneel, there's mercy, because there's more mercy in Christ than there is sin in you.

God's servant.

Number one shows the tender heart of God.

Number two he establishes justice.

Number three he fulfills the covenants.

I'm getting this from verse six.

I am the Lord.

I've called you for a righteous purpose.

I will hold you by your hand, I will watch over you and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations.

I'll appoint you to be a covenant for the people.

That's an unusual expression.

The Bible talks a lot about covenants, but here's God speaking to his servant and saying that he'll appoint his servant to be a covenant.

What does that mean?

A covenant is an agreement between two people, like a contract, but covenants are more personal and in scripture, god is usually the one who comes and sets the terms of his covenant with his people.

But how do you make a servant a covenant?

If you're going to buy a house and you show up, sign the contract, what are the issues here?

And the owner says, oh, there's no contract, but here's my son, he's the contract.

What does that mean?

I don't know that.

I was bargaining for this.

You got to explain that to me.

Well, in order to understand.

If we're going to understand this verse and it's so powerful when we can grasp what God is saying here In order to understand what it means for God to appoint his servant to be a covenant, we really have to understand the whole history of God's covenant dealings with his people in the Bible.

Now don't say, oh boy, I thought we were in points three or four.

We're doing well, but this refreshing leftover watermelon is going to have to wait a while, more than I thought.

If we're going to go through the whole, we're not going to do a deep dive into every aspect of God's covenants with his people, but let me just summarize it for you.

God comes to people and says this is how we're going to relate.

I'm going to do these things and you're going to do these things.

And God always holds up his side of the bargain, but humans constantly fail.

God blesses Adam and Eve, and they sin.

God blesses Noah he goes and gets drunk.

God blesses Abraham he says, well, I'll have a son through my servant in order to really help things out.

God blesses Israel, and they go make a golden calf.

Do you understand that?

Covenant failure after covenant failure?

God is the faithful, divine covenant partner and he's looking for the faithful human covenant partner, but he can't find one, so he provides one.

The servant is the faithful human covenant partner.

He has to be truly human to be what God is looking for.

But if he's merely human, he's just going to fail, like all other humans fail.

So the servant is human and yet he's also divine.

The servant is the fulfillment of all of those covenant obligations.

He's not just a model for us.

This is very important.

God is not saying all right, humanity here having some problems, I'm going to send my servant now.

Watch and learn.

He'll teach you how to obey.

He does do that.

But if you think the gospel is that God will help you to obey him better, you don't understand the gospel.

Yes, christ will put the law on our hearts.

We'll slowly and progressively begin to want to know him and obey him more and more.

That happens, but that's not the good news.

The good news is Christ has come and done it all.

That's the first and glorious thing to understand.

He is a perfectly fulfilled covenant, signed, sealed and delivered to you as a gift.

Last line of music in this first servant song, the servant restores what was lost.

Verse 6 says that God will make the servant to be a light for the nations.

Well, that was part of Israel's purpose.

And now here's a servant coming along and doing it.

They were blinded by idolatry.

He's going to open blind eyes.

God had already told Abraham, the very father of the Israelite people, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

It's not just Israel.

It was God's intention to bless all kinds of people.

This goes back well before Israel, to Adam and Eve in the garden.

Be fruitful and multiply that his image might be filling all the earth.

The servants restoring what was lost.

Verse number seven the servant brings prisoners out of the dungeon.

The Lord brought Joseph out of the prison house in Egypt.

The Lord brought his people out of slavery from Egypt and took them in the promised land.

And our Lord Jesus Christ frees those who were held captive to evil.

Hebrews, chapter two.

We're no longer prisoners If we trust in Jesus Christ.

We've turned from our sins.

We're sons and daughters of God through faith in him.

And there's more.

Throughout Isaiah We've seen these themes of a new creation.

We'll see them as the prophet continues on in future chapters.

That begins by turning from sin, because if anyone's in Christ 2 Corinthians 5, he's a new creation.

But one day all the effects of sin in the world will be gone forever.

One day will be perfected in every way spiritually, emotionally, even those physical stains and blemishes gone because of the work of the servant.

The Lord declares it in Isaiah's day.

The Lord declares it in Isaiah's day and he knows the future and orchestrates all of history.

So the song is surely going to come to pass.

What has been lost will be restored, and the end is even greater than the beginning.

This should be music to our ears.

Are we listening for the song of the servant?

The servant shows us the tender heart of God.

He establishes justice, he fulfills the covenants, he restores what was lost, and we'll see more in future.

Servant songs in the book of Isaiah.

These songs don't necessarily come with a John Philip Sousa marching band loudness.

They come with the Spirit's work in our hearts.

Listen for the song of the servant.

There's a story that's told.

I think it's a work of historical fiction, but it illustrates something.

In this story it's World War I and there's a man who works for the British army but he's constantly being monitored and watched by German spies and he tries to figure out how can I let the British soldiers know?

I have information and I'm with them, without the Germans knowing?

And he comes up with an idea to sing a song.

Well, how is that going to help?

He sings a song.

That's an old Scottish tune that's not known by everyone, but it works.

And the Germans, the enemies, don't know, but the people that have ears to hear the British.

They recognize it and that helps him get the information that wins the battle leads to great success for Britain.

Who knew that a little song could reveal so much?

The people of Israel are in desperate trouble in Isaiah's day and left to ourselves.

We're all in much worse trouble, but help has come because the servant has come.

Christ has come.

Do we have ears to hear?

Let's pray that we do.

Lord God, oh Lord, how we praise you for tuning our ears to sing your praise and the song that might be despised by the world.

We understand that our Christ himself was despised and rejected by people, but how beautiful he is, if not beautiful in outward splendor and majesty while he lived, yet beautiful nonetheless to those whose hearts are aching for redemption, who find the guilt and weight of our own repeated failure, and to know that this Christ draws near to us and it's part of your plan, oh Lord, thank you, father, son and Spirit, for being a God of such deep compassion and to provide a way, when there was no way, to provide yourself as a substitute for us.

Lord, would our hearts abound in praise, would our hearts be filled not most with our guilt but even more with the saviors.

Who's come to take that away?

That there's no condemnation to those of us who are in Jesus Christ.

Lord, as we continue to press on through this book of Isaiah, we thank you and we pray that you would indeed tune our hearts to sing your praise, to sing this song of the servant.

And even now we thank you that these elements show us about the tender heart of God.

These elements show us about forgiveness and compassion and reconciliation.

So we take these elements with musical joy in our souls.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.