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"Beauty for ashes."
"Oil of joy for mourning."
"A garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."
"Former desolation raised up."
"Everlasting joy shall be upon them" (Isa. 61: 3-8).
Between these two references we find the utter failure of Israel and the glorious
triumph of Christ, and it is the first of these Messianic references to the covenant that
must now occupy our attention.
The passage, Isa. 42: 5-8, falls into two parts. The first part announces the glorious
power of the One Who has appointed this covenant; "He that created the heavens"
(Isa. 42: 5). He it is Who upholds His Servant, giving Him for "a covenant of the
people" and for "a light of the Gentiles" (Isa. 42: 6). The second part describes the
blessedness of this Servant's work: "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners
from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house" (Isa. 42: 7).
The first and last references to the "covenant" in Isa. 1:-39: speak of it as having
been broken:
"They have . . . . . broken the everlasting covenant" (Isa. 24: 5).
"He hath broken the covenant" (Isa. 33: 8).
The first and last references to the "covenant" in
Isa. 40:-66:,
speak of its
establishment:
"I the Lord . . . . . will give Thee for a covenant of the people" (Isa. 42: 6).
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them" (Isa. 61: 8).
Moreover, we discover that there is an intended correspondence between Isa. 42: and
61: Let us read again 42: 7, quoted above, and then read Isa. 61: 1.
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because He hath anointed Me to preach good
tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."
If Matthew, by his quotation in the twelfth chapter, establishes beyond dispute that
Isa. 42: 1-4 is fulfilled in the Person and work of Christ, Luke, in his fourth chapter, also
establishes the same of Isa. 61: 1.
Behind the Gospel is the Law, and behind the Law is the sovereign Creator of heaven
and earth, Who not only "spread forth the earth" but "that which cometh out of it". Not
only does this almighty Creator supply all things necessary for the sustenance of His
creatures, but He is the source of life itself, "He giveth breath unto the people upon it,
and spirit to them that walk therein" (Isa. 42: 5). It is this One, Whose might and Whose
right are beyond question, Who called the Messiah and gave Him to the world in His
twofold capacity as: "A covenant of the people" and "A light of the Gentiles".