Isaiah 42:14

"I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself; now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods."

This paragraph is not limited to God's judgment of pagan nations but applies to all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. "I have long time" refrained myself reminds us of Paul's words in Romans 9:22ff, where is mentioned the "longsuffering" of God in putting up with the repeated rebellions of the Jews. This paragraph shows that God's grace, just mentioned, is not a mere relaxing of God's requirements, or a softening of his attitude toward evil. On the other hand, "This paragraph shows God's fury against evil (Isaiah 42:13,14) and his pent-up zeal to redress it ... salvation will only come through judgment, and will not be for the impenitent (Isaiah 42:17). Compare Isaiah 63:1-6."[16]

There are certainly overtones of the final judgment in this paragraph, another instance where temporal judgment to be executed upon some earthly situation is to be understood typically of the Great Judgment at the second advent of Christ. Other examples are the judgments against Sodom, Gomorrah, Nineveh, Babylon, Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Locust Plague in Joel and many others. Although the particular judgment referred to here may not be clearly identifiable, it appears likely that the judgment of the blind and deaf servant (the fleshly Israel) could very well be the one indicated.