Here Is My Servant (Matthew 12:15-21)
“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established justice on the earth. In His law the coastlands will put their hope.”
This is what God the LORD says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it: “I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.
I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols. Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”
A New Song of Praise (Psalm 98:1-9; Psalm 149:1-9)
Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who dwell in them. Let the desert and its cities raise their voices; let the villages of Kedar cry aloud. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the LORD and declare His praise in the islands.
The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars. He prevails against His enemies. I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes. I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them. But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame.
Israel Is Deaf and Blind
“Listen, you deaf ones; look, you blind ones, that you may see! Who is blind but My servant, or deaf like the messenger I am sending? Who is blind like My covenant partner, or blind like the servant of the LORD? Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch. Though your ears are open, you do not hear.” The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness, to magnify His law and make it glorious.
But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!” Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter? Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? They were unwilling to walk in His ways, and they would not obey His law. So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.”
Isaiah 42 gives us one of the many clear pictures of the Messiah. God says that He delights in the Messiah, that He will put His Holy Spirit on the Messiah, and that Messiah will bring forth justice and hope. Although powerful, the Messiah will be so gentle that he will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick that barely has any fire left in it.
“I, the LORD, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.” Messiah is sent to be a light to the nations, to bring people out of the darkness and prison of sin. Ancient prisons were dark dungeons into which people were thrown; there was little if any light.
“The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars. He prevails against His enemies.” God will not tolerate sin and evil forever. At some point, God will break forth to make all things right. God will deliver those who trust in Him, but those who trust in idols will be “turned back in utter shame” because they have trusted the wrong sources of power. This is both a promise and a warning. By Isaiah’s time, there were many in Jerusalem and Judah who were mingling idolatry with ritual observances in the temple, hedging their bets spiritually. God knew who those people were and was warning them.
Why does God refer to His covenant partner as blind and deaf? Messiah will not be swayed by the things He sees or the things people say, but Messiah will discern the truth. But those in Israel who are following idols are both blind and deaf; even when God sends prophets to warn them, they refuse to see or listen.
APPLICATION: At one time or other, most of us have felt like bruised reeds or smoldering wicks, nearly ready to give up. As the chorus goes from Fiddler on the Roof, “Life has a way of abusing us, blessing and bruising us.” This chapter encourages us that even when we are at our weakest, Jesus the Messiah will still be gentle with us. The question is, how gentle are we with others?
There is a story about two junior high school boys who were walking home from school. Neither of them knew the other very well. The first boy realized that the second boy was carrying an enormous load of books and assumed that he must have been given a ton of homework. For some reason, the first boy felt led to invite the second boy to come home with him and play video games and eat supper with his family. The boys went home together, called the second boy’s parents for approval, and then had an enjoyable evening together. After that, the two boys became friends. Eventually, both boys were graduating from high school, and that’s when the second boy revealed something shocking. The reason this poor kid was carrying all those books that day had nothing to do with homework. This boy felt so lonely and unloved that he had cleaned out his school locker; he was planning to go home and commit suicide. But when the first boy invited him for video games and supper, it gave him hope, and he abandoned the idea of doing away with himself. It was the kindness of the first boy and his family that saved the second boy’s life.
There’s a saying in the American South that “Everybody is trying to swallow something he can’t get down;” in other words, everybody has hidden struggles. That high school cheer leader who is also the prom queen may have parents who don’t really love her but only love her achievements – no achievements, no love. That highly successful public figure may have a son or daughter who struggles with drug addiction or a wife slowly descending into early Alzheimer’s.
Be gentle! You never know how many people who look all right are actually bruised reeds or smoking wicks, nearly at the point of extinction. When I was in pediatric surgery training, we attended a church where one lady hugged me every Sunday and asked me how things were going. At that point, things were really very difficult. I was doing the work of two residents because the man who should have been one year ahead of me dropped out of the program. As the first female in that program, I faced a number of problems. By the time Sunday came, I was so stressed that hugging me must have been a lot like hugging a log; yet, every Sunday this precious lady continued to hug me and inquire about my well – being. Those hugs softened my spirit and gave me hope for the next week.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came into the world to show us his Heavenly Father, to make disciples, and then to die a shameful death for the sins of the whole world. Jesus was no wimp! Just ask the money changers who felt the sting of Jesus’ whip as he drove them out of the temple. But this same Jesus also sat for hours with a Samaritan prostitute by a well in the middle of the day, teaching her the things of God. This same Jesus raised a widow’s only son from the dead, opened blind eyes, cured lepers, and healed a lame man on the Sabbath. Each one of those people Jesus healed was a bruised reed, nearly ready to give up.
Are you a bruised reed or a smoldering wick? Have you lost all hope? Come to Jesus! Let’s pray.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, many of us are exhausted and weary! We have no hope of anything getting better and we even wonder why we continue to try to go on with our lives. Lord, You know our names, our trials, our failures, our fears. Please enter every trembling heart, soothe the hurts, heal the pains, and give new hope. We give You permission to change us. In Your mighty and precious Name, Jesus. Amen.
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