The Servant Who Hears God's Voice (Isaiah 50:4-11) Series

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So that's our passage for today. What I'd like to do for an application today, is reflect on what the prophet says about hearing God's voice. I know that this is something that some of you do without any problem. You go through life on a regular basis, hearing from God. And I don't mean that you hear when you open your Bibles and do devotions. I mean, God talks to you about all sorts of things, even when your Bible is closed. Prayer, for you, is very much a two-way communication.

But for others of us, that's not really how our relationship with God works. We pray to God, and tell him all sorts of things. But we only really hear God when we open our Bibles. We'd like to hear God-- we think that'd be great-- but what we expect, is that we live by faith. And what we take "living by faith" to mean, is that we live without ever hearing God, or seeing God. "Living in faith" means living in a world where we don't get to see spiritual realities (Numbers 22:31; 2 Kings 6:17-20), and where we don't hear God. We are perhaps open to the idea that a few Christians have the privilege of hearing God's voice. There are maybe Samuels out there who God calls in the middle of the night, and they answer by saying "Speak Lord, your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:10). There are maybe prophets out there today, and other servants, who have God wake up their ears every morning, and who have God give them a fresh word for that day-- either for themselves, or for those they serve. It's possible. It can't be conclusively ruled out. But many of us don't expect that it's possible for us. It's certainly not been our experience, up to now. Is that fair?

With this in mind, let's reread verses 4-5:

(4) The Lord (Adonai) Yahweh has given me the tongue of the learned ones,

that I would know how to help the tired/weary (Isaiah 40:28, 30, 31; 44:12) with a word.

He wakes up every morning;

In the morning He wakes up for me an ear, [cf. Ezekiel 12:8; 24:15; 33:22]

so that I would listen as/like the learned ones.

(5) The Lord Yahweh has opened for me an ear,

while I was not rebellious.

Let me repeat what I said earlier:

What we see in this verse is that there is a category of people who can be identified as being God's disciples, or learned ones. These are the ones who have two qualities:

(1) They've been given the gift from God, of having the type of tongue that can comfort the suffering. This tongue is given by God.

(2) They are able to hear God's voice. Every day, God wakes up the prophet's ears, so that he is able to hear God speak to him.

God has put the prophet in this category of disciples. He wasn't always there. But now he is.

The prophet doesn't view himself as being a one in a million kind of servant. He doesn't view himself as being an odd duck, or unique at all. He views himself as being in the category of the learned. He's part of the group, who hear God. In that respect, he's like all sorts of people in God's history-- like Adam, Eve, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Balaam, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, all the prophets. When we read the OT, paying attention to the times when God speaks, and people listen, it starts to feel after a while like everyone hears God. Everyone's in this group of the learned.