Light to the Nations

The actions of the servant and those of God, who chooses and commissions them, are inseparable

Commentary on Isaiah 42:1-9

Allie Rosner Bass

So-called Second Isaiah, the part of the book spanning chapters 40–55 and usually thought to be written toward the end of the Babylonian exile, opens with words of comfort and hope for God’s displaced people. Set among the poet’s visions of restoration and renewal, such as water flowing in the wilderness, are themes of God’s greatness and incomparability and the impending vindication of God’s people, despite their previous disobedience.

Chapter 42 sets forth the first of Second Isaiah’s four “Servant Songs.” While the subsequent Servant Songs in 49:1–7; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12 emphasize the figure’s divine call from before birth and their suffering, this first song in chapter 42 weaves together themes from the surrounding chapters. Its words sing of the servant’s chosenness, their mission, and—undergirding all of it—the God who calls and sustains God’s servant in their work.

The song opens with the theme of chosenness: God upholds the servant, delights in them, and has put God’s spirit on them. The servant will “bring forth justice to the nations,” establishing God’s intended order at home and abroad. The poet’s depiction of how the servant brings forth justice is striking compared to what would be expected of any earthly ruler—and also for any of us inclined to think of justice-seekers as agitators and rabble-rousers, raising their voices and “making good trouble.” God’s servant “will not cry out or lift up his voice; a bruised reed he will not break” (42:2–3).

The bringing forth of justice, at least in this case, is apparently quieter and gentler than we might sometimes expect, perhaps consisting of everyday judgments and choices that acknowledge God’s reign and that promote care for the vulnerable. But if it is quiet and gentle, it is also persistent, ongoing, unrelenting: “He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth” (42:4).

Verse 5 moves to who God is: “God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out … who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk in it.” The verse echoes parts of chapter 41 that extol God’s greatness in comparison to both powerful nations and their idols. It is this creator God who has called the servant, who has “taken you by the hand and kept you” (see also 41:13).

As God’s language moves into the second person, now addressing the servant, the imagery moves yet again to the servant’s mission: to be “a covenant for the people” (this phrase could also be translated “a covenant people”) and a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon.” The Hebrew verbs here are ambiguous: Is it God performing the actions of eye-opening and prisoner release, or the servant? In the end, the actions of the servant and those of God, who chooses and commissions them, are inseparable.

The image of the release of captives as emblematic of Israel’s salvation is echoed in Isaiah 61 and picked up by Jesus in his own mission statement in Luke 4. The opening of the eyes of the blind, also present in the vision of restoration in Isaiah 35:5, is also a hallmark of Jesus’s liberating ministry (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22). Disability theologians have reminded us as modern interpreters to be careful with language of abled-ness and disabled-ness; abled-ness is not a prerequisite for wholeness or redemption. For Isaiah, however, imagery of light and darkness, blindness and sight resounds throughout the book as images of alienation, vulnerability, disobedience, and redemption.

Blindness imagery returns later in chapter 42 (verses 18–20), along with the servant figure, who is now the one who is blind: “Who is blind but my servant?” (42:19). Is this the same figure as in verses 1–9? If so, perhaps it is a reminder that we do not need to be perfectly “restored” (in the view of the text) to participate in God’s work of restoration. Or perhaps it is our own experiences of restoration and redemption that allow us to take part in God’s redeeming work.

Who is Isaiah’s servant? Christian interpreters through the ages have understood the figure as Jesus, especially through the song of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52:13–53:12, which is traditionally read on Good Friday. These Christian interpreters are cued by the Gospel writers themselves, who picked up this fourth song’s imagery of the servant’s silence in the face of suffering (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 26:63) as well as his burial with the rich (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57). But the identification of Jesus as the servant of Isaiah’s songs cannot have been the case for the author or the first readers and hearers of the text (nor is it for Jews today).

While some scholars have identified the servant as another unspecified messianic figure, others as Isaiah himself, and others as King Cyrus of Persia, the figure is understood by most scholars to represent the people of Israel collectively. In this passage especially, language in the surrounding chapters seems to indicate the servant’s collective identity: Isaiah 41:8–10, for instance, refers to “Israel, my servant; Jacob, whom I have chosen; Abraham, my beloved, you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you…’.”

Christians must always read with an awareness that we are not the ones first addressed by these words. But even so, the poem speaks powerfully across time to all of us who claim to serve God, to partner with God in establishing justice and seeking restoration.

The song ends once again on a note of God’s glory. It is the God who has called the servant who is now both declaring and bringing forth new things. God’s servant is chosen and called, and God’s servant will quietly and persistently enact justice on earth. But it is the God who created the heavens, gave breath to the earth’s people, and now makes water spring forth in the desert who has called and sustains God’s servant—indeed the God whose own liberating mission is now set in motion.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

God of light, you sent a savior into the world to bring justice and release to all who are in bondage. Shine this light upon us, and show us how to bring justice and peace to all who suffer. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.