A Series of Answers to Common Questions
Question:
Isaiah 44:24 says that Yahweh was alone when he created the heavens and the earth. Matthew 12:18 quotes Isaiah 42:1 which says that Yahweh will send his servant, who is Jesus. Now if Yahweh was the one true God (Exodus 20:2-3) who alone created the heavens and the earth and he was the one who was to send his servant (Jesus), then that means that Jesus is not Yahweh. Why then do Christians contradict what their own Bible teaches? (*)
Answer:
In the first place, the question assumes Unitarianism, that Yahweh is uni-Personal as opposed to being Tri-Personal. It is because of this assumption that the questioner thinks that Jesus cannot be Yahweh God if Yahweh is said to have sent him.
Yet if Yahweh is indeed a Triune Being, just as the Holy Bible teaches, then there is no problem for one of the Divine members to send another Divine member to be his servant in order to accomplish a specific task or function.
Furthermore, all Trinitarians agree wholeheartedly that Yahweh ALONE created all things. Yet the God who created all things is not a monad, is not a Unitarian Deity. The Holy Bible clearly teaches that Yahweh used his Spirit, his Power, his Word and his very Wisdom to create all things:
"By his Spirit (ruach) the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent." Job 26:13
"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Job 33:4
"By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the Spirit (ruach) of his mouth." Psalm 33:6
"How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures… When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground." Psalm 104:24, 30
"By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew." Proverbs 3:19-20
"For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest." Isaiah 32:14-15
"But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding." Jeremiah 10:12
The NT states that Jesus is God’s Word, Wisdom and Power:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:1-3
"but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians 1:24
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The Life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the Eternal Life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:1-3
"He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God." Revelation 19:13
This is why the NT authors could speak of Christ in such highly exalted terms without compromising monotheism. The Judaism of Jesus’ day knew that God’s Word, Wisdom and Power were not separate beings but intrinsic aspects of God’s very own Being. Thus, for the NT to describe Jesus as God’s eternal Word, Wisdom and Power meant that Christ was intrinsic to the very identity of the one true God. In other words, Jesus isn’t someone who is other than God, but one who is fully God in essence. At the same time, Christ isn’t the only Person who is God, since the Father and his Spirit are God as well.
Furthermore, as far as Jesus being the Servant of Isaiah 42:1 is concerned, this assertion fails to consider the fact that Isaiah himself identified the Servant as the very Arm of Yahweh, and therefore Yahweh himself:
"The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." Isaiah 52:10
"Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has THE ARM OF THE LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53:1-13
The above passages picture Yahweh’s Servant as the visible manifestation of God’s own power sent to redeem God’s people by his death on their behalf. By calling the Servant the Arm of Yahweh, Isaiah indicates that the Servant isn’t only a human being but is also an intrinsic part of God’s very own eternal Being! In other words, Isaiah was basically echoing the inspired words of the Apostle Paul when the latter identified the Lord Jesus as the very power of God in 1 Corinthians 1:24! And since God’s power is eternal and divine:
"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;" Romans 1:20
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence," 2 Peter 1:3
This means that Jesus must therefore be eternal and divine as well!
Moreover, Isaiah also stated that the Servant is exalted to the very position and status of Yahweh:
"Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you -- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind -- so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand." Isaiah 52:13-15
Elsewhere, Isaiah says that Yahweh alone is exalted and lifted on high:
"The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD ALONE will be exalted in that day." Isaiah 2:11, 17
"The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness… ‘Now I will arise,’ says the LORD, ‘now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted." Isaiah 33:5, 10
"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’" Isaiah 57:15
In this last passage the inspired prophet pictured Yahweh as both exalted and as also dwelling with the lowly in spirit. This is precisely the picture we find of Jesus, that as the Servant he is the perfect expression of God’s humbleness and willingness to associate with the lowly and broken hearted!
The fact that the Servant is exalted to a status that belongs to Yahweh alone provides further evidence of him being an extension, a manifestation, of Yahweh himself. Note how this plays out logically:
Thus, instead of refuting the Deity of Christ, a careful examination of both Isaiah and the other inspired biblical books actually prove that Jesus is Yahweh God in the flesh.
For more on this topic we suggest the following article: The Deity of the Messiah in Isaiah and in light of New Testament Exegesis.
* This particular argument is adapted from this Muslim article (*), and that "article" is also rebutted here.
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