Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s Obedience
Isa 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
Isa 50:2 When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
Isa 50:3 I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”
Isa 50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
Isa 50:5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.
Isa 50:6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
Isa 50:7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
Isa 50:8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!
Isa 50:9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.
Isa 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God.
Isa 50:11 But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, 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.
1 Christ shows that the failure of the Jews is not to be imputed to him, by his ability to save,
5 by his obedience in that work,
7 and by his confidence in that assistance.
10 An exhortation to trust in God, and not in ourselves.
Isa 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
The mother is Judah, the children are the Jews, and the father is God. There was no certificate of divorce, for God had not divorced Judah (see Deut. 24:1–4)—she had forsaken Him.
Compare the acted parable of Hosea, a contemporary of Isaiah (Hosea 1 to 3; cf. Eze. 16:8, 15). God had never relinquished His rights as Judah’s lawful spouse and sought by every means possible to persuade her to return. Compare the experience of Hosea with Gomer as recorded in Hosea 2.
My creditors. The figure changes. Judah, in the Babylonian captivity, would find herself a slave, and would conclude that her Master must have sold her to satisfy the demands of His creditors (see Lev. 25:39; Deut. 15:12). But God has no creditors. By their evil ways the Jews sold themselves and became the servants of sin (Isa. 52:3; cf. Rom. 6:16). This was the reason for their bondage to the heathen.
Isa 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst.
Is my hand shortened? Was Judah’s subjection to the heathen due to inability on God’s part to redeem her? No! He had redeemed Israel from Egypt, had saved them from Assyria, and would yet redeem them from Babylon.
Fish stink. An allusion to the first of the ten devastating plagues of Egypt (Ex. 7:17–21).
Isa 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering.”
An illusion to the ninth plague of Egypt (Ex. 10:21–23).
Isa 50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
This verse introduces a new section. Jesus, the “Servant” (see on ch. 41:8) of Jehovah, here declares His devotion to the task before Him—His earthly mission. He comes as a Teacher of men, yet He is, in turn, instructed by the Father (see John 3:2; John 5:19; John 8:28; DA 208, 417).
That I should know how. Before Christ came to this earth the plan for His life “lay out before Him, perfect in all its details”; nevertheless, living as a man among men, He laid aside His foreknowledge of these things and was guided by the Father’s will as it was unfolded to Him day by day (DA 147; see on Luke 2:49). This fact makes even more meaningful the many occasions on which it is recorded that Jesus spent entire nights in prayer (see on Mark 3:13).
The Messiah would come into the world as the living “Word” (John 1:1), or spokesman for God, and His constant mission was to comfort and instruct those who were weary of sin (Matt. 11:28). See DA 208, 417; COL 139, 336. Apart from the salvation so graciously provided by Christ, the restless hearts of sinful men can never be at peace.
Isa 50:5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.
Opened my ear. Christ’s “ear” was ever ready to hear His Father’s bidding (see on v. 4). He never sought to do His own will, but always the will of the Father, who had sent Him (Ps. 40:6, 8; John 5:30; see on Luke 2:49). Even in the bitter extremity of the Garden of Gethsemane He did not refuse the “cup” that was pressed to His trembling lips (Matt. 26:42; Phil. 2:8).
Isa 50:6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
My back. The prediction of v. 6 was fulfilled in the scourging of Jesus (Mark 15:15).
Plucked out the beard. The NT does not record this of Jesus at His trial. To pluck off the hair was considered by the Jews an extreme insult (see Ezra 9:3; Neh. 13:25). Instead of lemorṭim, “to them that plucked off the hair,” Dead Sea scroll 1QIsa reads lemoṭlim, “to them that slap.”
Isa 50:7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
A figure denoting firm determination (Eze. 3:8, 9). For the fulfillment of this prediction in the life of Jesus see on Luke 9:51.
Isa 50:8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!
As Jesus hung on the cross the Father was near at hand, though Jesus knew it not (see DA 753, 754).
Christ was innocent, and knew that His accuser knew it as well. The false charges brought against Jesus revealed the malice of those who brought them.
Isa 50:9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.
It was confidence in His Father’s love and perfect submission to His will that sustained the Saviour during His last conflict with the powers of darkness. For the confidence we may have in times of stress see Ps. 37:3–20, 32–40.
Isa 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God.
There are times of darkness and perplexity, even for those who set out to follow the voice of the Lord. The enemy presses in to confuse and to discourage. This was the experience of Job, and later of John the Baptist. It is the privilege of all who find themselves in similar circumstances to place unfaltering trust in God. In due time He will give them the light for which they seek.
Isa 50:11 Look, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment.
Sparks. There is ever the danger that those who profess to serve the Lord may forsake the heavenly pathway for ways of their own devising. In place of light from heaven they turn to light of their own. Like Nadab and Abihu, they offer “strange fire” before the Lord (Lev. 10:1, 2). See on Matt. 6:22, 23.