A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 41: The Way of the Blind

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 41: The Way of the Blind

In our last presentation in Isaiah we had discussed only five verses in Isaiah chapter 42, and in that effort, our endeavor was to explain why the nations in the coastlands and isles of the west would even need The Light of Judgment found in the promised Gospel of Christ. In the first four verses of this chapter there is a Messianic prophecy which concludes in verse 4 by stating: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. ” Then the purpose of this Messianic figure is further expounded upon, and we read in part: “6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the [Nations]; 7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

Of course, the people and nations which were to receive this light and this covenant are the children of Israel in captivity, and they were sent into captivity, which also signified their alienation from Yahweh, on account of their sins. In the warnings of the punishments for disobedience found in Deuteronomy chapter 28, we read in part: “28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: 29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.” Their foremost sin was idolatry, the worship of Baal and the other pagan idols of the surrounding nations, and idolatry led them to commit many more grievous sins. In Deuteronomy chapter 8 we read a commandment repeated on at least several other occasions to the children of Israel: “19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.” 

Idolatry is not merely setting a figurine on a pedestal and venerating it for some silly reason. Idolatry is not merely a substitution of the Name of Yahweh for that of some idol, without changing the routines, practices or rituals of one’s mode of life. Rather, idolatry is the veneration of some authority other than God, from which one receives laws and customs that are contrary to the laws of God. The ancient Canaanites had committed all sorts of abominable practices, fornication, child sacrifice, temple prostitution, adultery, and other sins, all in the name of their gods. Therefore we aspired to demonstrate the degree to which this light which had been promised in these verses was necessitated by illustrating from examples found in Classical literature, namely from Greek writings which are nearly as old as Isaiah himself, the level of depravity in the ancient pagan world, where sins such as Sodomy, pederasty and the rape of women, whether they be virgins or married women, were completely normalized and even celebrated by the poets to the point where such acts had also frequently been attributed to their gods. If one’s god does it, then it is certainly permissible to do, regardless of what it is. These poets did not merely write books which were stuffed onto shelves and forgotten. Rather, their works were performed in well-attended theaters found in every Greek city, which were the centers of culture and entertainment of their time. They pervaded the consciences of the people just as television and movie entertainments do today, and they were just as depraved as they are once again in modern times. 

At least several of the emperors of Rome were evidently no better than the Greek gods. In the accounts of The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, the emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Nero and Domitian were accused of pederasty, even the forcible rape of male and female children, and of Sodomy, incest, adultery and other sins. While Suetonius’ writings are dismissed as political polemic by modern academics, they were nevertheless popular and widely distributed. Later, a relationship which the emperor Hadrian had with a younger man named Antinous was suggested by Cassius Dio, a Roman senator and historian, and it was also described by other later writers. It is certain that Hadrian had Antinous deified after his death and founded a cult in his name, an honor which previously had been reserved for dead emperors and,omn occasion, certain prominent members of their families. Other emperors, even Julius Caesar, were also the subjects of rumors of Sodomy and adultery. 

The Roman poet Ovid, who celebrated eroticism and promoted sexual licentiousness even among married men and women, was immensely popular despite his having been exiled by Augustus for his writings. In Book 9 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a girl named Iphis was raised as a boy from infancy, falls in love with and was betrothed to another girl, Ianthe. So that they could marry, the goddess Isis appears and transforms Iphis to a man, so that the lesbian lovers could marry. [1] This sounds like Isis could have been a modern gender transitioning doctor in a New York hospital, and there is literally nothing new under the sun. So in spite of any reciprocation from Augustus, this was the general direction of the pagan European world before the Gospel of Christ had taken root in the west. This is what had been suppressed by Christianity, even the Christianity of the Roman Catholic Church, for well over a thousand years, and the perversion was unleashed once again in the Age of Enlightenment, the very name of which is a mockery of Christ, so that now we are living in a new Dark Age. Of course, there were many other sins in the ancient world which were also eradicated under Christianity. But when the isles had received His law, the world once again became a safer place for little boys and girls, and the sanctity of marriage and family. 

Now, as we commence with Isaiah chapter 42, in spite of the fact that the prophet is addressing the people in captivity in these last 26 chapters of his work, he is nevertheless in Jerusalem with the remnant of Judah, and sometimes speaks to or about them on those terms. They would be primarily responsible for preserving his work once his time is completed. Having Isaiah’s prophecy at hand, it is also they who should have been the first to understand the truth of what had been said here in verse 9, where we read: “9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.” The former things of which the prophet had written contained many near-vision prophecies concerning the fate of Israel and Judah, which had at this point already been fulfilled, for the most part, and although in the first 40 chapters of his work the prophet also had some far-vision prophecies, most of these last 26 chapters are all far-vision prophecies, containing new things of which the prophet had not written. So now we shall continue from that point:

10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. 

This is certainly a continuation of the Messianic prophecy which began in the opening verses of this chapter. As for the “sea and all that is therein”, this is not a reference to fish, but to the isles and coastlands of the sea, the seaports and the cities in which many of the scattered children of Israel would be found. Those who would go down to the sea and sail to the isles would bring the light of the law by announcing the Gospel of Christ to the inhabitants thereof, who were chiefly all portions of the children of Israel in captivity. So this is a prophecy of Paul of Tarsus and his companions as they brought the Gospel of Christ to Europe, which is the Way of the Blind. However the Gospel also spread to Israelites who remained scattered within and around Judaea, and it is those future Christians who would also help bring the Gospel to the isles:

11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. 

While Kedar was originally a city of the children of Ishmael, in the burden of Arabia found in the closing verses of Isaiah chapter 21 it is also one of the places in the south to which the children of Judah who had sought to escape the Assyrians had fled. The word for rock here is סלע or sela (# 5553), a word which describes a cliff or rock, but which should have been treated as a place name here. In records of an event which had predated this time in Isaiah by about a hundred years, we read in 2 Kings chapter 14 that Amaziah king of Judah had “7 … slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.” Perhaps Selah was contested, since there is a town called Joktheel which is mentioned in the inheritance of Judah, near the border of Edom, in Joshua chapter 15 (15:38). So this certainly seems to be speaking of Israelites who had fled to the lands in the south, but it is evident in the next verse that they were not expected to remain in the south:

12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands. 

This seems to indicate that the Israelites in the places to which they had escaped, once having received the Gospel of Christ, would not remain in those places, but rather, they would also seek to depart from Judaea and Arabia for the isles of the West, so that they could declare praise for Yahweh in the isles, where the children of Israel had been scattered. In Jeremiah chapter 31, in the very chapter where there is an explicit promise of the New Covenant, we read in part: “10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. 11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.” So the Way of the Blind, the paths where scattered Israel would be found, was no secret to Jeremiah the prophet.

Now Yahweh speaks in reference to Himself:

13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. 

The word for jealousy here is קנאה or qinah (# 7068) and in this context it is better translated as ardor or zeal, as Brown-Driver-Briggs also define the word [2]. Yahweh is speaking of His Own zeal, and not the jealousy of His enemies, which is better reflected in the translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls and New American Standard and other Bible versions. 

Now the Word of Yahweh further speaks of His vengeance upon His enemies:

14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 

The words destroy and devour are translated as gasp and pant in the New American Standard Bible and also in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, but as amaze and wither in Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint, which are literal translations of the corresponding Greek words ἐξίστημι and ξηραίνω. The word for destroy, נשׁם or nasham (# 5395) is literally to breathe or blow, and then Brown-Driver-Briggs says to “pant, of the deep and strong breathing of a woman in travail”, citing this very verse [3]. The word for devour is שׁאף or shaph (# 7602), which in its primary sense is also to “gasp, as a woman in travail” or, among other similar definitions, to pant after or be eager for, according to Brown-Driver-Briggs [4]. The word translated as at once here may have better been translated as together, where we would read the end of the verse to say “… I will pant and gasp at the same time.” So “destroy and devour” is not a fair translation here, but a travailing woman does indeed gasp and pant in the time of her labor. 

15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 

It seems that not only Judaea, but all Arabia, is within the scope of these words, as the cities of the wilderness and the villages of Kedar, as well as Selah in Idumaea, are still within the context of this statement. This region had been very fertile in ancient times, where even the Arabian wilderness could support large populations with an agrarian society, flocks and herds. The Romans called a large portion of Arabia by the name Arabia Felix, which is Happy or Fortunate Arabia. This evidently came from the name for the region which had been used by the 3rd century BC Greek geographer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, which was Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, and which has precisely the same meaning. Since the time of Christ, the climate in the area has become much drier, the deserts greatly expanded, rivers and pools had dried up, and in modern times only artificial irrigation makes farming possible, without which there would be very little agriculture, or even none at all. With this it seems that the children of Israel would have little choice but to remain in the places where they had been scattered. 

But essentially, in verses 14 and 15 Yahweh God has portrayed Himself as having the emotions which a man may have in his anger, crying out in pain as a woman would do in labor, and furiously losing His patience with His enemies. So that urgency seems to preclude any literal interpretation of this verse. Although a thousand years is as a day in the eyes of God, perhaps this passage also has a far-vision fulfillment, as a reference to the Day of the Wrath of Yahweh which is promised in many other places of Scripture. In that aspect, rather than being understood in their literal sense, mountains and hills would represent large and small nations, as in Habakkuk chapter 3 where we read “ 6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.” 

Then, in that case, the herbs may represent individual people, and the word for herbs may also have been translated here as grass. As we read in the 90th Psalm: “5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.” The rivers and pools may represent races, nations or tribes of people, as we read in Isaiah chapter 8: “7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.” This interpretation is even more fitting of the anger and urgency expressed when the punishment is inflicted, in verse 14. While it is fully evident that in ancient times, many of the surrounding nations were destroyed in the formation of the various empires of history, that process is not necessarily finished, even today, and many of their descendants live on today, awaiting the complete fulfillment of the wrath of God. 

Therefore, since this is a Messianic prophecy with a far-vision fulfillment, this prophecy of the destruction of the enemies of God also must have a far-vision fulfillment, and since the eyes of the blind have still not been completely opened, then neither has the will of God been completed. However the children of Israel are promised preservation, and now the focus turns to them:

16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. 

In Micah chapter 7 a just man is portrayed as living in a wicked time, and we read his exclamation: “7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.” As we have already said, blindness is a result of punishment for sin, according to the warnings of the consequences of sin recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 28, so the blind here are the children of Israel in captivity who are the subjects of the prophecy throughout these chapters of Isaiah, something which is further demonstrable as we proceed.

This theme of darkness and light first appears in Isaiah in chapter 5. While the descriptions are befitting of Israel as well as Judah, in that chapter it is Jerusalem and Judah who are the explicit subjects, and on account of their idolatry we read, in part: “20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” So as Isaiah chapter 5 continues, Yahweh had promised to punish them for their sins, by bringing upon them a distant nation, after which we read: “30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.” So in their time of punishment, the children of Israel are portrayed as being in darkness. For that very reason, Paul of Tarsus, who often referred to this theme of light and darkness, had written in Ephesians chapter 5, as it is in the Christogenea New Testament: “8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Prince. Walk as children of light.” It was Paul and his companions who had brought the Light of the Gospel of Christ to the children of Israel who had traversed the Way of the Blind, as it is prophesied here in this chapter.

Likewise, the apostle Peter had written his first epistle to Christians in various assemblies throughout the Roman provinces of Anatolia, in the very places where Paul had founded many Christian assemblies, and in its opening verse he addressed it “to the elect sojourners of the dispersion”, calling them sojourners because they were not truly natives in the places to which they had formerly been scattered. Then further on in that epistle, in chapter 2 he wrote: “9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, so that you should proclaim the virtues for which from out of darkness you have been called into the wonder of His light, 10 who at one time were “not a people” but now are the people of Yahweh, those who ‘have not been shown mercy’ but are now shown mercy.”

Saying that, Peter was citing this very prophecy in Isaiah, but he also cited another prophecy found in Hosea, a prophet who was contemporary to the early years of Isaiah. But he was not taking either of these prophecies out-of-context, as they belong exclusively to the children of Israel who had gone into captivity. In Hosea chapter 1, the prophet was told to take a wife who was a harlot, because the kingdom of the children of Israel was the wife of Yahweh and they had played the harlot. Then Hosea was instructed to sire children with the harlot, one of whom he had been instructed to name “Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away”, and the other, to “Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”

Therefore, writing to these Christian assemblies, Peter is informing them that they are the children of Israel, the chosen race which had been cast off in darkness and renounced as the people of God, but who were now reconciled in the Gospel of Christ, so that they were now brought the Light of His Gospel and could assume their former position as the children of God once again, as it was also promised in the passage he had cited from Hosea. Writing this epistle in this manner, it is evident that Peter had followed the Way of the Blind just as Paul had, in fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah. Paul had told the Corinthians, in chapter 4 of his second epistle to them: “6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” By this it is ascertained, that both Peter and Paul had understood that the Gospel of Christ was the fulfillment of this prophecy found here in Isaiah chapter 42.

Having the Gospel, shame can only come with a realization and acknowledgement of sin, so now we read:

17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods. 

This is precisely what the children of Israel had done, and Paul of Tarsus had also explicitly reproached them for that reason. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 he had told his readers: “1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” It may be demonstrated in various ways in ancient history that these words are certainly true, and the Corinthians, having been Dorian Greeks, certainly were of the ancient children of Israel [5].

So later in that same chapter, Paul pleaded with them and said: “14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry”, and a few verses later: “18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? ” There he informed tham that the children of Israel, the true Israel who are “Israel after the flesh”, or as we would translate it, “Israel according to the flesh”, were offering sacrifices at pagan altars. Paul was speaking about Israel in Europe, in the isles and coastlands of the sea, and not about the Judaeans in Jerusalem. So after a parenthetical remark made in reference to the idols he continued and said: “20 But I say, that the things which the Nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” At the time when Paul had written that epistle, some time shortly before the Pentecost of 56 AD [6], the vast majority of the children of Israel scattered abroad were still practicing their ancient pagan idolatry.

Now the Word of Yahweh addresses Israel directly, in a manner which corroborates the assertions concerning the Scriptures we have cited thus far:

18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. 19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant? 

First it must be noted that in the eyes of Yahweh God, Jacob, representing the children of Israel collectively, is called perfect here in spite of his sins and his state of blindness as a consequence for those sins. Having this in mind, where in Isaiah chapter 45 the Word of Yahweh promises that “25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory”, there can be no exceptions, or Jacob could not be perfect. Here in Isaiah, Jacob shall be more explicitly identified as Yahweh’s servant as we progress through the text.

In Isaiah chapter 6, the prophet himself is portrayed as having volunteered to bring a message to the people, and we read in words attributed to God: “9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” So Israel was blinded, in part, so that the Word of God concerning the punishment of Israel could be fulfilled, and now here in Isaiah we see the remedy to that blindness is prophesied in the Light of the Gospel of Christ which was to be brought to the Way of the Blind, to the isles and coastlands of the sea, which is the Mediterranean Sea.

The address to Israel in captivity continues with further descriptions:

20 Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. 

From this point on, it is evident that all those of Israel who would not accept the Gospel of Christ, are regarded as remaining in this state of blindness. Therefore, speaking to the people of Judaea, Yahshua Christ had often proclaimed, as it is in Matthew chapter 11, “15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Then speaking in reference to the same prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 6, in Matthew chapter 13, where Christ had been rejected by many of the Judaeans, His disciples had asked Him why He spoke to them in parables, and He answered: “13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”

Here it is evident, that if a man is blind, on account of his sins or not, it is so the Will of God can be effected in the world, and it a man is granted sight, ass the apostles of Christ had been, that is also so that the Will of God may be effected. The death of Christ, or the “cutting off of the Messiah” prophesied in Daniel chapter 9 was also the Will of Yahweh God, and therefore even many of the Israelites in Judaea had been stricken with blindness, so that the Word of God could be fulfilled in reference to Christ.

So later, in his epistle to the Romans, in chapters 9 through 11, Paul had been comparing Jacob and Esau, as many of the Judaeans were Israelites, but many Judaeans were Edomites, and the promises of God are for Israel alone. So it is in that context that Paul had written in Romans chapter 11: “7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” Throughout that same discourse, Paul had prayed for his “brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3), that they would hear the Gospel, and he also explained that until they did, then “28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes” (Romans 11:28). Of course, Paul did not have Edomites in mind when he wrote those words, as he had already discounted them in Romans chapter 9 as “vessels of wrath fitted to destruction”. In Romans chapter 9 Paul had also cited Malachi chapter 1 where Yahweh is recorded as having said “yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”.

Now the Word of Yahweh makes a declaration, before proceeding to describe Israel in captivity:

21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. 

Here the Septuagint, as Brenton has appropriately translated it, has only “The Lord God has taken counsel that he might be justified, and might magnify his praise.” However the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible has “The Lord has desired, for the sake of his vindication, that he should increase his torah and glorify it.” Now, I do not understand why they did not write law for torah, but the Dead Sea Scrolls supports the reading of the Masoretic Text as it is reflected in the King James Version. The Old Latin text reproduced in the Hexapla of Origen also has a word for law, as does the Greek translation of Symmachus. [7]

The greater portion of the children of both Israel and Judah are in captivity as Isaiah had written these words, and by the time of the prophet Habakkuk, not much longer than sixty years after this point in the life of Isaiah, conditions in Jerusalem degenerated to the point where Habakkuk lamented, in the opening chapter of his prophecy, that: “4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.” So in response to that, in Habakkuk chapter 2 we read: “2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” They who would attempt to uphold rrighteousness by the law in such an evil time would evidently do so out of pride, but the just would live by faith. So with this it should be evident, that while Yahweh has promised to magnify the law here in Isaiah, it was not His intention to magnify the law in Old Testament Jerusalem, where the law had been abandoned by the people. Around the time of Habbakuk, Josiah king of Judah had led a revival, but it was short-lived.

So about six hundred and thirty years after this point in the life of Isaiah, Yahweh God incarnate in the person of Yahshua Christ had died on the cross in order to save the collective children of Israel from the condemnation due them under the law, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 7. The same Yahshua Christ had reproached His adversaries, the rulers in Judaea, for not keeping the law, but rather, for making void the law through their own traditions, as He explained to them in that same place in Matthew chapter 15 where He had cited the prophecy of blindness in Isaiah chapter 6, and said, in part: “6 … Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”

Yet even with that very purpose in mind, which was to free Israel from the condemnation which is found in the law, of which all of Israel was guilty without exception, Christ Himself would magnify the law. So He told His disciples, as it is recorded in John chapter 14: “15 If ye love me, keep my commandments”, and “ 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” Then, in John chapter 15: “10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.”

It is also evident in the Gospel, that where Christ had told His disciples to keep the commandments, He was not merely referring to the primary ten commandments, but to all of the commandments in the law. An example of this is found in Matthew chapter 22: “34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

If the second greatest commandment is “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”, a commandment which is not found in the ten commandments, and if “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”, then Christians should realize the necessity of keeping all of the commandments, and not merely the first ten. The commandment to love thy neighbor is found in Leviticus chapter 19, where neighbor is also defined: “18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”

So according to Christ Himself, this is the second greatest commandment of the law, and if we choose to transgress any commandment, we are also transgressing this one, since upon this hangs all the law. For that very reason, we read in 1 John chapter 5: “2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” So according to the apostle John, who drew his lessons from the words of Christ in the Gospel, we demonstrate our love for our neighbours, “the children of thy people” who are also the children of God, by keeping the commandments of God. In that understanding, the law of Yahweh is indeed magnified, and has a greater place in our hearts than it had in the Old Testament laws of sacrifices and offerings, the things which the ultimate sacrifice of Christ has replaced, and in that manner the law is honorable.

So in Romans chapter 3 Paul described the efficacy of faith in relation to the outward signs of rituals and circumcision, and declared that “20 Therefore by the deeds of the law [which are the rituals and the circumcision] there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” and then a little later on in that same chapter, he wrote “31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” So Paul understood that the purpose of Christ was to magnify the law, as it is prophesied here in Isaiah.

Now the description of Israel is continued, where it is also evident that the servant referred to earlier, in verse 19, certainly is the collective of the children of Israel, as the subject remains the same:

22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. 

Of course, if Yahweh God punishes His people for their sins, only He may restore them. In 2 Peter chapter 3, the spirits of those who had sinned in the days of Noah and died in the Flood were also described as having been in prison, and therefore we would interpret prison to represent alienation from God. But just as the children of Israel were reconciled in the cross of Christ, Peter described Christ as having preached the Gospel to those spirits who died in the Flood, so it is evident that they had also been reconciled. The children of Israel in captivity were not locked away in literal prisons, or buried in literal holes, even if they had been literally robbed and spoiled by the Assyrians and their allies, as well as the later Babylonians and their allies.

This prison theme is repeated in Isaiah chapter 61, and in Luke chapter 4 the apostle recorded the words of Yahshua Christ near the beginning of His earthly ministry, when He stood in a synagogue in His home town of Nazareth to speak, and He cited that passage in Isaiah chapter 61, where we read: “16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; 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, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

In that citation Christ had followed Isaiah 61:1 and the beginning of verse 2, but He stopped short of finishing that verse where it says “ 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn”, ostensibly because He had not yet intended to execute the vengeance of God at His first incarnation. But where He added the clause which says “to set at liberty them that are bruised”, which does not appear in Isaiah chapter 61, He was citing a portion of Isaiah chapter 58 (58:6), so that He must have done purposely, and the theme of the passage He took those words from is quite similar.

So in Isaiah chapter 61, in words which Christ Himself had proclaimed as His purpose in Luke chapter 4, it is evident that Israel in captivity is freed from prison in the Gospel of Christ, which is the message of their reconciliation, and therefore, as we have asserted, the state of being in prison here in Isaiah must be an allegory which represents alienation from God, whether one is dead or alive. Later, in several places in his epistles, Paul of Tarsus would describe the Gospel of Christ as the Gospel of Reconciliation. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 he proclaimed that “18 … all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation”.

Now, while Israel was described in the 3rd person up to this pont, here in this next verse the Word of Yahweh rather directly addresses Israel in the 2nd person:

23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come? 

For this reason, when Christ had taught the people, He frequently exclaimed “15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”, because not all Israel was appointed to hear. Seemingly trite passages such as this one here in Isaiah actually often serve to corroborate and even explain things in the Gospel of Christ, and this certainly seems to be one of those passages.

But now, the description turns back to discuss Israel in the 3rd person, and recounts some of the former things prophesied by Isaiah, which had already come to pass, as it is stated in verse 9 of this chapter:

24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. 25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. 

The children of Israel were stubborn, and as the Assyrians were taking their cities and deporting their brethren into captivity, they refused to acknowledge that they were being punished for their sins. Here the year is approximately 700 BC or somewhat thereafter, some indeterminable length of time after the failed siege of Jerusalem which had occurred around 701 BC. Except for a small remnant of diverse Israelites scattered throughout the former territory of the ten tribes, all of the survivors of Israel are far away in captivity, a process which began around 743 BC, and which is still ongoing to some degree, which we had exhibited in Part 38 of this commentary, The Beginning of Encouragement, citing an inscription of Ashurbanipal king of Assyria, who would deport Israelites from the region of Tyre as late as 660 BC. 

Then, where Sennacherib king of Assyria had taken forty-six fenced cities of Judah, he took at least 200,000 of the people of Judah into Assyrian captivity. While some fled to the south and others may have evaded death or capture in other ways, for the most part only the people of Jerusalem were left behind in Judah. Later, in Isaiah chapter 39, the prophet had foretold of the coming Babylonian captivity, a far-vision prophecy which is not yet fulfilled at this point in the life of Isaiah. So without doubt, Jacob is given for a spoil, and therefore this message concerns Israel in captivity, and not Israel in Palestine. 

Of course, Jacob is used here to represent all of the children of Israel collectively, so here we see an assertion that the children of Israel went into captivity because they had sinned against Yahweh their God, where there is also a lamentation that the children of Israel were not obedient to the laws of God. So for that reason Jacob was sold into sin, and for that reason, the law must be magnified if there is to be any reconciliation. Paul himself had admitted that he was sold into sin, in Romans chapter 7: “14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” All true Christians should make that same acknowledgement. 

In Isaiah chapter 50 we read: “1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” Then in chapter 52: “3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” So on account of their sins alone, Israel was taken into captivity, and they alone are to bear responsibility for their fate.

With this the apostles of Christ also agree, as expected, first where Paul of Tarsus wrote to the Galatians in chapter 3 of his epistle and said: “13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” There, the curse of the law is evidently the judgments which had stood against Israel and which demanded that they be punished for their sins, which are worthy of death under the law. In Romans chapter 7, Paul had explained that Israel, the wife, was freed of her punishment because she was no longer bound by the law of the husband once Christ had died on the cross.

The apostle Peter was more explicit concerning the terms of their redemption, in chapter 1 of his first epistle: “18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”

Of course this is true, because Israel was redeemed without money, as it is promised in Isaiah chapter 52. However the blood of Christ is far more valuable than money. So we read, in the words of Paul in Hebrews chapter 9 that: “12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works [the rituals and circumcision of the law] to serve the living God? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Here Paul also professed that the New Testament is only relevant to the people who had been under the Old Testament, which is the literal, genetic, children of Israel.

The blood of goats and calves had no power to deliver Israel from their sins, so Christ Himself had to die in order to release Israel from the obligation of punishment for those sins. As we had said earlier, in Romans chapter 7 Paul taught that Israel the wife was freed from the law upon the death of the husband, Yahweh God incarnate as Yahshua Christ. Doing this, Christ had released Israel from the law, while at the same time the law is magnified since He demands the children of Israel to keep His commandments, and He reserved the right to punish them further if they do not. Thus we read, in Matthew chapter 5: “19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Then, in Revelation chapter 22: “14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

The law is certainly not disposed of, as the denominational, the Roman Catholic and the so-called Orthodox churches all teach. Rather, the whole purpose of Christ is to magnify the law, which is also a lesson for those in the Way of the Blind here in this chapter of Isaiah. Furthermore, it is fully evident that the apostles of Christ were speaking to the same people whom Isaiah was speaking about here, and all of their words are projected in these prophecies concerning the children of Israel. So what we call Christian Identity is true, and it is the only literally valid interpretation of the Word of God.

This concludes our commentary thorough Isaiah chapter 42.

Footnotes

1 The Metamorphoses, Ovid, Book 9, Poetry in Translation, translated by A. S. Kline, https://www. poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph9.php#anchor_Toc64106568, accessed August 29th, 2025. 

2 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, F. Brown, S. Driver and C. Briggs, 1906, reprinted in 2021, Hendrickson Publishers, p. 888.

3 ibid., p. 675.

4 ibid., p. 983.

5 Classical Records of the Dorian & Danaan Israelite-Greeks, William Finck, Christogenea.org, https://christogenea.org/essays/classical-records-dorian-danaan-israelite-greeks, accessed August 29th, 2025. 

6 Ordering and chronology of the Epistles of Paul, William Finck, Christogenea.org, https:// christogenea.org/references/ordering-and-chronology-epistles-paul, accessed August 29th,

7 Origenis Hexaplorum, Fridericus Field, AA. M., Volume II, Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 517.