Reflective Bible Study

As we continue forward in our journey through prophecies and connections we can find between the Old Testament and Jesus’ ministry, we come to another prophecy that’s found in the book of Isaiah, and this particular prophecy is fascinating in my mind. However, while the prophecy itself is powerful, while preparing for this podcast, I noticed an intriguing change of phrasing that most people might miss.

Also within the opening verses of this chapter, we find more than one description that is applicable to Jesus and His ministry.

With this said, let’s dive in and read our Old Testament prophecy and discover how it points forward to Jesus. This prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 42, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Isaiah writes:

¹  “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
² “He will not cry out or raise His voice,
Nor make His voice heard in the street.
³ “A bruised reed He will not break
And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴ “He will not be disheartened or crushed
Until He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”

⁵ Thus says God the Lord,

Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and its offspring,
Who gives breath to the people on it
And spirit to those who walk in it,
⁶ “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness,
I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You,
And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
⁷ To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
⁸ “I am the Lord, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images.
⁹ “Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things;
Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

In these opening verses to this chapter in Isaiah, we find not one but two prophetic statements about the coming Messiah. However, I suspect that we won’t have enough time to cover them both without this being a much longer than normal podcast.

However, before I shift to focus on something intriguing that I saw in the first portion of this passage, I’m sure that if you have spent any time in the gospels, you can see how the last portion of this prophecy was fulfilled in how Jesus lived His life. In the last portion of verse 6 and into verse 7, Isaiah writes:

“And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the nations,
To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the dungeon
And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”

I cannot help but see these phrases as being fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry, as Someone sent to be a light to the nations, as someone who healed the eyes of blind people, and as someone who spiritually freed people from the dungeon of sin. Jesus did several miracles within His ministry where these ideas from Isaiah’s writing are clearly fulfilled.

However, the first few verses of Isaiah’s prophecy are quoted in the book of Matthew when describing Jesus, but when we look closely at how they are quoted, there is an interesting anomaly.

Let’s read this quotation from Matthew’s gospel. This prophecy is quoted in Matthew chapter 12. This chapter begins with Jesus’ disciples picking grain from a field they were passing through one Sabbath, and it then transitions to a miracle-healing Jesus did at the synagogue, presumably that same morning. This trip to the synagogue didn’t end well, and the religious leaders leave there with the intent to make plans for how to get rid of Jesus.

Starting reading from verse 15 of Matthew chapter 12, Matthew tells us:

¹⁵ But Jesus, aware of this [specifically the intention of these leaders and their plotting against Him], withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, ¹⁶ and warned them not to tell who He was. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

¹⁸ “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;
My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased;
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
¹⁹ “He will not quarrel, nor cry out;
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
²⁰ “A battered reed He will not break off,
And a smoldering wick He will not put out,
Until He leads justice to victory.
²¹ “And in His name the Gentiles will hope.”

In this Old Testament quotation, the way this prophecy ends is completely different than in Isaiah’s original. While I suspect that there is some variation between the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments, and that most of the variation we see between how these two prophecies are worded is a result of this early translation between Hebrew and Greek, I don’t know either of these original languages to be able to validate this suspicion.

However, with the way this prophecy ends, on the surface, it looks like Matthew clearly changed the phrase since it sounds like almost a completely different idea. In Isaiah’s original prophecy, the last four lines which are at the end of verse 3 through verse 4, are:

“He will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not be disheartened or crushed
Until He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”

However, when Matthew quotes this idea, he summarizes Isaiah’s four phrases down to two, by saying at the end of verse 20 and into verse 21:

“Until He leads justice to victory.
And in His name the Gentiles will hope.”

While both the original and Matthew’s quotation talk about Jesus the Messiah bringing forth justice, the last phrase sounds completely different. Isaiah writes about the coastland waiting expectantly for God, or the Messiah’s law, while Matthew writes, or interprets the original to mean that in the Messiah’s name, the Gentiles will hope.

I suspect some people might find this discrepancy between the Old and New Testament as a reason to doubt, but not me. While my maps of Israel and Judah show the territory given to the nation of Israel in the Old and New Testaments as stretching to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from how the New Testament describes the region, I get the impression that the cities along the coast were much more secular. While not named specifically, if I remember correctly, Tyre and Sidon were both in northwestern part of Israel and along the coast, though I don’t remember if they were specifically within Israel’s borders or just outside of them. Both of these towns were known for being filled with non-Jews and for being secular. It wouldn’t surprise me if more towns along the coastline in Israel were similar.

However, not only are Gentiles roughly connected with the coastland in this adapted interpretation. Also connected are the Messiah’s name, we could understand this name to be Jesus, and His law. While I will leave it up to you whether you want to interpret the phrase “His Law” to mean Jesus’ law, the Old Testament Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments, or some other understanding, it is fascinating that Matthew takes this prophecy and connects Jesus’ name with some understanding or fulfillment of a Law. The context of this is in relation to reaching out to Gentiles living in the coastlands, not specifically on reaching those who were already converted.

Some of you might wonder why this is relevant, especially since we are living so far removed from the context of this prophecy. For me, this prophecy, and Matthew’s adaptation, are very relevant, because in these verses, I see the truth that in order to understand who Jesus is, we must look at Jesus’ life from within the context of His Law. Again, I will let you fill in whichever definition of the law you want to use, but whether you choose Jesus’ new command, His simplified two greatest commandments, the Ten Commandments, or even the whole Mosaic law, Jesus’ life only makes sense through the lens of these laws.

Elsewhere in Jesus’ ministry, He describes how He came to fulfill the law, and His fulfilling the law is different from abolishing it. I suspect Matthew understood this, and He wants those who study His gospel to pick up on the nuance that we need the Law to be able to understand Jesus.

Jesus lived the requirements of the law so that when we fail at these same requirements, we have an intercessor who understands our situation. Jesus paid the penalty for breaking the law so that we can be given the reward He deserved while He freely took the punishment we deserved. This is the gospel message. While some might extend this to mean that grace is cheap, those that do can only do so if they cheapen Jesus’ sacrifice for sin. The Law, mixed with grace led Jesus to and through death, and when we ally and align ourselves with Jesus, we have the assurance that He is able to lead us to and through death, and into an eternal life with Him.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do in one way or another, continue to seek God first in your life. Accept Jesus’ sacrifice into your heart, your mind, and your life, and intentionally ally your life with His while stepping forward towards eternity.

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus. Through prayer and Bible study, discover just how much Jesus loves you and what He was willing to face in order to give you the opportunity of salvation.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or let Satan trick you into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we find an event that almost directly relates to the event in our last episode, but one that we might not see the connection at first. The details of this passage begin while Jesus is up on the mountain with the three closest disciples, while the nine remaining disciples are facing a dilemma they thought they could handle while Jesus was gone.

Let’s read about what happened, about what these disciples were unable to do, and how Jesus succeeded when these disciples failed. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 9, and we will read from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 37, Luke tells us that:

³⁷ The next day, when they [referring to Jesus, Peter, James, and John] came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. ³⁸ A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. ³⁹ A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. ⁴⁰ I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

⁴¹ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

⁴² Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. ⁴³ And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

Pausing our reading here, in this passage, while Jesus and His closest disciples were up on the mountain, the remaining disciples were unsuccessfully trying to cast out a demon. Matthew and Mark have the disciples ask Jesus why they could not do it and Jesus responds with a statement challenging their faith and telling them this type of demon can only come out with prayer and possibly fasting.

While this is a good answer and a good reason, it falls a little short when we place this failure against the previous successes that these nine disciples would have had not long before when they were traveling among the towns and villages in Israel. In our last episode, we looked at how the disciples had successfully healed people and cast out demons. However, in this passage, they are now unable to do it.

Why might this have been?

As I think about the details of this event, I wonder where the hearts of the disciples were while Jesus was on the mountain. If the disciples had pride in their hearts about their past success, their pride or arrogance might have blocked the Holy Spirit from working through them to heal this boy.

Another thought is that the attitudes the disciples had when being presented with this problem did not point to God receiving the glory. If the disciples were interested in taking the glory for this miracle and healing onto themselves, then they were doomed to fail. When Jesus did a miracle and when He chose to heal, in every case, Jesus wanted to either show God’s love, give God the glory, or both. If the disciples weren’t interested in God getting the ultimate glory for this miracle, then their attempts were doomed to fail.

A third thought is that God may have kept the disciples from being successful in their genuine attempts to heal this boy because He wanted them to learn something from the failure. More often than we would like it to be, we are able to learn more from failure than from success. When we fail, we are challenged to try again and we are challenged to learn more than if we simply had succeeded. Success is great, but it doesn’t teach as much as failure can.

Jesus’ message to the disciples that this kind of demon can only come out through prayer, faith, and possibly fasting draws our attention to the importance of having a strong, close, connection with God. Prayer, faith, and fasting are all spiritual disciplines that point us to and connect us with God. Jesus’ message to the disciples might be that they needed a stronger connection with God to succeed with this significant miracle. In our own lives and in the big themes of the Bible, strengthening our relationship with God through prayer and faith is never a bad decision!

However, Jesus has a message He wants the disciples to hear. While the crowd is praising God about this miracle, Luke draws our attention onto a message Jesus wants all 12 of His disciples to hear.

Continuing in the second part of verse 43, Luke tells us:

While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, ⁴⁴ “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” ⁴⁵ But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

In the last verses of our passage, Jesus wanted the disciples to know that this successful feeling would not last. During the times of triumph, Jesus wants the disciples to know that this moment will pass. While celebrating successes is a good thing, it is always wise to remember that life is made up of challenges and successes.

At the high points, it is just as vital to realize and remember the low points as it is to remember the high points when we are facing low points in our journey. Jesus challenges the disciples with a message they didn’t like Him reminding them of when they were thinking of celebrating this success.

I am also amazed by how Luke finishes off this passage. Luke describes the disciples being afraid to ask Jesus about this message. While the meaning of Jesus’ prediction was hidden from them, fear stopped these disciples from asking for clarification. If any of the disciples had pushed past the fear to ask, I am certain that crucifixion weekend would have gone completely differently.

Fear can stop us in our tracks if we let it. Jesus desperately wanted the disciples to ask Him about this prediction so He could explain it further, but the disciples were repeatedly closed to the idea that Jesus had anything but success in His future. Jesus ultimately was triumphant, but Jesus’ success only came after His biggest trial – and Jesus’ trial not only challenged Jesus, it challenged all the disciples beyond what the disciples believed.

When we face challenges in our lives, remember the successes in our past. When we face success, remember the challenges of our past and that challenges will come in our future. And above everything else, remember that Jesus is triumphant, and that He will be with us through both the trials and the triumphs of life!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to remember God in the trials and in the triumphs. Choose also to lean and depend on God, giving Him the glory for everything He has blessed you with. Intentionally thank God for everything He has done for you and through you in your life.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself. Remember that it is never a bad choice to focus on strengthening your relationship with God. Don’t let culture, the world, or anyone convince you that a personal relationship with God is unnecessary. A personal relationship with God is one of the most important things we can have, and wherever you are on your journey with God, focusing on growing closer to and leaning into God is never a bad choice.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!