Isaiah 42:5-9 – The Mission of God’s People

BIBLE TEXT

Isaiah 42:5-9

SUMMARY

God calls Israel as a light to the nations to open eyes and release captives. Everything is now opened up.

ANALYSIS

The Lord calls “you” to do the liberating work of God in the world. Who is meant by “you”? The text does not specifically say. Certainly this could be the servant introduced in the previous verses (42:1-4). It could be Cyrus, who will be called later to break open the bars of Babylon’s prisons (compare 42:7 and 45:2). It could be the prophet, who seems to receive a similar commission in 61:1-3. Perhaps the ambiguity is deliberate: God uses all these agents–Israel, servant, prophet, Cyrus–to accomplish the work of liberation that God intends.