Isaiah 50: Israel’s sin and the Servant’s Obedience
Intro:
Isaiah 50 is the third “servant song” (the first two are Isaiah 42 and 49). This song shares some things in common with the previous chapter. There was an allusion to the disfigurement of the crucifixion when the writer had God saying to Zion, “I have inscribed you in the palms of my hands.” This time the servant has simply said, “The sovereign Lord has opened my ears.” Although this can be interpreted in at least two ways, the remainder of the verse helps us to interpret the ear opening as the custom of poking a hole in the ear of a servant who wants to be a servant to his master for life. The body is marked or scarred permanently as a sign of ownership, just as Jesus retained the scars of crucifixion after his resurrection. (See verses 5-6).
The other similarity here is contrasting the obedience of God’s servant with the disobedience of Israel as a nation. God is letting Israel know that their troubles came from sin rather than God’s abandonment. Both chapters contain these messages and the message that God stands ready to restore the nation if Israel repents and returns to God. There is also a similarity in both chapters in the format of questions from a disobedient Israel and God’s answers to those questions.
1. God the Father states the reason for Israel’s Rejection (vs. 1-3)
God asks questions of Israel characterizing her as a wayward wife. He asks rhetorically if she had received a bill of divorcement from him or if He had sold her as a slave to pay off His debts. The answer to both questions is a resounding “No!” Israel had been sent away, not because God had grown tired of her, nor because Jehovah had any debts to pay, but because of her sins. The Lord then asks, again rhetorically, if his arms are too short to save, or his strength to little to ransom her. Again, the implied answers are “No!” The Lord stood ready to rescue, fully prepared to do what ever Israel needed, but she never called on him for help. In fact, when God came to her, she was missing. This is a veiled reference to Jesus’ rejection by the Nation of Israel. God came in person as Messiah, but the nation ignored him and rejected him. This would be a forewarning of what is to come, but it represents the general attitude of Israel which was seen again and again throughout history.
This is what prompted Jesus to say in (Mat 23:37 NIV) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. "
Having mentioned about God’s ability to save, and Jerusalem’s unwillingness to receive such salvation from God’s hand, the subject now changes to the faithfulness of the “servant”, and the voice changes from that of God the Father, to that of God the Son.
2. The Son speaks of his faithfulness even in humiliation (vs. 4-9)
This section of scripture is quite prophetic concerning the Messiah with verse 6 as perhaps the most well known prophetic verse in this chapter. The servant calls God “Jehovah Adonai” (The Sovereign Lord) which implies his servanthood, obedience, and devotion to his master.
He begins this section by declaring that the Sovereign Lord has given him an instructed tongue and a listening ear (vs. 4). This implies that he who was himself “the word of God” spent time giving himself daily to instruction in the Word of God. He had an instructed tongue because he had a listening ear awakened each day by God’s teaching in the Word. Some have asked how Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life. If the answer were, “as a carpenter” that would only be half right. He spent the first 30 years of his life in the study of Torah, the Prophets, and the Hebrew Hymnbook (the Psalter). By the age of 12 he astounded the teachers of the Law with not only his knowledge of the Word of God, but his understanding of the underlying message. It was not unusual for a Hebrew boy to immerse himself in study of Torah, but being knowledgeable in it’s meaning was quite impressive. This is why Jesus was called Rabbi by the disciples and the masses even though he had no official credentials from the Rabbinical school in Jerusalem.
Verses 5-6 contain the message of the extent of the servant’s obedience to the Sovereign Lord. In having his ears opened we could point back to the previous verse, but this is most likely a reference to what is to follow concerning his sufferings. If so, it refers to the ancient Levitical practice of making a willing slave into a slave for life by boring a hole in the ear lobe with an awl on the door of the master’s house. (Deuteronomy 15:16-17). The servant, because of his devotion to the Sovereign Lord, offered his back to those who beat him, his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard, and his face to mocking and spitting.
The Messiah allowed himself to be humiliated and tortured by hateful humans because he had already given himself fully to do the pleasure of the Sovereign Lord. It was completely in his power to submit to torture or avoid it completely, but he chose to submit to shame for the sake of his Master’s plan. Jesus spoke of this power he had over his own death by saying in (John 10:17-18 NIV) "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Messiah is also able to explain why he is willing to endure such shame and pain. In verses 7-9 he explains that God is his helper and vindicator. (If only Israel as a nation had understood this for her own sake.) With God as helper the Messiah will not be disgraced, put to shame, or condemned. “Bring on my accusers,” he says, “With God on my side who can condemn me?” This sounds very much like Paul’s words in Romans 8:31-34.
This is why Jesus could “set his face like flint” (vs. 7) and walk resolutely towards Jerusalem knowing that he would face certain death. He not only knew what awaited him in Jerusalem (the cross), but he also knew what God would do after he endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2).
3. God, the Holy Spirit, suggests that we trust the Son and warns those who refuse to do so. (vs. 10-11)
Once again the voice of the speaker changes. It was first the Lord God himself speaking to Israel (vs. 1-3), then the Servant speaking of his Sovereign Lord and of his obedience to his “helper”, and now it is a third party speaking of God and the servant and giving advice and warning to humans in general. Could the Holy Spirit possibly have a voice in the Old Testament? It would seem so from this passage. The Spirit asks who fears the Lord and obeys the word of His Servant. Having spoken at length of the Sovereign Lord and the Servant, the writer now wants to know who acknowledges and acquiesces to them as leaders and guides.
He then advises those in darkness to trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. This is a very evangelistic passage unfolding in the pages of the prophets. The implication is that anyone in darkness who knows that they are in this condition may put their trust in God and be saved. This is an Old Testament foretaste of Jesus’ beatitude in Matthew about the poor in spirit who shall enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).
In contrast to the one in darkness who trusts in God, is the one who attempts to light his own fire and walk in the light of his own torch. For that man who insists on trusting in his own conception of light the warning is that his “light” will burn him. He will lie down in torment. Some see this as a veiled reference to Hell. In light of the seeming evangelistic import of this passage, we would find not only the promise of God’s salvation through the servant, but the warning of hell fire for those who insist on walking in their own light rather than the light of God.
Concerning this passage Dr. J. Vernon McGee wrote, “Some time ago a man said to me, ‘McGee, I heard you in the radio, and I disagree with you about salvation. Let me tell you what I think about it.’ Well, he was ready to build a fire, and he wanted both of us to sit there and warm ourselves by his fire. I knew it was a phony fire, which would give off no heat or light. So I frankly said to him, ‘I don’t mean to be ugly or rude, but I don’t want to hear what you think, because what you think and what I think are quite meaningless. It is what God says that we need to know.’ And we need to walk in the light of the Lord Jesus. He is the Light of the World. If we reject Him who is the Light of the World, then we generally walk in the light of our own little fire down here. The Holy Spirit gives this warning: You will lie down by that little fire of yours in sorrow, which means you will be eternally lost.”
Conclusion: There is a word of comfort for those who are in darkness and know it: God is willing to be your helper if you will trust in Him and obey the word of his servant (vs. 10). There is also a word of warning to the one who thinks he is in the light because he has built his own little fire from his own meager resources: “Go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.” (vs. 11). That may seem like a “downer” of a conclusion to an otherwise positive message from the Sovereign Lord, but it is a conclusion which must not be ignored. It is the only other alternative to putting trust in God.
