May 06 2024 2 mins
Isaiah 42:3b-4a
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.
If at first you don’t succeed … try, try again. Why do we have a proverb for that? Presumably it’s because most of us are inclined to give up rather than to persevere. Faced with a simple task, and few obstacles, we might be willing to do some hard work to achieve a goal. But throw in some setbacks, and make the task a long-term project rather than a quick and easy win, and it’s much more tempting to give up. Faithfulness – a long-term commitment to someone or something, come what may, is not our natural state.
We know from the earlier chapters of Isaiah that the task God has in store for his servant is definitely not going to be quick and easy! Remember, the people have rebelled against God, and are facing invasion from a foreign power. They need both physical and spiritual rescue. Their immediate, practical problems feel enormous but actually their spiritual state is worse. They have seen God commit himself to them over and over again, making a covenant with their forefathers which he has kept even as generation after generation of the people have rebelled. Redeeming a people like that is no small task.
What great news, then, that this servant is going to be faithful. He is going to stick to his God-given task of bringing justice – that is, putting right the people’s relationship with God that they have repeatedly broken. He shares his Father’s unbreakable commitment to these rebels. However often they turn away, his righteousness will be sufficient. He will never resign from his role as their rescuer, discouraged by their repeated failures. He will never abandon his Father’s salvation plan, and turn aside to some new project. He will persevere until his work is complete.
That’s an amazing promise, even for the people of Isaiah’s day. But how much more amazed should we be by the faithfulness of Jesus to his calling, since we know what it involved. Establishing a just means of rescuing us cost him his life. It meant bearing the weight of our sin and being separated from his eternal Father at the cross. Yet Jesus the servant was faithful in his task, for our sake. Let’s praise and thank him for that today.