The Dignified Servant of Jehovah
In verses 2 and 3 of Isaiah 42 we see particularly the character of God's Servant in relation to humanity. As to His service amongst men, He was ever the dignified Servant; "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street" (v 2). The word "cry" is simply the idea of shouting loudly, or making a loud noise. Further down the passage, the nations are exhorted to loudly sing a new song of praise, and give glory unto Jehovah; "Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice … let them shout from the top of the mountains" (v 11). But the perfect Servant Himself moved quietly and with dignity in His service. He did not seek a place of prominence, He never performed a miracle for His own publicity, and He never acted in order to bring glory to Himself.
This character of His service seems to be the reason why Matthew cites these verses from Isaiah 42. In Matthew 12, the Lord healed the man with the withered hand in the synagogue. In response (v 14) the Pharisees held a council how they might destroy Him, and the Lord withdrew Himself. But great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. He then specifically "charged them that they should not make him known: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying …" (vv 16-17). The opening verses of Isaiah 42 are quoted, including "He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets" (Mt 12.19).
So, He did not enter into a violent disputation with these Pharisees who were plotting to destroy Him. Instead He withdrew and, when the multitudes followed after Him, He did not seize upon that moment to lead those multitudes in a revolution against the rulers of the people. Our Lord Jesus never served in an aggressive or threatening way, but always in a quiet, dignified, meek and self-effacing manner; "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Pet 2.23).
The Lord Jesus is an example to all of us, in whatever sphere of service we move. Sometimes when we are bearing testimony for the Lord, and we are opposed or reviled, our natural response is to defend ourselves, and maybe almost to give as good as we get. When someone tells you in the open air meeting to be quiet, you might feel like preaching louder at them. But the perfect Servant never 'gave as good as He got'. He never retaliated in the face of hostility, but rather withdrew Himself. He did not strive or contend in such ways, because that is really only the response of sinful flesh, and there was nothing of that in our blessed Lord, Jehovah's perfect Servant. We are instructed by the Lord to go forth into the world to preach the gospel, and to herald forth the truth of Christ, but we can do that in a quiet and dignified way, and thus display the dignity of the perfect Servant.
The Gentle Servant of Jehovah
In verse 3 we have the gentle Servant. The delightful metaphors used emphasise the gracious ministry of the Servant as He moved in His public service; "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench". His ministry was always one of recovery and restoration for any who were bruised or broken; "He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Lk 4.18). The natural response of man, when something is broken, is to irreversibly break it, cast it aside and move on to a replacement. But our Lord always moved gently with those He met, seeking their physical, and ultimately their spiritual, recovery. The woman at the well in John 4 was bruised. Although that was the consequence of her own sinful life, the Lord still dealt gently with her. He brought her to see her own sinfulness, revealed Himself to her, and ultimately brought her to eternal blessing. She then invited others to "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" (Jn 4.29).
As the gentle Servant He also sought to restore and encourage those who were despondent and discouraged spiritually. Those two travellers to Emmaus were very downcast following the crucifixion of their Lord. Their faith was reduced to just a smouldering flicker, and it would not have taken much to entirely quench it. But the Lord Himself drew near, gently unfolded the Scriptures concerning Himself to them and, as a result, their hope in Christ revived and their heart burned brightly in restored faith and confidence in the risen Lord Jesus; "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Lk 24.32).
How comforting for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to know that He still pursues a gentle service, in His present heavenly ministry as our Great High Priest. He is never thinking for a moment of discarding any of those whom the Father has given Him. When one of His own is bruised and broken, perhaps overtaken by failure, He delights to draw near, to recover and restore that believer to the enjoyment of His peace and His joy. When a believer no longer displays the clear bright flame of testimony that once they did, again He seeks to gently tend to such, to effect their restoration where there is a willing or, if necessary, a repentant heart.
Such a tender and gentle ministry of the Lord Jesus as "that great shepherd of the sheep" (Heb 13.20) is well described by Isaiah; "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young" (40.11). This would teach us how we should act towards one another; how we must move amongst our fellow believers with the same quiet gentleness and kindness that the perfect Servant displayed, seeking the recovery and restoration of those who are weaker, or of any who may have fallen out by the way.
Further, we remember the context in which these verses are quoted in Matthew 12, when the Lord was being vehemently opposed by the Pharisees, His enemies, who were seeking to destroy Him. We could apply the expressions "a bruised reed" and "the smoking flax" to those who were the hostile enemies of Jehovah's Servant. The term "bruised reed" is also found in 2 Kings 18.21, referring to Pharaoh king of Egypt, an enemy power that king Hezekiah could not confidently trust or rely upon. When the Lord Jesus was here in this world, He faced tremendous hatred and opposition from those who were His avowed enemies, from wicked men like Pilate, Herod, and the Pharisees and Scribes. He could have destroyed such enemies at any time; He could have broken the bruised reed, crushed it and moved on, or likewise quenched the smoking flax of any hostile enemy. But He did not do this when He came first in grace, in that quiet and dignified character of the Lamb. Instead, the Lord Jesus allowed these men, the rulers of Israel, Pilate and Herod, to come together against Him. Previously, Pilate and Herod had been "at enmity between themselves", but these avowed enemies of one another "were made friends together" (Lk 23.12), united only in their desire to put the Lord Jesus to death. He allowed His enemies to move against Him as He fulfilled His service, and willingly submitted to being put to death. In contrast, we will see as the passage continues that, when He comes again to this earth, in all the character of a lion, it will then be the time to "prevail against his enemies" (v 13).
(To be continued …)
