Isaiah 50: 1 – 11
Don’t Blame Me
1 Thus says the LORD: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away. 2 Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” 4 “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. 6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. 7 “For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. 8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together.Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. 9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up. 10 “Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God. 11 Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment.
Is it me? I do not know about you and your life, maybe if you are a Pastor, you can relate to this condition I always go through. It never fails that when I focus on a certain chapter of the bible our Holy Master brings a live experience to me in what I am studying.
Please notice the title as ‘Don’t Blame Me.’ Off the top of your head who do you think Is the One Who Is Being Blamed. Well, if you are reading this and not just listening to this I have given you a hint by capitalizing some words. Yes, it represents our Great and Holy God.
Towards the end of our last chapter we see that the Israelites instead of understanding that all their hardships were a direct result of their sinful lives, they sulked about to the point of blaming God. Now I need to remind you and me that when we point our fingers at someone else’s faults we are pointing three fingers back at ourselves.
Oh yeah, I want to share how our Lord brought this lesson actively into my life 20 minutes before I got into this lesson. A guy called me and was crying how he is having a hard time even coping living. He informed me that he was away from God but has been actively trying to walk with God.
After listening a half hour to all his woes I asked if there might be something that he can point out as a reason for his gloom and depression. He pointed out that he had sex with a woman other than his fiancé. He felt guilty and told her what he had done. End of story, right? Not quite. You see he has been living with his fiancé for the last three years - so much for walking with the Lord.
Without beating him up too much I told him that he was doing what many people do. He is trying to make God his emergency God. He is doing his own things outside of any relationship with God, and now that it all has hit the fan, he is going through this ritual like he wants God to be actively in his life. This is not the truth. What he really wants is for God to fix this problem that he created.
No one can be totally walking with the Lord for we are all sinners. The bible tells us that there is no one good. All have turned away from our Creator. If we say we do not sin we call God a liar.
It is for us to continue to try to do all things right even though we will fail. God understands this and through His Love continues to direct us. It is the phonies, the hypocrites who are self deceived. They live in a fantasy land where they do not think the Omniscience Holy Ruler does not see or understand the game they are playing.
This is the reality that our Wonderful Holy Spirit drives home not only to the Israelites but also for us all so we can learn and correct the same things in our own personal lives.
Our Great and Wonderful Holy Father Adoni Yahweh now rebukes His people. He points out that their failure to enjoy His blessings cannot be laid at His door. He has not turned away from them and divorced them. He has not sold them off as a creditor sells off his children. Their present position and condition is entirely due to their own fault.
Indeed His power is not diminished at all. He is still powerful enough to dry up the sea with a rebuke, as He did in Egypt, and make the rivers a wilderness as He did to the Assyrian forces around Jerusalem, and will do to Assyria and Babylon. Note how this is the very opposite of what He has promised for His people. Such language refers as much to blessing and judgment, as it does to natural events. Overflowing water means blessing, drought means judgment.
The problem is rather that there is no one on whom He can call who will respond to His words. There is no one on whom He can rely, through whom He can deliver them. God is looking for a man to stand in the gap.
1 Thus says the LORD: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
Our Holy Ruler God now points out that it is not He who has divorced them, it is they who have gone away from Him as a result of their sins, through their iniquities and transgressions. It is not He Who has sold them in order to pay off His debts, it is they who have sold themselves to sin.
We see here the thought and complaint brought out in chapter 49 verse 14 is now being dealt with, the suggestion that Yahweh had forgotten Zion and treated her badly. Yahweh stresses that firstly He has not divorced the children of Jacob’s mother, the stem of Jacob. They have simply been separated from Him for a while. The covenant has not been finally cancelled, only suspended.
Secondly, His children have not been sold off to pay His creditors. A creditor had rights against a debtor to obtain payment by the sale of a man’s children. But Yahweh has no creditors. He has no need to sell off His children. Any suggestion therefore that He has been unfair or blameworthy is false. The reason why they were ‘sold’ into enemy hands was rather because of their iniquities (the wickedness of the inner heart), and their mother was put away because of her sins, her transgressions (outward disobedience and rebellion). All the blame lies with them.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”
Indeed the opposite situation pertains. When He came and sought for a man to assist Him, there was no man. And when He called for response there was no answer. It was they who had forgotten Him. He had wanted to save and deliver. He had wanted to buy them back. He had the means to do so. His hand was not too short, His power was not so limited. But what was lacking was a man, the right man. There had been no man willing to facilitate the task. That was the reason that things were as they are.
The idea of God calling for a man takes us back to man’s beginnings when God walked in the Garden and called to a man. Then there was an answer, but it was, alas, the wrong one. There was no right answer. There was no one to say, ‘Here I am’. And that is the point here, that God was looking for the right answer. But, alas, there was no answer.
God then reminds them that there was no reason to doubt that He had the power. His power to redeem and deliver had been revealed in the past, when He dried up the sea for Israel to pass through at the Exodus. When He makes the rivers a wilderness all the fish stink and die. This was true in Egypt, it will also be true for Assyria and especially Babylon. In Egypt the heavens became pitch black so that a man could not see his fellow, and they were covered as with sackcloth because of what was happening.
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, 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.
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, Together all this results 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. There is only One Who can go through what this one has to go through, God’s anointed.
4 “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned.
The Servant 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. And the aim of the teaching is that He may be able to sustain the weary with words.
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. 6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
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 our Lord Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Mark 8 verse 3 and 10 verse 34, ‘the Son of Man must suffer many things -- and they will mock Him, and will spit on Him, and will scourge Him’. 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 chapter 49 verse 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 our Lord 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.
7 “For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore 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. 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.
8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together.Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.
He recognizes 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
If you look back to chapter 6 verse 5 of Isaiah, we can contrast his confidence with Isaiah’s ‘woe is me for I am undone’. Isaiah’s recognized that he could not defend himself. He constantly identified himself as being included among the sinful. We now see a One who Is greater than Isaiah. This true ‘man’ can declare Himself to be without sin.
9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up.
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? 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.
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, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember his words from the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 46 – ‘which of you can convict me of sin?’
10 “Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God.
Isaiah now makes his appeal to those who fear Yahweh and obey the voice of His Servant. They walk in darkness, the way seems dark before them, everything is black before them, there seems to be no light. However they must trust God in the dark. They must trust in the name of Yahweh and stand fast on God no matter what. The secret of deliverance is to hear the voice of Yahweh’s Servant and to trust in Yahweh Himself. Isaiah had already told us the method in chapter 30 of his book, ‘when you walk this path and turn away, you will hear a voice behind you say, ‘walk here’”.
11 Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment
Here our Lord admits that our natural bent is to do things ourselves. As such we do not accept his fire we attempt to make our own. Our Holy Creator’s use of fire is amazing. Flames are destructive not constructive. You continue to mess around you way and not God’s you will get burnt.
