Isaiah #14 - The Servant

Isaiah 42:1-13 (NIV)

Read by: Eric Peterson

Have you ever felt like maybe God wasn’t strong enough to keep something bad from happening? Or maybe he just didn’t care? Often when we experience difficulties, we don’t know what to think about God’s role in the events of history… or our lives. The Israelites who came out of Babylon were feeling this way about God too. They thought maybe he wasn’t as powerful as the Babylonian gods, or maybe he wasn’t committed to them like he had promised to be. The writer of the next several chapters is responding to the people’s doubts on God’s behalf. As hard as it is for us to understand, the LORD showed his covenant faithfulness to them both through their exile and in their return home.

Personally, we have often encountered teaching in the church that tries to make sense of stories like this by either justifying all suffering as God’s discipline or by ignoring passages about God’s divine judgment, imagining them as simply the archaic thoughts of ancient people. But if you read enough of the Bible, you’ll realize that it’s simply not our place to say when God is bringing discipline in someone’s life or when the brokenness of the world is just doing what it does. The world is a mess, but God has from the beginning been searching for humans who will share his name, who will work with him to cultivate creation and bring Shalom—the kind of people he can truly partner with. And today’s passage, while it calls Israel to once again take up this mantle, it also foreshadows another partner... one who will open the eyes of the blind, release the captives, and finally establish justice on earth… one simply called the Servant.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What words or phrases stood out to you in the passage?

2. What characteristics of God the Creator and of the Servant brought you hope?

3. The last several verses are an appeal to Israel to see and receive the LORD’s mercy, to rejoice in their return from exile and see that it was His doing. What seasons of difficulty, pain or despair have you come through in your life? Or maybe you’re in a season like that right now? We invite you to share your honest thoughts with the LORD right now—whether in gratitude, relief and praise, or in lament, longing and grief.

----------GO DEEPER----------

Bible Project: Isaiah 40-66 >>

Bible Project Blog: Isaiah and the Suffering Servant King >>

InterVarsity Press Selections: Isaiah >>

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