-- Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Isaiah 42 has just set out the Servant whom God upholds, the One who opens blind eyes and brings prisoners out. The command that follows is startling, because it is aimed at people who cannot obey it — and the commentators ask who these deaf and blind people are, and why God would summon them at all.
The call opens a section where God turns from idols to the consciences of those who should have known better. One writer treats it as a direct challenge to Israel's credibility as a witness.
From verse 18 onward we have the utter shame of those who trust in these lying vanities pressed home, so as to touch the conscience of the guilty Jew... Could Israel as they are testify for Jehovah? How could they look the Gentiles in the face and rebuke their idolatries? What were they themselves, after all the favours of the true God?
The irony runs deeper than a failed mission. The very word that opened God's law to this nation was a summons to listen, and that summons became a source of pride rather than obedience.
The people, however, did not have a circumcised ear for the messages that came to them from on high. Their attention was continually claimed by Jehovah, and the great declarations He made when they became the keepers of the divine law were introduced by that significant formula which they vainly boasted in: "Hear, O Israel"... But Israel was deaf to all the revelations made... They had a separate and favoured position given to them as a nation, and so they are described as the people "who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears," because they utterly failed to use the privileges and opportunities given to them.
The next verses call this same servant "perfect," which raises an obvious problem. Commentators resolve it by distinguishing what Israel had been given from what Israel had become — and they add that the failure does not defeat God.
God had called Israel as His servant, and they should have been a messenger to the nations on His behalf. Yet they had been blind in all essential things. As to privilege they were "perfect"; as to their moral state they were blind. Still, as verse 21 indicates, God is not thereby defeated. His righteousness will be established and His law magnified and made honourable — doubtless in connection with His true Servant.
The same chapter holds two servants side by side, and the words that condemn the one describe the perfection of the other. Christ too was blind and deaf — but to everything except the will of God.
If the coming of Christ in power brings deliverance for His people, His coming in humiliation exposed their low moral condition, as set out in these closing verses. Christ is not only the servant of Jehovah; as such, He was a messenger to His people. In the perfection of His devotedness He was blind and deaf to all but Jehovah. Seeing many things and with opened ears, yet He never turned aside from the path of perfect obedience.
Commentators differ on the tone of the verse. Read with what comes before it rather than after, the words are less a rebuke than a call to watch God act on behalf of people who cannot help themselves.
As at the Red Sea, Jehovah led His people by a way they had not known and made the darkness light before them, so again the Lord will lead them by a path never walked before, into light and blessing, to the utter shame of those who have trusted in idols. Let the deaf hear and the blind see what God will do for Israel.
If the command cannot be obeyed by the deaf as they are, then something must be done to them. The chapter has already named the One appointed for that work, and the result is not merely private relief but public evidence.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is given "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon". Israel needs Him to do this for them, for they have become blind, and a people hidden in prison houses (vv. 18-22)... But brought into contact with Christ the personal Servant, their eyes will be opened, and the works of God will be publicly displayed in the nation, as they were in the one blind man of John 9 — "that the works of God might be displayed in him."
- Hear — the call goes to people described as unable to hear it; it is aimed at the conscience of a nation that could no longer face the nations it was meant to correct.
- Boasted — "Hear, O Israel" was their motto and their shame; privilege unused becomes the sharpest charge against them.
- Perfect, yet blind — perfect in position and privilege, blind in actual moral state; the gap between the two is the whole indictment.
- Blind, yet perfect — the true Servant is blind and deaf in the opposite sense, closed to everything but the will of God, and never turning aside.
- Opened — what the command asks, Christ supplies; eyes are opened by contact with Him, and the works of God are displayed in those who once could not see.
Who is blind, but my servant? and deaf, as my messenger whom I sent? Who is blind as he in whom I have trusted, and blind as Jehovah's servant,
God turns from His chosen Servant to the nation that already carried that title, and asks who could be blinder. The verse raises two problems at once: who this servant is, and how the same people can be God's dedicated one and blind.
The chapter uses the word "servant" twice, and readers have long asked whether it means the same person in verse 1 and verse 19. One writer answers the question and traces the confusion to meshullam, the Hebrew word behind "my dedicated one":
Israel, I believe. The beginning of the chapter refers, beyond a doubt, to our Lord — the latter part to the people. Verse 19 was wrongly applied to Christ for two reasons. People assumed that "my servant" must mean the same person in both passages, and they thought that meshullam means someone who is morally perfect. On the first point, the context leaves no doubt that Israel is meant, in contrast with the idol-worshipping nations — Israel called out to be the witness of the true God. The word meshullam applies to that place of favour and responsibility, as God's friend in the world (though, sadly, unfaithful in it, "deaf" and "blind"). It does not mean the absence of sin.
Commentators differ. Another writer applies the same words to the Lord Himself, who acted as if blind and deaf to the sins of those He came to save:
Who is as "blind" and "deaf" as the Lord was on that occasion in John 8? There He took His place in the service of God's grace to sinners, not counting their trespasses against them. (See Isa. 42:19; 2 Cor. 5:19)
ESV calls this servant "my dedicated one." The writers quoted here use the older rendering, "perfect." The word describes Israel's position, not their character:
Israel had been called as God's servant and should have been a messenger to the nations on His behalf, yet they had been blind about everything that mattered. In privilege they were "perfect"; in their moral state they were blind.
Israel's job was to testify against the idols of the nations. Verse 19 asks how a blind witness could ever do that:
Could Israel, as they are, be a witness for Jehovah? How could they look the nations in the face and rebuke their idol worship? What were they themselves, after all the kindness of the true God?… Their perfection lay in privilege, and so in solemn responsibility — but their failure was terrible.
Their deafness was worse because God kept speaking. The words they repeated as their badge of honour were a call to listen:
Jehovah kept calling for their attention. When they received the divine law, His great declarations to them opened with the very words they proudly repeated, though their boast was empty: "Hear, O Israel"… God gave them a separate and favoured position as a nation. Yet Isaiah calls them the people "who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears" (Isa. 43:8), because they completely failed to use the privileges and opportunities He gave them.
The verses that follow describe a people robbed and spoiled. Their ruin was not bad luck. It was God's own act, and it is not His last word:
When the glory of Jehovah appears, He who had kept silent for a long time will deliver His blind and deaf people Israel, who had not understood His ways. He will magnify His law. But why then are the people robbed and spoiled? Jehovah had given them up because of their disobedience.
God does not write off the failed servant. Israel's blindness has a cure:
They had sinned against the Lord and turned to idols. So as the Lord's national servant and messenger, Israel was useless (v. 19). But once they are brought into contact with Christ the personal Servant, their eyes will be opened. God will then display His works openly in the nation, as He did in the one blind man of John 9… Israel's eyes will be opened, and they will know the Lord and believe. So they will be His fitted witnesses (Isa. 43:10).
- Two servants. The chapter opens with Christ, God's chosen Servant. Verse 19 turns to Israel, the servant nation — though some writers apply these words to Christ too.
- Dedicated, not sinless. The word behind "my dedicated one" points to Israel's place of privilege, not to freedom from sin. God calls the same nation blind in the same breath.
- Privilege raises the stakes. God kept speaking to them. They boasted in the words "Hear, O Israel" and never listened.
- Failure costs. A blind witness cannot rebuke the idols of the nations. God gave His messenger nation up for its disobedience and left it robbed and spoiled.
- Sight restored. The Servant of verse 1 heals the blind servant of verse 19. Contact with Christ opens Israel's eyes and makes the nation the witness it was called to be.
-- seeing many things, and thou observest not? With opened ears, he heareth not.
God calls Israel His servant and His messenger. Then He charges that same servant with a blindness worse than that of the idol-worshippers around them. The eyes and ears work. What is missing is any effect on the heart. So who is this servant, and why was privilege not enough?
The chapter opens with the Messiah, so readers ask whether verse 19 still speaks of Him. One writer traces the confusion to two wrong assumptions:
The beginning of the chapter refers, beyond a doubt, to our Lord — the latter part to the people. The wrong application of verse 19 to Christ arose out of two things. First, the assumption that "my servant" must refer to the same person in both passages. Second, the notion that the word means one who is morally perfect. As to the first, the context leaves no doubt that Israel is meant, in contrast with the heathen idolaters. Israel was called out to be the witness of the true God. The word meshullem applies to this position of favour and responsibility, as God's friend in the world — not to the absence of sin. Sadly, Israel was unfaithful in that place, "deaf" and "blind".
Commentators differ. Another writer reads the same verses of Christ and finds devotion, not failure:
In the perfection of His devotedness He was blind and deaf to all but Jehovah. Seeing many things and with opened ears, yet He never swerved from the path of perfect obedience.
Applied to Israel, the verse sets the nation's privilege against its condition. That failure does not defeat God's purpose:
Israel had been called as God's servant and should have been a messenger to the nations on His behalf, yet they had been blind in all essential things. As to privilege they were "perfect"; as to their moral state they were blind. Still, as verse 21 shows, God is not defeated by this. He will establish His righteousness, and He will magnify His law and make it honourable — doubtless in connection with His true Servant.
God's great declarations to Israel opened with a call to listen, and they took pride in it. That makes the charge of a closed ear sharper:
The people had no open ear for the messages that came to them from on high. Jehovah kept claiming their attention. When they became the keepers of the divine law, His great declarations opened with the formula they made their empty boast: "Hear, O Israel." But Israel was deaf to all the revelations made… God gave them a separate and favoured position as a nation, and so Scripture calls them the "people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears," since they made no use of the privileges and opportunities given to them.
So Israel lost all standing to speak against the very idolatry God set them apart to expose:
Could Israel, as they are, testify for Jehovah? How could they look the Gentiles in the face and reprove their idolatries? What were they themselves after all the favours of the true God?
Earlier in the same chapter God promises someone who will open blind eyes. The blindness described in verse 20 is what that promise is for:
Our Lord Jesus Christ is given "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon." Israel needs Him to do this, for they have become blind, a people hidden in prison houses. They had sinned against the Lord and become idolatrous, so Israel as the Lord's national servant and messenger was useless. But bring them into contact with Christ the personal Servant, and their eyes will be opened… They shall know the Lord and believe, and so they shall be His fitted witnesses against idolatry, and of the one true God.
Seeing much and taking in nothing is not only Israel's danger. It happens whenever we store knowledge and never obey it:
It is a most dangerous thing to deal in truth you do not feel. It brings on a heartless indifference, a light spirit and a numb conscience, and that is appalling to people of serious piety… Far better to know a little in reality and power than to profess a mass of truth that lies powerless in the mind and shapes nothing in the life.
- Servant. The blind one here is the nation, called to be God's witness against idolatry — not the Messiah of the chapter's opening. Commentators differ: some read verses 19–21 of Christ's whole-hearted devotion.
- Perfect. "Perfect" marks a place of favour and responsibility, not moral purity. Israel was perfect in privilege and blind in condition.
- Deaf. Israel boasted in the call "Hear, O Israel" and never opened the ear. They held the privileges and used none of them.
- Useless. A witness who sees nothing can correct no one. Israel could not face the nations over the idols they served themselves.
- Opened. Christ, given to open blind eyes, will yet open theirs. Until then the warning stands: truth that never touches the conscience is dangerous.