As we continue on through Chapter 42 we are looking at words that reference the coming Messiah. In Isaiah's era the people did not fully understand how the advent of the Messiah would come about but in our era---the church age---we are blessed to know how this unfolded. As we read these words we are to read them in the knowledge that they are speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"This is what God the Lord says---the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: 'I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." (Isaiah 42:5-7)
I believe we are to take these verses most specifically as a promise God the Father is making to God the Son. He is calling Him in righteousness and will make Him a covenant and a light for the people. But in a sense He is making this promise to mankind as well, for it is through God the Son that the Lord shines light on us. It is through God the Son that the Lord makes a new covenant with mankind.
There are a number of places in the Old Testament and in the New Testament regarding the One in whom the Gentiles will put their hope. This One is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One the Lord promised would come from the descendants of Abraham who would be a blessing to all nations. As a person of Gentile heritage, I am thankful that the Lord did not leave the Gentiles out of His plan of salvation! The Lord Jesus Christ, who was of Jewish heritage, came not only to save His own people but to save people of all nations. My ancestors were pagan idolaters but the Lord invited them to come to Him and be saved. Although I don't know all of my heritage and I don't know how or when the gospel message came to them or how many of them accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that the Lord invited them to do so. I know He never rejected them as not being "good enough" to become His children. I know that as many of them that came to Him in faith were accepted by Him and made part of the family of God.
It doesn't matter what is in our own past or what is in our ancestry. The New Testament provides the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ and He had at least two Gentiles of heathen nations on that tree: Rahab who was formerly a prostitute of the heathen city of Jericho and Ruth of the pagan nation of Moab. But both of these women became believers of the one true God and became ancestors of the Messiah! What, then, can the Lord do with you and with me?
I've made a lot of mistakes. There are sins in my past that I'd be ashamed to talk about here. I've made mistakes since I've become a believer and I'm ashamed of those too. As long as we live in frail human bodies in a fallen world we are not going to be perfect. But the Lord helps us with our infirmities (Romans 8:26) and the Lord knows what it's like to live in a human body in a world where it feels like everything is falling down around us. I'm so thankful He inhabited a human body because, as the Apostle Paul stated, He is able to "empathize with our weaknesses". (Hebrews 4:15) Paul reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ, in His human form, was faced with everything we are faced with in our daily lives. Although He did not sin when faced with those things, this doesn't mean His human form didn't feel the pressure of those things. If He had not been God the Son, He could not have withstood those pressures, and this means He has so much sympathy for what it feels like to be us. He knows we are not going to be able to withstand all the pressures that come against us because we are mere mortals. Because He knows what it feels like to be us, He can strengthen and comfort us like no one else can. He understands us like no one else does.
Since Jesus feels our feelings right along with us and is able to do something about our situation, the Apostle Paul encourages us with these words: "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Isaiah 4:16) Our confidence is that we are children of God through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are co-heirs with Christ. (Romans 8:17) As children of God, we are the brothers and sisters of Christ, and the Lord will not turn us away anymore than He would turn God the Son away. For the sake of Christ, who saved us, God cannot and will not refuse us forgiveness and mercy and help. This is why we are to approach Him in the confidence that He hears us and will strengthen us.
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