A SERVANT FOR TURBULENT TIMES
by Doug Goins
The notion of voluntarily becoming a slave, of being owned by another, stands
in stark contrast to the prevailing values of the world we live in today.
You don't have to watch too much television or read too much of the print
media to be convinced that as a people we are attracted-if not addicted-to
power and authority. The recent local, state, and national elections were
all about the power of political office. Money can buy access to those who
are powerfully positioned in society. The Somalian warlords and the Serbian
and Croatian troops believe that power comes out of the barrel of a gun.
Then there is manipulative power in knowing how to work a system; we have
a grudging respect for people who can do that. Understanding how to tap
into people's belief systems is also very powerful. Again, that was evident
in the elections. Remember Dianne Feinstein sitting in the rocking chair
holding an infant just before the vote; and the Republicans invited Pat
Robertson to speak at their convention, and Bill Clinton has invited Billy
Graham to speak at his inauguration. Knowing how to manipulate people's
belief systems is an important aspect of power today.
A book by Washington newsman Hedrick Smith describes what he calls the "soft
sides of power." Let me quote from The Power Game:
How Washington Really Works:
Information and knowledge are power. Visibility is power. A
sense of timing is power. Personal energy is power, so is self-confidence.
Showmanship is power. Likability is power. Access to the inner sanctum is
power. Obstruction and delay are power. Winning is power. Sometimes the
illusion of power is power.
The question in all the headlines today is, What kind of power on earth
can calm the turbulence of unrest in our cities, our nation, and our global
community? Is it going to be accomplished through getting tougher on crime?
Through UN peace-keeping forces? Through a new Democratic administration?
Or for that matter, could giving George Bush four more years have calmed
the racial strife, settled the turbulence of poverty, and lifted the hopelessness
they bring? Can Owen Greenspan or Clinton's new group of economic advisors
quiet our unsettled economy? That's an issue we care about especially; we're
impressed with any power that can give us high-paying jobs with good benefits.
And finally, what authority figure can restore biblical family values to
our nation?
We live in a world that is out of control everywhere you look, in both the
microcosm and the macrocosm. What figure of power and authority can set
things right? Who can establish equity? Who can bring justice into a turbulent
world of inequality, violence, and dehumanizing evil?
The nation of Israel had similar questions and concerns. They were struggling
with their identity as a people in Babylonian captivity. They were living
with the barbarism and savagery of an ancient Near Eastern culture. In the
last section of Isaiah's prophecy, chapters 40 through 66, the prophet speaks
words of comfort and hope for that nation. In chapter 42 he introduces an
individual who can address issues of righteousness and justice in the world
of ancient Israel as well as those in our world today. In verse 6 God speaks
to this one who was coming:
"I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness...."
Now let's look back at verse 1:
"Behold my servant, 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."
In Chapter 41 God has examined all the political, military, and economic
institutions on the face of the earth. He has evaluated their efforts to
bring moral order to the world, to establish and maintain just societies
and nations. God asks these national and international leaders to offer
solutions to the problems that face mankind. His question to them is, How
can we heal this broken, suffering, struggling humanity? At the end of this
amazing dialogue between God and all the national and international leaders,
we see God's final summary in verse 28 and 29 of chapter 41. God says:
"But when I look, there is no one;
among these there is no counselor
who, when I ask, gives an answer.
Behold, they are all a delusion;
their works are nothing;
their molten images are empty wind."
Among all the leaders there wasn't anyone who had anything of substance
to say. They had nothing to offer but hot air, or wind. There is even the
implication here that all this talking about solutions is itself idolatrous.
Today's campaign rhetoric is idolatrous. There is nobody to give good counsel,
nobody to lead mankind out of these circumstances, nobody to lead us through
the turbulence of difficult times. And we are commanded in verse 29 to "behold"
those leaders; that is, to carefully examine them, to evaluate what they
say.
Then that command to behold is paralleled in verse 1 of chapter 42, "Behold
my servant," in contrast to all the other options. It comes like a
trumpet blast: Pay strict attention to this one who is going to be introduced!
Let's read the first nine verses of chapter 42:
Behold my servant, 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.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
Thus says God, the LORD,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread forth the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it;
"I am the LORD, I have called you [the servant] in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the LORD, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to graven images.
Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them."
Before we examine who the servant is, let's make sure that we clearly understand
who it is who has chosen him, called him to this important work, and given
him this overwhelming task of setting things right in the world. In verse
5 he first introduces himself as God, and in Hebrew this is the word for
Almighty God. This is the Creator God and the absolute Sovereign of the
universe, the God who stands utterly distinct as creator from the universe
that he is responsible for, including humankind. His creativity continues
powerfully in the natural order and in the human race.
Three times, in verses 5, 6, and 8, he additionally introduces himself as
the Lord, that is, Yahweh God, the God of Sinai, the God who established
an unconditional covenant love relationship with the nation of Israel. He
is an eternal, self-determining God. Yahweh is the name by which he identified
himself to Moses: "I AM WHO I AM," meaning, "I am complete
in myself." He is the God of all resource, all strength, and all adequacy.
The nation of Israel desperately needed that strength, and he was the deliverer
God who saved them from bondage in Egypt. He continues to offer that adequacy
and strength to people who do not recognize him and do not realize how lost
and helpless they are.
Let's look more closely at verse 8:
"I am the LORD [Yahweh], that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to graven images."
That speaks of God's unimpeachable character and his absolute credibility.
He jealously guards his reputation. He always follows through on every commitment
that he makes. And he demands in response to that exclusive loyalty, devotion,
or fidelity to him. It says he himself can't even give away his essential
glory; that is, he can't deny himself, and he can't delegate it to anyone
else. And nobody can take it from him. There is divine jealousy and exclusiveness
at work in God, and these are really beautiful qualities that are consistent
with his character. Worship and praise belong to him alone; there can be
no substitutes.
This one who sends the servant into the world is the absolute Sovereign
of the universe, the one in charge, the one running things all by himself.
It is important for us to get some grasp of this idea, as enormous as it
is, in order to understand the authority and credibility of the servant
of the Lord.
This idea of God's exclusivity, and his running things all by himself, was
illustrated to me in one of Gordon MacDonald's books a few years ago. He
tells the story of a very exclusive New England prep school that maintained
the conservative, traditional ways that stolid New Englanders embrace. One
of the students was the son of a wealthy Boston businessman who was also
a prominent member of the board of the school. The boy got into some mischief,
and with no particular regard for who he was, the headmaster suspended him.
His father, outraged, took the first train north to New Hampshire, stormed
into the headmaster's office unannounced, and fired this opening salvo at
the distinguished older gentleman: "You damn well think you're running
this school all by yourself, don't you?" The headmaster stood up very
slowly, looped his thumbs into the pockets of his vest and said, "Your
language is koss [coarse], your 'gramma' is despicable, but YOU HAVE GRASPED
THE IDEA!"
Now let's examine more closely the identity of the servant whom God sends
into the world. Verses 1 through 4 introduced him to us. Matthew, writing
as an inspired apostle, speaks of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ
as being a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophetic word. In Matthew 12:18 he quotes:
"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased."
Now, that is an amazing title for this one who is coming, because the word
servant is synonymous with the word bondslave, which means a menial laborer
enslaved to another, working at the total disposition of his owner and master.
It is someone who has no rights of his own, who is in a position of powerlessness
and helplessness. He has to live his life in full obedience to the master
of the estate. The Messiah we saw last week in Isaiah 40 was introduced
as a strong Shepherd King in complete control of the universe and of our
individual lives as well. He was a powerful figure of gentle and tender
strength. But now he is a servant. It's a jarring contrast.
Verse 6 says that he is a servant who is called in righteousness. And three
times in verses 1 through 4 he is introduced as one who will bring forth
justice. These two words, righteousness and justice, always work together
in the Old Testament. Righteousness means to bring something into conformity
with a standard. In the ancient world scales that were accurate were called
righteous weights because they conformed to a standard of accuracy. And
evergreen trees in the Old Testament are described as trees of righteousness
because they look like a tree ought to look; they don't drop leaves, and
they retain their fullness and beauty all year round. (So you could quite
properly go to your friend's house and tell them they have a righteous-looking
Christmas tree!) Righteousness is making something the way it ought to be.
And the standard for our personal lives is the character of God: his righteousness,
beauty, and glory. So what this servant is going to do is bring things into
conformity with the character of God.
He will accomplish this through justice, which is the practical outworking
of righteousness or the way it is applied in our personal lives and in social
institutions. In ancient Israel the responsibility of the king as a servant
of God was to establish righteousness and justice in the nation. And now
God is going to send this new servant, who as we see in the New Testament
is Jesus the Messiah, to bring justice to the world, to establish things
according to God's standard and patterns, to set things the way they're
supposed to be in our hearts, our homes, our cities, our nation, and our
world. It is clear in these verses that it is only the servant of the Lord
who can align things in our world with the Lord's standard; there is no
other alternative.
Let me suggest three distinctive things about this servant from the first
few verses: the resources that he draws from to accomplish this difficult
work; his approach or his attitude toward the work that God has given him;
and an amazing tenacity, persistence, or tough-mindedness that carries him
through the work.
There are three resources that the servant draws on. In verse 1 God calls
him "my servant, whom I uphold." In verse 6 he reinforces that
idea, saying to the servant, "I have taken you by the hand and kept
you." The servant is upheld by his heavenly Father; that is, he is
protected and led by the Father. These both speak for the necessity of Jesus
Christ to depend on God the Father for direction, support, and strength
for everything he did. His effectiveness in ministry came from his total
dependence on his Father. Jesus clearly testified to that, saying, "I
don't do anything without checking with the Father. I can accomplish nothing
except through his power." [John 12:49]
The second resource we also see in verse 1 in the phrase, "my chosen,
in whom my soul delights." And in verse 6 again, God says to the servant,
"I am the LORD, I have called you...." He is called and chosen
by his heavenly Father who delights in him completely. Twice during Jesus'
public ministry on earth God affirmed his deep love, respect, and admiration
for his Son: once at his baptism by John in the Jordan River, and again
on the Mount of Transfiguration. Both times God spoke audibly, and the disciples
heard it. In Luke 3:22 he said, "Thou art my beloved Son, with thee
I am well pleased." Jesus had the full confidence that his Father loved,
accepted, and delighted in him. Now, that acceptance had nothing to do with
what he did. When his Father affirmed him at his baptism it was before he
had ever taught any truth or performed any miracles. He knew that it was
because of who he was that he was accepted and loved by the Father. That
was a powerful resource for the Lord Jesus. Even when people rejected him
and brutalized him, he was secure in his heavenly Father's love.
We see the third resource in verse 1 when God says, "I have put my
Spirit upon him." That is a very rich phrase. Jesus is filled up, surrounded,
and totally overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the person of
the godhead who gets things done, the animator. Jesus knew that the Spirit
of God was powerfully at work in him, and this was why he was able to make
a difference in people's lives wherever he went. People's hearts were changed
as they responded to the truth that he spoke, and that happened through
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now let's examine the attitude of the servant in verses 2 and 3:
"He will not cry or lift up his voice,
nor make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice."
Verse 2 suggests that Jesus was content to minister in obscurity. He was
unassuming; he didn't go around loudly talking about himself, bragging about
what he was accomplishing, trying to build a reputation or a public following.
Jesus told the truth wherever he went and people responded to that, but
there was nothing of self-promotion in his life or ministry. In Matthew
12 the events suggest just the opposite of self-aggrandizement: "...he
healed them all, and ordered them not to make him known." [v 16] It
is amazing to me that Jesus never needed personal attention or demanded
recognition. He didn't have a press secretary or a public relations advisor.
He just went around doing what his Father told him to do.
Verse 3 gives a beautiful description of the kind of people Jesus was attracted
to, on whom this ministry of bringing forth justice was focused. It speaks
of the extraordinary patience and gentleness with which he ministered to
people. Jesus, the Lord's servant, came to care for bruised and broken people,
those whose flickering light of faith had almost been extinguished. Those
are both very graphic pictures. We have a solitary blade of grass that has
been stomped on and crushed, and the servant is bending over and giving
full attention to that blade, stretching it out to its full height, supporting
it, and restoring it to what it was intended to be. And we have a little
oil lamp that is out of oil; there is no flame left and the wick is down
to a glowing ember. He very gently blows on it to fan it back to life.
These pictures describe a ministry of justice done in obscurity, focused
on individuals. In Matthew 12 Jesus ministers to an individual man with
a withered hand, for example. Jesus himself said that he didn't come to
the healthy, those who were well, strong, powerful, and attractive, those
with the most giving potential or resources to advantage him. No, he came
to sick people, those with the least ability to personally serve him. He
came to people in desperate need.
Now let's look at verse 4, where it talks about the amazing tenacity with
which this servant did the work of bringing forth justice.
"He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law."
The terms fail and be discouraged are the same terms in Hebrew that we just
looked at to burn dimly and to be bruised, respectively. The servant cares
for people who are struggling, people who are bruised and burning dimly,
but he himself will never fail in his mission or get overwhelmed and discouraged
by the difficulty. The good news is that this servant Jesus will never give
up on the human race or on any of us individually. He will never get frustrated
or disgusted with any of us and say, "I've had it with you. I can't
take this anymore. You've blown it too many times." He will never have
a nervous breakdown and resign from ministry. Because of that persistence
and confidence, his ministry ultimately took him to the cross. In his death
he was literally bruised and broken and his life extinguished-and it happened
for the injustice that we sinful men and women perpetrate. But he remained
confident that through his life and death and resurrection he would be able
to bring men and women into submission to him. And he persisted until he
brought both justice and salvation through the cross.
This specific work that this servant will accomplish is detailed in verses
6 and 7 and then in verse 9. The middle of verse 6 says:
"I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations...."
The work of justice began with God's giving his beloved Son to the nation
of Israel as a covenant, and then to all the Gentile nations as a light.
Both images are consistently used to speak of salvation in both the Old
and New Testaments. The covenant love relationship that God had with the
nation of Israel was to accomplish salvation to all the other nations in
the world. And Israel was called to be a light to all the nations, and Jesus
said that he came to be the light of the world. Jesus went even farther
and said that only in him was life eternal, resurrection life, and that
he was the life of the world as well as the light of the world.
Verse 7 continues:
"...to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness."
These figures depict people with congenital blindness and people who have
been captives since birth. Both depict the results of the sinful nature
that we were born into. Without Jesus' rescuing us and healing our blindness,
we will never see reality the way it is, only distortions. Jesus came to
open blind eyes and to set us free from the incredible weight of the load
we carry of guilt, bondage to sin, and condemnation. That is the servant's
work of accomplishing justice.
Finally, in verse 9 he says that it is going to be something brand-new that
has never been seen in human history before.
"Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them."
What is going to be new and different is that God isn't going to transform
identities on a national level anymore; this work of justice will be accomplished
in individual human hearts. The former things that Isaiah talks about were
accomplished in Israel's history when God saved the entire nation from the
darkness and captivity of bondage in Egypt. They were brought into light
and freedom when he brought them into the promised land. But now God is
committed to establishing a deeper and richer justice through the servant,
and it will be a work of justice that starts in human hearts. And he says
he is going to tell us about this before it ever happens. Isaiah prophesied
seven hundred years before Jesus was born, and his prophecy was completely
fulfilled in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
In Luke 2, one of the narratives of Jesus' birth, there is a wonderful story
that speaks of the fulfillment of this new thing that God is bringing into
being. Simeon, an elderly priest, had spent his entire life waiting for
Isaiah's prophecy of messianic justice to come. There was just as much turbulence
and turmoil economically, politically, and militarily in his day as there
is in ours. He was standing in the temple in Jerusalem holding the baby
Jesus in his arms, looking down on this tiny one born to be the beloved
servant of the Lord. You can imagine his voice trembling with emotion and
gratitude as he speaks in verse 29:
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace
according to thy word;
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation
which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to thy people Israel."
Here is the amazing truth in light of all of this. If we have personally
accepted the salvation in Jesus Christ that is offered to us individually,
if we have bowed before him as the Lord of life; then we can stand with
Simeon today as we behold this servant given to the world and call ourselves
servants of God. As the apostle Paul identifies us in 2 Corinthians 3:6,
we are now servants of a new-covenant relationship. In Christ we ourselves
are servants of the one God calls his servant. He has conquered the injustice
in our hearts-the greed, lust, and self-promoting, power-hungry ambition
that controlled us before-through his shed blood on the cross.
This is great news, isn't it? The very resources, attitude, and persistence
of Jesus the servant will become ours as he expresses his own life through
us. He will make us submissive to the will of our heavenly Father. He will
sensitize us to needs around us. He will deliver us from the need to control
our own life, our time, and our material resources. He will save us from
the desire to always get credit for everything we do. He will make us servants
of the cross who are willing to die every day to self-protectiveness, who
rely completely on his resources and not our own, who are absolutely secure
in God's love and acceptance, and who minister in the power of God's Holy
Spirit with great flexibility and freedom. This servant wants to pour his
very life into us and express it through us.
The issue of ownership is very central here. In Matthew 11 Jesus says, "Take
my yoke upon you...my yoke is easy...." This yoke speaks of his ownership
of us, of our slave relationship to him. First Corinthians 6:19-20 says,
"You are not your own; you were bought with a price." The price
was Jesus' death on the cross. And we have nothing to fear in his ownership
of us because he says in the same verse, "I am gentle and lowly [humble]
in heart." He is talking about the servant leadership that we can trust
him for, his amazing attitude of gentleness and humility.
We have a great privilege this morning as we minister as servants of this
wonderful servant of the Lord. We're privileged to talk about him and his
life, his righteousness, and how he wants things to be in individual lives.
We're privileged to serve him as we meet needs among the "bruised and
broken" and patiently encourage the "dimly burning wicks,"
those who are about to give up. We can serve him with the same confidence
and persistence that he demonstrated in his life and ministry; because we're
sustained and empowered by the same Almighty God, Lord of the universe,
and everlasting Father as he was.
The only appropriate response to this truth this morning is praise and worship,
and that is what Isaiah breaks into in verses 10 through 13. Let's read
this explosion of gratitude and confidence because of the work of the servant:
Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits,
let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the LORD,
and declare his praise in the coastlands.
The LORD goes forth like a mighty man,
like a man of war he stirs up his fury;
he cries out, he shouts aloud,
he shows himself mighty against his foes.
The fury of God that is mentioned in verse 13 has the same root as the word
for the jealousy that God has for his character, his righteousness, and
his completing what he starts. It gives us incredible confidence!
What has been promised in verses 1 through 9 is a new work of salvation
and justice in the human heart; this is the new possibility of salvation
to the ends of the earth. That is why we can have enormous optimism about
God's establishing justice in our families, our neighborhoods, our communities,
our nation, and the world order itself.
The good news is that we don't have to be discouraged or intimidated by
any kind of power that we see out there today-political, economic, or military.
Our God is defined here as an awesome conquering general, a God who will
bring justice to all the nations. But his justice is going to come through
individual people like you and me who are willing to be submissive to the
servant of the Lord in the same attitude he had, trusting him to express
his life through us. We can go in the same power of the Lord that Jesus
went in to dimly burning wicks, to bruised and broken reeds.
Let's respond to this in the same way that Isaiah did, with praise and worship
and adoration that honor the Lord Jesus for who he is and what he accomplishes!
Catalog No. 4286
Isaiah 42:1-13
Second Message
Doug Goins
December 13, 1992
Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church.
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