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.
He will not cry
out or raise His voice, Nor
make His voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed
He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;
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."
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,
To open blind
eyes,
To bring out
prisoners from the dungeon
And those who
dwell in darkness from the prison.
An Ancient prophecy, otherwise known
as Isaiah 42:1-7 22
When God makes a campaign promise,
it isn’t just a political maneuver.
Rather, God is actually interested in changing the world.
Unlike Cyrus, Churchill, Charlemagne
or any other world leader, God is well aware of every person suffering in all
the world. Every baby born with AIDS,
every mother with too little nutrition to feed her infant, every village with
poisoned water, every man imprisoned for religious reasons, every son kidnapped
by a militia, every daughter enslaved for sex, every abused wife, every man who
is slowly dying every day to feed his family—God knows every one of them.
And as we saw in Psalm 146 in the
first chapter, God has provided for them all.
The means to feed, deliver, heal, and save all of these people are
available. However, we all live in a
system that distributes wealth, food, medicine, freedom and hope to those who
don’t so desperately need it. Rather,
all of these resources are granted to those who already have what they need,
and now has the resources to horde what they want, even at the cost of many who
do not receive what they need.
God is wanting to change all
that. So that way he no longer has to
share in the suffering of the many.
So we have the promises that God
made above. In many of these promises,
God focuses on His people, whom He has chosen.
God centers on this people not because He wants to ignore the rest of
the world, but because of—guess what?—His promise. He stated often that it is through this one
people that all the peoples of the world will obtain His promises. It is as if God poured all the grain of the
world into one huge silo, not for storage, but for distribution. The promises fulfilled are not meant to
remain with God’s people, but are to be distributed to everyone.
Thus, the promise of land isn’t for
the few wealthy, it is for the poor masses.23
The promise of provision of food and
clothing isn’t for some religious folks but for the world.24
The promise of God’s Spirit isn’t
for just the chosen, but for the Gentiles.25
The promise of deliverance from
captivity isn’t just for Israel
The
basic promises of Ezekiel 36, Psalm 37 and Isaiah 61 weren’t the only grandiose
promises God had given to his people.
Again, God had been king for a long time, and he had made many promises
to his people. Some of them were because
of his reputation, as in Ezekiel 36.
Some of these promises were made to make sure that the people wouldn’t
feel that they were going to be punished forever. Others were promised simply because of God’s
justice—to see right prevail.
· God promised that he would bring a new king.27
· God promised that the new king would bring justice to
everyone who lived in the land.28
· God promised that people would be healed of their illnesses.29
· God promised that all oppressors would be judged.30
· God promised that the power of the nations would be
destroyed by his new kingdom.31
· God promised that those of his people who had died would be
resurrected.32
· God promised that there would be a time of peace under a
ruler concerned about the poor.33
God’s promises listed here weren’t
just promising some good for a few people.
God was promising a complete change in the world system—a utopia for
those who were loyal to God alone. When
you talk about healing for everyone (the best medical plan ever!) and
destruction of all oppression (greater justice than simply throwing “bad guys”
into prison!), then you are talking about seeing something that the world has
never seen! This is rightly called a
“utopia”, which was Thomas Moore’s word for his novel that literally means “no
place.” Thomas Moore was such a cynic. It didn’t exist. It never had.
Mr. Moore thought it never would. But God was promising that someday it
wouldn’t just be an ideal but reality.
The first world order that is truly new.
Every needy person, all the anawim,
in every spot on this world can trust in God’s utopia. As long as they understand the
conditions. (For every promise, whether
spoken or not, has a condition.)
22. I would also want to
put another prophecy from Isaiah here: “Then a shoot will spring from the stem
of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD
will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel
and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will
delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge
the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will
strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He
will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And
faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young
lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow
and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will
eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.” Isaiah 11:1-8
This passage is not about animals so much as the poor being
on an equal level with the wealthy and oppressors.
23. Psalm 37:10-11; Matthew 5:5.
24. Matthew 6:25-34
25. Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16-21.
26. Genesis 12:2-3; Isaiah 66:18-21; Revelation 7:9-17.
27. Isaiah 9:6-7.
28. Isaiah 11:1-8
29. Ezekiel 34:4; Deuteronomy 7:15.
30. Psalm 82.
31. Daniel 2:44
32. Daniel 12:2-3
33. Isaiah 11:6-11.
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