40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Live From HWSS NWA (Episode 416)

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Erick Sorensen joins Chad and Daniel to discuss Isaiah 42 in a live recording from the Here We Still Stand Regional Conference in Bentonville, Arkansas. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education  What's New from 1517: Available Now: Encouragement for Motherhood Edited by Katie Koplin Pre-order: Hitchhiking with Prophets: A Ride Through the Salvation Story of the Old Testament by Chad Bird 30 Minutes in the NT on Youtube Remembering Rod Rosenbladt Available Now: Be Thou My Song by Kerri Tom More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, you can check out all the things that we're doing. There's articles, there's academies, there's videos, and of course, there's events, which you are at, so you know about those. Thanks for coming out.

Chad, what are we looking at in Isaiah 42? Yeah, so that's the goal. To get there, we're going to put it in reverse a little bit and take a quick look at Isaiah 41, because that kind of sets the stage for the servant introduction that we have in Isaiah 42. So if you look at Isaiah 41, read through that, what you're going to see are two or three different things going on. So first of all, you have Israel introduced, Israel spoken to by God. In fact, it's kind of fascinating because if you compare the way that Isaiah 42 starts out, behold my servant who might uphold my chosen, a lot of the same language is used in Isaiah 41

to talk about the nation of Israel that God chooses and that God upholds. In Hebrew, as in English, you can see the connection between these two. Now, I'm going to come back to that in just a second. So that's one of the things that happens in that chapter. So there's an introduction and an address to Israel, but also there's words to the, in Hebrew, the Iyim, which is usually translated like the islands, the coastlands. That's Isaiah's terminology for like the far-flung nations of the world. So you have a kind of an international address, you might say, and then you have a national address to Israel. You also have a contrast set up between the chosen nation that God gives his word to that knows who he is, and you also have the nations of the world

who turn to death and mute and empty idols. So there's a whole contrast that's set up in Isaiah 41, where God is basically saying, I've chosen Israel, my nation, and I have a promise that I'm going to give to the other nations of the world. He's going to get to that in Isaiah 42. But for now, what are they stuck with? Nothing. They're stuck with vain idols, with emptiness, with foolishness. And you become what you worship. That's right. You resemble what you revere, as G.K. Beale puts it. And so they, in revering emptiness, become empty. In worshiping foolishness, become fools. And that's kind of the situation that they're in. So all through Isaiah 41, we have this contrast that's set up between the empty idols and the foolishness of the nations,

and then God's chosen nation. And all of this is a big, long preparation for the bomb that's we drop in Isaiah 42. And even the Hebrew is helpful here because two different times in Isaiah 41, we have a behold. One of these is behold, basically, the foolishness of idols. And the other behold is behold the foolishness of those who worship idols. So hine, hine, behold, behold. All of that then leads us into the opening of Isaiah 42, where you have a third behold, except it's not behold foolishness or behold empty idols it's behold my servant whom i uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights i'll read one more verse i have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations yeah well it is it is quite the contrast i mean

we should note that this is one of many servant songs as they're called in the prophet isaiah and each time it tends to come after the Lord sort of as tearing into his people for their temptation to go after idols or their temptation to go after things that are going to harm them and harm their neighbors. And so in each time, Isaiah is this book of great surprises oftentimes where you really think God's about to drop the hammer finally, and then suddenly it goes back to the promise over and over and over again. And this is just another example of that. And then I think it's interesting that in the first verse here, it does say, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen.

And then it does go on to say, I will put my spirit upon him. Well, if you're a lectionary churchgoer, you go to a church that actually uses the lectionary, you would note that on the weekend that this is the Old Testament reading, the gospel reading is the baptism of Jesus, which, of course, in that passage, a voice from heaven says to Jesus, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. He is the chosen one. And so there is this link to the New Testament in this passage, as Chad often points out every sentence of the Old Testament. Yeah. Well, you have the spirit descending on Christ. Yep. Literally going to

place it on him, right? And then says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him yeah so this is a jesus baptism text right here for sure yeah and well and you can't really talk about the baptism of jesus without talking about the transfiguration because those are those are mirror accounts too you have that same kind of language when god shows up clothed in a cloud he says this is my this is my son yeah right my the one in whom i'm and well pleased in whom i delight listen to him so you have that that mirror image of transfiguration and baptism going on both which, of course, are reflected here. I should add, by the way, just by way of background for those of you who maybe you've done some work in the servant songs or studied in Bible class or

whatever it might be, you know that there's a long history of exegetical controversy over how these should be interpreted. You'll have some people come along that say, oh, this is talking about the chosen nation still, so understand the servant corporately. Sometimes it'll be, oh, this servant is not the entire nation, but it's a remnant within the nation of Israel. Or sometimes people even say, well, they're just talking about Cyrus, the Persian king. All of which is misleading and doesn't really fit with what we read here in Isaiah 42 and 49 and 50 and 52 and 53 about who this servant is. It's an individual who is sinless and who takes upon himself the sins of others, which a nation cannot do, nor can a remnant of a nation do. yeah so yeah these servant songs are all unfolding chapter by chapter more and more of kind of this

what you might call the pre-incarnational biography of the messiah they're telling us more and more about him as each of these servant songs unfolds yeah and just just one more note that i think is interesting when you know we go back to chapter 41 the contrast here is very intentional in the language that's used because the real servant of god is his delight as opposed to the idols that are an abomination. That's verse 24 and 41. The real servant is filled with the Spirit as opposed to, quote-unquote in verse 29, empty wind, which is certainly an allusion to all that idols can produce. They can't actually produce any spiritual power. And then, of course, the real servant brings justice as opposed to the constant injustice that results from the idol

worship of not just the nations but even his his own people israel it's a great trinitarian line here too yeah we can't pass that up but without seeing that i mean there's so many of these in the old testament that's easy for us to kind of skim over but sometimes they're just they're packed into one verse i mean here's i have put my spirit upon him yeah this is the father speaking i have put my ruach my my spirit my holy spirit upon the messiah so i i love to point those out because you know people did kind of get the impression that that god sort of evolved into a trinity and all of a sudden you get to the new testament and you have a different god than you had in the old testament no i mean it's he's always been the god that he always has been

and this is one of these great instances where we see the father putting his spirit upon the son it's not the only place in order that the son can then do what he's what he's sent to what he's sent to do yeah and so he's we should point this out he brings forth it says here justice to the nations yeah now justice in hebrew is mishpat and that's a that's a word that's used a lot of different ways i mean it can be used in reference to what we usually think of as you know a judgment scene bringing justice to this kind of situation or maybe it's an orphan or widow who's oppressed and you bring justice to them, but it also has a broader meaning that you can kind of define something like justice is God ordering the world

by His Word to be the way that He wants it to be, kind of a more broader understanding of what justice is. In fact, if you turn to Psalm 119, there's multiple places where mishpat, trying to say here is justice, is used as basically a parallel term for the Word of God. In multiple terms in Psalm 119, commandments, statutes, rules, mishpat, judgment is one of those. And I think that actually fits here. We'll skip down just for a second to verse 4, and you notice it says the coastlands wait for his Torah, and that's used in parallel with justice. So I think when you hear about, in this section anyway, one, two, three different

times about him bringing justice. Kind of think in terms, broader terms, of him bringing the word of his Father, as he's equipped by the Spirit, into the world in order not just to give that word to Israel, but to give that word to all the nations of the world, so that he becomes the conduit whereby the revelatory words of his Father ripple forth from Israel, from Judea to Samaria, to the uttermost ends of the earth this justice is like uh it's like a correctness right uh where things are i'll look at you look around and they can look around then and know that all kinds of things are incorrect it just feels incorrect the world is not as odd to be that this is part of what uh even well john the baptist will do this where he'll say that uh make straight the paths

of the lord like this is the same sort of thing there's like it's a correctness uh that is going to happen uh in the coming of christ that he's going there's all kinds of paths to god that have been uh that are not straight that are all over the place right um jesus will say this that you basically made the path to god like super complicated uh or very burdensome and that's part of what it is too is that that jesus comes and everything gets straightened out um and that And this would be put into that word, that word justice, that he's going to fix all of those things. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. I mean, so we all know the world is broken, right?

We all know that we're broken. We see this all over the place in countless ways, right? Everything from our health to society in general to our churches. I mean, it's full of all kinds of fragmentation, right? So if you think of mishpat, think of mishpat as God's bringing his healing word to bring that healing and that restoration and that straightness to all various aspects of our lives. So it's not just kind of a, when I hear justice, I always think just in kind of narrow terms. when you think of hebrew mishpat think of very broad terms about everything that god in christ is doing to bring hope to the world to bring a strengthening to the crooked ways

of the world and of course to to our own lives as well yeah so uh anything else you want to talk about that's one verse yeah we did one okay we're good we're only 10 minutes in we're good yeah All right, so I was going to add more, but we'll keep moving. All right, so what's he going to do? So we have this servant, God's servant, got his spirit on him. He's going to bring forth justice. Then we have a whole list of things he's not going to do or things that are not going to characterize him. I feel like he's going to be like a really, really aggressive street preacher.

That's kind of what my picture of Jesus is. But no, evidently not. Evidently it's not going to work. It's the exact opposite of what he's going to do. So here's what he's not going to do. This is verse 2. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. Well, there goes that.

Yeah, so I guess he's not. Wrong again. Yeah, not going to be that. So I think of words like pompous and bombastic. Those are two words that come to mind when I think about what he's not. yeah right and and interestingly enough again to contrast that is what the idols are in 41 the idols are presented as being loud full of destruction and violence yeah and the true servant comes and he doesn't seem to make a peep even even to his own crucifixion of course when

he chooses not to speak up for himself or you can think of the many times that he employs what scholars will refer to as the messianic secret where he'll heal someone and then it'll be like, don't tell anybody. Which is weird to us, but it makes complete sense in light of a verse like this. It cracks me up how many times Jesus is trying to get away from people. You ever notice that in the gospels? He does some great miracle and he's like, I'm out of here. I'm going to go find a mountain. I'm going to hang out by myself. I'm going to pray to my father and I'm going to get away from you people. I love you, but I need some space. I'm going to get away from you people for a while. The scene that always comes to my mind is when they come off the Mount of

Transfiguration and, you know, the dad has his son and the disciples are trying to heal the boy and they can't do it. And Jesus, it was always like a facepalm moment for me for Jesus. He's like, how long do I have to stay with you people? Which, yeah, I can understand him having that perspective. But yeah, multiple times he's saying, don't tell people, or he's withdrawing. When he's arrested, he's like, dude, I was in the temple every day. I was teaching every day. It wasn't like I was making scenes and everything. Okay, he did make a scene once. He did flip tables over. Okay, that was a scene. But most of the time he just was in the temple. I mean, he wasn't out in the street screaming at people. He was just doing his teaching. He was doing his

preaching. Yeah. By the way, I think the street part here is important too, because I didn't know this until I was getting ready for this episode, but I did a search on the word for street in Hebrew in Isaiah. It turns out it's a word that has a very negative connotation. Like it can in English, but in every single usage of Isaiah, every time Isaiah uses the word street, it's in negative context. So we're talking about the mire of the street. We talk about idolatry in connection with the street. So at least in Isaiah's lexicon, when he uses the word street, it's never positive. It's not like street tacos, right? Street tacos, positive, right? But if Isaiah referred to street tacos, they would be bad tacos. Bad tacos. They'll make you sick. Yeah. So him not being heard in the

street is he's not in that very negative place being bombastic being yeah all the things that the that the idols are he's much more just doing his calling he's teaching he's preaching he's working miracles all those those sorts of things now verse three is is beautiful yeah so i'm going to actually read three and four because there's a there's some there's a there's a pairing between those two. So you've all heard this because it gets quoted in the New Testament. A bruised reed he will not break. And a faintly burning wick. What's the older translation of that? Smoldering? Smoldering wick. Yeah, yeah. Smoldering wick. Yeah. A faintly burning or a smoldering wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth mishpat. Verse 4. He will not, there's a lot of

nots in here. He will not grow faint or be discouraged until he is established. Any guesses? Mishpat. Justice. Mishpat in the earth. And the coastlands, those are the Iyin I referred to earlier. That's like Isaiah's word for the most far-flung parts of the earth. The coastlands wait for his Torah. So right away, I got to point something out because it's Hebrew and it's fun. And it is, I checked, I think, five English translations, and none of those captured this. I don't know why, but they didn't. So the word for bruised, bruised reed, and the word for faintly burning, as in faintly burning wick, those are the same Hebrew words that are used to describe who the Messiah is not.

So a bruised reed and a faintly burning wick, verse 4, he will not grow faint. That's that same root of the faintly burning wick. So he will not be smoldering, nor will he be discouraged. That's a Hebrew word for bruised. In other words, he does what he does. He comforts those who are weak. He doesn't break those who are already bruised. He ministers in such a way that he's driven by mercy and compassion, especially to those who have nothing to offer, have been beaten up by the world. Why? Because of who he is. He's not characterized by those sorts of things. And so from his fullness, he can supply where we are empty. From his health, he can supply where we are sick. So the contrast in the Hebrew is clear.

he's not this in order that he can be for us what we can never be on on our own yeah it's a beautiful picture i mean this is maybe one of my favorite verses in all of the old testament this this idea associated with the word justice almost seems unnatural i think sometimes because we think of justice as you know the hammer coming down um and yet when you think about it in the context that you had explained earlier about this sort of broader restoration uh bringing things back into order, it does make sense. And it's a beautiful way of thinking about how God chooses to deal with us. The reason he can deal with us the way he does, mercifully and compassionately and graciously, is because, in fact, of what verse 4 tells us about Jesus. Because Jesus is

the strength that we need and is the power that we need, therefore we need not fear, even if we go through times where we really are feeling like we're just about to break down, feeling like the light's about to go out. He is the one that is our strength, no matter what our situations may be. Yeah, and the way that it talks about this, the things that he is not, you can then apply this to if you're hearing a preacher or a theologian or whoever talk about Jesus, and then if it sounds like he is those things or will do those things you know you're listening to like that's not the right jesus right so like like so if you're hearing somebody and they're talking and you're like that sounds like a guy like a jesus that breaks yeah if it's like snapping off bruised

reeds and snuffing out flickering wicks uh if it's load is heavy uh like none of that is jesus right so none of that is a suffering servant so you're dealing with something else entirely that's what it sounds like which is helpful as you're trying to listen to preaching and that sort of stuff and if you leave there being like that sounds like a god that snaps bruised reeds and half finishes the job uh then i don't think you're in the right spot that's not that is not jesus yeah yeah and i love the the fact that in the very first servant song that's the way he's described yeah yeah because this is this is going to culminate in uh isaiah 53 yeah of course is the great chapter about how he takes upon our himself our sins and our even our illnesses and all the

bad stuff in the world he takes upon himself so already here we're given a glimpse into who this jesus is and what he does and this all then leads us finally to that climax in isaiah 53 we're like oh, of course that's what he does. Because already when we're first introduced to him, it's like shake his hand. Okay, who are you? Well, I'm the guy who doesn't break the bruiserie. I'm the guy who doesn't put out the smoldering wick. That's who I am. And you're going to see more and more of who I am finally to where I care about you so much that I am going to be the one who's crushed for your iniquities. I'm going to be the one who's put to death as a sacrifice for you so i'm gonna i'm gonna show you my love not only by being compassionate towards you and your

weakness but i'm gonna go all the way nothing's gonna stop me from doing what needs to be done to make sure that you're my own yeah amen and then the coastlands are don't want the gospel but they're desperate for the law yeah yeah yeah coastlands wait for his torah his teaching right yes yes yeah when you read that don't think like all right those far-flung things they need that they're just desperate for the Ten Commandments the law is what they need but as always in the Old Testament, this is the totality

of the Word of God yeah, when the Chad Bird translation comes out in a couple years every time that you would read law you're going to read Torah, or teaching, right? let's just call it the teaching, that'd be the easiest this happens all the time

all the time people that I don't know, that maybe you think that you go too hard on the gospel or whatever. We'll grab Old Testament verses that have the word Torah in it, and it would have law back right here. See, the law. And you're like, yeah, dude, but that's, I mean, yes, the law is included in that, but this is like the totality of what God has said, what he has said to his people.

It's everything. Everything, yeah. We good? We're good. Look at that. We're 23 minutes in, and we're halfway through. We're doing it. We're doing it.

We are so good at this. All right. First, it's like we've been doing it a few years. We're almost, by the way, the little parentheses here, we're almost 10 years into this, by the way. We are. Yeah. I think we dropped our first episodes in January, February of 2015.

Fifteen? Fifteen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So almost 10 years of doing this. Yeah. Thank you.

We finally got the pacing down. Yeah, we finally got the pacing down. Took us a while. And I mean, when I'm 80, we'll be done. A few years to go. Okay, so let me just read all of the next verses. It's only five through nine, and we'll work our way through each of these. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. That you, by the way, is singular. So this is the servant being spoken to here. I have called you in righteousness. I

will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them. That closing, by the way, before they spring forth, I tell you of them, that is another Isaiah 41 thing. Isaiah talks about that a lot, where God talks about that a lot through Isaiah, about all these idols cannot predict the future. They can't tell you what's coming, but I do. I tell you beforehand, and then it comes to pass.

So that's a pretty major theme in Isaiah. God's ability to say, hey, guess what's coming up? This. And when it comes to pass, you're like, yes, God told us this would happen. Therefore, this is one more attestation of him being the one true God. So he starts out here with Genesis 1 kind of language. Thus says, it's a different expression in Hebrew. It's like, not just God, but it's this isn't Elohim, this is El, it's Ha'el.

Thus says the God, Yahweh. It's a way of kind of underscoring the fact that we're talking about the one true God here. We're not talking about just one of the multiplicity of gods in the ancient world. We're talking about the God. Thus says the God, Yahweh. Who did what?

Who Genesis 1'd everything. He created the heavens. he stretched them out who spread out the earth and what comes from it so of course there you have the heavens and the earth imagery the the spreading out of the earth that verb is the same one that's used for the firmament that's talked about in genesis 1 the rakia in in hebrew it's kind of like a you take metal and you hammer it out you flatten it that's the same word we choose here so he spread out hammered out the earth if it will if you will so he did all this and then we have the introduction of people, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those

who walk in it. Now, that's all introduction. So, thus says the God who does all of these things. Now, when I was working my way through this, I was like, why would he introduce it that way? Why not just say, thus says God the Lord, and then go on and have whatever it is he has to say? I think what he's doing is he's reminding us and Isaiah's listeners that this isn't a parochial deity. This isn't just, thus says God the Lord, who only cares about Israel and doesn't give a rip about anybody else. No, this is the God who made the heavens. This is the one who spread out the earth, the one who has all nations in view at this point. He's not just talking about the nation of Israel. And then that's going to lead into what we read in the next verse. So it's kind

of a setup for what he has to say next. Yeah, this again is just a great contrast between the kind of idolatry that you had back then, which was oftentimes so tribal. I mean, it was so very specific. Every tribe or every group, every nation would have their own God that was in charge of this, that thing or whatnot. And so there was a multiplicity of potential idols that you had to sacrificed here. You had to worship in some way. And here God is just saying, no, no, no. I'm above all of them. They're all an illusion. I'm responsible for everything. I'm in charge. Yeah, well, the implication is I'm the God who did all these things. In other words, nobody else did. So I did it, not whoever it is that that guy over there is worshiping. I'm the

God who did these things from the beginning. And this monotheism then is the segue into to the only salvation that's there. So one God, one way of salvation. So this all sets up for what is coming next. Verse 6, I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness, as I pointed out when I was reading that. So this is a singular form. He's not talking about you and y'all, right? This is not talking about the nation of Israel. This is the Father addressing the Son. Yep. Called here the servant. So the Father says to the Son, I've called you, Jesus, in righteousness so you're going to act according to my righteous ways i've called you to do that and i'm going to take you by the hand which is kind of a beautiful image yeah you know i don't

think that's a typical biblical image we have but you think of the son doing what he does and the father's holding his hand yeah he's right there with him and he's put his spirit upon him our our salvation is a trinitarian work i take you by hand i'm going to keep you so i'm going to uphold you yeah you're not alone i'm right there with you doing all of these things because you know what you're doing is the salvation of everyone grace is going to be in you and in you alone so i'm going to i'm going to hold you i'm going to keep you in order that you might do this now listen to this this this next part this is why that's so important beautiful yeah i will give you and the hebrew there is a gift it's gift language i'm going to give you this is not gift

I'm going to give you, as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. Now, we'll get back to the covenant in just a second, but notice who the addressees are. The people is in parallel with the nations. The reason this is important is because this is God the Father saying to his son, the servant, you are going to be this covenant, not just for the people of Israel, but for the goyim, which is probably everybody in this room. The Gentiles, the nations, right? He's going to be a covenant.

We hear all about the covenant with Israel at Sinai in the Old Testament. Yeah, but this is different. I'm going to give you as a covenant for all the nations. Yeah, for the entire world. So this is in some ways an allusion back to the Abrahamic covenant that was made before the law covenant was given that promised that from Abraham's seed one day there would be one that would bless all the nations,

which is an allusion to the salvation being talked about here. Yeah. Yeah, from the very beginning, from Genesis 12, it was always the universal salvation of you. It was never just for Israel. It was always for, that's the reason God said you're going to be a blessing to all the nations. And so this is picking up that Genesis 12 language here. So I will give you as a covenant for the people, that's pretty remarkable language. Isaiah talks about this elsewhere, I think it's chapter 49, where the Messiah is the embodiment of the covenant.

Yeah. I mean, not the way that we're kind of used to thinking about this. uh he jesus gets pretty uh uh direct and and personal when he talks about this is my blood of the new testament too right yeah so this i mean this is he himself is saying listen i'm the covenant it's everything is focused upon me it's kind of the theme of the conference right yeah yeah grace where it's kind of out there floating in the ether no it's all anchored in christ in his body and blood in this flesh and blood man that is the only place and that is the full place where we receive grace same with the covenant i'm going to give you as a covenant for not just

israel but for all the nations everything is going to be focused in christ and then in christ christ alone yeah on a recent episode of 30 minutes in the new testament we spent quite a bit of time talking about the fact that too when when you hear about the kingdom of god being in your midst all throughout the gospels what you really just need to read that as is jesus is here the kingdom of god is jesus manifested he's the kingdom in person yes he's the covenant he's the kingdom all the promises are yes and amen in christ and that's why we that's why we we need to have a christ-centered hermeneutic when we're reading all of the scriptures because it's what he it's what he he embodies all of it yeah the language there is is interesting because there's

like a turn right where you have god say i i'm the lord and i've called you in righteousness and i'm gonna take you by the hand yeah that sounds really nice i'm gonna keep you only to give you away yeah all right so like god is going to take him by the hand keep him and then give him as a gift to the nations for their salvation right and uh i sometimes when i read this too like i think back to Abraham and Isaac and this language is kind of familiar where Abraham takes Isaac by the hand and he's going to lead him up

and he's going to give him as a gift, but of course God puts a stop to that because, why? Because of this. Yeah, yeah. Genesis 22 is kind of a big wink as to what's being described here.

So, going on from there, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and from the prison those who sit in darkness of course that kind of language we hear for instance in nazareth yep when jesus stands up unrolls the scroll of isaiah and reads about what's going to happen in the year of jubilee yep so this is kind of a condensed version of the things that he does i think the opening eyes that they're blind can be understood literally as well as metaphorically those who are sitting in darkness i mean if you've ever been in sitting in darkness for a long time

Maybe you're in a cave or whatever it is. You know, it's kind of like when you come into the light, it's kind of like you're blinded, right? So it could be like metaphorically understood here. You've been in darkness. You're kind of trapped, and you can't see well. And he's going to open your eyes. But it could also be literal because, of course, that's exactly what Jesus did. He opened the eyes of the blind.

And he brings us forth into liberty. You know, we're no longer trapped behind the bars of sin and death and shame and guilt and everything else in which we find ourselves so frequently. Jesus comes in, and he breaks down the wall, and he brings us forth into freedom. And even when we try and put ourselves back there, he takes us by the hand. He's like, nope, I'm not going to let you go back there. I'm going to keep you in freedom. I'm going to keep you in liberty because that's the kind of God that I am. Yeah, there was an old folk artist.

He's a Christian back in the 70s. But I remember hearing him talk one time, and it was based on this text. but he said he didn't like going to church and he didn't go to church and he said until I found a church whose sermons sound like prison doors being unlocked that that's what they should sound like I thought that was pretty good but that's and he said that's it is a song about it too but that's the sound of a good sermon is does it does it sound like prison doors being unlocked yeah which is not like are they a pleasant sound of like like keys clanking around stuff but like if you're behind there that's like the best sound you've heard i'm presumably in a very long time right

some uh some rattling of keys some clanking on the lock and and you know something good is about to happen to you yeah well that's the entire ministry of jesus everywhere he goes shackles fall off yeah bars fall eyes open you know he he leaves in his in his wake people who are just overcome with joy because now they realize that uh they have true freedom yeah yeah that's That's why people who were trapped were not afraid to come to Jesus, but were actually attracted to come to Jesus, right? He was attracting people who were trapped in sin. He was attracting the prostitutes and the tax collectors and the religious outcasts

because they knew everything about his ministry screamed that bruised reeds he will not break and smoldering wicks he will not snuff out. And so that's the very kind of people that attracted him. that were attracted to him because they knew that's what they would receive. They wouldn't go to Jesus and then have a door slammed in their face or walk away with handcuffs. Instead, they walk away liberated and free. All right, verse 8.

I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Of course he doesn't because they cannot deliver that which needs to be delivered to his people. He won't give his praise or his glory to that which is empty, that which is futile, that which cannot give to his people that which we all desperately need. Yeah, well, I mean, this last passage is really, you could sort of see the framing as, okay, I've told you all these things that I'm going to do through this servant of mine, but these last couple of verses are kind of like,

and this is why you can know what I'm promising you will come to pass, that it will happen, because when I promise something, I am incapable of breaking my promise. I cannot, I will not that's the idea behind the closing of this section in Isaiah 42 and 1-9 even this my glory I give to no other

there's he's addressing Christ here, he's talking of Christ he will give his glory to Christ so the no other isn't that God, like the Father saying I keep all my glory for myself

but the no other here is no other but you right so that and i'm not going to give it to i'm not going to praise some carved up idol i'm going to i will but i will praise the work of my son like this is the person that i'm going to glorify this is the person i'm going to praise yeah that that glory that he gives i mean that that again takes us to isaiah 53 where you have the glory of god displayed in the sacrifice on the cross right it's the ultimate revelation of the glory of god is in the gift of god in his son whereby our sins are placed upon him and his righteousness is placed upon us and before they spring forth he

says i tell you of them kind of a fun little fact there that word for spring forth is uh also used to talk about how like a branch will spring forth from a tree and later on maybe you're familiar with some parts of the Old Testament where the Messiah is referred to as the branch. Yeah. Well that's the same root in Hebrew here. So it's kind of a subtle hint perhaps of something that's going to emerge later on as Messiah is talked about as the one who springs forth. He's the root of Jesse. He's also the offspring of Jesse. He springs forth as this branch as the one who comes to fulfill what's promised here.

Well Chad you did it again. You proved that the Old Testament is about Jesus. And it's my lifelong mission. It's good. My lifelong mission. It's good. All right. And, yeah, Isaiah has told of it before it happened. We're telling you about it, that it has happened.

That is good news. That is the end of this podcast. Thank you guys for showing up. Don't go anywhere. It'll be a small break. And then TheoCast is going to be up here with Chad and Scott. So if you don't like those guys and you like this guy, you stick around. You'll hear some more from him.

All right, thank you, guys.