Isaiah 42

Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Wesley: Hear—O you, whosoever you are, who resist this clear light.

The summons is to whoever resists light already given. Deafness is willful, not a lack of light. The light is already clear; they shut their eyes. The servant of v. 19 will name who this deafness belongs to.

O ye deaf, hear. Calvin: a different sense of blind and deaf than v. 16—those who shut their eyes in the midst of light, deaf who refuse to hear. Directly the Jews (Isaiah 6:9; Matthew 13:13), in some measure Gentiles. Fault wholly with men: nothing hinders but that they are deaf and blind; accompanied by malice and ingratitude.

The blindness is malice in the light, not darkness from want of revelation. Shared with Wesley: they resist what is already clear. Skip a mild fork on “whosoever” versus “especially the Jews”: both still address hearers who will not look.

Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the LORD’s servant of the LORD? Wesley: My servant—the Jews, who will not receive their Messiah. Messenger—my messengers, singular for plural: the priests and other teachers appointed to instruct my people. The Lord’s servant—the most eminent teachers and rulers of the Jews, called and obliged to be the Lord’s servants in a special manner.

Shared identity, not a fork: this servant is Judah, the Jews who will not receive their Messiah—not the Christ-Servant of 42:1–9. Wesley and Calvin agree on that reading. The messenger is the priests and teachers; the dedicated one is the eminent rulers who ought to have seen.

Who is blind but my servant? Calvin: not a retort against the prophets; not Isaiah; not Christ—that has nothing to do with the meaning. Jews who had the Law and so ought to have seen more clearly; then priests occupying the highest rank whose office was to interpret the Law (Malachi 2:7). Servant = the people; messenger = the priests. Perfect = those who ought to have been perfect, who had a perfect rule of righteousness. Nearer to God and higher rank = less excusable.

Calvin expressly refuses Isaiah and Christ as this servant. Shared with Wesley: the servant is the Jews; the messenger is the priests. The Christ-Servant of 42:1–9 is another figure; this unit indicts those who had the Law and shut their eyes. Higher rank makes them less, not more, excusable.

He sees many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. Wesley: Heareth not—thou dost not seriously consider the plain word, and the wonderful works of God.

The fault is not lack of revelation but failure to consider word and works already given. Eyes and ears are open; observation is refused.

Seeing many things. Calvin: double blindness. Explains the nature of this blindness. Jews by wicked contempt quenched God’s light. Israel’s blindness brings a double condemnation compared with the Gentiles.

They had light and quenched it; that is why their condemnation is heavier than the Gentiles’. Shared with Wesley: the word and works were plain; they would not consider. Both camps refuse to make this a deity who had not spoken. The blindness of v. 18 is here shown as contempt, not ignorance.

It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable. Wesley: Well pleased—although God might justly destroy thee suddenly, yet he will patiently wait for thy repentance, that he may be gracious; and that not for thy sake, but for the glory of his own faithfulness, in fulfilling that covenant which he made with thy pious progenitors. Magnify—he will maintain the honour of his law, and therefore is not forward to destroy you, who profess the true religion, lest his law should upon that occasion be exposed to contempt.

Patience waits for repentance; the motive is covenant-faithfulness to the progenitors, not Judah’s desert. Both sides agree: the law is magnified for the LORD’s righteousness, not theirs. Wesley’s God might justly destroy and chooses to wait—he is not discovering whether they will repent.

The Lord is well pleased. Calvin: it was not God who prevented a prosperous life. The Lord is willing, disposed to deliver his people, for magnifying his Law and extolling his righteousness. Not induced by anyone else than himself. “On account of his righteousness” excludes everything men could bring; no merit. This reason applied especially to the Jews. They shewed themselves unworthy; by obduracy they made their wounds incurable.

Deliverance would have been from his own righteousness alone; they closed the door by hardness. Common ground with Wesley: not for their sake, but for his righteousness and the law’s honor. The fork is accent: Wesley stresses patient waiting for repentance and the law’s public honor among those who profess it; Calvin stresses no merit and wounds made incurable. God rules; human desert is excluded.

But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives with no one to deliver them, plunder with no one to say, “Give them back!” Wesley: But—notwithstanding this respect which God hath to his people, he hath severely scourged you for your sins. Hid—taken in snares made by their own hands, and by God’s just judgment cast into dungeons and prisons. None—none afforded them help.

The scourge is just, and the snares are their own as well as his judgment. Plundered Judah is not an accident.

But this people. Calvin: through their own fault miserable. They reject God who would otherwise have been inclined to do good. Spoil without hope of deliverance because they rejected the grace offered. If the Church is ruinous, ascribe it to our iniquities.

Misery is their fault; God was inclined to good and they refused the grace. Wesley agrees: scourged for sins; none to restore. Both refuse chance and both refuse to blame God as unwilling. The next verses will name who gave them up.

Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Paraphrase from the nearest: the Hear of v. 18 still stands—O you who resist this clear light—and v. 25 will say they were secure and stupid under God’s judgments. Who will give ear is that same summons after the scourge of v. 22.

The question is not imaginary; some may yet attend for the time to come. Both note: the warning is given; stupidity is possible.

Calvin: Jews so stupid they will not see even when warned. Who shall hearken for the time to come—who, subdued by afflictions, repents though late.

The question hunts for a late repentant, subdued by the afflictions already poured. Shared with Wesley’s Hear of v. 18 and the stupidity of v. 25: they have been warned.

Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law? Wesley has no extra note; the verse itself governs: it was the LORD, he against whom we have sinned. His v. 22 still stands—severely scourged you for your sins—and his v. 25 will name the fury poured.

Jacob was given up because they sinned, would not walk, would not obey. Shared sovereignty: God is the author of the spoil, not chance. The LORD who gave them up is not a deity surprised by Judah’s deafness.

Who gave Jacob for a prey? Calvin: God is the author of these judgments, not chance. Because we have sinned against him. Two things: no evil happens but from the Lord; we suffer no evil but for a just cause, because we have sinned. They would not walk in his ways: the Prophet changes person and excludes himself from their number (contempt and rejection of God).

The looter is not luck; the cause is sin. Shared with Wesley and with the verse: the LORD gave Jacob up, against whom we have sinned. Calvin’s change of person (we have sinned; they would not walk) marks the prophet’s distance from their contempt, not a fork on whether God ruled the plunder.

So he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart. Wesley: Fury—most grievous judgments. Yet—they were secure and stupid under God’s judgments.

The fire was poured, and they remained stupid. God poured the heat; they did not take it to heart. The poured fury is the LORD’s, not a deity surprised by Judah’s deafness.

Poured upon him fury. Calvin: metaphor of floodgates and war. God rushes forth like an armed enemy. He gave no heed; laid it not to heart. If this thought came into our minds—“God is judge and hath justly punished us”—we should immediately repent.

The war-metaphor is God himself as armed enemy; the tragedy is they laid it not to heart. Wesley agrees: grievous judgments; they were stupid under them. Calvin’s “we should immediately repent” is the pastoral use of the same fire.