Promise

Isaiah 42:1-9

Growing up, one of my favorite movies was a film called Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. It was an epic (bad) movie about kids stuck in a video game waiting in anticipation for a hero to come save them, one they referred to as “The Guy.” “Do you think he’s The Guy?” they would ask, only to be disappointed that whatever guy was in front of them was not The Guy, but just another flawed human.

Reading Isaiah 42, I long for the same thing the original readers did. The longer I live, the more my heart breaks for how much injustice plagues this earth. I’m compelled by the Chosen Servant promised in this passage, someone who would come and finally bring justice to the oppressed, and yet do it in an unexpected way: meekly.

Throughout the whole Bible, we see people looking forward to this hero—a Seed, a King, a Servant—and as new characters pop up, we ask “is this The Guy?”, only to be let down. Then comes Jesus. In a mic-drop moment in Luke 4, Jesus reads about the promised Chosen Servant in Isaiah, closes the scroll, and says: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus announced good news for the poor, instructed his followers to join him in doing justice, and did cosmic justice for us by dying on the cross and rising again. Today, though we often “grow weary and discouraged” while we do justice, we look back at what justice Jesus did for us, and we look ahead to His promise to return one day and make all things right.

Prayer:

How does God’s promise to bring justice to his world encourage you?

Question to consider:

Lord, help me take courage in your promise to bring justice. Help me see the needs of others like Jesus did, and empower me to seek justice alongside you, in light of what you’ve done for me.