Originally I had planned to write two Lessons on each chapter of Isaiah. But now that we’ve arrived in the “Sweetest” Portion of the Book (chapters 40-66 … so much of which depicts Jesus and Grace and Salvation, real “Comfort”) that my little plan may no longer apply!

As we learned in yesterday’s “Class,” Isaiah is here in chapter 42 foretelling the Coming of Jesus, the Messiah!

One “in Whom God is well-pleased!” In our beautiful King James Bible … God, taking about Jesus … “Behold, My Servant (Jesus) in Whom My Soul delighteth!” Isaiah 42:1 (The equivalent of God calling David “a man after Mine Own Heart!”)

One (Jesus) Who will not even “break a bruised reed.” (Verse 3) How tender! (A little hollow plant growing down by the riverside! Already trampled by some careless traveler … our Lord would try to salvage it! He certainly would not step on it again!)

And Jesus would not “quench a smoking flax” either! (Still verse 3.) Just a little “wick” on a candle, on a lamp to illuminate some corner of a poor man’s home! Already smoldering, nearly going out … Jesus would try to nurse it back to life, to usefulness!)

Yes, He is the Saviour!

Am I writing to any broken reeds out there? Or smoking flaxes? That is, UNTIL Jesus found you and restored you and saved you?

Last night I preached in a Camp Meeting in western North Carolina. My Text was Galatians 6:1. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ….”

Is that not exactly what Jesus does with those “bruised reeds” and “smoking flaxes?” He “restores” them! He “restores” us! (I wish I’d thought of this Verse last night!)

One writer, a Bible teacher, observed that the broken reed had been injured internally, crushed deeply! But that the smoking flax (wick) had been starved externally (no oil to fuel its flame)! Damage/deprivation inside or outside … Jesus can “fix” it!

No wonder our Lord characterized Himself … “meek and lowly,” and the “Giver of rest!” (Matthew 11:28 … “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”)

Wow!

What a precious Savour!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I have to confess! This dual word picture (“bruised reeds” and “smoking flaxes” are one of my favorites from Isaiah. Some time back I read a Sermon by F. W. Boreham on this Text. He said that the “bruised reed” (good for few things now that it has been so damaged) could easily have been fashioned into a primitive flute, a little musical instrument! One that would have made melody to its “deliverer!”

Hallelujah!

Sing to Him today!

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That big word means “the relationship between two passages, used usually of written literature.”

And Isaiah 42:1-4 gives a prime example. Our four-verse Text for today. Read it with me: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”

The first question any of us would ask is “Who is this?”

And the answer is … JESUS!

And how can we be so sure of this?

The New Testament clearly identifies our Lord with Isaiah’s beautiful Prophecy here.

Matthew 12:17-21 …“That it might be fulfilled (in Jesus) which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.”

Matthew particularly loves to either quote or allude to the Old Testament, applying specific Texts to our Lord! Matthew, who writes to the Jewish people!

So today we see dual Testimony that Jesus is …

God’s Darling Son!

Spirit-filled!

Meek!

Loving!

Gentle!

And, best of all, Saviour!

This is amazing!

And Isaiah is just getting started with his well-known “Servant” Texts!

There are more to come!

Jesus depicted, 700 years before His Virgin Birth in Bethlehem!

It’s a Miracle!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The chapter ends with a “challenge” to the false gods of Isaiah’s day. Irony, sarcasm, from Almighty God, the Only True God!

Read with me God’s “invitation” to these (dead) man-made idols: “Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them(the false idols, gods) bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.” Isaiah 41:21-23

Can an idol foretell the future? Our God can!

Can an idol interpret the past? Our God can!

You false gods/goddesses … DO SOMETHING … either good or evil! Show us your hands! Create something! Destroy something!

Yet they remain dormant!

While our God is active, still on the Throne … doing things every day!

Then the Lord gets even bolder! Here is His Verdict on those idols … “Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.” Wow, verse 24.

Paul repeats this truth in 1 Corinthians 8:4 … “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.”

Note how God calls (verse 24) idol worshippers “abominable!” Something disgusting, sickening!

Then our chapter ends with God giving an illustration of His Ability (His Omnipotence and Omniscience) to control worldly events. To guide His creation. “I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.” (Verse 25) Speaking of King Cyrus who ultimately defeated the Babylonians and set Israel free. He stomped the Babylonians, in fact! (Prophesied many years in advance, by the way.)

God outperforming the idols!

Foretelling the future!

Arranging (what is now called) world history! And interpreting it properly!

(The very things aforesaid that idols cannot do!)

The Living God, our God!

And the chapter’s last verse … “Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.” Verse 29, back to the worthless idols, mere chunks of (eventually rotting) wood or tainted silver or inferior gold.

Wow!

Our God is (rightly so) a Jealous God indeed!

Beside Him, there is none other!

“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Exodus 34:15

I adore Him, don’t you?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Our Text today …

“8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. 10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. 13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. 14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 41:8-14

I have prayerfully chosen these verses because they so clearly illustrate God’s Idea of “comfort!”

Do remember the opening verse of Isiah’s last Section, of chapters 40-66. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” Isaiah 40:1

Watch God (the Great Comforter) at work!

He begins by calling Israel some “special” names! Depicting what the little Nation means to Him, to Almighty God.

“My servant!” (Several times in this vast Prophecy Israel is declared to be God’s “servant.” Then at other times “Jesus the coming Messiah” is God’s Isaianic Servant!)

Then Israel is called God’s “Chosen!” His chosen people, his chosen nation, all those Jews were. Chosen as a group, anyone born of a Jewish womb. (This is not God choosing one man to go to Heaven and another to go to Hell. Just like the “Church” is chosen to be God’s Bride, with admittance to the Bride being based on “whosoever will” … so “Israel” is chosen “en masse,” a corporate calling.)

Next Israel is designated the “seed” of Abraham, placing the little nation under the “umbrella of blessing” promised in Genesis 12:1-3.

And just maybe God is too calling Israel his “friend!” (Though grammatically “friend” could be describing Abraham, rather than the whole nation. But just perhaps the “friend of God” named Abraham has taught his children right … they thereby becoming God’s “friends” as well.)

Wow, these “terms of endearment,” very comforting! (God calls us a lot of sweet names in the New Testament, too, my dear saved brothers and sisters.)

Then next, God uses three “Fear not” sayings in this short Passage. I am sure you noticed them as you read the Unit, the Text for today.

One … “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10, “I can’t even walk without holding His hand!”

Two … (when an enemy comes, or trouble of any kind) “For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Isaiah 41:13

Three … “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 41:14, lots of modern commentators have “trouble” with God calling Israel a “worm!” (But the word is “tola” … the little worm, when crushed, makes deep red “dye” to indelibly color the High Priest’s garments! A picture/symbol of the Blood of Jesus and the Cross of Calvary I suspect!)

Wow!

Jesus also … from the Cross, quoting Psalm 22 … calls Himself a “worm” as well. At least many of us believe Jesus meditated through Psalm 22 as He died that day. “But I am a worm (tola), and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” Verse 6 of that 22nd Psalm.

God the Comforter … pretty good at it, isn’t He?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Hallelujah!

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Isaiah the Prophet has already forecast the coming Babylonian Captivity. Way back during the reign of King Hezekiah … Isaiah 39:5-7. (I hope you remember! We studied this last week.) “Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to BABYLON: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of BABYLON.” This was spoken over a hundred years before the events transpired!

Now in today’s Text (Isaiah 41:1-7) God foretells the coming of a King who will overthrow Babylon! So we are now pushing two hundred years … history being foretold that far in advance! This King’s name is Cyrus, who is not specifically mentioned until later in Isaiah.

In verse 1 God “challenges” the nations/islands of the earth. The words are framed in legal terms, like a “lawsuit!” GOD IS IN CONTROL OF HIS WHOLE WORLD, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND POLITICALLY! “Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.”

God Almighty next “calls” Cyrus (a heathen king, mind you) to his task. Places him in position to eventually topple Babylon! “Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely.” Isaiah 41:2-3, “righteous” in the sense of being used by God. A “war machine” indeed.

Then comes verse 4, one of several in Isaiah where God calls Himself by a specific Term/Title. “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” Wow!

Did you “get” that?

God is “I AM!”

God is “the FIRST and the LAST!”

He is, indeed!

This coming King ((Cyrus) is so powerful the earth panics! “The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.” Verse 5 of our Text!

So what do they do, in self-defense?

They foolishly build more idols! To protect them from any Persian (King Cyrus’ Land) aggression!

“They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.” Isaiah 41:6-7

Literally, they are constructing their own gods and goddesses! Carpenters and goldsmiths! Hammering and sodering!

The “import” of today’s Lesson is (once again) the unparalleled, unexceeded Power of our great God!

This is Psalm 75:6-7 in action … “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But GOD is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”

And why the Persians? Why Cyrus? Why this specific time?

They toppled Babylon so that the Jews could go “home” (from captivity there) 70 years after they were enslaved and deported!

God’s “Machine” always operates right on time.

Oh yes, He is sovereign! He is King! He is Lord!

And (by the way) He is STILL in control today!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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