Isaiah 42:5-8 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

In the former verses, Jehovah was speaking of Christ; here we find him speaking to Christ: and a most blessed discourse it is. The Lord opens it with a sublime preface, in asserting his own divine authority, as the fountain of all being, giving existence to all his creatures, and incessantly supporting the life he hath given. Reader, is it not most blessed to your mind, to behold the source of the believer's hope in Christ? Oh, what a divine warrant and authority is here for faith to act upon, in the accepting, receiving, and resting the whole of our salvation upon Christ, when we behold how God the Father's hand is in the whole appointment! Having prepared the Church for the cordial reception of Christ, by asserting his own supremacy in the ordination of Christ to the office of Mediator; Jehovah goeth on to address Christ, his chosen, by opening the great mystery of redemption in the covenant, and giving Christ his commission. The Lord begins with calling him; I the Lord have called thee in righteousness. Christ came forth voluntarily to the service, but did not come uncalled; see Hebrews 5:4-6; Psalms 40:7-8. Next, the promises come in: I will hold thine hand, and will keep thee. The human nature of Christ needed support in the vast work of redemption; and it was a grand part of the covenant, that the Father should give it to him Psalms 89:19-23. Next come in the glorious object of this call of Jehovah, and his support of Christ in his services: I will give thee for a covenant of the people. Here is the momentous cause of the whole; that Jesus should be the representative of his people, and the whole of the covenant for them, acting in their name and stead, in all he did and suffered. This is at the bottom of all our hopes and assurances of redemption by Christ's blood. Then follow the blessed and gracious effects upon his people, by virtue of his undertaking and accomplishment: To open the eyes of the blind, and to bring forth the prisoners out of the prison-house; to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of his people. Israel. And oh, how truly blessed is it, not only to see, but feel, the gracious effects wrought in our own hearts by the Holy Ghost, in confirmation of this most precious doctrine! Isaiah 35:4-6, compared with Matthew 9:35. And, Reader, do not overlook the blessed verse with which this passage is closed: Jehovah, who declares his. jealousy of his own name and glory to be such as that he will not give his glory to another; yet, as if to show his oneness in nature and in glory with his dear Son, here gives him the whole glory of the covenant. He is to open blind eyes: and who less, than a God could do this, and have the glory of it what a decided testimony doth this become, and from God the Father himself, that Christ is God? Indeed, none but God could be competent to the work, or to the honour of redemption. Reader, I pray you cherish the blessed thought (for it is most blessed) which this verse fully gives, as an unanswerable evidence in the soul, by the Spirit's confirmation, against all the heresies of the present day; 2 Peter 2:1.