Isaiah 42:6
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9
Building off of verse 4 from yesterday, Isaiah continues to press the point today that the Messiah will bring salvation to not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. Thus far in this chapter, Isaiah has now alluded to this three times:
- “He will bring justice to the nations” (vs 1),
- “In his teaching the islands will put their hope” (vs 4),
- “I will make you … a light for the Gentiles” (vs 6).
So if it wasn’t clear before, let it be clear now that the Messiah is for all nations and all people. With the coming of Jesus, God was expanding his message beyond the borders of Israel and Judah. He was doing a new thing. God would establish a new covenant with all people. The Old Covenant or Testament would be fulfilled and Jesus would be “a [New] covenant for the people” (vs 6).
Let’s dive really deep today into this covenantal language because this is truly an extraordinary prophecy that Isaiah is giving to us. I’ll say the conclusion and we will work back into it. Isaiah is telling us that Jesus will be the covenant. Jesus will not only make a new covenant with us, but he will “be” the covenant.
To begin, it’s important to understand that every covenant between God and man requires a mediator. A covenant is simply a contract or agreement between two parties. The purpose of a covenant is to establish a relationship. God established many covenants in the Old Testament with a variety of mediators.
For instance, the first covenant recorded between God and man where Adam is the mediator. Adam was given the Garden of Eden and access to the Tree of Life so long as he obeyed God and didn’t eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. Adam broke the covenant (aka sinned), and led all of humanity into disobedience (Rom 5:18-19). Thanks Adam!
God also made covenants with His people through Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. All of these mediators were obedient at times and also disobedient at times. These mediators were not able to uphold their end of the bargain because they were sinful people and in the end did not receive the blessing of God’s covenant. We can conclude that the strength of a covenant is dependent on the faithfulness of the mediator.
So this is a problem in that no human mediator has ever been able to keep the covenant with God. Life is promised to those who are able to perfectly maintain God’s laws: “Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them” (Lev 18:5). But no man has been able to do this – yet.
As a side note, God not only made a covenant with man but He also made us a promise through Abraham. He promised Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). Paul reiterates this promise as well: “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise” (Gal 3:18).
God made a covenant that we would receive life if we obeyed his laws. This was not a covenant that we could live up to our end of the agreement. However, God promised to give us life anyway. But God cannot go back on his own covenant. He is truth. What He says always comes true. So he can’t just throw out the agreement he made. We need a perfect mediator. One who can fulfill the laws of God.
A second side note, a new covenant with God requires a sacrifice. Covenants with God are ratified with blood, symbolizing life but also commitment. Sacrifice is the essential component to seal the covenant and affirm the agreement. For instance, Moses confirmed God’s covenant in blood as recorded in Exodus: “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Ex 24:8).
God promised this perfect mediator to us throughout the Old Testament. The message from God was simple. He made a covenant to provide life to all those who obeyed His laws. We cannot hold up our end of the agreement so he promised to send the Messiah who would fulfill the agreement for us. This promise is front and center in Isaiah’s prophecy in verse 6. God will send Jesus to be righteousness (perfectly obey the law) and become the covenant.
He not only will ratify the covenant but will become the embodiment of the covenant himself. God is not only making a new covenant but is giving us Jesus as the covenant. God is uniting the mediator and the covenant. The quality of this new covenant is fully dependent on the quality of the mediator because the covenant is the mediator. The covenant is between God and man with Jesus as the mediator who is both God and man himself.
Isaiah looks forward to the coming Messiah who will fulfill the old covenant through his righteousness and establish a new covenant and seal it by his sacrifice of blood. This will be the final covenant that will last for all eternity because it fully depends on Jesus’ perfect obedience.
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb 9:15).
We are not worthy of what we have received in Jesus. We could not uphold our end of the agreement. So Jesus came to take our place and make us right with God. It is only by the blood of Jesus and the grace of God that we have the right to eternal life. It is the greatest gift ever given!
Christ in the Old Testament 
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