Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 50:1
Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Isa 50:1-3. The third oracle meets another doubt which must have occurred to the exiles, viz., that the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel has been broken beyond possibility of renewal. In Isa 50:1 this fear is dispelled by the help of two analogies from common life.
Where is the bill whom I have put away?] (better, as R.V., wherewith I have put her away). No such document exists. Although Jehovah has had good reason to adopt this extreme measure (Jer 3:8), He has not done it, but has left the way open for a reconciliation. The effect of the “bill of divorcement” was to make the separation absolute and final; the woman was free to marry another, but could not after that be received back by her former husband (Deu 24:1-4). (A specimen of the form of words used by later Jews is given in Dalman’s Aramische Dialektproben, p. 5.) In Mohammedan law a man may divorce his wife twice and take her back without any ceremony, but a third divorce (or a triple divorce conveyed in one sentence) is final, unless the woman have contracted a fresh marriage in the interval and been released from it either by divorce or the death of the husband ( Koran, Sura 2:229 f.; see Lane, Modern Egyptians, chap. 3). Both the Mosaic and the Mohammedan laws accord to a husband the unrestricted right of divorce, and for this reason the Jewish custom was pronounced by our Lord to be inconsistent with the true idea of marriage and a concession to the weakness of human nature (Mat 19:3 ff.; Mar 10:2 ff.).
which of my creditors is it &c.] i.e. “what creditor of mine is there to whom” &c.? The selling of children into slavery in payment of a debt is another practice tolerated, though hardly approved, by the Law (Exo 21:7; cf. 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5). Since it is inconceivable that Jehovah should have a creditor, so it is impossible that He should have surrendered His rights over His own children.
Behold, for your iniquities &c. ] This is the true explanation of the slavery of the children and the divorce of the mother, and this cause is removed by the offer of forgiveness (Isa 40:2). It is remarkable that the prophet does not, like Hosea and Ezekiel, directly attribute sin to the ideal mother of the nation, but only to the individual Israelites, to whom this whole expostulation is addressed (cf. Hos 2:2).
For have you sold yourselves render with R.V. were ye sold (so again ch. Isa 52:3). The phrase is frequently used in the Book of Judges of the delivering of Israel into the power of its enemies (Jdg 2:14 &c.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Isa 49:14 to Isa 50:3. The Consolation of Zion
(i) Isa 49:14-21. In an apostrophe to Jerusalem the prophet announces the speedy return of her population and the rebuilding of her waste places. The poetry of the passage is singularly beautiful, and charged with tender emotion. Zion, the idealised city, is the wife of Jehovah, and the mother of her inhabitants. Although she now thinks of herself as rejected and barren ( Isa 49:14), she is assured of the unchanging love of her God ( Isa 49:15-16) which will soon be manifested in her restoration to the joy of motherhood (17 20). The ecstasy of amazement and delight with which she recognises and welcomes her children ( Isa 49:21) is finely opposed to the opening picture of her desolation and despondency. Note also the contrast between the whole conception and the fate of the “virgin daughter of Babylon” (Isa 47:8-9).
(ii) Ch. Isa 49:22 to Isa 50:3. Three oracles, confirming the promise to Zion.
(1) Isa 49:22-23. On a signal from Jehovah the nations shall bring home the scattered children of Zion; nay, their kings and queens shall esteem it an honour to foster the newly-formed community.
(2) Isa 49:24-26. No earthly power can interpose between Jehovah and the deliverance of His people; Israel is His lawful prey, and none shall pluck them from Him (see the notes below). In thus representing the deliverance as effected by force, the prophet no doubt has in view the one nation that would not obey the signal of Isa 49:22.
(3) Isa 50:1-3. Lastly, there exists no legal impediment to the redemption of Israel; Jehovah has issued no sentence of formal rejection against His people, nor has anyone acquired the rights of a creditor over them ( Isa 49:1). He therefore expresses surprise that there is so little response to the promise of salvation, so little faith in His almighty power.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thus saith the Lord – To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be disposed to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause.
Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement? – God here speaks of himself as the husband of his people, as having married the church to himself, denoting the tender affection which he had for his people. This figure is frequently used in the Bible. Thus in Isa 62:5 : As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee; For thy Maker is thy husband Isa 54:5; Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you Jer 3:14. Thus in Rev 21:9, the church is called the bride, the Lambs wife. Compare Ezek. 16: See Lowth on Hebrew poetry, Lec. xxxi. The phrase, bill of divorcement. refers to the writing or instrument which a husband was by law obliged to give a wife when he chose to put her away. This custom of divorce Moses found probably in existence among the Jews, and also in surrounding nations, and as it was difficult if not impossible at once to remove it, he permitted it on account of the hardness of the hearts of the Jews (Deu 24:1; compare Mat 19:8).
It originated probably from the erroneous views which then prevailed of the nature of the marriage compact. It was extensively regarded as substantially like any other compact, in which the wife became a purchase from her father, and of course as she had been purchased, the husband claimed the right of dismissing her when he pleased. Moses nowhere defines the causes for which a man might put away his wife, but left these to be judged of by the people themselves. But he regulated the way in which it might be done. He ordained a law which was designed to operate as a material check on the hasty feelings, the caprice, and the passions of the husband. He designed that it should be with him, if exercised, not a matter of mere excited feeling, but that he should take time to deliberate upon it; and hence, he ordained that in all cases a formal instrument of writing should be executed releasing the wife from the marriage tie, and leaving her at liberty to pursue her own inclinations in regard to future marriages Deu 24:2.
It is evident that this would operate very materially in favor of the wife, and in checking and restraining the excited passions of the husband (see Jahns Bib. Antiq. Section 160; Michaelis Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. pp. 450-478; ii. 127-40. Ed. Lond. 1814, 8vo.) In the passage before us, God says that he had not rejected his people. He had not been governed by the caprice, sudden passion, or cruelty which husbands often evinced. There was a just cause why he had treated them as he had, and he did not regard them as the children of a divorced wife. The phrase, your mother, Here is used to denote the ancestry from whom they were descended. They were not regarded as the children of a disgraced mother.
Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you – Among the Hebrews, a father had the right, by the law of Moses, if he was oppressed with debt, to sell his children Exo 21:7; Neh 5:5. In like manner, if a man had stolen anything, and had nothing to make restitution, he might be sold for the theft Exo 22:3. If a man also was poor and unable to pay his debts, he might be sold Lev 25:39; 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25. On the subject of slavery among the Hebrews, and the Mosaic laws in regard to it, see Michaelis Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii. pp. 155, following In this passage, God says that he had not been governed by any such motives in his dealings with his people. He had not dealt with them as a poor parent sometimes felt himself under a necessity of doing, when he sold his children, or as a creditor did when a man was not able to pay him. He had been governed by different motives, and he had punished them only on account of their transgressions.
Ye have sold yourselves – That is, you have gone into captivity only on account of your sins. It has been your own act, and you have thus become bondmen to a foreign power only by your own choice.
Is your mother put away – Retaining the figure respecting divorce. The nation has been rejected, and suffered to go into exile, only on account of its transgressions.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 50:1-3
Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement?
—
Jehovah and unfaithful Israel
These Israelites went to the only kind of law with which they were familiar, and borrowed from it two of its forms, which were not only suggested to them by the relations in which the nation and the nations sons respectively stood to Jehovah, as wife and as children, but admirably illustrated the ideas they wished to express.
(1) There was the form of divorce, so expressive of the ideas of absoluteness, deliberateness and finality–of absoluteness, for throughout the East power of divorce rests entirely with the husband; of deliberateness, for in order to prevent hasty divorce the Hebrew law insisted that the husband must make a bill or writing of divorce instead of only speaking dismissal; and of finality, for such a writing in contrast to the spoken dismissal, set the divorce beyond recall.
(2) The other form which the doubters borrowed from their law, was one which, while it also illustrated the irrevocableness of the act, emphasized the helplessness of the agent–the act of the father who put his children away, not as the husband put his wife in his anger, but in his necessity, selling them to pay his debts and because he was bankrupt.
(3) On such doubts God turns with their own language–I have indeed put your mother away, but where is the bill that makes her divorce final, beyond recall? You indeed were sold, but was it because I was bankrupt! To which, then, of My creditors (note the scorn of the plural) was it that I sold you? Nay, by means of your iniquities did ye sell yourselves, and by means of your transgressions were ye put away. But I stand here, ready as ever to save, I alone. If there is any difficulty about your restoration it lies in this, that I am alone, with no response or assistance from men. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
The sinners responsibility
I. THE SINNERS MISERABLE CONDITION.
1. Separated from God.
2. Sold under sin.
II. THE OCCASION OF IT. Not the will of God, but his own love of sin, and his consequent disregard of Gods offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Israel self-ruined
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But in answer to their murmurings, we have here–
I. A CHALLENGE TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GODS SIDE (Isa 50:1).
II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THEMSELVES THE AUTHOR OF THEIR RUIN. Behold, for your iniquities, etc.
III. A CONFIRMATION OF THIS CHALLENGE AND THIS CHARGE (Isa 50:2-3).
1. It Was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace.
2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity, and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER L
In this chapter God vindicates his dealings with his people,
whose alienation is owing to themselves, 1.
And, by allusion to the temporal deliverances connected with
the drying up of the Red Sea and the Euphrates, asserts his
power to save, 2, 3;
namely, by the obedience and sufferings of the Messiah, 4-6;
who was at length to prove victorious over all his enemies,
7-9.
The two last verses exhort to faith and trust in God in the
most disconsolate circumstances; with a denunciation of
vengeance on those who should trust to their own devices,
10, 11.
NOTES ON CHAP. L
Verse 1. Thus saith the Lord] This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos.
Where is the bill – “Where is this bill”] Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, De 24:1. And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which they might do for a time, till the year of release, Ex 21:7. That this was frequently practised, appears from many passages of Scripture, and that the persons and the liberty of the children were answerable for the debts of the father. The widow, 2Kg 4:1, complains “that the creditor is come to take unto him her two sons to be bondmen.” And in the parable, Mt 18:25: “The lord, forasmuch as his servant had not to pay, commands him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.” Sir John Chardin’s MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: En Orient on paye ses dettes avec ses esclaves, car ils sont des principaux meubles; et en plusieurs lieux on les paye aussi de ses enfans. “In the east they pay their debts by giving up their slaves, for these are their chief property of a disposable kind; and in many places they give their children to their creditors.” But this, saith God, cannot be my case, I am not governed by any such motives, neither am I urged by any such necessity. Your captivity therefore and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thus saith the Lord: this is another sermon begun here, and continued in the next chapter. The main scope of it is to vindicate Gods justice, and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of all their calamities which they imputed to God.
Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement? God had formerly espoused the Israelites to himself in a kind of matrimonial covenant, but seemed to cast them off when he sent them to Babylon, and did wholly reject them afterward from being his people, and took the Gentiles into their stead; which great and wonderful change was foretold in the Old Testament, as hath been already observed, and we shall see again, and accomplished in the New. And because God foresaw that those strange dispensations would provoke the Jews to murmur and quarrel with God for, casting them off without sufficient cause, as indeed they were always prone to accuse God, and to vindicate themselves, he bids them produce their bill of divorce; for those husbands which put away their wives merely out of levity or passion were obliged to give their wives a bill of divorce, which vindicated the wifes innocency, and declared that the husbands will and pleasure was the cause of the divorce; of which see the notes on Deu 24:1; Mat 19:3.
Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? have I any creditors to whom I was obliged or willing to sell you for the payment of my debt? Produce then the bill of sale to witness against me. Parents might, and in some cases were forced to sell their children to their creditors; of which see on Exo 21:7, and 2Ki 4:1.
For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, & c.; you can blame none but yourselves and your own sins for all your captivities and miseries.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Where . . . mothersdivorcementZion is “the mother”; the Jews are thechildren; and God the Husband and Father (Isa 54:5;Isa 62:5; Jer 3:14).GESENIUS thinks that Godmeans by the question to deny that He had given “a billof divorcement” to her, as was often done on slight pretexts bya husband (De 24:1), or that Hehad “sold” His and her “children,” as a poorparent sometimes did (Exo 21:7;2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5)under pressure of his “creditors”; that it was they whosold themselves through their own sins. MAURERexplains, “Show the bill of your mother’s divorcement,whom . . . ; produce the creditors to whom ye have been sold; so itwill be seen that it was not from any caprice of Mine, but throughyour own fault, your mother has been put away, and you sold”(Isa 52:3). HORSLEYbest explains (as the antithesis between “I” and”yourselves” shows, though LOWTHtranslates, “Ye are sold“) I have never givenyour mother a regular bill of divorcement; I have merely “puther away” for a time, and can, therefore, by right as herhusband still take her back on her submission; I have not made you,the children, over to any “creditor” to satisfy a debt; Itherefore still have the right of a father over you, and can take youback on repentance, though as rebellious children you havesold yourselves to sin and its penalty (1Ki21:25).
bill . . . whomrather,”the bill with which I have put her away”[MAURER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord,…. Here begins a new discourse or prophecy, and therefore thus prefaced, and is continued in the following chapter:
where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? these words are directed to the Jews, who stood in the same relation to the Jewish church, or synagogue, as children to a mother; and so the Targum interprets “your mother” by “your congregation”, or synagogue; who were rejected from being a church and people; had a “loammi” written upon them, which became very manifest when their city and temple were destroyed by the Romans; and this is signified by a divorce, alluding to the law of divorce among the Jews, De 24:1, when a man put away his wife, he gave her a bill of divorce, assigning the causes of his putting her away. Now, the Lord, either as denying that he had put away their mother, the Jewish church, she having departed from him herself, and therefore challenges them to produce any such bill; a bill of divorce being always put into the woman’s hands, and so capable of being produced by her; or if there was such an one, see Jer 3:8, he requires it might be looked into, and seen whether the fault was his, or the cause in themselves, which latter would appear:
or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? referring to a practice used, that when men were in debt, and could not pay their debts, they sold their children for the payment of them; see
Ex 21:7, but this could not be the case here; the Lord has no creditors, not any to whom he is indebted, nor could any advantage possibly accrue to him by the sale of them; it is true they were sold to the Romans, or delivered into their hands, which, though a loss to them, was no gain to him; nor was it he that sold them, but they themselves; he was not the cause of it, but their own sins, as follows:
behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; or, “are sold” w; they were sold for them, or delivered up into the hands of their enemies on account of them; they had sold themselves to work wickedness, and therefore it was but just that they should be sold, and become slaves:
and for your transgressions is your mother put away; and they her children along with her, out of their own land, and from being the church and people of God.
w , Sept. “venditi estis”, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceias, Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The words are no longer addressed to Zion, but to her children. “Thus saith Jehovah, Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or where is one of my creditors, to whom I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities are ye sold, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” It was not He who had broken off the relation in which He stood to Zion; for the mother of Israel, whom Jehovah had betrothed to Himself, had no bill of divorce to show, with which Jehovah had put her away and thus renounced for ever the possibility of receiving her again (according to Deu 24:1-4), provided she should in the meantime have married another. Moreover, He had not yielded to outward constraint, and therefore given her up to a foreign power; for where was there on of His creditors (there is not any one) to whom He would have been obliged to relinquish His sons, because unable to pay His debts, and in this way to discharge them? – a harsh demand, which was frequently made by unfelling creditors of insolvent debtors (Exo 21:7; 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25). On nosheh , a creditor, see at Isa 24:2. Their present condition was indeed that of being sold and put away; but this was not the effect of despotic caprice, or the result of compulsion on the part of Jehovah. It was Israel itself that had broken off the relation in which it stood to Jehovah; they had been sold through their own faults, and “for your transgressions is your mother put away.” Instead of we have . This may be because the church, although on the one hand standing higher and being older than her children (i.e., her members at any particular time), is yet, on the other hand, orally affected by those to whom she has given birth, who have been trained by her, and recognised by her as her own.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Expostulations with Israel. | B. C. 706. |
1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. 2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? 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? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon him, as if he had been hard with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here,
I. A challenge given them to prove, or produce any evidence, that the quarrel began on God’s side, v. 1. They could not say that he had done them any wrong or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a husband to them; and husbands were then allowed a power to put away their wives upon any little disgust: if their wives found not favour in their eyes, they made nothing of giving them a bill of divorce, Deu 24:1; Mat 19:7. But they could not say that God had dealt so with them. It is true they were now separated from him, and had abode many days without ephod, altar, or sacrifice; but whose fault was that? They could not say that God had given their mother a bill of divorce; let them produce it if they can, for a bill of divorce was given into the hand of her that was divorced. 2. He had been a father to them; and fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their creditors, in satisfaction for the debts they were not otherwise able to pay. Now it is true the Jews were sold to the Babylonians then, and afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of his debts? No, he was not indebted to any of those to whom they were sold, or, if he had sold them, he did not increase his wealth by their price, Ps. xliv. 12. When God chastens his children, it is neither for his pleasure (Heb. xii. 10) nor for his profit. All that are saved are saved by a prerogative of grace, but those that perish are cut off by an act of divine holiness and justice, not of absolute sovereignty.
II. A charge exhibited against them, showing them that they were themselves the authors of their own ruin: “Behold, for your iniquities, for the pleasure of them and the gratification of your own base lusts, you have sold yourselves, for your iniquities you are sold; not as children are sold by their parents, to pay their debts, but as malefactors are sold by the judges, to punish them for their crimes. You sold yourselves to work wickedness, and therefore God justly sold you into the hands of your enemies, 2Ch 12:5; 2Ch 12:8. It is for your transgressions that your mother is put away, for her whoredoms and adulteries,” which were always allowed to be a just cause of divorce. The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke the marriage covenant, and were at last rejected for crucifying the Lord of glory; these were the iniquities for which they were sold and put away.
III. The confirmation of this challenge and this charge. 1. It is plain that it was owing to themselves that they were cast off; for God came and offered them his favour, offered them his helping hand, either to prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted him and all the tenders of his grace. “Do you lay it upon me?” (says God); “tell me, then, wherefore, when I came, was there no man to meet me, when I called, was there none to answer me?” v. 2. God came to them by his servants the prophets, demanding the fruits of his vineyard (Matt. xxi. 34); he sent them his messengers, rising up betimes and sending them (Jer. xxxv. 15); he called to them to leave their sins, and so prevent their own ruin: but was there no man, or next to none, that had any regard to the warnings which the prophets gave them, none that answered the calls of God, or complied with the messages he sent them; and this was it for which they were sold and put away. Because they mocked the messengers of the Lord, therefore, God brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans,2Ch 36:16; 2Ch 36:17. Last of all he sent unto them his Son. He came to his own, but his own received him not; he called them to himself, but there were none that answered; he would have gathered Jerusalem’s children together, but they would not; they knew not, because they would not know, the things that belonged to their peace, nor the day of their visitation, and for that transgression it was that they were put away and their house was left desolate, Mat 21:41; Mat 23:37; Mat 23:38; Luk 19:41; Luk 19:42. When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. 2. It is plain that it was not owing to a want of power in God, for he is almighty, and could have recovered them from so great a death; nor was it owing to a want of power in Christ, for he is able to save to the uttermost. The unbelieving Jews in Babylon thought they were not delivered because their God was not able to deliver them; and those in Christ’s time were ready to ask, in scorn, Can this man save us? For himself he cannot save. “But” (says God) “is my hand shortened at all, or is it weakened?” Can any limits be set to Omnipotence? Cannot he redeem who is the great Redeemer? Has he no power to deliver whose all power is? To put to silence, and for ever to put to shame, their doubts concerning his power, he here gives unquestionable proofs of it. (1.) He can, when he pleases, dry up the seas, and make the rivers a wilderness. He did so for Israel when he redeemed them out of Egypt, and he can do so again for their redemption out of Babylon. It is done at his rebuke, as easily as with a word’s speaking. He can so dry up the rivers as to leave the fish to die for want of water, and to putrefy. When God turned the waters of Egypt into blood he slew the fish, Ps. cv. 29. The expression our Saviour sometimes used concerning the power of faith, that it will remove mountains and plant sycamores in the sea, is not unlike this; if their faith could do that, no doubt their faith would save them, and therefore they were inexcusable if they perished in unbelief. (2.) He can, when he pleases, eclipse the lights of heaven, clothe then with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering (v. 3) by thick and dark clouds interposing, which he balances, Job 36:32; Job 37:16.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 50
AN EXHORTATION TO THE UNBELIEVING IN ISRAEL
Vs. 1-3: ISRAEL’S LOSS THROUGH DISOBEDIENCE
1. In language moved by deep emotion, Jehovah denies that He has either forsaken His people, or given to Israel a “bill of divorcement”, (vs. 1; comp. Deu 24:1-4).
a. God hates divorce (Mal 2:16), and will not be a party to anything that He himself condemns.
b. Israel can produce no “bill of divorcement”; nor can she furnish any evidence that God has sold her to one of His creditors, (comp. Deu 32:30; 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5).
c. The estrangement so movingly portrayed by Hosea was only temporary; it was because of Israel’s own sin that she had been rejected as an effective instrument for the fulfillment of God’s holy purpose.
d. When she repents, Jehovah will take her back and establish with her a covenant of peace, (Isa 54:4-10; Jer 3:12-15).
2. The nation has persistently rejected God’s counsel and despised His reproof; thus, has she been given up to her own way -that she may taste the bitter fruit of its end, (Pro 1:24-33).
a. Again and again God has come to plead with His people, through the prophets; yet, they would not hear, (Jer 11:7-8; 2Ch 36:15-16).
b. He has called to them, but they would not answer, (Isa 65:12; Isa 66:4; Jer 7:13-15).
3. The national calamity has not befallen them because the Lord’s hand is shortened; nor is He powerless to redeem them; all authority is His!
a. The coming of the Servant is for Redemption, (Luk 4:18).
b. However, instead of joyfully receiving Him, and heeding His message, the chosen nation rejects and crucifies Him!
4. He is the One whose decree has brought inescapable judgment upon them – bringing storm-clouds into their lives and causing them to sit in mourning – that they may learn to reverence and serve Him, (vs. 3).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Where is that bill of divorcement? There are various interpretations of this passage, but very few of the commentators have understood the Prophet’s meaning. In order to have a general understanding of it, we must observe that union by which the Lord everywhere testifies that his people are bound to him; that is, that he occupies the place of a husband, and that we occupy the place of a wife. It is a spiritual marriage, which has been consecrated by his eternal doctrine and sealed by the blood of Christ. In the same manner, therefore, as he takes us under his protection as a early beloved wife, on condition that we preserve our fidelity to him by chastity; so when we have been false to him, he rejects us; and then he is said to issue a lawful divorce against us, as when a husband banished from his house an adulterous wife.
Thus, when the Jews were oppressed by calamities so many and so great, that it was easy to conclude that God had rejected and divorced them, the cause of the divorce came to be the subject of inquiry. Now, as men are usually eloquent in apologizing for themselves, and endeavor to throw back the blame on God, the Jews also complained at that time about their condition, as if the Lord had done wrong in divorcing them; because they were far from thinking that the promises had been made void, and the covenant annulled, by their crimes. They even laid the blame on their ancestors, as if they were punished for the sins of others. Hence those taunts and complaints which Ezekiel relates.
“
Our fathers ate a sour grape, and our teeth are set on edge.” (Eze 18:2.)
Speeches of this kind being universally current among them, the Lord demands that they shall produce the “bill of divorcement,” by means of which they may prove that they are free from blame and have been rejected without cause.
Now, a “bill of divorcement” was granted to wives who were unjustly divorced; for by it the husband was constrained to testify that his wife had lived chastely and honorably, so that it was evident that there was no other ground for the divorce than that she did not please the husband. Thus the woman was at liberty to go away, and the blame rested solely on the husband, to whose sullenness and bad temper was ascribed the cause of the divorce. (Deu 24:1.) This law of divorcement, as Ezekiel shews, (Mat 19:8,) was given by Moses on account of the hard-heartedness of that nation. By a highly appropriate metaphor, therefore, the Lord shews that he is not the author of the divorce, but that the people went away by their own fault, and followed their lusts, so that they had utterly broken the bond of marriage. This is the reason why he asks where is “that bill” of which they boasted; for there is emphasis in the demonstrative pronoun, זה (zeh), that, by which he intended to expose their idle excuses; as if he had said, that they throw off the accusation, and lay blame on God, as if they had been provided with a defense, whereas they had violated the bond of marriage, and could produce nothing to make the divorce lawful.
Or who is the creditor to whom I sold you? By another metaphor he demonstrates the same thing. When a man was overwhelmed by debt, so that he could not satisfy his creditors, he was compelled to give his children in payment. The Lord therefore asks, “Has he been constrained to do this? Has he sold them, or given them in payment to another creditor? Is he like spendthrifts or bad managers, who allow themselves to be overwhelmed by debt?” As if he had said, “You cannot bring this reproach against me; and therefore it is evident that, on account of your transgressions, you have been sold and reduced to slavery.”
Lo, for your iniquities ye have been sold. Thus the Lord defends his majesty from all slanders, and refutes them by this second clause, in which he declares that it is by their own fault that the Jews have been divorced and “sold.” The same mode of expression is employed by Paul, when he says that we are “sold under sin,” (Rom 7:14,) but in a different sense; in the same manner as the Hebrew writers are wont to speak of abandoned men, whose wickedness is desperate. But here the Prophet intended merely to charge the Jews with guilt, because, by their own transgressions, they had brought upon themselves all the evils that they endured.
If it be asked, “Did the Lord divorce his heritage? Did he make void the covenant?” Certainly not; but the Lord is said to “divorce,” as he is elsewhere said to profane, his heritage, (Psa 89:39; Eze 24:21,) because no other conclusion can be drawn from present appearances; for, when he did not bestow upon them his wonted favor, it was a kind of divorce or rejection. In a word, we ought to attend to these two contrasts, that the wife is divorced, either by the husband’s fault, or because she is unchaste and adulterous; and likewise that children are sold, either for their father’s poverty or by their own fault. And thus the course of argument in this passage will be manifest.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
SINFUL ISRAEL SELF-RUINED
Isa. 50:1-3. Thus saith the Lord, Where is the hill, &c.
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have herebill.
I. A CHALLENGE TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GODS SIDE (Isa. 50:1). They could not say that He had done them any wrong, or had acted arbitrarily.
1. He had been a Husband to them; and husbands were then allowed to put away their wives upon any little disgust (Deu. 24:1; Mat. 19:7). But they could not say that God had dealt so with them; true, they were now separated from Him, but whose fault was that? What evidence could they produce that He had dealt with them capriciously?
2. He had been a Father to them; and fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their creditors; and they were then sold to the Babylonians, as they were afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of His debts? When God chastens His children, it is neither for His pleasure nor His profit (Heb. 12:10).
II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THEMSELVES THE AUTHORS OF THEIR RUIN. Behold, for your iniquities, &c.
III. A CONFIRMATION OF THIS CHALLENGE AND THIS CHARGE (Isa. 50:2-3).
1. It was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble, or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace (Isa. 50:2; Mat. 21:34; Jer. 35:15). He called to them to leave their sins, and so prevent their own ruin; but there was no man, or next to none, that complied with the messages He sent them: and it was for this that they were sold and put away (2Ch. 36:16-17). Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, who would have gathered Jerusalems children together, but they would not; and for that transgression it was that they were put away, and their house left desolate (Mat. 21:41; Mat. 23:37-38; Luk. 19:41-42). When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable.
2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still.Matthew Henry; Commentary, in loco.
I. A picture of the sinners miserable condition! separated from Godsold under sin. II. The occasion of it: not the will of Godbut his own love of sinand his consequent disregard of Gods offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow.J. Lyth, D.D.: The Homiletical Treasury: Isaiah, p. 69.
THE TEACHER OF THE WEARY
Isa. 50:2-4. Behold, at my vebuke I dry up the sea, &c.
For the young, this is fresh, beautiful, sunlit life; to the old, it is often what Talleyrand found it, who in the journal of his eighty-third year, wrote Life is a long fatigue. The first cry of a soul when Divinely wakened to its true condition is after a Teacher, who in a way suited to its weakness will teach it secrets suited to its wants. Such a Teacher has been found for us all, and the words in season that He speaks are the words of eternal life. Listen to this Teacher, for He is speaking to us now. He speaks in the style of God. Beginning, Thus saith the Lord (Isa. 50:1), He at once announces His Divinity. He then goes on to speak of Himself as a man (Isa. 50:5-6). These words, therefore, could have been spoken alone by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They place before our thoughts
I. HIS DIVINE POWER AND GLORY.
Power is naturally calm. Yet perhaps a storm will make a child think of power more than the sunshine will. Knowing our frame, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His power by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature; I dry up the sea, &c. One day, with a casual blow of his hammer, Hugh Miller laid open a block in a quarry, and there discovered a fossil fish, supposed to be the first of its own variety ever seen by mortal. There it lay, dried up [1526] turned into a thing of stone. Whose work was this? Christs name is traced in sacred cypher on the foundations of the lasting hills; He dried up the sea; He made the river a wilderness, &c. It is a joy to think that the power so mighty to destroy is now all mediatorial.
[1526] For , stinketh, read , is dried up; so it stands in the Bodleian MS., and it is confirmed by the LXX, ,Lowth.
II. HIS HUMAN LIFE AND EDUCATION.
The Lord not only became a man, but assumed humanity in its humblest form; an apostle says, He emptied Himself. Gradually, it seems (Luk. 2:40; Luk. 2:52), the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious Voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil; morning by morning (Isa. 50:4) the Voice was ever wakening Him to a higher consciousness and more awful knowledge; nor was His equipment complete until He uttered His last cry from the cross (H. E. I. 858863).
III. THE MEDIATORIAL TEACHING FOR WHICH HE HAD BEEN THUS PREPARED.
1. It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, &c. The education of a human soul is not to be entrusted to any created being. A million messengers may bring us wisdom, but Christ is the Personal Agent who employs them all. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.
2. It is suitable; that I should know how to speak a word in season. Suitable to our weariness
(1.) while we are yet in a state of unregeneracy. Christ knows how to speak to such so as to kindle sympathy and waken response; He knows how to speak a word that gives life, the only word in season to men dead in trespasses and sins.
(2.) When we are sinking under the burden of guilt. The law of God demands a perfect obedience; you are unable to meet that demand. All the while Christ was on earth, He was learning how to take that burden from you (Heb. 5:8).
(3.) When we are fainting under the burden of care. When you are ready to learn, Christ is ready to teach (Psa. 55:22). To cast your burden upon the Lord is to cast yourself upon Himyourself, with all you carry.
(4.) When we are burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology. Such difficulties form an essential part of the Christian discipline of many. Those who feel them are tempted, on the one hand, to rest in the authority of human reason, and, on the other, in the authority of the Church. But, who can teach us so surely the things that relate to Christ, as Christ Himself? Christ, wise in His speech, and wise in His silence, may not give us all the knowledge we wish for, but He will give us all we need.
(5.) When we are under the burden of mortal infirmity. The faint old man sits down by the wayside a-weary. At first he thought within himself
I am a useless hull,tis time I sunk;
I am in all mens ways, I trouble them,
I am a trouble to myself.
But Christ has spoken to his soul, and dispersed those sad imaginations, by the power of thoughts that renew his inward strength (Isa. 40:29-31). There sits a man who was once an active thinker; but he has just tried to read one of his own books, and could not understand it. When other teachers have gone their way, Christ comes, and says, Learn of Me (Mat. 11:28-30).
3. It is minutely direct and particular. The Good Shepherd calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out; the Master is come, and calleth for thee.
Thou art as much His care as if beside
Nor man nor angel lived in all the earth;
The sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide
To light a world, or wake an insects birth:
They shine and shine with unexhausted store;
Thou art thy Saviours darlingseek no more.
Solomon calls wisdom a tree of life; and the heavenly Teachers wisdom is like the mystical tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit every month. You can never go to that tree out of season; you can never go to it seeking fruit and finding none; for as one has said, you carry with you the season, and make it the season of the tree.C. Stanford, D.D., Symbols of Christ, pp. 146172.
He who speaks is the second person of the ever blessed Trinity; He speaks in that character of a Mediator which He had covenanted from all eternity to bear, and which required that in the fulness of time He should be made flesh, and dwell among men. This is the explanation of the mystery that He who in one verse speaks as God (Isa. 50:3), in the next describes Himself as a learner. How the man Christ Jesus became informed of the nature and obligations of the mediatorial office is a profound mystery; all that we are told is, that it was gradually (Luk. 2:52; H. E. I. 858863), so that morning by morning something new was told, till at last the whole task of labour, ignominy, and death, lay spread before the view of the Surety of our race. But though we may not be able to penetrate the mystery of the process, the result was that our Lord entered upon His mission possessing the tongue of the learned. Not according to any anticipation that the learned men of the world would have favoured, if this prediction had been made known to them. His was the profounder and more important knowledge of the human heart; and therefore He was able to do what all their wisdom and science would never have enabled them to accomplish, He knew how to speak words in season to the weary. He has been the great Comforter of our race. Millions burdened by sin and sorrow have been helped and strengthened by Him.
In this respect His ministers should strive to be like Him. Intellectual culture they are not to disregard, but their supreme ambition should be to attain to such a knowledge of the heart, in all its varying experiences, and of the adaptation of Gods truth thereto, that they also may know how to speak words in season to the wearyright words at the right time.Henry Melvill, B.D: Sermons Preached on Public Occasions, pp. 125147.
The text is a word for the weary from One in whose sympathy the human heart finds its refreshment and strength. In the work of cheering weary hearts, Christ excels immeasurably all others. God, who gave to Moses the tongue of terror, and to Isaiah the tongue of a fellow-sufferer with Gods people, has given to Christ, in a singular and incomparable sense, the tongue of one who has drunk our cup, navigated all the seas of our experience, and become one with us in all that pertains to human suffering and conflict. Christ has the tongue of experience. Robertson strains language when he speaks of the human heart of God. But we may speak of the human sympathy of the man Christ Jesusthe Son of God. His human heart has experienced human woestoil, weariness, disappointment, sorrow, and curse. He was made in all things like His brethren, to assure us of Gods sympathy. Not that God knows our suffering the more familiarly, or sympathises with us the more tenderly, because He has experienced them in our nature. His omniscience marks the quiver of each heart-pang. His sympathy is as abounding and deep as the ocean, for God is love. But we cannot conceive adequately of the sympathy of an abstract First Cause. Roman Catholics are right when they tell us that we can only realise Gods acquaintance and sympathy with human sorrow as we look at a human fellow-sufferer possessing the most susceptible of tender human hearts. Their error is in pointing us to the Virgin Mother instead of the Incarnate Son. Because Christ has the tongue of experience, therefore His sympathy is the more effective. Apply these thoughts to
1. Physical sufferings. Christs experience of hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, &c. (Isa. 50:5-6). Christ has imparted a new meaning to all Gods assurances in the Old Testament, and given existence and force to all the consolations of the New, since they all are Gods, and God is Christ. Listen to the tongue of experience as it becomes the tongue of sympathy (Psa. 103:13; 2Co. 4:17; Heb. 2:10; Heb. 2:14).
2. Temptations. Some say that since Christ could not have yielded, therefore He had no true experience of conflict with evil. But can you say, that because the steadfast Christian is so full of Christ that he cannot allow himself to sin, therefore he has no true experience of conflict? In point of fact, the victor knows the cost of withstanding temptation far more than he who is vanquished by it (Heb. 4:15; Heb. 2:18). Christ has fought His way to victory all along our path, and the way of holiness is crimson with His blood. Read the answers given by Christ (Matthew 4), and remember that He learnt to speak them in a conflict severer far than yours, that you may hear them clear and sure above the din and clangour of your sharpest contests with self and sin (H. E. I. 866871).
3. The derision of the world. Many times was He reviled and scorned; while in Johns Gospel we read of six most determined attempts on the part of His foes to do their worst. Realise all the sympathy which Christ conveys when He tells us that we suffer these things for His names sake.
4. The treachery of friends. Christs experience of the desertion of His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. Let all deceived hearts dwell restfully upon the assurance (Heb. 13:5).
5. The impenitence of sinners. The praying father or mother, weary of the sons or daughters impenitence. Christ wept over Jerusalem, and then went down into the city to die for her. His heart still melts with tenderness.
6. Bereavement (John 11) In weeping with them, He has wept with us. In raising Himself, He has shown all mourners that He will raise again the dead (Joh. 11:25-26). A word in season for you.
7. Divine sovereignty. How many perplexed brains and weary hearts there are by reason of the mystery of Gods dealings! It seems strange that Gods Son should be called upon to experience this perplexity and weariness, till we hear Him cry, If it be possible, & c., and, O my God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me? But His experience only makes Gods word the more assuring, that the Providence that upholds the sparrow, counts our hairs, and attends our every step, will order all things well (Rom. 8:28).
The value of the text is not so much that Christ suffered this or that, as that He suffered so deeply (Heb. 5:7-8; Heb. 2:18). The thoroughness of Christs experience (Isa. 50:5). No sun ever rose upon His daily path, but it revealed some fresh experience of human toil, conflict, trial, or sorrow. So it is with us. But every sun that rises on our daily path, lights it with a fadeless ray, revealing, parallel with our life, the experience of Him who has tabernacled in our flesh, and who speaks to our hearts in the fulfilment of a ministry of sympathy, in which He has no rival.
CONCLUSION.Those who go in the way which they light up for themselves can only have sorrow and darkness (Isa. 50:11). But those whose way is lit up by His love, who obey and follow, trust and love Him, as sheep their shepherd, shall have no darkness, but their sorrow shall flee away and God Himself shall comfort and refresh them.David Arundell Hay.
GODS REBUKE OF UNBELIEF, AND CHALLENGE TO FAITH
Isa. 50:2. Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
It was not because God was unable to deliver them, that His ancient people had been led away as captives, but solely on account of their sins (Isa. 50:1, &c.) But He wished them to realise the fact that notwithstanding their sins, in virtue of His possession of unlimited power He could easily fulfil His promises of deliverance. We, too, need to realise more distinctly this fundamental truthGods almighty and unchangeable power. Know it we do, but we often do not realise it. We often act as though we really believed that the Lords power had diminished. Our text rebukes our unbelief, and challenges our faith. It may be used
I. TO STIMULATE THE CHURCH IN THE PROSECUTION OF HER MISSION. Her mission is to saveinstrumentally to save the world. But her success is small when compared with the multiplied agencies employed, &c. Is the Lords hand shortened at all? No. His purpose and His power are unchanged. Early triumphs of ChristianityPentecost, &c. His hand has been with His Church wherever there has been believing prayer and effort. It is this that is lacking: not prayer and effort, but believing prayer and effort. It is unbelief that shortens Gods hand, and it only (Mat. 13:58). [1529]
[1529] There is nothing too hard for God. When we look at the human side of the question, difficulties and obstacles rise on every hand, and hedge our way and hinder our progress; and if our view is only a human view, we sink discouraged and dismayed. But if, on the other hand, we will take a look at the Divine side of the question, how soon our fears vanish, and our difficulties disperse! With God all things are possible, and the faith that takes hold upon His arm partakes of His omnipotence.
There are many things which men have done that seemed impossible at the first. The power of mechanical or chemical forces, directed by scientific intelligence, exceeds by far the bounds of ordinary belief; but when we pass from this sphere into that upper realm where the Almighty rules and presides, surely nothing is beyond the reach of His almighty hand!
Hence, in estimating possibilities or probabilities of success in any course, it is for us to inquire first of all, What is the will of God concerning the matter? Does He undertake the cause? Is He upon the side of its success? Are we doing His will rather than our own? If the work we undertake is His work, and if He has appointed us to do it, we may move on in all the calmness of a living faith, without one doubt or fear, knowing that He who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will can give us victory. The thing which God wishes to be done can be done, and, if we will be workers with Him, shall be done, for neither men nor devils can restrain the arm of our wonder-working God. Let us, then, have courage, and banish fear. Let us work the works of God, confident that our labour will not be fruitless, and that our victory is assured by Him before the fight begins.A. T.
II. TO COMFORT THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
1. In seasons of providential trial. Such seasons are common. But God has engaged to support or deliver His people whatever may be the nature of the trial through which they are passing. He is equal to every emergency. Rely upon the promises of God. He has sustained, comforted, and delivered, and He will. Faith argues from the past to the present and the future (1Sa. 17:34-37; Psa. 63:7; 2Co. 1:8-10; 2Ti. 4:17-18). Walk on the waters of trial by a living faith, and you shall find them solid as marble beneath your feet. Hang upon the simple power and providence of God, and you shall never be confounded.
2. In seasons of doubt and fear in relation to their final salvation. Gods people are sometimes doubtful and desponding respecting their eternal safety. When they contemplate the difficulties and dangers, the temptations and the snares that beset their path, heaven seems to be an uncertain inheritance, and they are ready to conclude they shall never reach its happiness and glory. Opposed to them stands the power of Satan; the allurements of the world, the forces of evil within, the cares and afflictions of life, &c. But we have promises and examples that are calculated to dissipate every doubt and to banish every fear that we shall not eventually triumph. Abraham, Job, David, Paul, &c. Divine grace has been, and still is, all-sufficient (H. E. I. 1066, 23632377).
III. TO ENCOURAGE THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. Though desirous to be saved, many are full of doubts and difficulties and questionings. There is nothing that appears so difficult to a convinced sinner as his own salvation. But the question is not whether you can save yourself, but whether GOD can save you. You know He can. Every moral difficulty has been removed by His infinite love in the gift of His Son, &c. True, you have broken the divine law, &c., but Christ has honoured and fulfilled it, as your substitute and representative, &c. Therefore the forgiveness of sin is consonant with Gods righteousness as well as His mercy (Rom. 3:24-26). Nor can there be any effectual opposition made by Satan to the sinners rescue. He is mighty, but Christ is almightyAble to save to the uttermost, &c.Alfred Tucker.
THE POWER OF GOD
Isa. 50:2-3. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, &c.
There are other declarations of like purport in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa. 51:9-10; Isa. 51:15; Isa. 63:11-13). They speak to us of Divine power. The mighty works referred to could not be performed by any false god. The deliverance of Gods ancient people from Egypt was attended with such amazing miracles, and with such a sudden destruction of their foes, that none but an Almighty Being could have performed it.
I. Let us attempt with reverent humility to form some conception of the nature of Gods power (H. E. I. 22692274).
1. The power of God is that ability or strength, whereby He can do whatever He pleaseswhatever His infinite wisdom directs, and the perfect purity of His will resolves (Isa. 46:10; Psa. 115:3). It is almost superfluous to say that the Almighty cannot do anything which implies or involves a contradiction, nor anything repugnant to His own perfections, either in relation to Himself or to His creatures, &c.
2. The power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of His nature. God hath a powerful wisdom to attain His ends without interruption, a powerful mercy to remove our misery, a powerful justice to punish offenders, a powerful truth to perform all His promises.
3. This power is originally and essentially in His natureunderived. Power belongeth to God. He is the Source, Centre, Assemblage of all the might that is; containing in Himself the unfathomable depths of Omnipotence, as of Being.
4. It follows that the power of God is infinite. Nothing can be too difficult for the Divine power to effect (Gen. 18:14). A power which cannot be opposed (Dan. 4:35).
II. Let us view with reverent astonishment the manifestations of Gods power.
1. In creation. Examine individuals, systems, worlds beyond worlds, scattered in boundless profusion through the wide realm of space. They sprang forth at His voice, and they are sustained by the hand of God. All are vouchers of Omnipotence! (Gen. 1:3; Psa. 8:3-4; Isa. 42:5; Isa. 42:8, &c.) Pythagoras called those fools, who denied the power of God.
2. In the government of the world.
(1.) In natural government, or preservation. God is the great Father of the universe, to nourish as well as create it (Psa. 36:6). He keeps all the strings of nature in tune, &c.
(2.) In moral governmentrestraining the malice of Satan and the wickedness of man, &c.
(3.) In His gracious governmentdelivering His Church, effecting His great and glorious purposes by the simplest means, &c.
3. In the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and in suspending or reversing the usual laws of nature on special occasions. These are the hidings of Gods power. Submissive nature yields and obeys (Psa. 114:5-7).
4. In the work of our redemption by Jesus Christ. Our Saviour is called the power of God. His incarnation, miracles, resurrection, &c.; the publication of redemption by such feeble instruments; the wonderful success of their ministry.
5. In the conviction and conversion of sinners, the perseverance of His people amidst all the temptations and afflictions to which they are exposed.
III. Let us consider with prayerful concern the practical lessons which this subject teaches.
1. The fear of God (Jer. 5:22, &c.) If God be against us, it matters not who they be that are for us. Fear Him, therefore, who hath power to cast into hell. On this ground, as well as on the ground of His other perfections, we should bow before Him with lowly reverence, and while we tremble to place ourselves in an attitude of antagonism to Him, we should seek His favour, protection, and blessing. Confidence in God amid all the conflicts and afflictions of this probationary state. All needful assistance and comfort, &c., will be vouchsafed (2Co. 9:8; Eph. 3:20).
2. The assurance that all His plans and purposes will be finally accomplished (Psa. 37:5).
Engraved as in eternal brass,
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines, &c.
Alfred Tucker.
THE APPEAL OF ALMIGHTY POWER
Isa. 50:2-3. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? &c.
Review the circumstances under which this appeal was addressed to sinful Israel of old. The principles of Divine truth and religion the same under all dispensations.
I. The Lord comes and calls sinners to repentance, but they do not regard Him.
1. He does this in manifold ways.
(1.) By the voice of conscience. Representative of the supreme lawinward monitor, &c., ever urging the abandonment of the sinful and the adoption of the true and pure, &c.
(2.) By the events of Providence. The whole system of Providence is in operation for none other than religious ends and purposes. Mercies are sent to allure, judgments to alarm (H. E. I 5659, 6670).
(3.) By His Word. The Bible is God speaking to man, &c. Everywhere it calls to repentance, &c.
(4.) By His ministers. He speaks to man, by man. Samuel thought it was only the voice of Eli that called him, but it was Gods voice. The true minister is Gods ambassador (2Co. 5:18-20).
(5.) By His Son. His servantthe Saviour, so often introduced in these prophecies with dramatic directness, as speaking in His own name (Mat. 21:37; Joh. 1:10-11; Act. 3:13; Heb. 1:1).
(6.) By His Spirit. Speaking to the ear of the inner man by the ministries of friendship, or the incidents and intercourse of common life; by sickness, &c., stirring up an unwonted anxiety about the things which belong to our peace. Though He has been treated so shamefully, He still speaks, strives, pleads, &c.
2. But sinners do not regard Him. As of old, they heed not the Divine calls, they slight His gracious offers, they reject the messages sent, &c., as unworthy their regard, &c.
II. The Lord gives astonishing proof of His ability and willingness to save, yet sinners do not believe it, and trust in Him. Behold, at my rebuke, &c. He who by His mere threatening word has dried up the sea, and turned rivers into a hard and barren soil, so that the fishes putrefy for want of water, and eclipsed the lights of heaven, can with infinite ease come with a gospel of deliverance from sin and punishment. He can perform stupendous miracles of gracesave sinners to the very uttermost. No limit can be set to His omnipotent grace.
Yet sinners will not believe it. Like a condemned criminal who will not believe even when he sees the Queens pardon. If sinners will not believe Gods Gospel, how can they be saved? We may as well expect a man to be fed by bread that he will not eat, or to be cured by medicine that he will not take, as expect a man to be saved by a Gospel that he will not believe.
Or they neglect it. Like the old miser who is so busy with his ledgers and gold bags that he does not heed the alarm of fire, and therefore perishes. So with the worldling. We tell them of danger and of salvation, but they are so busy, &c., they just leave the matter alonethey neglect it.
Or they despise it. Like a poor but proud man who despises relief when offered, because he must go and receive it as a gift. If sinners could take their little, petty, paltry doings and buy Gods salvation, they would have it, but because they must have it as a gift, they will not receive it.
III. The Lord justly complains that He is thus disregarded and doubted. Wherefore, &c.? Not the language of anger, but sorrowful lament, wounded friendship, grieved love, &c. As a faithful father, &c. A just complaint. Such conduct is manifestly unreasonable, shamefully ungrateful, exceedingly sinful, imminently dangerous, &c. (Pro. 1:26). It keeps back the blessings which God is ready to confer. It is highly dishonouring to God. It disputes the Divine Word, rejects the clearest evidence, limits the Omnipotent One, &c. Think of this. Hear and obey the Divine call. Repent and believe the Gospel. If you reject it, the responsibility rests upon you, and you must give account to God.Alfred Tucker.
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE
Isa. 50:3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, &c.
If there be sermons in stones, there must be a great sermon in the sun; and if there be books in the running brooks, no doubt there is many a huge volume to be found in a sun suffering eclipse. All things teach us, if we have but a mind to learn. Let us see whether this may not lead us into a train of thought which may, under Gods blessing, be something far better to us than the seeing of an eclipse.
I. Eclipses of every kind are part of Gods way of governing the world. In olden times the ignorant people in England were frightened at an eclipse; they could not understand what it meant. They were quite sure that there was about to be a war, or a famine, or a terrible fire, &c. So it still is in the East. By many an eclipse is looked upon as something contrary to the general law of nature. But eclipses are as much a part of natures laws as the regular sunshine; an eclipse is a necessary consequence of the natural motion of the moon and the earth around the sun, &c. Other eclipses happen in Gods providence and in Gods grace. Here, as in nature, an eclipse is part of Gods plan, and is in fact involved in it.
1. Let me invite your attention to providence at large. How many times have we seen providence itself eclipsed with regard to the whole race. God sends a flood, famine, war, plague, &c. It is just the same with you in your own private concerns. When you were rejoicing in the brightness of your light, on a sudden a mid-day midnight has fallen upon you; to your horror and dismay you are made to say, Whence does all this evil some upon me? Is this also sent of God? Most assuredly it is. Your penury, sickness, bereavement, contempt, all these things are as much ordained for you, and settled in the path of providence, as your wealth, comfort, and joy. Think not that God has changed. It involves no change of the sun when an eclipse overshadows it. Troubles must come; afflictions must befall; it must needs be that for a season ye should be in heaviness through manifold temptations.
2. Eclipses also occur in grace. Man was originally pure and holy; that is what Gods grace will make him at last. Some of you are in the eclipse to-day. I hear you crying, O that it were with me as in months past, &c. You are apt to say, Is this a part of Gods plan with me? Can this be the way in which God would bring me to heaven? Yes, it is even so. In Gods great plan of grace to the world, it is just the same. Sometimes we see a mighty reformation worked in the Church. God raises up men who lead the van of the armies of Jehovah. A few more years and these reformers are dead, and their mantle has not fallen upon any, &c. Think not that eclipses of our holy religion, or the failure of great men in the midst of us, or the decline of piety, is at all apart from Gods plan; it is involved in it, and as Gods great purpose, moving in the circle, to bring forth another gracious purpose on earth must be accomplished, so an eclipse must necessarily follow, being involved in Gods very way of governing the world in His grace.
II. Everything that God does has a design. When God creates light or darkness He has a reason for it. He does not always tell us His reason. We call Him a sovereign God, because sometimes He acts from reasons which are beyond our knowledge, but He is never an unreasoning God. I cannot tell you what is Gods design in eclipsing the sun; I do not know of what use it is to the world. It may be, &c. However, we are not left in any darkness about other kinds of eclipses; we are quite certain that providential eclipses, and gracious eclipses, have both of them their reasons. When God sends a providential eclipse He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nought. It is to draw our attention to Himself. Doubtless, we should entirely forget God, if it were not for some of those eclipses which now and then happen. Sometimes troublous times tend to prepare the world for something better afterwards. War is an awful thing; but, I doubt not, it purges the moral atmosphere, just as a hurricane sweeps away a pestilence. It is a fearful thing to hear of famine or plague; but each of these things has some effect upon the human race. And evil generally goes to make room for a greater good. God has sent thee providential trouble. He has a gracious design in it. Many men are brought to Christ by trouble. Eclipses of grace have also their end and design. Why has God hidden His face from you? It is that you may begin to search yourself, and say, Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me (H. E. I. 16441648). Gods people are afflicted in order that they may not go astray (H. E. I. 6670, 190194).
III. As all things that God has created, whether they be light or whether they be dark, have a sermon for us, no doubt there are some sermons to be found in this eclipse. What is it that hides the sun from us during an eclipse? It is the moon. She has borrowed all her light from the sun month after month; she would be a black blot if the sun did not shine upon her, and now she goes before his face, and prevents his light from shining upon us. Do you know anything at all like that in your own history? Have you not a great many comforts which you enjoy upon earth that are just like the moon? They borrow all their light from the sun, &c. Oh, how ungrateful we are when we let our comforts get before our God! No wonder that we get an eclipse then.
1. Let the Christian recollect another sermon. The sun is always the same, and God is unchangeable.
My soul through many changes goes,
His love no variation knows.
2. A total eclipse is one of the most terrific and grand sights that ever will be seen. If on a sudden the sun should set in tenfold darkness, and never should rise again, what a horrid world this would be! And then the thought strikes meAre not there some men, and are there not some here, who will one day have a total eclipse of all their comforts? What ever eclipse happens to a Christian, it is never a total eclipse: there is always a crescent of love and mercy to shine upon him. But mark thee, sinner, when thou comest to die, bright though thy joys be now, and fair thy prospects, thou wilt suffer a total eclipse. Can you guess what the Saviour meant, when He said outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth? Hear me while I tell thee the way of salvation.C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 183.
HUMAN WEARINESS: THE VARIETY OF ITS SOURCES, AND THE ONE SOURCE OF RELIEF FROM IT
Isa. 50:4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
There are many causes of weariness and sadness; as many as there are sources of cheerfulness and vigour in body and mind.
1. Wounded affections. When the seat of our pleasant emotions and sweet affections becomes filled with bitterness, we cannot wonder that exhaustion of energy should ensue, and the strong man be bowed down! Few who have advanced far in life, but have been thus attacked in the tenderest part of their being; and the power of resistance decreases as youth is left behind. Many, most dear, have vanished from the scene; former friends have perhaps lifted up the heel against us. We do not know, until the blow comes, how heavily we have been leaning on the staff of friendly sympathy. But amidst all our heart-troubles, the voice of the Saviourdeeply learned in the sorrows of humanityis heard saying, Rest! Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. The words are words of authority, and of comfort because of their authority.
2. Disappointment of our desires. All are furnished with larger appetites than they have ability or opportunity for satisfying them. Pleasure! Money! Power! Reputation! Desire outruns our slow and pausing faculties. And this is a great cause of fatigue; we cannot keep up with ourselves, one part of our nature lags behind another. Again, the goal of our desire is ever receding. What an interesting picture does Ecclesiastes give of this universal experience! But in this mood, too, we are met by the Divine Saviour; for Christ would fill the soul with the only object of desire that cannot disappear in its grasp; with the Eternal Himself.
3. Vacancy of mind and the sense of monotony. Nature abhors a vacuum; the mind cannot endure its own emptiness. Imagine us left alone in a depeopled world, shut up in a room walled with reflecting glass, where nothing but our own image should meet us at every turn,the very thought is unendurable; and something like this occurs when we fail to obtain diversion from self. But it is Christs message to tell us of a new self which it is the will of God to impart to us; a new heart in which it will please God to dwell, and with which He can hold fellowship; the soul comes to rest on an Eternal Power that is not ourselves, yet intimately related to us.
4. The load of a guilty conscience. It may be difficult to forgive another; it is more difficult to forgive oneself. How profoundly Christ meets this guilty dejection of the human heart! The power which He claimed on earth to forgive sins is continued, in a declarative sense, in His Church, and sin-laden souls may be warned that in disbelieving the Gospel of forgiveness they tacitly reject Christs authority; in believing it they rely on the promises of One to whom all things are given by the Father, and they are at rest
5. Earnest thought and noble endeavour. Not only the bad use of mind and life, but their right and loyal use, brings its own peculiar experience of suffering. Preachers, philanthropists, strenuous labourers in every good cause, exhaust their energies in ministering to others need; and after exhibiting pictures of cheerfulness and animation in public, sink, when alone, into occasional collapse. Instructive examples of such reaction are given in Bible story, e.g., Elijah. In the finest minds, a fretfulness and dissatisfaction with results may be found, where onlookers see a noble success. But to them, as to all weary ones, Christ, who suffered in the flesh, says, I will give you rest; and to all who trust Him, He gives the rest and re-invigoration they need.G. Johnson, M.A., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 264266.
All around us are multitudes of weary people; weary from many causespoverty, anxiety, spiritual despondency, non-success in Christian labour, delay in the coming of recognised answers to prayer. For all these tried and burdened hearts, Jesus, the relief-bringer, has His word in season. By these words of His, He does not release us from our duties, but helps us to perform them. He teaches us to trust Him, and trust is restful. As the infant drops over on its mothers bosom into soft repose, so faith rests its weary head on Jesus. He giveth His beloved sleep, so that they may wake up refreshed for their appointed work. It is not honest work that really wears any Christian out [1532] it is the ague fit of worry that consumes strength, furrows the cheek, and brings on decrepitude (H. E. I. 2053, 2057, 2058), and from this destructive temper Christ delivers us (H. E. I. 952961).
[1532] That giant of Jesus Christ who drew the Gospel chariot from Jerusalem to Rome, and had the care of all the Churches on his heart, never complained of being tired. The secret was that he never chafed his powers with a moments worry. He was doing Gods work, and he left God to be responsible for the results. He knew whom he believed, and felt perfectly sure that all things worked together for good to them that loved the Lord Jesus.Cuyler.
There is another weariness most distressing; that which is called ennui, the disgust and despair which result from the discovery that all the so-called pleasures of the world cannot satisfy the soul. But even for this Christ has a word in season (Mat. 11:28-30). [1535]Theodore Cuyler, D.D.
[1535] See the hymn commencing
Oh, comfort to the dreary!
THE GOSPEL A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
Isa. 50:4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
Our blessed Lord is here represented as speaking of His own office and ministry. How gracious was that office! How full of condescending pity and love to man was that ministry! (Joh. 3:17; Luk. 4:18-19.) In our text we have a true account of the tendency of the Gospel. It brings rest and refreshment to those who are seeking rest in the world, but whose hopes must end in disappointment.
I. THE ACTUAL STATE AND WANTS OF MANKIND. On every hand are evidences of the fact that this is a weary world. On our race sin has laid many burdens of care and sorrow. Our fellow-men sorely need to be cheered and strengthened.
II. THE SUITABLENESS OF THE GOSPEL TO THE EXISTING STATE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANKIND. It has a word in season,
1. For those who are weary in the service of sin.
2. For those who are weary under the painful consciousness of their guilt in the sight of God.
3. For those who are weary in striving against sin.
4. For those who are weary under the burden of temporal suffering.
5. For those who are weary under the growing infirmities and inconveniences of old age.
1. Lay hold of its great and precious promises.
2. Pray for all Christs ministers, that they, like their Master, may be taught how to speak words of cheer and comfort. This is one of the most valuable forms of the learning which it is possible for them to possess.James Ford, A.M.: Twelve Sermons, pp. 122.
Men need religion as they need bells for the common purposes of human life. The forms of old and effete infidelity, as well as the more subtle and pseudo-scientific scepticism of the present age, all fail just where Christianity eminently succeedsin adaptation to the common wants of men. The opponents of the Gospel, who marshalled their forces a century ago, made no attempt to supply its place as a religion which met the every-day wants of men. They mined the foundations of the building; they thundered at the doors; they battered its walls; but they never tried to erect a better system in its place. That attempt was left to later ages. It was for Rnan and Strauss to try to substitute for Christianity another theory of religion, and to meet the demand which the mother of Hume made of her son, Give me something to lean on in the place of the faith you have undermined.
But our modern theorists find that it is one thing to destroy, another to build up. Does infidelity give anything on which men can fall back for comfort and support amid the common troubles of life, &c.? Does it speak in sweet accents of a rest that remaineth when weariness insupportable creeps over mind and body? We claim for Christianity that it does this very thing. It meets the every-day wants of those who embrace it. It condescends to notice the every-day weariness of tried and troubled souls. It is a Gospel that speaks to the worn and exhausted spirit. The voice like a bell chiming along the ages is, The Lord God hath given me, &c.
I. THE SPECIAL CLASS TO WHOM THE GOSPEL IS ADDRESSED. Is not amazement awakened when this text tells us that the Gospel is sent to be a message of comfort to the weary? For this Gospel was the fruit of the tears, and blood, and agony of the dear Son of God. Does it not seem a strangely costly sacrifice, when Gods dear Son drinks to its dregs the cup of condemnation, that He may speak comfort to him that is weary? The weary are everywhere upon this earth of ours. All feel a sense of oppressive fatigue. The consciousness of exhaustion is a thing so common, of such almost universal experience, that it seems one of the lesser ills of life, and beneath the notice of the Gospel. But Christ came to give men a religion which should meet their common wants, their everyday necessities. And hence it is a message to the weary, whatever the cause of their weariness be.
1. Toil. Or
2. Trial. Or
3. Sin. [1538]
[1538] A brave Crusader on the field of battle was always conspicuous in armour richly gilt. Amidst the sombre hues in which others were arrayed, amidst the cold blue light of gleaming steel, his harness shone golden like the sun. There was a gaiety in his very armour that seemed to speak of a light heart within. But when one day he fell, pierced with a Saracen dart, they undid the fastenings of his breast-plate, and to the amazement of his comrades found that the inner surface of his armour was studded with iron points that pierced the quivering flesh. The panoply which gaily flashed back the sunbeams, was all the while an instrument of self-inflicted torture to its wearer. There are more men who wear such armour than we wot of. There are many who wear a gay countenance, but feel within the bitterness of death. For the appetite for sin has palled. The heart has grown weary and sick of sin, thinking of lost purity, and broken promises, and departed self-respect; the very life becomes a burden, and yet they dare not die. They weary themselves to commit sin.Cheney.
II. THE INSTRUMENT WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO RELIEVE THE SOUL THAT IS WEARY.
A man of words is a term of contempt. We tell people that deeds, not words, are our test of character. But what a momentous significance for evil or for good one word may have! On yonder hill, outside the walls of Bethany, in the midst of an astonished group, Lazarus stands a living man, though his grave-clothes are still upon him. The dead body on which corruptions work had begun is thrilled with a new life. One word did that. So, when Christ promises salvation, and comfort, and rest to the weary, it is a word through which the priceless blessing comes. The unquestionable meaning of the text is, that the instrument which God uses to give relief to the weary is Christs word, Christs Gospel, the message of His love for sinners.
It must be spoken in season. There are, in human experience, chances that exist but for one moment. They come and go like a flash. So are there crises in the history of every human soul. There are times when the heart seems poised upon a pinnacle. Now a breath may turn it one way or the other; and then a word spoken is a word in season. Bereavement, &c. And for that blessed work our Lord gives you the tongue of the learned. But no man ever acquired the fruits of ripened knowledgethe harvest of wise words that speak comfort to the wearywithout sowing the seed and watching over it with care. He must be learned, not in books of theology and libraries of religious instruction, but learned in the results of a personal experience.Bishop Cheney: The Preachers Monthly, vol. vii. pp. 7982.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
2.
TEACH, CHAPTER 50
a.
OBJECTIONS CANCELLED
TEXT: Isa. 50:1-3
1
Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.
2
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? 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? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
3
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
QUERIES
a.
Why bring up the subject of divorce?
b.
What is meant by the question, . . . was there no man?
c.
What do stinking fish have to do with the subject?
PARAPHRASE
This is what Jehovah says to your objections: I am the husband, you are my wife. You know My law says when a husband divorces his wife he must give her a written certificate of divorce. You say I have divorced you, Israel, and I am putting you awaywhere is the certificate? No, I have not divorced you, you have left me. Look at it another way: Do you think you have gone into slavery because I sold you to pay somebody a debt I owed them? I owe no one! You are going into slavery because you wanted to be as much like the Babylonians as possible. It is your rebellion against Me and your infatuation with and dependence upon ungodly men that will bring about your enslavement to them. Why did everyone try to hide and keep away from Me when I came to save you? Why did no one answer Me when I called through My prophets? Have I ever given anyone reason to think that I could not save you from every enemy? No, you and all your ancestors have seen with your own eyes that I have saved you from greater powers than men. I have dried up seas and rivers and some of you have seen the heaps of rotting, stinking fish when this has happened. I have also worked great miracles in the heavens which some of your ancestors saw and have written in your scriptures. No, you are not going to be enslaved because I am powerless to help you or because I wanted it that way, says Jehovah.
COMMENTS
Isa. 50:1 ACCUSATIONS: Judah is trying to justify herself against Jehovahs accusations (through His prophets) and against His promise of her impending captivity, with some accusations of her own! Judah is trying to blame Jehovah for her troubles with Babylon. She is accusing Jehovah of casting her off illegally, or without justification. That is the impenitent sinners usual ruse. Jehovah answers by referring them to His Law. The Law of Jehovah is, of course, His willa revelation in human terms of His very nature. It is not Jehovahs nature to do anything without justification. In the matter of divorce, for example, if there is legal cause for a man to put away his wife, he must certify the legality of it by a written bill of divorcement (Deu. 24:1 f). There is no written bill of divorcement from Jehovah. Israel is separated from Jehovah by her own doingnot His! She has gone after other lovers (cf. Hosea 1-3). The Lord did not want the separation, nor is He responsible for it. Another objection Israel might propose is that the Lord will give her up to slavery because Babylon has some claim upon Him. The thought is preposterous. Jehovah owes no one! Jehovah is not man that He has creditors. No one has any claims upon Him! Israel will go away into slavery because of her own weaknesses, not Gods. Judah had flirted with the Babylonians off and on for a number of years (cf. comments on Isaiah, ch. 3639). The separation was her doing, not the Lords. Jehovahs attitude toward Israel is graphically portrayed in the experience of Hosea with his wife.
Isa. 50:2-3 ACTUALITIES: Israel has accused Jehovah of insensitively casting her off. The actual facts are quite different. Many times Jehovah came to Israel (through prophets and providential judgments and redemptions) to rescue her from her headlong plunge into pagan slavery, but she would not listen. This is the historical record! Furthermore, the actual facts are that God demonstrated that He not only wanted to save Israel from enslavement but He had the power to save her. Time and time again He came, but none responded. In fact, He was rejected (cf. Isa. 30:8-11), until in the fulness of time He came incarnate to His own and they crucified Him! Delitzsch interprets these as the words of The Servant. Certainly Isa. 50:4 f would seem to be The Servants, and these may very well be His also. The apparent reference to the Red Sea exodus (. . . at my rebuke I dry up the sea . . .) would indicate these to be the words of Jehovah. Since Jehovah and the Servant are essentially One (Joh. 1:1-18; Joh. 14:8-11; Col. 1:19; Col. 2:9), Isaiah constantly shifts from One to the other in these latter chapters. This is not unusual. It is the shortened perspective aspect of O.T. prophecy. It may be nearer the correct interpretation to understand Jehovah as the speaker in Isa. 50:1-3 and the Servant in Isa. 50:4-11. Whatever the case, the point of this passage is to emphasize the righteousness and justness of God in Israels imminent enslavement and to implore Israel again that He is not only willing but able to save her if she will hearken to His leading. The final and full revelation of Jehovahs redemptive purpose will be in the Person of The Servant, and that is who addresses Israel next.
QUIZ
1.
What kind of accusation is Jehovah countering by the reference to a bill of divorcement?
2.
What accusation would be answered by speaking of creditors?
3.
Why did Israel go away into captivity?
4.
Who is speaking in verses one-three?
5.
How has Jehovah demonstrated His power to save?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
L.
(1) Where is the bill . . .?The thought seems suggested by Isa. 49:14, but expands in a different direction. Both questions imply a negative answer. Jehovah had not formally repudiated the wife (Judah) whom he had chosen (Deu. 24:1) as he had done her sister Israel (Jer. 3:8;Hos. 2:2). He had no creditors among the nations who could claim her children. On the law of debt which supplies the image, comp. Exo. 21:7; 2Ki. 4:1; Neh. 5:5. The divorce, the sale, were her acts and not His.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Thus saith the Lord As in reply to Zion’s complaint, and in justification of himself.
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? In effect, the words are: “Your mother, or Zion, to whom I am married, and claim still an indissoluble marriage bond, has no such bill of divorcement, except as she has herself made it by departure from me. Consequently, her children are not chattels to be sold into bondage. Earthly fathers do this, but I never. The children of Zion may break away from me and sell themselves, but I am faithful to my covenants my part of the bond for ever. You are doers of these evils; your mother has put herself away.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Is There No One To Answer When Yahweh Has The Power and the Will To Deliver? ( Isa 50:1-3 ).
Yahweh now rebukes His people. He points out that their failure to enjoy His blessings cannot be laid at His door. He has not turned away from them and divorced them. He has not sold them off as a creditor sells off his children. Their present position and condition is entirely due to their own fault.
Indeed His power is not diminished at all. He is still powerful enough to dry up the sea with a rebuke, as He did in Egypt, and make the rivers a wilderness as He did to the Assyrian forces around Jerusalem, and will do to Assyria and Babylon. Note how this is the very opposite of what He has promised for His people. Such language refers as much to blessing and judgment, as it does to natural events. Overflowing water means blessing, drought means judgment.
The problem is rather that there is no one on whom He can call who will respond to His words. There is no one on whom He can rely, through whom He can deliver them. God is looking for a man to stand in the gap.
Isa 50:1
‘Thus says Yahweh,
“Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce with which I put her away,
Or which of my creditors is it to which I have sold you?
Look, because of you iniquities you were sold,
And because of your transgressions your mother was put away.”’
God now points out that it is not He who has divorced them, it is they who have gone away from Him as a result of their sins, through their iniquities and transgressions. It is not He Who has sold them in order to pay off His debts, it is they who have sold themselves to sin.
Here the thought in Isa 49:14 is now being dealt with, the suggestion that Yahweh had forgotten Zion and treated her badly. Yahweh stresses that firstly He has not divorced the children of Jacob’s mother, the stem of Jacob. They have simply been separated from Him for a while. The covenant has not been finally cancelled, only suspended. And secondly that His children have not been sold off to pay His creditors. A creditor had rights against a debtor to obtain payment by the sale of a man’s children. But Yahweh has no creditors. He has no need to sell off His children. Any suggestion therefore that He has been unfair or blameworthy is false. The reason why they were ‘sold’ into enemy hands was rather because of their iniquities (the wickedness of the inner heart), and their mother was put away because of her sins, her transgressions (outward disobedience and rebellion). All the blame lies with them.
Isa 50:2
“Why when I came was there no man?
When I called was there no one to answer?
Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem,
Or have I no power to deliver?”
Indeed the opposite situation pertains. When He came and sought for a man to assist Him, there was no man. And when He called for response there was no answer. It was they who had forgotten Him. He had wanted to save and deliver. He had wanted to buy them back. He had the means to do so. His hand was not too short (see Num 11:23), His power was not so limited. But what was lacking was a man, the right man. There had been no man willing to facilitate the task. That was the reason that things were as they are. (There may here be the thought that Ahaz and Hezekiah had proved themselves not worthy, as had all the other sons of David).
The idea of God calling for a man takes us back to man’s beginnings when God walked in the Garden and called to a man. Then there was an answer, but it was, alas, the wrong one. There was no right answer. There was no one to say, ‘Here I am’. And that is the point here, that God was looking for the right answer. But, alas, there was no answer.
It is significant that in the same way, when the same situation was earlier put to idolaters there was no response from them also (Isa 41:28 to Isa 42:4), then too there was no man, in that case it was also followed by the coming of the Servant, as here. Each call for a man is therefore followed up with a description of the Servant, God’s man to fill the breach.
It is significant also that Isaiah does not see himself as possibly being that man. He knows that God is talking about Immanuel, Who alone can fill the role.
Isa 50:2-3
“Behold at my rebuke I dry up the sea.
I make the rivers a wilderness.
Their fish smell because there is no water, and they die of thirst.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”
God then reminds them that there was no reason to doubt that He had the power. His power to redeem and deliver had been revealed in the past, when He dried up the sea for Israel to pass through at the Exodus (Exo 14:21). When He makes the rivers a wilderness all the fish stink and die (Exo 7:18; Exo 7:21). This was true in Egypt, it will also be true for Assyria and especially Babylon. In Egypt the heavens became pitch black so that a man could not see his fellow (Exo 10:22-23), and they were covered as with sackcloth because of what was happening. There is possibly in this last the reminder of the death of the firstborn. But the same is true throughout history. He makes the heavens black with judgment, or not, as He wishes.
The idea is probably intended to go beyond the Exodus as a reminder that Yahweh has life and death in His hands at all times, of which Egypt was but an example. For if rivers dry up it is not only fish that die, but men also. And sackcloth is also a sign of continual mourning. So this could be seen as the heavens in mourning because of what Yahweh’s judgments would do. This being so, Yahweh has shown that He is well able to deliver, and to deal with the hostility of the most powerful foes.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Isa 50:6
[68] Grant R. Jeffery, “The Mysterious Shroud of Turin,” [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2009; available from http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/shroud.htm; Internet.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Defection of Israel Atoned for by the Servant of Jehovah.
v. 1. Thus saith the Lord, v. 2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man, v. 3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, v. 4. The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, v. 5. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, v. 6. I gave My back to the smiters, v. 7. For the Lord God, v. 8. He is near that justifieth Me, v. 9. Behold, the Lord God will help Me, v. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, v. 11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter seems to be made up of short fragments, which the collector, or collectors, of Isaiah’s writings regarded as too precious to be lost, and which they consequently here threw together, though in reality they were detached utterances, and are not even connected in subject-matter. Verses 1-3 are a rebuke to the exiles for deeming themselves wholly rejected, and not rising to the occasion now that deliverance is at hand. Verses 4-9 carry on the account of “the Servant of the Lord” from Isa 49:12, further describing his humiliation, and declaring his steadfastness and his faith. Isa 49:10, Isa 49:11 are an exhortation to weak believers generally, and contain an encouragement and a warning.
Isa 50:1
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? On account of her persistent “backsliding,” God had “put away Israel,” Judah’s sister, and had “given her a bill of divorce” (Isa 3:8). But he had not repudiated Judah; and her children were wrong to suppose themselves altogether cast off (see Isa 49:14). They had, in fact, by their transgressions, especially their idolatries, wilfully divorced themselves, or at any rate separated themselves, from God; but no sentence had gone forth from him to bar reconciliation and return. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you! Neither has God exercised the right, regarded as inherent in a parent (Exo 21:7; 2Ki 4:11; Neh 6:5, Neh 6:8), of selling his children to a creditor. They are not soldhe has “taken no money for them” (Psa 44:12; Isa 52:3); and the Babylonians are thus not their rightful owners (Isa 49:24)they are still God’s children, his property, and the objects of his care. For your iniquities for your transgressions; rather, by your iniquities by your transgressions. The separation, such as it was, between God and his people was caused by their sins, not by any act of his.
Isa 50:2
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? Such being the condition of things; Judah having rejected me, not I themwhy, “when I came” and announced deliverance from Babylon, was there no response? Why did no champion appear? Is it that my power was doubted? that it was feared my hand was shortened, so that it could not redeem or deliver? But I am he who has power with his rebuke to dry up the sea (Exo 14:21), to make rivers a wilderness (Exo 7:20; Jos 3:16, Jos 3:17); in fact, to change the course of nature as seemeth him good, and accomplish his will against all obstacles. Is my hand shortened? i.e. “is my power less than it was?” Can any one suppose this? Surely what I have once done I can do again. If I delivered from Egypt, I can redeem from Babylon. Their fish stinketh (comp. Exo 7:21). But the object is rather to assert an absolute control over nature than to take the thoughts of the hearers back to any special occasions when control was exercised.
Isa 50:3
I clothe the heavens with blackness. The Egyptian plague of darkness (Exo 10:21-23) is not adequate to the expressions here used. God means to assert his power of leaving all nature in absolute darkness, if he so choosea power necessarily belonging to him who said, “Let there be light; and there was light” (Gen 1:3). I make sackcloth their covering (see Rev 6:12, “The sun became black as sackcloth of hair”).
Isa 50:4-9
A SOLILOQUY OF THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. The separateness of this passage has been maintained in the opening paragraph. That it is not of himself that the prophet here speaks, appears
(1) from the self-assertion (Isa 50:4, Isa 50:5, Isa 50:9);
(2) from the depth of humiliation declared in Isa 50:6, which is beyond anything recorded of Isaiah.
But if he does not speak of himself, he can scarcely speak of any other besides “the Servant,” of whom he has already said much (Isa 42:1-8; Isa 49:1-12), and of whom he has still much more to say (Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12).
Isa 50:4
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned; literally, the tongue of disciples; i.e. a trained tongue, a well-taught tongue. Christ “did nothing of himself; as the Father had taught him,” so he spoke (Joh 8:28). That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; rather, that I shall know how to sustain by a word him that is weary. Compare, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat 11:28). He wakeneth morning by morning mine ear. God held immediate and constant communication with the “Servant”not enlightening him occasionally, as he did the prophets, by dreams and visions, but continually whispering in his ear. At no time did the Father “leave him alone” (Joh 8:29) or cease to speak to him. “Morning by morning” is not to be narrowed to the bare literal meaning, but to be taken in the sense of “un-interruptedly.” To hear as the learned; rather, to hear as disciples hear; i.e. attentively, submissively, gladly.
Isa 50:5
The Lord hath opened mine ear. Some understand this of the boring of the ear for perpetual service (Psa 40:6; Exo 21:6); but it is perhaps better to regard it as intended to mark a contrast between the true Servant and the professed servants, or children of Israel. They “did not hear; their ear was not opened; they were treacherous and rebellious from the womb” (Isa 48:8). His ear was opened to receive God’s word perpetually; he was not rebellious, did not turn away back. Even when most tried, his final word was, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luk 22:42).
Isa 50:6
I gave my back to the smiters (see Isa 53:5, ad fin.; and comp. Mat 26:67; Mat 27:26; Joh 19:1). My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. This is a detail not historically recorded by the evangelists; but it may have had a literal fulfilment. Plucking off the hair was not unknown to the Jews as a punishment (see Neh 13:25). I hid not my face from shame and spitting (see Mat 26:67; Mat 27:30). Spitting in the East marked at once contempt and abhorrence. It is a practice which continues to the present day.
Isa 50:7
For the Lord God will help me; rather, but the Lord God will help me. I shall not be left always in the hands of my enemies. In this confidence the Servant rests, and is not confounded, even when the worst happens to him. He sets his face like a flint; i.e. makes it hard, impassive, expressionless, and at the same time determined, fixed not to give way (comp. Eze 3:8, Eze 3:9).
Isa 50:8, Isa 50:9
He is near that justifieth me. God, who knows his innocence, is near at hand, and will shortly “make his righteousness clear as the noonday.” This was done when God raised up from the dead “the Holy One and the Just” (Act 3:14). whom cruel men “by wicked hands had crucified and slain” (Act 2:23). By the resurrection God acquitted Christ of the charge of blasphemy on which he had been condemned, and proclaimed him “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb 7:26). Who will contend with me? (compare St. Paul’s words in Rom 8:33, Rom 8:34, “It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?”). God is the sole Judge of all menof the “Servant” in his human capacity, no less than of others. If he acquits, it is idle for any accuser to stand forth and “contend” or “condemn” (Isa 50:9). God will help the innocent, whom he has acquitted, and will destroy the accuser by a secret but most sure destruction. The moth shall eat them up (comp. Psa 39:11, and infra, Isa 51:8).
Isa 50:10, Isa 50:11
AN ADDRESS OF JEHOVAH TO HIS CHURCH. Some suppose that the Church of Hezekiah’s reign is addressed; others the exiles towards the close of the Captivity period. The first verse is an exhortation, encouraging those who fear God, but have insufficient light, to trust in him. The second threatens such as “kindle fire,” or cause strife, with retribution.
Isa 50:10
That obeyeth the voice of his servant; that is, of “his servant” for the time being, whether Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or “the Servant” That walketh in darkness. Not clearly seeing his way or knowing what his duty is, and so inclined to despond and doubt. Every such person is bidden to put aside his doubts, and trust wholly in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Hence light will shine in upon him, and his doubts will be resolved, and sufficient light will be granted him to direct his paths.
Isa 50:11
All ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; or, with firebrands. The persons intended seem to be those whose “tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (Jas 3:6), and who by means of it are employed in “stirring up strife all the day long.” They are condemned to be scorched by the fire which they have themselves kindled, to be made wretched by the strife which they have themselves caused to spring up. Their end, moreover, will be to lie down in sorrow; or, in torture (Cheyne). God will punish them in the next world for the misery which they have brought about in this, and will thus exercise retributive justice upon the wicked ones, whose main object in life has been to embitter the lives of their fellow-men.
HOMILETICS
Isa 50:2, Isa 50:3
God’s power over nature.
Modern pseudo-science, or “un-science,” as it has been called, seems to hold that nature, having been once for all arranged and ordered by God, was thenceforth left to itself, being an automatic machine, bound to work in a certain way, needing no superintendence, and brooking no interference thenceforward. Hence miracles are regarded as impossible, or at any rate as non occurrent; and we are invited to ascribe to the combined influence of priestcraft and credulity all the statements with respect to supernatural interferences with nature which we find in the history of our race. The view of the sacred writers is the direct opposite of this. God is not regarded as having ever left nature to itself’. On the contrary, he is always represented as working with nature and in nature. He” covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth, and maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry He giveth snow like wool, and scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow” (Psa 147:8-18). He is, in fact, ever in his laws, executing them continuallymaking the sun to shine, and the moon to give her light, and the stars to sparkle in the canopy of heaven, and the mountains to stand firm, and the winds to blow, and the rain to fall, and the earth to give her increase. The secret of the quasi-unvarying character of nature’s laws is his unchangeablenessthe fact that “with him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). But, as he thus holds nature in his hand, and does not let it go, so he is necessarily at all times omnipotent over nature, and can suspend or change any “law of nature’ at his pleasure. In point of fact, he does not do so unless upon emergencies. But, let a fitting occasion come, and it is as easy for him to reverse a law as to maintain it. He can “dry up the sea” in a moment, “make rivers a desert” (Isa 50:2), “clothe the heaven with blackness” (Isa 50:3), cause the stars to fall (Mat 24:29), create a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1), cast death and hell into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14). To regard miracles as impossible is to be an atheist; to say that they are non-occurrent is to fly in the face of history. No doubt many false miracles have been alleged, and an alleged miracle is not to be received without a searching scrutiny. But the summary rejection of all miracles, which modern pseudo-science proclaims, is as little reasonable as the wholesale acceptance of all alleged miracles without exception.
Isa 50:8, Isa 50:9
No condemnation for those whom God justifies.
Those whom God has justified may still be, sometimes are, arraigned
(1) by Satan;
(2) by their fellow-men.
I. SATAN‘S ARRAIGNMENT VAIN. “Hast thou considered my servant Job,” said Jehovah to Satan, “that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” To which the answer was given, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” (Job 1:8, Job 1:9). Satan arraigned Job as selfish, hypocritical, irreligious, and was allowed to put him to the proof; but with the result that Job’s integrity was established, and the accuser put to shame. Satan, however, gains no wisdom by experience. Still he remains “the accuser of the brethren, which accuseth them before God day and night” (Rev 12:10). All that can be said against them, doubtless, he saysmisrepresents their motives, exposes their shortcomings, exaggerates their failings and their sins. But to what purpose? “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 12:11). To them whom God has justified, whom God has forgiven, past sins are blotted out, past shortcomings are made up. The merits of Christ suffice to cover all their iniquities. Let them but have true faith in him, let them but cling to him, and then “their sins, though they be as scarlet, shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:18).
II. MAN‘S ARRAIGNMENT IDLE. Man’s arraignment of his fellow-men can have no effect at all excepting in this world. He may bring them before tribunals, obtain their condemnation, their execution, their temporal disgrace. He may gibbet them in history, misrepresent, malign, blacken their names and their reputations. But over their real selves he is powerless. God justifies them, pardons them, receives them into his kingdom, looks on them with favour, reckons them among his saints, gives them the blessing of eternal communion with him in heaven. What matters it to them that somewhere, in a paltry planet, ignorant and ephemeral mortals speak evil of them and brand their memories? “It is God that justifieth.” One justifying word from him may well outweigh any amount of human dispraise, of human contumely. Their end in this world may have been “without honour;” but their entrance into the next is with words at once of promise and of high honour, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,”
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 50:4-9
Jehovah and his Servant.
The passage is to be compared with Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-9. The manner in which God is referred to is peculiarly solemnby his double name, the Lord Jehovah.
I. THE SERVANT‘S ENDOWMENTS AND TEMPER. The tongue of disciples. The “facility of well-trained scholars” (Isa 8:6; Isa 54:13)”a discipled tongue, speaking nothing but what it has learned from God.” A tongue the object of which is comfort to the weary. Not to astonish, dazzle, bewilder, but to edify and console. “The wisdom of Heaven does not bespeak man in an unknown tongue; nor design, what would be more miraculous than all miracles, that men should be saved by what they could not understand.” But true eloquence implies the faculty of listening. “The things we have heard declare we unto you.” They are things imparted to the wakened soul, in the clear conscious hours of calm contemplation, and in the mood of devout sympathy. “The Servant was not a mechanical organ of revelation, but had a spiritual sympathy with it, even when it told of suffering for himself. It is not that bare assent to the truth which is seldom followed by spiritual effects. Nothing is more common than to see men of rare knowledge and raised speculations in the things of God, who have no relish and savour of them in their hearts and affections. Their practice bids defiance to their knowledge. They never know God so as to obey him, and therefore never know him at all. To hear the Word of God, and to hear God speaking in his Word, are things vastly different” (South). Now, Jehovah had opened an ear to his Servant; and he “had not been defiant, had not turned back.” All our duties as servants of God resolve themselves into faith, obedience, and patience; and the vital principle of all is submission. Faith, the submission of the understanding; obedience, the submission of the will to what God bids us to do; and patience, submission to what God bids us suffer. In contrast to this temper Jonah may be cited; and in exemplification of it, Jeremiah (Jer 17:6; Jer 20:7). in such a temper humiliation and scorn may be patiently endured.
II. THE DIVINE PRESENCE AND HELP. “Against the crowd of mockers he places the Lord Jehovah.” Jehovah is on his side; and therefore he can (in a good sense) harden his face like a flint against his foes, be confident, and not be disappointed. A good conscience is a tower of strength. “Near is he that justifieth me.” “To justify,” in the Old Testament, almost always means to pronounce a man righteous, or prove him so in act. The Servant is thinking of a trial through which he is passing, and where God is the Judge. But “while Job shrinks in terror from the issue, the Servant has no doubt as to a favourable result.” The passage is full of a holy and strong confidence, in the strength of which he can face all his foes. Only he who has not defied God (verse 5) is able to defy the world, and speak of his enemies as falling to pieces like a rotten, moth-eaten garment. And thus from personal experience he is able to comfort and to exhort others. “He that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the Name of Jehovah, and rely upon his God.” The opposition is between outward darkness and inward lightin the man’s own “clear breast,” where he “may sit in the centre, and enjoy clear day.” To have a conscience defiled and obscured is to be left, in the time of adversity, “wholly in the dark.” The man cannot tell whether God is his enemy or his friend; or rather, has cause to suspect him of being his enemy. Then, “if we would have our conscience deal clearly with us, we must deal severely with it. Often scouring and cleansing it will make it bright.” We learn from the passage how the habit of submission to the Spirit of God, and hearty obedience to his will, tends to promote a reasonable confidence in every hour of trial. Not, indeed, one that is secure against all vicissitudes of wavering and distrust, any more than a strong physical constitution can be exempt from occasional attacks of disease. But in the will absolutely submitted to the Divine, vigorously exerted in the cause of right, may be found a confidenceshort, indeed, of perfect assurance, yet “for the purposes of a pious life much more useful.”J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 50:10
A searching query.
“Who is among you,” etc.? What wonderful discrimination of character there is in Scripture! It is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” And it is ever associated with the Divine remedies. Go to a physician, and you often fear the worst. That never is so with the great Physician. Beautiful idea of trust! We cannot force either conviction or feeling.
1. The position described.
2. The remedy proposed.
I. THE POSITION DESCRIBED. Human life has its terrible side. So has nature. You see the broad Sea in her bewitching and entrancing beauty, and you forget how many boats have been lost in the wild tempest. This is said of a devout man: “one who fears God.” Not, of course, strange that a man who does not fear God should feel like this. We may be children, knowing God’s will, trying in our poor way to do it.
1. A season of deep distress. Other griefs are great; but we feel the religious life cold and indifferent! Not only at times do we feel weakened confidence in man, but in God! Light is so beautiful. It quickens life- It stirs the pulses of joy. It keeps the home in view.
2. A season of weak faith. Not so much in a Providence as in the ability to lay hold on the promises. To doubt our sincerity. To doubt our love. Given a man of exceeding faith: he will minimize his troubles, according to the extent of his faith.
3. A season of pilgrimage. Still has to walk on. Avocations call him forth. Relationships to others must be sustained. Opportunities must be made use of. Life is a continual forthgoing; and we walk on. What meditations! What regrets!
II. THE REMEDY PROPOSED.
1. A Name. How simple! God is not merely everlasting, or almighty: he is known to us by a Name. Christ has shown us the Father. Well, we cannot understand God apart from intuitions and relationships. I thank God for the lexicon of the family.
2. A trust. Not trying to hurry events. Refusing to judge by appearances. Why should I? Did the Old Testament heroes? Appearances have deceived. Even untoward health and untoward fortune.
3. A stay. This is an old English word. I cannot stay myself on myselfcannot anchor a boat to itself. I can and do stay upon that which I see not. I can rely upon a God whose promise invites me. I may refuse to give up that rest, and say, amid human disappointments, “Beautiful tree, under whose shadow I pasture! Blessed rock, where I have refuge from the heat!” We love to feel that we are in him that is “true.”W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 50:1-3
Explanation of exile.
The Lord would impress on his exiled people that their calamities found their explanation not in him but in themselves; and we shall find, when we look, that this is the account of our estrangement and distance from God.
I. WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR ISRAEL‘S EXILE?
1. It was not any fickleness in God. He had not acted toward Israel as a husband often acted toward the wife of whom he was weary; there had been no changeableness on his part.
2. It was not his necessity. The father might sell his son when hard pressed by pecuniary straits; but God could never, by any supposition, be reduced to such necessities. He who can say, “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills,” the generous Donor of all gifts, and bountiful Source of all treasures, cannot be in want of anything.
3. It is not his inability to protect or to redeem. There was abundance of Divine power to preserve from captivity or to rescue from it. He who could “dry up the [Red] sea,” and in whose hand are the storms and tempests of the sky, could defeat any armies of the invader, or could bring out of bondage, if he chose.
4. It was their own disobedience which accounted for ittheir iniquities, their transgressions (Isa 50:1); it was their heedlessness and disobedience when the voice of the Lord was heard rebuking and inviting (Isa 50:2).
II. WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR OUR ALIENATION FROM GOD?
1. Nothing in him. He is not unwilling that we should return and be reconciled; he does not weary of his children; he has been obliged to condemn us, but he “earnestly remembers us still.” His attitude is one of gracious invitation: all the days of our life long he “stretches out his hands” toward us. He is not unable. The power which God shows in nature, in his control of the elements, in regulating the tides of the sea, and directing the tempest in the sky, is small and slight in comparison with that he shows in redeeming a fallen race; mechanical or miraculous power is of a far inferior kind to that which is moral and spiritual. And the Author of nature is the Redeemer of man; he has completed a glorious work of mercy and restoration. He has made it possible for the most guilty to be forgiven, for the foulest to be cleansed, for the most distant to return. There is no obstacle to our restoration in God.
2. Everything in us. We “will not come unto him that we may have life.” (l) We do not listen when he speaks; we go on our way, regardless of the fact that God is speaking in his Word, in the sanctuary by Jesus Christ, in his providence.
(2) Or we do not reflect when we hear. We may come and listen and understand, but go away” hearers only, and not doers; “we are the “people that do not consider.“
(3) Or we do not decide. We feel and we entertain the question of returning; we may say, “I will arise,” but we do not; conviction loses the name of action; we defer, and remain in exile.C.
Isa 50:4
The hearing ear and the helpful tongue.
The whole passage (Isa 50:4-9) is strikingly appropriate to the spirit and the work of the Messiah; and this verse as much as the rest. For it was true in no small measure:
1. That Jesus received continual communications from the Divine Father. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (Joh 5:19; see also Joh 3:11; Joh 5:30; Joh 8:28, Joh 8:40).
2. That he spoke many words of cheer and succour (Mat 11:28; Joh 14:1-4, Joh 14:16-18, Joh 14:27, etc.). Many and manifold were “the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.” But we will take the text as applicable to the faithful servant of Christ nowmore particularly to him who is the minister of Christ. And thus regarded, we infer
I. THAT WE SHOULD HAVE AN OPEN EAR TO WELCOME ALL THE TRUTH GOD HAS TO TEACH US. Between the man who knows enough to find admission into the kingdom of Christ and the man who has been best instructed in that kingdom, there is a very great difference, a very large distance. We stand somewhere along this line. But where? Near the starting-point or near the goal? It is a question of grave consequence. Not only because it is most desirable for our own sake that we should reach the highest attainable point of heavenly wisdom; but also, and principally, because the extent of our knowledge of God and of his truth is the measure of our power to influence and bless our fellow-men. A man who is learning daily of God is a man who is daily gaining power to teach and help his brethren. Therefore have the ear to hear, the mind to understand, the spirit of reverent, earnest docility. Learn of the written Word, of the human ministry, of Divine providence, of the discipline of life. Morning by morning be receptive of the truth which the Father is desirous of teaching; let no day pass on which something more of holy wisdom is not treasured in the mind, is not hidden in the heart.
II. THAT WE SHOULD STUDY TO BE HELPFUL IN OUR SPEECH. Some men speak as often to wound as they do to heal, to disturb and distress as to comfort and to cheer. Immeasurable is the opportunity we possess in the way of rendering help by simple but kindly speech. Not by a few elaborate endeavours, but by a multitude of friendly utterances, unchronicled and unconsidered, do we benefit and even bless our kind. To comfort the sad, to cheer the weary on their hard way, to guide the perplexed, to help the wavering to a wise decision, to strengthen those who are ready to faint in some field of holy usefulness, to whisper Christian hope in dying ears,this may satisfy the ambition of the good and wise.C.
Isa 50:5-10
Signs of faithful service.
Whether this is intended to point to the Person and work of the Messiah, or to that of some living prophet, it treats of the faithful servant of God; it is applicable to any one among us “that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant” (Isa 50:10). We find here marks of fidelity in holy service.
I. COMING INTO THE SHADOW OF PERSECUTION. In doing this the faithful one:
1. Follows in the train of the noblest men of ancient time (Mat 5:12).
2. Treads in the footsteps of the Divine Master (Mat 16:24, Mat 16:25; Mat 10:22-25).
3. Takes the necessary consequence of his faithfulness. For the man who fearlessly speaks the truth, and unwaveringly follows the example of Christ, must come into conflict with the error and the evil which is in the world. He must
(1) teach that against which the pride of human intellect will rebel (Mar 10:15; 1Co 1:23; 1Co 2:14; 1Co 3:18);
(2) say and do things which reflect upon the habits of men;
(3) take up positions which militate against the temporal interests of men (see Act 19:25). It is still true, though the provocation and the resentment take different forms in our time, that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Ti 3:12).
II. RESOLUTELY PERSISTING IN THE PATH OF FAITHFULNESS. Not “turning away back; setting our face like a flint”immovably determined to go on in the direction in which truth is pointing, to which God is calling. “None of these things [neither bonds nor afflictions] move me,” is the language of Christian fidelity (see Act 20:24; Php 1:20).
III. FINDING REFUGE IN GOD. “The Lord God will help me; and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa 50:7); “He is near that justifieth me” (Isa 50:8). Let him that obeyeth and walketh in darkness trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon his Godupon his near presence, upon his parental pity, upon his upholding grace, upon his overruling, victorious power, which will make truth and righteousness to triumph in the end.C.
Isa 50:11
Ineffectual light and guilty darkness.
These words are not applicable to those who have had no special privileges, and to whom there has been no alternative but that of groping their way in such light as they could gain from their own reason and from the conclusions of other men. They apply to those only who will not walk in the light which is offered them. There are
I. THOSE WHO SEEK NO DIRECT ILLUMINATION IN THEIR CHRISTIAN COURSE. If we would order our Christian life according to the will of our Divine Master, we must not content ourselves with regulating our daily conduct by the rules and maxims which are current in the circles in which we move, or by the notions of propriety we happen to have formed from our elders and associates. We are bound to ask and to consider what the will of Christ is, as revealed in his Word and as illustrated in his life; and we are bound to seek the illumination of his Divine Spirit. Otherwise, we shall walk along a very much lower level than our Lord intended us to take. And though we be not finally condemned, yet will the time come when we shall awake to our grievous error, and be afflicted with a profound regret.
II. THOSE WHO PERSIST IN CONSTRUCTING THEIR OWN THEOLOGY. God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ; in him and through him we know his nature, his disposition, his will concerning us; we know the way by which we can regain his favour, return to his likeness, ascend to his home in heaven. But there are those who will not learn and live; who proudly turn away from the Teacher that came from God to tell us of the holy Father of man. They prefer to construct their own theology; it is an utterly unsatisfying one; it is not the Bread of life, but the ashes of disappointment. And they pay, in a great and awful privation, the penalty of their folly and their sin.
III. THOSE WHO WILL NOT LEARN FROM GOD THE MEANING AND THE WORTH OF HUMAN LIFE. What are we here for? Can anything be made of the mortal life we are living? Is everything vanity? May we treat our life as a game to be played out; or as a mart where all things can be turned into money; or as a selfish scramble in which the strongest and swiftest secure the best prizes? There are many that say, “Who will show us any good? Life is not worth living.” They walk in the light of the poor sparks their own wit has kindled. They will “lie down in sorrow;” they will come to mourn their great mistake, to reproach themselves for the greatness of their folly, the seriousness of their sin. For all the while that they were cynically dismissing their opportunities, there was shining on their life the light that comes from heaven. Christ was inviting them to make of their earthly life a holy sacrifice unto the living God, a noble and valuable service to their fellow-men, a time of pure and sacred joy, a discipline that would train the docile and obedient spirit for a broader sphere and a brighter life in a higher kingdom.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 50:1
Selling ourselves.
“For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.” Reference is to the right which fathers in the East possessed, of selling their children into slavery; and also to the power of judges to condemn malefactors to slavery. The Jews sold themselves to work wickedness, and the judgment which came upon them, in their being sold into the hands of their Babylonian enemies, was consequently, in fact, their own work. They might say that they were sold; God convicts them by reminding them of the truth they preferred not to see. The deeper truth was that they, sold themselves. Illustrate from Goethe’s drama of ‘ Faust.’ In Scripture a man who is fully resolved on a course of action, is said to have “sold himself” to that course (see 1Ki 21:20); and a Divine judgment, which takes form as the conquest of a nation by its enemies, is called a “selling” to the enemy (see Jdg 2:14; Jdg 10:7). St. Paul even uses the same figure in Rom 7:14, saying, “The Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” The figure suggests that, by giving himself up to wilfulness, self-indulgence, and sin, a man expects to get a price, and deludes himself into the idea that the price will be worth the risk. Practical applications may be made by considering
I. MAN, THE SELLER.
1. What has he to sell? Himselfhis powers, time, gifts, relationships, influence, and possibilities.
2. Has he any right to sell? No real right, but an apparent right. It is the first sign of man’s going wrong, that he claims the right to sell himself, or do what he pleases with his life. A man is really not his own. He has nothing that is his own, and so he has nothing to sell. He must take himself out of the hands of God before he can sell himself to anybody; and the possibility of doing this is the peril involved in trusting man with a limited free-will. Still, it should be clearly seen that, when any man sells himself, he sells stolen property, for a man is not his ownhe is God’s.
II. SELF, THE BUYER. It is the custom to personify evil, and call it Satan, and in the early stages of religious knowledge such personifications are helpful. But the worst Satan, the true Mammon, is Self. He is the purchaser; and no slave-master ever figured the tyranny with which “Self” rules the slaves he purchases.
“He is the free man whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides.”
III. PLEASURE, THE PRICE. Self-gratification, indulgence of the lower over the higher powers and faculties. Is the price ever, even at first, worthy of the thing sold? Christ has redeemed us from this slavery to self. The purchase price is spoken of as “his own blood.” Redeeming us for himself is really buying back for us our own true selves.R.T.
Isa 50:4
Words in season.
The ability to speak suitable words, timely, wise, and helpful, is God’s gift, and one of his best gifts, which we should covet earnestly. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver” (Pro 25:11). We are often pleasantly, and often sadly, reminded how words which we spoke years ago lie in the memories of those who heard, and have exerted continuous influence for weal or woe. And there are few of us who look back over life without regret that golden opportunities for speaking helpful words were missed. “What awakened you? ‘ said a Christian minister on one occasion to a young friend. “It was what you said to me one evening coming out of the lecture-room. As you took me by the hand, you said, ‘Mary, one thing is needful’ You said nothing else, and passed on; but I could not forget it.” It was a word spoken in the Spirit, and the Lord accompanied it with saving power. The words commended by the prophet are more especially those spoken to the weary; but Scripture connects a very wide meaning with that term. It includes
(1) him that is weary with the overtoil of life;
(2) him that is weary of the commonness and comparative meanness of labour;
(3) him that is weary through the perplexities and difficulties of life;
(4) him that is weary through prolonged bearing of pain;
(5) him that is weary in well-doing; and
(6) him that is weary of the strife with sin.
“Lost for want of a word
A word that you might have spoken!
Who knows what eyes may be dim,
Or what hearts may be aching and broken?”
Words in season may be
I. WORDS OF CHEER. Brightly toned. Full of hope. The words of those who can see the “bright side of the shield,” and find a smile resting like soft sunlight on everything. In our “bearing” and our “doing” we feel thankful to all who can speak cheerily to us.
II. WORDS OF WARNING. Spoken by the far-sighted men, who can see the issues of our conduct, to which we are blind.
III. WORDS OF COUNSEL. Wise; prudent. The issue of large knowledge; quick observation; varied experience; established character.
IV. WORDS OF REPROOF. Brave words, that show us our faults. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”
V. WORDS OF COMFORT. The human agency through which God gives us the resting of his “everlasting arms.” Words are “out of season” when they are
(1) unadapted;
(2) untimely.
They are always out of season when they find expression for pride of self rather than for care of others.R.T.
Isa 50:6
Contumely endured in God’s service.
This is part of a soliloquy of Messiah, and in it he dwells upon the sufferings which would attend his effort to carry out obediently his Divine mission; and upon his confidence that God would uphold his Servant through all the suffering and shame. This passage should be compared with Psa 22:1-31 and Psa 53:1-6. The point more especially presented in this verse is the insult offered to Christ in the closing scenes of his life. This insult seems the strangest part of our Lord’s life-experience; but, if he had not known it, he could not have been “in all points tempted like us.” The scenes here prophesied are narrated in Mat 26:67, Mat 26:68; Mat 27:26-30; Mar 14:65; Mar 15:15-20; Luk 22:63-65; Luk 23:11; Joh 18:22, Joh 18:23; Joh 19:1-3. Three forms of indignity are mentionedsmiting, or scourging; plucking of hair; and spitting. Each must be estimated in the light of historical descriptions and Eastern sentiments.
I. SCOURGING. The severity and barbarity of a Roman scourging has been brought out by Dr. C. Geikie, who says,” Jesus was now seized by some of the soldiers standing near, and, after being stripped to the waist, was bound in a stooping posture, his hands behind his back to a post, or low pillar, near the tribunal. He was then beaten till the soldiers chose to stop, with knots of rope or plaited leather thongs, armed at the ends with acorn-shaped drops of lead, or small sharp-pointed bones. In many cases, not only was the back of the person scourged cut open in all directions; even the eyes, the face, and the breast were tern and cut, and the teeth not seldom knocked out. The judge stood by, to stimulate the sinewy executioners by cries of ‘Give it him!’ but we may trust that Pilate, though his office required his presence, spared himself this crime. Under the fury of the countless stripes, the victims sometimes sank, amidst screams, convulsive leaps, and distortions, into a senseless heap; sometimes died on the spot; sometimes were taken away, an unrecognizable mass of bleeding flesh, to find deliverance in death, from the inflammation and fever, sickness and shame.” Few New Testament readers duly appreciate the sufferings which Messiah endured in the judgment-hall. The cross so fills their vision that they fail to see how much he endured before the cross and its final strain and agony were reached.
II. PLUCKING THE HAIR. Easterns have great respect for the beard, and plucking it was as extremely insulting as it was extremely painful. Eastern sentiment on this matter may be illustrated by the treatment of David’s ambassadors, one-half of whose beards were shaven off (2Sa 10:5). See also David’s action when he would feign madness.
III. SPITTING. This was the Eastern expression of contemptuous abhorrence; and so Job poetically expresses his sense of the treatment he had received, by saying, “They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face” (Job 30:10). Hanway, in his book of travels, says, “This instance of contempt and reproach offered to Christ was at the same time an expression of malice and a compliance with custom. The practice has descended to later generations; for in the year 1744, when a rebel prisoner was laid before Nadir Shah’s general, the soldiers were ordered to spit in his facean indignity of great antiquity in the East.” And Gadsby tells us that “spitting in the face is still practised as a mark of contempt. An officer in Cairo had two Circassian concubines who died suddenly. He charged his wife with being the cause of their death, when she spat in his face. He drew his sabre and killed her. Mehemet All once spat in the face of one of his officers, because he used his wife badly.”
The practical application of the fact that Messiah bore such insults in doing his work may be made on the following lines.
1. God’s message, sent by us, may be an offence to men.
2. If it is, they will be very likely to persuade themselves that we are the offence.
3. And when they take up that notion, they will be sure to vent on us the feeling which they have against the message. But this is apostolic consolation: “If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.”R.T.
Isa 50:7
God’s help in time of need.
“For the Lord God will help me.” This one assurance suffices, and gives the Servant of Jehovah an indomitable strength. “Against the crowd of mockers he places Adonai Jehovah.” “Those whom God employs he will assist, and will take care they want not any help that they or their work call for. God, having laid help upon his Son for us, gave help to him, and his hand was all along with the Man of his right hand” (Matthew Henry). “Greater is he who is with us than all that can be against us.”
“God is my strong Salvation:
What foe have I to fear?”
John Ashworth, in his ‘Strange Tales,’ dwells on the satisfying fulness of the short and simple prayer, “Lord, help me!” It will fit in everywhere and to everything. It stuns up all our need. It appropriately meets us whatever may be our circumstances. In the text, the special need of Divine help is felt in the doing of God’s work. If we are resolutely set, as Christ was, upon doing and finishing just that which God has given us to do, then
I. WE MAY MEET WITH INDIFFERENCE. And this is often harder to bear than opposition. Men pass us by. We are not interesting. We are a “voice crying in the wilderness.” Sometimes we are behind our age, and God has bidden us remind men of things they ought not to have lost; and then they pass us by as old-fashioned. Sometimes we are called to be critics of the age in which we live; and then men pass us by because we annoy them by showing up their faults. And sometimes we are before our age, and prepare for the changes that are to come; and then men pass us by, with a smile at our unpractical talk, and call us “foolish dreamers.” But we must witness on, whether men will or will not hear; and God will be sure to keep us cheerful.
II. WE MAY MEET WITH OPPOSITION. Messengers for God usually do. It is a bad sign when all men speak well of them. God’s messages are always likely to offend self-seeking men, and, as a consequence, God’s messengers have to stiffer. But God’s help will tide us over all times of trial. We only have to learn the holy lesson “how great things we must suffer for his sake.” God’s help is our unfailing supporta “rock that cannot move.” The help of God stands always waiting for us as promise. It never actually comes to us until the need has arrived for it. Then we find it is always ready. The grace is there, for the day, for every day. “We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.”R.T.
Isa 50:8
The Justifier’s protection.
“Near is he that justifieth me.” Reference is to the Servant of Jehovah, whom we identify as the Messiah. The associations of our Lord’s trial and death may suggest that he was a malefactor. God allows no such impression to remain. He justifies him, by raising him from the dead and granting him full acceptance. He declares him to have been innocent and righteous. The security of those who have a standing in Christ lies in the plea made for them by their Justifier (see Rom 8:33, Rom 8:34). (For the earlier form of appeal to God as Justifier, see Job and David: Job 27:5; Psa 28:1-9 :20, etc.) Compare the expressions, “It is God that justifieth;” “Raised again for our justification;” “Justified in the Spirit.” “The Father justified him when he accepted the satisfaction he made for the sin of man, and constituted him ‘the Lord our Righteousness,’ who was made sin for us.” It is not, however, the doctrine of justification which is first suggested by the text. Its reference is to the confidence which a wronged, slandered, persecuted ‘good man may have, that God will stand by him, and in due time justify him, bringing forth his righteousness as the light. Our Lord and his servants may say, with misrepresented Job, “I know that” God, my Goel, “my Redeemer, liveth.”
I. GOD JUSTIFIES BY GIVING THE INWARD WITNESS OF HIS ACCEPTANCE. It is plain that he gave such witness to Christ in his last hours. Even in the dreadful sense of “being forsaken,” our Lord could say, “My God, my God,” add commit himself into the Father’s hands. Before Pilate he held such confidence in God’s approval that he could calmly reply to him, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me unless it were given thee from above.” A divinely whispered “Fear not,” from our Justifier, enables us to bear all things.
II. GOD JUSTIFIES BY THE LASTING IMPRESSION THE GOOD MAN PRODUCES. Illustrate from the exclamation of the centurion, “Truly this was the Son of God.” A careful estimate of the inward struggles of Saul of Tarsus brings to view a deep feeling that the claims of Jesus of Nazareth possibly might be true. The good man only gains more power when his goodness is shown on a background of persecutions.
III. GOD JUSTIFIES BY THE FINAL RESULTS OF THE GOOD MAN‘S WORK. The slandering and the suffering pass, but the work a man does, and the witness a man makes, abide. Men mistook the Christ. We know the results of his work, and they become the fullest justification of him.R.T.
Isa 50:10
Counsel for those who walk in the dark.
“Let him trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” Christians “walk in darkness when their evidences for heaven are clouded, their joy in God is interrupted, the testimony of the Spirit is suspended, and the light of God’s countenance is eclipsed.” The first reference of this passage is to the anxieties of the latter part of Hezekiah’s reign, when national dangers were great, and many political parties existed, one recommending one course, and one another. It was very difficult to decide what course to take. Good men, who wanted to do right, “walked in darkness.” Use the figure of going an unknown path on a dark night. We only feel safe as we hold some one’s hand, and let him guide us. God is the true Guide, and darkness and light are both alike to him. There is a sense in which one must always be walking in the dark. “We are not sufficient of ourselves even to think anything as of ourselves.” “It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” We can never see more than one step at a time. The future is altogether unknown. If we were sure of ourselves, we can never be sure of others. There is no possibility of our knowing how they wilt act under given circumstances. Only in vague and uncertain ways can we ever plan, for all our plans are formed in the dark. It is God’s law for us that we shall walk through life in the dark. The question isMust we walk alone? That question our text answers. No; we may stay ourselves on our God. Illustrate by the artistic conception of Noel Paton concerning the guide through the death-valley, in his ‘Mors Janua Vitae’ picture. God would have us cherish the spirit which says
“I’d rather walk in the dark with God
Than go alone in the light.”
The “Name of God,” in which we are to trust, is the name of a safe Guideso the ages say, so the saints of all the ages say. He is the Great-Heart for pilgrims, whether they walk on the hill-ridges of prosperity in the light, or along the valleys of fear and trouble, where the shadows lie thick and heavy.R.T.
Isa 50:11
Disappointed self-trust.
Various interpretations of the fire here referred to have been given. Probably the allusion is to the ordinary domestic fire, taken as a figure for the various comforts and supports which men can find for themselves. A self-kindled fire contrasts with divinely given light. Matthew Henry says, “They place their happiness in their worldly possessions and enjoyments, and not in the favour of God. Creature-comforts are as sparks, short-lived and soon gone; yet the children of this world, while they last, warm themselves by them, and walk with pride and pleasure in the light of them. Those that make the world their comfort, and their own righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with a fatal disappointment, which will be bitterness in the end.” The figures of the verse may receive explanation from the Eastern fires made with grass, which, while burning, emits many a dancing spark, that, after a vain promise to enliven the surrounding gloom for a moment, suddenly sink into darkness. The wet and shivering inmates of the hovel seek for light and heat by crowding close to the blazing hearth, but after many fruitless attempts, and the consumption of their stock, they are compelled to retire to their ill-covered pallets”they lie down in sorrow.” Let the subject be self-confidence.
I. THE SHOW IT MAKES. A man in the power of it starts out bravely; defies the darkness; and easily overcomes first difficulties. The early efforts of self-reliant people attract attention and excite hope. We like to see the working of energy and strong will.
II. THE PLEASURE IT BRINGS. To feel power; to find that men yield to our resoluteness, and that circumstances are mastered by our energy.
III. THE BREVITY OF ITS SUCCESSES. For our strength does not endure. The strain of life steadily increases. Circumstances at last prove greater than we are. We cannot do the things that we would. Peters, who for a while can gird themselves, by-and-by find that another must gird them. Do what we may, we cannot keep the fire of self-trust steadily burning.
IV. THE MISERY WHEN SUCCESS CHANGES TO FAILURE. As it surely does when God puts his hand upon us, damps the fire, puts out the light we have made, keeps away his light, and leaves us alone, cold, smitten: to feel with such a one as Byron
“The worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone.”
Impress the folly and the danger of self-trust by the figures given in Jer 17:5-8.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 50:1-3. Thus saith the Lord In the preceding period of the last chapter, a doubt respecting the great enemy of the church was removed: but another doubt exercised the afflicted church about the same time in which we have placed the scene of this prophesy: for as at that time the Jewish nation was engaged in a war with the Romans, which seemed to threaten the entire destruction of their state, the true church, among the Jews, plainly perceived from hence, that God had entirely cast off and divorced this people, which was a matter of great affliction to them. Therefore the distressed Sion wanted comfort in this respect, which God gives in these words, teaching, first, that he had publicly divorced their mother, and delivered her to the power of the Romans, being wholly compelled by reasons of justice for their enormous crimes and iniquities; the greater of which was, their contempt of that salvation which he had offered them: Isa 50:1.middle of 2. Wherefore when I came,and when I called, refers to the appearance of the Son of God among the Jews, and his calling them to repent, and accept his salvation. See Joh 7:28. Secondly, That he wanted not power to save; concerning which he speaks in very magnificent terms, alluding to the deliverance from Egypt:middle of Isa 50:2-3. See Hab 3:8. Vitringa thinks that the third verse alludes to the overthrow of Sennacherib’s army. See Rev 6:12. The mystical signification is, that the Son of God, as the avenger of his church, can easily destroy, utterly subvert, and reduce to blackness and desolation, the greatest empires which oppose the designs of his kingdom and providence. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II.THE SECOND DISCOURSE
The Connection between the Guilt of Israel and the Suffering of the Servant, and the Deliverance from Guilt by Faith in the Latter
Isaiah 50
With reference to Isa 49:14 the Prophet inquires: Where is Zions writing of divorcement? Zion is not repudiated, but only punished, because when its Lord came it did not receive Him. But that is the connection between the guilt of Israel and the sufferings of the Servant, who willingly takes them on Himself because He is strong in God and assured of His final victory. Also Israel can become free from its guilt and the punishment of it by turning again to the Lord in the exercise of faith. Of course those that persevere in their sin must be destroyed in it as in a self-kindled flame.
The discourse accordingly subdivides into three parts: 1) Isa 50:1-3; Isaiah 2) Isa 50:4-9; Isaiah 3) Isa 50:10-11.
____________________
1. TO WHAT EXTENT AND WHY ZION IS A FORSAKEN WIFE
Isa 50:1-3
1Thus saith the Lord,
Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement,
1Whom I have put away?
Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
Behold, for your iniquities have ye 2sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2Wherefore when I came, was there no man?
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?
Behold, 3at my rebuke I dry up the sea,
4I make the rivers a wilderness:
Their fish 5stinketh, because there is no water,
And 6dieth for thirst.
3dI clothe the heavens with blackness,
And dI make sackcloth their covering.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 50:2. often used of dividing waters, Psa 18:16; Psa 104:7. Isa 50:3. , comp. Joel 2:10; 4:15.. Note the comparatively numerous relative or absolute . . ending , occurring in verses 13. There are four: , , and .
Isa 50:1. after is the acc. instrumenti = wherewith.
Isa 50:2. (comp. Exo 8:19; Psa 111:9; Psa 130:7). The construction with is as in Isa 49:19; Isa 7:13; Isa 33:19. is the jussive form without jussive meaning. The like often occurs: Isa 27:6; 1Sa 2:10; Psa 9:10; Psa 11:6; Psa 104:20.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet here introduces the Lord as the speaker, letting Him explain Himself His relation to Zion, which all through these chapters He has in mind, viz. to the Zion that has rejected the Servant of God, and thus is self rejected, still not on that account repudiated forever. This Zion has exclaimed, Isa 49:14 : The Lord hath forsaken me, the Lord hath forgotten me. The Lord has already replied to this Isa 49:15 by emphasizing His paternal or rather His maternal position, but not His position as husband. Here He replies to that complaint as Zions husband. He does not deny that in a certain sense Zion is a divorced wife, her children sold into captivity. But He denies that Zion is definitively divorced by a writing of divorcement, and that the children are sold to a creditor as equivalent for a debt. Rather both the divorce and the sale are come on them only as a means of chastisement, as punishment for their sins (Isa 50:1). This punishment, of course, needed to be because the Lord, in coming to His own possession, found no one to receive Him, because when He called, no one answered, although His redeeming power was in no way exhausted. For He is and continues under all circumstances the Lord of heaven and earth, who can dry up sea and river (Isa 50:2), and can clothe the heavens with darkness (Isa 50:3).
2. Thus saithput away, Isa 50:1. Of course this verse refers to Isa 44:14. But one must not on that account separate Isa 50:1-3 from what follows and join them to chap. 49, as many do. For apart from chap. 49, being well rounded and complete in itself in its homogeneous parts, Isa 50:1-3, after a joyous beginning, have a very serious meaning that points to what follows. Zion has, indeed, received no writing of divorcement; but still it needed to be punished for its sins (see under 1 above). The manner of the coming is described Isa 50:4-9, and the unavoidable punishment, Isa 50:10-11.
Some have found in Isa 50:1 an apparent contradiction, and would explain it away by saying: Jehovah had, indeed, given Israel a writing of divorcement, but not a usual one, in which the cause of separation needed not to be assigned (Deu 24:1), but one in which the sin of Israel was named as the cause. But the Rabbins, Jerome, Rosenm., Hahn, Del., and others justly remark, that the question of the Lord, , evidently involves the meaning, Israel has in fact no writing of divorcement to show. It was sent away without a bill of divorcement, which according to Deu 24:1, was necessary to give the divorcement legal force,therefore it was not definitively sent away, but only provisionally, with the prospect of being received back again. [The simplest and most obvious interpretation of the first clause is the one suggested by the second, which evidently stands related to it as an answer to the question which occasions it. In the present case, the answer is wholly unambiguous, viz.; that they were sold for their sins, and that she was put away for their transgressions. The question naturally corresponding to this answer is the question, why the mother was divorced, and why the sons were sold? Supposing this to be the substance of the first clause, its form is very easily accounted for. Where is your mothers bill of divorcement? produce it that we may see the cause of her repudiation. Where is the creditor to whom I sold you? let him appear, and tell us what was the occasion of your being sold.J. A. Alex.]. In the same manner the Prophet would say, that the Lord has not sold the children of Zion, His children, to a creditor as the equivalent for a debt, in which case He would have lost all right to them. Thus both divorce and sale were temporary, and with the right of repurchase. It is of course to be remarked here, that according to Jer 3:8, the Lord did, indeed, give Israel of the Ten Tribes a bill of divorce. Yet the same Prophet makes in Isa 50:1 the extraordinary statement that the Lord will receive again His divorced wife spite of the legal enactment Deu 24:4. [This reference to Jeremiah seems fatal to the Authors interpretation, and completely to confirm that of J. A. A., given above.Tr.].
The distinction that the Prophet makes between mother and children in the two clauses of this comparison is intended only to emphasize the notion of totality; not merely the abstract communion shall be preserved, but it shall retain its natural members. For it were conceivable that the Lord would restore an Israel community with the institutions of the old, but with a non-Israelitish population, with foreign born, branches only grafted into the olive tree Israel (Rom 11:17 sqq.). This, says the Prophet, shall not be; but to the olive tree shall be given also the natural branches, to the national communion the natural children shall be given back. Not all! For only the , the is worthy and capable of being the heir to this promise. This distinction is further marked by representing the mother as divorced, the children as sold. In Mat 18:25, Jesus speaks of selling wife and children to pay debts. The Old Testament indeed speaks of a man selling himself with wife and children (Exo 21:1-6; Lev 25:39 sqq.; Deu 15:12 sqq.). But it is controverted that a man might legally sell his wife or his children in order to pay his debts (comp. Saalschuetz,Mos. Recht. p. 860, and (hler Herz. R.-Encycl. XIV. p. 465 sq., against Michaelis,Mos. Recht. III. p. 36 sqq.). But whether legal or not, it seems as a matter of fact to have been a practice to sell children or to take them by force from their father in discharge of a debt, and I think that in this sense Michaelis not unjustly appeals to 2Ki 4:1; Job 24:9; Neh 5:1. Naturally the selling of children would occur oftener than the selling of a wife. How deep rooted a law of custom may become, even when contrary to statute law, is seen in the analogous case related in Jer 34:8 sqq. (comp. Isa 24:2) is the creditor that loans money and demands repayment. The Babylonian Exile was such a temporary sending away of the wife and sale of children. But also the Roman Exile is such; for both are of a sort, and the Prophet contemplates both together. Israel is never to be entirely and definitively repudiated.
3. Wherefore when I cametheir covering.
Isa 50:2-3. The sin for which Israel must be punished consisted in this, that the Lord came to His own and His own received Him not (Joh 1:11). It was as if a stranger, unknown and without rights had come. The servants went each his way; He called, no one answered Him (Isa 65:12; Isa 66:4). Most recent commentators understand this to refer to the Lords coming by the Prophets. Without saying that this is impossible, I must still maintain that it is unusual, on which account it is not by the commentators supported by examples. That the Lord unceasingly sent His prophets to call Israel to repentance, that Israel would not hear, and that therefore the Babylonian Exile must come on them, became, especially in Jeremiah, almost a standing expression. But the word is always used with emphasis: Jer 7:25; Jer 25:4; Jer 26:5; Jer 29:19; Jer 35:15; Jer 44:4. That Isaiah writes and not has doubtless its reason. And it is precisely this, that he really meant a personal coming of the Lord, and conceives of it as mediated by the Servant of the Lord, whose appearance forms the chief contents of this second Ennead.
Israels not receiving the Lord, might be explained were the Lord grown powerless. But such is not the case. Therefore it has no reasonable ground. It is base contempt, deserving punishment. As the long hand is a figure for wide reaching power (num nescis longas regibus esse manus? comp. Gesen.in loc.), so the short hand is of a power confined to a narrow sphere. The expression is founded on Num 11:23, and occurs again only Isa 37:27; Isa 59:1. In proof that Israel had no reason for rejecting Him as weak and powerless because He came in the form of a servant, the Lord urges that He is still able to do what He could do at that time when He appeared in majesty before the eyes of Israel, when the people did not dare to refuse Him. For at my rebuke I dry up the sea,etc., recalls the passage through the dead sea and the Jordan, and I clothe the heavens with blackness,etc., recalls the black cloud on Sinai that veiled the sight of God from the people. One ought to see the under the present . The Prophet had repeatedly, in what precedes, used the deliverance out of the Egyptian captivity as a type and pledge of future deliverance (Isa 43:2; Isa 43:16-17; Isa 44:27). He does the same here. As regards the passage of the Red Sea, Psa 106:9 has a manifest connection with our passage, the latter clause of which corresponds with the words I make the rivers a wilderness. These same words occur verbatim Psa 107:33, as proof of the divine omnipotence in general that can both make waters a desert and the desert waters. The latter is expressed by a word drawn from Isa 41:18. The stinking and dying of the fish are cited as proof of the entire drying up of the waters. This trait, which is no where mentioned in reference to the passage of the Red Sea and Jordan, seems to me to be drawn from the events attending the turning the Nile water into blood (Exo 7:18; Exo 7:21). In this case there would be, in some sense, a confusio duarum figurarum, the poetic transference of an Egyptian event to a fact of later date connected with it. Also the words of Isa 50:3 remind one of the exodous from Egypt; comp. Exo 19:9; Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18; Exo 24:15 sqq.
Footnotes:
[1]With which I put her away.
[2]been sold.
[3]by.
[4]I will.
[5]shall stink.
[6]shall die.
2. THE OFFENSE OF ISRAEL CORRESPOND TO THE SUFFERING OF THE SERVANT, WHO WILLINGLY SUFFERS, YET IS STRONG IN GOD
Isa 50:4-9
47The Lord God hath given me the tongue of 8the learned,
That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary:
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth mine ear
To hear as athe learned.
5eThe Lord God hath opened mine ear,
And I was not rebellious,
Neither turned away back.
6I gave my back to the smiters,
And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:
I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7eFor the Lord God 9will help me;
Therefore eshall I not be confounded:
Therefore have I set my face like a flint,
10And I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8He is near that justifieth me;
Who will contend with me? let us stand together:
Who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
9Behold, ethe Lord God will help me;
Who is he that shall condemn me?
Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment;
The moth shall eat them up.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 50:4-5; Isa 50:7; Isa 50:9. . Isa 50:4. . Isa 50:5. . Isa 50:6. . Isa 50:7. , comp. Eze 3:8-9. Isa 50:8. .
Isa 50:4. For an analogous Arabic root gives sufficient reason for adopting the meaning succurrere, sustentare. The combination with ) from , denomin. from , Abulwalid, Kimchi, Luther, et al.) is on the contrary quite uncertain. The derivation from ( substantive, as , etc.), is impossible because is used only in a bad sense = to babble, . iswith the word. It is the same accusative that we had in verse 1.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The form of the Servant of God develops with increasing distinctness. The Prophet characterizes Him here in a double aspect. First he describes Him as docile in respect to learning what He was called to perform actively: viz., raising up the weary by means of the word. By this the schoolmaster (pedagogical) activity of the Servant of God is intimated (Isa 50:4). But the Servant of God is docile in another sense. He is obedient and willing to suffer according to Gods will. He does not elude the abuse to which men subject Him, and which answers to just that unsusceptibility of Israel intimated in Isa 50:2 (Isa 50:5-6). But He knows, too, that the Lord will sustain Him, and He shall not come to shame, and this enables Him to harden His face like a flint (Isa 50:7). He knows that the Lord will conduct His cause and justify Him, and can, therefore, boldly summon His adversaries before the bar of judgment. They shall pass away as a moth-eaten garment (Isa 50:8. 9).
2. The Lord Godas the learned.
Isa 50:4. The divine name (The Lord Jehovah) occurs in this chapt. relatively oftener than in any other Isaianic passage, viz., four times, vera. 4, 5, 7, 9. The tongue of a disciple is a docile tongue, willing and capable of learning. The Prophet, therefore, sees in the Servant of God one who must learn, and who likes to learn. The picture of the Servant of God that appears before the spiritual eye of the Prophet has not entirely clear and complete outlines. It is one that is prophetically obscure, not wholly comprehensible to the Seer himself. One learns from it only this much, that the Prophet sees the Servant of God active in the service of the weary and heavy laden. For those described, Mat 11:28, best answer to the .
According to the accents, should be joined together as in Isa 28:19. But it seems to me more fitting to arrange them palindromically after the example of Isa 27:5 ( ). Delitzsch well remarks that the Servant is here plainly distinguished from the prophets. For the latter receive their revelations mostly by night. But the Servant of God says that His ear is every morning awakened in order to hear after the manner of a disciple. He is thought of, therefore, not as under the influence of a momentary inspiration repeated at intervals, coming upon Him in the condition of sleep, but as under the constant influence of the Spirit that gives testimony of itself to Him every day from the moment He awakes to consciousness in the morning and on. Evidently the latter is a higher form of spiritual communication; it implies a more intimate relation between God and him who receives it. But this communication concerning the way in which the Servant of God receives the revelation of the Spirit stands between the descriptions of His active (Isa 50:4 a) and passive obedience (Isa 50:5 sqq.), if I may use the expression. Is it, then, to be referred to both kinds of obedience? At least it is not to be conceived why opening my ear should accomplish itself in another way.
3. The Lord Godeat them up.
Isa 50:5-9. The revelation and instruction that the Servant of God receives relate more to the will than to knowledge. The ear that is opened is that inward ear where the voice of God is audible and welcome to the soul, and where, therefore, hearing and obeying are one. For what is spoken of here is how the Servant of God has learned obedience, how He , as is said, Heb 5:8, with evident reference to our text, and a modification of its thought. I was not disobedient and I turned not back, show that demands were made on His patientia, His willingness to suffer, and capacity for suffering. This is instantly confirmed by Isa 50:6. For there the Servant of God enumerates what was expected of Him. He gave his back to the blows (properly to the smiters, Mat 27:26), his cheeks to the plucking, he hid not his face from shame and spit (doubtless a hendiadys; comp. Mat 26:27; Mat 27:30). And these sufferings must, by the connection of this discourse, answer just to that offence of Israel for the sake of which it was sold and put away (Isa 50:1). By inflicting them it displayed that insusceptibility in consequence of which it would not receive its Lord nor follow His call (Isa 50:2). But not merely obedience gives the Servant of God the power to submit to the severe sufferings. He is also mightily strengthened in this self surrender by the firm belief that God supports Him. To understand the two halves of Isa 50:7 in their right relation, the first must be referred to the past, the second to the future. The first is to be taken in the sense of continuance: But the Lord helps me, hence I have not (hitherto) come to shame.Just because by this support hitherto experienced I have been strengthened and encouraged, I am become all the more firm, and insensible to persecutions. I have made my face like flint, because ( in is causal) I knew that I would not be put to shame.The Servant of the Lord knows that He is hated of the world, in many ways censured and persecuted. But He knows, too, that the Lord, His legal assistant, will bring His innocence to light, and will destroy the adversaries. Confident in His support who will prove Him to be a righteous one, He boldly challenges His adversaries. Who will contend with me? He says (comp. on Isa 49:25). Let us stand together (comp. Isa 43:26)! Who is my adversary? ( only here, comp. Isa 41:11 and Exo 24:14, which passages perhaps hovered in the Prophets mind). In Isa 50:9, is decidedly to be taken in the future. , in the sense of to make bad, guilty, i.e., to condemn, is found in Isa. again only Isa 54:17. Comp., moreover, Job 34:29; Rom 8:34. [Rom 8:33-34 is an obvious imitation of this passage as to form. But even Vitringa, and the warmest advocates for letting the New Testament explain the Old, are forced to acknowledge that in this case Paul merely borrows his expressions from the Prophet, and applies them to a different object.J. A. Alex.]. The words are quoted from our text in Psa 102:27. Comp., moreover, Isa 51:6; Isa 51:8; Job 13:28, and the List.
Footnotes:
[7]The Lord Jehovah.
[8]disciples.
[9]helps.
[10]For I knew.
3. THE CONDITION ON WHICH ISRAEL MAY BE RECEIVED TO GRACE
Isa 50:10-11
10Who is among you that feareth the Lord,
That obeyeth the voice of his servant,
11That walketh in darkness, and hath no 12light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord,
And stay upon his God.
11Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
That 13compass yourselves about with 14sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire,
And in the dsparks that ye have kindled.
This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in 15sorrow.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 50:11. , comp. Deu 32:22; Jer 15:14; Jer 17:4. comp. Isa 45:14.
Isa 50:10. The passage at first sight seems to admit of a double construction. Either one may understand the question as one that requires the answer no one; then the second half of the verse must be referred to the Servant of Jehovah. Or one takes in the sense of quisquis, and as a comforting call to those who incline to put their trust in the Servant of God spite of his humble condition. I regard the latter construction as the correct one, for the following reasons: First, according to the former construction, the whole characteristic of the Servant ( as far as ) is superfluous, for it contains nothing but a needless repetition of what is said immediately before in Isa 50:5-9. For it is said in Isa 50:6-7, that the Servant of the Lord walks in rayless darkness; and he himself testifies in Isa 50:7-9 that he trusts in the Lord. Why this repetition?Second, in that case Isa 50:10 b must read . For there is no justification of what Hahn says: viz., that, by the use of the perfect, the clause is subordinated to that beginning with , so that we are to translate: who trusts, although he walks. If the notion athough needed to be expressed, it could not be done by means of the perfect , but it must then read: . Hence I share the view of Gesenius, Maurer, Knobel, Delitzsch, that the question singles out of the totality of Israel all the individuals to whom apply the predicates and . The words as far as are subject of the whole clause, as Knobel correctly says. It is quite natural that should stand first; for only he that fears God hears also the voice of His Servant (Joh 8:47). The relative sentence as far as is regarded by many as a continuation of the particip. construction , so that it describes the situation of the God-fearing, that makes them appear as those that need help. But, first one looks in that case for , and, second, the negative would be too weak a description of the mournful condition implied in their case. Hence I think the relative clause is to be referred to the Servant. Then involves a significant contrast: he who fears Jehovah and hearkens to the voice of His Servant, which (i.e., although the same) walks in darkness and dispenses with all splendor,let him trust, etc. , comp. Isa 9:1; the accusative is the acc. localis according to analogy of ,.
Isa 50:11. Instead of some would read according to the Syriac; or even arbitrarily change the reading (Hitz.) to (a non-Hebrew word formed from the Arabic). Both are unnecessary. is the direct causative Piel=to make compass about. is not=ye shall lie in torment; denotes the terminus in quem of the laying (Job 7:21; Lam 2:21, comp. 2Sa 8:2; 2Sa 12:16; 2Sa 13:31).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. As the discourse of the Servant, which forms the pith of this chapter, was introduced by a word of Jehovahs, so now it is concluded in the same way. For that Isa 50:10-11, are the words of Jehovah appears from this ye shall have from my hand. He turns to the two classes into which Israel separates in relation to the Servant of God. Even after Israel, for the most part, has rejected the Servant of Jehovah, those that fear God and hearken to the voice of the Servant spite His lowliness and obscurity, and lean on Him, may still be blessed (Isa 50:10). But those who with flaming torches and burning arrows raged against the Servant of God and His cause are told that the fire kindled by them shall devour themselves. That will be the painful punishment prepared for them by the Lord (Isa 50:11).
2. Who is amongin sorrow, Isa 50:10-11. As Isa 50:6 in a measure formed a prelude to the positive statements concerning the suffering of the Servant contained in 53, so hath no light (splendor) are a prelude to the negative ones (Isa 53:2 b). Walketh in darkness along with hath no light, which is the reverse side, is the Biblical expression for the deepest misery, unalleviated by a ray. Therefore whoever, spite of this miserable exterior (see Text. and Gram.), still heeds the voice of the Servant, may trust in the name of Jehovah (Psa 33:21) and lean on his God (Isa 10:20; comp. Isa 30:12; Isa 31:1); therefore he may comfort himself by the promises of grace given Isa 50:1-3.The enemies of the Servant are called fire-kindlers. Doubtless a fire is meant that burns in them and by which they then set the outward world on fire. For wickedness is a fire, and the wicked, poisonous tongue (which we are specially to understand by ) is, in Jam 3:5-6, expressly called a little fire that yet sets a world on fire, and a world of iniquity. Making ones girding of fiery darts may be said in the same sense as one speaks of girding with strength (Psa 18:33; Psa 18:40), or with joy (Psa 30:12), i.e. figuratively. Fiery darts are their favorite weapons. Gesenius seems to think of a fire inadvertently kindled, because in Isa 50:11 a he finds only the continuation of the figure of the darkness and the thought of arbitrary self-help. Others refer the kindling of a fire to the persecutions of the prophets, or to the insurrections of the Jews against the Romans. Of course events of this sort may contribute to the accomplishment of what the Prophet would say. But it is perverse to think exclusively of special events. All that wicked Israel did, directly and indirectly, against the Servant of God, with fiery darts kindled with hell fire, only kindled a fire that consumed themselves. Thus their own fire turned into a fire of divine wrath, and into that they were constrained to enter. Jerusalem with the Temple perished in it. Of that day when this fire must burn, the Lord says in advance to them: from my hand is this come upon you; in torment ye shall lay yourselves down. The day when Israel shall experience that fiery judgment from the Lord is the day when, after having played their part, they shall lie down; but they then lie down not in repose, but in torment.
Footnotes:
[11]Who.
[12]splendor about him.
[13]gird.
[14]fiery darts.
[15]torment.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 50:1. The church of the Lord may be sorely punished, it may be overrun with enemies, partly destroyed, reduced, as in the days of Elijah, to 7,000 that are invisible, but it can never receive a bill of divorce. For what God has joined together men shall not put asunder. If this be true of the original and Christian marriage, why not still more of the original type of marriage? Eph 5:23 sqq.
2. On Isa 50:2. Quia veni et non erat vir. Veni in carnem, inquit, sum mortuus pro vobis, resurrexi, implevi et exhibui praesens omnes promissiones. Verum vos me non recepistis. Sicut est Joh. i.: venit in propria et sui eum non receperunt.Numquid abbreviata et parvula, etc. Jactat potentiam suam contra Judaeos et objurgat eos. Quasi dicat: vos me ideo negligitis, quod sine aliqua pompa veniam. Spectatis corporale regnum et hanc infirmitatem contemnitis. Verum ego sic soleo; numquam liberavi vos per virtutem, sed semper per infirmitatem, in qua summa virtus et potentia est, et tum soleo esse potentissimus, cum prorsus nihil posse existimor. Luther.
3. On Isa 50:2. At My rebuke. God can destroy the wicked by a rebuke (Psa 9:6). When He rebuked the Red sea it became dry (Psa 106:9). And when Christ threatened the wind it became still (Luk 8:24). If God can then do so much by chiding, what will happen when He joins the deed to the word, and takes the iron sceptre or the goad in hand (Psa 2:9; Act 9:5)? Cramer.
4. On Isa 50:4 sqq. Luther, who renders by learned tongue still gives in his commentary the explanation that thereby is not to be understood a lingua magistri, but a lingua discipuli or a lingua discipulata, quae nihil loquitur, nisi quod a Deo didicit. And with this agrees admirably what the Lord, especially in the Gospel by John, so often affirms, that He says nothing but what He has heard from His Father, that He does nothing but what He has received from the same, wills nothing but what He wills (Joh 3:11; Joh 3:32; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:19; Joh 5:30; Joh 6:38; Joh 7:16; Joh 8:16; Joh 8:38; Joh 10:18; Joh 10:37-38; Joh 12:49-50; Joh 14:10; Joh 14:31; Joh 15:15; Joh 16:32). But that the Lord was not docile only with reference to speaking and doing, but also with reference to suffering, He says Himself in the words: My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt, Mat 26:39. And hence, Paul testifies that Christ was obedient unto death, even the death on the cross (Php 2:8).
5. On Isa 50:6. The Lord said, Luk 18:31-33 : Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again. Regarding this it must be noted, that there is no other Old Testament passage that declares that the Servant of God would be spit upon. Moreover no other passage speaks at least so plainly of scourging and smiting. It is further very probable that especially answers to ; for if anything can be an , it is this ill-treatment of the face. It is accordingly in the highest degree probable that in Luk 18:31 sqq. the Lord had especially in mind our passage. It then appears also what good reason we have for referring our passage to the Servant of Jehovah.
On Isa 50:7-9. Spes confisa Deo nunquam confusa recedit.He who holds out through Passion-week with Christ alone, must and shall also keep Easter there with Him. Foerster.
7. On Isa 50:11. Regarding the meaning and the fulfilment of this passage, both may be best learned from what Josephus (bell. jud. VI. 4, 5 sqq.) relates concerning the taking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Titus had commanded to preserve the Temple. But (viz., ) . A Roman soldier, casts a fire-brand through the golden window into the Temple. Titus hastens up and commands to extinguish the conflagration. He is not heard, or men will not hear. A soldier secretly applies fire to the door-posts of the Temple building proper. The Temple was consumed . Josephus repeatedly testifies that it was the Lord that gave the Temple to the flames, and thereafter the whole city of Jerusalem. One might fancy, while reading his account, that he had in mind the words of our text: This shall ye have of Mine hand. And who does not think also of: ye shall lie down in sorrow (torment) when reading of the surviving Jews, how some were sent off to the mines, some kept to contend as gladiators and with wild beasts in the theatres, the rest sold as slaves (Josephus, l. c. VI. 9, 2).
HOMILETICAL HINTS
7. On Isa 50:1-3. Sermon of consolation in times of the Churchs distress. What are we to think of the present conflicts of the Church? 1) We must regard them as a divine chastisement for the sins of the church, and suffer ourselves to be led by them to repentance (behold for your iniquities are ye soldand no one answered Isa 50:1-2)2) We ought not to despair in these conflicts, but comfort ourselves in the expectation of a gracious deliverance. For God a. is willing for it, because He has neither given the church a bill of divorce, nor can give it (Isa 50:1, where is the bill, etc.); b. He has also the power to do it (is my hand shortened, etc., Isa 50:1, I clothe the heavens, etc., Isa 50:3).
2. On Isa 50:4. The Lord says Mat 11:28 : Come unto me all ye that are weary, etc. That is a right well-intended summons and worthy of all confidence. For no one can in fact so refresh the weary as He. Has not God just for this given Him an instructed tongue? This too may serve to comfort (the weary) when they pour out their hearts toward the servants and children of the Lord, who, mighty in His word, tried and preserved under many a cross, have learned by experience, after their Redeemers example, to speak a word in season to the weary (weak, wretched, comfortless, that bear away at their cross nearly tired out, and nearly unable to get on). Schriver, Seelenschatz, Theil. IV. 9 Pred. 6. If, by the waters of such distress and tribulation, there remain still a little spark of faith, apply yourself diligently to consider the word of God, that it may not be utterly quenched, although the devil will be marvellously glad to hinder it. How Christ comforts one by His dear word! As also it is said: The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, etc. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 252.
3. On Isa 50:4-9. Passion Sermon. The sufferings of the Lord. 1) The ground of them (obedience, Isa 50:4-5); 2) The nature of them (ill-use of every sort on the part of those that hated the Lord, Isa 50:6-7); 3) The use of them (that we may boldly say: who will contend with me? who is He that condemneth? [Rom 8:33-34] Isa 50:8-9).
4. On Isa 50:6. O Lamb of God, how hast Thou tasted to their full extent the impositions of human sinfulness! The blindness and wickedness of the human heart could only become manifest by contrast with Thy holiness, as night is only known in its entire darkness by contrast with the spotless light; and thus it has now even happened. And thou wast silent, and Thou hast endured all contradiction of sinners, silent when they struck Thee with their fists, when they spit in Thy facethe unjust thus treating the Just one, the servants their Lord, the creature the Only Begotten of the Father! I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks shame and spitting: thus it is written of Thee. Innocent Lamb of God, how hast Thou borne the sins of the world, and been obedient unto the depths of humiliation! Tholuck, l. c. 493.
5. On Isa 50:10-11. Penitential Sermon. God is love, and at the same time holiness and justice. He bears the rod Gentle and the rod Woe. He announces to us the law and the gospel. To-day also He turns to the pious and the wicked, and offers to each His own. The Lord to-day presents to us life and death. 1) He offers life to those that fear Him (Isa 50:10). 2) But He presents death to those who have kindled their heart, word and work at the flames of hell, and thereby set ablaze a fire in which they shall themselves perish (Isa 50:11).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Notwithstanding certain parts, here and there, in this Chapter, which may, at the first glance, appear to have an historical allusion to Babylon and the captivity: yet the great and evident point in the whole hath reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. His person, offices, and character, are strongly marked.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Prophet Hosea whose ministry was not many years before that of Isaiah hath made use of the same figure of the married state, to represent the Mediator’s union with his people; and here the Prophet Isaiah adopts the same method. It is indeed, a very striking figure, and the Lord Jesus himself seems to delight in it. See Hos 2 ; Jer 3:14-15 ; Mat 22:2 . It may serve to teach us some sweet and precious things. By the assumption of our nature the Lord Jesus hath shown, that the soul is a marriageable creature to Christ, and therefore capable of an union with him, and enjoyment in him, to all eternity. What a sorrowful thought then is it, that by sin we should at any time estrange ourselves from our Lord, our husband; and that our iniquities should act like a bill of divorcement! Precious Jesus! be thou our husband still, and perform the tender office of the husband and the friend, notwithstanding our backsliding; for the Lord God of Israel saith that he that hateth putting away, Mal 2:16 . I only add, that perhaps the expressions here denoted, concerning the Lord’s, drying up the sea, making the rivers a wilderness, and causing the fish to stink, hath respect to the display of his miracles in Egypt, for the deliverance of his people.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The One Helper
Isa 50:7
I found these words when I needed them much in Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse seven: ‘The Lord God will help me’. We might write this on a signet ring and stamp with it all the record of our life. There are times when we need just these simple daisy texts, spring-violet texts. They seem to have no cubic depth, and yet when we come to live them there seems to be room in their infinite space for the heavens and the earth.
‘The Lord God will help me.’ I like the sound of it; there is a voice that is all music, a voice which, though we have not heard it before, we recognize it at once, saying, This cometh from eternity, and is the music of God.
I. ‘The Lord God will help me.’ This is a proved fact I have proved it, you have proved it; yet we could not explain it. ‘I was brought low, and He set me upon a rock.’ To hear that sweet testimony makes our hearts glad. Tell us something more, and let the house of Israel say, that His mercy endureth for ever, and let the redeemed of the Lord say so. There may be silent piety, there ought to be also a resounding testimony. I could not be an atheist without first committing suicide, because I have seen the Lord in the house and in the field, in the valley and on the hilltop.
II. The text is not only a proved fact, it is a continual inspiration. We can fall back upon experience; we can say, ‘This or that happened to me’. If we can only say, ‘This or that is reported to have happened to some other man,’ we have no faith, we cannot have faith. We must be able to say that such and such deep joys, thrilling sacramental experiences, have been realized in our own life. This is how young David talked. ‘I will fight the Philistine.’ But thou art only a child, and no fighter. ‘I will fight Goliath.’ What justification is there for such a challenge? ‘I was keeping my father’s flock, and there came a lion and a bear, and they took a lamb, and I rose and caught them and smote them, and tore their jaws in twain, and I am not going to lose that fact: the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will enable me to deal with this uncircumcised Philistine.’ This was good reasoning; this was deriving inspiration from the past. Exactly the same answer ought to be possible to every one of us.
III. The text is not only a proved fact and a continual inspiration, it is, finally, a sufficient rest. You are going to do such and such work: how are you going to accomplish it? And you say almost in musical cadence, ‘The Lord God will help me’. You have already won the battle; the victory is not in the fighting, but in the spirit of the fighter. When does the Lord God help His people? Under three conditions. First, when the work is His own. ‘Servant of the Lord’ is speaking here that mysterious personage that seems to pervade Isaiah and give personality to every word in the glowing prophecy. He comes to do the Lord’s work, and he says, ‘The Lord God will help me’. And, secondly, when we have given up self-reliance. That is almost a miracle. We think we can do something. When we come to know that we can do nothing we will do everything that God wants us to do. Even this depends upon the spirit of renunciation. The renunciation must not be made in a spirit of haughtiness or resentment, saying, ‘I am formally required to give up myself and my efforts, and therefore I obey’. In that temper you will receive nothing; we must do the Lord’s will in the Lord’s own spirit; even Christ pleased not Himself. To be nothing is the way to be all we can be. And, thirdly, which, indeed, is a division of the second point, the Lord helps us when we have completed our faith by giving up our substitutes. We sometimes want to personate faith, to set forth something as if it were faith. The Lord will receive no proxies, He will burn all shams, He will have the naked soul in the perfectness of simple reliance upon Himself, and then He will say, ‘Son, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee’. And God cannot forsake a forgiven man.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. v. p. 156.
References. L. 8. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 31. L. 10. W. M. Taylor, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 210. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 39. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No. 1985; vol. xxxix. No. 2335. L. 10, 11. C. Holland, Gleanings from a Ministry of Fifty Years, p. 162. L. 11. G. W. Herbert, Notes of Sermons, p. 78. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 47. Lev 1 . C. P. Reichel, The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 366; see also Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 213. P. M’Adam Muir, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiii. 1903, p. 91. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1050.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
A Word to the Weary
Isa 50:4
The power of speaking to the weary is nothing less than a divine gift. As we see the divinity in our gifts shall we be careful of them, thankful for them: every gift seems to enshrine the giver, God. But how extraordinary that this power of speaking to the weary should not be taught in the schools. It is not within the ability of man to teach other men how to speak to the weary-hearted, the wounded in spirit, the sore in the innermost feelings of the being. But can we lay down directions about this and offer suggestions? Probably so, but we do not touch the core of the matter. There is an infinite difference between the scholar and the genius. The scholar is made, the genius is inspired. Information can be imparted, but the true sense, the sense that feels and sees God, is a gift direct from heaven.
It is a common notion that anybody can sing. Why can you sing? Why, because I have been taught That is your mistake. You can sing mechanically, exactly, properly, with right time, right tune, but really and truly you cannot sing. Here is a man with his music and with the words; he sings every note, pronounces every word, goes through his lesson, finishes his task, and nobody wants to hear him any more. Another man takes up the same music, the same words, and the same hearers exclaim, “Oh that he would go on for ever!” How is that? the words exactly the same, the notes identical how? Soul, fire, ever-burning, never consuming, making a bush like a planet. The great difficulty in all such cases, is the difficulty of transferring to paper a proper or adequate conception of the power of the men who thus sway the human heart. There are some men whose biographies simply belie them, and yet every sentence in the biography is true in the letter; but the biography is little else than a travesty and a caricature, because the power was personal, it was in the face, in the voice, in the presence, in the gait, in the touch an incommunicable power; the hem of the garment trembled under it, but no biographer could catch it in his scholarly ink.
Very few ministers can enter a sick chamber with any probability of doing real and lasting good. They can read the Bible, and they can pray, and yet, when they have gone, the room seems as if they had never been there. There is no sense of emptiness or desolation. Other men, probably not so much gifted in some other directions will enter the sick room, and there will be a light upon the wall, summer will gleam upon the window-pane, and angels will rustle gently in the air, and it will be a scene of gladness and a vision of triumph. How is that? The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I might know how how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. The Lord God hath not only given me a word to say, but he hath given me learning to teach me how to speak it. Place the emphasis upon the how, and then you develop all the mystery, all the tender music, all the infinite capacity of manner.
We may say the right word in the wrong tone; we may preach the gospel as if it were a curse. The common notion is that anybody can go into the Sunday-school and teach the young. We sometimes think that it would be well if a great many persons left the Sunday-school all over the world. Teach the young would God I had that great gift, to break the bread for the children, and to be able to lure and captivate opening minds, and to enter into the spirit of the words
“Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot.”
It requires to be father and mother and sister and nurse and genius to speak to the young. They may hear you and not care for you: they may understand your words, and be repelled by your spirit. You require the tongue of the learned to know how to speak, and that tongue of the learned is not to be had at school, college, university it is not included in any curriculum of learning it is a gift divine, breathing an afflatus, an inspiration the direct and distinct creation of God, as is the star, the sun. The speaker, then, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the representative of the Father, the incarnate Deity he it is who is charged with the subtle learning; he it is whose lips tremble with the pathos of this ineffable music.
Though the gift itself is divine, we must remember that it is to be exercised seasonably. The text is, “that I should know how to speak a word in season.” There is a time for everything. It is not enough to speak the right word, it must be spoken at the right moment. Who can know when that is? We cannot be taught. We must feel it, see it hours beyond: nay, must know when to be silent for the whole twenty-four hours and to say, “Tomorrow, at such and such a time, we will drop that sentence upon the listening ear.” “The day after tomorrow, he will probably be in circumstances to admit of this communication being delivered with sympathy and effect.” How few persons know the right time the right time in conversation. Some people are never heard in conversation though they are talking all the time. They talk so unseasonably, they talk when other people are talking; they cannot wait; they do not know how to come in along the fine line of silence: they do not understand the German expression “Now an angel has passed,” and they do not quickly enough follow in his wake. Consequently, though chattering much they are saying nothing though their words be multitudinous, the impression they make is a blank.
I have a ripe seed in my hand. As an agriculturist I am going to sow it Any labourer in the field can tell me that I should be acting foolishly in sowing it just now. Why? “It is out of season,” the man says. “There is a time for the doing of that action: I will tell you when the time returns do it then, and you may expect a profitable result of your labour.”
Then I will change the character and be a nurse, and I will attend to my patient (perhaps I will over attend to him some patients are killed by over nursing), and I will give the patient this medicine it is the right medicine. So it is, but you are going to give it at the wrong time, and if you give the medicine at the wrong time, though itself be right, the hour being wrong you will bring suffering upon the patient, and you yourself will be involved in pains and penalties. Thus we touch that very subtle and sensitive line in human life, the line of refined discrimination. You may say “I am sure I told him.” You are right you did tell him and he did not hear you. You may reply, “I am perfectly confident I delivered the message, I preached the exact words of the Gospel.” So you did, but you never got the hearing heart, your manner was so unsympathetic, so ungentle, so cruel (not meant to be unconsciously so), that the man never understood it to be a gospel. You spoiled the music in the delivery, in the giving of the message. The Lord God giveth the tongue of the learned, that he to whom it is given may know how to speak how to speak the right word how to speak the right word at the right point of time. You want divine teaching in all things, in speech not least.
This is a curious word to find in the Bible. Does the Bible care about weary people? We have next to no sympathy with them. If a man be weary, we give him notice to quit: if he ask us to what place he can retire, we tell him that is his business not ours. Now the tenderness of this Book is one of the most telling, convincing arguments on behalf of its inspiration, and its divine authority. This Book means to help us, wants to help us, it says “I will try to help you, never hinder you: I will wait for you, I will soften the wind into a whisper, I will order the thunder to be silent, I will quiet the raging sea; I will wait upon you at home, in solitude, at midnight, anywhere fix the place, the time, yourself, and when your heart most needs me I will be most to your heart.” Any book found in den, in gutter, that wants to do this, should be received with respect. The purpose is good: if it fail, it fails in a noble object.
Everywhere in this Book of God we find a supreme wish to help men. When we most need help the words are sweeter than the honeycomb. When other books are dumb, this Book speaks most sweetly. It is like a star, it shines in the darkness, it waits the going down of the superficial sun of our transient prosperity, and then it breaks upon us as the shadows thicken. This is the real greatness of God: he will not break the bruised reed. Because the reed is bruised, therefore the rude man says he may break it. His argument in brief in this: “If the reed were strong, I should not touch it, but seeing that it is bruised what harm can there be in completing the wound under which it is already suffering? I will even snap it and throw the sundered parts away.” That is the reasoning of the rude man that is the vulgar view of the case. The idea of healing is the idea of a creator. He who creates also heals. Herein we see God’s estimate of human nature: if he cared only for the great the splendid, the magnificent, the robust, and the everlasting, then he would indeed be too like ourselves. The greatness of God and the estimate which he places upon human nature are most seen in all these ministrations in reference to the weak and the weary and the young and the feeble and the sad. Made originally in the image of God, man is dear to his Maker, though ever so broken. O poor prodigal soul with the divinity nearly broken out of thee, smashed, bleeding, crushed, all but in hell while there is a shadow of thee outside perdition, he would heal thee and save thee. Thou art a ruin, but a grand one the majestic ruin of a majestic edifice, for knowest thou not that thou wast the temple of God?
When we are weary, even in weariness, God sees the possibility of greatness that may yet take place and be developed and supervene in immortality. How do we talk? Thus: “The survival of the fittest.” It is amazing with what patience and magnanimity and majestic disregard of circumstances we allow people to die off. When we hear that thousands have perished, we write this epitaph on their white slate tombstones: “The survival of the fittest required the decay of the weakest and the poorest.” We pick off the fruit which we think will not come to perfection. The gardener lays his finger and thumb upon the tree, and he says, “This will not come to much” he wrenches the poor unpromising piece of fruit off the twig and throws it down as useless. In our march we leave the sick and wounded behind. That is the great little, the majestic insignificant, the human contradiction. We go in for things that are fittest, strongest, most promising, healthy, self-complete, and therein we think we are wise. God says, “Not a lamb must be left out bring it up: not a sick man must be omitted: not a poor publican sobbing his ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’ must be omitted from the great host. Bring them all in, sick, weary, wounded, feeble, young, illiterate, poor, insignificant, without name, fame, station, force all in: gather up the fragments that nothing be lost.” Let us go to that Shepherd he will spare us and love us. When our poor strength gives out, he will not set his cruel heel upon us and kill us, he will gather us in his arms and make the whole flock stand still till he has saved his weakest one.
Did we but know the name for our pain we should call it Sin. What do we need, then, but Christ the Son of God, the Heart of God, the Love of God, he will in very deed give us rest. He will not add to the great weight which bows down our poor strength. He will give us grace, and in his power all our faintness shall be thought of no more. Some of us know how dark it is when the full shadow of our sin falls upon our life, and how all the help of earth and time and man does but mock the pain it cannot reach. Let no man say that Christ will not go so low down as to find one so base and vile as he. Christ is calling for thee; I heard his sweet voice lift itself up in the wild wind and ask whither thou hadst fled, that he might save thee from death and bring thee home. There is no wrath in his face or voice, no sword is swung by his hand as if in cruel joy, saying, “Now at last I have my chance with you.” His eyes gleam with love: his voice melts in pity: his words are gospels, every one. Let him but see thee sad for sin, full of grief because of the wrong thou hast done, and he will raise thee out of the deep pit and set thy feet upon the rock.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XXI
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 13
Isa 49:1-52:12
The general theme of Isaiah 49-57, is the servant of Jehovah as an individual and his offices, or salvation through the servant of Jehovah. In this section the collective sense of the Servant of Jehovah falls into the background. It is the individual Servant, the Servant in the highest, or most restricted sense, with whom we have to do in these chapters. His individuality is indicated by his already having been given a name and having been called from birth.
This section divides itself into three parte, as follows: (1) Isa 49:1-52:12 , his prophetic office; (2) Isa 52:13-54:17 , his priestly office; (3) Isa 55:1-57:21 , his kingly office. More fully the theme of Isa 49:1-52:12 is the prophetic office of the Servant and his awakening calls. The Servant, as an individual represents what Israel ought to have been collectively in the theocracy, executing the offices of prophet, priest, and king, through the Holy Spirit.
This section opens with a call to the isles and peoples from far, the significance of which is that the mission of the Servant of Jehovah is worldwide in its application.
The Servant tells us here (Isa 49:1-4 ) that he was called and named before he was born; that his mouth was prepared by Jehovah, as a sharp sword; that he was hid in his hand and that he had been made a polished shaft. Nevertheless, the Servant felt depressed. His labor seemed all in vain. Yet his confidence in his God was unshaken and well founded.
The Servant’s worldwide mission is again emphasized in Isa 49:5-6 . Jehovah here says that raising up and restoring Israel would be too light a thing for his Servant and so removes the depression of his heart by promising that he should be a light to the Gentiles and his salvation unto the ends of the earth.
There are three peculiarities in Isa 49:7 which indicate how deeply the Servant was affected by the difficulties to be met, but Jehovah encourages his Servant in them. These peculiarities are: (1) He would be despised by man; (2) abhorred by the nation; (3) a servant of rulers. These all find fulfilment in Christ. “He was despised and rejected of men”; he was abhorred by the Jewish nation and rejected; he was truly the servant of kings and rulers. “He came not to be ministered unto but to minister.” The encouragement here offered in view of these characteristics is that kings and princes shall honor him. This has been fulfilled in many instances and is being fulfilled now. Every king who has been converted since the days of Christ’s earthly ministry has done him honor. Many a king has seen and stood up in wonder, just as the prophet here indicates.
Our Lord is here (Isa 49:8-13 ) presented in special relation to the covenant. But before he could occupy such relation, as the basis of the covenant with Jehovah’s people, he had to suffer, which is here intimated in Isa 49:8 , which also should be taken in connection with Psa 22:21 , where he is said to cry out for deliverance from the lion’s mouth and the answer came. This was fulfilled in the suffering of our Lord on the cross. So through suffering he became the basis of the covenant whose blessings are here enumerated. These blessings are the raising up of the land, the inheritance of the desolate places, the liberation of the captives, a supply of food and drink, protection from the sun, and a highway for their journeys all of which has fulfilment in the supply of spiritual blessings to Jehovah’s people through the Lord Jesus Christ. “Whosoever believeth on me shall never hunger; he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” The blessings of the everlasting covenant are sufficient for every need of his covenant people. Not only are they described as ample but they are for all people. They shall come from far; from the north, from the west, and from Sinim which is China. The sight of all this causes the prophet to call for the outburst of joy in heaven and on earth which reminds us of our Saviour’s parables setting forth the joy of heaven when the sinner returns to God.
Zion here (Isa 49:14-23 ) complained that Jehovah had forsaken her; that he had forgotten her to which Jehovah gives the matchless reply found in that passage which has become a classic: “Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, these may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Then the prophet goes on to show how Zion shall possess the world, and in complete astonishment at her success and enlargement, she then will reverse her questions and say, “Who hath begotten me all these children?” Jehovah responds again that he is the author of her success and that all who wait for him shall not be put to shame. This is a glorious outlook for Zion and removes all just cause for complaint.
The passage (Isa 49:24-26 ) alludes to a series of mighty transactions, involving vast and eternal interests. It reveals the most astounding tyranny, the most appalling captivity, the most signal deliverance and by the most eventful tragedy known to the universe. The persons of the great drama, their several parts and their destiny, claim our chief attention. But who is the mighty one of this passage and how did he bring these captives into this captivity? In many places in the Scriptures he is declared to be the “prince of this world.” He is that one who obtained possession of this world by conquest, guile, and conquest. He obtained possession of it in the garden of Eden, through enticement to sin. He captured the first pair, the man and the woman, from whom all of the people of this world are descended; and by that one man’s disobedience, in that first great crisis of this world, there came upon all men death. We died then. All the posterity of Adam and Eve born hitherto or yet to be born died in that great battle by which Satan, the prince of demons conquered this world.
His captives are those beings whose creation was the culmination of the work of God. While incidentally his domain obtained by the Eden-conquest stretches over the material world and the mere animal world, directly and mainly it extends over the intelligent, moral, accountable agents into whose hands God had given this dominion over the earth. When God made man he gave him dominion over the fowls of the air and the fish of the sea and the animals of the forest and he commanded man to multiply and fill the earth with inhabitants, and to subdue all the forces of nature, making them tributary to him and to the glory of God. This delegation of dominion to man was wrested by guile and violence from his feeble hands, and passed by right of conquest into the hands of Satan; so that the captives, the prey of the terrible one, are the people of this earth, and all of them, without any exception of race, or nation, or family, or individual; without any regard to the artificial distinctions of class and wealth and society; without any reference to the distinctions in intellect and culture. The whole of them, even the millionaire and the pauper whom he grinds, the king and the subject whom he oppresses, the gifted orator, the genius of art, the far-seeing statesman, the beautiful woman, the prattling infant, the vigorous youth, all of them are under the dominion of Satan, and his government extends over them by that original conquest.
They are lawful captives and there is a difficulty suggested by the inquiry, “Shall the lawful captives be delivered?” This difficulty can be apprehended in a moment. If one be held in bondage unlawfully it is easy enough to anticipate that there shall be deliverance from that unjust captivity, provided that the law has power to vindicate itself; but if the captive is lawfully a captive mean to say that if it is the law itself that forges his fetters then indeed does it become an inquiry of moment, “Shall the lawful captive be delivered?” It is true that the sting of death is sin, but it is also true that the strength of sin is the law, and a lawful captive is one whose bonds are just as strong as the sanctions of the law which he is violating. And how strong is that law? We have the testimony of inspiration that not a jot or a tittle of it shall fail, even though the heavens fall. And what is the scope of this law? “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength and all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself.”
That law is an expression, a transcript of the divine mind, in its intent when man was made; and by so much as it is strong, and by so much as it is broad, by that much will it hold the transgressor. Satan knew that it was out of his power to go into that garden of delights and seize by violence alone these moral agents into whose hands had been entrusted the dominion of this world. That would have made them unlawful captives. So he addressed himself to stratagem and guile. It became necessary that though he was the tempter they should consent and by their own act of disobedience should array against themselves the awful law of God. And while sin is the sting of death, the law of God should be the strength of sin. But who shall deliver these lawful captives? This passage is messianic and the Jehovah of this passage we find in Isa 49:26 to be the Saviour, Redeemer, and Mighty One of Jacob which could refer only to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is revealed as the destroyer of the works of the devil.
Then how is he to deliver them? The answer to this also is very explicit. The Scriptures show that he is in some way to deliver these lawful captives by his own death. “When thou shalt pour out thy soul unto death I will divide thee a portion of the great.” “Thou shalt despoil the strong.” And the passage in Hebrews is pertinent: “That forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that has the power of death, even the devil.” Through his death he is to bruise the head of Satan. Hence, just before he died he said to his disciples in the language of the Scriptures, “The prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in me. Now is the crisis of this world, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” Not a man can be saved except this one be lifted up on the cross.
Not a man can be delivered from the bondage of Satan, not one groaning captive who is the prey of the terrible one, shall be plucked out of his hand, except by the death of this substitute. Then he shall see his seed. Then he shall see of the travail of his soul. Then deliverance shall come because that death takes away Satan’s armor, in which he trusted. What armor? That armor of the law. But that death paid the law’s penalty. That death extinguished the fire of the law. That death blunted the edge of the sword of justice. That death exhausted the penal claims of God against the man for whom he died. It is by death that he is to deliver us, sacrificial, substitutionary, vicarious death, “He being made sin who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Moreover by that death is secured regeneration, which defeats depravity, and sanctification, which breaks the power of evil habits by perseverance in holiness. And that is why a preacher of this good news declares that he knows nothing but the cross; no philosophy for me; no weapon could have been forged strong enough to smite Satan; no leverage mighty enough to roll off of crushed humanity the ponderous incubus which bondage to Satan had placed upon them. No, I preach Christ and him crucified. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” And hence how infinitesimal does that preacher become, how contemptible in the sight of God and man, who goes out where sin and sorrow and death reigns through the power of the devil, who goes out where men are in bondage, where they are captives, where they are under the power of Satan and in darkness, and would try to charm their captivity by singing his earth songs, by talking of geology and of evolution, or of any fine-spun metaphysical disquisition. Away with it all, and present only the death of Christ; for it is by the death of Christ that this deliverance is to come.
The import of Isa 50:1-3 is that Israel had suffered through her own sin, yet she was to be delivered by almighty grace. It is introduced by a series of questions referring to Israel’s relation to Jehovah under the figure of a marriage. Israel was challenged to show a writing of divorcement, but none could be found, or to find one of Jehovah’s creditors to whom he had sold her, but no creditor could be found, because Jehovah owed no one anything. Since this was true and Israel could produce no writing of divorcement showing that Jehovah had put her away, therefore she was desolate and separate because of her own sins, and Jehovah could redeem her by his mighty arm as he delivered Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
In Isa 50:4-9 we find that the Servant was subjected to a painful training for his great work. This consisted in giving him the tongue of a disciple, an ear to hear, his back to the smiters, his cheek to those who pluck off the hair and his face to shame and spitting. All this was for the training of the prophet whose mission it was to speak, to hear, to suffer, and to sympathize. These are all to be found in much evidence in the life of our Lord. But he goes on to speak of his confidence of victory in it all because God would help and justify him, turning the wickedness of his persecutors upon their own heads.
In Isa 50:10-11 we have a twofold application of these principles, an encouragement to the faithful and a warning to the self-sufficient. The former were promised guidance through the darkness if they would trust in Jehovah, while the latter trying to make their own light, were endangering themselves and their neighbors and coming to sorrow in the end.
The passage (Isa 51:1-52:1 ) consists of a series of prophetic calls. The prophetic character of the Servant having been made sufficiently prominent in the preceding paragraphs, this section gives a series of prophetic calls introduced by such words as “Hearken,” “Awake,” “Attend.”
The first call is a call to the followers of righteousness and the seekers of Jehovah. They are exhorted to take a backward look at their origin and to God’s dealings with them from Abraham to the present. Then he encourages them to look forward to the future when all the waste places and the wilderness shall be like Eden, the garden of Jehovah. This ideal state will not be realized until the millennium.
The second call is a call to the nation to consider the law, the law of the gospel, which was to go forth to bless the nations, the consummation of which is the winding up of the affairs of the earth and the establishment of everlasting righteousness. The third call is a call to them that know righteousness, the ones who know God’s law in their hearts, to fear not the reproaches of men. Many of the very best people do fear the reproaches of men and therefore our Lord gives a like encouragement in the beatitudes to those who are reproached for righteousness’ sake. The reason assigned is that they shall die and be eaten by moths and worms yet the righteousness of Jehovah is forever and his salvation unto all generations. Men may come and men may go But the righteousness of Jehovah goes on forever.
The fourth call is a call to Jehovah to put on strength, as in the days of old, and prepare the way for his people to return with everlasting joy upon their heads. The reply comes to upbraid the people for fearing man who is only transient and forgetting Jehovah their maker who had exhibited his power, not only in their past history, but in all times since the creation. From this they might take courage, for he who did all this would liberate the captives and bring salvation to his people. The Saviour of the people is Jehovah, whom the waves of the sea obey. This finds its happiest fulfilment in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The fifth call is obviously the counterpart to the call in the preceding paragraph. This was a call to the arm of Jehovah, this is a call to Jerusalem; that, to put on strength, this to awaken from the effects of the drunkenness from the cup of his wrath, in which condition her sons were like an antelope in the net. But Jerusalem is now bidden to look for favors from Jehovah since his wrath has been transferred from her to those who afflicted her.
The sixth call is to Zion to put on her strength, and beautiful garments. She is assured that her captivity was ended. While this is cast in the mold of the Jewish conception, yet the language looks to a fulfilment which is found only in conditions of the new covenant.
The personal knowledge referred to in Isa 51:6 is the experimental knowledge of the new covenant. It was our Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled the last clause, “It is I,” or as the margin has it “Here I am.” He said on one occasion, “Before Abraham was, I am,” on another, “Be not afraid; it is I,” and again, “Lo, I am with you all the way.” He alone makes possible the personal, experimental knowledge and abiding presence of Jehovah.
The seventh call, in view of what has gone before, is very significant. There can be no doubt that this applies to the evangels of the cross. Paul quotes it and so applies it in Rom 10 . They are here called watchmen and may refer to the prophets of the Old Testament as well as the preachers and missionaries of the New Testament. But the prophet sees a day far beyond his, when the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. The joy of the new day for Zion is pictured in glowing colors. They shall sing; they shall see eye to eye; they shall exalt the holy one of Israel as the God of their salvation.
The exhortation in Isa 52:11-12 is primarily an exhortation to depart from Babylon in which the Jews are now represented as being held in captivity, and the description of their going out without haste, etc., fits minutely the exodus from Babylon, cast in the mold of the deliverance from Egypt. But as remarked before, the deliverance from Babylon and Egypt are typical of a greater deliverance of God’s chosen. The deliverance from sin and the Babylon of this world is a far greater deliverance than either of these. This is all in view of the work of the Servant in his prophetic office, which has for the basis of all his success his vicarious suffering, at which this section barely hints.
QUESTIONS
1. What the general theme of Isaiah 49-57?
2. What the threefold division of this section (Isaiah 49-57), and what the special theme of each division?
3. What, more fully, is the theme of Isa 49:1-52:12 ?
4. How does this section open and what its significance?
5. How is this servant of Jehovah equipped for his success and what the state of mind toward the outcome of it all (Isa 49:1-4 )?
6. How is the Servant’s worldwide mission again emphasized (Isa 49:5-6 ) ?
7. What three peculiarities in Isa 49:7 which indicate how deeply the Servant was affected by the difficulties to be met and how does Jehovah encourage his Servant in them?
8. In what special relation is our Lord here (Isa 49:8-13 ) presented and what the blessings of that relation as pictured by the prophet?
9. What Zion’s complaint and what Jehovah’s response to it (Isa 49:14-23 )?
10. What the importance of the passage, Isa 49:24-26 ?
11. Who is the mighty one of this passage and how did he bring these captives into this captivity?
12. Who are his captives, i.e., his prey?
13. Why are they lawful captives and what the difficulty suggested by the inquiry, “Shall the lawful captives be delivered?”
14. Who shall deliver these lawful captives?
15. How is he to deliver them?
16. What the import of Isa 50:1-3 ?
17. What is the painful training of the Servant of Jehovah which assured him of success?
18. What are the twofold application of these principles?
19. Of what does Isa 51:1-52:12 consist and how are the parts introduced?
20. To whom the first call, and what was involved in it?
21. To whom the second call and what the import of it?
22. To whom is the third call and what the import?
23. To whom the fourth call and what the response?
24. To whom the fifth call and what its import?
25. To whom the sixth call and what the import?
26. What is the seventh call, who calls and what the import of this call?
27. What is the exhortation in Isa 52:11-12 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Ver. 1. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement.] Heb., Abscission. This bill was called by the Greeks ‘ A : but none such could here be produced or proven as given by God to the Jewish state; but that the disloyalty was theirs, and their dereliction on their part. God had neither rejected them though innocent, (as some husbands did their wives out of a peevish and selfish humour), nor sold them though obedient, as some fathers did their children, for payment of their debts; for he is neither debtor to any nor non-solvent. Rom 11:35-36
Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.
Is your mother,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 50
Our last chapter set forth the vast change which turns on the substitution of Christ, the true servant of God, for Israel His servant publicly and responsibly but in truth the slave of His enemy. The new sin of the people ensued thereon, not idolatry, but rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, only consistent in their unbelief and opposition to God. They would none of Him or His law. They had followed heathen gods, they now refuse His anointed Servant. But this leads in the wisdom of God to the immediate blessing of the Gentiles in the day of grace; as it also becomes in result the basis of the ultimate restoration of Israel and the joy of all the earth in the day of glory. The chapter accordingly sketches the whole sweep of God’s ways from the rejection of Christ to the triumphs of the last days.
In Isa 50 we are in presence of little more than a single point in that great circle of events; but is it not the centre and pivot of all? The humiliation of Jesus, the Servant of Jehovah, but withal Jehovah Himself, their own Messiah, despised not of strangers merely but of His own people! Deliverance and glory were sure in the end. But so was the sad alienation of Israel meanwhile; so moreover was their sale of themselves. How was this? “Thus saith Jehovah, Where [is] the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away” (v. 1). It was no churl who found his wretched pleasure in putting away the wife who displeased him; it was no selfish parent who relieved his own necessities at the expense of his children. And the proof of their rebellion appears in verses 2, 3. “Wherefore did I come, and there was no man? I called, and there was none to answer? Is my hand at all shortened, that I cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because [there is] no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” His coming, His call was unheeded, though He had already, since the days of Pharaoh, proved what He was in behalf of His people.
Did the Jews question this? Did they say to Jehovah, as by-and-by the Gentiles will to the King coming in glory, “When saw we thee . . .” (Mat 25:37-39 )? Here is His answer by anticipation: “The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to speak a word in season to the weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed” (v. 4). Nor this only. “The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not away back” (v. 5). Jehovah had deigned to become a man on earth, and here to walk in obedience, owning God; and this Christianity alone fully explains; for Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were most truly and equally Jehovah. And He, Who came thus to do the will of God as man here below, was, as we know, the Son, Who, Himself God and Jehovah, could look up and say, “The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear,” etc.
It is not the same truth here as in Exo 21 , where the Hebrew servant might have gone out free, but says, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; and he is brought to the door-post before the judges and has his ear bored through in sign of perpetual service. So did Christ the true Servant and Lord of all; He too has pledged Himself to serve eternally. Again, it is not the same as Psa 40:6 , where “mine ears hast thou digged” is cited from the LXX (so in Heb 10:5 ), as “a body hast thou prepared me.” The “boring” of the ear found its answer in the Lord’s willing subjection to death, in which He identified Himself with the need and interests of Master, wife, and children. The “digging” of the ear was not after He became a servant, but rather in order to it. Thus was He formed as it were to be a servant, a body fitted in which, though He were a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. For indeed He did become a man and a servant in this world. Isaiah looks at a time intermediate – neither incarnation, nor death, but His path in life, wherein the opened ear marks lowly intelligent attention to His Father’s will; as the closed ear in fallen man’s case is significant of disobedience or indifference to the communications of God.
But obedience (especially public service) in such a world as this could only be, to such a One as He, continual, and to us hardly conceivable, suffering. Hence the issue at once follows, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (v. 6). How solemn the thought; and what a picture of God in the presence of man! His humiliation (which should have made Him infinitely more precious, as being the incomparable proof of His love) gave the desired occasion to man under Satan’s leading to insult Him to the uttermost, Who reviled not again.
But still He goes on – yea, to death, the death of the cross “But the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. [He is] near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together: who [is] mine adversary? Let him draw near to me. Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who [is] he [that] shall condemn me? Behold, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up” (vv. 7-9).
Thus Jehovah challenges His foes and sees their ruin sealed in their momentary triumph over Him Whom, if man slew, God raised again from the dead. Notice here what has been often pointed out, that the apostle Paul cites this passage in Rom 8:33 , and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here predicates of Christ. It would be childish to deny its application to the Lord because of this; but it is hardly less childish to overlook the precious intimation that the same Spirit applies to us now what He uttered then in God’s vindication of Christ rejected. Such is the Christian’s blessed and present privilege – association with Christ risen after God undertakes to glorify Him Whom the Jews (and Gentiles) cast out. But this plain truth distinguishes those who now believe from Israel in their best estate. Christianity is quite another thing from Israel, though it may inherit promises; for we, being Christ’s, are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise (Gal 3:29 ). But the Christian is also much more, and has a relation to Christ in heavenly glory, which is far beyond Abraham or Israel Even now believers are His body, one with their Head in heaven
The closing verses make this distinction yet plainer and prove its importance. “Who [is] among you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay upon his God” (v. 10). For thus we have distinguished most definitely the Christian from the future Jewish remnant. The mystery was yet hid in God. Christ humbled and delivered was revealed; our place, not then revealed, is now seen in Him risen and glorified. They on the contrary, walking in darkness and wanting light, will be called to trust in Jehovah and stay on their God, when there is nothing else to lean on. But these, who have no light yet, walking in darkness yet confidingly in hope, shall find a glorious deliverance when He appears. We are children of light now, children of day before it dawns upon the earth; we follow Him in spirit where He is, yea, are brought to God and free of the holiest while here. They must pass through an unequalled tribulation because of Jewish apostasy, but shall be blessed at the end.
As for the apostate mass of the Jews, their portion plainly follows. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass [yourselves] about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow” (v. 11). It is always vain for a sinful man to trust his own devices or the remedies of men to better his condition before God, or to enjoy enduring comfort. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies and the God of all encouragement. But in the day that is at hand the folly and the madness of unbelief will be made apparent. Judgement will demonstrate what it is to confide in self, not in Him to Whom God directs those who hear His word. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him,” the Son.
But among the Jews, as in Christendom, men will turn from Christ to every idol and abomination Satan puts before them. Then also the day will come, in contrast with the day of salvation now, when He will break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Rev 2:26 , Rev 2:27 is express, that this judicial dealing will only be when the church is glorified, not in the day of grace. “Now therefore be wise, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him” (Psa 2:10-12 ). This is very different from the gospel now, but it is equally of God in its due season, and will surely go forth when the dealings of divine judgement on man begin. And the wicked among the Jews must suffer more than the Gentiles, and professing Christians more severely than the Jews, as is most righteous.
Expiation is not foreshown here as in Isa 53 , but the divine power that belonged to Him Who came into the humiliation and need of His people, only to prove the depth of His love and of their evil heart of unbelief. In these circumstances of unfathomable trial Christ’s entire and lowly submission was proved, and Jehovah’s vindication of Him Who, being God, became the Servant of His will and for His glory, with its results for friends and foes.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 50:1-3
1Thus says the LORD,
Where is the certificate of divorce
By which I have sent your mother away?
Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you?
Behold, you were sold for your iniquities,
And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2Why was there no man when I came?
When I called, why was there none to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink for lack of water
And die of thirst.
3I clothe the heavens with blackness
And make sackcloth their covering.
Isa 50:1 There are two ancient legal situations used to highlight Israel’s legal standing.
1. divorce of a faithless wife (cf. Isa 54:6-7; Jer 3:1; Jer 3:8; Hos 2:4)
2. the selling of someone into slavery for a debt (cf. Deu 32:30; 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5)
For Israel’s iniquities and transgressions she was judged and exiled. It was not the weakness of YHWH, but the rebellion of His people (cf. Isa 59:2).
Isa 50:2 This verse starts with a series of four rhetorical questions, as Isa 50:1 had two. The first two deal with YHWH, surprised at the lack of intercession and faith response.
He asks if Israel had lost confidence in His ability to save!
Is My hand so short This is a Qal PERFECT and a Qal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE of the same root (BDB 894, KB 1126), which intensifies a concept, here a question.
ransom See Special Topic: Ransom/Redeem . It is parallel to deliver.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Thus. Some codices, with two early printed editions, read “For thus”. the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Where . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis.
the bill = this bill.
divorcement. Found only here, and in Jer 3:8 outside the Pentateuch. See Deu 24:1, Deu 24:3. See App-92.
whom: or, wherewith.
put away. . . sold. Note the Introversion of these words in this verse.
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
sold . . . put away. Note the Introversion.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 50
Now in chapter 50 another marvelous prophecy of Jesus Christ and of the humiliation that He would receive from His own people.
Thus saith the LORD ( Isa 50:1 ),
Talking to Israel now.
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away ( Isa 50:1 ).
So God is declaring that the nation was divorced. It was put away because of the transgressions. And that God did not sell them to their enemies. They sold themselves by their own iniquities. They had turned from God, the fountain of living water. They worship the other gods; they sold themselves.
Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? 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? ( Isa 50:2 )
God said, “I called but you didn’t answer. I came but no one met Me.” And so Jesus came to His own, His own received Him not. He called unto them; they would not respond. “Have I no power to deliver?”
behold, at my rebuke I can dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and they die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord GOD ( Isa 50:2-4 )
And, of course, here’s the prophecy now directly of Jesus Christ.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back ( Isa 50:4-5 ).
Now here is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking as the servant and as the obedient servant of the Father. You remember He said, “I came not to do My will but the will of Him who sent Me” ( Joh 5:30 ). I do always those things that please the Father” ( Joh 8:29 ). Here he said, “The Lord God hath opened my ear, I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.”
In the Old Testament time if you were a slave, you served a six-year term of slavery. It was the responsibility of your master to take care of all of your needs. If you were of marriageable age, he could give to you a bride. But in reality, you could own nothing for yourself. And so the bride, you really didn’t own her nor the children that were born. They still belong to your master though you be married to her and you have children by her. Now in the sixth year, after the six years of service, in the seventh year, you could go forth free. But if you say, “But I love my wife. And I love my children. And I love serving here. I want to stay on and I want to serve you.” Then he would bring you… He would call the elders of the city. He would bring you to the doorpost of his house. He’d take an awl and drive it through the lobe of your ear. He would open your ear with the awl. He would pin your ear. You’ll be pinned to the doorpost by your ear. And then they would put a gold ring through that pierced ear and you would then be a bondslave, a servant by choice for life. Now the Lord said, “He hath opened mine ear that I was not rebellious.” That is, He submitted Himself to the Father’s will. It’s a beautiful picture of the submission of Jesus Christ unto the Father, even to the death of the cross.
I gave my back to the smiters ( Isa 50:6 ),
We are told in the scripture that Pilate had Him scourged. Now the scourging was a beating of thirty-nine stripes laid across the back of a prisoner with a whip that they call the cat-of-nine-tails whip. It was a leather whip with little bits of cut glass and lead imbedded in it that would rip open the flesh. The purpose of the scourging was to elicit confessions. It was the third-degree techniques of the Roman government in order to get confessions from convicted felons. In order that they might clear up much of the crime. And a few licks on the back and anybody would confess, even the hardest of criminals. And the idea was with each confession, the next lick would be a little easier and so it sort of encouraged confession. A refusal to confess, each lick would be a little harder, again, to encourage confession. “And as the lamb before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth” ( Isa 53:7 ). He said, “I gave my back to the smiters.” But He had no sins or crimes against man to confess. And Jesus was scourged by the Roman government. He received thirty-nine stripes, laid across His back. We will read more about this and study more about this next Sunday night as we get into the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and we discover there the purposes of God in His being smitten.
my cheeks also ( Isa 50:6 )
We are told that they covered His face and they began to buffet Him. They began to hit Him. And they said, “Prophesy, who was it that hit You?” Now when you can see a blow coming, you have certain natural reflexes of fainting with that blow so that you more or less cushion the blow by an automatic reflex of pulling your head back as you see the blow coming. Our bodies are marvelously coordinated. And you can step off of a curb very smoothly because of the coordination of your body. However, if you’ve ever stepped off and you didn’t know the curb was there, and your mind was not coordinating the activities of the body to step off gracefully, just six inches can be a horrible jar.
When we were over in Israel this last trip, we stayed in the King David Hotel. And in this one fire escape kind of an exit, which we oftentimes used because the elevators were slow, there is one step that is about an inch-and-a-half deeper than the other steps. And we had a lady on our trip who was coming down the steps and when she came to the one step that was just an inch-and-a-half deeper than the other steps, because her mind was not coordinating, it was coordinating for a six-inch step, when she came to the seven-and-a-half inch step, just that extra inch-and-a-half broke her ankle in two places. Because her mind wasn’t coordinating to cushion the blow.
So our minds have an automatic reflex action, even as you blink your eyes there is a certain pulling back reflex when you see a blow coming that cushions the blow. Otherwise, boxers would kill each other all the time in the ring. But you see how they are moving and you do that instinctively and automatically. Now they covered the face of Jesus so He could not see the blows coming. So that He could not instinctively pull back. So that the blows landed on His face with full force until they had beaten Him to the place where His face was so bloated and so marred that you look at Him and you would not even know that He was a human being. We’ll get to that in Isa 52:1-15 next Sunday.
Now here is the prophecy, “I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks,”
to those that plucked off the hair ( Isa 50:6 ):
They evidently pulled out His beard by the fistful. And with these beatings, His face was so distorted that you could not even recognize Him as a human being.
I hid not my face from shame and spitting ( Isa 50:6 ).
Spitting is a sign in the oriental culture of total disdain and disgust. The Arabs have quite a disdain many times for American tourists. And we have been spit upon or at (good dodger), but they oftentimes disdain the American tourists there. And especially if they try to sell you something and you say, “No, I don’t want it.” Many times they’ll spit at you, just to show their absolute disgust and disdain. It’s just a part of their oriental culture. And thus, the Jews not only rejected Him, but they spit upon Him. “My cheeks to the smiters, and I did not hide my face from their shame and their spitting.”
Isaiah, in chapter 52, we’ll get there next week also, really this all comes together. Chapter 50 begins with the humiliation of Christ and goes on through. It said, “And as many as saw Him were astonished, shocked, and we hid as it were our faces from Him” ( Isa 53:3 ). Jesus was not a pretty picture when He redeemed you from your sin. His face was a bloody, bloated mass, swollen and distorted beyond recognition. Covered with spit. His back laid open by the beating. A crown of thorns upon his head. And Pilate said, “Behold the man!” But you couldn’t even recognize that He was a man. And yet He did it. He endured it. He did not turn away. His ear was open. He submitted to the will of the Father because He loved you. “And who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” ( Heb 12:2 ), though He despised the spitting, even as you would. And the shame of the whole thing. He despised it. But yet He endured it because His love for you was stronger than anything else. And the joy of being able to wash you and redeem you and to cleanse you from all of your sins was the thing that kept Him going in that moment of disgrace and ignominy. How much He loved us. Oh, God, help us to respond to that love.
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore I will not be confounded: therefore have I set my face as flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed ( Isa 50:7 ).
His trust was in the Father. He had committed Himself unto God and to the will of God completely.
He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and put his trust upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire ( Isa 50:8-11 ),
In the last verse he refers to a little pagan ceremony that they went in, that they did.
All ye that kindle a fire put a circle of sparks around you: that you might walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow ( Isa 50:11 ).
You that have gone after the false gods. You that are worshipping these false idols. You that are worshipping in this false system. This you’re going to have from me. You’re going to go down in sorrow.
I do not know how a Jew can read these scriptures and not recognize that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. I do not know how they can look at these and deny the prophecy of Jesus Christ or the fulfillment of Jesus Christ of these prophecies.
Father, we thank You for the great love that You have for us, though we realize how unworthy we are and undeserving. Yet, Lord, You have loved us with an everlasting love. And You have drawn us with Your cords of kindness. And Lord, You sent Your Son, how thankful we are. And now, Lord, we receive Your love. And Father, we love You and we thank You that You chose us that we should be Your disciples, that we should bring forth fruit. That we should serve You and that we should be with You in Your kingdom. We thank You, Lord, that You called us. We thank You, Lord, that You have redeemed us in the blood of Jesus Christ. And that You have accepted us in Him. And now, Lord, we are Your children. May we walk as children in this dark and perverse world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
And now may the Lord be with you. And may the Lord bless you and keep you through this week. May the grace of God abound towards thee in all things. That you might experience the full richness of His love and of His grace towards you in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in His name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 50:1. Thus saith the LORD,
There is always something weighty coming when you have this preface. If God speaks, we ought to hear with reverence, with attention.
Isa 50:1. Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
God is here addressing his ancient people; they had been given up, as it were, left, forsaken. They compared themselves to a wife who had been divorced by her husband, or to children who had been sold by their father because of his extreme poverty. The Lord says, Now, tell me, have I really put away my chosen people as a man in a pet puts away his wife? Have I really sold you to profit by you? What benefit is it to me that you are carried away captive, and that you are left without comfort?
Isa 50:1. Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
It was not Gods changeableness, but their own sinfulness, that had brought upon them all their sufferings. The Jews might have remained a nation in possession of their own land to this day, if they had not turned aside unto idols. It was not that God cast away his people whom he did foreknow; but they cast him off, they sold themselves. Now, if any child of God has fallen into trouble of heart, and has lost his comfort, let him not blame God; his sorrow is caused by his own act and deed. And if any man or woman here should be in deep trouble brought on by sin, let them not set it down to their destiny, let them not call God unkind; but let them take the blame to themselves: For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Isa 50:2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?
It is Christ who is speaking here by the mouth of the prophet. When he came, there was no man. He could not find in all the nation any faithful one to help him in his great redemptive work. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He preached repentance and faith throughout the land; but they cried, Crucify, him! Crucify him! They loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Isa 50:2. Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
If you are in the worst plight in which you can be, God can still help you. Despair of yourself; but do not despair of him. If you have come to the very bottom of all things, and the last ray of hope is quenched in midnight darkness, God is still the same. Hear what he says to you, Is my band shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Can he not break the bonds of drunkenness? Can he not deliver the unchaste from their vile passions? Can he not pick up from the dunghill the outcast and the offcast? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is the salvation of the greatest sinners impossible for him to accomplish? That can never be, for he is mighty to save.
Isa 50:2. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
God divided the Red Sea, he parted the Jordan asunder, and made a way for his people to pass over. He who has done this can do anything. When God takes up the case, impossibility is not in the dictionary. However great your sorrow, however deep your misfortune, or however grievous your sin, if God comes to deal with it, he will make short work of all your troubles, and all your despair.
Isa 50:3-4. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
This is Christ speaking again. When he came here, though be found no man able to help him, none to come and join him in the redemption of his people, yet he gave himself up to the tremendous task. He became instructed of the Father. He was taught to speak a word to weary ones. Never man spake like this Man. There is no gospel like his gospel, no doctrine like his doctrine. He went to God in private morning by morning. He received his message from his Father, and he came and delivered it to the people. Oh, what a glorious Christ we have!
Isa 50:5. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
He had his ear bored, as slaves had when they would not go out free, but meant to remain with their master. Christ had a bored ear, an opened ear. He never rebelled against Gods will. He was obedient to the Father, even unto death. If you want to know how obedient he was, hear me read the next verse:
Isa 50:6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my checks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Now let me go back a little, and read again the third verse, I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. I gave my back to the smiters, and my checks to them that plucked off the hair. It is the same divine Person, who musters the hosts of heaven till the very skies are blackened with the artillery of God, who here says, I gave my back to the smiters, bowing down to the brutal Roman scourge, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. You remember the scene that I pictured last Sunday night, the whole band of soldiers mocking Christ, and even spitting upon him. That was the fulfillment of these words, I hid not my face front shame and spitting. That same Christ, without whom was not anything made that was made, whose face is the sun of heaven, whose glory is matchless and unsearchable, says, I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Do not say, then, that God has no love to you. Do not say that he has cast you away as a husband divorces his wife. Talk no more as if there were no help for you, no means of your deliverance. Behold how low your Saviour stooped, how gracious he was to suffer so much for guilty men, and be encouraged to trust him. He who gave his back to the smiters says to you, The chastisement of your peace was upon me, and with my stripes you are healed.
Isa 50:7. For the Lord GOD will help me;
This is Christ still speaking. Though God himself, yet as the God-Man, looking to his Father for help in the dread struggle through which he went to save us, he declared, The Lord God will help me.
Isa 50:7. Therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
And he was not; he went through with all that he had undertaken. He drank our bitter cup till none of the dregs remained. He bore the terrible wrath of God, which else would have rested on it for ever; God helped him, and he bore it all.
Isa 50:8-9. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with, me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Will any now come to battle against Christ, and hope to conquer him? Voltaire used to say, Crush the Wretch! but where is Voltaire now? And those who agreed with Voltaire, where are they now? But Jesus ever liveth and reigneth, and God is with him. He who shall once come to battle with our glorious Lord shall soon know the power of Christs weakness, and the omnipotence of his death.
Isa 50:10. Who is among you
Here is a very blessed question. Christ, having passed through all the trouble that could be passed through, and having come out of it triumphant, now looks round on all his followers, on all the children of God, and he says, Who is among you
Isa 50:10. That feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
Do you see the drift of it? Our Saviour trusted, and he was not confounded. He stayed himself upon God even when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? and be came off a conqueror. Trust you in God, and you also will be victorious. Let your strength be drawn from that strong and mighty One who is pledged to help all who trust him, and you shall triumph even as Jesus did. Do you refuse to trust God? Then listen to this:
Isa 50:11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.
If you think to make yourselves happy in sin, go and do it. If you fancy that your own righteousness will save you, go and try it.
Isa 50:11. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Your fire shall not warm you; your sparks shall not enlighten you; you will have to lie down to die, and you shall lie down in sorrow. O my dear hearers, the time will come when every one of us must put off this body, and lie down to die! God grant that we may none of us have to lie down in sorrow; but instead thereof, having trusted in God, may he light our candle for us in the last moment, that we may fall asleep in Jesus, and wake up in his likeness in the everlasting glory! May God bless to us the reading of his Word! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Isa 50:1-3
Isa 50:1-3
This remarkable chapter contains the beginning of what is called “The Third Servant Song,” although the word “servant” does not appear in it. Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; and Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12, are reckoned as the three, along with what is written here. “The first two songs emphasized the Servant’s mission; the third one, however, treats of his obedience, and of his steadfast endurance under persecution. Because of the song’s description of the growing hostility toward the Servant, North entitled it: `The Gethsemane of the Servant.’
Some, of course, dispute the fact that the chapter is principally a reference to Our Saviour’s patience under shameful persecutions and trials; but Barnes has listed the following reasons why the passage could not possibly refer to anyone else except Jesus Christ:
“(1) The words of Isa 50:6 cannot be applied to anyone else except Christ. (2) The Messianic meaning of the chapter has almost unanimously been upheld throughout the centuries by the Christian Church. (3) All that is here said of humiliation, submission, patience, and trust in God applies eminently to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to no other one. (4) The closing part which promises terrible vengeance upon his foes cannot be applied to anyone except our Lord. (5) In Luk 18:31-32, our Lord specifically mentioned prophecies recorded in this chapter, flatly declaring that `all these things shall be accomplished unto the Son of man.
The reason listed by Barnes as the fifth in the above list is alone sufficient to justify the conclusion that this chapter is Messianic.
The chapter naturally divides into two parts, Isa 49:1-3 and Isa 49:4-11.
Isa 50:1-3
“Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? of which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for transgressions was your mother put away. Wherefore, when I came was there no man? 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? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering.”
It is acutely distressing to this student that many respected commentators use this passage to declare that God never divorced the Southern Israel, namely Judah, whereas the passage teaches the opposite. Of course, God divorced Israel, as absolutely proved by the prophet Hosea in his symbolical marriage with adulterous Gomer. There is utterly no way to restrict the application of the divorce that put away Gomer to the Northern Israel alone. Yes, Hosea mentioned God’s triple betrothal to Jezreel, but that referred to the New Israel of the Church of God, and not to the old adulterous nation of Israel.
We are glad indeed that Kelley discerned the truth on this passage.
“Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement …?” (Isa 50:1). “This does not mean, however, that no divorce occurred. Israel was indeed sent away (Mal 2:16). By the same token, the passage does not mean that Israel was not sold; what is meant by both of these metaphors is that “The bill of Israel’s divorcement showed that Israel’s shameful wickedness was the reason behind it, and not some capricious action on the part of God; and that Israel was indeed sold for iniquities! They sold themselves! The first part of Isa 50:1 is the equivalent of God’s merely asking Israel to “look at the record!” Note what the latter half of Isa 50:1 emphatically states as fact:
“Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away (divorced).”
The plain thrust of this passage is, as stated by Jamieson, “God is saying, It was not from any caprice of mine, but through your own fault that your mother was put away, and that you were sold.
Of course, in the case of Gomer in Hosea, her husband did indeed buy her back from a life of adultery and slavery. He brought her back home indeed, but not as a wife. See Hos 3:3.
We agree with Cheyne that these first three verses appear to be another echo of the question raised in the previous chapter (Isa 49:14), in which the people were critical of God Himself and inclined to blame the Lord with their troubles. “This looks like a second reply on God’s part to that complaint.
“Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? …” (Isa 50:2). “The Messiah is the speaker here and in the following verses; he complains of the inattention and unbelief of the Jewish people.” Cheyne believed that, “`When I came’ can be a reference only to Jehovah,” because of the power claimed by the speaker in the same verse; but we believe that the problem is solved in the truth that Christ the Messiah is indeed God come in the flesh. Therefore, we have here a prophecy of the Incarnation, that indeed being the only occasion when God “came” to men in the person of his Son; and this, of course, is an implied prophecy of the Virgin Birth as well, that being the only means by which God could indeed have become a man. The Incarnation and the Virgin Birth are interdependent twin wonders, neither of them being possible without the other. No unbeliever has ever suggested that God could have entered our earth life as a man by any other device whatever except by the Virgin Birth. That is the reason, apparently, for God’s mentioning both together in Isa 7:14 : “Behold THE VIRGIN shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us).”
The wonders God mentioned in Isa 50:2-3 may suggest some of the great wonders performed in the Exodus; but evidently far greater powers are in view here. In Rev 6:12 reveals that on the occasion of the final judgment the sun will become black as sackcloth. “The Egyptian plague of darkness (Exo 10:21-22) is not adequate to the expressions used here. God means to assert his power to have all nature in total darkness if he so chooses, a power necessarily belonging to him who said, `Let there be light; and there was light.'”
The concluding eight verses of the chapter are often referred to as, “A soliloquy of the Servant of Jehovah,” the Messiah. We shall look at these verses one at a time.
Isa 50:1 ACCUSATIONS: Judah is trying to justify herself against Jehovahs accusations (through His prophets) and against His promise of her impending captivity, with some accusations of her own! Judah is trying to blame Jehovah for her troubles with Babylon. She is accusing Jehovah of casting her off illegally, or without justification. That is the impenitent sinners usual ruse. Jehovah answers by referring them to His Law. The Law of Jehovah is, of course, His will-a revelation in human terms of His very nature. It is not Jehovahs nature to do anything without justification. In the matter of divorce, for example, if there is legal cause for a man to put away his wife, he must certify the legality of it by a written bill of divorcement (Deu 24:1 f). There is no written bill of divorcement from Jehovah. Israel is separated from Jehovah by her own doing-not His! She has gone after other lovers (cf. Hosea 1-3). The Lord did not want the separation, nor is He responsible for it. Another objection Israel might propose is that the Lord will give her up to slavery because Babylon has some claim upon Him. The thought is preposterous. Jehovah owes no one! Jehovah is not man that He has creditors. No one has any claims upon Him! Israel will go away into slavery because of her own weaknesses, not Gods. Judah had flirted with the Babylonians off and on for a number of years (cf. comments on Isaiah, ch. 36-39). The separation was her doing, not the Lords. Jehovahs attitude toward Israel is graphically portrayed in the experience of Hosea with his wife.
Isa 50:2-3 ACTUALITIES: Israel has accused Jehovah of insensitively casting her off. The actual facts are quite different. Many times Jehovah came to Israel (through prophets and providential judgments and redemptions) to rescue her from her headlong plunge into pagan slavery, but she would not listen. This is the historical record! Furthermore, the actual facts are that God demonstrated that He not only wanted to save Israel from enslavement but He had the power to save her. Time and time again He came, but none responded. In fact, He was rejected (cf. Isa 30:8-11), until in the fulness of time He came incarnate to His own and they crucified Him! Delitzsch interprets these as the words of The Servant. Certainly Isa 50:4 f would seem to be The Servants, and these may very well be His also. The apparent reference to the Red Sea exodus (. . . at my rebuke I dry up the sea . . .) would indicate these to be the words of Jehovah. Since Jehovah and the Servant are essentially One (Joh 1:1-18; Joh 14:8-11; Col 1:19; Col 2:9), Isaiah constantly shifts from One to the other in these latter chapters. This is not unusual. It is the shortened perspective aspect of O.T. prophecy. It may be nearer the correct interpretation to understand Jehovah as the speaker in Isa 50:1-3 and the Servant in Isa 50:4-11. Whatever the case, the point of this passage is to emphasize the righteousness and justness of God in Israels imminent enslavement and to implore Israel again that He is not only willing but able to save her if she will hearken to His leading. The final and full revelation of Jehovahs redemptive purpose will be in the Person of The Servant, and that is who addresses Israel next.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Proceeding, Jehovah challenges the people to prove their assertion that they have been forsaken by producing the writing in which God has divorced His people, and declares to them that the reason of their separation was their sin, but that although Jehovah found no man, He Himself is determined on deliverance.
We now come to the answer of the Servant to the call of Jehovah. This is, first of all, a declaration of consecration to the pathway of suffering (verses Isa 50:4-9). Taught of God, He is prepared to submit Himself to smiting, assured that He will be sustained by Jehovah.
Then commences a description of His ministry of suffering. In this the first thing is the brief word that separates the people. Those who fear the Lord and abide in darkness are bidden to trust. Those that walk in the light of the fire they have kindled are condemned to sorrow.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Help for Those Who Trust in Him
Isa 50:1-11
It is impossible for God to put away the soul that clings to Him in penitence and faith. Heaven and earth may be searched, but no bill of divorce can be found. See Deu 24:1. And He sends His great servant, our Lord, of whom this chapter is full, to deliver and assure our trembling faith.
Notice the difference in Isa 50:4, between the Authorized Version and the Revised Version which reads, Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught. This quality of teachableness was primarily true of Jesus. It was the habit of His human life to listen to the secret teaching of the Father, breathed into His heart. See Joh 8:28; Joh 8:40. So also must we allow ourselves to be wakened by Him, each morning, that we also may know how to help men more efficiently and tenderly.
From the first, Jesus knew that He must die. See Mar 10:34. But He did not turn back. See Heb 10:5, etc. Was not His choice abundantly vindicated? The Father who justified Him was always near, Joh 8:29. See Joh 16:22. Let us who may be walking in darkness learn from our King to stay ourselves on God.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER FIFTY –
WHY ISRAEL HAS BEEN SET ASIDE
WE ARE next shown why Israel has been set to one side during the present age. The question is put, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement?” Why did GOD divorce His earthly bride? Israel is spoken of as the wife of the Lord, but during the present time she is like a divorced wife. GOD no longer recognizes her as in covenant relation with Himself and the question arises as to Why? Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? On what grounds did GOD set her aside? Why was she divorced?
Then the answer comes:
“Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? 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? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (verses 2-6).
What a wonderful passage! Ask any thoughtful Jew to consider this carefully, for here the Lord says why He set Israel to one side. “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?” When who came? we must ask. The rabbi must acknowledge that unquestionably it was when the Lord visited Israel, when He says, “There was no one to welcome Me. I am the One that clothes the heavens with blackness. I make sackcloth their covering. I dry up the sea, and make the rivers a wilderness.” He refers to the time when He dried up the waters of the Red Sea and later the waters of the Jordan for Israel to go through. It is the Eternal GOD speaking, the GOD of creation.
There is no change in the Person as He continues to tell how He came down to earth in
humiliation. One who says Himself that He clothes the heavens with blackness and dries up the sea, who has creatorial power. Here we have an indication of the Trinity; He says, “The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned,” or the disciple, I who clothe the heavens with blackness have come down to earth and taken the place of a disciple. It was the Lord JESUS CHRIST in infinite grace, coming down here in humiliation, choosing to lay aside, as it were, His rightful claim to full Deity. It is not that He laid aside His Deity – He could not do that – but He refused to act in the power of His own omnipotence, He chose on earth to learn from the Word of GOD and to be subject to the Holy Spirit.
He “increased,” we are told, “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” And He said, Leeser, in a Jewish commentary suggests that “The Lord hath given Me the power of the disciple, that I might learn how to comfort the weary with the Word.” How that fits in with the Saviour’s own invitation: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
“We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but [One who] was in all points tempted like as we are,” and “is able to succour them that are tempted.” He came down to this earth and went through all human experience, apart from sin, entering fully into our sorrows, our griefs, and troubles, thus learning in a practical way how to comfort the weary with the Word. And what treatment did He receive in return?
“I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (verse 6).
That lowly Man in Pilate’s judgment-hall is delivered over to the soldiers, who gathered about Him, and in their ribaldry laughed, and smote Him and exposed Him to all kinds of vulgarities and indecencies. This was GOD manifest in the flesh.
This then tells us why the divorced state, why, for the present, Israel has been set to one side. They rejected their Messiah when He came in lowly grace.
“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow” (verse 11).
Who has ever suffered, or has ever known greater sorrows nationally than Israel? And we who once rejected CHRIST too, but through grace have had our eyes opened to receive Him as our Saviour, how our hearts should go out in yearning love and compassion to Israel with their eyes still blinded. How we need to pray for them, but we are so forgetful.
When some Hebrew Christian spoke of his blinded brethren in our prayer meetings, how his hearers prayed for Israel when he was there. But if he were not, prayer-meeting after prayer-meeting might pass without petitions for them. Prayer ascended for everything else, and everyone else, but no one ever voiced a request for Israel unless special attention was called to it. Yet GOD has said, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.”
Alas, Israel kindled her own fire! They tried to walk in the light of the teachings of the rabbis, but have found sorrow upon sorrow and will never be released – fully released, rather – until they look upon Him whom they pierced, and they mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son and as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.
~ end of chapter 50 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 50:2-4
These words could have been spoken only by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They place before our thoughts:-
I. His Divine power and glory. Power is naturally calm. The power that sustains the universe is, in fact, most wonderful when, unseen, unfelt, with its Divine silence and infinite ease, it moves on in its ordinary course; but we are often most impressed by it when it strikes against obstructions, and startles the senses by its violence. Knowing our frame, and dealing with us as with children, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His Divine power, by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature. “I dry up the sea; I made the rivers a wilderness,” etc.
II. His human life and education. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,” etc. Gradually, it seems, the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil. Morning by morning, through all the days of His childhood, the voice was ever awakening Him to higher consciousness and more awful knowledge.
III. The mediatorial teaching for which He had been thus prepared. (1) It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. “The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak.” This is His own testimony to the great fact that He Himself personally teaches every soul that is saved. (2) It is suitable. Suitable to our weariness: (a) while we are yet in a state of unregeneracy; (b) when we are sinking under the burden of guilt; (c) when fainting under the burden of care; (d) when burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology; (e) when under the burden of mortal infirmity. (3) The teaching of Christ is minutely direct and particular. When I read that He is ordained to speak “to him that is weary,” I understand that He does not speak in a general, impersonal, unrecognising way to the forlorn crowd of sufferers, but to every man in particular, and to every man apart.
C. Stanford, Symbols of Christy p. 147.
Reference: Isa 50:2-6.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 243.
Isa 50:4
Weariness comes to man through various channels and from many sources. We have many doors in our nature, and at every one of these weariness may enter.
I. There is-to begin at the lowest door of all-the physical one, the weariness which comes to us from bodily toil, or from toil which, whether bodily or not, tells upon the body by wasting for the time its energies. What is the word in season for such cases as these? Surely the word in season to many is, Release your strain, moderate your speed, economise your health. What shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your life?
II. Some men are weary with pleasure; I would say a word in season to them. There is no decree of God more stern or more inflexible than that which has determined that misery shall be the constant companion of the man that seeks pleasure. There is no creature either in heaven or earth who shall ever find the real fruit of happiness growing upon any tree but that of loyal obedience to the authority of God.
III. Some men are weary with well-doing which seems to come to so poor an end. The word in season for such men is this:-Think that God still holds on to His Divine purpose, and that were He to grow weary in well-doing, He would plunge the world into desolation in a moment. And be sure of this, that nothing good is ever lost.
IV. There are those who are weary of the strife with sin-what is the word in season to them? This, that Christ has already vanquished your most powerful foe, and will make you more than conqueror.
V. There is one word more in season for those who are weary in sin, but not yet weary of it. “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes; p. 92.
References: Isa 50:4.-E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 264; W. Baxendale, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 347; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., 79. 1. 5, 6.-T. B. Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 124. Isa 50:6.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1486; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 325.
Isa 50:7
The happiest of gifts for a man to be born with into the world is strength of will; not that a man can by it avoid suffering and sin; but for this-that suffering especially raises and heightens the strong will; that when it forsakes sin it forsakes it without a sigh. Happiness within, attractiveness towards others, ease of repentance and amendment, firmness against opposition, are the splendid dower which the strong will brings to the soul. It is our wisdom then to ask, How shall we keep or make our wills strong?
I. We cannot do this merely by persisting in having our own way as we call it. Our own way may be wrong; and no one ever uses the word strength in connection with crime or fault-never calls a sinful, a wilful, a violent man a strong man. The reason is evident, namely, that wilful sinning is only using a will in the direction in which it is easiest to use it. And this cannot make the will stronger, any more than a mind would grow strong which employed itself only on ‘intellectual work which presented no difficulty to it. The will must make progress by avoiding things to which it is prone, and by aiming at things which it simply knows in any way to be good, although for the time being it may be that they are not fully desired.
II. There are times when there rises before us a noble ideal of what we ought to be, and we feel an impulse to believe we might be. What is that ideal? It is the “will of God concerning us,” as St. Paul says. It is what we may each become by the power of the Spirit of God. Into this ideal we cannot at once pass. But we can be ever approaching it. It is not in human nature to make that sudden change, but it is perfectly possible to make a beginning. And for this purpose we must call in the aid of that very will itself to act upon our will; for there is no power in us higher, more primary, than the will. If the will is to be affected, the will itself must do the work. Suppose one resolve be made; then here at once our will begins to be of constant use to us, and to grow stronger in itself. Our will is not really acting at all when it is working out, however strongly, a natural inclination. The will is only strengthened when it is set to active work, something which we have clearly seen to be our duty, although when we come to do it we find the pursuit of it tax our strength exceedingly.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College, p. 39.
References: Isa 50:7.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 246; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 151, vol. xvi., p. 143.
Isa 50:10
I. Consider the character of those who are visited with the experience described in the text. Two features stand prominently forth-the pious mind, the godly, Christlike life. (1) The pious mind. “Who is among you that feareth the Lord?” The fear of the Lord was the sign of the godly character and the strength of the godly life. It describes, under the conditions of the older dispensation, the spirit and the attitude of the man to whom the mind and the will of God were not only substantial, but supreme realities in the conduct of his life-the man who set the Lord always before him, and who knew, in his secret soul, that the one great concern of life was to stand right with Him. (2) He will manifest his fear by a godly, Christlike life. “That obeyeth the voice of His servant.” He who has an eye for God will also have an eye for Christ. He who feareth the Father obeyeth also the Son, and recognises Him at once as the “Sent of God.”
II. The condition of experience described in the text. “Who walketh in darkness and hath no light.” (1) The plainest source of this darkness is the seeming frustration of our holiest and most unselfish purposes, a dreary want of success in what seems to us our best and most Christlike work. (2) We may be passing through very heavy pressures of affliction, and missing the comfort, the hope, which we think God should bring to us. We cry that we are forsaken. (3) But the main source of the darkness which sometimes buries the most pious and faithful under its pall is the shadow of their own sinful nature, which at moments it seems to them hopeless even for God to attempt to redeem.
III. The text tells us of the believer’s trust and stay. Stay yourselves on God. That is, hold to your duty, the duty next to your hand, in the strength of God. Keep firm in the broad highway, and await the inevitable dawn. Night is not the inevitable thing: “There shall be no night there.” The dawn is inevitable; for God lives, and God is light.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Higher Life, p. 205.
I. We must admit that there is wrong somewhere when the mind and soul are not in a state of peace and happiness. Pain is the alarm-bell which tells us something is wrong. If all were perfectly right within us and about us, satisfaction and thankfulness would fill the spirit. But if we are dissatisfied and apprehensive and distressed, then there is something wrong; such a state has a sufficient cause. But suppose people who are restless and suffering mistake the cause of their trouble, suppose they think it comes from something from which it does not come, all their efforts to cure it will be useless. He who takes God’s will, as it becomes known to him, and makes it his own, is one with God, is reconciled to God. However dark or uncertain or apprehensive or distressed may be his spirit, that does not in the least interfere with his reconciliation with God, any more than the anguish of neuralgia shakes a man’s credit with his banker. But it is quite certain that many of these reconciled souls attribute their perplexities to a wrong cause; they think their sufferings prove that their hearts are not right in the sight of God. Whereas it often happens that their bodies are not right, or their heads are not right.
II. Here comes in the secret of this good text: “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” The triumph of Christianity over doubts engendered by disease can only come from a simple, manly confidence in the unchangeable goodness of God. To win this may be the life-discipline for some, and noble is the attainment when such in despondency can say, “Though He slay me, yet will I put my trust in Him.”
W. Page-Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, p. 157.
I. To some persons it may seem strange advice to tell them, that in the hour of darkness, doubt, or sorrow they will find no comfort like that of meditating on the name of the ever-blessed Trinity. Yet there is not a prophet or psalmist of the Old Testament who does not speak of the “name of the Lord” as a kind of talisman against all the troubles which can befall the spirit of man. It was for this simple reason, that it is by that name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that God has revealed Himself. That is the name by which He bids us think of Him; and we are, more or less, disregarding His commands when we think of Him by any other.
II. Man may give God what name he chooses. Absolute, Infinite, First Cause, and so forth, are deep words; but they are words of man’s invention, and words which plain, hardworking, hard-sorrowing folks do not understand; and therefore I do not trust them, cannot find comfort for my soul in them. But Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are words which plain, hardworking, hard-sorrowing men can understand; and can trust, and can find comfort in them; for they are God’s own words, and, like all God’s words, go straight home to the hearts of men.
III. Some will tell you, that if you are sorrowful it is a time for self-examination, and for thinking of your own soul. I answer-In good time, but not yet. Think first of God. For how can you ever know anything rightly about your own soul, unless you first know rightly concerning God, in whom your soul lives and moves and has its being? Others may tell you to think of God’s dealings with His people. I answer-In good time, but not yet. Think first of God. For how can you rightly understand God’s dealings, unless you first rightly understand who God is, and what His character is? Truly to know God is everlasting life; and the more we think of God by His own revealed name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the more we shall enter, now and hereafter, into eternal life, and into the peace which comes by the true knowledge of Him.
C. Kingsley, Discipline and Other Sermons; p. 75.
References: Isa 50:10.-W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, p. 312 (see also Old Testament Outlines, p. 210); Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 139, vol. v., p. 32; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 113; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 263.
Isa 50:11
In this text the many fictitious sources from which men seek to derive happiness are compared to a fire kindled, and sparks struck out by way of relieving the darkness of the night. It is of course implied in the metaphor, that true happiness, the real and adequate complement of man’s nature, resembles the divinely created and golden sunlight.
I. This comparison does not lead us to deny that pleasure and gratification of a certain kind are derivable from worldly sources. Just as man can relieve himself in great measure from the discomfort and inconvenience of natural darkness, by kindling a fire and surrounding himself with sparks, so can he alleviate, to a certain extent, the instinctive sense of disquietude and dissatisfaction, so irksome to him at intervals of leisure, by the various enjoyments which life has to offer. These are lights which gleam brightly for a moment, but will fade and die down beneath the sobering dawn of eternity.
II. Consider the drawbacks of worldly enjoyments. (1) Unsatisfactoriness adheres in their very nature, inasmuch as they are all (more or less) artificial. They are miserable substitutes, which man has set up to stand him in stead of that true happiness, which is congenial to his nature, and adapted to his wants. (2) The fitful character of the enjoyment derived from worldly sources renders it comparable to a fire and sparks struck out. (3) A fire requires constantly to be fed with fresh fuel, if its brilliancy and warmth are to be maintained. Hence it becomes an apt emblem of the delusive joy of the world, falsely called happiness, which is only kept alive in the worldling’s heart by the fuel of excitement. (4) But perhaps the chief drawback of the worldling’s so-called happiness is that it is consistent with so much anxiety-that it is subject to frequent intrusions from alarm, whenever a glimpse of the future untowardly breaks in upon his mind. It is in the night-time, when the kindled fire glows upon the hearth, and man pursues his employments by the light of torch and taper, that apprehensions visit his mind, and phantom forms are conjured up which scare the ignorant and the superstitious. It is the dim foreboding of evil that cankers effectually the worldling’s joy.
E. M. Goulburn, Sermons in the Parish Church of Holywell, p. 429.
References: Isa 51:1-C. P. Reichel, Old Testament Outlines, p. 213 (see also Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 366); Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1050; E. de Pressens, Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 321. Isa 51:1, Isa 51:2.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. v9. Isa 51:2, Isa 51:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1596. Isa 51:3.-Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 153. Isa 51:5.-Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 244.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 50
The Servant Speaks of His Determination and Suffering
(Isa 50:1-3 belong to the preceding chapter.)
1. The cause of Zions present desolation (Isa 50:1-3) 2. The Servants self-witness (Isa 50:4) 3. His obedience and His suffering (Isa 50:5-6) 4. His victorious triumph (Isa 50:7-9) 5. The two classes: Those who fear Him and those who reject Him (Isa 50:10-11) The Suffering One is speaking. Little comment is needed on this chapter if the reader will use the above outline.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
redeemer
Heb. goel, Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield “Isa 59:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
the bill: Deu 24:1-4, Jer 3:1, Jer 3:8, Hos 2:2-4, Mar 10:4-12
or which: Exo 21:7, Lev 25:39, Deu 32:30, 2Ki 4:1, Neh 5:5, Est 7:4, Psa 44:12, Mat 18:25
Behold: Husbands often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions; and fathers, oppressed with debt, sold their children till the year of release. But this, saith God, cannot be my case: I am not governed by any such motives, nor am I urged by any such necessity. Your captivity and afflictions are the fruits of your own folly and wickedness.
for your iniquities: Isa 52:3, Isa 59:1, Isa 59:2, 1Ki 21:25, 2Ki 17:17, Jer 3:8, Jer 4:18
Reciprocal: Exo 22:3 – then he shall Lev 21:7 – put away Jos 7:11 – transgressed Jdg 2:14 – sold them Jdg 3:8 – he sold Jdg 4:2 – sold Jdg 10:7 – he sold 1Sa 4:3 – Wherefore 1Sa 12:9 – he sold 2Sa 14:14 – he devise 1Ki 21:20 – thou hast sold 2Ch 6:26 – there is no rain Psa 27:9 – put Ecc 7:10 – wisely Isa 24:5 – because Isa 26:3 – stayed Isa 42:24 – General Jer 2:14 – Israel Jer 2:19 – Thine Jer 11:15 – to do Jer 14:9 – cannot Jer 34:14 – been sold Hos 2:5 – their mother Hos 4:5 – thy Mic 1:5 – the transgression of Jacob Zep 1:17 – because Mal 2:16 – the Lord Mat 19:7 – Why Luk 7:41 – a certain Rom 7:14 – sold 1Co 7:11 – and let Gal 4:26 – mother Rev 18:13 – slaves
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 50:1. Thus saith the Lord God having, by his prophet, in the last three verses of the preceding chapter, comforted his people with an assurance of their deliverance from the tyrannical power of their enemies, here vindicates his justice in suffering them to be exposed thereto, showing that they were the causes of their own calamities. Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement? God had espoused the Jewish Church, the mother of the individuals of that people, to himself, in a kind of matrimonial covenant, frequently mentioned or alluded to by the prophets; but he seemed to divorce or cast them off when he sent them to Babylon, and afterward did wholly reject the generality of that nation from being his people, and took the Gentiles in their stead; which great and wonderful change was foretold in the Old Testament, (as has been already often observed, and will be again,) and was accomplished in the New. And because God foresaw that this strange dispensation would provoke the Jews to murmur and quarrel with him for casting them off without sufficient cause, as indeed they were always prone to accuse him, and vindicate themselves, he bids them produce their bill of divorce. For those husbands who put away their wives out of levity or passion were obliged to give them a bill of divorce, which vindicated the wives innocence, and declared that the husbands will and pleasure was the cause of their dismission. Now, says God, produce your bill of divorce, to show that I have put you away of my own mere will, and on a slight occasion, and that you did not first forsake me and go after other gods, and by that spiritual adultery violate the marriage covenant into which I had taken you. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you Have I any creditors to whom I was obliged or willing to sell you for the payment of a debt? Parents, oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which, according to the law of Moses, they might do, till the year of release, Exo 21:7. See also 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25. But neither of these cases, says God, can be mine; I am not governed by any such motives, nor am I urged by any such necessity. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves Your captivity and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 50:1. Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement. That is, of Jerusalem, gone over to the worship of Baal. God did not divorce the synagogue, till she had first committed adultery, the only cause for which a man can justly put away his wife. Zion had even given hire to her lovers, and sold herself for nought. This argument is given at large in Ezekiel 16.
Isa 50:5. The Lord hath opened mine ear. All the depths of divine wisdom, in the mystery of human redemption, were open to the view of the Messiah. He receives the book from the hand of him who sits upon the throne, and unlooses the seals thereof. The Spirit being given to him without measure, every morning, like the light of the sun, he poured a flood of instruction on the world.
Isa 50:6. I gave my back to the smiters. The LXX read, to lashes, and my cheeks to slaps on the face. The Jewish history presents no character but the Saviour, to whom these words can be applied; and the version of the LXX has in it a remarkable degree of literality.
Isa 50:9. The moth shall eat them up. This was the end of those who crucified the Redeemer. The Jews were burnt, as in the next verse, in their own fire.
Isa 50:10. Who is among you that walketh in darkness, and hath no light. The christians in Jerusalem, incessantly persecuted, had obeyed the voice of their Lord, but were enveloped in a cloud of troubles which afforded no light; but by waiting, they saw their unbelieving countrymen routed and destroyed, and light and righteousness arose upon the church. Providence made way for their escape beyond Jordan. Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob, walked also in darkness for about twenty years, before he saw the designs of providence in his mission down to Egypt. It was the same with Job, who knew not that his case was argued in heaven. David also was in affliction for seven years, walking amidst the darkened clouds of providence; but they were to him years of instruction, while the Lord was preparing his way to the throne by the fall of his enemies, and of Jonathan his friend. Good men emerge from the cloud, while the faithless race lie down in sorrow.
REFLECTIONS.
God who seeks the happiness of his creatures, even in his severest visitations, is not unwilling to make the offenders judges in their own cause. They had complained at the fourteenth verse of the preseding chapter, that the Lord had forsaken and forgotten them. Here the Lord, appealing to legal customs, asks for the bill of their mothers divorcement, as that would show the cause; which bill may be found engrossed at large in the sixteenth of Ezekiel. And as to their going into servitude, whether into Babylonia, or among the gentile nations, God had not sold them for money as a rigorous creditor: he justifies himself by declaring that it was their sins, and their sins alone which caused them to be sold, and their mother, as an idolatrous harlot, to be put away for a limited time, that the gentile church might be the married wife of the Lord: Isa 54:1. Yet, oh amazing love, though the old generations perished, the faithful ones were never forsaken, and a remnant was always spared to be a faithful seed to the Lord. Hence he can bring back his people from the captivity of the gentiles by the same power which clothed Egypt with sackcloth for three days, and which dried up the sea in their behalf. See Isa 11:16.
We have next to notice, that the Messiah continues here to be the sole speaker, and not the prophet. Great indeed was Isaiahs eloquence, but his eloquence is that of Christ. The Lord gave him the tongue of the learned to speak a comforting word to the weary soul, and every morning something new for the church. But according to our golden rule of interpreting prophecy, the holy prophets, impelled by the Spirit, lost all their sorrows in the sorrows of the Saviour, and absorbed all their joys in the glory of his kingdom; they were consequently led to say many things not strictly true, if understood of themselves. Isaiahs ears were indeed open: but Psa 40:6, in which these words occur, is applied by St. Paul to Christ. Heb 10:7. And though Isaiah was sawn asunder by Manasseh, there is no text, no tradition to prove that he gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. The evangelists have fairly applied these indignities to Christ. Mat 26:67; Mat 27:30. When the Lord mentioned these insults to his disciples, he had a most obvious reference to these predictions. He set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. Mat 14:31-32. Let all ministers therefore pray that they may have the tongue of the eloquent to bind up the broken-hearted, and to comfort all that mourn; for the Lord makes his ministers partakers of his grace and gifts. Our Lord, under all the calumnies of the priests and rulers, and under all the odium of the cross, had an unshaken confidence that the Father, who was near, would justify him. To this the apostle alludes when he says, God was manifest in the flesh, and justified in the spirit, both by his miracles and his resurrection from the dead. So also he will ever justify his faithful witnesses from the imputations of an infidel world; while on the contrary, the moth shall eat up those who oppose the Lord, as it has ever happened to the enemies of the church.
Isaiah having promised deliverance from Babylon, Isa 48:20, and here redemption by the Messiah, exhorts the truly faithful who fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his servant, who hides not his face from the last of indignities, shame and spitting, he exhorts them, while walking in providential darkness and trouble, Isa 42:16, to trust in the Lord, and stay themselves upon their God. He would have them repose all their confidence on the sure promises of redemption, to take their lot with the faithful; for they who leave the Lord, and warm themselves at the idolatrous fires, shall surely lie down in sorrow.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 49:22 to Isa 50:3. The Promises to Zion Elaborated and Confirmed.At a sign from Yahweh the nations shall with solicitous care bring back the exiles to Zion. Kings and queens shall tend them and do them abject homage (is it too abject for the prophet to have penned Isa 49:23 or Isa 49:26?). So shall His peoples trust in their God be justified. But from such mighty ones can the captives be freed? Yes: for Yahweh will fight His peoples battle, and cause their oppressors to slay one another; all men shall know that He is the deliverer. He has not finally divorced Israelthat would have required a bill of divorcement. Nor has debt compelled Him to sell His children into slavery; He has banished them as a punishment, and so He can bring them back. Why so reluctant to respond? Do they doubt His power, the power of Him who can dry up the sea and veil the heavens in darkness?
Isa 49:22. bosom: the fold of the garment.
Isa 49:24. Read Vulg, and Syr. (mg.).
Isa 50:2. Apparently an appeal to a well-known tradition of Yahwehs exploits at the creation. Read perhaps, Their fish dry up (LXX), because there is no water, and their monsters on the parched land.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the {a} bill of your mother’s divorcement, {b} whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] {c} to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
(a) Meaning, that he has not forsaken her, but through her own opportunity as in Hos 2:2 .
(b) Who would declare that I have cut her off: meaning, that they could show no one.
(c) Signifying, that he sold them not for any debt or poverty, but that they sold themselves to sins to buy their own lusts and pleasures.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God’s will and power to deliver 50:1-3
The Lord turned from addressing His "wife" to her children. Both figures describe Israel, collectively and particularly. This pericope is transitional, but it is more of a conclusion to what has preceded than an introduction to what follows. God has both the desire and the ability to save the Israelites from their sin.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord continued to speak through His prophet. He addressed again Zion’s charge that God had forsaken and forgotten His people (Isa 49:14). He had not issued Israel a certificate of divorce (cf. Deu 24:1-4); He had not stopped desiring to have her for Himself (cf. Isa 49:14-18; Jdg 2:14; Jdg 3:8; Jdg 4:2; Jdg 10:7). [Note: See Joe M. Sprinkle, "Old Testament Perspectives on Divorce and Remarriage," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40:4 (December 1997):541, and Richard D. Patterson, "Metaphors of Marriage as Expressions of Divine-Human Relations," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51:4 (December 2008):689-702.] Neither had He sold the Israelites to one of His creditors, since He had none; no one had forced Him to send them into captivity (cf. Isa 49:22-26). No, He had temporarily sold the Israelites into captivity because of their own sins (as had been the case with Samaria, cf. Jer 3:8).