The Agony of New Creation Text: Isaiah 42:14-25
Introduction: The Silence and the Scream
We often have a very sanitized view of the work of God in history. We like our doctrines neat, our salvation tidy, and our God predictable. We want a God who runs the universe like a quiet, efficient library. But the God of the Bible, the God of Isaiah, is not a librarian. He is a warrior, a husband, a judge, and here, in this astonishing passage, He is a woman in the violent throes of childbirth. For a long time, God has been silent. He has restrained Himself. But His silence is not indifference, and His restraint is not weakness. It is the quiet before the storm, the deep breath before the plunge. And when He finally acts, it is not with a polite cough but with a guttural scream. It is the cry of new creation.
This passage confronts us with a profound paradox. God is going to bring about a glorious deliverance for His people, but He will do it through cataclysmic judgment. He will lead the blind, but first, He must identify the blind. And the shocking reveal is that the blind man is His own servant, Israel. The deaf man is His own messenger. The people He chose to be His witness to the world have become the prime example of spiritual stupor.
This is the central problem that Isaiah is addressing. How can God use a faithless people to fulfill His faithful promises? How can a holy God display His righteousness through a sinful nation? The answer is that God's righteousness is not dependent on Israel's performance. God's glory is not contingent on our obedience. In fact, God is most glorified when He takes a situation that is utterly hopeless, a people who are plundered, trapped, and spiritually comatose, and brings about a deliverance that only He could accomplish. This passage is about the holy violence of redemption. It is about how God, for the sake of His own name, will tear down the old order to build the new. He will lay waste to the mountains of human pride and dry up the rivers of false religion in order to lead His blind, stumbling people into the light.
And we must not read this as ancient history, relevant only to the Jews of the exile. This is the pattern of our own salvation. This is the story of how God deals with us. We are the blind servant. We are the deaf messenger. We are the people trapped in the prison of our own sin, and God's silence in our lives is often the prelude to the painful, glorious, and noisy work of new birth.
The Text
"I have kept silent for a long time; I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now like a woman in labor I will groan; I will both gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands And dry up the pools of waters. I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not forsake them." They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in graven images, Who say to molten images, "You are our gods." Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh? You have seen many things, but you do not keep them; Your ears are open, but none hears. Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sake That He make the law great and majestic. But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a plunder with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Have them return!" Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and hear hereafter? Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey? So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not know it; And it burned him, but he did not set it upon his heart.
(Isaiah 42:14-25 LSB)
The Agony and the Action (vv. 14-15)
God begins by describing the end of His period of divine restraint. His silence is breaking.
"I have kept silent for a long time; I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now like a woman in labor I will groan; I will both gasp and pant." (Isaiah 42:14)
For generations, it seemed as though God was doing nothing. Israel was in decline, sin was rampant, and the pagan nations seemed to be winning. God's people might have thought He had forgotten them. But God's patience is not apathy. Here, He shatters that illusion. The silence was purposeful, but now the time for action has come. And the metaphor He uses is shocking in its physicality and violence. He will act like a woman in labor. This is not a gentle, quiet process. It is agonizing, noisy, and all-consuming. It involves groaning, gasping, and panting. This is the travail of a new age being born. God is about to give birth to a new reality for His people, and it will be a violent, disruptive, and glorious event. This is the agony of exodus, the pain of redemption.
And what does this divine labor produce? Look at verse 15.
"I will lay waste the mountains and hills And dry up all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands And dry up the pools of waters." (Isaiah 42:15)
This is de-creation language. This is the language of holy war. The mountains and hills in pagan thought were the dwelling places of the gods. The rivers and pools were sources of life, often deified themselves. God is declaring war on the entire idolatrous cosmos of the ancient world. He is not just going to defeat Israel's enemies; He is going to dismantle their entire worldview. He will demonstrate that the things they trust in, the very structures of their world, are nothing before Him. He will turn their lush gardens into deserts and their mighty rivers into dry land. This is a complete reordering of the world, a holy upheaval. This is what God's labor brings forth: judgment on all that stands against Him, clearing the way for His redemptive purpose.
The Tender Guidance and the Firm Promise (v. 16)
Out of this cosmic upheaval comes a promise of intimate, personal guidance.
"I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, In paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them And rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16)
Notice the contrast. After the violent de-creation of the previous verse, we have this tender picture of a guide leading the blind. The people are helpless. They are blind; they do not know the way. They are walking in darkness and on rugged paths. This is a perfect description of Israel in her sin and exile. But God does not abandon them in their blindness. He takes them by the hand. He promises to personally guide them, to transform their reality. He will turn their darkness into His light. He will smooth out the road before them. This is pure, unadulterated grace. The blind do not contribute to their guidance. They simply must be led. And God's promise is emphatic: "These are the things I will do." It is a unilateral declaration. And it is sealed with the ultimate covenant promise: "And I will not forsake them." This is the heart of the gospel. God's commitment to His people is not based on their ability to see, but on His promise to lead.
The Shame of Idols (v. 17)
The result of God's mighty action is the vindication of true worship and the humiliation of all false worship.
"They will be turned back and be utterly put to shame, Who trust in graven images, Who say to molten images, 'You are our gods.'" (Isaiah 42:17)
Here is the polemical point. When God acts, when He lays waste the mountains and leads the blind, the utter foolishness of idolatry is exposed for all to see. The gods of wood and stone, the gods that men make with their own hands, are shown to be impotent frauds. Those who put their trust in them will be "utterly put to shame." This is not just a little embarrassment. This is total, public humiliation. Their gods could not save them. Their gods could not even save themselves. This is the inevitable end of all man-made religion. It is a dead-end street that leads to confusion and shame. God's dramatic intervention in history is designed to make this point with unmistakable clarity. There is Yahweh, and there is nothing else.
The Shocking Diagnosis (vv. 18-22)
Now, God turns His attention directly to His people, and the diagnosis is devastating.
"Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?" (Isaiah 42:18-19)
After speaking of leading the blind, we now discover who the blind are. It is not the pagan nations, primarily. It is Israel. It is God's own servant, His chosen messenger. This is a staggering indictment. The one nation given the light of God's law, the one people commissioned to be a light to the Gentiles, has become blind and deaf. They were the ones "at peace" with God, in a covenant relationship with Him, and yet they are the most blind of all. This is the tragic irony of covenant unfaithfulness. To have the greatest light and to refuse to see by it is to be in the greatest darkness. To have God speak directly to you and to refuse to hear is to be the most profoundly deaf.
God continues the diagnosis in verse 20:
"You have seen many things, but you do not keep them; Your ears are open, but none hears." (Isaiah 42:20)
Their problem was not a lack of revelation. They had seen God's mighty works, from the Exodus to the miracles of the prophets. Their ears were physically open; they heard the law read every Sabbath. But there was a disconnect between the senses and the heart. They saw, but did not perceive. They heard, but did not obey. This is the essence of a hard heart. It is not ignorance; it is rebellion. It is a willful refusal to process the truth that God has made plain. And this condition is what led to their ruin.
Verses 21 and 22 show the cause and effect. God's intention was glorious, but their reality was tragic.
"Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sake That He make the law great and majestic. But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons..." (Isaiah 42:21-22)
God's desire was to exalt His law, to show its goodness and majesty through a faithful people. But because they rejected that law, the very opposite happened. Instead of being exalted, they were plundered. Instead of being a majestic kingdom, they were trapped in caves and prisons. Their covenant rebellion led directly to their covenant ruin. They were spoiled and pillaged, with no one to rescue them, because the one who would have been their rescuer was the very one they had offended.
The Covenant Lawsuit (vv. 23-25)
The passage concludes with a series of rhetorical questions, like a prosecutor summing up his case in a courtroom.
First, the call for understanding:
"Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and hear hereafter?" (Isaiah 42:23)
This is the plea of the prophet. Will anyone learn the lesson? Will anyone connect the dots between their sin and their suffering? Or will they continue in their blind, deaf stupor?
Then, the central question of the trial:
"Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers? Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned...?" (Isaiah 42:24)
Their destruction was not an accident. It was not bad luck. It was not the result of Babylon's superior military strategy. It was a direct act of God. Yahweh Himself handed them over to the plunderers. Why? Because they had sinned against Him. They were unwilling to walk in His ways and they did not obey His law. This is covenantal lawsuit language, straight out of Deuteronomy. The curses of the covenant are not empty threats. God means what He says. Disobedience brings judgment, and God Himself is the agent of that judgment.
The final verse describes the terrifying reality of that judgment.
"So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not know it; And it burned him, but he did not set it upon his heart." (Isaiah 42:25)
God's wrath is not a mild displeasure; it is a poured-out, fiery anger. The judgment was all-consuming, setting them "aflame all around." But the most terrifying part of the verse is the last two clauses. Even in the midst of the fire, they did not understand. The judgment burned them, but they "did not set it upon his heart." Their spiritual blindness and deafness were so profound that they could be engulfed in the flames of God's discipline and still not recognize His hand in it. This is the apex of spiritual dullness, a condition that only a divine miracle can cure.
The True Servant
So who is the answer to this dilemma? If God's servant, Israel, is blind and deaf, how can God's purpose be accomplished? The rest of Isaiah, and indeed the whole New Testament, gives us the answer. God would provide a new Servant. He would provide a true Israel, one who was not blind and not deaf.
Jesus Christ is the Servant of Yahweh who perfectly sees the Father's will and perfectly hears the Father's voice. He is the one whose ears were open to the law, and who kept it perfectly. He is the one who saw the works of God and glorified His Father.
And in the mystery of the gospel, this perfect Servant took the place of the blind servant. He entered into our prison. He was plundered and pillaged for us. On the cross, the fiery anger of God that Israel deserved was poured out upon Him. He was set aflame by the fierceness of God's holy battle against sin. And because He endured that fire, God can now turn to us, the blind and the deaf, and lead us out. He makes our darkness light and our crooked paths straight.
Our salvation is a re-enactment of this passage. God, in the agony of new creation, breaks His silence. He deconstructs the mountains of our pride and self-reliance. He finds us blind, trapped, and imprisoned by our sin. And then He takes us by the hand and leads us into the light, not because we could see, but because the true Servant, Jesus, saw for us. He is the one who heard and obeyed, and it is only by being found in Him that we can finally, truly, see and hear.