Isaiah 42
42
God’s Servant Will Set Everything Right
1-4“Take a good look at my servant.
I’m backing him to the hilt.
He’s the one I chose,
and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.
I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.
He’ll set everything right among the nations.
He won’t call attention to what he does
with loud speeches or gaudy parades.
He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt
and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,
but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.
He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped
until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.
Far-flung ocean islands
wait expectantly for his teaching.”
The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life
5-9 God’s Message,
the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
opening blind eyes,
releasing prisoners from dungeons,
emptying the dark prisons.
I am God. That’s my name.
I don’t franchise my glory,
don’t endorse the no-god idols.
Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.
I’m announcing the new salvation work.
Before it bursts on the scene,
I’m telling you all about it.”
10-16Sing to God a brand-new song,
sing his praises all over the world!
Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
with all the far-flung islands joining in.
Let the desert and its camps raise a tune,
calling the Kedar nomads to join in.
Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir
and perform from the tops of the mountains.
Make God’s glory resound;
echo his praises from coast to coast.
God steps out like he means business.
You can see he’s primed for action.
He shouts, announcing his arrival;
he takes charge and his enemies fall into line:
“I’ve been quiet long enough.
I’ve held back, biting my tongue.
But now I’m letting loose, letting go,
like a woman who’s having a baby—
Stripping the hills bare,
withering the wildflowers,
Drying up the rivers,
turning lakes into mudflats.
But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way,
who can’t see where they’re going.
I’ll be a personal guide to them,
directing them through unknown country.
I’ll be right there to show them what roads to take,
make sure they don’t fall into the ditch.
These are the things I’ll be doing for them—
sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute.”
17But those who invested in the no-gods
are bankrupt—dead broke.
You’ve Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing
18-25Pay attention! Are you deaf?
Open your eyes! Are you blind?
You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!
You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!
The very people I depended upon, servants of God,
blind as a bat—willfully blind!
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
feeling ignored, abandoned.
But is anyone out there listening?
Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?
Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,
let loose the robbers on Israel?
Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—
not doing what he commanded,
not listening to what he said?
Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,
God’s punishing power?
Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;
their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.
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Isaiah 42: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 42
42
1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights:
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2He will not shout,
nor raise his voice,
nor cause it to be heard in the street.
3He won’t break a bruised reed.
He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.
He will faithfully bring justice.
4He will not fail nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice in the earth,
and the islands wait for his law.”
5God Yahweh,
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness.
I will hold your hand.
I will keep you,
and make you a covenant for the people,
as a light for the nations,
7to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
8“I am Yahweh.
That is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to engraved images.
9Behold, the former things have happened
and I declare new things.
I tell you about them before they come up.”
10Sing to Yahweh a new song,
and his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea,
and all that is therein,
the islands and their inhabitants.
11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
12Let them give glory to Yahweh,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.
He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
He will raise a war cry.
Yes, he will shout aloud.
He will triumph over his enemies.
14“I have been silent a long time.
I have been quiet and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15I will destroy mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbs.
I will make the rivers islands,
and will dry up the pools.
16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.
I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.
I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked places straight.
I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.
17“Those who trust in engraved images,
who tell molten images,
‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back.
They will be utterly disappointed.
18“Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind,
that you may see.
19Who is blind, but my servant?
Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?
20You see many things, but don’t observe.
His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law
and make it honorable.
22But this is a robbed and plundered people.
All of them are snared in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become captives, and no one delivers,
and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
23Who is there among you who will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24Who gave Jacob as plunder,
and Israel to the robbers?
Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in his ways,
and they disobeyed his law.
25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,
and the strength of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.
It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
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