Lent 2022: The Servant of Yahweh

I have at times past blogged each day of Lent. I’m not sure if this is achievable this year. But I want to start today in Isaiah, with the first of the so called ‘servant’ songs – about a mysterious figure who sometimes seems to be Israel, sometimes someone a bit like a prophet, and sometimes someone far more than just a prophet. In the New Testament lots of these passages are applied to Jesus who fills out this role perfectly.

These passages then are a great way to look afresh at Jesus. I want to go slowly, and not write much at a time. I want to take them in. To let Isaiah’s words sink into me afresh, showing me the beauty of Jesus. I need this, because my heart is heavy right now.

Heavy at a personal and family level – we’ve uprooted ourselves once more, we live at the opposite end of the country to where we were, once more in a house not our own and nothing feels quite like home. In the place where we were at home things aren’t quite the same at a number of levels, so there is no going back to the same place.

And yet almost guilty to admit that heaviness. I don’t live in a war zone. No one will bomb this house tonight. I don’t live in a country ruled by a brutal tyrant who cares nothing for justice and innocent lives. Yet I live in a world where that is true right now. And worse than this I have not felt of this before despite the fact that every single day for the last countless years that has been true. Somewhere in this world people have been living in fear for their lives each day every day. Somewhere in this world people have lived in fear of brutal rulers every single day.

All of us live in this world – and for the last two years that world has also been ravaged by a deadly pandemic, and all of us have lived different lives as a result. There is a tiredness that seeps into us all. Personally, as churches, and as nations. There is a heaviness and a weight that saps strength. In the midst of that we need to hear these words of God which describe the servant, and which ultimately describe Jesus.

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
And he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
Or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

Isaiah 42:1-4

So much could be said about these verses, and maybe I will explore more of this in coming days. But for now stop and obey the first word. “Here is” in the NIV translates the Hebrew word “Hen“, which older translations (and the ESV) translate as “behold”. Behold is a difficult word to translate – we don’t say “behold” very much these days in ordinary speech. But it essentially means “look!”, or “pay attention!”.

We need, in the midst of this world of tanks and bombs and missiles, to pay attention to Yahweh’s work. And to Yahweh’s way of working. Which isn’t with tanks and bombs. It comes with ‘his servant’. Don’t miss that. Matthew applies this to Jesus in his gospel. Jesus comes as the servant.

As a servant he comes not to do his own will, but the will of the one who sent him. As a servant he comes not to be served, but to serve. The very opposite of the dictator imposing his will on a country that gets in his way.

There is so much more in these verses to consider – and I want to look more at these. But for now pause. Pause to pray. Pause to invite God to speak in the words of Isaiah 42:1-4.

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
And he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out,
Or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

Isaiah 42:1-4

Maybe at the start of this Lent season listen to The Servant King by Graham Kendrick – the words are profound and help us focus on the one who came not to be served but to serve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B789G5QY9Q&t=38s