Is 42:1
"Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my chosen one, in whom my soul is well pleased; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment."
Is 42:2
"He shall not cry out, nor show partiality, nor shall his voice be heard in the streets."
Is 42:3
"A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench; he shall bring forth judgment in truth."
Is 42:4
"He shall not be discouraged nor turbulent, until he establishes judgment in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law."
*"Behold my servant," whom above I identified as the evangelist. For this one is called "servant" who, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:6-7). And this one is "chosen" above all others; "for the Father has sealed him" (John 6:27). "In whom my soul"—that is, the will of the Father—"is well pleased," because in all things he saw him [to be worthy]. Moreover, what he interposes, "I will uphold him," speaks concerning his exaltation: for he upheld him, establishing him at his right hand, "far above every principality and power and virtue and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet" (Ephesians 1:20-22).
"He says, 'I have put my Spirit upon him.' As John bore witness, saying: 'I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained upon him' (John 1:32). And appropriately he says 'upon him,' because he is speaking concerning the Son of Man, whom he also called his servant. For even according to his divinity, the Spirit is not above Christ, but in Christ, because just as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so also the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son. Therefore, not according to divinity is the Spirit above Christ, because the Trinity is not above itself, but above all things; moreover, it is not above itself, but in itself.
"Moreover, the Savior brought forth judgment to the Gentiles—judgment of just discernment—concerning which it is said: 'There is no judgment in their paths' (Isaiah 59:8). For 'paths' are called the operations upon which they rely. But there is no judgment in the paths of these, because they neglect to examine their actions, so that, doing all things with discernment, they might avoid evils and do good. Therefore, the Lord delivered this kind of judgment to the Gentiles through his apostles, granting them the word of knowledge, they who were held by errors.
"Moreover, what follows—'because he shall not cry out, nor show partiality, nor shall his voice be heard outside'—is thus read in Matthew: 'He shall not contend, nor cry out, nor shall anyone hear his voice in the streets' (Matthew 12:19). Therefore, this is to be understood in reference to the gentleness of his character, because he did not speak with a clamorous or contentious voice. In this also the truth appears, because he accepted no one's person to flatter anyone, but reproved all as was fitting. Moreover, his modesty is demonstrated from this, because no one heard his voice outside in the streets. For he never uttered an idle or frivolous word, like those who cry out in the streets, showing the vanity of their heart. Or, 'his voice was not heard outside' because he did not preach the gospel beyond Galilee, Judea, or Samaria.
"What indeed is designated by the name of 'reed' except the temporal kingdom of the Jewish people, shining indeed outwardly but empty within? And because in that same people the royal lineage had already failed, and a foreigner possessed their kingdom, appropriately this kingdom is called 'a bruised reed.' What indeed is expressed through 'flax' except its priesthood, which used linen garments? Which, because at the advent of the Lord it lost its fervor—as if the fire of faith being now lost, though burning, it was smoking—Therefore, the incarnate Lord did not break the bruised reed, and did not quench the smoking flax, because the kingdom of Judea, which had already been nearly destroyed, and its priesthood which did not hold the fire of faith, he did not strike with the power of judgment, but endured it with the longsuffering of patience. Or, 'he shall not break the bruised reed' because he will be merciful toward sinners and will grant pardon to transgressors. And 'he shall not quench the smoking flax' because those who were near to extinction shall be preserved by his clemency. For in his second advent he shall bring forth judgment in truth, when he will render to each according to his works. Or also in his first advent he brought forth judgment in truth, as he says: 'For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind' (John 9:39).
"Who was not sad nor turbulent, but cheerfully and gently performed his actions, until he established judgment in the earth—that is, until he formed all to his imitation, that they might do all things with discernment, as was said above. Moreover, it is manifest that afterward he was not sad or turbulent; but concerning that time about which it could be doubted, the prophet bore witness, just as the evangelist, when speaking of his Virgin Mother, asserted that 'he did not know her until she brought forth her Son' (Matthew 1:25), whom certainly he did not know afterward either. The divine Scriptures frequently use this manner of speaking.
"Moreover, after the Lord established judgment in the earth—that is, in the breadth of the world—by which believers, when they judge all things which they wish to do, have received [guidance], and the islands, that is, the more remote places of the Ocean, [have received] the law of his preaching, which they were awaiting."
With a contrasting manner of speaking, the Father adds:
Is 42:5
"Thus says the Lord God, creating the heavens and stretching them out, establishing the earth and the things that spring from it, giving breath to the people who are upon it, and spirit to those who tread upon it."
Is 42:6
"I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I have taken your hand, and preserved you, and given you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles."
Is 42:7
"That you might open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth from confinement the prisoner, from the prison house those sitting in darkness."
"The Lord indeed, creating the heavens, stretched them out like a tent for inhabiting, and he himself established the earth with lofty mass, that it might not be shaken forever and ever. He also establishes those things which spring from it, such as trees, that standing upright upon their stalk they might subsist. Who also gives breath—that is, the breath of life—to the people who are upon it, that they might live as living beings, and the Holy Spirit to those who tread upon it—that is, to those who, despising earthly things, might proceed to justify the world.
'And I have taken your hand.' But this Lord who does such things addresses Christ, saying: 'because I have called you in righteousness, that you, being just... that I might lead you, strengthening you, in my will,' because whatever the Son operates, the Father also operates. 'And I have preserved you,' he says, 'from sin, and I have given you as a covenant to the people'—that is, into the fellowship of friendship of the multitude of believing Hebrews, 'whose heart was one and soul one' (Acts 4:32). 'And I have given you as a light to the Gentiles,' that you might enlighten those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, that you might open the interior eyes of the blind Gentiles, that they might perceive the light of truth.
"For the Gentiles were blind, because not having accepted the law, they did not see where they ought to go. 'And you might bring forth,' he says, 'from the confinement of the heart the Gentile people, bound with the ropes of their sins, and from the prison house of the heart, those sitting in the darkness of errors and ignorance.'
"For every man, by that which he does evil, makes for himself nothing other than the prison of his own conscience. Because when, with God judging, he is left in the blindness of his malice, he is as if shut up within himself, lest he find a place of escape, which he does not deserve to find. For often indeed some desire to depart from wicked actions, but they are pressed down by the weight of those same deeds, so that, enclosed in the prison of evil habit, they cannot depart from themselves. And indeed, desiring to punish their own faults, they turn what they estimate they are doing rightly into graver sins, and it comes to pass in a wondrous manner that what they think is an exit, this they find to be an inclusion. Thus the reprobate Judas, when he inflicted death upon himself after his sin, arrived at the punishments of eternal death, and repented of his sin worse than he sinned.
"From this kind of confinement, therefore, the Savior came to lead the bound one; he was sent to liberate from such a prison house those sitting in exterior darkness."
CONTINUE
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