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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Isaiah 42:1 - 42:1
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Isa 42:1-25. Messiah the antitype of Cyrus.
God’s description of His character (Isa 42:1-4). God addresses Him directly (Isa 42:5-7). Address to the people to attend to the subject (Isa 42:8, Isa 42:9). Call to all, and especially the exile Jews to rejoice in the coming deliverance (Isa 42:10-25).
my servant - The law of prophetic suggestion leads Isaiah from Cyrus to the far greater Deliverer, behind whom the former is lost sight of. The express quotation in Mat 12:18-20, and the description can apply to Messiah alone (Psa 40:6; with which compare Exo 21:6; Joh 6:38; Phi 2:7). Israel, also, in its highest ideal, is called the “servant” of God (Isa 49:3). But this ideal is realized only in the antitypical Israel, its representative-man and Head, Messiah (compare Mat 2:15, with Hos 11:1). “Servant” was the position assumed by the Son of God throughout His humiliation.
elect - chosen by God before the foundation of the world for an atonement (1Pe 1:20; Rev 13:8). Redemption was no afterthought to remedy an unforeseen evil (Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26; Eph 3:9, Eph 3:11; 2Ti 1:9, 2Ti 1:10; Tit 1:2, Tit 1:3). In Mat 12:18 it is rendered “My beloved”; the only beloved Son, beloved in a sense distinct from all others. Election and the love of God are inseparably joined.
soul - a human phrase applied to God, because of the intended union of humanity with the Divinity: “I Myself.”
delighteth - is well pleased with, and accepts, as a propitiation. God could have “delighted” in no created being as a mediator (compare Isa 42:21; Isa 63:5; Mat 3:17).
spirit upon him - (Isa 11:2; Isa 61:1; Luk 4:18; Joh 3:34).
judgment - the gospel dispensation, founded on justice, the canon of the divine rule and principle of judgment called “the law” (Isa 2:3; compare Isa 42:4; Isa 51:4; Isa 49:6). The Gospel has a discriminating judicial effect: saving to penitents; condemnatory to Satan, the enemy (Joh 12:31; Joh 16:11), and the willfully impenitent (Joh 9:39). Mat 12:18 has, “He shall show,” for “He shall bring forth,” or “cause to go forth.” Christ both produced and announced His “judgment.” The Hebrew dwells most on His producing it; Matthew on His announcement of it: the two are joined in Him.