I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isaiah 42 has just introduced God's chosen Servant, the One who will not break a bruised reed and who comes as a light for the nations. Now the Speaker says who He Himself is: the Name is His alone, and He hands the glory and praise that go with it to no one else.
(Note: some quotes below use older Bible wording. Where the ESV prints "the LORD," they print "Jehovah" — and the point being made depends on it.)
God speaks these words to a nation that had turned to idols.
God will do all this through His lowly Servant. In that light, Jehovah appeals to the nation about their idolatry. He reminds them that their God is Jehovah, the eternal I AM. He will not give His name and His glory to another. He will not let idols take the praise that is due to Him. He alone can bring about what He foretold long ago. He alone can announce what is coming before it appears.
Read on from verse 5, and the same voice that made the heavens is the voice that appoints the Servant. William Kelly notes what holds the passage together:
This leads Jehovah to speak in magnificent terms of what He will accomplish through His own name and glory, in contrast with graven images.
If the divine Name is non-transferable, then every place where Scripture applies that Name to the Son settles the question of who the Son is.
Scripture addresses the Son directly as God and as Jehovah (Heb. 1:8-12). This teaches that His Sonship is eternal. Prophecy gives these names to the Son in His kingdom (Ps. 45), and in His suffering and humiliation (Ps. 102). Their use of Him in those settings proves that the names are His by inherent right. He did not gain them when He became man. If the Son had any right at all to the name God and the name Jehovah, He had that right from all eternity. The divine Name is not transferable: "I am Jehovah, that is My Name; and My glory will I not give to another."
The second half of the verse refuses praise to carved images. One writer sets that refusal against the one true likeness God has given.
God will not give His glory to another; He is jealous over it. But that only underlines that the Son is one with the Father. All images that man might make can only provoke jealousy. But here is "the image of the invisible God." He is jealous for His Son, "that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father."
A rival to God's glory need not be carved from wood or gold. The test is what holds first place.
Everything which takes precedence of the Person of Christ is an idol. Take even the church of God, dear as it is. If its blessedness, if the "one body and one Spirit," becomes a slogan and takes even a little of that supreme place in our heart which belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ, then the church becomes an idol. Or take an evangelist who thinks and aims more at popularity, preaching himself and not the Lord. His preaching is blessed work, and God's means for the saving of souls. Even so, that too becomes an idol.
The reason lies in what God is.
It is impossible for God to give His glory to another. If He did, He would stop being God. He cannot hand over His place to you; He cannot give you the credit that belongs to Himself alone.
Keeping the glory does not make God stingy. It shapes the way He gives.
God does not give His glory to another. But when He gives, He gives in such a way that it all goes back to Him, in the perfect enjoyment of Himself, to His own praise. God is steady, unmovable in His purposes of mercy. He will give blessing. And He gives it in a way that lays the blessing on the heart, so that the heart enjoys it and gives it back to God in praise.
This word still governs how God works today.
"My glory will I not give to another" is always God's word. These are days of the church's unfaithfulness and the confusion that follows. Even so, we may depend on it: God will do His work in a way that displays His glory and makes nothing of man.
- The Name — "I am the LORD" is the eternal I AM speaking; the glory is inseparable from who He is.
- The Name shared — that Name cannot be passed to anyone. So when Scripture calls the Son Jehovah, the title is His by right, not given later.
- The Name rivalled — an idol is anything that takes the first place, which belongs to Christ. Even church work and preaching can do it.
- The Name defended — God cannot hand His glory over without ceasing to be God, so He works in a way that makes nothing of man.
- The Name enjoyed — He keeps the glory, but He keeps back no blessing. He lays each gift on the heart, so that it returns to Him as praise.
Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare before they spring forth will I cause you to hear them.
Isaiah 42 opens with God introducing His chosen Servant. Verse 9 turns to God's own record of fulfilled words, and raises two questions: what are the "new things," and why does He tell them in advance?
Verse 9 closes a paragraph addressed to the One introduced at the start of the chapter, and the "new things" belong to His work.
Now that our attention is on this true Servant, verses 5-9 give us words spoken to Him in prophecy. Verse 5 stresses God's acts in creation: the heavens, the earth, and mankind are all the work of His hands. This mighty Creator has called His true Servant in righteousness and established Him as a covenant to the people and a light to the nations. In verse 9 Jehovah declares new things, so we may see that He predicts the new covenant here, though not as fully as in Jeremiah 31.
Verse 8 says God will not hand His glory to idols. Verse 9 gives the reason why.
In the light of all that God will do through His lowly Servant, Jehovah appeals to the nation about their idolatry. He reminds them that their God is Jehovah, the eternal I AM. He will not give His name and His glory to another, nor let idols take the praise that belongs to Him. He alone can bring to pass things already foretold, and declare the things to come before they spring forth.
God's knowledge of what has not yet happened is not like ours.
Who knows the future but God! With us there is a yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but with God the most distant future is as vivid and well known as the present. He is the great I AM (Ex. 3:14), "who calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Rom. 4:17).
The ability is not a trick performed to win an argument. It belongs to God's nature, and what He foretells has a centre.
He does what He does because He is what He is, and in doing it He shows who He is. He tells and foretells because He knows and foreknows... He opens up the future both for blessing and for judgment, all hanging upon Himself as the divine Centre of the whole moral arena.
So who brings these new things in? The answer stands at the head of the chapter.
Isaiah 42 opens by introducing Christ as the true Servant of the Lord. He will not fail or be discouraged until He accomplishes God's will on earth. He is the One who will bring in and establish the new things that verse 9 speaks of.
In Isaiah, these new things have one setting in view.
As far as Isaiah goes, the new things predicted have to do with blessings on the earth. The new song they call out is from both land and sea, from the far distant isles and from the wilderness and the top of the mountains. For heavenly blessing we have to go on to the New Testament.
Later in Isaiah the same declaration comes up again, and its full scope appears.
As far back as Isaiah 42, we had Jehovah's declaration, "new things I now declare" (verse 9), and now we discover the wide scope of it. There is to be a complete sweeping away of the old order and the creation of new heavens as well as a new earth. The verses that follow show that this speaks of the millennial age, not the eternal state, which Revelation 21:1 announces.
The verse leaves no room for human effort to produce the promised age. It is announced by God and carried out by One person.
The Lord Jesus Christ will bring this golden age to pass, and by His work alone. Let us fix that in our minds, so that we do not meddle with present schemes to bring such an age in, whether political or otherwise. It will only come when He comes again. He came first as the Servant to suffer. He will come again as Jehovah's mighty Arm, bringing salvation for the earth by solemn judgments.
- Former — What God said before has already happened. He alone brings foretold things to pass.
- New — God speaks the new things to the Servant of verses 5-9. One commentator sees the new covenant predicted here, stated more fully in Jeremiah 31.
- Declared — No idol can tell the future before it springs forth. God alone can, and that sets Him apart.
- Wide — In Isaiah the new things reach from blessing on the earth to new heavens and a new earth. For heavenly blessing, go on to the New Testament.
- His — The new things come through Christ alone. The response they call out is a new song, not a human scheme.
Sing unto Jehovah a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles and their inhabitants.
Isaiah 42 has just introduced the Servant whom God upholds. God has announced that new things are coming. The call to sing follows, and it reaches far past Israel: who are these singers, why is the song new, and what draws it out?
The command to sing does not stand alone. It answers what God has just announced.
These new things will move those who enter into them to "Sing to the LORD a new song." The thought of how the Lord will show His glory, and how His praise will be sung, fills verses 10-12.
This same Servant first appeared in quiet lowliness. One writer marks where that stage closes.
Here it is the Servant, the One Jehovah delights in and has chosen... Yet He, whose glory was so far beyond all rivalry, first showed it in perfect lowliness that drew no attention to itself... Here that state of things is brought to an end by the victory of His second coming. Then He will set judgement in the earth, and the isles will wait for His law.
Verses 10-12 sweep from sea to desert, and from cities to mountain peaks. The call leaves no one out.
In view of the blessing that the lowly Servant of Jehovah will secure, the call goes out to all the ends of the earth to praise Jehovah – to "sing to the LORD a new song". It is a foretaste of the day when praise will rise to the glory of the LORD from sea and land, wilderness and city, plain and mountain.
But Isaiah keeps that reach earthbound.
As far as Isaiah is concerned, the new things predicted have to do with blessings on the earth. For heavenly blessing we have to go on to the New Testament.
The word translated "coastlands" or "isles" is broader than it looks.
There are no islands near to Palestine. Cyprus is the nearest, and that is about seventy miles from the nearest point of Syria, far north. So the term 'the isles' sometimes stands loosely for places or nations far off.
Verse 4 had already said the coastlands wait for His law. One writer traces how that same promise is picked up in the New Testament.
The result of judgment on the Gentiles is a new song to the Lord and His praise from the end of the earth (v. 10). Matthew gives the isles waiting for His law in verse 4 as "In his name shall the Gentiles trust." The prophet points more definitely to the millennial blessing of the nations. The Spirit uses the words for the principle on which the nations will be blessed — and are blessed now, before that day.
The word "new" points back to an older song.
The old song was sung by the morning stars over the foundations of the earth. It was not a conqueror's song. It did not celebrate a divine victory to redeem or avenge God's chosen. There was no theme of victory then, for no battle had been fought and won. But sin has entered since then... so at the end a new song must be awakened, a song with a new theme, to celebrate Him in this new action, this new character of glory... The song of Moses was a conqueror's song, and so is the song of the Lamb... The song over creation must give place, in range and melody, to the song over the triumphs of Jesus.
The phrase itself is rare in the Old Testament.
We have met with the new song in earlier Psalms (Ps. 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9); and, apart from Isa. 42:10, this term in the Old Testament appears only in the Psalms, and that for Israel. At the Red Sea they had sung a song on the morning of their redemption from the Egyptians (Ex. 15). Now, finally delivered from all opposing powers, they are to sing a new song in praise to their God.
The verses right after the call turn stark.
The judgment of the nations will bring in this time of universal praise. Earlier in the chapter this One was presented in grace as the lowly Man. Now He is seen in judgment as "a Man of war" prevailing against His enemies. For a long time God has borne with idolatrous nations, but at last judgment will fall and their lands will be laid waste.
- New Servant. The song has a cause: the lowly Servant of the chapter's opening, who will set judgement in the earth.
- New things. The new things God declares move those who enter into them to sing.
- New song. Creation's song had no victory to report. This one celebrates a battle fought and won.
- New reach. Sea, land, wilderness, city and mountain top: "isles" stretches the call to nations far off.
- New day. Praise arrives through judgment. The lowly Man is seen as the Man of war, and then earth sings.
Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up [their voice], the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains
Isaiah 42:11 belongs to a call to sing (verses 10–12), which comes right after God presents His lowly Servant. Why does He call on the least likely singers on earth — desert, nomad camps, a rock fortress, bare mountaintops?
The call to sing is not stray poetry. It is the answer God expects to what His Servant will do.
In view of the blessing that the lowly Servant of the LORD will secure, all the ends of the earth are called to praise the LORD — to "sing to the LORD a new song". It is a foretaste of the day when from sea and land, wilderness and city, plain and mountain, praise shall ascend to the glory of the LORD.
The verse pairs the same opposites: desert with cities, tent villages with mountain heights.
Kedar is a name, not a poetic word for emptiness.
Son of Ishmael, and founder of an important tribe living in the north-west of Arabia, though the name is probably also used for Arabs generally. Gen. 25:13; 1 Chr. 1:29. The Psalmist longed for peace, because he had been living in the tents of Kedar, among those who "hated peace." Ps. 120:5-6. The references to lambs, rams, goats, flocks, camels, tents, and tent-curtains show that a nomadic people are meant, though their "villages" are also mentioned. Judgments were pronounced against them. Isa. 21:16-17; Jer. 49:28.
So the "villages that Kedar inhabits" are the camps of a wandering, herding people. The prophets had already sentenced them to ruin. One writer draws out the point behind that warning:
Man fails, great or small; the LORD abides and will reign over this earth and all the races of mankind.
The second place named is a real city, carved into rock.
The rock city of Edom. 2 Kings 14:7; Isa. 16:1. The same Hebrew word is the one usually translated "rock." Amaziah took the place and called it JOKTHEEL. It is judged to be the same as PETRA. Petra is a remarkable place. Though about two thousand feet above the sea, mountain cliffs shut it in, and a narrow ravine leads into it.
Some translations read "the inhabitants of the rock" here, where the ESV names the city. Isaiah calls this hidden stronghold to sing out loud.
The verses right after the song show how this worldwide praise comes about.
This time of universal praise will be reached through the judgment of the nations. At the beginning of the chapter He appeared in grace as the lowly Man. Now He is seen in judgment as "a Man of war" prevailing against His enemies. For a "long time" God has borne with idolatrous nations, but at last He will execute judgment and lay their lands waste.
The verse gives a command, not a description. Commentators say its answer is still to come:
And the nations, we know, will take their place in this coming order of glory. They will turn their swords into ploughshares; and instead of learning war, they will learn the ways of the Lord, and walk in His paths. At the appointed time they will each come with an offering to the King in Zion... Then songs to the Righteous One will be heard from the farthest parts of the earth. And then the willing hearts of all the people will answer the prophet's call.
Does a singing wilderness point to a real change on earth, or only to a figure of speech? One commentator presses for a definite meaning:
It is not mere fertility, but the restoration of all things when that day comes on earth: every joy, fruitfulness, and beauty... The question is, what is its definite meaning?
- Servant first. The new song of verses 10–12 answers what the lowly Servant secures. Praise follows His work; it never comes first.
- Then judgment. The One shown in grace at the start of the chapter goes out as a Man of war. Judgment on idolatrous nations opens the way to worldwide praise.
- Then the outsiders. Isaiah names two singers: the tent camps of Kedar in Arabia, once under judgment, and Sela, the rock fortress of Edom.
- Then the whole earth. Desert and city, plain and mountaintop, sea and land — every place gets a voice.
- A command still waiting. No one has answered the prophet's call yet. Commentators look for the day when willing hearts across the nations obey it, and they read the singing wilderness as a real restoration on earth.
let them give glory unto Jehovah, and declare his praise in the islands.
Isaiah 42 opens with God's chosen Servant. By verse 12 the prophet stops describing Him and calls the whole earth to answer Him. Two questions follow: who sings, and what has God done to make the song possible?
Commentators tie the call to sing to the Servant of the chapter's opening verses and the blessing He will secure.
Because of the blessing that the lowly Servant of Jehovah will secure, God calls all the ends of the earth to praise Jehovah — to "sing to the LORD a new song." It gives a taste in advance of the day when praise will rise to the glory of the LORD from sea and land, from wilderness and city, from plain and mountain.
Who is that Servant? Another writer names Him.
The servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus, is also announced. Through Him God will carry out all He has in mind for Israel and the Gentiles, and so praise and joy are called for.
The glory goes to the LORD, and to no one else. A few verses earlier God drew that line Himself.
God reminds the nation that their God is Jehovah, the eternal I AM. He will not give His name and His glory to another. He will not allow the praise that belongs to Him to be given to idols. He alone can bring about what He has already foretold, and can announce things to come before they appear.
That rule did not expire. One writer applies it to the church's own day:
"My glory I give to no other" (Isa. 42:8) is always God's word. We can count on this: in these days, the days of the church's unfaithfulness and the confusion that follows it, God will do His work in a way that shows His glory and makes nothing of man.
The verse ends at the coastlands, or islands — the far edges of the map. One writer asks who they are, and finds them singled out again and again in Isaiah.
But who are the "isles"? Surely not only those inside the Mediterranean Sea. Whoever they are, God favours them, and marks them out in a remarkable way… "the coastlands wait for His law" (Isa. 42:4)… Isaiah 40 describes His greatness in wonderful majesty, and there we read, "Behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust" (v. 15).
The coastlands weigh no more than fine dust to God. Yet these are the places where His praise is to sound.
Read on, and the singing gives way to a very different scene.
This time of worldwide praise will come through the judgment of the nations. At the start of the chapter the same One appeared in grace as the lowly Man. Now He is seen in judgment as "a man of war" who prevails against His enemies. For a "long time" God has put up with nations that serve idols, but at last He will carry out judgment and lay their lands waste.
Another writer traces the same order, and adds how Matthew picks up this chapter:
The result of judgment on the Gentiles is a new song to the Lord and His praise from the end of the earth (v. 10). Matthew gives the isles waiting for His law in verse 4 as "in His name the Gentiles will hope." The prophet points more plainly to the blessing of the nations in the millennium. The Spirit uses the words for the principle on which the nations will be blessed then, and on which they are blessed now, before that day.
Why a new song? Because the things it celebrates are new — and in Isaiah they are set on the earth.
As far as Isaiah is concerned the new things predicted are connected with blessings on the earth. The new song they call out comes from both land and sea, from the far distant isles, from the wilderness and the top of the mountains. For heavenly blessing we have to go on to the New Testament.
- The source. The praise of verse 12 answers the blessing God secures through His lowly Servant, the Lord Jesus.
- The address. God will not hand His glory to another or His praise to idols, so the song has only one destination.
- The reach. The far coastlands, which God lifts like fine dust, are the places He appoints to carry His praise.
- The road. Commentators say worldwide praise comes only after the same Servant appears as a man of war against His enemies.
- The newness. In Isaiah the new things fill the earth — sea, wilderness, city, mountain. For heavenly blessing you must go on to the New Testament.
Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man, he will stir up jealousy like a man of war he will cry, yea, he will shout; he will shew himself mighty against his enemies.
The chapter opens with a Servant who will not raise His voice in the street. Now the same LORD marches out shouting like a soldier, and the long silence in between explains both.
The change of tone inside a single chapter is deliberate. One writer sets the two portraits side by side. The road to worldwide praise runs through judgment:
This time of worldwide praise will come through the judgment of the nations. The chapter began by presenting Him in grace as the lowly Man. Now it shows Him in judgment as "a Man of war" prevailing against His enemies. For a "long time" God has put up with nations that worship idols. At last He will judge them and lay their lands waste.
The silence of the earlier verses was not weakness. One writer explains it as timing, and shows what the Servant did instead:
It was not yet the hour to lift up His voice in judgment. The blind Jews wanted that hour, though it would have meant their own destruction. He was meek in heart. He did not seek glory, but to do His Father's will. An unbelieving people rejected Him, and He was about to go far lower to save them, or anyone. So He would be a light to the nations when Israel will have none of Him, caring for the weakest and never discouraged until He has established judgment.
after-note: none
"Man of war" is not a new title here. Israel first shouted it after God rescued them when they had given up hope. He will be known by that name again:
The unusual title "Jehovah is a man of war" came out of their sheer amazement at the triumph. They had cried out in despair, and the enemy had shouted, "I will destroy them." Then suddenly Jehovah's arm won the victory. He was "a man of war," fighting and winning over the gods of the nations, and so He will again be known on the earth.
One commentator watches the King keep working in mercy while His enemies plot murder. Then he points to the hour when that changes, quoting the next verse in an older wording:
While they are set on murder, He carries on His work of mercy. He takes no notice, so to speak, until He brings forth judgment to victory. The moment is at hand, however, when He will turn His attention to these... Then He will say, "I have held My peace a long time. I have been still and held Myself back. Now I will cry out like a woman in labour; I will destroy and devour at once." Another prophet gives the words for that day: "The lion has roared, who will not fear?"
This is not God working quietly behind the scenes. One writer ties the verse to the return of Christ, and sets it beside a promise about the Mount of Olives:
The deliverance does not come apart from the second coming of our Lord. The entire prophetic Word bears witness to this. "Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem" (Zech. 14:3–4).
The war has a goal beyond defeating enemies. One writer traces the line from the people's low state to the song at the end:
Meanwhile the people, under Jehovah's judgment, were like a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick. But the true Servant steps in and secures the full deliverance. He had held His peace a long time. Now He would deliver, and that deliverance would put to shame those who trusted in idols. The result of judgment on the nations is a new song to the Lord and His praise from the end of the earth.
- Silence — the long quiet is God bearing with the nations, not indifference or inability.
- Restraint — the Servant held back His voice in judgment; that hour would have destroyed the very people who asked for it.
- Name — "man of war" is the title Israel gave Him at the Red Sea; He will be known by it on the earth again.
- Roar — mercy runs its full course first; then the King turns, and the lion's cry ends the silence.
- Song — the goal of the war is deliverance, the shaming of idols, and praise to the LORD from the ends of the earth.
Long time have I holden my peace; I have been still, I have restrained myself I will cry like a woman that travaileth; I will blow and pant at once.
God has been quiet for a long time. Here He breaks that quiet Himself — not with an explanation, but with a cry like a woman in labour. Two pictures stand side by side here: a warrior going out to battle, and a mother in labour.
One writer reads the end of that silence as rescue. Any earlier deliverance was only a preview of the final one:
The deliverance under Cyrus only pointed forward to a full and final one. Meanwhile the state of the people under the Lord's judgment was like a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick. But the intervention of the true Servant secures the full deliverance. He had held His peace for a long time. Now He would deliver His people, and that deliverance would put to shame those who trusted in idols.
Commentators differ on who the silence was toward. The first writer links it to His people's rescue. Another links it to the nations who worship idols:
The judgment of the nations is the road to this time of universal praise. The chapter opened with Him in grace, as the lowly Man. Now it shows Him in judgment as "a Man of war," prevailing against His enemies. For a "long time" God has borne with the nations that worship idols. At last He will execute judgment and lay their lands waste.
One writer sees the same restraint in the Servant's first coming. His lowliness was chosen, and it had an end point:
Yet He, whose glory was beyond all competition, showed it first in perfect, quiet lowliness. What marked Him was not a far-reaching testimony but meek withdrawal. He withdrew from murderous hatred, and also from the crowds that followed Him and the praise of those He healed, who would have spread His fame. He "ordered them not to make Him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah." His second coming ends this state of things in victory. Then He will set justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait for His law.
The silence was not idleness. One writer points to the moment when the leaders met to plan Jesus' death while He went on healing:
Silenced by His word and baffled by the work of His goodness, they go out and hold a council to put Him to death. While they are on the line of murder He goes on in His work of mercy, taking, so to speak, no notice, until He brings forth judgment to victory. But the moment is near when He will turn His attention to these. Then He will say, "For a long time I have held My peace, I have been still and restrained Myself; now I will cry like a woman in labour. I will destroy and devour at once."
The older translation he quotes ends the verse "I will destroy and devour at once." The ESV has "I will gasp and pant" — the gasping of a woman in labour, with the destroying spelled out in the verses that follow.
Long silence is easy to misread. One writer names the mistake men make while God says nothing:
God kept silence and bore long in patience. So men thought that all was well, and that God, like themselves, was satisfied with outward religious practices. But when God speaks, He raises the question of man's unrighteousness. "These things you have done." Man's religion is one of outward forms with nothing to disturb the conscience.
Labour pains end in a birth. What follows the cry in this chapter is a rescue, and one writer finds its pattern at the Red Sea:
Moreover, the judgment of the nations will lead to the deliverance of Israel. At the Red Sea, the Lord led His people by a way they had not known and made the darkness light before them. He will do it again. He will lead them by a path never yet walked into light and blessing, to the utter shame of those who have trusted in idols.
- Silence — the quiet was real and long. God held Himself back on purpose, so the power was there the whole time.
- Restraint — the Servant chose lowliness at His first coming. That meekness ends at His return, not before.
- Misreading — men take God's patience for agreement. When He speaks, He raises the question of what they have done.
- Cry — the cry is both a warrior's shout and a mother's labour. The One who took no notice of the plotters now turns to face them.
- Light — the pains end in deliverance. God leads His people out by a path they never walked, and turns the darkness to light before them.
I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
Isaiah 42 calls the whole earth to sing a new song, and then the singing stops. God breaks a long silence here, and His first act is to dry up the land — so why does comfort for His people begin with ruin?
The wasting of the hills is not a sudden mood. It is the end of a long restraint, and it falls on nations that had given themselves to idols.
God will bring this time of universal praise through the judgment of the nations. The One presented in grace at the beginning of the chapter as the lowly Man now appears in judgment as "a man of war" prevailing against His enemies. For a "long time" God has borne with idolatrous nations, but at last He will execute judgment and lay their lands waste.
In prophecy a mountain is rarely just geography. What God lays waste here is not only scenery, but the settled power the symbol stands for.
A mountain as a symbol represents a kingdom (Isa. 2:2; Zech. 4:7; Jer. 51:25) or a firmly established power (Ps. 46:2; Rev. 6:14; Rev. 16:20). The key idea to grasp in these prophetic symbols is a strong, united, firmly settled power — and that power itself becomes the target of God's governmental vengeance.
Earlier in the chapter Christ appears as the lowly Man. The same Person, one writer shows, will one day turn His attention to His enemies.
In Matthew 12 the King is seen acting in mercy, and this stirs up the leaders so much that they seek to destroy Him. While they are set on murder, He goes on with His work of mercy. He takes no notice, so to speak, until He brings judgment to victory. But the moment is at hand when He will turn His attention to them. Then "the Lord will go out like a mighty man, He will stir up jealousy like a man of war… I have held My peace a long time, I have been still and held back; now I will cry out like a woman in labour."
The ruin is not the goal. It clears the way for God to deliver His people, and one writer points back to the Red Sea for the pattern.
Moreover, the judgment of the nations will lead to the deliverance of Israel. 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 no one has walked before, into light and blessing, to the utter shame of those who have trusted in idols.
One act of God has two endings. The song of verses 10-12 and the ruin of those who trusted idols come out of the same event.
These new things will move those who enter into them to "Sing to the Lord a new song." Verses 10-12 are full of the thought of how the Lord will show His glory and how His praise will be sung. But the next verses show that what will bring blessing to His people will mean judgment and destruction to His foes. While the call will come to many who were once deaf and blind, that they may hear and see, the folly and judgment of those who turned to idols will be revealed.
Part of this chapter came true in history. Writers hold that this early deliverance was only a down payment on something far larger.
Looking back at the prophet [Isaiah 42:1-4], we see the force of a passage that is often twisted from its true meaning. The deliverance under Cyrus only pointed on to a full and final one. Meanwhile the state of the people under Jehovah's judgment was like a bruised reed and a dimly burning wick. But the intervention of the true Servant secures the full deliverance.
- Restrained — God's long silence toward the nations that served idols is patience, not indifference. Verse 15 is what happens when that patience ends.
- Roused — the lowly Man of the chapter's opening is the same Person who goes out as a man of war. His silence was a season, not the whole story.
- Ruined — a mountain in prophecy stands for a kingdom, a settled power. God lays waste what people lean on instead of Him.
- Road — the wasting is not the goal. As at the Red Sea, it clears a path so God can lead His people into light and blessing by a way they never knew.
- Result — one act, two endings: a new song for those who trust Him, shame for those who trusted idols. Writers hold that the full fulfilment is still ahead.
And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not, in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
Isaiah 42 has just shown God acting in judgment against His enemies. Then the tone turns tender. The same God takes hold of blind people and leads them. Two questions follow: who are these blind, and why does God lead them by roads they have never seen?
The blind here are not the world in general. Read in context, they are Israel, the nation God had taught and favoured.
Christ is His Servant in lowliness, and will be in power. He will carry out all His purposes without fail. So Jehovah will "lead the blind," and who is blind as Israel, having every opportunity and observing nothing? God will glorify His Law and ways, yet Israel is oppressed, for he has sinned. But God has formed him for Himself. He need not fear; He will deliver. Despite all his failure, Israel is not to think of the old things, but to count on this faithfulness of delivering grace.
William Kelly weighs what that blindness cost a people given so much:
Israel is in view here — "perfect," yet "blind." Their perfection lay in privilege, and so in solemn responsibility; but their failure was terrible.
The way is one nobody has walked yet. God opens it. Hamilton Smith reads the promise as a repeat of something God has already done for this people:
Moreover, the judgment of the nations will lead to the deliverance of Israel. As at the Red Sea, Jehovah led His people by a way they had not known and made the darkness light before them. In the same way, the Lord will again lead them into light and blessing by a path never walked before, 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.
God does not promise to explain the darkness. He promises to change it. One writer applies the verse to godly people who must pass through a time of terrible judgment:
They are under His hand for good and not for evil. Though He leads the blind by a way they do not know, He will in the end make darkness light before them. He will turn the shadow of death into morning — "a morning without clouds."
Isaiah's chapter opens with God's Servant. The Gospels show that Servant at work. When Jesus healed a blind man, He did not do it from a distance:
The Lord took personal charge of the afflicted man. He took hold of him by the hand, and led him in his blindness and darkness away from the houses of men. What did this action suggest? To those whose hearts were filled with the ancient prophecies, would it not recall Jehovah's promise to the nation: "I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know ... I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground"?
Kelly links that healing to a day still ahead:
In the day that is coming, the blind will look to Jehovah-Jesus so that they may see. We see a small foretaste of it in the two blind men who followed Him into the house and confessed their faith.
The verse ends with a promise: He will not forsake them. Kelly holds that promise together with the discipline that came before it:
Such has been the way of Jehovah in chastening His rebellious people. Nor does He disguise the severity of His discipline. The day is coming when it will prove not to have been in vain, as the next chapter declares His faithful affection when they did not know it. But they will yet, and soon, learn it in His grace.
- Blind. The people led here are God's own — the nation with every advantage that still saw nothing.
- Led. They cannot see, so God does not wait for them to find the way. He brings them by a path they have never walked, as He once brought them through the sea.
- Lit. God does not just explain the darkness. He turns it into light, and the shadow of death into morning.
- Held. The Servant of this chapter takes the blind by the hand. The healings in the Gospels are a small foretaste of the day when the nation looks to Him and sees.
- Kept. He will not forsake them. The discipline was severe, and God does not hide it, but it will not prove to have been in vain.