This week we look at Advent through the eyes of the prophet sometimes called Second Isaiah, who speaks in Isaiah 40-55. While the first part of Isaiah (1-39) is set in the 8^th century BCE, Second Isaiah speaks in the late 6^th century BCE, just as Israel’s long exile in Babylon is ending. 

For fifty years, the Israelites had been in forced exile from their homeland.Now, at last, Isaiah speaks a word of hope: God’s servant will come to bring justice to the world. Into the darkness of the exile comes alight. Justice will return to the world.

God’s Servant Isn’t Who You Think

In Isaiah 42:1-9, God announces the arrival of a servant who will set the world aright. God declares,

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
     my chosen in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
     he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)

As Christians—particularly in these days of Advent—we tend to think of “my servant” as the Christ-child who is coming into the world. God delights in him. God sends the Spirit to him. He will bring justice to the nations.

Yet the Christ-child is not the “servant” Isaiah has in mind. A chapter earlier Isaiah has identified the servant not as the messiah but as Israel itself.  In Isaiah 41:8-9 God as says,

But you, Israel, my servant,
     Jacob,whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham,
     my friend….
You are my servant;
    I have chosen you and not cast you off. (Isaiah 41:8-9)

Just as God explicitly names Israel—the Jewish people—as the servant in this passage, so too is Israel the servant in Isaiah 42. Isaiah doesn’t predict a messiah coming into the world to save it. Rather, the hope for the world rests in the Jews, newly released from Babylon. Out of their trauma, out of their exile, out of their darkness—they will be the bearers of God’s justice to the world.

Reading Isaiah in Advent

As Christians reading Isaiah in this season of Advent, we ought not insist too quickly that this passage be about Jesus. Rather, we might linger for a moment to imagine what it would mean for us to be among the people that God calls “my servant.”

Though Christians come to covenantal relationship with God only belatedly, and Isaiah speaks to the Jews first and to us only secondarily, we might nonetheless consider that God has called us, too, to be God’s servants, to be bearers of justice to the world. We might imagine that we, too, can join with our Jewish brothers and sisters to bring peace and hope to the nations.

A Gentle, Unstoppable Resilience

According to Isaiah, God has a particular vision for how the people of God—Jews and Christians alike—should bring about justice in the world. God says of the servant,

He will not cry or lift up his voice,
     or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a dimly burning wick he will not quench
he will faithfully bring forth justice. (42:2-3)

The one who bears God’s justice isn’t loud or forceful. Indeed,God’s servant tends carefully to bruised reeds and deals gently with flickering candles. God’s servant takes care not to further wound those who are already injured or to extinguish hope in those who are faint of heart. God’s servant brings justice quietly and carefully and in ways that do no harm.

So, too, should we.

But gentle though God’s servant may be, he acts in the world with unflinching resilience. Isaiah says that the servant “will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth” (42:4). The servant who takes care not to break or damage the weakened likewise refuses to be broken or crushed by the strong. God’s people do not trample the weak, but nor will they be trampled by the mighty. They do not break the bruised reed, but nor will they be broken by the scepter. The people of God will bring justice to the world with a gentle, unstoppable resilience.

Hope for the World

In the following verses, God describes the people, called and sent as bearers of light and life to the world. God says,

I have called you in righteousness,
     I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
     a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
     to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness. (42:6-7)

The people of God will open the eyes of those who cannot see and set free those who have been held in captivity. The people of God will be the covenant that God sends to the world. We will be the tie that binds the world together with God’s justice.

We are the ones who bear God’s hope to the world.

The Advent of God’s People

In this way, Isaiah casts Advent in a distinctly different light than what we have come to expect. Isaiah’s God is not sending a messiah who will come to bring light in the midst of darkness. Rather, God is sending us to bring lignt and life to the world. We are not waiting for God to send us the Christ. Rather, God is waiting for us to be bearers of God’s justice, gentle and resilient, to a hurting world.