Crushing His Enemies

You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots.                                                   Psalm 2:9 NLT

The Lord will march forth like a mighty hero; he will come out like a warrior, full of fury. He will shout his battle cry and crush all his enemies.                                                                                                      Isaiah 42:13 NLT

The Old Testament often says that the Messiah, the coming King, is going to crush his enemies. One of the strongest of such statements is found in Psalm 2. We see it printed above. But there are other such statements, such as that found in the other verse printed above: Isaiah 42:13. These kinds of pronouncements often give rise to claims that the New Testament, with its supposed “gentle Jesus,” contradicts the Old Testament.

Let me say, first of all, that those who argue for the “gentle Jesus” have forgotten about his anger when he cleared the temple of the merchants there (Jn 2:13-18), and his harshly aggressive language toward the Pharisees (Matt 23:13-36). But more than that, they have blotted the book of Revelation from their memory. Those who persist in refusing to surrender their pride and humbly accept Jesus as their Lord will experience his wrath (Rev 19:11-16).

However, there is a prior point. Isaiah 42:13 (above) is at the end of a call to praise (42:10-13) in which the whole earth, both nature and humanity, is called upon to praise God for his triumph. But this prompts us to ask how he has triumphed? The answer is in what precedes the passage. It is the first of the four so-called Suffering Servant passages (42:1-9; the others are 49:1-12; 50:4-9, and the culminating one in Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12). What do these passages tell us? They tellus that the One who will not break an already bent reed, or put out an already guttering candle, is coming to deliver his sin-captive people with his own self-giving love. How will he “crush” his enemies? He intends to conquer them, to subdue them, by shedding his blood in place of theirs! Oh, to be sure, if they persist in their captivity, refusing to accept his offer, their sin, unable to exist in the presence of his righteousness, will bear its terrible fruit. BUT THAT NEED NOT BE THE CASE! His enemies will be crushed; but let us choose to be crushed by his love.