Sermons on Isaiah (Page 9)
Hezekiah’s own failure in chapters 38-39 sets up the sharp turn that follows: real judgment giving way to real comfort. Isaiah 40-66 answers that judgment with God’s own promise to comfort his people through Christ’s coming. The suffering servant’s faithfulness, unlike Hezekiah’s, never wavers.
Isaiah’s own prophetic call comes with real historical circumstances worth tracing, not a timeless vision detached from Judah’s actual crises. Hezekiah reflects David in ways that already point forward to Christ. The suffering servant who threads through this whole book, seen first in shadow here, is Christ himself.
Missions has real roots in the Old Testament, contrary to the modern church’s assumption that it begins at Pentecost or the Great Commission. Isaiah 42’s servant song sets the proper aim: not church growth or cultural influence, but God’s own name sanctified among the nations. Three conclusions follow from that aim, each measuring missions against the same standard.