The Mission of the Messiah
5The Lord God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who created the earth and everything in it, who gives life and breath and spirit to everyone in all the world, He is the one who says to His Servant, the Messiah c: 6“I the Lord have called You to demonstrate My righteousness. I will guard and support You, for I have given You to My people as the personal confirmation of My covenant with them. d You shall also be a light to guide the nations unto Me. 7You will open the eyes of the blind and release those who sit in prison darkness and despair. 8I am the Lord! That is My name, and I will not give My glory to anyone else; I will not share My praise with carved idols. 9Everything I prophesied came true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”[1] (Isaiah42:5–9)
Having described the
character of the Messiah, God now discusses His Servant’s mission, which He
says will not fail.
Of this, people can rest assured. It is almost incomprehensible that God would send His Son into the world as a Servant of the human race. And yet God has always known that many would not believe His Servant (Jesus Christ) and would reject Him. He knew that some would refuse to bow the knee before Him in worship and that others would defy and curse Him. For these very reasons He wants the world to clearly understand three facts.
a. God the Lord guarantees the success of the Servant’s mission (v. 5). The guarantee is not being given by a mere human being or by any so-called god people might worship. It is given by God the Lord Himself, the only true and living God. Because He is true and living, He has the power to guarantee the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of His mission. But this is not the only power of God that guarantees the success of the Servant’s mission.
1) God’s Creative Power also guarantees that He will send the Messiah and fulfill His mission on earth. God is the great Creator of the entire universe, of earth and heaven with all the planets and stars throughout space. And He is the One who has given breath and life to every person in the world.
2) God’s Righteousness also guarantees that the Messiah will come and fulfill His purpose on earth (v. 6). God will always do what is right; He will always do the righteous thing. Because the world so desperately needs salvation, God will send the Messiah to save the world and to bring His righteousness to people. God’s Servant will also establish a righteous relationship with people, teaching them to do what is right as they live together and walk day by day acknowledging and worshipping God.
3) God’s Presence and Care also guarantee the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of His mission on earth (v. 6). God actually says that He will hold the hand of the Messiah. He will guide and take care of Him. God says that He will keep His Servant, or hold Him up and protect Him, as He goes about fulfilling His mission. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will keep God’s Servant from doing exactly what God sends Him into the world to do.
b. The Messiah’s mission was to have two very specific and important purposes. Note how these purposes meet the desperate needs of the world, the deepest needs of the human heart.
1) First, God’s Servant will institute God’s new covenant, a new relationship with His people. Note that the Messiah Himself is the new covenant. This fact is of critical importance. God will make the Lord Jesus Christ Himself the basis of the new relationship that He establishes with people. Formerly, God had established a covenant, a relationship, with Abraham through the wonderful promise of the promised seed. The promised seed was a reference to the coming Messiah, who would bring God’s blessings to all the families of the earth (Ge. 12:3). Later, God expanded His relationship with His people by promising David a descendant who would rule as king forever (2 S. 7:11–17).
In the present Scripture, God expands the covenant again by promising a new relationship that His Servant will establish (Is. 49:8; 55:3; Je. 31:31–34; Eze. 34:25). The Messiah will fulfill both the Abrahamic covenant of the promised seed and the Davidic covenant of the promised king. And shockingly the new covenant will be established by the death of God’s Servant. Through His death, the Messiah will bring people into a right relationship with God, making it possible for Him to forgive their sins, satisfy their hunger and thirst for God, and fulfill their longing to live eternally.
V “For this is My blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Mt. 26:28).
V “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Ro. 5:8–9).
V “But now hath He obtained a more excellent
ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought
for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not,
saith the Lord. For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the
Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I
will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: And they shall not
teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more. In that He saith, A new covenant,
He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (He. 8:6–13).
V “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but
by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. For if the
blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this
cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the
redemption of the transgressions that
were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance” (He. 9:12–15).
V “And to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (He. 12:24).
V “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely,
He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we
are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his
own way; and the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:3–6).
V “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Je. 31:31–34).
2) Second, God’s Servant will be God’s light for all nations (v. 6). No longer will people have to stumble through life in darkness, wondering
which way to go or how to handle the problems and hardships of life. No longer
will people have to wonder where they have come from, why they are here, and
where they are going. God promises that the Messiah will eliminate darkness
from the face of the earth …
·
all the darkness of ignorance, purposelessness,
emptiness, aimlessness, loneliness
· all the darkness of restlessness, anger, hostility, discrimination, prejudice, and warfare
God’s Servant will be sent to earth to bring God’s light to the world. He will open the eyes of all who are spiritually blind and set free captives held in the darkness of sin and death. Through the light of God’s Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, people can now be freed from the captivity of sin and death. The light of God’s Servant has vanquished even the darkness of death and eternal separation from God. Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
V “The people who sat in darkness saw great light;
and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Mt. 4:16).
V “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of
the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath
visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lu. 1:76–79).
V “In Him was life; and the life was the light of
men” (Jn. 1:4).
V “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12).
V “Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while
is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon
you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth” (Jn. 12:35).
V “I am come a light into the world, that
whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness” (Jn. 12:46).
V “For God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Co. 4:6).
V “Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ep. 5:14).
V “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of
the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Re. 21:23).
V “The people that walked in darkness have seen a
great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath
the light shined” (Is. 9:2).
V “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles” (Is. 42:6).
c. The Lord Himself ensures the mission of the Messiah (vv. 8–9). Note that God uses His distinctive name, the Lord, to guarantee its success. “That is my name!” He declares. He is the true and living God; therefore, He will fulfill His promise. God will send His Servant into the world to fulfill His mission on behalf of God’s people. He will not give His name or glory to anyone other than His Servant, the Messiah. He will not give His glory to another person, and He will never, ever allow any false god or idol to take credit for sending the Messiah into the world.
God’s power, and His power alone, has fulfilled former predictions (v. 9). Therefore, His power will fulfill the predictions concerning the coming Messiah. Just as promised, He will send His Servant into the world, and He will make sure the Messiah fulfills His mission.
V “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or
the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Mt. 5:17).
V “Even as the Son of man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28).
V “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost” (Lu. 19:10).
V “For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:16–17).
V “I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I
judge: and My judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will
of the Father which hath sent Me” (Jn. 5:30).
V “And Jesus said, for judgment I am come into
this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be
made blind” (Jn. 9:39).
V “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to
kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10).
V “This is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Ti. 1:15).
V “Then said I, lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do thy will, O God.… Then said He, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (He. 10:7, 9–10).[2]
c 42:5 to his Servant, the Messiah, implied.
d 42:6 I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant
with them, or “You will be my covenant with all the people.”
[1] Taylor, Kenneth
Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 2005. Isaiah: Chapters 36–66. Vol. II. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
https://my.bible.com/bible/116/ISA.42.5-9.nlt
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