Isaiah 42: 18-25

In this chapter we see two ‘servants’. There is the perfect Messiah (1-9); but we also encounter the imperfect Israel (18-25). We are reminded of the church’s perennial failure to live up to her calling, and we are challenged as to what kind of servants we will be. Will we seek, with God’s help, to be more like Jesus, and spread His light in the world?

Privilege brings responsibility (18-20). Preachers in particular must feel the challenge of these words for if we do not see and hear clearly, what message can we give? But the passage is pertinent to us all. We can attend church services and go through the motions of personal devotion, but be distracted and inattentive; not really seeing or hearing: ‘’You’re my servant, and you’re not looking! You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!…You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing. You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.’’ The Message. John Ortberg, in his wonderful book about spiritual disciplines, ‘The life you always wanted’, has a chapter on ‘The practice of deliberate slowing.’ He tells how a spiritual advisor, after reviewing John’s patterns, said just one thing to him, ‘You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.’ Someone else John quotes said, ‘Hurry is not of the devil; it is the devil!’ At my junior school we learned about the poet, William Davies, and his poem, ‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?’ The sheer pace at which we live can adversely affect our spiritual focus, if we are not careful. We need to know how to depress the brake, and slow down our lives, in order to really see and hear God’s truth. Surely we get most from prayer and the Bible when we reduce our speed and are fully present in what we are doing. I heard a great sermon many years ago on the theme: ‘Don’t just do something; stand there!’

But in the case of Israel before the exile, it wasn’t merely a case of carelessness about hearing and seeing. They refused to do either. There was unwillingness to ‘’listen’’…or pay close attention… (23), and refusal to ‘’follow his ways’’ (24b). This was outright rebellion. So God would ‘’make His law great and glorious’’ by punishing His people for their disobedience (21, 22). ‘’If people do not honour God’s law by obeying it, God will honour His law by punishing them!’’ Tom Hale: ‘The applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1041.

In (23-25) Isaiah warns Judah about the punishment to come (in the form of the exile.) Although it hasn’t yet happened, he speaks in the past tense, as if it had taken place. For what God says is certain to come about!

‘’How sad it is when God disciplines us and we do not understand what He is doing or take it to heart (v.25). Israel’s captivity in Babylon cured the nation of their idolatry, but it did not create within them a desire to please God and glorify Him.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, p.1187.

The last words of this chapter are true of so many people today: ‘’Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it; their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, I believe I need to live in such a way that I am always ‘tuned in’ to your voice. I cannot afford to miss anything you may want me to see or hear. Please enable me to stay alert.