Isaiah 41:1-42:17, "Seeking Approval and Finding Jesus"

What are some things you did as a kid to seek the approval of your parents? In a concert we attended once, the musician Michael Card told us about his memory of childhood including days spent outside the door to his father’s office trying to get his father’s attention. He would draw pictures and slide them under the office door, hoping one of them would draw out his father’s approval. He said, “I think my music is like that.” He became a musician, in part, to make beautiful things so that he could feel the approval he never felt from his dad.

We all want approval from others. As young children, it’s our parents, as teenagers, it becomes our friends, as adults it becomes our coworkers and colleagues. So we put our best foot forward and we advertise our achievements. And social media has only multiplied this effect. But even if we get it, it’s never ultimately satisfying. So we strive and try to outdo ourselves, and it’s exhausting. Or we give up because we don’t think it’s possible, so we turn to idols that satisfy us in other ways to distract ourselves.

But what if neither of those is necessary? What if the God that made you has already demonstrated that He loves you and desires to make you a full partner in His family business and you don’t need a resume? How would it change your life to rest in His love and approval?

In our passage today, Isaiah writes God’s words to the nations to look to Israel as a sign of what He wants to do with anyone who will give up their idols, come to Him in faith, and trust in His work in Messiah. They will become partners with Him in remaking the world according to His perfect word so that wastelands become fruitful, the blind see, the prisoners are set free, and God is worshipped in Spirit and in Truth.

The scene God describes for these chapters is a courtroom. He summons the nations to come along with Israel, His chosen people. He is going to pronounce His judgment. Who are the people He has approved? What does He desire of them?

The Summons

Isaiah 41:1 (ESV)

Listen to me in silence, O coastlands;

let the peoples renew their strength;

let them approach, then let them speak;

let us together draw near for judgment.

The words for “coastlands” and “peoples” in Hebrew rhyme, and refer back to the variety of people groups from Genesis 10 that came from Noah after God remade the world after the flood. They have all gone various ways, many of them are not walking in God’s ways, and He is summoning them all to have their day in court. His decision will be a final judgment of approval or disapproval of all people.

He begins by establishing His credentials as the judge. He reminds them of His sovereign power and choice over all the nations. He uses Cyrus the Persian emperor as an example.

41:2 - “Who stirred up from the east one whom righteousness meets at his foot?” - Most Jewish commentators interpret this person as Abraham the righteous, promised a victorious kingdom. But he only won one military campaign, which was more of a rescue mission. Most Christian commentators interpret this to be Cyrus the powerful conqueror who, we will find out in chapter 44, will be the LORD’s anointed shepherd who would rebuild the LORD’s temple.

Either way, continuing into verse 4, the message is the same:

Isaiah 41:4 ESV

Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.

the court establishes fact number 1: the judge, Yahweh, establishes justice and righteousness, he will perform what He has promised, and from first to last, He is Yahweh, the Eternal One. He Is. He establishes kings and kingdoms. And His kingdom is establishing righteousness in the earth. That’s the word translated “victory” in verse 2, “tzedek”.

The nations can complain about whatever human actor is messing up their plans, Abraham, Cyrus, whoever. But their complaint should really be against Yahweh. He is working through these people to perform what He has said He would do.

Yahweh, the Ever-living LORD God, is the only One who determines what will happen in the future, and has the power to bring it to pass. The scene in the courtroom has now become one of utter panic. The nations realize whom they are up against and they fear and tremble. They frantically try to set up their own idols to help them. But idols cannot speak, let alone tell the future, and certainly don’t determine the future. In the final verse of this section, the LORD tells the nations:

Isaiah 42:17 (ESV)

They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, “You are our gods.”

This is an incredible picture that helps us understand the story of God and man. God is carrying out His plans in the earth, and He announces what they are. He speaks His word and His judgments command us to walk in righteousness. If we will delight in His will and walk in His ways, we will become fruitful and make the world around us fruitful. If we seek satisfaction in idols of our own making and serve them instead, we will die after making waste of our lives and the lives of others. When the final judgment is handed down from Yahweh, the Ever-living God, who, as we saw last week, knows all, is all powerful, and present everywhere, will He approve of you and what you have done with your life?

Yahweh, the LORD God, then informs the court that He is more than judge in this court. He is also acting as an advocate for one side.

The Judge is the Advocate for His People

Isaiah 41:8–10 (ESV)

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

When the Ever-living God chooses people, He does not cast them off. They have nothing to fear from those who don’t approve of them. All of their enemies and their idols, “shall be as nothing at all (v. 12).”

Isaiah 41:13 (ESV)

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

If God approves of you, you have nothing to fear, and everything to gain. And here’s a key point: the ways we measure God’s approval are not the ways God does. Our feelings tell us God approves when we feel powerful, like we have accomplished something good, when we are successful, and when we receive the approval of other people. But none of these is the true demonstration of God’s approval.

In verse 14, He speaks to “worm Jacob, the men of Israel.”

Isaiah 41:14 (ESV)

Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!

I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

God is speaking to their self-perception. When the nations come to court and set up their idols, they have the best advertising, the latest technology, the flashiest slogans, the most popular spokesmen. When the people of God compare themselves to the world, it’s a trap to think that we need to have all those things for God to approve of us and use us. That’s not the way God works.

Maybe compared to the world, we feel like measly worms, but the reality is that what makes them great is not their own power or wisdom or wealth or even their own righteousness. What makes them great is that the LORD, the Holy One of Israel is their helper and Redeemer. We don’t need better slogans or more popular spokesmen. We don’t need to seek positions of power or influence. We need to know that God is on our side.

God loves to use weak people to do His work. Look at what He says in verses 15-16:

Isaiah 41:15–16 (ESV)

Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth;

you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;

you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them.

And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

The mountains are the places where idols were worshipped. God will use His people to take them down and remake them into places where God is known and worshipped.

Where are the places in our world where God is not known and worshipped? These are the places where idolatry has produces injustice and injustice has produces poverty. The strong have taken advantage of the weak to feed the idol of power or success or wealth. So, the people of God are the worms of this world, who go to wastelands of poverty to tear down idols and remake those wastelands into gardens once again.

Look at the results of the work God does through His people who have threshed out the mountains and hills:

Isaiah 41:17–19 (ESV)

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together,

and this is His purpose in all that:

Isaiah 41:20 (ESV)

that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

God’s desire is that everyone would see and know Him as He is and through what He does. He creates and He recreates and He uses His people in their weak condition in this world to partner with Him in His business, which is to apply His word to establish righteousness in all the dark wastelands of idolatry and injustice. He is on their side, even if they don’t find approval from our world.

The nations can bring their case to court. But it’s frivolous. Their idols can do nothing about God’s plans for our world. And God’s plan is good news (v. 27). In fact, here is God’s plan. It is to approve of one Person, the Person who will bear His Spirit into our world and demonstrate the way God works to establish justice and righteousness in the world.

The Approved Servant

Isaiah 42:1 (ESV)

Behold 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.

Ultimately we are all seeking approval. We either work harder to achieve so that others will approve of us and exhaust ourselves, or we give up and turn to the distractions of idolatry. But when God wants to both demonstrate that He is on our side and at the same time establish justice and righteousness and lay waste to all the idolatry, He sent His Messiah.

This promise, which the gospel writer see so clearly applies to Jesus, is that He will have the Spirit of God. He will bring forth justice. The word here is the word for the judgments of God in Torah. He will love God’s word and apply it to the injustice He finds in our world. But He won’t do it in the ways we expect.

Isaiah 42:2–3 (ESV)

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He won’t establish justice through trials and executions and war and legislative power. He will be gentle with those who have been beaten and bruised, and encouraging to the weak and powerless. God does not seek approval from people. So when He came to us in human form in Jesus, He didn’t come up with a marketing plan or slogans, or surround Himself with popular spokespeople. As Sean O’Connell says, “beautiful things don’t demand attention.” And Jesus is the most beautiful of all. And He demonstrates to us that no matter who you are, God is for you.

He was willing to take time for the outcast, the powerless, the poor. He went out of His way to avoid the limelight to visit the sick and deliver the demon possessed and spend time with people who would not make Him look good and could not pay Him back. He offered forgiveness to sinners who would repent and believe in Him. In the eyes of the world, there would be no return on His investment, and in the court of public opinion, His whole ministry was a waste.

But,

Isaiah 42:4 (ESV)

He will not grow faint or be discouraged (bruised) till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

The coastlands are the nations and people living far from God. How will they ever hope to find approval with God? Only if Messiah does not become beaten down and disheartened by the world so that He can establish God’s word in the world. How will He overcome in this?

Filled with the Spirit of God, He will take confidence in knowing that God is on His side.

Isaiah 42:5–7 (ESV)

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 in it:

“I am the Lord; 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.

For all of us who hope in the covenant God has made in Christ Jesus, we are given light in the darkness and freedom from the dungeons of sin so that we can become His people who will also participate in this plan of God, to deliver others from idolatry and injustice. If we work harder to seek approval, we’ll never be satisfied. But if we trust in the Messiah who is approved by God, we will find strength in resting in Him to work for Him and His purposes.

Questions for Discussion

What are the ways you used to seek approval from your parents or friends when you were younger?

What are ways people seek approval from others that keep them from resting in God’s love for them in Christ?

What kind of people does God approve of?

How does God use His chosen people to change the world? How can He use us in these ways?

What do we learn about God from the Servant of Isaiah 42? In what ways did Jesus fulfill this prophecy and in what ways does Jesus fulfill this today?

How do we enter the covenant God made with Christ in Isaiah 42:509? What does that covenant accomplish in God’s plan for the world?

What are some ways God wants to use us to accomplish His plan in the world? How can we respond?