Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 50:4-11 | Date: October 13, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles, if you will, to Isaiah—the prophet Isaiah, chapter 50. Continuing our series of Messianic prophecy, I hope you’re getting a sense of how pervasive this is in the Old Testament. And I think I probably will, at the end of this series, go back and do a broad overview to show, again, just how pervasive this idea is and how it is a shaping consideration, even for the canon, for the ordering of the canon. This is the consideration of the Old Testament. And it’s what drives the overall story.

In Isaiah’s prophecy in particular, we are looking at the servant songs. We saw some earlier prophecies—we sampled several of them earlier in the book—but in chapters 42 through 61 we have what we call the servant songs. They’re usually recognized as chapters 42, 49, 50, and 53. But then also we’ll look at Isaiah 61 as well. And here Isaiah the prophet announces the coming of this servant of the Lord who will come to bring justice to the nations. He will perform God’s will for the world and for history. And he’s described in the various ways that we’ve seen, but primarily we’ve seen him as a successful servant who comes to usher in a new age, God’s kingdom, and bring justice to the nations and so on.

Now, we still have that in view, but when we come to chapter 50, we’re going to see a little bit different angle of how to look at the servant. The servant song itself is verses 4 through 11. I’ll begin with verse 4:

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught.”

So again here, the servant is speaking.

“The Lord has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I turned not backwards. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. A moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. This you have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment.”

All right, we have seen this far in the servant songs of Isaiah, as I mentioned a minute ago, broadly a picture of a successful servant who comes with great power to reign and to carry out God’s purpose in the earth. In chapter 42, verses 1 to 7, the first of the servant songs, there was no hint at all of any humiliation of the servant, only his success. In chapter 49 that we saw the last two times, there’s a brief hint of his humiliation—those who resist him. But now in chapter 50, the servant—we find this theme of his humiliation prominent in this prophecy. So it’s an interesting catch. He’s successful. He’s faithful, God will bless him, he will hold him up, he will carry out God’s purpose, and yet the idea of his humiliation is prominent. Well, that will come to its climax then in the next servant song, of course, in Isaiah chapter 53.

Well, here again in chapter 50, like we saw in chapter 49, the servant himself is speaking, although he doesn’t identify himself until we get to verses 10 and 11. The speaker here—remember we saw that Israel is identified as the servant of the Lord in Isaiah’s prophecy, and that the servant of the Lord proper is a representative from within Israel. But the servant that is spoken of here is not Israel because we find in verse 5 that this servant is not rebellious. And we also find in verse 6 that he suffers humiliation voluntarily. None of that refers to Israel the nation. And in fact, when we get to verse 11, this is not Israel and this is not even the prophet Isaiah. He’s one with a power that is far superior to any other. Verse 11: “This you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment.” So we have someone with supreme power assigning eternal destiny to those who oppose him. So clearly we are speaking of this servant of the Lord, this great figure of Isaiah’s prophecy.

The Servant Is A Model Disciple

In verse 4, the servant is portrayed as a model disciple. He’s teachable. He’s willing to learn. Verse 4: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain a word to him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” So he’s teachable. He’s humbly submissive to divine instruction. He’s eager to be taught from the Lord. He does not go about his day assuming that he knows what to do, how best to do it. What he learns from God, each morning he’s listening and thinking and hearing God’s word, and he lives accordingly.

And so the last part of verse 4, I think, is a fascinating glimpse into the private life of the Lord Jesus, who is this servant. Morning by morning he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. So he begins each day with time given to hearing from God. It also provides, I think, the background to some of the episodes that we read of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels—both in his teaching, the insight that he has in discussions with others, the controversies that he has with others, and the insight into God’s Word that he has. Here’s the beginning of that. Through his whole life, he’s listening, he’s studying, he’s reading God’s Word, he’s hiding it away in his heart.

We should not have the impression that because Jesus is the Son of God, divine and human nature, we should not think that, well, he has all of this knowledge automatically because he’s God who’s omniscient. But in his human mind, he has fed himself on God’s Word. He’s listened and he’s learned. We find indications of that in Luke. He grew in wisdom as well as in stature. We get this picture of Jesus as a young boy learning God’s Word and taking it in, and that’s the idea here. And that’s what we see then later in his ministry as one whose mind is thoroughly equipped with God’s word.

So in verses 4 and 5, the servant is a disciple. Verse 4, he’s well taught. He’s a learned student of God. Verse 5, we have this metaphor of the open ear: “The Lord God has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I turned not backwards.” The idea is that God has cleaned out his ears, as it were, so that he can hear. And the metaphor of hearing is that of obedience. It’s like a parent speaking to his child: “Do you hear me? Listen to me. Didn’t you hear what I said?” That kind of language is the same idea here. He hears God and he’s obedient to what he hears. We have that same metaphor you might remember in Psalm 40, where David speaks like that—that God has opened my ear, I’m willing to obey. And then in the book of Hebrews, that verse is quoted and it’s pointed again to the Lord Jesus; it was speaking of him.

So he’s a disciple, he’s learned from God. He spends time thinking on God’s word. Each morning he’s taking time to meditate and learn on it further. And yet, the goal of his learning is to teach others. He says here: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.” So he’s learned, he’s been taught, but the goal of it all is so that he in turn can speak to others.

Now, you might remember the first two servant songs. In chapter 42 and chapter 49, the servant was presented as an authoritative teacher. He brings his law to the nations. In chapter 49, he says that the Lord God has made my tongue like a sharp sword. So we’ve seen this before, his role as an authoritative teacher, but here he teaches, but what he teaches is what he himself has been taught of God. He has learned from God, he has heard God’s word, and what God has assigned to him he has done. So he’s a prophet, he’s an authoritative spokesman for God.

Now all of this actually should ring a bell. It has echoes. You remember back in Deuteronomy chapter 18 we saw that God promised that another prophet like Moses would arise and he would be a greater than Moses. And he will speak and God will hold men and women accountable for listening to him. His word will be supreme. Well, that’s the background here. It will be the servant of the Lord who speaks with authoritative words and all the world is responsible to hear.

This idea of the servant of the Lord being the supreme word of God is a theme that’s big in the New Testament, particularly in the Gospel of John, where John refers to Jesus as the word of God. And then he ends up that prologue of verse one—he’s the word, and then the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, we beheld his glory (verse 14). But that prologue ends and climaxes in verse 18: no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who’s in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him. So he is the one who speaks for God; he is God speaking. We find the same in Hebrews chapter one as well. God in various earlier times has spoken to us here and there by his prophets, but now he has spoken to us by his son. That’s the idea here. He’s God’s supreme revelation. He comes now to speak. When he speaks, he has authority.

But notice now how this learning from God in order to teach others is characterized in verse 4: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.” So the idea here is not only that of an authoritative teacher, but that of a compassionate authoritative teacher. There’s something renewing, we could even say redemptive, about his words that he speaks. And of course we find pictures of that in the Gospels in several places. We have the leper who comes along to see Jesus: “Son of David, if you will, make me clean.” And you remember Jesus’ response: “I will; be clean.” We find it in Matthew chapter nine. Remember that incident when the paralytic is let down through the roof and his friends want to see if Jesus would heal him? And Jesus looks at him and says, “Son, your sins be forgiven you.” That is Isaiah 50, verse 4. He’s given me a tongue of those who are taught that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. We have the same with the woman in the streets who came to Simon’s house and was adoring Jesus and worshiping him. And Simon, you remember, was offended by the presence of such a person. Jesus defends her and he says to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” That’s sustaining with a word, sustaining those who are weary. Well, of course, Jesus speaks like that as well. The famous passage of Matthew 11: “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Well, that’s the portrait that he gives us here of the servant when he comes. He’s an authoritative teacher, but he has compassion and he speaks with healing.

The Humiliation Of The Servant

In verses 5 and 6 now, we have the implication that the servant has been assigned a very difficult task. “The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” And we’ve pointed out before in these servant songs that the servant is something of an enigmatic figure. He is a great one with all authority over the nations; he brings justice to the nations, carries out God’s purpose for the whole world, so he’s a great, powerful figure. And yet at the same time, he endures some kind of fierce opposition, and he submits to it. It includes spitting on him, suffering some kind of disgrace, turning his back so that they whip him, and pulling out his beard.

You of course can’t read through this, even though it’s Old Testament, you can’t read through it at all without seeing in your mind the graphic scenes that are portrayed for us of the trial and the passion of Jesus as it’s brought to us in the Gospels. Verse 6: he gave his back to those who struck him, his cheeks to those who pulled out his beard, did not hide his face from spitting. The humiliation of the servant. This passage then has been referred to as the servant’s Gethsemane. In Gethsemane, Jesus is anticipating the suffering that he will endure in the beginning of the next day, the next morning. And here he’s anticipating it as well in prophecy, and so it’s been referred to—with not perfect correspondence, but with a good degree of justification, I think—as the servant’s Gethsemane. This is the humiliation of the Son of God. And I’m certain it is with these kinds of passages and the other servant songs in mind that the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2: this one, the Son of God who was in the form of God, took the form of a servant, was found in fashion as a man.

Verse 7: the servant, despite this opposition, as fierce as it is, is resolved to fulfill his task that’s been assigned him. “But the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know I shall not be put to shame.” Interesting wording here. He’s disgraced—being spit on, whipped—and yet he says, “I have not been disgraced.” Or, the last part of the verse, “I know that I shall not be put to shame.” He was shamed, terribly shamed, but he said, “I will not be put to shame.” The idea is that he’s speaking in the long haul. He’s resigned to this, but it’s not just a resignation to do what God has assigned him to do, but there’s resolve to carry it through. He’s fully dependent on the Lord’s help. “The Lord God helps me,” he says in verse 7.

Here we have another glimpse, I think, into the private life of Jesus. Don’t think that he approaches this like some kind of superhero—bullets just bounce off him and it doesn’t hurt. He approaches this with sorrow. You’ve seen that in Gethsemane, how he just revulses from what is lying ahead of him on the next day. And yet he goes ahead with it with resolve. But not only with resolve, but with a sense, a deep sense of humble dependence on the Lord. The Lord will vindicate me. He will bring me through this. I will not be ashamed. I will succeed. And so he pursues this task out of loving trust in God. Marvelous picture of Jesus in his earthly life, approaching this awful hour—hour of shame and humiliation and pain—and yet he trusts his Father. “I will not be put to shame.” Or verse 8: “He who vindicates me is near. He’ll see me through this.”

Verse 7, we have that interesting metaphor: “I’ve set my face like a flint.” So he’s got courageous resolve to carry out the mission that’s been given to him. That verse, Isaiah 50 verse 7, “I’ve set my face like a flint,” that verse is picked up by Luke. Luke chapter 9, verse 51: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He set his face—the idea there is he made his face strong. You get this picture of a man facing the most awful day of his life. And he strengthens his face with resolve: “I will do this.” He’s settled and he’s resolved to accomplish his saving mission. So Jesus’ face, when he goes to Jerusalem, Luke comments that he had it written all over his face, as it were, that he was preoccupied with what lay ahead of him in the coming days in Jerusalem. He set his face like a flint to go through with it. Verse 7: “I have not been disgraced. I know that I shall not be put to shame.” I will do this and I will succeed.

The Servant’s Vindication

Verse 8: “He who vindicates me is near.” So the people would scorn him, they would abuse him, but he’s resolved to obey, knowing that God will vindicate him. What is the servant’s vindication? The New Testament makes a big deal of this—that God vindicated him in his resurrection. Suddenly this one who was defeated and humiliated, put to death in the most shameful kind of way, God raised him from the dead and announced to the world that his approval was on him, that he had done and accomplished all that he said he would do. And God vindicated him before the eyes of everyone. Paul speaks of that in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16: “Great is the mystery of godliness, that Jesus was manifest in the flesh and vindicated by the Spirit.” The word there is justified—justified in the Spirit, or vindicated. Paul refers to this in Romans 1, that God raised him, the Spirit of holiness raised him from the dead. And so here is irrefutable evidence, and this is why the resurrection of Christ has been a point that Christian apologists have always loved to push: this is irrefutable evidence that he bore God’s approval. As a consequence of that, we read in Psalm 110 and other places, repeated in the New Testament many times, that not only was he raised from the dead, but because of his successful saving work and in view of God’s vindication of him, he is ascended to heaven at the right hand of the Father, ruling as king over all.

In verses 8 and 9, then, we have a courtroom scene. The servant now speaks with full confidence, and he invites in these verses a kind of legal challenge. And there’s kind of a defiance in his tone. “He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up.” So because he’s assured and trusts that God is near him and will vindicate him, he’s bold to invite any accuser to come and bring their case against him.

Well, that brings us then to the subject of the sinlessness of the servant of the Lord. That’s a big theme in the New Testament as well. Jesus himself could say, “Which one of you convinces me of sin?” We have it on record that Pilate, who ordered the execution, acknowledged Jesus’ innocence: “I want nothing to do with this innocent man. I wash my hands of his blood.” Even Pilate’s wife: “Have nothing to do with this innocent man.” The centurion: “Surely this was a righteous man.” And even one of the thieves crucified with him, remember rebuking the other thief: “Why are you mocking him? What we receive, we receive justly, but he has done nothing wrong.” And that’s the attitude the servant himself takes now. Who of you can convince me of anything?

So he’s abused, he’s scorned, he’s whipped, spit upon, his beard is plucked out. Verse 8: he’ll be vindicated. It is his adversaries now who ought to fear. Verse 9: “All of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up.” One day, that is, the tables will be turned, and he will not be the one being humiliated. He will be the judge, and they will be destroyed. He’s speaking here not just of physical death—that’s true of everyone, of course. He’s speaking of eternal destruction. Verse 11: “You shall lie down in torment.”

The Fate Of Those Who Oppose God’s Servant

And we have to note—this is extremely important in this servant song—we have to note verse 10. The question on which the fate of these people turns is their obedient trust in the Lord’s servant. Their response to the servant is the question on which their fate turns. Verse 10: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” So here in verse 10, we have the people who recognize their own lostness, that they feel like they walk in darkness, and yet they fear God, and so they trustingly obey the servant. In fact, notice in verse 10, we have a threefold link between the Lord and his servant. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? To fear the Lord is to obey the voice of his servant. Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. So to fear the Lord is to obey the voice of his servant and it is to trust in the name of the Lord God. So the servant here speaks for God; he is the Lord’s servant, and he says in effect, “You cannot claim to fear God and disregard his servant.” To oppose the servant is to oppose God, and you’ll be judged accordingly.

Verses 10 and 11, then, he addresses two groups of people. Verse 10 again: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” Verse 11: “Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. This you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment.” So in verse 10, we have him addressing the faithful—those who fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant. They may feel that they walk in darkness and have no light, but he exhorts them: trust in the name of the Lord.

Verse 11, he addresses those who do not fear the Lord, do not trust the Lord, and he refers to them as “all you who kindle a fire and who equip yourselves with burning torches.” That is, they don’t need the light that the servant brings. They don’t need to listen to his word. They can figure this out on their own. They can make the way they want to do it. They can plot their own way. They don’t need the word that the servant brings. Verse 11, the end of the verse: “This you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment.” This is the fate of those who oppose God’s servant. Verse 9: they’ll never survive. They’ll wear out like an old piece of cloth eaten by moths. Verse 11: they’ll perish in the fire that they themselves have kindled. They’ll lie down in torment.

Again, the question that determines the fate of every man and woman is their response to God’s servant. And in fact, he tells us here in verse 11 that the fate that they endure will be fixed by the servant himself. Isaiah 50, the servant himself says so. And Jesus, of course, picks this up famously in John chapter five: the Father judges no one. He’s committed all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.

So the servant has come, he’s learned of God, he’s more than resigned himself to the task—he set himself with resolve to complete the task, despite the difficulty of it. He goes forward with it in confidence that God will vindicate him, and in fact, in that vindication, he will stand as judge over those who refuse him. Sounds like something from the New Testament, doesn’t it? In fact, there’s another connection here we ought to just notice quickly. That’s the courtroom scene of verse 9, the servant’s challenge: “Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty?” He’s confident of the Lord’s vindication in verse 11. Does that ring any bells? Sounds something like Romans chapter 8, doesn’t it? Where there it’s our vindication that is sure, and there the whole argument is we will stand vindicated before God because, and only because, we are united to Jesus himself who is vindicated by God, and by our association with him we are safe forever. The whole doctrine of justification hinges on that idea exactly. Through our union with Christ, we are safe. He is the one whom God vindicated, and we share in that through faith and union with him. And so Paul can say, “Who can bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies,” and in Christ we’re safe forever.

One of the things about all of this that I think is just very assuring to faith is to see the close correspondence that we have between the prophecies of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of them in the life and the experience of Jesus in the New Testament. Details like being spit upon and turning his back to his tormentors and suffering this humiliation, and then his vindication and standing as judge—and all of this plays out in the Gospels in the life and experience of Jesus. The detailed precision of these prophecies in light of their exact fulfillment in Jesus, I think, is a marvelous thing to witness. And as I say, I think it’s one of the most effective boosters to faith to see that all of these centuries in advance, God announced his intentions, he announced how he would accomplish them, through whom he would accomplish them, and how that one through whom he would accomplish his purposes would be treated, and yet emerge victorious. All of that plays out in wonderful, natural detail when we come to the New Testament in Jesus.

Now next time, all of this of the servant’s humiliation comes to a climax in the next servant song, that’s Isaiah 52 and 53, where we see his humiliation described at length and also the purpose of it and the accomplishments of it. And we’ll take, I think, four or five weeks to work our way through that marvelous servant song. All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?

“Our Father, we thank you that you have opened our minds to understand that Jesus is this glorious, self-giving, and victorious servant, and that you have changed our course to discard our own self-righteousness and to rely fully on the servant’s work. We pray for daily grace this week as we go about our callings, that we would be servant-like in our own relationships with others, and that you would bless the spread of the gospel through us as we image the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray, amen.”