CHAPTER 42

(712 B.C.)

MESSIAHS FIRST ADVENT

¹Behold My servant, Whom I uphold; My elect, in Whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. (Almost the entirety of this Chapter concerns itself with Prophecy extolling the coming of the Messiah in both His First and Second Advents. As well, Israel is addressed in her rejection of Christ in His First Advent.

God had only one Perfect Servant on Earth, His Own and well-beloved Son, in Whom His soul delighted. He speaks of Him in the Scriptures as My Servant.

The Holy Spirit in Mat. 12:9-23 declares the Servant of this Prophecy to be Jehovah Messiah.)

²He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. (Cry here means to claim His rights.)

³A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. (This presents the image of the weak and depressed in spirit, the lowly and dejected. Christ would deal tenderly with such, not violently.

Where the flame of devotion burns at all, however feebly and dimly, the Messiah will take care not to quench it; rather, He will tend it, trim it, give it fresh oil, and cause it to burn more brightly.)

⁴He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the Earth: and the isles shall wait for His Law. (In a sense, this Verse is the exact opposite of the previous. Compared to those whom He helps, He will Himself show no signs of the weakness with which He is compassionate with others. As a Light, He will burn brightly and strongly; as a Reed or Rod, He will be firm and unbroken.)

⁵Thus says God the LORD, He Who created the heavens, and stretched them out; He Who spread forth the Earth, and that which comes out of it; He Who gives breath unto the people upon it, and Spirit to them who walk therein (the phrase, Thus says God the LORD, literally means Thus says the One God Jehovah. Actually, the entirety of the utterance beginning with the first word of the First Verse is the utterance of God; however, the Prophet suddenly stops, and seemingly makes a new beginning. The Holy Spirit wants it to be perfectly clear that the announcement of the Servant of the Lord [Christ] and His mission is from the Almighty, and that He is able to do what He has predicted):

⁶I the LORD have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a Covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles (all statements in Verses 6 and 7 refer to the Messiah, as well as Verses 1 through 4. In the humiliation and grace of His First Coming, it is predicted that He would not assert His rights nor judge His enemies, but that, on the contrary, He would introduce the New Covenant of Salvation for Israel, and for the Gentiles, and illuminate and liberate alike through the preaching of the Gospel [I Cor. 1:21]);

⁷To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them who sit in darkness out of the prison house. (To open the blind eyes refers to spiritual blindness [Lk. 4:18-19]. Christ Alone can deliver, and He does so through the Means of the Cross, and through that Means alone [I Cor. 1:17-18, 23; 2:2].)

⁸I am the LORD: that is My Name: and My Glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. (The phrase actually says, I the Lord. I Who am all that the Name Jehovah signifies self-existent, eternal, self-sufficing, independent, omnipotent, omniscient, and, therefore, unique, One Whose Glory cannot be shared with any other being that exists least of all with images which are mere vanity and nothingness.)

⁹Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. (In Verses 5 through 8, God speaks to the Messiah; and in Verses 9 through 12, He points to the fulfillment of former things, i.e., Prophecies, and predicts new things, i.e., new Prophecies.

The point is that only God can do such things! The former things came to pass and, therefore, the new things will also come to pass.)

GIVE GLORY TO GOD

¹⁰Sing unto the LORD a new song, and His praise from the end of the Earth, you who go down to the sea, and all who are therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. (The words, new song, have reference to the coming Kingdom Age, when Christ will rule and reign supremely over the entirety of the Earth, totally changing its government, bringing everything into subjection unto Him, which will give to the entirety of the world a new song.

As well, every single Believer can presently have that new song, which is given freely according to our Faith evidenced in Christ and what He has done for us at the Cross [I Cor. 1:23].)

¹¹Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar does inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. (This Passage continues the results of the new song. Hitherto, the wilderness has had little to shout about. Now the wilderness, because of Christ, will be turned into a garden.)

¹²Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare His praise in the islands. (Glory is to be given to the Lord over the entirety of the Earth, and in the Kingdom Age most definitely will be done!)

MESSIAHS SECOND ADVENT; JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION

¹³The LORD shall go forth as a mighty Man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yes, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies. (This pertains to His Second Coming, and the carrying out of that which has been predicted.)

¹⁴I have long time held My peace; I have been still, and refrained Myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. (Righteous men have long wondered, Why did not God step in and take a hand in the Hell that this world has become? The answer is that now, and for His Own reasons which are valid and right, He is holding His peace. The sense of the Verse is that He has chafed, as it were, under the necessity of inaction, and has with difficulty refrained Himself. Now He will refrain no longer.)

¹⁵I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. (The result of Gods stirring up His Jealousy and giving a free vent to His Feelings will be the destruction of the great and mighty ones of the Earth. The mountains and hills of fortifications, wealth, and power gathered by the Antichrist will be made waste.)

¹⁶And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. (The blind here can only mean captive Israel, about to be destroyed by the Antichrist. Because of her long rejection of her Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, she is still dim-sighted from the effect of her old sins against Light and, therefore, greatly needing Gods guidance. God promises to bring them out of captivity by a way not hitherto known to them the way of voluntary release by the favor of the new King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two thousand years ago, with the rejection of Christ, Israel chose crooked things. Now these crooked things shall be made straight, because the straight One is Christ.)

¹⁷They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, who trust in graven images, who say to the molten images, You are our gods. (In the past, Israel trusted in graven images, their own self-righteousness; they will, in fact, accept the false messiah and say to him, You are our god, i.e., messiah. At the coming of the Lord, they will then be greatly ashamed that they did this!)

¹⁸Hear, you deaf; and look you blind, that you may see. (Previously, because of their rejection of Christ, Israel has been deaf and blind. Now, and we speak of the Second Coming, Israel will then hear and see.)

¹⁹Who is blind, but My servant? or deaf, as My messenger whom I sent? who is blind as he who is perfect, and blind as the LORDs servant? (This Verse speaks of Israel, but as well of the Church. Israel then was His servant and His messenger. The Church is now such. Apostate Israel refused their True Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and will accept a false messiah, the Antichrist. Tragically, the apostate Church also refuses the Lord Jesus Christ and the Cross, and will accept a false christ, the Antichrist.)

²⁰Seeing many things, but you observe not; opening the ears, but he hears not. (Israel had seen so many things that were sent from God; the miracles, the Law, the Prophets, and then even the Messiah, but you observe not. Jesus ministered unto their ears, but they heard not. There is no blindness like willful blindness! In Gods Eyes, this is perhaps the worst sin of all!)

²¹The LORD is well pleased for His Righteousness sake; He will magnify the Law, and make it honourable. (Despite the fact that Israel would not honor the Law, the Lord most definitely did. In fact, His Righteousness demanded such!)

²²But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore. (Gods True Messenger, the Messiah, did not fail. He lived and preached the Law, and made the teaching great and glorious, totally unlike what the Pharisees had done. But yet they would not accept Him.

By not accepting Christ and His Way, they are all of them snared in holes. They could have had a Heaven, but instead were put in holes, i.e., death camps.)

²³Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? (The Holy Spirit through Isaiah says, Surely there are some among you, less hardened than the rest, who will take advantage of My warning and repent at this, the eleventh hour.)

²⁴Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, He against Whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in His Ways, neither were they obedient unto His Law. (Even though Israel was Gods Chosen, still, the Lord could not tolerate their self-way in them, any more than He could in the heathen. Therefore, He gave Jacob to the robbers.)

²⁵Therefore He has poured upon him the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. (Gods chastisement is meant to draw us back to Himself. He does it for our profit, that we might be partakers of His Holiness [Heb. 12:10]. If that fails, there is no hope!)