In Isaiah, the Lord promises a servant who will fulfill the Lord’s covenant and set you free for a new beginning.

The beginning of the new year is a strange thing. Are you really ready for another 365 days? You can be so hopeful at the thought of an opportunity for a new beginning. At the same time, you know that the coming year isn’t really going to be all that new. You may think, This is the year, but another voice says, It will all be the same! If the year was an actual new beginning with new energy and new life, then maybe you would be ready.

Maybe you feel more like a bruised reed than a righteous oak. A bruised reed is kinked and bent over; it can barely hold its own weight. Maybe you find yourself struggling under the burden of it all. The hardships that come from living in a sin-sick world and being human have bruised you. Guilt from failures in navigating it all wakes you up at night. Maybe you feel like just one more thing might break you.

Maybe you feel more like a smoldering wick than a bright flame. A smoldering wick can barely stay lit, giving off more smoke than amber glow. Maybe that is how your spirit seems. The failures of fellow Christians have made you dim. Loveless deeds have made you dimmer yet. Thoughtless words have all but snuffed you out.

If you’re in need of something truly new, then turn to a song about the Lord’s servant in Isaiah 42:1-9. As you go there, take hope in your God who says, “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand” (v. 6).

The servant’s identity

In order to understand why this statement can rejuvenate you and bring you a new beginning, we need to take a slight detour.

Bible commentators have debated the identity of the Lord’s servant in Isaiah 42:1-9. Some suggest these verses refer to the nation of Israel because descriptions of Israel as the Lord’s servant are found in the prevailing context. For example, in Isaiah 41:8, Israel is explicitly called the Lord’s servant.

Other Bible commentators have suggested that the servant is an individual, specifically Christ. In verse 6, Isaiah says the servant will “be a covenant for the people.” The servant must be an embodiment of God’s covenant promise to his people. He must be faithful. He must teach in a way that brings hope. He must set people free.

The Israelites had broken the Lord’s covenant with them. Isaiah 42:1-4 describes the kind of nation the Israelites should have been. They should have brought justice, as God defined it, to the nations around them. They should have lived in love and faithfulness and righteousness. Instead, they worshiped pagan gods. Their love toward one another grew cold. In short, they were failed servants of the Lord.

Isaiah 42:1-4
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

Identifying the servant in Isaiah can be a prism through which we begin to consider ourselves. The Lord calls us in righteousness, though we fall short of his righteous call. Our eyes have been opened and we have been set free, but we find ourselves deviating from his path and walking back to the sin that once held us captive. What we realize through this prism is that our biggest problem is not so much the world and people around us. Our biggest problem is that we have failed as the Lord’s servants.

The servant’s role

The identity of the servant cannot be Israel, and the identity of the servant cannot be us. We need a better servant. And that is exactly what the Lord promises in Isaiah chapter 42. (This is one of four “Servant Songs” sections in Isaiah. The others are Isaiah 49:1-7; Isaiah 50:4-9; and Isaiah 52:13–53:12.) God promises a Servant who will fulfill the Lord’s covenant. This Servant will not break you for your lack of love or extinguish you for your faithlessness. Instead, this Servant comes to be the loving you, the righteous you, and the faithful you. He will establish love and faithfulness and justice among you and himself and our God.

He opens your blind eyes to a God who loves you and sets you free for a new beginning marked by freedom. Freedom from the sin that seeks to entangle you. Freedom from needing God’s approval because you already have it. Freedom from needing the approval of others because you have your Maker’s approval.

Through the prism of Isaiah chapter 42, the entirety of your life and all your failures are drawn in and through the life of Christ. Failed servants are refracted through the Servant’s life, and you emerge righteous and free on the other side. This is where you, Christ, a new year, and a new beginning are found. Christ steps in as the true Servant of God, not to break off bruised reeds or snuff out smoldering wicks but to take your hopes and failures—to take your very self—and filter it through himself so that now you are the servant God had always wanted.

Your new purpose

Though you are set free, he takes you by the hand and gives you a new purpose—to serve freely in his kingdom. He causes you to be a light on a hill in your own corner of the world. He sends you out into this sin-sick world with his teaching that opens eyes and sets people free. He sends you, righteous as he has made you, to bring righteousness and hope to the world. And he does it with the promise to take you by the hand every step of the way, even to the end of the age.

The kind of beginning you might hope for in a new year has already come into the world. It arrived for all when Christ, the Servant of all, arrived. It arrived for you when Christ your Servant drew you into himself and sent you out to serve in freedom. The outcome of a life refracted through the prism of the Servant is a new beginning. More than a new beginning, it is a new life that looks more and more like the life of the Servant.

This is the third article in a series on Isaiah’s prophecies. Read the first and second articles. 

Author: Aaron Goetzinger
Volume 112, Number 01
Issue: January 2025

Fulfillment of Isaiah 42

Isaiah chapter 42 is quoted as being fulfilled by Jesus in Matthew 12:18-21. Matthew 12:15 describes a crowd of people following Jesus. Those people were like bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. They needed the new life Jesus offered. Jesus dealt graciously with the people, healing all who were sick. Matthew 12:18-21 quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 to prove that Jesus fulfilled what Isaiah had prophesied about him. Matthew connects Jesus’ preaching of the gospel with healing miracles (Matthew 4:23; 9:2; 11:5). After all, Jesus came for people whose lives depended on his forgiveness (Matthew 9:13).