Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
4, 5. The relation of the Servant to Jehovah is that of a favourite disciple to his master; from Him he had learned the art of persuasive and consoling speech, and to Him he daily looks for the substance of his message. Comp. Isa 49:2 (the Servant’s endowment with prophetic eloquence), and Isa 42:3 (the gentleness of his ministry).
the tongue of the learned ] a disciples’ tongue (see ch. Isa 8:16), i.e. a disciplined tongue (R.V. “of them that are taught”). The stress laid on the Divine education of the Servant is connected with the fact that his ministry of consolation was almost a new departure in prophecy. In the hands of the earlier prophets the word of Jehovah had been like a hammer breaking the rock in pieces (Jer 23:29) rather than a dew reviving the spirit of the humble.
that I should know weary ] A difficult clause. The verb rendered “speak in season” ( ‘th) is unknown in Hebrew. The A.V., following the Jewish interpreters, takes it to be a denominative from the word for “time” ( ‘th), but that is an impossible etymology. The LXX. gives a similar sense ( ) but based on a different text. Of the traditional interpretations the most suitable is perhaps that of the Vulg. and Aquila (which is followed by the R.V.): that I should know how to sustain the weary with a word. Modern authorities who adopt this rendering support it by an Arabic verb meaning “to help,” which however is not an exact philological equivalent. Another Arabic analogy has suggested the translation “water” (i.e. “refresh”). It is impossible to get beyond conjecture, although the general sense is clear.
he wakeneth (sc. my ear) morning by morning ] (cf. Isa 28:19). A far simpler sentence results if we omit with Cheyne the first word of the Heb. (or with Duhm the first two words) as an uncorrected slip of a copyist, reading the adverbial expression with the following verb; thus: “morning by morning (or “in the morning”) he wakeneth my ear to hear” &c.
as the learned ] after the manner of disciples.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Isa 50:4-11 . The Lord’s Servant made perfect through Sufferings
In Isa 50:4-9 the Servant is again introduced, speaking of himself and his work, as in Isa 49:1-6. He describes in the first place the close and intimate and continuous communion with God through which he has learned the ministry of comfort by the Divine word, and his own complete self-surrender to the voice that guides him ( Isa 50:4-5); next, his acceptance of the persecution and obloquy which he had to encounter in the discharge of his commission (6); and lastly he expresses his unwavering confidence in the help of Jehovah and the victory of his righteous cause and the discomfiture of all his enemies (7 9).
Isa 50:10-11 are an appendix to the preceding description, drawing lessons for the encouragement of believers ( Isa 50:10) and the warning of unbelievers ( Isa 50:11). They contain expressions and even thoughts which are unlike those of the second Isaiah; and are possibly (with Duhm and Cheyne) to be regarded as a later insertion in the prophecy.
Although the word “Servant” never occurs in this passage, its resemblance to the three other “servant-passages” makes it certain that the speaker is none other than the ideal character who comes before us in Isa 42:1-4, Isa 49:1-6, and Isa 52:13 53:15. The passage, indeed, forms an almost indispensable link of connexion between the first two and the last of these. Whilst it takes up and developes certain ideas thrown out in the earlier sections, and in its dramatic form most resembles the second of them, its closest affinities are with Isa 52:13 ff. Common to both is the new conception of the Servant as a sufferer, here at the hands of men, there at the hands of men and God alike. In the present passage we have the Servant’s own consciousness with regard to his sufferings, these being regarded from an ethical point of view as brought on him by fidelity to his Divine mission. In ch. Isa 52:13 ff. it is the religious aspect of them that is mainly dwelt upon: their value in the sight of God, and their efficacy for the salvation of men. The view, therefore, that the prophet here speaks in his own name cannot be maintained, although it is no doubt the one that would be most readily suggested if the verses stood alone. So also the further question whether the Servant be the ideal Israel must be considered with due regard to the other places where the same idea is presented (see Appendix, Note I). Here it is only necessary to observe that the conception cannot in any case be applied to Israel as a whole and its sufferings from other nations. We have seen from ch. Isa 49:6-7 that the Servant has two spheres of activity, one within Israel, and the other directed to the world at large; and there can be no reasonable doubt that the persecutions referred to belong to the narrower sphere, representing the experience of the godly minority in whom the true ideal of Israel was partly realised, in conflict with their unregenerate fellow-countrymen.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord God hath given me – This verse commences a new subject, and the deliverer is directly introduced as himself speaking. The reasons why this is supposed to refer to the Messiah, have been given in the analysis to the chapter. Those reasons will be strengthened by the examination of the particular expressions in the passage, and by showing, as we proceed in the exposition, in what way they are applicable to him. It will be assumed that the reference is to the Messiah; and we shall find that it is a most beautiful description of his character, and of some of the principal events of his life. This verse is designed to state how he was suited for the special work to which he was called. The whole endowment is traced to Yahweh. It was he who had called him; he who had given him the tongue of the learned, and he who had carefully and attentively qualified him for his work.
The tongue of the learned – Hebrew, The tongue of those who are instructed; that is, of the eloquent; or the tongue of instruction ( paideias, Septuagint); that is, he has qualified me to instruct others. It does not mean human science or learning; nor does it mean that any other had been qualified as he was, or that there were any others who were learned like him. But it means that on the subject of religion he was eminently endowed with intelligence, and with eloquence. In regard to the Redeemers power of instruction, the discourses which he delivered, as recorded in the New Testament, and especially his sermon on the mount, may be referred to. None on the subject of religion ever spake like him; none was ever so well qualified to instruct mankind (compare Mat 13:54).
That I should know how to speak a word in season – The Hebrew here is, That I might know how to strengthen with a word the weary; that is, that he might sustain, comfort, and refresh them by his promises and his counsels. How eminently he was suited to alleviate those who were heavy laden with sin and to comfort those who were burdened with calamities and trials, may be seen by the slightest reference to the New Testament, and the most partial acquaintance with his instructions and his life. The weary here are those who are burdened with a sense of guilt; who feel that they have no strength to bear up under the mighty load, and who therefore seek relief (see Mat 11:28).
He wakeneth morning by morning – That is, he wakens me every morning early. The language is taken from an instructor who awakens his pupils early, in order that they may receive instruction. The idea is, that the Redeemer would be eminently endowed, under the divine instruction and guidance, for his work. He would be one who was, so to speak, in the school of God; and who would be qualified to impart instruction to others.
He wakeneth mine ear – To awaken the ear is to prepare one to receive instruction. The expressions, to open the ear, to uncover the ear, to awaken the ear, often occur in the Scriptures, in the sense of preparing to receive instruction, or of disposing to receive divine communications. The sense here is plain. The Messiah would be taught of God, and would be inclined to receive all that he imparted.
To hear as the learned – Many translate the phrase here as disciples, that is, as those who are learning. So Lowth; With the attention of a learner. So Noyes; In the manner of a disciple. The Septuagint renders it, He has given me an ear to hear. The idea is, probably, that he was attentive as they are who wish to learn; that is, as docile disciples. The figure is taken from a master who in the morning summons his pupils around him, and imparts instruction to them. And the doctrine which is taught is, that the Messiah would be eminently qualified, by divine teaching, to be the instructor of mankind. The Chaldee paraphrases this, Morning by morning, he anticipates (the dawn), that he may send his prophets, if perhaps they my open the ears of sinners, and receive instruction.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 50:4-11
The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned
The Lords servant made perfect through sufferings
In Isa 50:4-9 the servant is again introduced, speaking of Himself and His work, as in Isa 49:1-6.
He describes–
1. The close, intimate, and continuous communion with God through which He has learned the ministry of comfort by the Divine word, and His own complete self-surrender to the voice that guides Him (Isa 49:4-5).
2. His acceptance of the persecution and obloquy which He had to encounter in the discharge of His commission (Isa 49:6).
3. His unwavering confidence in the help of Jehovah, and the victory of His righteous cause, and the discomfiture of all His enemies (Isa 49:7-9). Verses 10, 11 are an appendix to the preceding description, drawing lessons for the encouragement of believers (Isa 49:10) or the warning of unbelievers (Isa 49:11). Although the word Servant never occurs in this passage, its resemblance to the three other Servant-passages makes it certain that the speaker is none other than the ideal character who comes before us in Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12. The passage, indeed, forms analmost indispensable link of connection between the first two and the last of these. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
The Messiah an instructed Teacher
After the Messiah had been exhibited in the preceding discourse labouring in vain and spending His strength for nought among the Jews, despised of men and abhorred by the nations, when actually employed in His public ministry, it became necessary to explain this surprising phenomenon. It is, therefore, affirmed that the neglect and contempt which He suffered was not owing to any deficiency on the part of this celebrated Teacher, who was eminently qualified for acquainting men with the Will of God, in the knowledge of which He was perfectly instructed. This important qualification was not imparted to Him by any human teacher, neither did He acquire it in the schools of philosophers and orators, nor was it communicated to Him by the most eminent of the prophets, but by the Spirit of the Lord God, to whom it is here attributed. (R. Macculloch.)
The tongue of the learned
I. THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED AS NEEDING THE SAVIOURS GRACE. Him that is weary. This description includes a very large class. All may not ascribe their weariness to the same cause, nor may all be sensible of their weariness to the same extent. Yet all are weary.
1. Not in the world of sense only do you complain of weariness. It is impossible for the unrenewed heart to find rest even in things that are Spiritual. Heaven itself would to such a one cease to be heaven. What a weariness do you find in the religion of Jesus Christ! Of prayer, of public worship, of hearing sermons, of religious conversation, of the service and work of the Lord you say, What a weariness!
2. The description, certainly, includes those who are truly anxious about the salvation of their souls.
3. The Lords weary ones include His own quickened people, who feel the burden of the body of sin, and are cast down because of their difficulties.
4. The assaults of the adversary, too, contribute not a little to the sense of weariness, which often prostrate a child of God.
5. Add to these the numerous and varied trials and afflictions which beset his pathway to heaven, and you have in outline the picture of his case.
II. CHRISTS QUALIFICATIONS TO MEET THE CASE OF SUCH.
1. His participation of our nature. Absolute Godhead could not of itself have conveyed to us sinners one word of sympathy or comfort. Neither could the angels do it. They are total strangers to the weariness to which sinful children of men are heirs. But, the man Christ Jesus becomes a partaker of the very nature whose burdens He sought to relieve. Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part in the same.
2. As He thus took upon Him our nature, so He also endured our sinless though humbling infirmities.
3. In addition to all this, the Lord God had given Him the tongue of the learned in another sense. I refer to the communication of the Divine Spirit Isa 61:1). Never was there a tongue like Christs–so learned, soskilled, so practised, and so experienced. Never man spake like this man.
4. The purpose for which this tongue of the learned was given Him is thus described–That He should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
(1) A word,
(2) a word in season,
(3) that He should know how to speak.
5. But when Christ speaks to the weary, it is not to the outward ear merely, but to the heart–with almighty power. And the result is rest.
III. THE REST WHICH JESUS IMPARTS, when He speaks the word in season.
1. We are seeking rest by nature everywhere, and in everything but in Jesus. We seek it in the outward world, in the moral world, in the religious world–and we find it not. We seek it in conviction, in ordinances, in doing the works of the law–and still it evades us. We go from place to place, and from means to means, and still the burden presses, and we find no rest. No, and never will, until it is sought and found in Jesus.
2. Yet, in the case of a tried believer, the rest that Jesus imparts does not always imply the removal of the burden from which the sense of weariness proceeds. The burden is permitted to remain, and yet rest is experienced. Wonderful indeed! How is it explained? That burden takes us to Jesus. He pours strength into our souls, life into our spirits, and love into our hearts, and so we find rest. It is also matter of much practical importance, that you take heed not to anticipate or forestall His promised grace. For every possible emergency in which you can be placed, the fulness of Christ and the supplies of the Covenant are provided. But that provision is only meted out as the necessity for which it was intended occurs.
3. There is an hour approaching–the last great crisis of human life–when, we shall all, more than ever, need Him who hath the tongue of the learned. It will be of all seasons the most trying and solemn–the season that separates the soul from the body, and ushers the immortal spirit into eternity. Is it not our highest wisdom to know this Saviour now? (C. Ross M. A.)
A word to the weary
I. THE POWER OF SPEAKING TO THE WEARY IS NOTHING LESS THAN A DIVINE GIFT. We may say the right word in a wrong tone.
II. Though the gift itself is Divine, IT IS TO BE EXERCISED SEASONABLY. It is not enough to speak the right word, it must be spoken at the right moment. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Christ speaking a word in season to the weary
I. CONSIDER THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF THOSE THAT ARE WEARY.
II. SHOW, FROM THE CHARACTER AND PERSON OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THAT HE IS A SEASONABLE AND ALL-SUFFICIENT SAVIOUR TO THOSE WHO ARE WEARY. The excellency and glory of Christ may not only be perceived by viewing Him in the whole of His mediatorial character; but, also, by fixing on specific parts of it, and showing that there is a Divine suitability to all the exigencies of ruined men.
1. He can give rest to the mind of the man who is wearied with his researches after human wisdom.
2. He can give rest to those who are oppressed under a sense of guilt.
3. He can speak a word in season to those who have wearied themselves in attempting to establish their own righteousness.
4. He can give rest to those who have wearied themselves in vainly trying to overcome their corruptions in their own strength.
5. He can speak a word in season to those who are weary with the weight of affliction and trouble.
6. He can give rest to those who are oppressed and wearied with the cares of this world.
7. Christ can speak a word in season to those who are weary of living in this world. None of the children of men can enjoy rest, or real peace of mind, but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (J. Matheson.)
The ministry of preaching
(with Act 20:27). The first passage is spoken by the Messiah, the second by St. Paul. The one looks forward, the other backward. The one speaks of a preparation and fitness for a work yet to be done; the other is a thankful record of a mission already faithfully accomplished.
I. IN THE FIRST PASSAGE YOU HAVE THE CHIEF MINISTER OF THE CHURCH ANTICIPATING HIS WORK OF TEACHING AND ANNOUNCING HIS FITNESS FOR THE WORK.
1. Observe the gift with which He claims to be endowed as one element of special fitness for His ministry. Speech was the chief instrument employed by Christ for conveying truth to the minds of men. The dispensation under which we live, so emphatically designated the dispensation of the Spirit, was ushered in by two miracles, both of which related to the tongue The Holy Spirit Himself appeared resting upon each one in the form of cloven tongues as of fire. A second miracle was wrought on the uneducated Galilean apostles, enabling them, without learning, to speak intelligently in the dialects of all the nationalities present, so that every man heard them speak in his own language. And why, at the very founding of Christianity, was this twofold miracle wrought in relation to the tongue, if not to indicate that the Holy Spirit purposed to employ speech as the chief instrument in the regeneration of mankind?
2. The purpose for which this gift of speech is to be employed. To speak a word in season to him that is weary.
(1) You will have to speak to men suffering, from mental weariness–men who have long searched for truth and failed to find it. See that ye be well furnished with the Spirit, who has promised to guide you into all truth, and who also will help you to guide others into all truth.
(2) You will have others wearied in body, through excessive labour or sore affliction. You may tell them of the illustrious Sufferer of Calvary who, though innocent, suffered for our sins; was in all points tempted like as we are; and who, therefore, is able to succour all those who are tempted.
(3) You will have others wearied in heart, by reason of bereavement. Imitating the Great Teacher in the bereaved family of Bethany, you must direct the thought of the sorrowful to the resurrection power of Christ, when the mortal shall put on immortality, and the corruptible shall put on incorruption.
(4) Others will come to you weary of the vicissitudes, disappointments and reverses of life. With the Master, you may speak to them of the lily, the sparrow, the grass, the flower of the field; how your Heavenly Father careth for these, but how much more He will care for those who have faith in and love towards Him, even to the numbering of every hair on the whitening brow.
(5) Others will come with weary consciences, burdened with sin, fearing the wrath to come, carrying with them, it may be, the dread secret of undiscovered and unconfessed crime. Take solemn heed that the word you speak is a word in season. Do not heal lightly the wounds thus made by the Spirit. Do not attempt to soothe the agony by minifying the guilt, or lessening the condemnation, or diminishing the penalty. Do what the Spirit does. Take of the things of Christ and show them unto the penitent; show them in their preciousness, their efficacy, and their all-sufficiency.
(6) Others may come to you weary of inbred sin. Open your ear to hear what the Lord your God will say unto you; humbly wait with an upward look to your Great Teacher, and He will give you the tongue of the learned.
3. This learning claimed by the Redeemer is set forth as progressive. He wakeneth Me morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear that I may hear as disciples do. If our Lord found it necessary to place Himself in the position of a pupil to receive daily instruction from the Divine Father, how much greater need is there for you who are His ministers? You cannot learn in one lesson all that the Holy Spirit has to communicate. Cultivate a sensibility of soul, a readiness to hear the softest, gentlest tone of God, whether in nature, in providence, in history, in the inspired word, or in the deep secrets of your own heart.
II. THE NOBLE TESTIMONY OF THE NOBLEST APOSTLE AT THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY AT EPHESUS. (R..Roberts.)
The weary world and the refreshing ministry
I. THE WEARY WORLD. It is not one man that is weary, the generation is weary, the world is weary. All sinners are weary. Wearied with fruitless efforts after happiness. There is the ennui yawn, and the groan of depression heard everywhere.
II. THE REFRESHING MINISTRY. The Lord God hath given me, etc.
1. The relief comes by speech. No physical, legislative, or ceremonial means will do; it must be by the living voice, charged with sympathy, truth, light.
2. The effective speech comes from God. The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned. No man can speak the soul-refreshing thing unless God inspires and teaches him.
3. The speech that comes from God is a word in season. It is exactly suited to the mood of the souls addressed. (Homilist.)
A word in season to the weary
(with Mat 11:28-30):–
I. We may name WOUNDED AFFECTIONS as a very frequent cause of weariness. We do not know, until the blow comes, how heavily we have been leaning on the staff of friendly sympathy. Breaking beneath our weight, it leaves us tottering and weary. But amidst all our heart-troubles the voice of the Saviour is heard saying, Rest! Come unto Me and I will give you rest.
II. THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF OUR DESIRES is another common antecedent of lassitude. All of us are furnished with larger appetites than we have ability or opportunity for satisfying. Pleasure! Money! Power! Reputation! How seldom do men know when they have enough of that which they most desire. So, as the material of sensuous enjoyment becomes exhausted, the sense of emptiness becomes more painful. But in this mood, too, we are met by the Divine Saviour: Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. For Christ would fill the soul with the only object of desire that cannot disappear in its grasp: with the Eternal Himself.
III. VACANCY OF MIND AND THE SENSE OF MONOTONY is another common cause of weariness. Nature abhors a vacuum, as the old philosophers said. The mind cannot endure its own emptiness. It is so constituted that it must have change and variety of impressions and ideas; otherwise it turns upon itself, and its fine mechanism is worn down with useless friction. But He who comes to reveal the Father meets us, too, in this mood of self-weariness. It is His 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 may please God to dwell, and with which He can hold fellowship. The man who yields himself to the Spirit, and is born of the Spirit, need no longer be disgusted with himself, having found his nature anew in God.
IV. But the load of A GUILTY CONSCIENCE is even more fatiguing than that of a vacant mind. Need it be pointed out how profoundly Christ meets this guilty dejection of the human heart?
V. Quite a different cause of weariness is to be found in THE BURDEN OF EARNEST THOUGHT AND NOBLE ENDEAVOUR. For the Christian, it is enough that his Saviour has suffered in the flesh–has borne the weary weight of all this unintelligible world in uncomplaining meekness. He is to arm himself likewise with the same mind. (E. Johnson, M.A.)
Noble gifts for lowly uses
I. GODS HIGHEST GIFTS HAVE THEIR DEFINITE END AND PURPOSE. In Nature, for instance, nothing has been created in vain. And so it ought to be in human life, that world of feeling and desire within the breast of man. You see that the prophet looked upon the tongue of the learned as a gift from God, holding it in trust, where many would have counted it as their own. And he saw it was a gift for very plain and apparent purposes–for men are stewards, and not owners of all that is bestowed upon them. This splendid administrative genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, dominant and even imperious, but only because it has seen into the heart of purposes working themselves out in the midst of the ages, the wealth it has acquired, the influence it commands, has this no meaning in the economy of nations? You only need the touch of Christ to consecrate it and turn it into right channels, and the whole world is blessed thereby. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak.
II. THIS DEFINITE PURPOSE IS A VERY SIMPLE ONE, AND POSSIBLY AT FIRST SIGHT INSUFFICIENT. Ambition would say so, and ambition is as natural to the human heart as desire itself. We ask great things, we would be great things, we would do them. It must be confessed, however, that no sin of man has been more constant and apparent than that which has made men look down upon these lowly uses belonging unto lofty gifts. A proud reserve has been considered in all ages as appropriate to commanding talents. The statesmans wisdom, the orators art, the poets fire, what are they side by side with all that wondrous wealth lavished upon simple fishermen in Galilee, and carried into the home of Lazarus, and spent among the humble poor. Between the highest born among men and the humblest service henceforward there can be no disparity. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, He said to His disciples, ye ought also to wash one anothers feet. And as with individuals, so with nations. God gives special gifts for His own purposes.
III. THIS PURPOSE IS A VERY URGENT AND APPROPRIATE ONE. After all, the end is not beneath the means. It needs the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to him that is weary, that word fitly spoken which dries the tear from the eye, and banishes sorrow from the heart. To do away with pain and assuage grief, is not that a noble, a Divine thing? And will you see how Christianity has been doing this in lower and yet very important directions, permeating society by its subtle influences for good? And more when you understand Isaiahs words in their true and spiritual significance, what a field of usefulness unfolds itself! For the great burdens of mankind are not physical, but mental and spiritual. (W. Baxendale.)
Words in season for the weary
I. THE EDUCATION OF THE DIVINE SERVANT. We must notice the difference between the authorized version and the new. In the one, the Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know. In the other, of them that are taught–or, as the margin reads, of disciples. The thought being that the Lord Jesus in His human life was a pupil in the school of human pain, under the tutelage of His Father.
1. His education was by God Himself.
2. It was various. He passed through each class in the school of weariness.
3. It was constant. Morning by morning the Father woke Him.
4. It dealt with the season for administering comfort. That I should know how to speak a word in season. There are times when the nervous system is so overstrained that it cannot bear even the softest words. It is best then to be silent. A caress, a touch, or the stillness that breathes an atmosphere of calm, will then most quickly soothe and heal. This delicacy of perception can only be acquired in the school of suffering.
5. It embraced the method. That I should know how. The manner is as important as the season. A message of good-will may be uttered with so little sympathy, and in tones so gruff and grating, that it will repel. The touch of the comforter must be that of the nurse on the fractured bone–of the mother with the frightened child.
II. HIS RESOLUTION. From the first, Jesus knew that He must die. The Lord God poured the full story into His opened ear. With all other men, death is the close of their life; with Christ it was the object. We die because we were born; Christ was born that He might die. On one occasion, towards the close of His earthly career, when the fingers on the dial-plate were pointing to the near fulfilment of the time, we are told He set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. What heroism was here! Men sometimes speak of Christ as if He were effeminate and weak, remarkable only for passive virtues. But such conceptions are refuted by the indomitable resolution which set its face like a flint, and knew that it would not be ashamed. Note the voluntariness of Christs surrender. The martyr dies because he cannot help it; Christ dies because He chose. It has been thought that the opened ear refers to something more than the pushing back of the flowing Oriental locks in order to utter the secret of coming sorrow. It is supposed to have some reference to the ancient Jewish custom of boring the ear of the slave to the doorpost of the masters house. Under this metaphor it is held that our Lord chose with keen sympathy the service of the Father, and elected all that it might involve, because He loved Him and would not go out free. The images may be combined. Be it only remembered that He knew and chose all that would come upon Him, and that the fetters which bound Him to the Cross were those of undying love to us and of burning passion for the Fathers glory.
III. HIS VINDICATION. He is near that justifieth Me. These are words upon which Jesus may have stayed Himself through those long hours of trial. They said that He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. God has justified Him by showing that if He associates with such, it is to make them martyrs and saints. They said that He was mad. God has justified Him by making His teaching the illumination of the noblest and wisest of the race. They said He had a devil. God has justified Him by giving Him power to cast out the devil and hind him with a mighty chain. They said that He blasphemed when He called Himself the Son of God. God has justified Him by raising Him to the right hand of power, so that He will come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. They said that He would destroy the temple and the commonwealth of Israel. God has justified Him in shedding the influence of the Hebrew people through all the nations of the world, and making their literature, their history, their conceptions dominant.
IV. HIS APPEAL (verse 16). To obey the Lords servant is equivalent to fearing the Lord. He who does the one must do the other. What is this but to proclaim His Deity? (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)
A word in season to him that is weary
A word to the weary
To speak a word is easy, to speak a word in season is difficult; but to speak a word in season to him that is weary is more difficult still; and yet to be able to accomplish this end wisely and successfully is to be one of the greatest benefactors to our race. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
Weariness
Weariness the word reveals its parentage clearly enough. To be weary is to be worn–or worn out–or worn down. One wears his coat until it is worn out; and so you wear your strength until it is worn out, There is a weariness also which is not the result of excessive toil, but of indolence. For no man sighs so much, complains so much, fears so much, as the man who sets himself the task of passing through life doing nothing. Sometimes weariness is a virtue; sometimes it is a sin. But whether it be virtue or sin, there is no man who does not know well what it is to be weary. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
Words to the weary
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. So far as such toil is rendered necessary by the very fundamental conditions of our existence, the weariness which ensues upon it is a Divine appointment, and the most benign provision has been made for meeting and banishing it. You need no word in season for such weariness as this. There is something better than a word for you. There is night with its soothing darkness. There is your bed with its repose; and there is sleep, Natures soft nurse, that doth knit the ravelled sleeve of care, and steep your senses in forgetfulness. And there is not merely the night, but the Sabbath. But there is also a weariness which has the nature of a chastisement, because it is produced by excessive and needless toil. While labour is a Divine thing in just measure, yet, when it becomes care, worry, vexation, hot and insatiable ambition, greed, it becomes criminal, and draws after it sooner or later grim consequences, the thought of which ought to make men pause. You cannot run both quickly and long. What is the word in season for such cases as these? The word may not be pleasant, for the words in season which God utters to us are often like thunderclaps to startle us, or like a firm grip of the hand which seems to say, Stop, or you are undone. But surely the word in season to many is: Release your strain, moderate your speed, economize your energies, stop up the leak through which your health is trickling already, and may soon be rushing like a stream; what shall it profit you if you gain the whole world, and lose your life?
II. Some men are WEARY WITH PLEASURE. 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. He may be a swift runner, but pleasure runs more swiftly still. Let us accept it as a moral axiom which has no exception, that the fulfilment of duty is the condition of happiness in this world. The word in season, therefore, for those who are weary in pleasure is this: Revise and reverse your whole judgment as to what you are and as to your relation to God, and this world, and the world which is to come.
III. Some men are WEARY WITH WELL-DOING WHICH SEEMS TO COME TO SO POOR AN END. This is so common a tendency that we are warned against it, Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, etc. Men who are working for God in this world have doubtless a heavy task in hand. The soil is uncongenial. It is beaten hard with sin and evil habit; and the ploughshare enters it with difficulty, and with difficulty makes its way. Take any sphere of benevolence you like, whether the lower one of sympathy with the common sufferings of man, or the higher one of concern for their spiritual necessities and sorrows and dangers, and the labour is no holiday play. Well-doing appears so often like building in a quagmire. We sow good seed, and then the enemy sows tares. We root up one evil, and another springs up in its stead. Well-doing in the shape of teaching would not be so wearying if the children were not so listless, so rude, so dull, so forgetful, so disappointing. Well-doing in the shape of charity would not be so wearying if there were not so much of ingratitude and imposture. What is the word in season to those who are weary in such good work? Such as these: Think, before you withdraw from what appears to be unfruitful labour, that God still holds on His Divine purpose, and is kind to the unthankful and the evil; think that He is good and doeth good continually, and that, were He to grow weary in well-doing, He would plunge the world into desolation in a moment. Think, too, that if you grow weary, all others may grow weary too, and that then the world will be left to itself: ignorance, vice, crime, wretchedness spreading with every hour, until the earth will be little better than a suburb of hell itself. Think, to, that in well-doing you do find some results, though they may not be equal to your hope, and that the results, though unseen, may still be there, and will appear some day, and be reaped by anothers hand. And be sure of this, that nothing good is ever lost.
IV. There are those who ARE WEARY OF THE STRIFE WITH SIN. This is emphatically the battle of life and the battle for life. What is the word in season to him who is thus weary? 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. Would to God they were weary of it! for to feel it to be a burden and a woe is the first step to deliverance. (E. Mellor, D. D.)
Weary souls
So far as we can tell, all life is joyous, except that of humanity. Even those creatures which are under the care of man have not the joyousness they might have if they were roaming the fields or hills. Look at the horse on the American prairies; see him in some of the cabs and coal carts at home! Though the life of birds and animals is naturally a happy one, the life of humanity, for the most part, is one of trouble. People who firmly resolve to act rightly and Christianly in this world, shall certainly have tribulation. In the Bible, we have the record of many people who knew what it is to have a weary soul. Above all weary souls, let us remember the loving Saviour, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
I. YOU MAY BE WEARY WITH THE PARTICULAR BURDEN WHICH WEIGHTS YOUR LIFE. Every one of us has a special burden of our own. The Christian philosophy of burden-bearing is to take things as we find them and make the best of them; not like a vicious horse to kick against the splinter hoard, or set up our back rebelliously. Directly we submit to the yoke, and say Thy will he done, our burden becomes lighter. The Divine Word teaches that your life has a Divine purpose.
II. Perhaps, your soul is WEARY BECAUSE OF THE UNKINDNESS OF YOUR FRIENDS. Let your only aim be to please God and do your duty; and then, though the action of friends may grieve you, it shall neither hinder your work nor give you a weary soul.
III. But another may say that his weary soul is caused by HIS SIN. When you behold Jesus on the Cross you will see what He suffered for sin; and when you behold Him risen from the dead, you will see the power at your hand to enable you to flee from every temptation.
IV. Some of you may have weary souls, because YOUR LIFE IS VERY BITTER. But in heaven your sorrow and sighing, like that of the apostle John, shall flee away. (W.Birch.)
A word to the weary
I. Are there any WEARY WORKLINGS here? The soul of man once found its rest in God. Weary, was a word unknown in the language of Eden; for Jehovah was then the spirits home. Its affections reposed upon the all-sufficient God. He was a Friend of whose company the soul could never tire, and in whose service it never could grow weary. But now that the soul has taken leave of God, it has never found another rest like Him. Till it comes to live on God Himself, the hungry soul of man never will be satisfied. Ye worldlings, who wander joyless through a godless world, with weary feet and withered hearts, seeking rest and finding none, come to Jesus, and He will give you rest.
II. Are there any WEARY WITH THE BURDEN OF UNPARDONED GUILT? You remember when Christian had panted up the hill, and came in sight of the Cross, how his burden fell off and rolled away down into the sepulchre; and you remember how he wondered that the sight of a cross should instantly relieve him of his load. Come to Christ upon the Cross, and you will understand the pilgrims wonder; for your burden will, in like manner, fall off and disappear.
III. Are there any WEARIED WITH THE GREATNESS OF THEIR WAY? You have been long seeking salvation. Suppose that one of those winter evenings you went down into the country on a visit to a friend. It is a dark night when the stage coach stops; the conductor steps down, opens the door, and lets you out. He tells you that your friends house is hard by, and if the night were a little clearer, you would see it just over the way. Tis but a step, you cannot miss it. However, you contrive to miss it. Your guide springs up into the box–the long train of lamp light is lost in misty gloom, and the distant rumble of the wheels is drowned in the rush of the tempest. You are left alone. The directions you received were quite correct, and if you followed them implicitly, you could not go wrong. But you have a theory of the matter in your own mind. What did he mean by saying, that it was just a step? He cannot live so very near the highway. You pass the gate, and plod away up the hill, till at last you become impatient–for there are no symptoms of a dwelling here. You turn aside into this lane, and you climb over that stile, till weary with splashing through miry stubble fields, and all drenched with driving rain, you find yourself, after many a weary round, precisely where you started. Half dead with fatigue and vexation, you lift the latch of a cottage-door, and ask if they know where such-a-one resides. And a little child undertakes to guide you. He opens a wicket, and points to the long lines of light gleaming through a easement a few paces distant. Do you see the lights in yon window? Well, that is it; knock, and theyll open the door. In such a homely instance, you all know what it is to be weary in the greatness of your way–to spend your strength in a long circuit, when a single step might have sufficed. But are you sure that it is not in some such way, that you labour and find no rest, whilst there is but a step betwixt you and Christ? That is the wisest and happiest course which the sinner can take–to go at once to the Saviour. (J. Hamilton, D.D.)
The weary
Weary denotes a class to which a multitude belong that no man can number, of every nation, kindred, tribe, and people.
1. Physical weariness–of the slave on the march; of the toiler in the sweating den; of the seamstress working far into the night by the wasting taper; of the mother worn with watching her sick child.
2. Mental weariness–when the fancy can no longer summon at will images of beauty; and the intellect refuses to follow another argument, master another page, or cast up another column.
3. Heart weariness–waiting in vain for the word so long expected but unspoken; for the returning step of the prodigal; for the long-delayed letter.
4. The weariness of the inner conflict of striving day by day against the selfishness and waywardness of the soul on which prolonged resistance makes so slight an impression.
5. The weariness of the Christian worker, worn by the perpetual chafe of human sorrow, sin, and need. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)
The gift of consolation
Nothing so clearly betokens a tongue befitting the disciples of God as the gift of consolation, and such a tongue has He who is the speaker here: to aid with words him who is exhausted–through the pain of suffering and mortification of spirit. (F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned
Gods day school
Morning by morning He openeth mine ear to hear as the scholars. If we would rightly understand this Divine application of Isaiahs words, we must first understand the human application of them, looking through the type to the anti-type, and thus beholding the Servant of Jehovah as blind and deaf, yet well-pleasing to God as one magnifying the law and making it honourable, and both shadowing forth and preparing the way for the perfect service of the perfect Servant. Taking first then this human view of the text, observe–
I. The closed ears of God s scholars. He openeth mine ear. In the earlier description of Israel, associated with Isaiahs call to the prophetic office (a passage more frequently quoted in the New Testament than any other words of the Old), the ear is said to be heavy, and the heart gross, and the eyes closed. Alas! this is the sorrowful condition not only of Israel but of humanity.
II. The closed ears Divinely opened. He openeth. The ear is too heavy for the word itself to penetrate tilt He who breathed it comes. By Him it is opened, at a time of spiritual crisis oftentimes, but even then the scholar of God is too often deaf to his Teachers voice. His ears need to be often opened anew. Morning by morning. We must all be day scholars in the school of God. And we learn as the scholars. The double meaning of this word scholar suits the meaning of the passage admirably. A scholar is one who is learning his alphabet, and a scholar is also one that knows much more than his fellow-men, and can teach them with the tongue of the scholar. But there must be learning before teaching, and if we are scholars in Gods school we shall know more than the ancients. What then are His lessons?
1. The first lesson God teaches is a lesson of obedience (verse 5).
2. The second lesson God teaches is a lesson in patience (verse 6). Morning by morning the Divine voice calls us to suffer as well as to do.
3. The third lesson God teaches is a lesson in boldness (verse 7). Flint-like are the true scholars of God. Omnipotence is on their side and they know it.
4. The fourth lesson God teaches is a lesson in service (verse 4). The ear is opened that the tongue may be loosed to speak for Him who opened it. Every scholar must be a teacher. Look at the application of the text to Jesus Christ. Isaiah was His favourite book, and this text doubtless was often in His mind, as it was once upon His lips.
(1) Do we learn obedience? He also learned obedience by the things that He suffered, so that it was His meat to do the will of God always, and in Him only was the ideal attitude of obedience realized. Lo I come: I delight to do Thy will, O My God.
(2) Do we painfully learn the lesson of patience? Let us consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners.
(3) Do we gain something of His boldness? It was when the persecutors of the earliest disciples marvelled the boldness which they showed that they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus, for at His feet they had learned this manly virtue.
(4) Do we attempt service? How did Gods holy Servant fulfil His consoling mission by speaking words in season to the weary? And the old lesson is also the new, Have faith in God. The faith of the New Testament is the trust of the Old. (H. C. Leonard, M.A.)
The inspiration of noble ideas
Where do great men get their noblest ideas? Michael Angelo produced such exquisite faces that Fiesole declared he must have been in paradise to borrow them. A watchful heart will find God furnishing thoughts for such a generous service. One wonders whether Goethe had not been lately reading that verse (Isa 50:4) when he said that his best thoughts always came to him unawares, like birds pecking at his windows, and saying, Here we are! (C. S.Robinson, D.D.)
Gods voice heard in stillness
Said the aged Christian lady to Mark Rutherford, The voice of God, to me at least, hardly ever comes in thunder, but I have to listen in perfect stillness to make it out.
Morning communion with God
On the 1 st of May, in the olden times, many inhabitants of London used to go into the fields to bathe their faces with the early dew upon the grass under the idea that it would render them beautiful. This may have been superstitious, but to bathe ones face every morning in the dew of heaven by prayer and communion, is the sure way to obtain true beauty of life and character. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
God having asserted his own power, to show the groundlessness of the infidelity of the Jews, he proceeds to show what excellent and effectual means he used to bring them to repentance and salvation; which he mentions as a great aggravation of their unbelief and rebellion, which by this means was without all excuse. This and the following passages may be in some sort understood of the prophet Isaiah, though but obscurely and imperfectly; but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him. For seeing there are many other passages in this prophecy which are directly meant of Christ, and of his ministry, and not at all of the prophet, why may not this be added to the number of them? especially considering that there is nothing here which forceth us to understand this place of Isaiah, and several of these passages are expounded of Christ in the New Testament, as is confessed. Besides, this seems to suit best with the coherence; for according to this exposition the same person speaketh here who hath spoken in all the foregoing verses of the chapter, even the Lord himself considered as man, because he was both God and man, as is abundantly evident from many scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, as hath been already proved, and will hereafter be more fully evinced.
The tongue of the learned; an ability of speaking plainly, and convincingly, and persuadingly, and in all points so as becometh a person taught of God, and filled with all Divine and heavenly wisdom and knowledge, and with a singular skill of winning souls, and of working upon mens hearts and consciences.
Him that is weary; burdened with the sense of his sad and deplorable condition, in which case a word of comfort is most seasonable and acceptable. This was the proper and principal design of Christs ministry, to give rest and comfort to distressed souls, according to what is said with respect to this place, Mat 11:28; and all the doctrines, reproofs, and threatenings of Christ were directed to this end, to make men fit for comfort and salvation.
He wakeneth, to wit, me, the pronoun being oft understood; or, as it follows, mine ear. Morning by morning; from time to time, and continually.
He wakeneth mine ear to hear; because human nature is of itself weak and slothful, he by his Divine power assisteth and stirreth me up to the observation and practice of all his commands and my duties.
As the learned; either,
1. As learned men or teachers use to awaken their scholars to hear and learn of them from time to time; or rather,
2. As those that are or desire and endeavour, up to be learned use to hear with all possible attention and diligence; for this title of learned is in the former part of the verse given not to the teacher, who is said to be God, but to the person taught by him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Messiah, as “the servantof Jehovah” (Isa 42:1),declares that the office has been assigned to Him of encouraging the”weary” exiles of Israel by “words in season”suited to their case; and that, whatever suffering it is to costHimself, He does not shrink from it (Isa 50:5;Isa 50:6), for that He knows Hiscause will triumph at last (Isa 50:7;Isa 50:8).
learnednot in merehuman learning, but in divinely taught modes of instruction andeloquence (Isa 49:2; Exo 4:11;Mat 7:28; Mat 7:29;Mat 13:54).
speak a word in season(Pro 15:23; Pro 25:11).Literally, “to succor by words,” namely, in their season ofneed, the “weary” dispersed ones of Israel (De28:65-67). Also, the spiritual “weary” (Isa 42:3;Mat 11:28).
wakeneth morning by morning,c.Compare “daily rising up early” (Jer 7:25Mar 1:35). The image is drawnfrom a master wakening his pupils early for instruction.
wakeneth . . . earpreparesme for receiving His divine instructions.
as the learnedas onetaught by Him. He “learned obedience,” experimentally, “bythe things which He suffered”; thus gaining that practicallearning which adapted Him for “speaking a word inseason” to suffering men (Heb5:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,…. These are not the words of the prophet, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others think; though what is here said is applicable to ministers of the word, who have to do with weary souls, and it is their work to comfort and refresh them; and which work requires knowledge and experience of their case, a good degree of elocution to speak aptly and with propriety, even to have the tongue of the learned, especially in a spiritual sense; as such have who have learned of the Father, and have been taught by the Spirit of God, and are well versed in the Scriptures, and can speak in the taught words of the Holy Ghost, comparing spiritual things with spiritual; and they have need of great prudence to time things right, to speak fitly and opportunely, and give to each their portion in due season, to whom they minister; and also great diligence and assiduity in prayer, reading, and meditation; and such as are teachers of others must be the Lord’s hearers, and should be very diligent and attentive ones; all which are gifts from the Lord, and to be ascribed to him. But the words are to be understood of Christ, the same person that is speaking in the preceding verses; who being anointed by the Spirit of the Lord God, as man, whose gifts and graces he received without measure, he was abundantly qualified for the discharge of his prophetic office; and was capable of speaking as never man did, and with such power and authority as the Scribes and Pharisees did not, and with so much wisdom and eloquence as were surprising to all that heard him; he had the Spirit of wisdom on him, and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid in him:
that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; not only saints, weary with sin, their own and others, and with troubles from the world, from Satan, and by afflictive providences; but sinners under first awakenings, distressed and uneasy in their minds at a sight of sin, in its exceeding sinfulness; pressed with the guilt of it, filled with a sense of divine wrath on account of it, and terrified with the thoughts of death, and a future judgment; and are weary with labouring for bread which satisfies not, for righteousness and life, and in seeking for resting places, being in want of spiritual rest, peace, and comfort; and who are hungry and thirsting after righteousness, after pardoning grace and mercy, after Christ and salvation by him, after his word and ordinances, after communion with him, and conformity to him; who are weak and without strength, and ready to faint for want of refreshment. The word for “weary” signifies “thirsty”, according to Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; who explain it of persons that thirst after hearing the word of the Lord: the Targum is,
“to know how to teach the righteous that weary themselves at the words of the law;”
or, as some render it, that pant after the words of the law: but not the law, but the Gospel, is “the word in season”, to be spoken to weary souls; which proclaims pardon, preaches peace, is the word of righteousness and salvation; which directs hungry and thirsty souls to Christ, as the bread and water of life, and invites weary ones to him for rest. That word of his, Mt 11:28 is a word in season to such persons: such a word Christ spoke when he was here on earth in his own person, and now speaks by his ministers in the preaching of the Gospel, and by his Spirit applying it to his people.
He wakeneth morning by morning; one after another continually, meaning himself; the allusion is to masters calling their scholars early to their studies; the morning being the fittest season for instruction and learning.
He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned; who hear attentively, and with great pleasure and profit. This and the preceding clause seem to denote both the earliness in which Christ entered on his prophetic office, and his attentiveness in hearkening to all that was said in the eternal council and covenant by his divine Father; which he, as the Prophet of his church, makes known unto his people, Joh 15:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He in whom Jehovah came to His nation, and proclaimed to it, in the midst of its self-induced misery, the way and work of salvation, is He who speaks in Isa 50:4: “The Lord Jehovah hath given me a disciple’s tongue, that I may know how to set up the wearied with words: He wakeneth every morning; wakeneth mine ear to attend in disciple’s manner.” The word limmudm , which is used in the middle of the verse, and which is the older word for the later talmidm , , as in Isa 8:16; Isa 54:13, is repeated at the close of the verse, according to the figure of palindromy, which is such a favourite figure in both parts of the book of Isaiah; and the train of thought, “He wakeneth morning by morning, wakeneth mine ear,” recals to mind the parallelism with reservation which is very common in the Psalms, and more especially the custom of a “triolet-like” spinning out of the thoughts, from which the songs of “degrees” (or ascending steps, shr hammaaloth ) have obtained their name. The servant of Jehovah affords us a deep insight here into His hidden life. The prophets received special revelations from God, for the most part in the night, either in dreams or else in visions, which were shown them in a waking condition, but yet in the more susceptible state of nocturnal quiet and rest. Here, however, the servant of Jehovah receives the divine revelations neither in dreams nor visions of the night; but every morning ( babboqer babboqer as in Isa 28:19), i.e., when his sleep is over, Jehovah comes to him, awakens his ear, by making a sign to him to listen, and then takes him as it were into the school after the manner of a pupil, and teaches him what and how he is to preach. Nothing indicates a tongue befitting the disciples of God, so much as the gift of administering consolation; and such a gift is possessed by the speaker here. “To help with words him that is exhausted” (with suffering and self-torture): , Arab. gat , med. Vav, related to , , signifies to spring to a person with words to help, Aq. , Jer. sustentare . The Arabic gat , med. Je, to rain upon or water (Ewald, Umbreit, etc.), cannot possibly be thought of, since this has no support in the Hebrew; still less, however, can we take as a denom. from , upon which Luther has founded his rendering, “to speak to the weary in due season” (also Eng. ver.). is an accusative of more precise definition, like in Isa 50:1 (cf., Isa 42:25; Isa 43:23). Jerome has given the correct rendering: “that I may know how to sustain him that is weary with a word.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Work and Sufferings of the Messiah. | B. C. 706. |
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: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 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. 7 For the Lord GOD 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. 8 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. 9 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.
Our Lord Jesus, having proved himself able to save, here shows himself as willing as he is able to save, here shows himself as willing as he is able. We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships he met with, not doubting but that God would stand by him and strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of Christ, who is here prophesied of and promised to be the Saviour.
I. As an acceptable preacher. Isaiah, a a prophet, was qualified for the work to which he was called, so were the rest of God’s prophets, and others whom he employed as his messengers; but Christ was anointed with the Spirit above his fellows. To make the man of God perfect, he has, 1. The tongue of the learned, to know how to give instruction, how to speak a word in season to him that is weary, v. 4. God, who made man’s mouth, gave Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the terror and conviction of Pharaoh, Exo 4:11; Exo 4:12. He gave to Christ the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of those that are weary and heavily laden under the burden of sin, Matt. xi. 28. Grace was poured into his lips, and they are said to drop sweet-smelling myrrh. See what is the best learning of a minister, to know how to comfort troubled consciences, and to speak pertinently, properly, and plainly, to the various cases of poor souls. An ability to do this is God’s gift, and it is one of the best gifts, which we should covet earnestly. Let us repose ourselves in the many comfortable words which Christ has spoken to the weary. 2. The ear of the learned, to receive instruction. Prophets have as much need of this as of the tongue of the learned; for they must deliver what they are taught and no other, must hear the word from God’s mouth diligently and attentively, that they may speak it exactly, Ezek. iii. 17. Christ himself received that he might give. None must undertake to be teachers who have not first been learners. Christ’s apostles were first disciples, scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii. 52. Nor is it enough to hear, but we must hear as the learned, hear and understand, hear and remember, hear as those that would learn by what we hear. Those that would hear as the learned must be awake, and wakeful; for we are naturally drowsy and sleepy, and unapt to hear at all, or we hear by the halves, hear and do not heed. Our ears need to be wakened; we need to have something said to rouse us, to awaken us out of our spiritual slumbers, that we may hear as for our lives. We need to be awakened morning by morning, as duly as the day returns, to be awakened to do the work of the day in its day. Our case calls for continual fresh supplies of divine grace, to free us from the dulness we contract daily. The morning, when our spirits are most lively, is a proper time for communion with God; then we are in the best frame both to speak to him (my voice shalt thou hear in the morning) and to hear from him. The people came early in the morning to hear Christ in the temple (Luke xxi. 38), for, it seems, his were morning lectures. And it is God that wakens us morning by morning. If we do any thing to purpose in his service, it is he who, as our Master, calls us up; and we should doze perpetually if he did not waken us morning by morning.
II. As a patient sufferer, Isa 50:5; Isa 50:6. One would think that he who was commissioned and qualified to speak comfort to the weary should meet with no difficulty in his work, but universal acceptance. It is however quite otherwise; he has both hard work to do and hard usage to undergo; and here he tells us with what undaunted constancy he went through with it. We have no reason to question but that the prophet Isaiah went on resolutely in the work to which God had called him, though we read not of his undergoing any such hardships as are here supposed; but we are sure that the prediction was abundantly verified in Jesus Christ: and here we have, 1. His patient obedience in his doing work. “The Lord God has not only wakened my ear to hear what he says, but has opened my ear to receive it, and comply with it” (Psa 40:6; Psa 40:7, My ear hast thou opened; then said I, Lo, I come); for when he adds, I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, more is implied than expressed–that he was willing, that though he foresaw a great deal of difficulty and discouragement, though he was to take pains and give constant attendance as a servant, though he was to empty himself of that which was very great and humble himself to that which was very mean, yet he did not fly off, did not fail, nor was discouraged. He continued very free and forward to his work even when he came to the hardest part of it. Note, As a good understanding in the truths of God, so a good will to the work and service of God, is from the grace of God. 2. His obedient patience in his suffering work. I call it obedient patience because he was patient with an eye to his Father’s will, thus pleading with himself, This commandment have I received of my Father, and thus submitting to God, Not as I will, but as thou wilt. In this submission he resigned himself, (1.) To be scourged: I gave my back to the smiters; and that not only by submitting to the indignity when he was smitten, but by permitting it (or admitting it rather) among the other instances of pain and shame which he would voluntarily undergo for us. (2.) To be buffeted: I gave my cheeks to those that not only smote them, but plucked off the hair of the beard, which was a greater degree both of pain and of ignominy. (3.) To be spit upon: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. He could have hidden his face from it, could have avoided it, but he would not, because he was made a reproach of men, and thus he would answer to the type of Job, that man of sorrows, of whom it is said that they smote him on the cheek reproachfully (Job xvi. 10), which was an expression not only of contempt, but of abhorrence and indignation. All this Christ underwent for us, and voluntarily, to convince us of his willingness to save us.
III. As a courageous champion, v. 7-9. The Redeemer is as famous for his boldness as for his humility and patience, and, though he yields, yet he is more than a conqueror. Observe, 1. The dependence he has upon God. What was the prophet Isaiah’s support was the support of Christ himself (v. 7): The Lord God will help me; and again, v. 9. 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. Nor will he only assist him in his work, but accept of him (v. 8): He is near that justifieth. Isaiah, no doubt, was falsely accused and loaded with reproach and calumny, as other prophets were; but he despised the reproach, knowing that God would roll it away and bring forth his righteousness as the light, perhaps in this world (Ps. xxxvii. 6), at furthest in the great day, when there will be a resurrection of names as well as bodies, and the righteous shall shine forth as the morning sun. And so it was verified in Christ; by his resurrection he was proved to be not the man that he was represented, not a blasphemer, not a deceiver, not an enemy to Csar. The judge that condemned him owned he found no fault in him; the centurion, or sheriff, that had charge of his execution, declared him a righteous man: so near was he that justified him. But it was true of him in a further and more peculiar sense: 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. He was justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16. He was near who did it; for his resurrection, by which he was justified, soon followed his condemnation and crucifixion. He was straightway glorified, John xiii. 32. 2. The confidence he thereupon has of success in his undertaking: “If God will help me, if he will justify me, will stand by me and bear me out, I shall not be confounded, as those are that come short of the end they aimed at and the satisfaction they promised themselves: I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Though his enemies did all they could to put him to shame, yet he kept his ground, he kept his countenance, and was not ashamed of the work he had undertaken. Note, Work for God is work that we should not be ashamed of; and hope in God is hope that we shall not be ashamed of. Those that trust in God for help shall not be disappointed; they know whom they have trusted, and therefore know they shall not be ashamed. 3. The defiance which in this confidence he bids to all opposers and opposition: “God will help me, and therefore have I set my face like a flint.” The prophet did so; he was bold in reproving sin, in warning sinners (Eze 3:8; Eze 3:9), and in asserting the truth of his predictions. Christ did so; he went on in his work, as Mediator, with unshaken constancy and undaunted resolution; he did not fail nor was discouraged; and here he challenges all his opposers, (1.) To enter the lists with him: Who will contend with me, either in law or by the sword? Let us stand together as combatants, or as the plaintiff and defendant. Who is my adversary? Who is the master of my cause? so the word is, “Who will pretend to enter an action against me? Let him appear, and come near to me, for I will not abscond.” Many offered to dispute with Christ, but he put them to silence. The prophet speaks this in the name of all faithful ministers; those who keep close to the pure word of God, in delivering their message, need not fear contradiction; the scriptures will bear them out, whoever contends with them. Great is the truth and will prevail. Christ speaks this in the name of all believers, speaks it as their champion. Who dares be an enemy to those whom he is a friend to, or contend with those for whom he is an advocate? Thus St. Paul applies it (Rom. viii. 33): Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? (2.) He challenges them to prove any crime upon him (v. 9): Who is he that shall condemn me? The prophet perhaps was condemned to die; Christ we are sure was; and yet both could say, Who is he that shall condemn? For there is no condemnation to those whom God justifies. There were those that did condemn them, but what became of them? They all shall wax old as a garment. The righteous cause of Christ and his prophets shall outlive all opposition. The moth shall eat them up silently and insensibly; a little thing will serve to destroy them. But the roaring lion himself shall not prevail against God’s witnesses. All believers are enabled to make this challenge, Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ that died.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 4-9: THE MISSION OF THE OBEDIENT SERVANT
1. Here is One who has been trained in God’s school, (vs. 4).
a. He receives daily direction from heaven for His earthly task, (Psa 5:3; Psa 143:8; Psa 25:4-5; comp. Isa 54:13).
b. Thus, He is able to speak the exact word desired to meet the needs of those who are weary, (Mat 11:28-29; comp. Isa 57:19; Jer 31:12; Jer 31:14; Jer 31:25).
2. His ear has been divinely opened to receive counsel from on high; nor has he rebelled (Mat 26:39; Joh 14:31; Php_2:8), or turned away backward (vs. 5; Joh 7:16; Joh 8:28-29; Joh 8:38; Joh 12:49; comp. Isa 14:10; Isa 14:24).
3. Fully aware of what suffering awaited Him, the Servant steadfastly followed the divinely-appointed pathway which led to a cross, (vs. 6).
a. His back was bared to those who smote Him, (Isa 53:5; 1Pe 2:24-25).
b. With infinite patience, He yielded his cheeks to those who plucked out His beard.
c. Nor did He hide His face from humiliation and spitting, (Mat 26:67; Mat 27:30).
d. His example should be an incentive for His people to endure, with patience, such suffering as His wisdom permits to come upon us, for our good, (Php_1:29; Act 14:22; 2Ti 2:12; 2Ti 3:12; Rom 8:17; Mat 5:10-12).
4. The Servant knew the nearness of Jehovah to His need, and the adequacy of His provision, (vs. 7).
a. He knew that none who commit their way to Him will ever be confounded (Isa 45:17; Isa 54:4), or have cause to be ashamed.
b. Thus, He “set His face like a flint” – refusing to be turned aside from the completion of His Messianic task, (Luk 9:51; Eze 3:8-9).
5. Knowing the nearness of Jehovah, Who will both uphold and declare Him righteous, the Servant is bold before His enemies, (vs. 8-9).
a. He challenges His adversaries to stand up, come near and contend with Him, (vs. 8; comp. Isa 1:18; Isa 41:1; Isa 41:21; Isa 43:6).
b. And He asks who it is that can condemn Him – since the Lord is His divine Vindicator, (vs. 9a; Isa 54:17; Isa 43:9; Isa 43:26; Isa 45:20; Isa 48:14-16).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
4. The Lord Jehovah. After having twice convicted them of guilt, he adds a consolation in his usual manner; for when the Lord covers us with shame, he intends immediately to free us from shame. Although, therefore, he shewed that the people had been rejected for the best possible reasons, and had perished by their own fault, because they proved themselves to be even unworthy of deliverance, yet he promises assistance to them. Again, because in a matter so difficult to be believed there needed more than ordinary proof, he begins by saying that God has sent and instructed him to execute his commands. This passage is commonly explained so as to relate to Christ, as if it had not been applicable to the Prophet, because he afterwards says, that he had been beaten with rods, which we nowhere read was done to Isaiah. But there is no great force in this argument; for David complains that his garments were divided, (Psa 22:18,) which applies literally to Christ, (Mat 27:35; Joh 19:24,) and yet it does not follow that this did not happen to David himself. For my own part, I have no doubt, that Isaiah comes forward as one who represents all the servants of God, not only those who were from the beginning, but those who should come afterwards.
Hath given me the tongue of the learned. He says that the Lord hath given him a “tongue,” that the promises bywhieh he cheers the people may have greater weight. Our faith wavers, if we suspect that a man speaks from himself; and the condition of that people was so wretched that no human arguments could induce them to entertain the hope of deliverance. It amounts to this, that the message of approaching salvation is brought to them from heaven; and if any person do not receive it, he must prove himself to be rebellious and disobedient. Although these words are literally intended by the Prophet to secure the belief of his statements, yet we may infer from them generally, that no man is fit to teach who has not first been qualified by God. This reminds all godly teachers to ask from the Spirit of God what otherwise they could not at all possess. They must indeed study diligently, so as not to ascend the pulpit till they have been fully prepared; but they must hold by this principle, that all things necessary for discharging their office are gifts of the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, if they were not organs of the Holy Spirit, it would be extreme rashness to come forth publicly in the name of God.
That I may know a word in season to the weary. Some verb must be supplied here, such as, “to administer” or “to utter.” The word “know” includes wisdom and skill, which a pastor ought to possess, that the word of God may be faithfully and profitably administered by him; as if he had said that he has been well instructed in the school of God, and thus knows well what is suitable to those who are wretched and who groan under a burden. (17) The term “weary” is applied to those who are overwhelmed by many afflictions; as we have formerly seen, “who giveth strength to the weary.” (Isa 40:29.) Thus also Christ speaks, “Come to me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.” (Mat 11:28.) He therefore means that God has been his teacher and instructor, that he may be able to soothe wretched men by appropriate consolation, that by means of it their dejected hearts may be encouraged by feeling the mercy of God.
Hence we infer that the most important duty of the ministers of the word is, to comfort wretched men, who are oppressed by afflictions, or who bend under their weight, and, in short, to point out what is true rest and serenity of mind, as we have formerly seen. (Isa 33:20.) We are likewise taught what each of us ought chiefly to seek in the Scriptures, namely, that we may be fumished with doctrine appropriate and suitable for relieving our distresses, He who, by seasonable consolation, in afflictive or even desperate affairs, can cheer and support his heart, ought to know that he has made good proficiency in the Gospel. I acknowledge that doctrine has indeed various uses; for not only is it useful for comforting the afflicted and feeble, but it likewise contains severe reproofs and threatenings against the obstinate. (2Ti 3:16.) But Isaiah shews that the chief duty incumbent on him is, to bring some consolation to the Jews who, in the present distress, are ready to faint.
He will waken in the morning. The Prophet here testifies that the Lord is so careful about wretched and oppressed persons that he aids them “in the morning,” that is, seasonably. I do acknowledge that we are often destitute of consolation; but, although God often permits us to languish, yet he knows every moment that is suitable for seasonably meeting the necessity by his aid. Besides, if his assistance be somewhat late, this happens through our own fault; for not only by our indolence, but likewise by rebellion, we withdraw ourselves from his grace. However that may be, he always watches carefully and runs to give aid; and even when we fly and resist, he calls us to him, that we may be refreshed by tasting his grace and kindness.
He twice repeats the phrase, “in the morning,” by which he expresses continuance and earnestness, that we may not think that he is liable to sudden impulses like men, to cast off or quickly forget those whom he has once undertaken to guard, whom he continues, on the contrary, to make the objects of his grace till the end, and never leaves destitute of consolation.
That I may hear as the learned. He means that his ear has not only been pulled or twitched, as for sluggish and indolent persons, but has been formed and trained. Yet by his example he shews that God efficaciously teaches all whose ministry he intends to employ for the salvation of his Church; for it would have been a small matter to be instructed after the manner of men, if they had not within them the Spirit of God as their instructor. This makes still more evident the truth of what we have formerly said, that none are good teachers but those who have been good scholars. He calls them “learned’and “well-instructed;” for they who do not deign to learn, because they think that they are wise enough, are doubly fools; since they alone, in the judgment of God, are reckoned to be “well-instructed” and “learned,” who permit themselves to be taught before discharging the office of teachers, that they may have clear knowledge of those things which they communicate to others, and may publicly bring forward nothing but what they can testify to have proceeded from God; and, in a word, they alone are “learned,” (18) who, by continually learning, do not refuse to make constant progress. Some read the word in the accusative, meaning, “that I may hear as (hearing) the learned;” but that is harsh and at variance with the true meaning.
(17) “ Qui gemissent sous le fardeau de leurs pechez;” “Who groan under the burden of their sins.”
(18) “ Ceux-la sont doctes.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
OUR SAVIOURS QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS WORK
Isa. 50:4-9. The Lord hath given me the tongue, &c.
We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships he met with, not doubting that God would stand by him, and strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of Christ. Through Isaiah it is Christ who speaks to us; and as we hearken to and reflect on His words, we note three characteristics in Him which qualify Him for and secure the success He anticipates.
I. HE WAS, AND IS, AN ACCEPTABLE PREACHER (Isa. 50:4). He was this because
1. God had given Him the tongue of the learned. God, who made mans mouth, gave to Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the terror and conviction of Pharaoh (Exo. 4:11-12). He gave to Christ the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of those that are weary under the burden of sin (Mat. 11:28). What a beautiful and precious feature was this in the ministry of our Lord! See what is now the best learning of a ministerto know how to comfort troubled consciences, and to speak patiently, properly, and plainly to the various cases of poor souls. Christ was able to do this because
2. God had also, or previously, given Him the ear of the learnedthe ability to receive instruction. Prophets have as much need of this as of the tongue of the learned, for they must deliver what they are taught, and no other (Eze. 3:17). Christ Himself received, that He might give. None must undertake to be teachers, who have not first been learners (Mat. 13:52). Nor is it enough to hear; we must hear as the learned, hear with all our faculties awake, hear as those who would learn by what we hear, hear and remember.
II. HE WAS, AND IS, A PATIENT SUFFERER (Isa. 50:5-6). One would have thought that He who was commissioned and qualified to speak comfort to the weary would have met with no difficulty in His work, but universal acceptance; it was, however, quite otherwise. He had both hard work and hard usage to undergo; and here He tells us with what undaunted constancy He went through with it. We have no reason to question but that the prophet Isaiah went on resolutely in the work to which God had called him, though we read not of his undergoing any such hardships as are here (it may be figuratively) described; but we are sure that this prediction was literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Note
1. His ready obedience to the call addressed to Him (Isa. 50:5; Psa. 40:6-7).
2. His patient endurance of all the suffering His obedience to the call involved (Isa. 50:6). All this Christ underwent for us, and voluntarily, to convince us of His willingness to save us. How much He still undergoes, to what indignities He still submits, in His efforts to save man!
III. HE WAS, AND IS, A COURAGEOUS CHAMPION (Isa. 50:7-9). All that in these verses was true of Isaiah is still more true of our Saviour. Observe
1. The secret sources of His courage. They are two.
(1.) He was assured of Divine support. The Lord God will help me.
(2.) Of this He was assured, because He was assured also of Divine approval. He is near that justifieth me.
2. The results of His courage.
(1.) He was confident of success in His undertaking. I shall not be confounded. I shall not be ashamed. Note, work for God is work we should not be ashamed of; and hope in God is hope we shall not be ashamed of.
(2.) He could bid defiance to all opposers and opposition. God will help me: therefore have I set my face like a flint. He had no fear of the slanders of His foes: He is near that justifieth me. Nor of their swords. Who will contend with me? &c.
(3.) He could foresee that He and His righteous cause would outlive all opposition. It was His foes who should pass away: Lo, they all shall wax old like a garment; the moth shall eat them upa little thing will serve secretly and insensibly to destroy them.
CONCLUSION.
1. These qualities being in Christ, let us not doubt that absolute and universal victory is before Him (H. E. I. 979).
2. These qualities were in all the worlds noblest reformers and benefactors.
3. These qualities must be in us, if we are to do any great work for God and our fellow-men. From Christ Himself let us seek them.Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
b.
OBEDIENT CHRIST
TEXT: Isa. 50:4-9
4
The Lord 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 morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught.
5
The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward.
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.
7
For the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand up together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
9
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.
QUERIES
a.
What is the tongue of them that are taught?
b.
What is significant about plucking hair from the cheek?
c.
How did he set his face like a flint?
PARAPHRASE
The Servant of Israel who comes to redeem Zion speaks. The Lord Jehovah gives Me words of divine wisdom so that I may sustain the weary and despairing. I am in constant communion with the will of Jehovah just like an obedient disciple to His Master. The Lord Jehovah speaks His commandments to Me and I keep themI do not rebel and turn away from them. I willingly conform to Jehovahs plan and will offer my back to those who will smite me. I will suffer the humiliation of having the hairs of my beard plucked out by my tormentors. I will not be resentful or rebel when my enemies try to shame me by spitting in my face. I will trust completely in the Lord Jehovah for He will come to My aid. My intention to do His will cannot be thwarted by such actions and I will not be distracted from His will by them. I have set my will as hard as diamond to do His will and I know that ultimately I will be glorified in doing so. He is always present and He will vindicate My trust in Him. He will show to the world once and for all that I am sinless and righteous. If there is someone in all creation who can prove any unrighteousness against Me, let him stand up and present his case! There is no one! The enemies of the Servant may falsely accuse Him, but they will all be put to shame as easily as a moth devours old, worn-out clothes.
COMMENTS
Isa. 50:4-7 DISCIPLINED: The Hebrew word limmudiym (them that are taught; could be translated disciples for it is the same word as is used in Isa. 8:16. It is the root word from which the later Hebrew word Talmud (instruction) was derived. Jehovah will equip the Servant with divine wisdom and instruction. The obedient character of the Servant is being emphasized. He will hear the commandment of Jehovah and do it (cf. Mat. 3:17; Mat. 17:5; Joh. 8:29; Joh. 14:31; Joh. 15:10; Rom. 5:19; Php. 2:5-8; Heb. 5:8; Heb. 10:9), as compared with Israel who had the commandment of God taught to them by the prophets and did not hear and obey. The Servant, experiencing obedience, will become the pathfinder (Gr. archegon, in Heb. 2:10) of our salvation. He will be able to succor those who must also experience obedience (Heb. 2:18). Why did the Servant (Jesus) need to learn obedience through the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8-9)? Was He disobedient? Was He less than perfect? Were there things He did not know and could only know by chastening and instruction? Perhaps we shall never know fully the profound, divine mystery of the kenosis (humiliation) of the Son of God. Perhaps, in His willing choice to suffer the humiliation of incarnation (becoming flesh), He must, in some way experience discipline in order to fulfill the whole experience of incarnation. He was subject to His earthly parents as well as to His Heavenly Father. He did grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (cf. Luk. 2:40; Luk. 2:51-52). Perhaps He did not need to experience obedience for His own sake but for ours. If we are to really believe He knows and cares about our chasteningsif we are to have realistic (not superficial) commitment and discipleship to Himthen the Servant must experience suffering and obedience. He must obey the Fathers commandments at the cost of selfnot for Himself but for us. So the Servant, God-incarnate, is given the tongue of them that are taught, that He may know how to sustain with words him that is weary.
The phrase he wakeneth morning by morning emphasizes the continuous, unreserved obedience of the Servant. He always obeys. He never takes a day off from obeying the Father. It was His mission to obey the Father! (Joh. 12:27; Heb. 10:5 f). It was His mission to teach mankind what obedience to the Father involved and produced. There was not the slightest rebellion in the Servant. He was tempted; He was testedsupremelybut He did not yield. Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah, and a host of other servants objected and some even tried to resist the Lords call (cf. Exo. 4:10 ff; Jer. 20:7 ff; Jer. 17:16; Jon. 1:3). The Servant did not turn back from serving Jehovah for one moment (cf. Mat. 4:1-11; Joh. 4:34; Joh. 9:4; Heb. 10:5-10, etc.).
The Servants experience of obedience involved giving His back to the smiters. He was to be delivered up for such humiliation and suffering according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (cf. Act. 2:23). Yet it was not without His willing surrender to Gods plan for He had the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up. No one took His life from Him (cf. Joh. 10:17-18). Whatever He did or whatever was done to Him, He allowed it to be (cf. Joh. 19:10-11) in obedience to the plan of His Father. He allowed His tormentors to pluck off the hair which refers no doubt to His beard. Many passages in the Bible seem to show that the Jews let their beards grow. Psalms 132 directly states that Aaron, Moses brother, had a beard; and balm flowed down it to the very skirts of his robe. The Oriental regarded the beard as a sign of freedom and respect, and to pluck out the hair of the beard is to show utter contempt. The most heinous and degrading insult is to spit in the face of another. It is nothing short of impossible to willingly subject oneself to such humiliation without resentment, rebellion and perhaps revenge. But the Servant did it! (cf. Mat. 26:67; Mat. 27:26; Joh. 19:1 ff). And He did it for us!
Isa. 50:7-9 DEFENDED: The power of the Servant to render such unreserved obedience is in His unreserved trust in Jehovah to vindicate Him. Whatever the Servant has to suffer, Jehovah will ultimately make right. Furthermore, Jehovah will give the Servant divine assistance. The Servants secret is godly faith and dependence (cf. Heb. 5:7) that Jehovah will, in His own good time, turn the Servants humiliation into everlasting exaltation. So the Servant sets His face like a flint to do Jehovahs will (cf. Luk. 9:51-53). The Hebrew word hallamiys is translated flint but Young says it is comparable to the Akkaddian word elmesu which means diamond. The point to be illustrated is that the Servant will not be deterred by anything from doing the will of Jehovah because the servant has complete confidence in Jehovahs justification. The reason the Servant has such confidence is His constant companionship and communion with Jehovah (cf. Joh. 14:10-11; Joh. 15:9-10; Joh. 16:25-28; Joh. 17:1-26, etc.). Jesus knew, mentally, emotionally and experientially the constant presence of Jehovah and He lived, not by bread alone, but by Gods abiding presence (Mat. 4:4; Joh. 4:34)that is how near God was to Jesus. When God justifies, who is there to condemn (cf. Rom. 8:31-39)?! The enemies of the Servant abused Him, slandered Him, perjured themselves bearing false witness against Him, tormented Him, accused Him and crucified Him as a criminal, but God raised Him from the dead showing the Servant was right and not His accusers! The cause of the Servants enemies was as full of holes as a garment eaten by moths. They went the way of all flesh, but the Servant lives forever! The same exaltation given the Servant is offered to all who faithfully serve the Servant. If we belong to the Servant, God is for us. If God is for us, who can be against us! We are justified because our faith is in the justified Servant.
QUIZ
1.
What characteristic of the Servant is being stressed in this text?
2.
Why did the Servant need to experience obedience?
3.
What is the meaning of morning by morning?
4.
Why say the Servant gave his back to the smiters?
5.
How did the Servant have the ability to render such unreserved obedience?
6.
How did Jehovah justify the Servant?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) The Lord God . . .A new section begins in the form of an abruptly introduced soliloquy. As in Isa. 49:4, the speaker is the Servant of Jehovah, not Isaiah, though we may legitimately trace in what follows some echoes of the prophets own experience. The union of the two names Adonai Jahveh (or Jehovah) indicates, as elsewhere, a special solemnity.
The tongue of the learned.Better, of a disciple, or, well-trained scholar.
That I should know how to speak.Better, that I should know how to sustain (or, refresh) the weary with a word.
He wakeneth.The daily teaching of the morning communion with God is contrasted by implication with the dreams and night visions of a less perfect inspiration. An illustration, perhaps a conscious fulfilment, may be found in Mar. 1:35; Luk. 4:42.
To hear as the learned.Read disciples, as before. The true Servant is also as a scholar, studious of the Masters will, as are other scholars.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. This discourse is to his people yet in exile; but equally well it applies to them when he, as Messiah, finds them at his incarnation in Judea, centuries after their restoration to Jerusalem.
The Lord God He from whom goes forth the Messiah, and he in whom Jehovah came to his nation, a twofold mysterious relation, or interaction, of God and his Anointed One. The one speaking here, as is also shown by the words me and mine, may be assumed to be the Messiah, who is referring in these verses to facts pertaining especially to the incarnate period on earth, and generally to the ante-incarnate period during the later history of Israel. Isa 42:2; Isa 49:1.
The tongue of the learned One eloquent in what he knows, or in those things in which he has been instructed.
Word in season Words of consolation and hope to the sorrowful and afflicted.
He wakeneth morning by morning Jehovah continually reveals to his Anointed what truths he should speak or reveal. Messiah is a learner, not in the way prophets become such by dreams in the night and other ways but through closest oneness of nature, and in normal face-to-face communications.
He wakeneth mine ear Calleth for my mental attention, which is instantly given. This describes the way of Christ on earth perfectly.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
But There is One who Will Answer, the Servant of Yahweh ( Isa 50:4-9 ).
But then there is an answer. There is a man who speaks up answers, but it is not quite as expected. Instead of the Spirit-filled King who will stride forward like a mighty warrior and exact justice (Isa 11:1-4), it is the voice of a humble Teacher, of One despised and ill-treated, One who is being falsely accused. For Israel are so sinful that they have even rejected God’s Man. He is not seen as Israel’s champion, He is treated as Israel’s reject. The King thus comes as a humiliated Servant.
We can compare with this how, when Immanuel comes, times will be hard (Isa 7:15 with 21-22, 23-25). He will come in humble surroundings. He will not immediately take His throne.
The Servant describes three gifts that ‘the Lord Yahweh’ has given Him. The tongue of those who are taught, the opening of the ear in obedience, and Yahweh’s own powerful assistance. In other words, the ability to sustain others by His teaching, the ability to obey in the face of reproach and humiliation, and the ability to stand firm in the face of false accusations, resulting in final vindication. That one individual is in mind here comes out vividly. The suffering He faces is very much individual. And this is ‘the man’ who alone responds (contrast Isa 50:2). There is only One Who can go through what this one has to go through, God’s anointed. It is not without significance that in Isa 61:1-2, God’s anointed is depicted as a prophet.
Isa 50:4
“The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who have been taught,
That I should know how to sustain with words him who is weary.
He awakens morning by morning,
He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.”
The Servant (Isa 50:10) speaks up humbly. He acknowledges that He is but a disciple, a learner at the feet of the Lord Yahweh. The sovereign Lord, Yahweh, has given Him a tongue trained by Him, the tongue of one whom He has taught. For morning by morning He has awoken Him so that He may learn from Him. He is sharpening His sword, and polishing His arrow (Isa 49:2).
And the aim of the teaching is that He may be able to sustain the weary with words. The difficulties of the way for believers is stressed. Note the heavy stress on the use of words and teaching. There is no thought of force. The thought is of the power of the word. We remember how Jesus used to rise a great while before day in order to speak with His Father (Mar 1:35) and insisted that He spoke nothing of Himself but only what He heard the Father speak (Joh 7:16; Joh 8:26; Joh 8:38). He was echoing the life and words of the Servant.
When Jesus said, ‘Come to me all you who labour wearily and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,’ (Mat 11:28) He probably had this verse in mind.
Isa 50:5-6
“The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away backward,
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair.
I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.”
It was Yahweh Who had given to Him His message. It was He Who opened His ear. And He did not rebel. He did not turn backward. Although He knew what it would mean for Him the Servant went resolutely on, for He knew the truth about those who claimed to be God’s people. He knew that One Who showed them the truth about themselves would not be popular. He yielded His back to the smiters, His cheeks to those who plucked out the hairs, His face to those who spat on Him and treated Him shamefully. He was flogged, He was ill-treated, and He was scorned, and it was not for anything that He had done, but because He had taken to them the word of God for the weary. In the words of Jesus, ‘the Son of Man must suffer many things — and they will mock Him, and will spit on Him, and will scourge Him’ (Mar 8:31; Mar 10:34). The personal nature of the treatment indicates that here we are speaking of one man, the One Who has answered God’s call for ‘a man’.
This vicious and uncalled for treatment is basically a new, unexpected thought. In Isa 49:7 we learned that He would be despised and hated for a time, but there was nothing there to suggest this personal, physical pain and humiliation. But it serves to bring out the sinfulness of those to whom He is speaking. This was why Israel had been put away, and sold off. Because she treated God’s messengers like this. How could she complain when she behaved in this way towards His servants?
The parallel with the treatment of Jesus is clear. He too was scourged, mocked at, treated shamefully. Such was the destiny of the Servant of Yahweh.
This shameful treatment is in direct contrast with the sufferings of Israel. Here it is made clear that, while they had received only what they deserved, this One receives what is undeserved. This is exacted on One Who when brought to court will be fully vindicated. It is in direct contrast with Isa 42:24; Isa 43:28; Isa 47:6 b; Isa 48:9; Isa 51:17, where we have described the deserved suffering of Israel.
Isa 50:7
‘Because the Lord Yahweh will help me,
That is the reason that I have not been confounded.
That is why I have set my face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.’
He is firm in His resolution because it comes from God. It is because the sovereign Lord, Yahweh, helps Him that He is not dismayed and despairing, and that is why they will not be able to declare Him guilty. That is why He sets His face like a flint (compare Eze 3:9; Luk 9:51). And He is confident that finally He will not be put to shame, because God will stand up for Him. His whole trust is in God.
Isa 50:8
“He is near who declares me in the right.
Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary? Let him approach me.”
He recognises that men will put Him on trial. But His confidence is in the fact that One is near Who will declare Him to be in the right. Whatever men may say God will justify Him. Thus He is not afraid of anyone. Who would contend with Him? Let them face Him as man to man. Who would be His adversary? Let him approach. The language is that of a court of law. He is ready to defend Himself against all comers, for God stands at His side and has already declared the verdict (compare Isa 41:11-12). We can contrast his confidence with Isaiah’s ‘woe is me for I am undone’ (Isa 6:5), Isaiah’s recognition that he could not defend himself, and his constant identification of himself as being included among the sinful. But a greater than Isaiah is here. He can declare Himself to be without sin.
Isa 50:9
“Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me.
Who is he who will condemn me?
Behold they will all grow old like a garment,
The moth will consume them.”
Because He knows that God is on His side He can face up to anything. Who can possibly condemn Him when He has such a helper? (Compare Isa 41:13). For the One Who stands with Him is the Judge of all, and He knows the truth. Thus those who try to condemn Him will simply become worn out like old clothing and will be eaten up by moths, for they will go uselessly on and on until they are no more.
Notice here the two ‘beholds’. On the one hand, Behold, Yahweh will help Him. On the other, Behold, His enemies will grow old and be consumed by moths.
So we have here the description of One Who is humble, willing to hear, submissive, yielding and not rebellious, determined to follow God’s way, and Who obeys at all costs. He is the exact opposite of faithless Israel. And He is confident in God’s support and verdict on Himself. He knows that He is in the right, for what He has taught is what God has taught Him. He is certainly not the kind of helper that Israel was looking for. But God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts.
There was only One in history Who could be seen as fulfilling these words, Jesus of Nazareth, Immanuel, Who could say, ‘which of you can convict me of sin?’ (Joh 8:46). And the suffering described here is unquestionably mirrored in His own suffering.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 50:4. The Lord God hath given me, &c. The second discourse of the fifth part of this book extends to the 17th verse of the following chapter. It is divided into two sections; the former of which, in the present chapter, contains a discourse of the Messiah, both historical, or narrative, and doctrinal, by way of apostrophe, directed to the hearers. In the historical part, he relates, first, that he was appointed to the excellent office of preaching the Gospel, and was immediately instructed by God for that purpose: Isa 50:4. Secondly, that he had shewn the greatest readiness to undertake, and the greater diligence to fulfil, this office; Isa 50:5. As well as thirdly, the greatest patience and constancy, first, amid reproaches, injuries, and contumelies brought upon him: the grounds of which constancy, he shews to be, his confidence in the assistance of God, and his full persuasion of his good-will towards him, Isa 50:6-7. Secondly, amid the calumnies and contradictions of his adversaries, none of whom, however, could stand before him, God approving and justifying his cause: Isa 50:8-9. In the doctrinal part, he first graciously addresses those who fear the Lord; and foretels to them a happy end, Isa 50:10. Secondly, he foretels to his adversaries destruction, to arise from those very things wherein they sought salvation, Isa 50:11. This chapter wants very little more comment than the present analysis, and a reference to the history of our Lord. The meaning of the phrase, To speak a word, &c. is to teach the doctrine of grace to the spiritually weary. See chap. Isa 61:1. The next clause is a metaphor taken from a diligent school-master, who early every morning rouses his scholars to hear his instructions; and the meaning is, that he had every day, from morning to evening, the illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit with him, to instruct him in the perfect knowledge of all things which concerned his state, his function, and the necessities of his church. Literally the passage runs thus, Every morning he plucketh my ear, that I may hear like those who are instructed. See Mat 11:28 and Psa 1:2 which many of the ancients have understood of the man Christ Jesus. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I should think it an unnecessary service to point out whom this account refers to. Everything here spoken is so directly descriptive of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it is hardly possible to lose sight of Jesus while reading what is here said. Of whom but Jesus could it ever be said, that he had the tongue of the learned? Who could say to the weary, Come unto me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls? Whose ear was opened, or bored, as Jehovah’s servant, that loved his master, loved his wife and children, and therefore would not go out free? Of whom but Jesus could this have ever been said, to the full extent? Psa 40:6-7 , compared with Exo 21:5-6 . Who but Jesus gave his back to the smiters, and hid not his face from shame and spitting? And Reader, do not overlook as interesting a part as any, in this representation of Jesus; namely, that it was the Lord God Jehovah, who appointed thy Surety, to all this. Oh! what strength doth faith derive from the view, when, in the sufferings of Christ, we trace the hand of Jehovah appointing to all! It was this which crowned the whole, that Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest: and in all he bore and suffered, it was the Lord who laid on him the iniquities of us all, Heb 5:5 ; Isa 53:6 . Therefore how sure was Christ’s dependence for support from the Father, to carry him through the work; and how sure is our dependence and confidence in him, for justification, as the Lord our righteousness!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
Ver. 4. The Lord God. ] Heb., The sovereign self-being.
Hath given me.
The tongue of the learned.
That I might know how to speak a word in season.
He awakeneth morning by morning.
To hear as the learned,
a Indesinenter me informat Spiritu, non autem per momenta, ut omnes prophetas alios. – Jun.
Isaiah
THE SERVANT’S WORDS TO THE WEARY
Isa 50:4 In Isa 49:1 – Isa 49:6 , the beginning of the continuous section of which these verses are part, a transition is made from Israel as collectively the ideal servant of the Lord, to a personal Servant, whose office it is ‘to bring Jacob again to Him.’ We see the ideal in the very act of passing to its highest form, and that in which it is finally fulfilled in history, namely, by the person Jesus. That Jesus was ‘Thy Holy Servant’ was the earliest gospel preached by Peter and John before people and rulers. It is not the most vital conception of our Lord’s nature and work. The prophet does not here pierce to the core, as in his fifty-third chapter with its vision of the Suffering Servant, but this is prelude to that, and the office assigned here to the Servant cannot be fully discharged without that ascribed to Him there, as the prophet begins to discern almost immediately. The text gives us a striking view of the purpose of Messiah’s mission and of His training and preparation for it.
I. The purpose of Christ’s mission.
A mission addressed to ‘the weary’ is addressed to every man, for who is not ‘weighed upon with sore distress,’ or loaded with the burden and the weight of tasks beyond his power or distasteful to his inclinations, or monotonous to nausea, or prolonged to exhaustion, or toiled at with little hope and less interest? Who is not weary of himself and of his load? What but universal weariness does the universal secret desire for rest betray? We are all ‘pilgrims weary of time,’ and some of us are weary of even prosperity, and some of us are worn out with work, and some of us buffeted to all but exhaustion by sorrow, and all of us long for rest, though many of us do not know where to look for it.
Jesus may have had this word in mind, when He called to Him all them ‘that labour and are heavy laden.’ At all events, the prophet’s ideal and the evangelists’ story accurately correspond. Christ’s words have other characteristics, but are eminently words that sustain the weary and comfort the down-hearted. Who can ever calculate the new strength poured by them into fainting hearts and languid hands, the all but dead hopes that they have reanimated, the sorrows they have comforted, the wounds they have stanched?
What a lesson here as to the noblest use of high endowments! What a contrast to the use that so many of those to whom God has given ‘the tongue of them that are taught’ make of their great gifts! Literature yields but few examples of great writers who have faithfully employed their powers for that purpose, which seems so humble and is so lofty, the help of the weary, the comfort of the sad. Many pages in famous books would be cancelled if all that had been written without consideration for these classes were obliterated, as it will be one day.
But Christ not only speaks by outward words, but has other ways of lodging sustenance and comfort in souls than by vocables audible to the ear or visible to the eye on the page. ‘The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.’ He spoke by His deeds on earth, and in one and the same set of facts, He ‘began to do and to teach,’ the doing being named first. He ‘now speaketh from Heaven’ by many an inward whisper, by the communication of His own Spirit, on Whom this very office of ministering sustenance and comfort is laid, and whose very name of the Comforter means One who by his being with a man strengthens him.
II. The training and preparation of the Messiah for His mission.
The Gospels tell us of the prayers of Jesus, and of rare occasions in which a voice from heaven spoke to Him. But while these are palpable instances of His communion with God, and precious tokens of His true brotherhood with us in the indispensable characteristics of the life of faith, they are but the salient points on which the light falls, and behind them, all unknown by us, stretches an unbroken chain of like acts of fellowship. In that subordination as of a scholar to teacher, both His divine and His human nature concurred, the former in filial submission, the latter in continual, truly human derivation and reception. The man Jesus was taught and, like the boy Jesus, ‘increased in wisdom.’
But while He learned as truly as we learn from God, and exercised the same communion with the Father, the same submission to Him, which other men have to exercise, and called ‘us brethren, saying, I will put my trust in Him,’ the difference in degree between His close fellowship with God the Father, and our broken and always partial fellowship, between His completeness of reception of God’s words and our imperfect comprehension, between His perfect reproduction of the words He had heard and our faint, and often mistaken echo of them, is so immense as to amount to a difference in kind. His unity of will and being with the Father ensured that all His words were God’s. ‘Never man spake like this man.’ The man who speaks to us once for all God’s words must be more than man. Other men, the highest, give us fragments of that mighty voice; Jesus speaks its whole message, and nothing but its message. Of that perfect reproduction He is calmly conscious, and claims to give it, in words which are at once lowly and instinct with more than human authority: ‘All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.’ Who besides Him dare make such a claim? Who besides Him could make it without being met by incredulous scorn? His utterance of the Father’s words was unmarred by defect on the one hand, and by additions on the other. It was like pure water which tastes of no soil. His soul was like an open vessel plunged in a stream, filled by the flow and giving forth again its whole contents.
That divine communication to Jesus was no mere impartation of abstractions or ‘truths,’ still less of the poor words of man’s speech, but was the flowing into His spirit of the living Father by whom He lived. And it was unbroken. ‘Morning by morning’ it was going on. The line was continuous, whereas for the rest of us, at the best, it is a series of points more or less contiguous, but with dark spaces between. ‘God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.’
So, then, let us hold fast by Him, the Son in whom God has spoken to us, and to all voices without and within that would woo us to listen, let us answer with the only wise answer: ‘To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.’
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 50:4-11
4The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
5The Lord GOD has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.
6I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.
7For the Lord GOD helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have set My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8He who vindicates Me is near;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand up to each other;
Who has a case against Me?
Let him draw near to Me.
9Behold, the Lord GOD helps Me;
Who is he who condemns Me?
Behold, they will all wear out like a garment;
The moth will eat them.
10Who is among you that fears the LORD,
That obeys the voice of His servant,
That walks in darkness and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
11Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with firebrands,
Walk in the light of your fire
And among the brands you have set ablaze.
This you will have from My hand:
You will lie down in torment.
Isa 50:4-6 These verses describe aspects of the Servant’s ministry (in His own words).
1. gifted to listen
2. gifted to encourage, Isa 50:4 a
3. He listens to
a. hurting, weary ones (cf. Jer 31:25), Isa 50:4 b
b. YHWH, Isa 50:4 c,d,5a
4. He was not disobedient, Isa 50:5 b
5. He did not turn back, Isa 50:5 c
6. He yielded Himself to abuse by leaders (cf. Mat 26:67; Mat 27:30; Mar 15:19)
a. whipped His back
b. plucked out His beard
c. spit in His face
The Servant’s verbal skills will lead to a rejection of His message and person by those who refuse to listen (cf. Isa 50:11).
Isa 50:4 a disciples This is a rare word (BDB 541), found only here (twice) and Isa 8:16 in this sense. Usually it is translated taught (Isa 54:13).
Isa 50:4 b
NASB, NRSVsustain the weary one
NKJVspeak a word in season to him who is weary
TEVstrengthen the weary
NJBto give a word of comfort to the weary
JPSOAspeak timely words to the weary
REBto console the weary
Obviously the MT is ambiguous because the word sustain (BDB 736, KB 804) appears only here.
Isa 50:4 c,d There is a repeated Hiphil IMPERFECT (BDB 734, KB 802), awakens. In the Hiphil it is used to rouse or stir up activity.
1. Isa 13:17 – the Medes (Jer 51:11)
2. Isa 41:2; Isa 41:25 – Cyrus II
3. Isa 45:13 – Cyrus II
4. here – the Servant
5. Dan 11:2 – inter-biblical ruler
YHWH is in control of world history and world redemption!
Isa 50:6 The specific treatment of the obedient Servant is a foreshadowing of the treatment of Jesus. This introduces the fourth Servant Song in Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12, esp. Isa 50:3-5; Isa 50:7-9. The Servant will pay a high price for His loyalty, trust, and obedience in YHWH (cf. Psalms 2, 22). There is a purpose in suffering for Him (cf. Mar 10:45; 2Co 5:21; the book of Hebrews).
Isa 50:7-9 The first verse of this strophe is repeated in Isa 50:9 a, the Lord (Adon) GOD (YHWH) helps me.
Because of this the Servant will
1. not be disgraced
2. set His face like flint (cf. Luk 9:51)
3. be ashamed
Why, because YHWH acts on His behalf, introduced by another series of questions (Isa 50:8-9). The grammatical structure (i.e., Who. . .?) runs through Isa 50:10.
Isa 50:8
NASB, NRSVvindicates
NKJV, LXXjustifies
TEVprove me innocent
NJBsaving justice
JPSOAMy vindicator
REBwill clear my name
As Isa 50:6-7 describe an unjust trial, so Isa 50:8 describes a just verdict. The VERB (BDB 842, KB 1003) is a Hiphil PARTICIPLE which means declare righteous (cf. Exo 23:7; Deu 25:1; 1Ki 8:32; Pro 17:15). It is used in a negative context in Isa 5:23. It describes
1. God in this context
2. the Servant in Isa 53:11
Let him draw near to Me This is a Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense. The VERB (BDB 620, KB 670) is used of approaching a judge at trial. Notice here the Servant is the Judge.
Isa 50:10-11 AB takes these two verses as a response to the Servant (p. 116), apparently by YHWH (Leupold, p. 196). There is a contrast between two kinds of light.
1. the darkness of those who have faith in God and His Messiah but do not fully understand (Isa 50:10)
a. let him trust in the name of the Lord – Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 105, KB 120) used in a JUSSIVE sense
b. let him rely on his God – Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 1043, KB 1612) used in a JUSSIVE sense
2. those who make their own light (i.e., fire, see Special Topic: Fire ) and walk in it (Qal IMPERATIVE) which will eventually consume them (i.e., lie down in torment, Isa 50:11)
that I should know, &c. He spake none other words than those given Him by the Father. Compare the seven times this was asserted by Messiah (Joh 7:16; Joh 8:28, Joh 8:46, Joh 8:47; Joh 12:49; Joh 14:10, Joh 14:24; Joh 17:8).
wakeneth = [continually] wakeneth.
to hear as the learned = to hearken as do the instructed.
learned = taught.
Isa 50:4-7
Isa 50:4
“The Lord 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 waketh morning by morning, he waketh mine ear to hear as they that are taught.”
This explains the supernatural wisdom of Jesus Christ. The Father from above supernaturally endowed him with intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom beyond everything ever known by mere mortal men. Many of God’s prophets received revelations from God, but only of Messiah was it declared that “God’s Spirit rested upon him” (Isa 42:1). “God held immediate and constant communication with the Servant, not enlightening him only occasionally, as with other prophets … `Morning by morning’ is not to be limited to the bare literal meaning but should be taken in the sense of `uninterruptedly.’
Isa 50:5
“The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward.”
There is great solemnity of the sacred language. Note that the double name of Jehovah ([~’Adonay] [~Yahweh]) appears four times in Isa 50:4-5; Isa 50:7; Isa 50:9. The mission to which Christ was called involved the ultimate in hardship, rejection, hatred, persecution, torture and death; but unlike many prophets before Christ, our Lord was not rebellious, as was Jonah; he did not complain, as did Jeremiah; nor did he even shrink from the task, as did Moses. Christ delivered not his own message, but the message of the Father (Joh 7:16; Joh 8:28 b, and Joh 12:49). Only Christ ever did anything like that. Today we are challenged to hear because: some Pope has delivered an encyclical, a bishop has spoken, the General Synod has issued a statement, or the Conference has decided something! If one wishes to know what Almighty God has declared, he shall find it in the sayings of Jesus and nowhere else.
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.”
Luk 18:31-32 records Jesus’ quotation of things mentioned in this verse, declaring that all these things would be accomplished unto the Son of Man; and the gospels faithfully relate how practically all of the things mentioned here were actually done unto Jesus. Cheyne pointed out that plucking the hair off the cheeks is not specifically reported in the gospels as something endured by Jesus, and supposed that the expression was figurative. The very fact, however, that such indignities were often inflicted by such men as mocked the Christ is the only proof needed that this too was fulfilled upon the Lord. Besides that, our prophecy states that he gave his cheeks to the men who did such things; and that Jesus most certainly did. Furthermore, Christ stated in Luk 18:31 that “all the things” written in the prophets concerning him would be accomplished; and we cannot believe the plucking of the hair off the cheeks was omitted. This is another instance where the whole truth is discovered only by taking into account both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Another instance is that of the piercing of Jesus’ feet in the crucifixion.
Isa 50:7
“For the Lord Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
Cheyne compared Jesus and Job, noting that, “Whereas Job, the type of a righteous man, shrinks in terror from the issue (of terrible suffering), the Servant, human and yet superhuman in nature, has no doubt as to a favorable result.” He set his face like a flint to do God’s will. Luke, especially, was impressed with this trait in our Lord’s personality. See Luk 9:51.
Isa 50:4-7 DISCIPLINED: The Hebrew word limmudiym (them that are taught; could be translated disciples for it is the same word as is used in Isa 8:16. It is the root word from which the later Hebrew word Talmud (instruction) was derived. Jehovah will equip the Servant with divine wisdom and instruction. The obedient character of the Servant is being emphasized. He will hear the commandment of Jehovah and do it (cf. Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5; Joh 8:29; Joh 14:31; Joh 15:10; Rom 5:19; Php 2:5-8; Heb 5:8; Heb 10:9), as compared with Israel who had the commandment of God taught to them by the prophets and did not hear and obey. The Servant, experiencing obedience, will become the pathfinder (Gr. archegon, in Heb 2:10) of our salvation. He will be able to succor those who must also experience obedience (Heb 2:18). Why did the Servant (Jesus) need to learn obedience through the things He suffered (Heb 5:8-9)? Was He disobedient? Was He less than perfect? Were there things He did not know and could only know by chastening and instruction? Perhaps we shall never know fully the profound, divine mystery of the kenosis (humiliation) of the Son of God. Perhaps, in His willing choice to suffer the humiliation of incarnation (becoming flesh), He must, in some way experience discipline in order to fulfill the whole experience of incarnation. He was subject to His earthly parents as well as to His Heavenly Father. He did grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (cf. Luk 2:40; Luk 2:51-52). Perhaps He did not need to experience obedience for His own sake but for ours. If we are to really believe He knows and cares about our chastenings-if we are to have realistic (not superficial) commitment and discipleship to Him-then the Servant must experience suffering and obedience. He must obey the Fathers commandments at the cost of self-not for Himself but for us. So the Servant, God-incarnate, is given the tongue of them that are taught, that He may know how to sustain with words him that is weary.
The phrase he wakeneth morning by morning emphasizes the continuous, unreserved obedience of the Servant. He always obeys. He never takes a day off from obeying the Father. It was His mission to obey the Father! (Joh 12:27; Heb 10:5 f). It was His mission to teach mankind what obedience to the Father involved and produced. There was not the slightest rebellion in the Servant. He was tempted; He was tested-supremely-but He did not yield. Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah, and a host of other servants objected and some even tried to resist the Lords call (cf. Exo 4:10 ff; Jer 20:7 ff; Jer 17:16; Jon 1:3). The Servant did not turn back from serving Jehovah for one moment (cf. Mat 4:1-11; Joh 4:34; Joh 9:4; Heb 10:5-10, etc.).
The Servants experience of obedience involved giving His back to the smiters. He was to be delivered up for such humiliation and suffering according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (cf. Act 2:23). Yet it was not without His willing surrender to Gods plan for He had the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up. No one took His life from Him (cf. Joh 10:17-18). Whatever He did or whatever was done to Him, He allowed it to be (cf. Joh 19:10-11) in obedience to the plan of His Father. He allowed His tormentors to pluck off the hair which refers no doubt to His beard. Many passages in the Bible seem to show that the Jews let their beards grow. Psalms 132 directly states that Aaron, Moses brother, had a beard; and balm flowed down it to the very skirts of his robe. The Oriental regarded the beard as a sign of freedom and respect, and to pluck out the hair of the beard is to show utter contempt. The most heinous and degrading insult is to spit in the face of another. It is nothing short of impossible to willingly subject oneself to such humiliation without resentment, rebellion and perhaps revenge. But the Servant did it! (cf. Mat 26:67; Mat 27:26; Joh 19:1 ff). And He did it for us!
God: Exo 4:11, Exo 4:12, Psa 45:2, Jer 1:9, Mat 22:46, Luk 4:22, Luk 21:15, Joh 7:46
a word: Isa 57:15-19, Pro 15:23, Pro 25:11, Mat 11:28, Mat 13:54
as the: Joh 7:15-17
Reciprocal: Exo 36:3 – every morning Deu 18:18 – will put Job 4:3 – Behold Job 16:7 – he hath Psa 16:7 – who hath Psa 40:6 – mine ears Pro 10:13 – the lips Pro 12:25 – but Pro 16:21 – the sweetness Son 5:13 – his lips Isa 42:1 – whom I Isa 42:3 – bruised Isa 49:2 – made me Isa 51:16 – I have put Jer 31:25 – General Eze 46:13 – every morning Zep 3:5 – every morning Mat 7:29 – having Mar 13:11 – shall be Mar 15:33 – darkness Luk 2:46 – both Luk 4:18 – Spirit Luk 12:42 – in due Luk 24:32 – Did Joh 8:29 – he that sent 1Co 12:8 – is given Eph 4:29 – that which Heb 12:3 – lest
Isa 50:4. The Lord God hath given me, &c. The second discourse of the fifth part of Isaiahs prophecies, according to Vitringa, begins here, and is continued to the seventeenth verse of the following chapter. God having, in the preceding paragraph, asserted his own power; to manifest the unreasonableness of the infidelity of the Jews, and that it was without all excuse, he proceeds to show what excellent and powerful means he used to bring them to repentance and salvation. This and the following passages may be, in some sort, understood of the Prophet Isaiah, but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him. To understand them in this light seems to suit best with the context, for, according to this exposition, the same person speaks here, who is the chief subject of the preceding chapter, and who has spoken in the foregoing verses of this chapter. There, indeed, he speaks as God, but here as man, being both God and man, as is abundantly evident from many passages, both of the Old and New Testaments. By the tongue of the learned is meant, an ability of speaking plainly, convincingly, persuasively, and in all points, so as becomes a person taught of God, and filled with all divine and heavenly wisdom and knowledge. That I should know how to speak, &c., to him that is weary That is, burdened with the sense of his sin and misery, in which case a word of comfort is most seasonable and acceptable. This was the principal design of Christs ministry, namely, to give rest and comfort to the weary and heavy laden, according to what is said Mat 11:28. And all the doctrines, reproofs, and threatenings of Christ were directed to this end, to prepare men for receiving comfort and salvation. He wakeneth, namely, me, or mine ear, morning by morning From time to time, and continually. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned Either, first, as learned men, or teachers, use to awaken their scholars to hear and learn of them from time to time: or, rather, second, as those that are, or desire to be, learned, use to hear with all possible attention and diligence.
Isa 50:4-9. The Confidence of the Servant in Yahweh (the third Servant Song).Here, as in Isa 49:1-6, the Servant is the speaker. Yahweh has given me the eloquence of a disciple that I may know how to answer the godless with upright words. Every morning He imparts instruction to me as to a disciple, nor have insult and cruelty caused me to shrink from the tasks He has set me. Through His help I have not been overwhelmed; upon me, confident that I shall not finally be put to shame, these cruelties have made no more impression than though I had been flint. My vindication is near. Let any accuser come forward and we will submit our case to Him. He will help mewho will pronounce me wrong? My adversaries shall perish like a moth-eaten garment.
Isa 50:4. The text is certainly corrupt. For sustain, a guess at an otherwise unknown word, read answer, and for with words him that is weary: he wakeneth: a not difficult emendation gives the godless with upright words.
Isa 50:7. will: render, doth.
Isa 50:8. justifieth: i.e. pronounces in the right, opposed to
Isa 50:9. condemn: i.e. pronounce in the wrong.
50:4 The Lord GOD hath given {g} me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] {h} weary: he awakeneth morning by morning, he awakeneth my ear to hear {i} as the learned.
(g) The prophet represents here the person and charge of them that are justly called to the ministry by God’s word.
(h) To him that is oppressed by affliction and misery.
(i) As they who are taught, and made meet by him.
The Servant’s confidence 50:4-9
This is the third Servant Song (cf. Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12). Like the second song, this one is autobiographical, but unlike the first and second songs it contains no reference to the Servant. That it is the Servant who is speaking becomes unmistakable in Isa 50:10-11, the "tailpiece" of this song. But what the Servant says, even without that specific identification, leaves little doubt that it is He who is speaking. The obedient and faithful Servant, though deeply troubled, expresses confidence in His calling to proclaim the Lord’s Word and in His ultimate vindication. The reason for the Servant’s uneasiness becomes clearer in this passage. It is because obedience to God would lead to physical and emotional suffering (Isa 50:5-6). The extent of this suffering comes out most clearly in the fourth song. [Note: See also, F. Duane Lindsey, "The Commitment of the Servant in Isaiah 50:4-11," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:555 (July-September 1982):216-27.]
The "Sovereign Lord" (used four times in this passage, Isa 50:5; Isa 50:7; Isa 50:9) had given (appointed) the Servant the ability to speak as a disciple, namely, as one who had learned from intimate association with the Lord what He should say.
"The title [translated Sovereign Lord] indicates the truth that God is the owner of each member of the human family, and that he consequently claims the unrestricted obedience of all." [Note: Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, p. 34.]
His words were to benefit people (cf. Joh 3:17); they were not for Him simply to enjoy knowing personally.
". . . the Messiah would speak as one to whom God has taught his true message of comfort for those who are weary of sin." [Note: Archer, p. 645.]
Watts identified this servant as Zerubbabel, the post-exilic leader in Jerusalem who was responsible for rebuilding the temple. [Note: Watts, Isaiah 34-66, p. 201.]
"Nothing indicates a tongue befitting the disciples of God, so much as the gift of administering consolation . . ." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:277.]
The Servant’s words had come to Him through daily, direct interaction with the Lord as an obedient disciple (cf. Gen 3:8; Mar 1:35; Heb 5:8).
"The tongue filled with the appropriate word for ministry is the product of the ear filled with the word of God. . . . The morning by morning appointment is not a special provision or demand related to the perfect Servant but is the standard curriculum for all disciples." [Note: Motyer, p. 399. Cf. Wiersbe, p. 56.]
CHAPTER XIX
PROPHET AND MARTYR
Isa 49:1-9; Isa 50:4-11
THE second great passage upon the Servant of the Lord is Isa 49:1-9, and the third is Isa 50:4-11. In both of these the servant himself speaks; in both he speaks as prophet; while in the second he tells us that his prophecy leads him on to martyrdom. The two passages may, therefore, be taken together.
Before we examine their contents, let us look for a moment at the way in which they are woven into the rest of the text. As we have seen, chapter 49 begins a new section of the prophecy, in so far that with it the prophet leaves Babylon and Cyrus behind him, and ceases to speak of the contrast between God and the idols. But, still, chapter 49 is linked to chapter 48. In leading up to its climax, -the summons to Israel to depart from Babylon, – chapter 48, does not forget that Israel is delivered from Babylon in order to be the Servant of Jehovah: “say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His Servant Jacob.” It is this service, which chapter 49 carries forward from the opportunity, and the call, to go forth from Babylon, with which chapter 48, closes. That opportunity, though real, does not at all mean that Israels redemption is complete. There were many moral reasons which prevented the whole nation from taking full advantage of the political freedom offered them by Cyrus. Although the true Israel, that part of the nation which has the conscience of service, has shaken itself free from the temptation as well as from the tyranny of Babel, and now sees the world before it as the theatre of its operations, – Isa 49:1, “Hearken, ye isles, unto Me; and listen, ye peoples, from far,”-it has still, before it can address itself to that universal mission, to exhort, rouse, and extricate the rest of its nation, “saying to the bounden, Go forth; and to, them that are in darkness, Show yourselves” (Isa 49:9). Chapter 49, therefore, is the natural development of chapter 48. There is certainly a little interval of time implied between the two-the time during which it became apparent that the opportunity to leave Babylon would not be taken advantage of by all Israel, and that the nation’s redemption must be a moral as well as a political one. But Isa 49:1-9 comes out of chapters 40-48, and it is impossible to believe that in it we are not still under the influence of the same author.
A similar coherence is apparent if we look to the other end of Isa 49:1-9. Here it is evident that Jehovahs commission to the Servant concludes with Isa 49:9 a; but then its closing words, “Say to the bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves,” start fresh thoughts about the redeemed on their way back (Isa 49:9-13); and these thoughts naturally lead on to a picture of Jerusalem imagining herself forsaken, and amazed by the appearance of so many of her children before her (Isa 49:14-21). Promises to her and to them follow in due sequence down to Isa 50:3, when the Servant resumes his soliloquy about himself, but abruptly, and in no apparent connection with what immediately precedes. His soliloquy ceases in Isa 50:9, and another voice, probably that of God Himself, urges obedience to the Servant (Isa 50:10), and judgment to the sinners in Israel (Isa 50:11); and chapter 51 is an address to the spiritual Israel, and to Jerusalem, with thoughts much the same as those uttered in Isa 49:14-26; Isa 50:1-3.
In face of these facts, and taking into consideration the dramatic form in which the whole prophecy is cast, we find ourselves unable to say that there is anything which is incompatible with a single authorship, or which makes it impossible for the two passages on the Servant to have originally sprung, each at the place at which it now stands, from the progress of the prophets thoughts.
Babylon is left behind, and the way of the Lord is prepared in the desert. Israel have once more the title-deeds to their own land, and Zion looms in sight. Yet with their face to home, and their heart upon freedom, the voice of this people, or at least of the better half of this people, rises first upon the conscience of their duty to the rest of mankind.
Hearken, O Isles, unto Me;
And listen, O Peoples, from far!
From the womb Jehovah hath called me,
From my mothers midst mentioned my name.
And He set my mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand did He hide me;
Yea, He made me a pointed arrow.
In His quiver He laid me in store,
And said to me, My Servant art thou,
Israel, in whom I shall break into glory.
And I-I said, In vain have I laboured,
For waste and for wind my strength have I spent!
Surely my rights with Jehovah,
And the meed of my work with my God!
But now, saith Jehovah-
Moulding me from the womb to be His own Servant,
To turn again Jacob towards Him,
And that Israel be not destroyed.
And I am of honour in the eyes of Jehovah,
And my God is my strength.
And He saith, Tis too light for thy being My Servant,
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
Or gather the survivors of Israel.
So I will set thee a light of the Nations,
To be My salvation to the end of the earth.
Thus saith Jehovah, Israels Redeemer, his Holy,
To this mockery of a life, abhorrence of a nation,
Servant of tyrants,
Kings shall behold and shall stand up,
Princes shall also do homage,
For the sake of Jehovah, who shows Himself faithful,
Holy of Israel, and thou art His chosen.
Thus saith Jehovah,
In a favourable time I have given thee answer,
In the day of salvation have helped thee,
To keep thee, to give thee for covenant of the people,
To raise up the land,
To give back the heirs to the desolate heirdoms,
Saying to the bounden,
Go forth!
To them that are in darkness,
Appear!
“Who is so blind as not to perceive that the consciousness of the Servant here is only a mirror in which the history of Israel is reflected-first, in its original call and design that Jehovah should be glorified in it; second, in the long delay and apparent failure of the design, and, thirdly, as the design is now in the present juncture of circumstances and concurrence of events about to be realised?” Yes: but it is Israels calling, native insufficiency, and present duty, as owned by only a part of the people, which, though named by the national name (Isa 49:3), feels itself standing over against the bulk of the nation, whose redemption it is called to work out (Isa 49:8-9) before it takes up its worldwide service. We have already sufficiently discussed this distinction of the Servant from the whole nation, as well as the distinction of the moral work he has to effect in Israels redemption from Babylon, from the political enfranchisement of the nation, which is the work of Cyrus. Let us, then, at once address ourselves to the main features of his consciousness of his mission to mankind. We shall find these features to be three. The Servant owns for his chief end the glory of God; and he feels that he has to glorify God in two ways-by Speech, and by Suffering.
I. THE SERVANT GLORIFIES GOD
He did say to me, My servant art thou,
Israel, in whom I shall break into glory.
The Hebrew verb, which the Authorised Version translates “will be glorified,” means to “burst forth, become visible,” break like the dawn into splendour. This is the scriptural sense of Glory. Glory is God become visible. As we put it in Book I, glory is the expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. But, in order to become visible, the Absolute and Holy God needs mortal man. We have felt something like a paradox in these prophecies. Nowhere else is God lifted up so absolute, and so able to effect all by His mere will and word; yet nowhere else are a human agency and service so strongly asserted as indispensable to the Divine purpose. But this is no more a paradox than the fact that physical light needs some material in which to become visible. Light is never revealed of itself, but always when shining from, or burning in, something else. To be seen, light requires a surface that will reflect, or a substance that will consume. And so, to “break into glory,” God requires something outside Himself. A responsive portion of humanity is indispensable to Him, -a people who will reflect Him and spend itself for Him. Man is the mirror and the wick of the Divine. God is glorified in mans character and witness, -these are His mirror; and in mans sacrifice, -that is His wick.
And so we meet again the central truth of our prophecy, that in order to serve men it is necessary first to be used of God. We must place ourselves at the disposal of the Divine, we must let God shine on us and kindle us, and break into glory through us, before we can hope either to comfort mankind or to set them on fire. It is true that ideas very different from this prevail among the ranks of the servants of humanity in our day. A large part of our most serious literature professes for its main bearing this conclusion, that the fellowship between man and man, which has been the principle of development, social and moral, is not dependent upon conceptions of what is not man, and that the idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of a goodness entirely human.” But such theories are possible only so long as the still unexhausted influence of religion upon society continues to supply human nature, directly or indirectly, with a virtue which may be plausibly claimed for human natures own original product. Let religion be entirely withdrawn, and the question, Whence comes virtue? will be answered by virtue ceasing to come at all. The savage imagines that it is the burning-glass which sets the bush on fire, and as long as the sun is shining it may be impossible to convince him that he is wrong; but a dull day will teach even his mind that the glass can do nothing without the sun upon it. And so, though men may talk glibly against God, while society still shines in the light of His countenance, yet, if they and society resolutely withdraw themselves from that light, they shall certainly lose every heat and lustre of the spirit which is indispensable for social service. On this the ancient Greek was at one with the ancient Hebrew. “Enthusiasm” is just “God breaking into glory” through a human life. Here lies the secret of the buoyancy and “freshness of the earlier world,” whether pagan or Hebrew, and by this may be understood the depression and pessimism which infect modern society. They had God in their blood, and we are anemic. “But I, I said, I have laboured in vain; for waste and for wind have I spent my strength.” We must all say that, if our last word is “our strength.” But let this not be our last word. Let us remember the sufficient answer: “Surely my right is with the Lord, and the meed of my work with my God. We are set, not in our own strength or for our own advantage, but with the hand of God upon us, and that the Divine life may “break into glory though our life. Carlyle said, and it was almost his last testimony,” The older I grow, and I am now on the brink of eternity, the more comes back to me the first sentence of the catechism, which I learned when a child, and the fuller does its meaning grow “What is the chief end of man? Mans chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
It was said above, that, as light breaks to visibleness either from a mirror or a wick, so God “breaks to glory” either from the witness of men, -that is His mirror, -or from their sacrifice-that is His wick. Of both of these ways of glorifying God is the Servant conscious. His service is Speech and Sacrifice, Prophecy and Martyrdom.
II. THE SERVANT AS PROPHET
Concerning his service of Speech, the Servant speaks in these two passages – Isa 49:2 and Isa 50:4-5 :
He set my mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand did He hide me,
And made me a pointed arrow;
In his quiver He laid me in store.
My Lord Jehovah hath given me
The tongue of the learners,
To know how to succour the weary with words.
He wakeneth morning by morning,
He wakeneth mine ear
To hear as the learners.
My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear.
I was not rebellious,
Nor turned away backward.
At the bidding of our latest prophet we have become suspicious of the power of speech, and the goddess of eloquence walks, as it were, under surveillance among us. Carlyle reiterated, “All speech and rumour is short-lived, foolish, untrue. Genuine work alone is eternal. The talent of silence is our fundamental one. The dumb nations are the builders of the world.” Under such doctrine some have grown intolerant of words, and the ideal of today tends to become the practical man rather than the prophet. Yet, as somebody has said, Carlyle makes us dissatisfied with preaching only by preaching himself; and you have but to read him with attention to discover that his disgust with human speech is consistent with an immense reverence for the voice as an instrument of service to humanity. “The tongue of man,” he says, “is a sacred organ. Man himself is definable in philosophy as an Incarnate Word; the Word not there, you have no man there either, but a Phantasm instead.”
Let us examine our own experience upon the merits of this debate between Silence and Speech in the service of man. Though beginning low, it will help us quickly to the height of the experience of the Prophet Nation, who, with naught else for the world but the voice that was in them, accomplished the greatest service that the world has ever received from her children.
One thing is certain, -that Speech has not the monopoly of falsehood or of any other presumptuous sin. Silence does not only mean ignorance, -by some supposed to be the heaviest sin of which Silence can be guilty, -but many things far worse than ignorance, like unreadiness, and cowardice, and falsehood, and treason, and base consent to what is evil. No man can look back on his past life, however lowly or limited his sphere may have been, and fail to see that not once or twice his supreme duty was a word, and his guilt was not to have spoken it. We all have known the shame of being straitened in prayer or praise; the shame of being, through our cowardice to bear witness, traitors to the truth; the shame of being too timid to say No to the tempter, and speak out the brave reasons of which the heart was full; the shame of finding ourselves incapable of uttering the word that would have kept a soul from taking the wrong turning in life; the shame, when truth, clearness, and authority were required from us, of being able only to stammer or to mince or to rant. To have been dumb before the ignorant or the dying, before a questioning child or before the tempter, -this, the frequent experience of our common life, is enough to justify Carlyle when he said, “If the Word is not there, you have no man there either, but a Phantasm instead.”
Now, when we look within ourselves we see the reason of this. We perceive that the one fact, which amid the mystery and chaos of our inner life gives certainty and light, is a fact which is a Voice. Our nature may be wrecked and dissipated, but conscience is always left; or in ignorance and gloom, but conscience is always audible: or with all the faculties strong and assertive, yet conscience is still unquestionably queen, -and conscience is a Voice. It is a still, small voice, which is the surest thing in man, and the noblest; which makes all the difference in his life; which lies at the back and beginning of all his character and conduct. And the most indispensable, and the grandest service, therefore, which a man can do his fellow-men, is to get back to this voice, and make himself its mouthpiece and its prophet. What work is possible till the word be spoken? Did ever order come to social life before there was first uttered the command, in which men felt the articulation and enforcement of the ultimate voice within themselves? Discipline and instruction and energy have not appeared without speech going before them. Knowledge and faith and hope do not dawn of themselves; they travel, as light issued forth in the beginning, upon the pulses of the speaking breath.
It was the greatness of Israel to be conscious of their call as a nation to this fundamental service of humanity. Believing in the Word of God as the original source of all things, -“In the beginning God said, Let there be light; and there was light,”-they had the conscience that, as it had been in the physical world, so must it always be in the moral. Men were to be served and their lives to be moulded by the Word. God was to be glorified by letting His Word break through the life and the lips of men. There was in the Old Testament, it is true, a triple ideal of manhood: “prophet, priest, and king.” But the greatest of these was the prophet, for king and priest had to be prophets too. Eloquence was a royal virtue, -with persuasion, the power of command, and swift judgment. Among the seven spirits of the Lord which Isaiah sees descending in the King-to-Come is the spirit of counsel, and he afterwards adds of the King: “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Similarly, the priests had originally been the ministers, not so much of sacrifice, as of the revealed Word of God. And now the new and high ideal of priesthood, the laying down of ones life a sacrifice for God and for the people, was not the mere imitation of the animal victim required by the priestly law, but was the natural development of the prophetic experience. It was (as we shall presently see) the prophet, who, in his inevitable sufferings on behalf of the truth he uttered, developed that consciousness of sacrifice for others, in which the loftiest priesthood consists. Prophecy, therefore, the Service of Men by the Word of God, was for Israel the highest and most essential of all service. It was the individuals and it was the nations ideal. As there was no true king and no true priest, so there was no true man, without the Word. “Would to God,” said Moses, “that all the Lords people were prophets.” And in our prophecy Israel exclaims: “Listen, O Isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples from far. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me.”
At first it seems a forlorn hope thus to challenge the attention of the world in a dialect of one of its most obscure provinces, -a dialect, too, that was already ceasing to be spoken even there. But the fact only serves more forcibly to emphasise the belief of these prophets, that the word committed to what they must have known to be a dying language was the Word of God Himself, -bound to render immortal the tongue in which it was spoken, bound to re-echo to the ends of the earth, bound to touch the conscience and commend itself to the reason of universal humanity. We have already seen, and will again see, how our prophet insists upon the creative and omnipotent power of Gods Word; so we need not dwell longer on this instance of his faith. Let us look rather at what he expresses as Israels preparation for the teaching of it.
To him the discipline and qualification of the prophet nation-and that means of every Servant of God-in the high office of the Word, are threefold.
1. First, he lays down the supreme condition of Prophecy, that behind the Voice there must be the Life. Before he speaks of his gifts of Speech, the Servant emphasises his peculiar and consecrated life. “From the womb Jehovah called me, from my mothers midst mentioned my name.” Now, as we all know, Israels message to the world was largely Israels life. The Old Testament is not a set of dogmas, nor a philosophy, nor a vision; but a history, the record of a providence, the testimony of experience, the utterances called forth by historical occasions from a life conscious of the purpose for which God has called it and set it apart through the ages. But these words, which the prophet nation uses, were first used of an individual prophet. Like so much else in “Second Isaiah,” we find a suggestion of them in the call of Jeremiah. “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth from the womb I consecrated thee: I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.” {Jer 1:5} A prophet is not a voice only. A prophet is a life behind a voice. He who would speak for God must have lived for God. According to the profound insight of the Old Testament, speech is not the expression of a few thoughts of a man, but the utterance of his whole life. A man blossoms through his lips; and no man is a prophet, whose word is not the virtue and the flower of a gracious and a consecrated life.
2. The second discipline of the prophet is the Art of Speech. “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me: He hath made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He laid me in store.” It is very evident that in these words the Servant does not only recount technical qualifications, but a moral discipline as well. The edge and brilliance of his speech are stated as the effect of solitude, but of a solitude that was at the same time a nearness to God. Now solitude is a great school of eloquence. In speaking of the Semitic race, of which Israel was part, we pointed out that, prophet-race of the world as it has proved, it sprang from the desert, and nearly all its branches have inherited the deserts clear and august style of speech; for, in the leisure and serene air of the desert, men speak as they speak nowhere else. But Israel speaks of a solitude that was the shadow of Gods hand and the fastness of Gods quiver; a seclusion which, to the deserts art of eloquence, added a special inspiration by God, and a special concentration upon His main purpose in the world. The desert sword felt the grasp of God; He laid the Semitic shaft in store for a unique end.
3. But in Isa 50:4-5, the Servant unfolds the most beautiful and true understanding of the Secret of Prophecy that ever was unfolded in any literature, -worth quoting again by us, if so we may get it by heart.
My Lord Jehovah hath given me
The tongue of the learners,
To know how to succour the weary with words.
He wakeneth, morning by morning
He wakeneth mine ear
To hear as the learners.
My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear,
I was not rebellious,
Nor turned away backward.
The prophet, say these beautiful lines, learns his speech, as the little child does, by listening. Grace is poured upon the lips through the open ear. It is the lesson of our Lords Ephphatha. When He took the deaf man with the impediment in his speech aside from the multitude privately, He said unto him, not Be loosed, but, “Be opened; and” first “his ears were opened, and” then the “bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.” To speak, then, the prophet must listen; but mark to what he must listen! The secret of his eloquence lies not in the hearing of thunder, nor in the knowledge of mysteries, but in a daily wakefulness to the lessons and experience of common life. “Morning by morning He openeth mine ear.” This is very characteristic of Hebrew prophecy and Hebrew wisdom, which listened for the truth of God in the voices of each day, drew their parables from things the rising sun lights up to every wakeful eye, and were, in the bulk of their doctrine, the virtues, needed day by day, of justice, temperance, and mercy, and in the bulk of their judgments the results of everyday observation and experience. The strength of the Old Testament lies in this its realism, its daily vigilance and experience of life. It is its contact with life-the life, not of the yesterday of its speakers, but of their today-that makes its voice so fresh and helpful to the weary. He whose ear is daily open to the music of his current life will always find himself in possession of words that refresh and stimulate.
But serviceable speech needs more than attentiveness and experience. Having gained the truth, the prophet must be obedient and loyal to it. Yet obedience and loyalty to the truth are the beginnings of martyrdom, of which the Servant now goes on to speak as the natural and immediate consequence of his prophecy.
III. THE SERVANT AS MARTYR
The classes of men who suffer physical ill-usage at the hands of their fellow-men may roughly be described as three, -the Military Enemy, the Criminal, and the Prophet; and of these three we have only to read history to know that the Prophet fares by far the worst. However fatal mens treatment of their enemies in war or of their criminals may be, it is, nevertheless, subject to a certain order, code of honour, or principle of justice. But in all ages the Prophet has been the target for the most licentious spite and cruelty; for torture, indecency, and filth past belief. Although our own civilisation has outlived the system of physical punishment for speech, we even yet see philosophers and statesmen, who have used no weapons but exposition and persuasion, treated by their opponents who would speak of a foreign enemy with respect-with execration, gross epithets, vile abuse, and insults, that the offenders would not pour upon a criminal. If we have this under our own eyes, let us think how the Prophet must have fared before humanity learned to meet speech by speech. Because men attacked it, not with the sword of the invader or with the knife of the assassin, but with words, therefore (till not very long ago) society let loose upon them the foulest indignities and most horrible torments. Socrates valour as a soldier did not save him from the malicious slander, the false witness, the unjust trial, and the poison, with which the Athenians answered his speech against themselves. Even Hypatias womanhood did not awe the mob from tearing her to pieces for her teaching. This unique and invariable experience of the Prophet is summed up and clenched in the name Martyr. Martyr originally meant a witness or witness-bearer, but now it is the synonym for every shame and suffering which the cruel ingenuity of mens black hearts can devise for those they hate. A Book of Battles is horrible enough, but at least valour and honour have kept down in it the baser passions. A Newgate Chronicle is ugly enough, but there at least are discipline and a hospital You have got to go to a Book of Martyrs to see to what sourness, wickedness, malignity, pitilessness, and ferocity mens hearts can lend themselves. There is something in the mere utterance of truth, that rouses the very devil in the hearts of many men.
Thus it had always been in Israel, nation not only of prophets, but of the slayers of prophets. According to Christ, prophet-slaying was the ineradicable habit of Israel. “Ye are the sons of them that slew the prophets O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets and stoner of them that are sent unto her!” To them who bare it the word of Jehovah had always been “a reproach”: cause of estrangement, indignities, torments, and sometimes of death. Up to the time of our prophet there had been the following notable sufferers for the Word: Elijah, Micaiah the son of Imlah; Isaiah, if the story be true that he was slain by Manasseh; but nearer, more lonely, and more heroic than all, Jeremiah, a “laughing-stock” and “mockery,” “reviled,” “smitten,” fettered, and condemned to death. In words which recall the experience of so many individual Israelites, and most of which were used by Jeremiah of himself, the Servant of Jehovah describes his martyrdom in immediate consequence from his prophecy.
And I-I was not rebellious,
Nor turned away backward.
My back I have given to the smiters,
And my cheek to tormentors;
My face I hid not from insults and spitting.
These are not national sufferings. They are no reflection of the hard usage which the captive Israel suffered from Babylon. They are the reflection of the reproach and pains, which, for the sake of Gods word, individual Israelites more than once experienced from their own nation. But if individual experience, and not national, formed the original of this picture of the Servant as Martyr, then surely we have in this another strong reason against the objection to recognise in the Servant at last an individual. It may be, of course, that for the moment our prophet feels that this frequent experience of individuals in Israel is to be realised by the faithful Israel, as a whole, in their treatment by the rest of their cruel and unspiritual countrymen. But the very fact that individuals have previously fulfilled this martyrdom in the history of Israel, surely makes it possible for our prophet to foresee that the Servant, who is to fulfil it again, shall also be an individual.
But, returning from this slight digression on the person of the Servant to his fate, let us emphasise again, that his sufferings came to him as the result of his prophesying. The Servants sufferings are not penal, they are not yet felt to be vicarious. They are simply the reward with which obdurate Israel met all her prophets, the inevitable martyrdom which followed on the uttering of Gods Word. And in this the Servants experience forms an exact counterpart to that of our Lord. For to Christ also reproach and agony and death-whatever higher meaning they evolved-came as the result of His Word. The fact that Jesus suffered as our great High Priest must not make us forget that His sufferings fell upon Him because He was a Prophet. He argued explicitly He must suffer, because so suffered the prophets before Him. He put Himself in the line of the martyrs: as they had killed the servants, He said, so would they kill the Son. Thus it happened. His enemies sought “to entangle Him in His talk”: it was for His talk they brought Him to trial. Each torment and indignity which the Prophet-Servant relates, Jesus suffered to the letter. They put Him to shame and insulted Him; His helpless hands were bound; they spat in His face and smote Him with their palms; they mocked and they reviled Him; scourged Him again; teased and tormented Him; hung Him between thieves; and to the last the ribald jests went up, not only from the soldiers and the rabble, but from the learned and the religious authorities as well, to whom His fault had been that He preached another word than their own. The literal fulfillments of our prophecy are striking, but the main fulfilment, of which they are only incidents, is, that like the Servant, our Lord suffered directly as a Prophet. He enforced and He submitted to the essential obligation, which lies upon the true Prophet, of suffering for the Words sake. Let us remember to carry this over with us to our final study of the Suffering Servant as the expiation for sin.
In the meantime, we have to conclude the Servants appearance as Martyr in chapter 1. He has accepted his martyrdom; but he feels it is not the end with him. God will bring him through, and vindicate him in the eyes of the world, For the world, in their usual way, will say that because he gives them a new truth he must be wrong, and because he suffers he is surely guilty and cursed before God. But he will not let himself be confounded, for God is his help and advocate.
But My Lord Jehovah shall help me;
Therefore, I let not myself be rebuffed:
Therefore, I set my face like a flint,
And know that I shall not be shamed.
Near is my Justifier; who will dispute with
Let us stand up together!
Who is mine adversary?
Let him draw near me.
Lo! my Lord Jehovah shall help me;
Who is he that condemns me?
Lo! like a garment all of them rot,
The moth doth devour them.
These lines, in which the Holy Servant, the Martyr of the Word, defies the world and asserts that God shall vindicate his innocence, are taken by Paul and used to assert the justification, which every believer enjoys through faith in the sufferings of Him who was indeed the Holy Servant of God.
The last two verses of chapter 50 (Isa 50:10-11) are somewhat difficult. The first of them still speaks of the Servant, and distinguishes him-a distinction we must note and emphasise-from the God-fearing in Israel.
Who is among you that feareth Jehovah,
That hearkens the voice of His Servant,
That walks in dark places,
And light he has none?
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah,
And lean on his God.
That is, every pious believer in Israel is to take the Servant for an example; for the Servant in distress “leans upon his God.” And so Pauls application of the Servants words to the individual believer is a correct one. But if our prophet is able to think of the Servant as an example to the individual Israelite, that surely is a thought not very far from the conception of the Servant himself as an individual.
If Isa 50:10 is addressed to the pious in Israel, Isa 50:11 would seem to turn with a last word-as the last words of the discourses in Second Isaiah so often turn-to the wicked in Israel.
Lo! all you, players with fire,
That gird you with firebrands!
Walk in the light of your fire,
In the firebrands ye kindled.
This from my hand shall be yours;
Ye shall lie down in sorrow.
It is very difficult to know who are meant by this warning. An old and almost forgotten interpretation is that the prophet meant those exiles who played with the fires of political revolution, instead of abiding the deliverance of the Lord. But there is now current among exegetes the more general interpretation that these incendiaries are the revilers and abusers of the Servant within Israel: for so the Psalms speak of the slingers of burning words at the righteous. We must notice, however, that the metaphor stands over against those in Israel who “walk in dark places and have no light.” In contrast to that kind of life, this may be the kind that coruscates with vanity, flashes with pride, or burns and scorches with its evil passions. We have a similar name for such a life. We call it a display of fireworks. The prophet tells them, who depend on nothing but their own false fires, how transient these are, how quickly quenched.
But is it not weird, that on our prophets stage, however brilliantly its centre shines with figures of heroes and deeds of salvation, there should always be this dark, lurid background of evil and accursed men?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary