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The Servant, a Light to the Nations

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be crushed

until he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

Thus says God, the L ord,

who created the heavens and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people upon it

and spirit to those who walk in it:

I am the L ord, I have called you in righteousness,

I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people,

a light to 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 L ord, that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to idols.

See, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth,

I tell you of them.

A Hymn of Praise

Sing to the L ord a new song,

his praise from the end of the earth!

Let the sea roar and all that fills it,

the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,

the villages that Kedar inhabits;

let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,

let them shout from the tops of the mountains.

Let them give glory to the L ord,

and declare his praise in the coastlands.

The L ord goes forth like a soldier,

like a warrior he stirs up his fury;

he cries out, he shouts aloud,

he shows himself mighty against his foes.

For a long time I have held my peace,

I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out like a woman in labor,

I will gasp and pant.

I will lay waste mountains and hills,

and dry up all their herbage;

I will turn the rivers into islands,

and dry up the pools.

I will lead the blind

by a road they do not know,

by paths they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.

They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame—

those who trust in carved images,

who say to cast images,

“You are our gods.”

Listen, you that are deaf;

and you that are blind, look up and see!

Who is blind but my servant,

or deaf like my messenger whom I send?

Who is blind like my dedicated one,

or blind like the servant of the L ord?

He sees many things, but does not observe them;

his ears are open, but he does not hear.

Israel’s Disobedience

The L ord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness,

to magnify his teaching and make it glorious.

But this is a people robbed and plundered,

all of them are trapped in holes

and hidden in prisons;

they have become a prey with no one to rescue,

a spoil with no one to say, “Restore!”

Who among you will give heed to this,

who will attend and listen for the time to come?

Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler,

and Israel to the robbers?

Was it not the L ord, against whom we have sinned,

in whose ways they would not walk,

and whose law they would not obey?

So he poured upon him the heat of his anger

and the fury of war;

it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;

it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

8. I am Jehovah. Hence infer what is the nature and extent of the disease of unbelief, since the Lord can hardly satisfy himself with any words to express the cure of it. By nature we are prone to distrust, and do not believe God when he speaks, till he entirely subdue our stubbornness. Besides, we continually fall back into the same fault through our levity, unless he employ many bridles to restrain us. Again, therefore, he returns to that confirmation of which we have spoken formerly, that his promises may remain unshaken.

This is my name. הוא (hu) is sometimes taken for a substantive, so as to be a proper name of God; ¹⁵⁴¹⁵⁴ “There is no sufficient ground for the opinion that the pronoun הוא (ha) is ever used as a divine name, cognate and equivalent to Jehovah. In this case the obvious and usual construction is entirely satisfactory.” — Alexander. but I explain it in a more simple manner, “It is my name,” that is, “Jehovah is my own name, and cannot lawfully be given to any other.” In a word, by this expression he seals all that was said about the office of Christ, and adds as it were a seal to the promise: “He who declareth these things testifieth that he alone is God, and that this name dwelleth in him alone.”

And I will not give my glory to another; that is, “I will not suffer my glory to be diminished, which it would be, if I were found to be false or fickle in my promises.” He therefore declares that he will abide by his promises, because he wishes to vindicate his glory and preserve it entire, that it may not be in any respect diminished.

This is a remarkable passage, by which we are taught that the glory of God is chiefly visible in his fulfillment of what he has promised. And hence we obtain a singular confirmation of our faith, that the Lord never deceives, never swerves from his promises, and nothing can hinder what he has once determined. But since Satan, by amazing arts, endeavors to obscure this glory of God, and to bestow it on men and on false gods, he therefore testifies that he will not permit himself to be regarded as fickle or deceitful in his promises.

Nor my praise to graven images. A contrast is drawn between the only God and idols with reference to time; for, had not God been the Redeemer of his people, unbelievers would have boasted as if true religion had been false and useless. God therefore declares that he will not permit wicked men to triumph by oppressing the Church; and, beyond all doubt, God has hitherto spared us, and still deals so gently with us, in order that he may not expose his Gospel to the blasphemous reproaches of the Papists. We ought to draw from this a universal doctrine, namely, that the Lord wishes that his glory may remain unimpaired; for he defends and maintains it everywhere with the utmost zeal, in order to shew that he is exceedingly jealous of it, (Exodus 20:5,) and does not permit the smallest part of it to be given to another.

¹⁵⁴ “There is no sufficient ground for the opinion that the pronoun הוא (ha) is ever used as a divine name, cognate and equivalent to Jehovah. In this case the obvious and usual construction is entirely satisfactory.” — Alexander.