Isaiah 42:4

Not only would He not break or extinguish others, but the pressures and blows of others would not break or extinguish Him. This reflects the Spirit’s empowerment in His life (cf. Isaiah 42:1). He would complete His mission of establishing justice on the earth. The furthest reaches of the earth will, therefore, anticipate the coming of His law, as Israel did at the base of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19; cf. Isaiah 2:3). They would do so eager for justice to come to the earth, not necessarily eagerly anticipating it to come through the Lord’s Servant.

The Lord now turned from describing His Servant’s task by speaking about Him to confirming His task by speaking to Him. This is a pattern in the Servant Songs: confirmation follows description (cf. Isaiah 49:7-13; Isaiah 50:10-11; Isaiah 54:1 to Isaiah 55:13). Two aspects of the Lord’s glory that earlier exposed the plight of the Gentile world, namely, that the Gentiles do not know the only true God and that they worship idols, bracket this passage dealing with Gentile hope. [Note: Ibid., p. 321.] The task of the Servant, not His identity, continues to be the focus of attention. Each segment begins with a reaffirmation of the identity of the true God (Isaiah 42:5-6; Isaiah 42:8).