ISAIAH 50: 4-11
THE SUFFERING SERVANT’S TRUST
[Mark 15:16-20]
Following God’s declaration that He will deliver His people from their transgressions and rebellions begins the third (42:1-9 & 49:1-7) Servant Sermon in Isaiah. This obedient and faithful Servant’s life is centered on obeying God’s Word. The Servant’s obedience to God leads to physical and emotional suffering. Yet through it all the Servant holds to God’s trustworthiness. Then this Servant invites God’s disciples to trust God and walk in His Word even in the darkness.
God’ disciples are to receive instruction daily. Even in periods of darkness, the disciple is to submit to the suffering (hardships such as lashings and insults) encountered because of his faithfulness to God (unlike the rebellious ones spoken of in 30:8-14). This faithful disciple receives God’s strengthening in and through his suffering (for YAHWEH is there to help).
I. IN-DEPTH DISCIPLESHIP, 4-6.
II. ENCOURAGEMENT TO CONTINUE, 7-9.
III. HOPE OR WARNING, 10-11.
Verse 4 gives a especial function and the sustenance of the Servant. The LORD God has given Me the tongue of disciples (or the learned), 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.
The Servant was to declare God’s Word to the world but first the Servant had to have a sustaining word from the LORD. He had such a word because each morning He listened to God’s Word for a fresh word. It is God’s holy Word that sustains the weary. God trains us to minister His Word through thoughtful daily meditation on His Word. A disciple is one intimately acquainted with the master and has learned what the master knows. The disciple learns from the master through the crucible of life.
These words are written prophetically about the Lord Jesus. “The tongue of a disciple"can be rendered, one who has disciplined himself to learn. The secret of spiritual advancement is a willingness to be taught by God. We must open our heart and mind and spirit to Him. We must have a way and open the way for divine impressions to reach us. When we fancy that we know all we need to know, we become so set in our ideas that God finds it almost impossible to get anything different than we think across to us.
Unteachableness is a barrier to progress If a person will not learn what possibility has he of advancing? May God deliver us from our reluctance to accept instruction! To receive through whatever means, humbly and without hesitation, whatever He desires to teach us is how we prosper in the school of Christ.
[Far too many people just talk even when they have nothing of value to say. That is not wise and certainly not intelligent. Albert Einstein was the featured speaker at a dinner given at Swarthmore College. When it came time for him to speak, he astonished everyone by standing up and announcing, "I have nothing to say." Then he sat down.
A few moments later he stood up and added, "In case I have something to say, I will come back and say it." Six months later he sent a message to the president of the college: "Now I have something to say." Another dinner was held and he gave his speech.
Perhaps you have had opportunities "to speak a word in season" to those who are weary, but you didn’t feel as if you had anything to say. If so, follow the example of the Servant of the Lord, the promised Messiah, whom we read about in Isaiah 50:4-10. Because He listened to God’s Word and obeyed what He heard, He had a message to give to others.
Open God’s Word with an eagerness to learn and do what He tells you to do. Think of the Lord, as present and speaking to you, disclosing His mind and emotions and will. Meditate on His words till you know what He is saying.
Then, as the Servant discovered, in time God will give you "the tongue of the learned". If you listen to the Lord, you’ll have something worth saying. Open your ears to God before you open your mouth to others.]
This Servant of the Lord who was willing to pay the cost of discipleship. Discipleship is costly because of what it requires from us. A disciple is to be open and teachable. Being open to the truth is a quality of all godly men. How can we learn if we are closed-minded? Like Isaiah’s servant, we can remain receptive to whatever God has for us. The servant has an open ear and mind.
[But this matter can go awry if we are not careful. Right after the Civil War, a host of people became teachers because they thought teaching was an easy way of making a living. In his autobiography, Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington tells about one of these fellows. This man went from village to village teaching a little and receiving pay for it. In one town the people asked if he taught that the earth is round or flat. The teacher replied that he was prepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round, according to the preference of a majority of his patrons. Truth by survey. A true disciple is teachable but not gullible. To avoid being gullible you must open your mind and your heart to Christ.]
Because of a servant’s discipleship he know what to say to sustain the weary.
THE POWER OF A COMPLIMENT
Helen Mrosla writes: In an earlier grade, I’d taped Mark’s mouth shut for talking too much in class. Now he was a student in my junior high school math class.
His class had worked hard all week. By Friday the students were getting cranky. So, for a break, I asked them to write the nicest thing they could about every student and hand it in. She compiled the results for each student and gave out the lists.
Several years later, Mark was killed in Vietnam. After the funeral, most of his former classmates gathered with Mark’s parents and me for lunch. Mark’s father took a wallet out of his pocket. “They found this on Mark when he was killed," he said. He carefully removed a folded, refolded, and taped paper-the one on which she listed the good things Mark’s classmates had said about him.
Another student, Charlie, smiled sheepishly and said, "I keep my list in my desk drawer." Chuck’s wife said, "Chuck put his in our wedding album." "I have mine, too," Marilyn said; "in my diary." Vicky reached into her pocketbook and brought out her frazzled list.
May you too learn how to sustain others through being sustain by God’s Word.
[Francis Collins earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Yale university and then entered medical school. During his training at a North Carolina hospital, a dying woman often talked to him about her faith in Christ. He rejected the existence of God, but he couldn’t ignore the woman’s serenity. One day she asked, “What do you believe?" Caught off guard, Collins’ face turned red as he stammered, "I’m not really sure." A few days later the woman died.
Curious and uneasy, the young doctor realized that he had rejected God without adequately examining the evidence. He began to read the Bible and the writings of C. S. Lewis. A year later he fell to his knees and gave his life to Jesus Christ. The catalyst? A sincere question from elderly woman whose physical heart was failing but whose concern for others was strong.
The Lord GOD wants to train us that we might have the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word that sustains the weary. May we be ready with a timely word or a caring question to point others toward our Savior who offers life and peace to all. The next person you meet may need to meet Christ.
Lord, let me be a shining light In all I say and do, That Your great love displayed in me May lead someone to You. -Sper]
Verse 5 declares the Servant’s obedience. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back.
The Servant had a word from God that would sustain the weary not only because He listen to God but also because He was obedient to the Word He heard. He personal knew the effects and growth that comes from following God’s Word. As the Lord taught the Servant how to minister and He did not rebel against that instruction. He obediently followed God’s word to Him. He example for us is worthy one.
Such communion with God led to confidence even in the most difficult situations as verse 6 indicates. I 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.
Part of the Servant’s obedience was to submit to humiliation and abuse. He would confront the world with the truth and the disobedient would rebel.
These rebellious persecutors would torment Him. He even allowed those who persecuted Him to do Him bodily harm. They inflicted the most embarrassing and shameful punishments on Him.
Beatings were for criminals or fools (Prov. 10:13; 19:29; 26:3; Mt. 27:26; Jn. 19:1; Pulling out the beard was a gesture of disrespect and contempt (2 Sam. 10:4-5; Neh. 13:25. Mocking and spitting showed hatred (Job 30:10) or to insult, degrade and disgrace (Dt. 25:9; Job 17:6; Mt. 27:30).
In striking contrast to His rebellious audience and distrustful readers the Servant trusted in God despite of all the persecution and anquish He faced. It is easy to trust God when things are going our way. The proof of real discipleship is if we will be faithful when things and people are against us because we are following God.
Jesus, before He was crucified did not hide His face from shame and spitting. He was beaten, mocked, and whipped (Mark 14:65; 15:16-20). In extremely difficult circumstances, far more difficult than what Isaiah’s original readers were facing, the Servant was obedient and submissive (1 Peter 2:22-23). Jesus didn’t save face. Instead, He gave His face in order to save and sustain us.
[Can you really believe that God loves your and knows what is best and is in control when we walk in darkness? Can I trust God even if I don’t understand?]
Verse 7 tells us how the Servant could endure such wicked treatment. For the Lord God helps Me. Therefore, I am not disgraced. Therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
The Servant submitted to the personalized hardships because He believed God would stand by Him in His innocence. The Servant was convinced that He would be vindicated by the Sovereign Lord who helps Him. Even if it did not seem as if He were winning the visible battle, He was convinced that He was doing God’s will. Why did He not battle back or turn back? Because God helped Him. He believed that God in the end would not let Him be disgraced. Therefore He did not run away but found the strength and encouragement He needed to forge a new path ahead even through such difficult evil circumstances.
The Servant may have been set up for public ridicule but He believed God’s promise that in the end His decision to trust God and be obedient would be proven the right decision. In determination (Lk. 9:51) He forged ahead convinced that in the end He would not be shamed by His choice. [He followed in the path that God had lead His prophets (Jer 1:15; Ezek. 3:9).]
The Servant knew His cause and actions were just. Verse 8; He 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.
Why could Jesus endure the shame, the pulling of His beard, the spiting, the beating, the brutality, the pain, the agony? It was because He believed God’s promise to Him through it all. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that it was for the joy set before Him that He endured the Cross, despising the shame. Amazingly, we, our salvation, our eternal co-existence with Him are the cause of that joy. Bless His wondrous name!
Verse 9 again tells from where His help and confidence came. Behold, 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.
The Servant was aware that those who falsely accused Him will eventually face Him as their Judge and will come to nothing because He depended on God’s help. Like moth-eaten garments, they that condemned Him will perish (51:8). The point is to declare to the Servant’s adversaries who might think He deserved the humiliation and abuse He received that what they seemed to win will become nothing. The unavoidable end of the fabric of their lives would be a slow wasting away into something disgusting. The Servant will inevitably succeed while those who oppose Him will inevitably fail.
III. HOPE OR WARNING, 10-11.
The Servant turns to His listener and exhorts us in verse 10. Who 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.
The Servant now exhorts His followers-those who fear the Lord and obey His Word. He extends hope to those who are in the dark (living in difficult times, possibly even rejection) -to walk by faith, trusting in the . . . Lord. Those who trust in the LORD, as the Servant of the LORD did, will find help if he trust in the character of God and walk in darkness he will have go on in the light of God’s Word.
The test to see if you are on God’s side consists of this question, “Do you obey the Word of the Lord, The Word of His Servant?
Just like us the Servant would have no special light. He had to trust God day by day, morning by morning. Those who follow this Servant may walk with Him into the darkness of frustration, injustice humiliation and abuse. They should continue to trust the Servant. Far too often we equate ease and comfort with following God’s direction. This is not always the case with the Lord’s disciple. Trust God in the darkness and you too find help to become His faithful servant who in the end will not be ashamed.
The boy sobbed, "But Dad, I want my b-all...” "You can play with your ball;’ I said, "but you’ll have to go downstairs and get it yourself:’ Now the tears flowed.
Tony’s playroom held the stuffed animals, toys, and games that four year olds love. He spent hours there. But to turn on the basement light, you had to descend the darkened stairway, step into the shadowy playroom, then reach for the light switch.
"Tony;’ I said. "You know what’s in the playroom. Every thing in there’s the same in the dark as it is in the light."
"B-b-but Dad, he sniffed. "I’m s-s-scared of the dark:’ "Okay;’ I said, "I’ll stay at the top of the stairs so you can hear my voice while you I want my b-ball . . ." go down. How’s that sound?" A grin replaced Tony’s tears. He got up and bravely started down the stairs. Then, partway down into the darkness, I heard him hesitate. "Dad?" he called out. "Yes, Tony?" "Nothing." Seconds later the light was on and Tony was happily throwing a Nerf basketball through a hoop. Simply knowing his father was nearby gave him the courage to face and overcome his fear of the darkness. (The Courage to Be a Christian by Mike Nappa)
Complete the sentence: Sensing God’s presence in my life gives me the courage to face. . . .
Thought to Apply: I’d rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the world’s light; I’d rather walk with Him by faith than walk alone by sight. -Mary Brainard
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). God will give you courage to face and overcome your fears of the darkness.
Of course most will not follow the Servant. God addresses them in verse11. Behold, 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; And you will lie down in torment.
Not all of Israel feared God and obeyed Him even if they could not see the way clearly. They could not believe that a Servant who submitted to suffering and disgrace is who God would chose to bring salvation. God pronounced a sentence upon them. They would be caught in their own wisdom. [Butler, Isaiah, 283].
This warning is to the self-reliant, those who try to illuminate the darkness of their way by their own light. Those who refuse to follow God but look to their own understanding kindle their own fires of destruction. If they insist on walking by their own light they will suffer the fate of those who reject Him. They will lie down in torment (Luke 16:23, 28; Rev. 20:13-15; 21:8). This admonition was directed to those living in Isaiah’s day. But all who refuse to trust the Lord will suffer eternal damnation, in fires of their own kindling.
CONCLUSION / RESPONSE
If we walk by the light of our own understanding and reject God’s light we kindle our own torment. Do not place your faith in your own intelligence or accomplishments instead of God. Trust in the Lord and His Word even when the way seem dark and leads through suffering. Daily communion with the Lord through His Word helps build confidence in God during life’s most difficult times.
How did Jesus have such strength, such wisdom, such trust? How did He know just what to say? Morning by morning, He listened to the Father. We read in Mark 1:35 that He rose up a great while before morning. While others were sleeping, He was seeking His Father. If He needed to that, how much more do you and I.
