Isaiah 42

Isaiah 42:3

Isa. 42:3. “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” The thing most directly intended in this verse seems to be the perseverance of the Christian church, and of particular saints; the church shall not be extinct, though it shall be greatly oppressed and persecuted, and shall be as a bruised reed, but it shall not be wholly broken; when once the fire is kindled it shall never be quenched; but though it do but just smoke at first, afterwards it shall flame out; it shall be as a grain of mustard-seed that by degrees shall become a great tree, or as the little leaven that was hidden in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened, or as the stone out of the mountain. Though the church sometimes be so oppressed that it is hardly visible, we can hardly see whether there be any fire or no, but only the smoke; yet it shall never be wholly destroyed. The same may be applied to particular saints, for he that has begun a good work in them shall carry it on to the day of Christ.

Isa. 42:8

Isaiah 42:8

Isa. 42:8. “I am the Lord Jehovah, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Concerning this text, these things may be remarked confirming the divinity of Christ.

1. The name Jehovah is a peculiar name of the true God. See also Psalms 83:18, “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.”
2. That the name Jehovah here spoken of, is often undeniably given to Christ, as is not denied by Arians themselves. It is given in this very book; see Isaiah 6:1, etc. compared with John 12:41.
3. God says expressly concerning Christ, who is called the Angel of the Lord, “My Name is in him,” and therefore he requires the children of Israel to obey his voice.
4. He is often called “the Name of God.”
5. The glory of the Lord was given to him; so that glory with which the angel of the Lord was wont to appear, was in a peculiar manner called the glory of the Lord.6. He is himself often called the glory of the Lord. The apostle expressly says, he is “the brightness of God’s glory.”

Isa. 42:10-12

Isaiah 42:10-12

Isa. 42:10-12. The songs of the Lord of old were very much confined to the Temple at Jerusalem. When the Jews were in a “strange land” they hung their harps on the willows, and could not sing the Lord’s song. Psalms 137:2-4. Now the songs of holy joy and praise shall be sung all the world over. The Gentile nations shall share equally with the Jews in their testament blessings, and therefore shall join in the New Testament praises and acts of worship. The conversion of the Gentiles is often foretold under this notion of their singing praises with God’s people, as appears by Romans 15:9-11. See Isaiah 24:16.

Isa. 43:21-28