1. Isaiah 42. Who are the two “servants” of this chapter?

The first four verses talk of one who will bring forth justice to the nations, who is quiet and compassionate, persistent and righteous.

Verse 19-22 speak of a [spiritually] blind and deaf servant, plundered and despoiled, trapped in caves, hidden in prisons, a prey with no deliverer.

Israel, in its role of serving God and mankind, failed miserably. Jesus will serve God’s purposes far better.

2. Isaiah 42:1-4. What is confusing about that first “Servant” in this passage?

First, He brings justice to the nations. A powerful king.

Then, He is so humble that you can hardly hear Him when He teaches in public. He is gentle to the point that bruised reeds and burning wicks need not fear their end at His hands.

But then, He is the conqueror again, establishing justice. The farthest points on the globe will be waiting for His law, and He will have a serious law!

Two Servants? No, just one, at two times in His life. We saw the gentle Lamb, led to the slaughter. The lion is next.

3. Isaiah 43:1-7 . Has there been such a time for Israel?

Not yet. Nor is this the church. “Jacob” (Israel) is called by name. God speaks to His remnant upon His – and their – return. Though we talk much about 1948, the returnees at that time had not yet turned to Christ, and in the main still have not, though they have had access to the Gospel for these 64 years. On their final return, as saved people, accepting the redemption that is only in their Messiah, God will speak these words to them. Christians can buy into this redemption and apply much to themselves, but only in a secondary borrowed sense. These words were spoken to Israel!

4. Isaiah 43:10. How did Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cults – and many Protestants – grab this verse and call it their own?

It’s easy. Just say God is finished with Israel, the church is the new Israel. Everything – within reason – that is said to Israel is said to us. That’s where the “Witnesses” went under Judge Rutherford in the 1930’s. But many others have come to this awful conclusion, and the Old Testament, especially the prophets, suffer huge damage at the hands of “interpreters” who imagine most anything they want to imagine as the meaning of men like Isaiah. They willfully ignore the great gulf God puts between these people in Revelation, where in one chaprer 144,000 JEWS are called, and in the next breath, an innumerable number of Gentiles. They are separate.

That is not to say that we will not one day all be included as the people of God. It is to say that when God makes specific promises to specific peoples, He keeps them. Let Him do that before robbing prophetic texts of their power. There’s plenty of good stuff after Matthew to keep us happy in the Lord and confident in our faith.

5. Isaiah 44:8. Answer the Lord’s question here:

No, obviously the answer is no. But that did not stop the Jehovah’s Witnesses from changing John 1:1 to:

“…and the Word was a god.”