NOTES for Isa 42:1

In this verse from the prophet Isaiah we are given an almost physically visible image: behold, the Servant, a word that can mean "adolescent" and can mean "servant" or "minister," whom God holds by the hand, not restraining Him but supporting Him, because He is chosen, beloved. And the immediate association is a Father holding the Son by the hand, firmly and tenderly. The words about the Father's favor toward the Son echo the testimony that John the Baptist heard during the Lord's Baptism, when God placed His Spirit upon Jesus standing in the Jordan waters. And after this Christ begins His ministry as the Servant of the Lord, Eved Yahweh, revealing good and driving out evil: "For judgment I came into this world" (John 9:39). Thus this whole verse prophesies about the earthly path of the Son of Man: being chosen, the favor and support of the Father, growth, being filled with the Spirit, ministry, judgment.