Isaiah 42:7, commentary and pictures

The promised Servant is Christ, upheld and delighted in and filled with God's Spirit, given as a covenant for the people and a light to the Gentiles to give sight to the blind and bring prisoners out of darkness.
Blind eyes are spiritual blindness and lack of spiritual knowledge, and the prison and darkness are bondage to sin and unbelief and helpless captivity to Satan as destroyer.
He does this work without loud contention or breaking the bruised reed, uniting the majesty of a King with the gentleness of a shepherd, working by His word and Spirit to restore God's moral image in man.
Those who receive Him share His commission to carry light from God's Word to those in darkness and bondage, so that blinded eyes are opened, sinners are converted, and truth spreads.
Earnest study of the Word, care for the sick, circulation of truth-filled literature, and prayer to God are the appointed means by which eyes are opened and captives are set free.

Servant Identity and Commission

The Servant is the Messiah, Christ Himself, God's elect one whom God upholds and in whom He delights and upon whom He puts His Spirit. Called in righteousness and held by the hand and kept by God, He is given for a covenant of the people and for a light of the Gentiles, and His assigned mission is to give sight to blind eyes and to bring out the prisoners from the prison and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house. That joining of heavenly gifts of the Word with skillful use of natural agencies against disease belongs to this same Servant work, laboring with diligence to bring Bible truth to bear on human hearts so many are turned to the Lord in confidence in Him who is truth personified.

The commission is spoken by God the Lord as Creator of the heavens and the earth, who stretched them forth and spread abroad the earth and gives breath and spirit to the people upon it. He who speaks will not give His glory to another nor His praise to graven images. Earnest study of His sacred infinite Word gives light for the work, and those who receive it are to go out in faith to share that light with those in spiritual darkness and bondage. In that commission the Servant brings judgment and law to the Gentiles and brings forth judgment in truth and sets judgment in the earth, without loud contention or crying in the streets, without breaking the bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax, and without failing or being discouraged.

The precious assurance to God's Anointed Son embraces all who receive Jesus Christ, for to all who believe on His name He gives power to become sons and daughters of God. To everyone the Lord presents terms of mercy, and as each draws near to Him by faith He draws near in return, adopting them into His family. God pledges His support to the success of this kingdom work, for He has set a time to favor Zion and has provided men and means to accomplish it without leaving His people to shame, so that it will move just as He ordained it to move. Its promises can be trusted and fulfilled for those who follow the Lord, and the chapter stands as encouragement and assurance to believers amid coming judgments.

The verse belongs to a declaration of Jehovah's power and His care for His people and His yearning desire to bring those ignorant of His purposes under His beneficent care. To open blind eyes and to bring prisoners and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house means to bring the ignorant under that care, including caring for the sick through outdoor life, exercise, good food, the best treatments, and faith in God's healing power to restore health, calling forth a new song of praise to Jehovah from the end of the earth. It is the work of Jehovah's appointed servant to open blind eyes and bring prisoners and people living in darkness out of confinement.

Blindness Darkness and Captivity

Blind eyes are spiritual blindness and the need for spiritual knowledge, while the prison and the prison house are confinement in spiritual bondage and darkness. The opening of blind eyes and the freeing of prisoners express the bringing of people out of spiritual darkness into light, as the work of the Lord's Messiah and of those appointed to serve Him. Given as a light to the Gentiles, the Servant upheld and called in righteousness brings release from blindness and confinement in darkness.

That darkness is unbelief, and the bondage and darkness of sin. It is specifically ignorance of God's purposes, under whose beneficent care the ignorant are to be brought, and ignorance of God's Word and its hidden truths, which must be revealed so that those sitting in darkness may be enlightened and saved.

The captivity is helpless captivity to Satan as the destroyer, who by his devices has nearly obliterated the image of God in man and holds souls as helpless captives in darkness. His working is through the deceptive influence of evil powers upon minds, through false theories and false principles that seduce and hold even medical missionaries under his power, through concealment and obscuring of truth and establishment of error, and through violation of principle, honor, and integrity for gain. To have blind eyes opened is to be made to see his untiring effort to conceal truth and establish error, his deceptions to destroy the soul, the dishonoring of God through unholy confederacy, the selling of conscience for love of money, and the certainty that God knows every work and will bring it into judgment. Bondage of this kind is broken only by coming to the Saviour, laying hold on His strength, and bowing before Him in repentance and contrition, to whom He gives forgiveness, makes partakers of the divine nature, breaks Satan's hold, and gains the victory.

God also leads the blind along unfamiliar paths, turns their darkness to light, and does not forsake them. Those who recognize their need receive a fuller revelation of God and the help offered to them, but the same revelation tests character and determines destiny, so that those who reject Christ while claiming to see are left in guilty spiritual blindness.

Christ's Liberating Mission Work

The verse describes Christ's work in the world, to give spiritual sight to the blind and to bring out prisoners and those sitting in darkness out of confinement, including the prison-house of darkness. This liberation of those who cannot see and those who are confined belongs to His calling as the Lord's Servant.

This deliverance is His mission as a light to the Gentiles and a covenant for the people, bringing God's saving rule to the world by the power of the cross. God pledges His support to the success of this kingdom work for the people. It is God's saving work to give light to the Gentiles through freeing those imprisoned in darkness and giving spiritual sight to the blind.

His liberating work includes teaching and healing alongside bringing spiritual light and deliverance, with appointed ministry to open blind eyes and free people from imprisonment and darkness. It includes caring for the sick through outdoor life, exercise, good food, the best treatments, and faith in God's healing power to restore health, calling forth praise from the end of the earth. The healing of the blind man showed this mission in both physical and spiritual sight, revealing God more fully and offering help to those who recognized their need.

He waited, worked, and acted in dependence on God in this mission in the world. He unites the majesty of an omnipotent King with the gentleness and tenderness of a caretaking shepherd, working not with outward observation but by the gentleness of the inspiration of His word and the operation of His Spirit in the soul. That gentle working brings men to understand the claims God has upon them and leads the ransomed in the paths cast up for them.

As Restorer in contrast to Satan as destroyer, He restores God's moral image in all who connect themselves with God. Satan by his devices such as spiritualism has nearly obliterated the image of God in man and holds souls as helpless captives in darkness, but through faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ in the new birth hereditary peculiarities and deficiencies of character are overcome. Even those turned aside by human head-reading and counsel such as phrenology are given fitness by grace to do the very work the Lord has chosen for them and to succeed as agents cooperating with divine agencies.

Opening blind eyes includes bringing particular deceived ones to see, helping one turned from Christ, Dr. Kellogg, to see and turn toward Christ, the sin-pardoning Saviour who offers eternal life. It also means opening the blind eyes of medical missionaries who have been deceived by false theories, seduced by false principles, and held under Satan's power. That spiritual blindness and bondage are broken only by coming to the Saviour, laying hold on His strength, and bowing before Him in repentance and contrition, to whom He gives forgiveness, makes them partakers of the divine nature, breaks Satan's hold, gains the victory for them, and strengthens them to do all things through Christ.

Believers Share the Commission

The commission first given to Israel now rests on Christians, to seek light in God's Word by earnest study and then carry what is received in faith to those living in spiritual darkness and bondage, opening blind eyes and leading prisoners out of confinement and darkness. The Son is given as a light to the Gentiles for this deliverance, and those who look to Jesus for spiritual knowledge must not hide that light under a bushel but let it give light to all who are in the house. As Creator of the heavens and the earth who gives breath and spirit to its people, God has called His people in righteousness, holds their hand and keeps them, and makes them a covenant of the people and a light for the nations, inviting all to fully examine the claims of His law. Extending that light through missionary labor leads people to Christ, and through faithful work leads people everywhere to praise God from the end of the earth.

The verse directs God's people to seek wisdom from Him rather than from finite human beings, and belongs with Isaiah 40 and 2 Peter in calling for a reformatory work to be carried forward in deeply spiritual lines. That work is directed to a mixed company where some do not understand its nature, and requires prepared hearts to receive God's messages, men of clear understanding, and leadership worked by the Holy Spirit, with no haphazard work but thorough reformation. It embraces God's yearning desire to bring those ignorant of His purposes under His beneficent care, including caring for the sick through outdoor life, exercise, good food, the best treatments, and faith in His healing power to restore health, calling forth a new song of praise to Jehovah from the end of the earth.

Rescuing those in blindness and bondage means saving a world, which requires sending missionaries everywhere and sustaining them, glorifying the Lord in simplicity without extravagance or dependence on costly representations of figures. The household is to be kept sanctified to God with parents and children learning to work together, carrying the truth in every line of home life so it goes forth in the power of true godliness. Opening blind eyes means teachers and students together going out at set times to open the Scriptures to people in surrounding neighborhoods and settlements in surrounding towns so they see the light of the Word, which is the missionary work for salvation of soul and body that schools are established to do, including communicating the precious light of truth to younger school children to help instruct others.

The chapter foretells presenting the warning message to the world and explaining why believers believe as they do, done through camp meetings that give people the information they desire and arouse their slumbering senses to see how far they have departed from the Lord's ordinances by adopting worldly policy and conforming to worldly principles in transgression against the law of God. It is done also through sanitariums established in different parts of the world as an educating power to reform the people and restore in them the moral image of God, so that through knowledge of the Word men become converted and use their means and ability to extend knowledge of the truth. As believers consecrate themselves to God and keep His way by doing justice and righteousness, many whose eyes are blinded are opened to discern spiritual things, and sinners are drawn to Christ and converted. As this light is shared, truth spreads like a burning lamp, wrong fails, and the law of God is shown to be right.

This liberating work advances not with outward observation but by the gentleness of the inspiration of His word and the operation of His Spirit in the soul, bringing men to understand the claims God has upon them and leading the ransomed in the paths cast up for them, for God has set a time to favor Zion and has provided men and means so His work will move just as He ordained without leaving His people to shame. Human interference doing a work God has not appointed, interposing between fellow men and God to lead them aside, has kept this work from advancing farther in many places of the world and will be judged. Restricting faithful workers who share present truth from receiving support hinders people from learning the truth and rejoicing in it. The darkness is ignorance of God's Word, and bringing light to those sitting in darkness and freeing those held in captivity is done by enlightening people through revealing its hidden truths so they may be saved.

Means That Open Eyes

Earnest study of the sacred infinite Word gives light for the work of opening blind eyes and bringing prisoners from prison and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house. That work given to the Servant called in righteousness and kept by God as a covenant of the people and a light of the Gentiles is accomplished by joining skillful use of natural agencies for combating disease with the heavenly gifts of God's Word, laboring with diligence to bring Bible truth to bear upon human hearts. So labored, many are turned unto the Lord in confidence in Him who is truth personified, and those given light go out in faith to share that light with those in spiritual darkness and bondage to bring sight and release, so that truth spreads like a burning lamp, wrong fails, and the law of God is shown to be right.

Caring for the sick is part of bringing those ignorant of God's purposes under God's beneficent care, expressing Jehovah's power as Creator of the heavens and the earth who gives breath and spirit, His care for His people, and His yearning desire to bless. It is done through outdoor life, exercise, good food, the best treatments, and faith in God's healing power to restore health. This calling forth of health calls forth a new song of praise to Jehovah from the end of the earth.

Opening blind eyes is done by circulating literature that carries present truth for this time, giving spiritual sight to those who do not understand. Publications going everywhere in many languages through periodicals and books together with the living teacher is the way the third angel's message is given, breaking up the fallow ground of the heart to prepare people to receive and proclaim the truth. Especially needed just now is the wide circulation of books containing the light given regarding Satan's apostasy in heaven, namely Patriarchs and Prophets, Daniel and the Revelation, and Great Controversy, bringing truth to many minds through sale and distribution of books and tracts and periodicals containing the message for this time.

This sight-giving literature work requires believers to wake up, bring in every possible means, and use part of the money from sales to increase facilities for producing more such literature. Rescuing those in spiritual blindness and bondage by saving a world requires sending missionaries everywhere and sustaining them, refusing extravagance and dependence on costly representations of figures, and glorifying the Lord in simplicity. It requires keeping the household sanctified to God with parents and children learning to work together, so that truth is carried in every line of home life and goes forth in the power of true godliness.

Opening blind eyes and unstopping deaf ears is God's work to be sought in prayer, that those who are spiritually blind may see and the deaf may hear and become humble. That prayer concerns minds under the deceptive influence of evil powers. It also concerns those whose devising and planning is wrong and not favorable to the advancement of the truth, whose blindness is failure to see that human plans are wrong, and God Himself must open such blind eyes when the wrong is known but must be met with silence rather than speech.

Opened eyes are enabled to see Satan's untiring effort to conceal and obscure truth and establish error, his deceptions to destroy the soul, the dishonoring of God and the languishing of truth and righteousness through unholy confederacy, the selling of conscience for gain through love of money, and the violation of principle, honor, and integrity. They see that God knows every work and will bring it all into judgment.