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The lectionary often begins a reading at the end of one poem and includes the beginning of another. Such is the case here. Isaiah 42:1-4 forms the climactic last stanza of the long poem concerning the trial with the nations that begins in 41:1. Isaiah 42:5-9 is the opening stanza of the poem that encompasses 42:5-17. Thus, we will initially deal with 42:1-4 and then 42:5-9.

Isaiah 42:1-4 is the first of the well-known Servant Songs in Second Isaiah. It immediately raises the question: "Who is the Servant?" There have been years of scholarly discussion about the question, but in my view and that of many others, the Servant represents corporate Israel, as in 41:9 and 44:1-2. However, the Servant is not Israel in Babylonian exile, as she actually is. Rather, the Servant is Israel as she is meant to be, Israel as the Lord will transform her to be, Israel as God will use her in his future salvation of the nations.

It is exceedingly important to realize therefore that Jesus Christ in the New Testament becomes the embodiment of the Servant, summing up in his incarnate person all that Israel was meant by God to be. For example, Christ becomes the Son of God, called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), as Israel was the called adopted son (cf. Hosea 11:1), and Christ is the true vine (John 15:1), as Israel was the vine (Psalm 80:7). Christ is not a replacement for Israel, but rather is the corporate personality, the fulfillment and summing up, of the intended Israel of the Old Testament, continuing God's work of salvation across the centuries. His connection with Israel is not to be overlooked by the preacher. In the Old Testament, God chooses Israel as his Servant to carry out his purpose, and Jesus of Nazareth becomes, in the New Testament, that Servant. The witness to God's work is continuous across the two testaments, and God's one purpose of salvation runs through the whole biblical story.

Because our Lord Christ became the Servant, the description of him, given in Isaiah 42:1-4, is exceedingly important for us. Obviously this Isaiah text has been chosen as the stated lesson for this Sunday when we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, because it says that God has put his Spirit upon his Servant, and it is at his baptism that the Spirit descends from heaven upon Jesus (cf. the gospel lesson). Thus, Jesus the Servant is "chosen" by God, is upheld by God, and is a delight to God -- all stated in 42:1, that parallels 41:9.

According to 42:1-4, then, the primary work of the Servant is to establish God's "justice," God's mispat, in all the world. Three times the word appears in these four verses. And here it could properly be read as God's "rule," God's sovereignty over all the earth. The nations are called to trial in Isaiah 41:1-29, and the final verdict of the court in 42:1-4 is that God's rule, God's order for life, will be the governance that the Servant will establish throughout the earth, enabled by the Spirit of God given to him (cf. Isaiah 11:2-4). It is no accident, therefore, that Jesus comes preaching the Kingdom or the Kingship of God. God's way will become the rule of life for all nations.

The Servant will not establish God's rule by force of arms, however, nor will persuasive public preaching be his main role (v. 2). Rather, his mercy toward the "bruised reeds" -- the hurting of this world -- and his tenderness for those whose lives are almost extinguished like a sputtering wick will be his modes of expression (v. 3) -- surely motifs that found their fulfillment in Jesus' forgiveness and healing and sacrifice for us all upon the cross.

Verse 4 of our poem then picks up the words "bruised" and "burn dimly" from verse 3, and uses them in the Hebrew to say that the Servant will neither fail ("be bruised") nor be discouraged ("burn dimly"). The time of his work may be long and the obstacles to his ministry be great, with only a slim chance of success, but nevertheless, the Servant will prevail and finally establish God's rule over all. In New Testament terms, the kingdom will in fact come and God's order for human life will indeed be established. Such is the promise to us of both Old and New Testaments.

Verse 5 of 42:5-9 begins a new poem and opens with the hymnic praise of the Creator of the world. This God, who sends his Servant to us, is able to establish his rule because he is the powerful Maker who spread out (literally, "beat out to a thin surface") the vastness of the heavens, who laid out the earth upon the waters, and who gave his animating breath to all humans and creatures (cf. Psalm 104:29-30; Genesis 2:7). The God of history is also the Almighty Creator of all -- a frequent note in Second Isaiah.

But that Almighty Lord is also the King who, in his Son, has "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), and that Servant is called "in righteousness," that is, in God's will to save. ("Righteousness," throughout the Bible, is the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship.) God guides the Servant by the hand and keeps him. And then God gives the Servant as a "covenant to the people" (v. 6). In short, Jesus Christ is God's pledge to us of his presence with us and of his salvation of us. He is "the light" for us and for all peoples, shining in our present darkness (cf. Isaiah 9:2; John 1:4-9; 8:12, et al.). He is the one who can liberate humanity from its bondage to the world's forces and to sin and death (v. 7).

There is no doubt about it. The God who has sent the Servant, Jesus Christ, is the one and only Lord (v. 8). There is no other god besides him, no other deity who is glorious in might and love, no other god who is to be praised and worshiped. And as in the New Testament, the Servant of the one true God, Jesus Christ, is the one way to God and the incarnation of God's truth and of God's very Person (John 14:6).

As evidence of the sole lordship of God, Second Isaiah frequently points to God's rule over the span of history. In the court case with the nations (41:22), the Lord challenges the nations' gods to tell what is going to take place in history. But of course they cannot do so, because only the Holy One of Israel rules over all the events of time. So, too, here in verse 9, God points to the fact that he has foretold what has happened in the past. He has promised, and it has come true. He has decreed, and it has taken place.

Now, in Second Isaiah's present, God promises a new act of salvation to come. As in Isaiah 43:19, exiled Israel is to look not to the saving acts of the Lord in the past, but to another new act of salvation that will deliver her from Babylonian exile, while that deed will at the same time gather up all of God's past promises and bring them to completion (cf. Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-11). It is for that new saving act that Israel is to wait (Isaiah 40:31).

Certainly Israel of the sixth century B.C. was released from Babylonian exile by Cyrus of Persia, as promised by Second Isaiah (45:1, 13). But the new age of God's order did not find its complete fulfillment in Second Isaiah's time through the instrument of the Servant Israel. Instead, we have to look to the final Servant, to Jesus Christ, whose forgiveness, mercy, and liberation are indeed being proclaimed to all nations. Through Christ's continuing work in our world, he is bringing in God's promised kingdom. Through him, God is establishing his worldwide rule that will finally cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.