Isaiah 41:28-29

When the Lord looked for a messenger from another god who predicted the coming of Cyrus, He could find none. Not one of them could give any information about his coming (cf. Isaiah 40:13). So He concluded as He began (Isaiah 41:24), but this time passing judgment on the idolaters rather than on the idols. "Behold" ends each subsection (Isaiah 41:24; Isaiah 41:29). The idolaters are false in the sense of being untrue and delusive. Their works-the idols-are worthless, and their idol images amount to nothing.

Yahweh had challenged the nations to behold the folly of idols (Isaiah 41:24) and idol worshippers (Isaiah 41:29), but now He urged them to behold His Servant (Isaiah 42:1). This Servant would reveal God to the world, something the idols could not do. The Lord first spoke of His Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4) and then to His Servant (Isaiah 42:5-9). Who this Servant is does not become clear until later (cf. Isaiah’s identification of Cyrus). Earlier (Isaiah 41:8-16) the servant was Israel, so the readers would naturally assume that Israel is the servant here too. Other references to Israel as the servant of the Lord are Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 44:1-2; Isaiah 44:21; Isaiah 45:4; and Isaiah 48:20. Only later does it become clear that this Servant must be an individual, namely: Messiah. The context and the characteristics ascribed to the servant in each reference to him dictate his identity. That the Servant is not Cyrus is clear from the contrasts between them. [Note: See F. Duane Lindsey, "The Call of the Servant in Isaiah 42:1-9," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:553 (January-March 1982):12-31.] He will be the ideal representative of Israel who will accomplish for the Lord what Israel did not regarding the world (cf. Genesis 12:3). Matthew quoted Isaiah 42:1-4 as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:18-21).

"Isaiah’s unique contribution to Old Testament theology is his anonymous suffering servant songs." [Note: Waltke, An Old . . ., p. 845.]

"The idea of ’the servant of Jehovah’ assumed, to speak figuratively, the form of a pyramid. The base was Israel as a whole; the central section was that Israel, which was not merely Israel according to the flesh, but according to the spirit also [i.e., saved Israel] ; the apex is the person of the Mediator of salvation springing out of Israel [i.e., Messiah]. And the last of the three is regarded (1) as the centre of the circle of the promised kingdom-the second David; (2) the centre of the circle of the people of salvation-the second Israel; (3) the centre of the circle of the human race-the second Adam." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:174.]

Berhard Duhm coined the term "servant songs" in his German commentary on Isaiah published in 1892. [Note: Berhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaja.] The commentators vary somewhat in how much of the context they regard as part of these songs. John Martin, for example, took the first song as running through Isaiah 42:17. [Note: J. Martin, p. 1095.] The first two postscripts, or trailing passages, are divine confirmations of the Servant’s work. The last two are exhortations to respond to the Servant.