Isaiah 42:5 - Meaning and Application

Here is the first point in the covenant God made with the Messiah, and the commission he gave him, in Isaiah 42:5-7. These verses explain Isaiah 42:1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold.”

God first speaks with his royal titles, and that shows his glory and separates him from every false god. “Thus says God the Lord” means the one who gives being and power to all things. He made the heavens and stretched them out, and he still holds that vast expanse in place (Isaiah 40:22). He also spread out the earth and made it fit for life, and all that grows from it comes by his power. He gives breath to the people on it, not only air to breathe, but life itself, along with the powers and abilities of a rational soul.

This title is placed before God’s covenant with the Messiah for an important reason. It shows that God has full authority to make such a covenant and give such a commission. It also shows that the work of redemption is meant to defend the honor of the Creator and bring people back to the obedience they owe him as their Maker.

Next, God gives the Messiah strong assurance of his presence and help in carrying out this work. God says that the Messiah did not take the honor of being mediator, that is, the one who stands between God and sinners, on his own. He was called by God in righteousness (Hebrews 5:4). God did him no wrong in calling him to this hard service, because the Messiah willingly offered himself. At the same time, God was keeping his own honor and fulfilling the word he had spoken.

God also promises to hold his hand and strengthen him in the work. He would keep him steady, prevent him from failing, and support him throughout. This promise was fulfilled when an angel came from heaven to strengthen Christ in his agony, and when the Father himself was with him. Those whom God calls, he will own and help. He will hold their hands.

The purpose of this commission brings great comfort to people. Christ was given as “a covenant of the people,” meaning he is the mediator, or guarantee, of the covenant of grace, the saving agreement God makes with his people, all summed up in him. In giving us Christ, God freely gives us all the blessings of the new covenant.

Christ brings two great blessings to the Gentile world, light and freedom. He is given as a light to the Gentiles, not only to tell them what they need to know, but to open blind eyes so they can know it. By his Spirit working through the word, he presents the truth. By his Spirit working in the heart, he prepares the mind to receive it. When the gospel came, light came, a great light, to those sitting in darkness (Matthew 4:16; John 3:19). Paul was sent to the Gentiles to open their eyes (Acts 26:18). Christ is the light of the world.

He is also sent to proclaim liberty to captives, like Cyrus did when he released prisoners. But Christ does more than open prison doors and give permission to leave, which was all Cyrus could do. Christ actually brings people out by his grace and enables them to use their freedom. Only those whose spirits God stirs up do this.

The next part is the confirming of this promise, so we may be sure it is true. First, think of the authority of the one making the promise: “I am the Lord, Jehovah, that is my name” (Isaiah 42:8). This is the name by which God made himself known when he began to carry out the promise to the patriarchs, while before that he had shown himself as God Almighty (Exodus 6:3). If he is the Lord who gives being and life to all things, then he will give being and life to this promise too. Because his name is Jehovah, the name of God alone, we can be sure he will not give his glory to another, especially not to carved images.

For that reason, he will send the Messiah to open people’s eyes and turn them from dumb idols to serve the living God. Though God has long overlooked times of ignorance, he will now uphold his own honor and will not share his glory with graven images. He will keep his word, because he will not lose the honor of being true. He will also deliver his people from idolaters, because it would look as if he had given praise to images if he left his own worshipers under their power.

Second, God points to the fulfillment of his former promises as proof that his word is true and that he cares for his people (Isaiah 42:9). “The former things have happened,” meaning God has already helped his church, supported her in former troubles, and relieved her in earlier hardships, just as he promised the fathers. Not one word has failed (1 Kings 8:56). Now he declares new things. He will make new promises that will be fulfilled just as surely as the old ones were. He will give new blessings, things not granted before.

Israel had already received many Old Testament blessings. Now God announces New Testament blessings, not mainly a fertile land and rule over neighbors, but spiritual blessings in heavenly things. He tells of these things before they appear in the preaching of the gospel, speaking of them through the shadow and pattern of former acts. The blessings God has already given should encourage us to expect more, because he keeps caring for his people, and his compassions are always new.

Then comes the song of joy and praise that should rise to God’s glory (Isaiah 42:10). “Sing to the Lord a new song,” a New Testament song. Giving Christ as a light to the Gentiles was a new and surprising thing (Isaiah 42:6). Paul speaks of it as a mystery hidden in past ages, but now revealed, that the Gentiles should share the inheritance with God’s people (Ephesians 3:5-6). Since this is the new thing God declares, the song is new in this sense: before, songs to the Lord were mostly tied to the temple in Jerusalem. David’s psalms were in the Jewish language and sung by the Jews in their own land. When they were in a foreign land, they hung up their harps and could not sing the Lord’s song (Psalm 137:2-4). Now songs of holy joy and praise will be sung all over the world.

The Gentile nations would share equally with the Jews in the blessings of the New Testament. So they would also join in New Testament praise and worship. Churches would be planted among the Gentiles, and they would sing a new song. The conversion of the Gentiles is often foretold in this way, as in Romans 15:9-11.

Here it is promised that the praises of God's grace will be sung with joy and thankfulness by people in the farthest places. That includes those who live at the ends of the earth, in countries far from Jerusalem. "From the ends of the earth we hear songs," says Isaiah 24:16. This was fulfilled when Christianity took root in our own land.

It also includes sailors and merchants, those who go down to the sea and do business in deep waters. They draw wealth from the sea and make use of all that is in it, so they should rightly praise God, because the sea and everything in it belong to him (Psalm 24:1; Psalm 95:5). The Jews did little trade by sea, so if God's praise is sung by sea travelers, it must be among the Gentiles. Sailors are also called to praise God in Psalm 107:23.

It includes the islands and their people, as in Isaiah 42:10 and again in Isaiah 42:12. They should declare his praise in the islands, the islands of the Gentiles, likely meaning the islands of Greece. It also includes the wilderness and its cities, along with the villages of Kedar, which lay east of Jerusalem, just as the islands lay west. In this way, the gospel songs would be sung from the rising of the sun to its setting.

The whole Gentile world had once been like an island cut off from God's church, and like a wilderness that had not been cultivated or made fruitful for God. But now the islands and the wilderness will praise God. This praise also comes from those who live in rocky places and on mountain tops, not only from the Gentiles, but from the poorest, the least important, and the most overlooked. Those who live in cottages as well as those in towns and villages will praise him. Even the roughest and most uncivilized people, as mountain people often are, will be changed and shaped by the gospel.

By the inhabitants of the rock, he may also mean the people of Arabia Petraea, the rocky region. Perhaps nearby nations shared in the joy of Israel when they returned from Babylon, and some joined in their praises. But that would not fully match this great prophecy. We must understand it as reaching farther, and as being fulfilled in what many other prophecies about the joy of the nations are said in the New Testament to mean, namely, the conversion of the Gentiles to faith in Christ. When they are brought into the church, they are brought to give glory to the Lord. Then they are for him a name and a praise, and they make it their business to praise him. He is glorified in them and through them.