Daily Bible Nugget #393, Isaiah 42:1

The Nugget:

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

 

 

My Comment:

I answered the following excellent question in an ongoing discussion taking place in the “Islam and Christianity Debate Group” today:

Thank you for your answer. My question to you is: If the Trinity does indeed represent the truth about the nature of God, then why was it not preached by the prophets prior to Jesus, and even by Jesus himself? And why is the word “Trinity” nowhere in the Bible?

 

My Response:

That is a very good question, Farid EL Moustain. I believe there is evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures that suggests the Hebrew prophets did indeed know about the Trinity, though that insight may seem to us not very distinctly declared.
 
That is why to dig deeper into the truths revealed in the Old Testament we must learn to use the proper study tools and procedures. The procedures are at least suggested by what I call the “Rules of Interpretation.” I have listed 24 or so of these elsewhere, and have mentioned one of them here repeatedly, namely, the Rule of Necessary Inference. The tools readily available freely to all would be modern Bible study software which includes a resource called The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, a collection of cross references which permit the Bible to explain itself by comparing Scripture with Scripture.
 
Isaiah 42:1 may be one passage in the Old Testament prophets which gives at least a hint of the Trinity:  “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;  I have put my spirit upon him:  he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” The Trinity is seen here, for we have the Father as the speaker; the Son as the servant, the Messiah;  and the Holy Spirit.  All three persons of the Trinity are also mentioned together in Matthew 3:16, 17;  Matthew 28:19;  Luke 1:35;  John 14:16, 26;  John 15:26;  Romans 15:30;  1 Corinthians 12:4-6;   2 Corinthians 13:14;  Ephesians 2:18;  Ephesians 4:4-6;  2 Thessalonians 3:5;  Hebrews 9:14;  1 Peter 1:2;  1 John 5:7;  Jude 20, 21;  Revelation 1:4, 5.
 
It is an interesting fact that the word “Trinity” occurs nowhere in the Bible that I have seen. But this is true of many matters connected with Bible truth. The term “rapture”  is not in the Bible either, nor “age of accountability,” nor “eternal security,” a much discussed Bible doctrine among Christians.
 
Some other things not named in the Bible in terms with which we speak of them today include shekinah glory, theophany, incarnation, supernatural, battle of Armageddon,  personality, spiritual Israel, last judgment, general judgment, second coming, legalism, intermediate state, infant baptism, believer’s baptism. My list of these extends much further, but this may give you some idea that there are many things common to the discussion of Bible teaching or doctrine that are spoken of in terms today using words not in the Bible itself.
 
Watson remarks, “So the word Trinity is not to be found in Scripture, but there is there that which is equivalent to it. ” Watson further states “Though the word infant baptism is not in Scripture, yet the thing is,” Body of Divinity, page 381.
 
You may well understand that my Baptist friends would disagree with Watson about infant baptism. Nevertheless, Watson was a careful student of Scripture, and on both issues he most certainly is correct.
 
So, the fact that a term used to discuss a Bible doctrine is not found in the Bible is not really an evidence against the truth of the doctrine.
 
By observing carefully many disparate statements in Scripture, we may, by considering them together, see quite plainly that there are three Persons who are each called God, or are found doing things only God can do, or who have attributes only possessed by God.
 
There are statements starting with Genesis chapter 1 which support my claim. For example, we obviously have God the Father mentioned in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
 
In Genesis 1:2,   we read in part, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The word “moved” may be translated “was brooding.” J. B. Rotherham, translator of the Emphasized Bible, note i on Genesis 1:2, remarks “The beautiful word ‘brooding’–an exact rendering of the Hebrew–is most suggestive; since it vividly describes the cherishing of incipient life, as a preparation for its outburst. The partial form of such a word clearly denotes a process, more or less lengthened, rather than an instantaneous act. Standing where it does, it crowns the description of the condition of things on which the first creative mandate of six days took effect.”
 
When I first read that comment by Rotherham, I recalled a graduate seminar in linguistics at Wayne State University in Detroit where we discussed at length the interesting feature of language that reveals whether what is spoken of is a person or not a person.
 
Applying this simple linguistic insight to the Bible I arrive at the following conclusion. Since only a person can “brood,” this is evidence that the Holy Spirit is a person. Compare “grieve” as used in the New Testament at Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the Spirit of God,” which likewise determines that the Holy Spirit must be a person. A non-person cannot brood, nor can it brood, grieve, or be grieved by an act of delegation. One cannot grieve an influence or an active force (Matthew 12:31), as is the notion of the non-personhood or non-personality of the Holy Spirit of God expressed by some, like the Jehovah Witnesses, who deny the doctrine of the Trinity.
 
In the Bible, the act of Creation is ascribed to the work of all three persons of the Trinity in cooperation:
 
(1) God the Father, Genesis 1:1;
(2) the Son, John 1:2, 3;
(3) the Holy Spirit, Genesis 1:2.
 
For each of those three points in outline there is likely more material in the Bible in passages which can be located using a good source of Bible cross references such as The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, and newer works I wrote titled The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, available in software, and Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible.

To dig deeper into Isaiah 42:1 by means of cross reference Bible study, read the cross references I share below for this verse:

  1. my servant.   +Is 37:35.  43:10.  *Is 49:3, 4, 5, 6.  *Is 52:13.  *Is 53:11.  +Ex 28:39 (girdle).  =Le 2:4.  Nu 4:49.  7:5.  Jsh 1:2.  1 Ch 17:19.  Jb 1:8.  =Ps 106:23.  Zc 3:8.  >Mt 12:17-21.  Lk 23:35.  Jn 8:29.  10:36.  14:28.  *Phil 2:6-8.   whom I uphold.  ver. Is 42:6.   Is 49:2, 7,  8.   50:4-10.  Ps 16:5.  37:17.  54:4.  63:8.  73:23.  89:21.  119:116.  Jn 10:36.  16:32.  mine elect.  Ps 89:3, 19, 20.  Hg 2:23.  Lk 23:35.  +**Lk 24:27n, Lk 24:44.  *Jn 6:27.  Ro 8:33.  Col 3:12.  1 P 2:4, 6.  my soul.  Heb. nephesh, +Ge 34:3;   +Le 26:11n.   FS22A1,  +Le 26:11.  Je 9:9.  Am 6:8h.  *Mt 3:17.   *Mt 17:5.  Mk 1:11.  Lk 3:22.  *Ep 1:4, 6.  Col 1:13mg.  He 10:38.  delighteth. or, is well-pleased.  Is 53:10.  2 S 15:26.  22:20.  1 K 10:9.  2 Ch 9:8.  Est 6:6.  Ps 22:8.  Pr 8:30.  **Mt 17:5.  Mk 12:6.  Jn 3:35.  10:17.  15:10.   I have.   *Is 11:2, 3, 4, 5.  59:21.  61:1.  Mt 3:16.  Mk 1:10.  Lk  3:22.   Jn 1:32, 33, 34.   **Jn 3:34.   Ac 10:38.  **2 P 1:17.   my spirit.   Heb. ruach, +Ge 6:3;  +Ge 41:38.   +*Is 48:16.  +*Lk 4:18.  Ac 1:2.  +*Ac 5:4n.  He 9:14.  The Trinity is seen here,  for we have the Father as the speaker;  the Son as the  Servant,  the  Messiah;   and the Holy  Spirit.   All  three persons  of  the Trinity are also mentioned together in Mt  3:16, +*Mt 3:17;  +**Mt 28:19n;  Lk 1:35;  Jn 14:16, 26;  15:26;  *Ro 15:30;  *1 Cor 12:4-6;   2 Cor 13:14;  Ep 2:18;  4:4, 5, 6;  2 Th 2:13, 14;  3:5;  He 9:14;  1 P 1:2;   1 J 5:7;   Jude 20,  21;  Re 1:4, 5.  he shall bring forth.  Is 32:16.  49:6.  Mic 4:2.  Lk 4:43.  Ac 26:6.  judgment. or, justice. ver. +Is 42:4.  +*Is 30:18.  32:16.  51:4.  Ps 110:6.  Mt 12:18.   to the Gentiles.   Is 11:10.  49:1, 6, 22.  54:3.  +Ge 49:10.  +Ps 96:3.  Zc 2:11.  Ml 1:11.  $Mt 12:17, 21.  Lk 2:31.  $Jn 10:16.  Ac 9:15.  $Ac 10:45, 47.  11:18.  13:47.  26:17.  28:28.  *Ro 15:8-16.  Ep 1:12.  3:8.

 

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