Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at 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.
I clothe the heavens with blackness. I make sackcloth their covering.”
The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be disappointed.
He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.
Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name, and rely on his God.
Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11 Signifying, that he sold them not for any debt…
Signifying, that he sold them not for any debt or poverty, but that they sold themselves to sins to buy their own lusts and pleasures.
Meaning, that he hath not forsaken her, but through her own occasion, as Hos. 2:2.
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Which should declare that I have cut her off: meaning, that they could show none.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the…
Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Ver. 1. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement.] Heb., Abscission. This bill was called by the Greeks ‘Aποστασιον: but none such could here be produced or proven as given by God to the Jewish state; but that the disloyalty was theirs, and their dereliction on their part. God had neither rejected them though innocent, (as some husbands did their wives out of a peevish and selfish humour), nor sold them though obedient, as some fathers did their children, for payment of their debts; for he is neither debtor to any nor non-solvent. {Rom 11:35-36}
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Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.] O duram servitutem! O miseram necessitatem! "You have sold yourselves," as Ahab did, to work wickedness, {1Ki 21:20} and therefore I have justly sold and abandoned you into the hands of your enemies. {Jdg 2:13-14; Jdg 3:7-8 Psa 44:11-12}
Is your mother,] i.e., The synagogue, whereunto the Jews do yet still adhere as to their mother; and the Lord did then acknowledge himself to be her husband, but now he hath worthily cast her off.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Thus saith the Lord: this is another sermon begun…
Thus saith the Lord: this is another sermon begun here, and continued in the next chapter. The main scope of it is to vindicate God’s justice, and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of all their calamities which they imputed to God.
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? God had formerly espoused’ the Israelites to himself in a kind of matrimonial covenant, but seemed to cast them off when he sent them to Babylon, and did wholly reject them afterward from being his people, and took the Gentiles into their stead; which great and wonderful change was foretold in the Old Testament, as hath been already observed, and we shall see again, and accomplished in the New. And because God foresaw that those strange dispensations would provoke the Jews to murmur and quarrel with God for, casting them off without sufficient cause, as indeed they were always prone to accuse God, and to vindicate themselves, he bids them produce their bill of divorce; for those husbands which put away their wives merely out of levity or passion were obliged to give their wives a bill of divorce, which vindicated the wife’s innocency, and declared that the husband’s will and pleasure was the cause of the divorce; of which see the notes on Deu 24:1; Mat 19:3.
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Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? have I any creditors to whom I was obliged or willing to sell you for the payment of my debt? Produce then the bill of sale to witness against me. Parents might, and in some cases were forced to sell their children to their creditors; of which see on Exo 21:7, and 2Ki 4:1.
For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, & c.; you can blame none but yourselves and your own sins for all your captivities and miseries.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 10 Those who have professed to be the people of…
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be dealt severely with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon him, as if he had been hard with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here,
I. A challenge given them to prove, or produce any evidence, that the quarrel began on God's side, Isa 50:1. They could not say that he had done them any wrong or had acted arbitrarily. 1. He had been a husband to them; and husbands were then allowed a power to put away their wives upon any little disgust: if their wives found not favour in their eyes, they made nothing of giving them a bill of divorce, Deu 24:1; Mat 19:7. But they could not say that God had dealt so with them. It is true they were now separated from him, and had abode many days without ephod, altar, or sacrifice; but whose fault was that? They could not say that God had given their mother a bill of divorce; let them produce it if they can, for a bill of divorce was given into the hand of her that was divorced. 2. He had been a father to them; and fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their creditors, in satisfaction for the debts they were not otherwise able to pay. Now it is true the Jews were sold to the Babylonians then, and afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of his debts? No, he was not indebted to any of those to whom they were sold, or, if he had sold them, he did not increase his wealth by their price, Psa 44:12. When God chastens his children, it is neither for his pleasure (Heb 12:10) nor for his profit. All that are saved are saved by a prerogative of grace, but those that perish are cut off by an act of divine holiness and justice, not of absolute sovereignty.
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II. A charge exhibited against them, showing them that they were themselves the authors of their own ruin: "Behold, for your iniquities, for the pleasure of them and the gratification of your own base lusts, you have sold yourselves, for your iniquities you are sold; not as children are sold by their parents, to pay their debts, but as malefactors are sold by the judges, to punish them for their crimes. You sold yourselves to work wickedness, and therefore God justly sold you into the hands of your enemies, Ch2 12:5, Ch2 12:8. It is for your transgressions that your mother is put away, for her whoredoms and adulteries," which were always allowed to be a just cause of divorce. The Jews were sent into Babylon for their idolatry, a sin which broke the marriage covenant, and were at last rejected for crucifying the Lord of glory; these were the iniquities for which they were sold and put away.
III. The confirmation of this challenge and this charge. 1. It is plain that it was owing to themselves that they were cast off; for God came and offered them his favour, offered them his helping hand, either to prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted him and all the tenders of his grace. "Do you lay it upon me?" (says God); "tell me, then, wherefore, when I came, was there no man to meet me, when I called, was there none to answer me?" Isa 50:2. God came to them by his servants the prophets, demanding the fruits of his vineyard (Mat 21:34); he sent them his messengers, rising up betimes and sending them (Jer 35:15); he called to them to leave their sins, and so prevent their own ruin: but was there no man, or next to none, that had any regard to the warnings which the prophets gave them, none that answered the calls of God, or complied with the messages he sent them; and this was it for which they were sold and put away. Because they mocked the messengers of the Lord, therefore, God brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, Ch2 36:16, Ch2 36:17. Last of all he sent unto them his Son. He came to his own, but his own received him not; he called them to himself, but there were none that answered; he would have gathered Jerusalem's children together, but they would not; they knew not, because they would not know, the things that belonged to their peace, nor the day of their visitation, and for that transgression it was that they were put away and their house was left desolate, Mat 21:41; Mat 23:37, Mat 23:38; Luk 19:41, Luk 19:42. When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable. 2. It is plain that it was not owing to a want of power in God, for he is almighty, and could have recovered them from so great a death; nor was it owing to a want of power in Christ, for he is able to save to the uttermost. The unbelieving Jews in Babylon thought they were not delivered because their God was not able to deliver them; and those in Christ's time were ready to ask, in scorn, Can this man save us? For himself he cannot save. "But" (says God) "is my hand shortened at all, or is it weakened?" Can any limits be set to Omnipotence? Cannot he redeem who is the great Redeemer? Has he no power to deliver whose all power is? To put to silence, and for ever to put to shame, their doubts concerning his power, he here gives unquestionable proofs of it. (1.) He can, when he pleases, dry up the seas, and make the rivers a wilderness. He did so for Israel when he redeemed them out of Egypt, and he can do so again for their redemption out of Babylon. It is done at his rebuke, as easily as with a word's speaking. He can so dry up the rivers as to leave the fish to die for want of water, and to putrefy. When God turned the waters of Egypt into blood he slew the fish, Psa 105:29. The expression our Saviour sometimes used concerning the power of faith, that it will remove mountains and plant sycamores in the sea, is not unlike this; if their faith could do that, no doubt their faith would save them, and therefore they were inexcusable if they perished in unbelief. (2.) He can, when he pleases, eclipse the lights of heaven, clothe then with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering (Isa 50:3) by thick and dark clouds interposing, which he balances, Job 36:32; Job 37:16.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Thus saith the Lord,.... Here begins a new discourse…
Thus saith the Lord,.... Here begins a new discourse or prophecy, and therefore thus prefaced, and is continued in the following chapter:
where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? these words are directed to the Jews, who stood in the same relation to the Jewish church, or synagogue, as children to a mother; and so the Targum interprets "your mother" by "your congregation", or synagogue; who were rejected from being a church and people; had a "loammi" written upon them, which became very manifest when their city and temple were destroyed by the Romans; and this is signified by a divorce, alluding to the law of divorce among the Jews, Deu 24:1, when a man put away his wife, he gave her a bill of divorce, assigning the causes of his putting her away. Now, the Lord, either as denying that he had put away their mother, the Jewish church, she having departed from him herself, and therefore challenges them to produce any such bill; a bill of divorce being always put into the woman's hands, and so capable of being produced by her; or if there was such an one, see Jer 3:8, he requires it might be looked into, and seen whether the fault was his, or the cause in themselves, which latter would appear:
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or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? referring to a practice used, that when men were in debt, and could not pay their debts, they sold their children for the payment of them; see Exo 21:7, but this could not be the case here; the Lord has no creditors, not any to whom he is indebted, nor could any advantage possibly accrue to him by the sale of them; it is true they were sold to the Romans, or delivered into their hands, which, though a loss to them, was no gain to him; nor was it he that sold them, but they themselves; he was not the cause of it, but their own sins, as follows:
behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; or, "are sold" (w); they were sold for them, or delivered up into the hands of their enemies on account of them; they had sold themselves to work wickedness, and therefore it was but just that they should be sold, and become slaves:
and for your transgressions is your mother put away; and they her children along with her, out of their own land, and from being the church and people of God.
(w) Sept. "venditi estis", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceias, Vitringa.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 The dereliction of the Jews is not of Christ;…
The dereliction of the Jews is not of Christ; for he hath power to save, ver. 1-4. And was obedient in that work, and God is present with him, ver. 5-9. An exhortation not to trust in ourselves, but in God, ver. 10, 11.
Thus saith the Lord - The scope of this and the next chapter, is to vindicate God's justice and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of their own calamities. Behold - You can blame none but yourselves and your own sins, for all your captivities and miseries.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 In this chapter God vindicates his dealings with his…
CHAPTER L
In this chapter God vindicates his dealings with his people,
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whose alienation is owing to themselves, 1.
And, by allusion to the temporal deliverances connected with
the drying up of the Red Sea and the Euphrates, asserts his
power to save, 2, 3;
namely, by the obedience and sufferings of the Messiah, 4-6;
who was at length to prove victorious over all his enemies,
7-9.
The two last verses exhort to faith and trust in God in the
most disconsolate circumstances; with a denunciation of
vengeance on those who should trust to their own devices,
10, 11.
NOTES ON CHAP. L
Verse 1. Thus saith the Lord] This chapter has been understood of the prophet himself; but it certainly speaks more clearly about Jesus of Nazareth than of Isaiah, the son of Amos.
Where is the bill - "Where is this bill"] Husbands, through moroseness or levity of temper, often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions, as they were permitted to do by the law of Moses, De 24:1. And fathers, being oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which they might do for a time, till the year of release, Ex 21:7. That this was frequently practised, appears from many passages of Scripture, and that the persons and the liberty of the children were answerable for the debts of the father. The widow, 2Kg 4:1, complains "that the creditor is come to take unto him her two sons to be bondmen." And in the parable, Mt 18:25: "The lord, forasmuch as his servant had not to pay, commands him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: En Orient on paye ses dettes avec ses esclaves, car ils sont des principaux meubles; et en plusieurs lieux on les paye aussi de ses enfans. "In the east they pay their debts by giving up their slaves, for these are their chief property of a disposable kind; and in many places they give their children to their creditors." But this, saith God, cannot be my case, I am not governed by any such motives, neither am I urged by any such necessity. Your captivity therefore and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 Isa 50:1. Thus saith the Lord — God having,…
Isa 50:1. Thus saith the Lord — God having, by his prophet, in the last three verses of the preceding chapter, comforted his people with an assurance of their deliverance from the tyrannical power of their enemies, here vindicates his justice in suffering them to be exposed thereto, showing that they were the causes of their own calamities. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? — God had espoused the Jewish Church, the mother of the individuals of that people, to himself, in a kind of matrimonial covenant, frequently mentioned or alluded to by the prophets; but he seemed to divorce or cast them off when he sent them to Babylon, and afterward did wholly reject the generality of that nation from being his people, and took the Gentiles in their stead; which great and wonderful change was foretold in the Old Testament, (as has been already often observed, and will be again,) and was accomplished in the New. And because God foresaw that this strange dispensation would provoke the Jews to murmur and quarrel with him for casting them off without sufficient cause, as indeed they were always prone to accuse him, and vindicate themselves, he bids them produce their bill of divorce. For those husbands who put away their wives out of levity or passion were obliged to give them a bill of divorce, which vindicated the wives’ innocence, and declared that the husband’s will and pleasure was the cause of their dismission. Now, says God, produce your bill of divorce, to show that I have put you away of my own mere will, and on a slight occasion, and that you did not first forsake me and go after other gods, and by that spiritual adultery violate the marriage covenant into which I had taken you. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you — Have I any creditors to whom I was obliged or willing to sell you for the payment of a debt? Parents, oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which, according to the law of Moses, they might do, till the year of release, Exo 21:7. See also 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25. But neither of these cases, says God, can be mine; I am not governed by any such motives, nor am I urged by any such necessity. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves — Your captivity and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Thus saith the Lord - To the Jews in…
Thus saith the Lord - To the Jews in Babylon, who were suffering under his hand, and who might be disposed to complain that God had dealt with them with as much caprice and cruelty as a man did with his wife, when he gave her a writing of divorce, and put her away without any just cause.
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? - God here speaks of himself as the husband of his people, as having married the church to himself, denoting the tender affection which he had for his people. This figure is frequently used in the Bible. Thus in Isa 62:5 : ‘As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee;’ ‘For thy Maker is thy husband’ Isa 54:5; ‘Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you’ Jer 3:14. Thus in Rev 21:9, the church is called ‘the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ Compare Ezek. 16: See Lowth on Hebrew poetry, Lec. xxxi. The phrase, ‘bill of divorcement.’ refers to the writing or instrument which a husband was by law obliged to give a wife when he chose to put her away. This custom of divorce Moses found probably in existence among the Jews, and also in surrounding nations, and as it was difficult if not impossible at once to remove it, he permitted it on account of the hardness of the hearts of the Jews (Deu 24:1; compare Mat 19:8).
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It originated probably from the erroneous views which then prevailed of the nature of the marriage compact. It was extensively regarded as substantially like any other compact, in which the wife became a purchase from her father, and of course as she had been purchased, the husband claimed the right of dismissing her when he pleased. Moses nowhere defines the causes for which a man might put away his wife, but left these to be judged of by the people themselves. But he regulated the way in which it might be done. He ordained a law which was designed to operate as a material check on the hasty feelings, the caprice, and the passions of the husband. He designed that it should be with him, if exercised, not a matter of mere excited feeling, but that he should take time to deliberate upon it; and hence, he ordained that in all cases a formal instrument of writing should be executed releasing the wife from the marriage tie, and leaving her at liberty to pursue her own inclinations in regard to future marriages Deu 24:2.
It is evident that this would operate very materially in favor of the wife, and in checking and restraining the excited passions of the husband (see Jahn’s Bib. Antiq. Section 160; Michaelis’ Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. pp. 450-478; ii. 127-40. Ed. Lond. 1814, 8vo.) In the passage before us, God says that he had not rejected his people. He had not been governed by the caprice, sudden passion, or cruelty which husbands often evinced. There was a just cause why he had treated them as he had, and he did not regard them as the children of a divorced wife. The phrase, ‘your mother,’ Here is used to denote the ancestry from whom they were descended. They were not regarded as the children of a disgraced mother.
Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you - Among the Hebrews, a father had the right, by the law of Moses, if he was oppressed with debt, to sell his children Exo 21:7; Neh 5:5. In like manner, if a man had stolen anything, and had nothing to make restitution, he might be sold for the theft Exo 22:3. If a man also was poor and unable to pay his debts, he might be sold Lev 25:39; 2Ki 4:1; Mat 18:25. On the subject of slavery among the Hebrews, and the Mosaic laws in regard to it, see Michaelis’ Commentary on the Laws of Moses, vol. ii. pp. 155, following In this passage, God says that he had not been governed by any such motives in his dealings with his people. He had not dealt with them as a poor parent sometimes felt himself under a necessity of doing, when he sold his children, or as a creditor did when a man was not able to pay him. He had been governed by different motives, and he had punished them only on account of their transgressions.
Ye have sold yourselves - That is, you have gone into captivity only on account of your sins. It has been your own act, and you have thus become bondmen to a foreign power only by your own choice.
Is your mother put away - Retaining the figure respecting divorce. The nation has been rejected, and suffered to go into exile, only on account of its transgressions.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10 Away. Such a one could not be received again,…
Away. Such a one could not be received again, if she had taken another husband, Deuteronomy xxiv. 3. Some explain this of the captives. But God restored them to favour. It seems rather to relate to the reprobation (Calmet) of the synagogue, which will never again become the true Church, (Haydock) though many of Israel will be converted, Romans xi. 25. --- Sold you, as a father might do, Exodus xxi. 1., and Matthew xviii. 15. St. Ambrose (Tob.[Tobias?] viii.) inveighs against such cruel parents, as the Christian religion had not then entirely repressed this inhumanity. (Calmet) --- God rejected the synagogue, not out of hard-heartedness or want, but because of her sins. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The Connection between the Guilt of Israel and the…
II.—THE SECOND DISCOURSE
The Connection between the Guilt of Israel and the Suffering of the Servant, and the Deliverance from Guilt by Faith in the Latter
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Isaiah 50
With reference to Isa_49:14 the Prophet inquires: Where is Zion’s writing of divorcement? Zion is not repudiated, but only punished, because when its Lord came it did not receive Him. But that is the connection between the guilt of Israel and the sufferings of the Servant, who willingly takes them on Himself because He is strong in God and assured of His final victory. Also Israel can become free from its guilt and the punishment of it by turning again to the Lord in the exercise of faith. Of course those that persevere in their sin must be destroyed in it as in a self-kindled flame.
The discourse accordingly subdivides into three parts: 1) Isa_50:1-3; Isaiah 2) Isa_50:4-9; Isaiah 3) Isa_50:10-11.
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1. TO WHAT EXTENT AND WHY ZION IS A FORSAKEN WIFE
Isa_50:1-3
1 Thus saith the Lord,
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement,
1Whom I have put away?
Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
Behold, for your iniquities have ye 2sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Wherefore when I came, was there no man?
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?
Behold, 3at my rebuke I dry up the sea,
4I make the rivers a wilderness:
Their fish 5stinketh, because there is no water,
And 6dieth for thirst.
3 dI clothe the heavens with blackness,
And dI make sackcloth their covering.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_50:2. מדוע—פדות—גערה often used of dividing waters, Psa_18:16; Psa_104:7. Isa_50:3. קדרות, comp. Joel 2:10; 4:15.——שׂק. Note the comparatively numerous relative or absolute ἅπ. λεγ. ending וּת, occurring in verses 1–3. There are four: קדרות ,פדות ,כריתות and כסות.
Isa_50:1. אֲשֶׁר after ספר כריתות אמכם is the acc. instrumenti = “wherewith.”
Isa_50:2. מִפְדוּת (comp. Exo_8:19; Psa_111:9; Psa_130:7). The construction with מִן is as in Isa_49:19; Isa_7:13; Isa_33:19.—וְתָמֹת is the jussive form without jussive meaning. The like often occurs: Isa_27:6; 1Sa_2:10; Psa_9:10; Psa_11:6; Psa_104:20.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet here introduces the Lord as the speaker, letting Him explain Himself His relation to Zion, which all through these chapters He has in mind, viz. to the Zion that has rejected the Servant of God, and thus is self rejected, still not on that account repudiated forever. This Zion has exclaimed, Isa_49:14 : “The Lord hath forsaken me, the Lord hath forgotten me.” The Lord has already replied to this Isa_49:15 by emphasizing His paternal or rather His maternal position, but not His position as husband. Here He replies to that complaint as Zion’s husband. He does not deny that in a certain sense Zion is a divorced wife, her children sold into captivity. But He denies that Zion is definitively divorced by a writing of divorcement, and that the children are sold to a creditor as equivalent for a debt. Rather both the divorce and the sale are come on them only as a means of chastisement, as punishment for their sins (Isa_50:1). This punishment, of course, needed to be because the Lord, in coming to His own possession, found no one to receive Him, because when He called, no one answered, although His redeeming power was in no way exhausted. For He is and continues under all circumstances the Lord of heaven and earth, who can dry up sea and river (Isa_50:2), and can clothe the heavens with darkness (Isa_50:3).
2. Thus saith——put away, Isa_50:1. Of course this verse refers to Isa_44:14. But one must not on that account separate Isa_50:1-3 from what follows and join them to chap. 49, as many do. For apart from chap. 49, being well rounded and complete in itself in its homogeneous parts, Isa_50:1-3, after a joyous beginning, have a very serious meaning that points to what follows. Zion has, indeed, received no writing of divorcement; but still it needed to be punished for its sins (see under § 1 above). The manner of the coming is described Isa_50:4-9, and the unavoidable punishment, Isa_50:10-11.
Some have found in Isa_50:1 an “apparent contradiction,” and would explain it away by saying: Jehovah had, indeed, given Israel a writing of divorcement, but not a usual one, in which the cause of separation needed not to be assigned (Deu_24:1), but one in which the sin of Israel was named as the cause. But the Rabbins, Jerome, Rosenm., Hahn, Del., and others justly remark, that the question of the Lord,זה וגר׳ אי, evidently involves the meaning, Israel has in fact no writing of divorcement to show. It was sent away without a bill of divorcement, which according to Deu_24:1, was necessary to give the divorcement legal force,—therefore it was not definitively sent away, but only provisionally, with the prospect of being received back again. [“The simplest and most obvious interpretation of the first clause is the one suggested by the second, which evidently stands related to it as an answer to the question which occasions it. In the present case, the answer is wholly unambiguous, viz.; that they were sold for their sins, and that she was put away for their transgressions. The question naturally corresponding to this answer is the question, why the mother was divorced, and why the sons were sold? Supposing this to be the substance of the first clause, its form is very easily accounted for. Where is your mother’s bill of divorcement? produce it that we may see the cause of her repudiation. Where is the creditor to whom I sold you? let him appear, and tell us what was the occasion of your being sold.”—J. A. Alex.]. In the same manner the Prophet would say, that the Lord has not sold the children of Zion, His children, to a creditor as the equivalent for a debt, in which case He would have lost all right to them. Thus both divorce and sale were temporary, and with the right of repurchase. It is of course to be remarked here, that according to Jer_3:8, the Lord did, indeed, give Israel of the Ten Tribes a bill of divorce. Yet the same Prophet makes in Isa_50:1 the extraordinary statement that the Lord will receive again His divorced wife spite of the legal enactment Deu_24:4. [This reference to Jeremiah seems fatal to the Author’s interpretation, and completely to confirm that of J. A. A., given above.—Tr.].
The distinction that the Prophet makes between mother and children in the two clauses of this comparison is intended only to emphasize the notion of totality; not merely the abstract communion shall be preserved, but it shall retain its natural members. For it were conceivable that the Lord would restore an Israel community with the institutions of the old, but with a non-Israelitish population, with foreign born, branches only grafted into the olive tree Israel (Rom_11:17 sqq.). This, says the Prophet, shall not be; but to the olive tree shall be given also the natural branches, to the national communion the natural children shall be given back. Not all! For only the שְׁאָר , the ἐκλογὴ is worthy and capable of being the heir to this promise. This distinction is further marked by representing the mother as divorced, the children as sold. In Mat_18:25, Jesus speaks of selling wife and children to pay debts. The Old Testament indeed speaks of a man selling himself with wife and children (Exo_21:1-6; Lev_25:39 sqq.; Deu_15:12 sqq.). But it is controverted that a man might legally sell his wife or his children in order to pay his debts (comp. Saalschuetz,Mos. Recht. p. 860, and (Œhler Herz. R.-Encycl. XIV. p. 465 sq., against Michaelis,Mos. Recht. III. p. 36 sqq.). But whether legal or not, it seems as a matter of fact to have been a practice to sell children or to take them by force from their father in discharge of a debt, and I think that in this sense Michaelis not unjustly appeals to 2Ki_4:1; Job_24:9; Neh_5:1. Naturally the selling of children would occur oftener than the selling of a wife. How deep rooted a law of custom may become, even when contrary to statute law, is seen in the analogous case related in Jer_34:8 sqq. נֹשֶׁה (comp. Isa_24:2) is the creditor that loans money and demands repayment. The Babylonian Exile was such a temporary sending away of the wife and sale of children. But also the Roman Exile is such; for both are of a sort, and the Prophet contemplates both together. Israel is never to be entirely and definitively repudiated.
3. Wherefore when I came——their covering.
Isa_50:2-3. The sin for which Israel must be punished consisted in this, that “the Lord came to His own and His own received Him not” (Joh_1:11). It was as if a stranger, unknown and without rights had come. The servants went each his way; He called, no one answered Him (Isa_65:12; Isa_66:4). Most recent commentators understand this to refer to the Lord’s coming by the Prophets. Without saying that this is impossible, I must still maintain that it is unusual, on which account it is not by the commentators supported by examples. That the Lord unceasingly sent His prophets to call Israel to repentance, that Israel would not hear, and that therefore the Babylonian Exile must come on them, became, especially in Jeremiah, almost a standing expression. But the word שָׁלַח is always used with emphasis: Jer_7:25; Jer_25:4; Jer_26:5; Jer_29:19; Jer_35:15; Jer_44:4. That Isaiah writes באתי and not שָׁלַחְתִּי has doubtless its reason. And it is precisely this, that he really meant a personal coming of the Lord, and conceives of it as mediated by the Servant of the Lord, whose appearance forms the chief contents of this second Ennead.
Israel’s not receiving the Lord, might be explained were the Lord grown powerless. But such is not the case. Therefore it has no reasonable ground. It is base contempt, deserving punishment. As the long hand is a figure for wide reaching power (num nescis longas regibus esse manus? comp. Gesen.in loc.), so the short hand is of a power confined to a narrow sphere. The expression is founded on Num_11:23, and occurs again only Isa_37:27; Isa_59:1. In proof that Israel had no reason for rejecting Him as weak and powerless because He came in the form of a servant, the Lord urges that He is still able to do what He could do at that time when He appeared in majesty before the eyes of Israel, when the people did not dare to refuse Him. For “at my rebuke I dry up the sea,etc., recalls the passage through the dead sea and the Jordan, and I clothe the heavens with blackness,etc., recalls the black cloud on Sinai that veiled the sight of God from the people. One ought to see the δόξα under the present ταπεινότης. The Prophet had repeatedly, in what precedes, used the deliverance out of the Egyptian captivity as a type and pledge of future deliverance (Isa_43:2; Isa_43:16-17; Isa_44:27). He does the same here. As regards the passage of the Red Sea, Psa_106:9 has a manifest connection with our passage, the latter clause of which corresponds with the words “I make the rivers a wilderness.” These same words occur verbatim Psa_107:33, as proof of the divine omnipotence in general that can both make waters a desert and the desert waters. The latter is expressed by a word drawn from Isa_41:18. The stinking and dying of the fish are cited as proof of the entire drying up of the waters. This trait, which is no where mentioned in reference to the passage of the Red Sea and Jordan, seems to me to be drawn from the events attending the turning the Nile water into blood (Exo_7:18; Exo_7:21). In this case there would be, in some sense, a confusio duarum figurarum, the poetic transference of an Egyptian event to a fact of later date connected with it. Also the words of Isa_50:3 remind one of the exodous from Egypt; comp. Exo_19:9; Exo_19:16; Exo_20:18; Exo_24:15 sqq.
Footnotes:
[1]With which I put her away.
[2]been sold.
[3]by.
[4]I will.
[5]shall stink.
[6]shall die.
2. THE OFFENSE OF ISRAEL CORRESPOND TO THE SUFFERING OF THE SERVANT, WHO WILLINGLY SUFFERS, YET IS STRONG IN GOD
Isa_50:4-9
4 7The Lord God hath given me the tongue of 8the 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 athe learned.
5 eThe 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 eFor the Lord God 9will help me;
Therefore eshall I not be confounded:
Therefore have I set my face like a flint,
10And 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, ethe 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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_50:4-5; Isa_50:7; Isa_50:9. אדני יהוה. Isa_50:4. עוּת. Isa_50:5. מָרָה. Isa_50:6. מרטים. Isa_50:7. כָּלַמ—חלמישׁ, comp. Eze_3:8-9. Isa_50:8. מצדיק.
Isa_50:4. For עוּת an analogous Arabic root gives sufficient reason for adopting the meaning “succurrere, sustentare.” The combination with לָעוֹת – לָעוּת) עֵת from עָתַת, denomin. from עֵת, Abulwalid, Kimchi, Luther, et al.) is on the contrary quite uncertain. The derivation from לָעָה (לָעוּת substantive, as כְּדוּת, etc.), is impossible because לָעָה is used only in a bad sense = “to babble, βαττολογεῖν.”—דָּבָר is—with the word. It is the same accusative that we had in אֲשֶׁר שׁלחתיה verse 1.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The form of the Servant of God develops with increasing distinctness. The Prophet characterizes Him here in a double aspect. First he describes Him as docile in respect to learning what He was called to perform actively: viz., raising up the weary by means of the word. By this the schoolmaster (pedagogical) activity of the Servant of God is intimated (Isa_50:4). But the Servant of God is docile in another sense. He is obedient and willing to suffer according to God’s will. He does not elude the abuse to which men subject Him, and which answers to just that unsusceptibility of Israel intimated in Isa_50:2 (Isa_50:5-6). But He knows, too, that the Lord will sustain Him, and He shall not come to shame, and this enables Him to harden His face like a flint (Isa_50:7). He knows that the Lord will conduct His cause and justify Him, and can, therefore, boldly summon His adversaries before the bar of judgment. They shall pass away as a moth-eaten garment (Isa_50:8. 9).
2. The Lord God——as the learned.
Isa_50:4. The divine name אדני יהוה (The Lord Jehovah) occurs in this chapt. relatively oftener than in any other Isaianic passage, viz., four times, vera. 4, 5, 7, 9. The tongue of a disciple is a docile tongue, willing and capable of learning. The Prophet, therefore, sees in the Servant of God one who must learn, and who likes to learn. The picture of the Servant of God that appears before the spiritual eye of the Prophet has not entirely clear and complete outlines. It is one that is prophetically obscure, not wholly comprehensible to the Seer himself. One learns from it only this much, that the Prophet sees the Servant of God active in the service of the “weary and heavy laden.” For those described, Mat_11:28, best answer to the יָעֵף.
According to the accents, בברק בבקר should be joined together as in Isa_28:19. But it seems to me more fitting to arrange them palindromically after the example of Isa_27:5 (שָׁלוֹם יַעֲשֶׂה לִייַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם לִי). Delitzsch well remarks that the Servant is here plainly distinguished from the prophets. For the latter receive their revelations mostly by night. But the Servant of God says that His ear is every morning awakened in order to hear after the manner of a disciple. He is thought of, therefore, not as under the influence of a momentary inspiration repeated at intervals, coming upon Him in the condition of sleep, but as under the constant influence of the Spirit that gives testimony of itself to Him every day from the moment He awakes to consciousness in the morning and on. Evidently the latter is a higher form of spiritual communication; it implies a more intimate relation between God and him who receives it. But this communication concerning the way in which the Servant of God receives the revelation of the Spirit stands between the descriptions of His active (Isa_50:4 a) and passive obedience (Isa_50:5 sqq.), if I may use the expression. Is it, then, to be referred to both kinds of obedience? At least it is not to be conceived why “opening my ear” should accomplish itself in another way.
3. The Lord God—eat them up.
Isa_50:5-9. The revelation and instruction that the Servant of God receives relate more to the will than to knowledge. The ear that is opened is that inward ear where the voice of God is audible and welcome to the soul, and where, therefore, hearing and obeying are one. For what is spoken of here is how the Servant of God has learned obedience, how He ἔμαθεν ἀφ’ ὦν ἔπαθε τὴν ὐπακοὴν, as is said, Heb_5:8, with evident reference to our text, and a modification of its thought. I was not disobedient and I turned not back, show that demands were made on His patientia, His willingness to suffer, and capacity for suffering. This is instantly confirmed by Isa_50:6. For there the Servant of God enumerates what was expected of Him. He gave his back to the blows (properly to the smiters, Mat_27:26), his cheeks to the plucking, he hid not his face from shame and spit (doubtless a hendiadys; comp. Mat_26:27; Mat_27:30). And these sufferings must, by the connection of this discourse, answer just to that offence of Israel for the sake of which it was sold and put away (Isa_50:1). By inflicting them it displayed that insusceptibility in consequence of which it would not receive its Lord nor follow His call (Isa_50:2). But not merely obedience gives the Servant of God the power to submit to the severe sufferings. He is also mightily strengthened in this self surrender by the firm belief that God supports Him. To understand the two halves of Isa_50:7 in their right relation, the first must be referred to the past, the second to the future. The first יעזר is to be taken in the sense of continuance: But the Lord helps me, hence I have not (hitherto) come to shame.—Just because by this support hitherto experienced I have been strengthened and encouraged, I am become all the more firm, and insensible to persecutions. I have made my face like flint, because (ו in ואדע is causal) I knew that I would not be put to shame.—The Servant of the Lord knows that He is hated of the world, in many ways censured and persecuted. But He knows, too, that the Lord, His legal assistant, will bring His innocence to light, and will destroy the adversaries. Confident in His support who will prove Him to be a righteous one, He boldly challenges His adversaries. “Who will contend with me?” He says (comp. on Isa_49:25). Let us stand together (comp. Isa_43:26)! Who is my adversary? (בעל משׁפט only here, comp. Isa_41:11 and Exo_24:14, which passages perhaps hovered in the Prophet’s mind). In Isa_50:9, יעזר לי is decidedly to be taken in the future. הִרְשִׁיעַ, in the sense of “to make bad, guilty, i.e., to condemn,” is found in Isa. again only Isa_54:17. Comp., moreover, Job_34:29; Rom_8:34. [“Rom_8:33-34 is an obvious imitation of this passage as to form. But even Vitringa, and the warmest advocates for letting the New Testament explain the Old, are forced to acknowledge that in this case Paul merely borrows his expressions from the Prophet, and applies them to a different object.”—J. A. Alex.]. The words כלם כבגד יבלו are quoted from our text in Psa_102:27. Comp., moreover, Isa_51:6; Isa_51:8; Job_13:28, and the List.
Footnotes:
[7]The Lord Jehovah.
[8]disciples.
[9]helps.
[10]For I knew.
3. THE CONDITION ON WHICH ISRAEL MAY BE RECEIVED TO GRACE
Isa_50:10-11
10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord,
That obeyeth the voice of his servant,
11That walketh in darkness, and hath no 12light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord,
And stay upon his God.
11 Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
That 13compass yourselves about with 14sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire,
And in the dsparks that ye have kindled.
This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in 15sorrow.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_50:11. קָדַח, comp. Deu_32:22; Jer_15:14; Jer_17:4.—זיִקוֹת comp. זִקִּים Isa_45:14.
Isa_50:10. The passage at first sight seems to admit of a double construction. Either one may understand the question מי בכם וגו׳ as one that requires the answer “no one;” then the second half of the verse must be referred to the Servant of Jehovah. Or one takes מִי in the sense of “quisquis,” and יבטח וגו׳ as a comforting call to those who incline to put their trust in the Servant of God spite of his humble condition. I regard the latter construction as the correct one, for the following reasons: First, according to the former construction, the whole characteristic of the Servant (אֲשֶׁר as far as בֵּאלהָיו) is superfluous, for it contains nothing but a needless repetition of what is said immediately before in Isa_50:5-9. For it is said in Isa_50:6-7, that the Servant of the Lord walks in rayless darkness; and he himself testifies in Isa_50:7-9 that he trusts in the Lord. Why this repetition?——Second, in that case Isa_50:10 b must read וְהוּא יִבְטַח וגו׳. For there is no justification of what Hahn says: viz., that, by the use of the perfect, the clause is subordinated to that beginning with יבטח, so that we are to translate: “who trusts, although he walks.” If the notion “athough” needed to be expressed, it could not be done by means of the perfect חָלַךְ, but it must then read: וְהוּא יִבְטַח וגו׳. Hence I share the view of Gesenius, Maurer, Knobel, Delitzsch, that the question מי בכם וגו׳ singles out of the totality of Israel all the individuals to whom apply the predicates ירא י׳ and שׁמע בִקול עבדו. The words מִי as far as לוֹ are subject of the whole clause, as Knobel correctly says. It is quite natural that ירא י׳ should stand first; for only he that fears God hears also the voice of His Servant (Joh_8:47). The relative sentence אֲשֶׁר as far as נגה לו is regarded by many as a continuation of the particip. construction שֹׁמֵעַ–יִרֵא, so that it describes the situation of the God-fearing, that makes them appear as those that need help. But, first one looks in that case for וִהָלַךְ, and, second, the negative ואין נגה לו would be too weak a description of the mournful condition implied in their case. Hence I think the relative clause is to be referred to the Servant. Then אֲשֶר involves a significant contrast: he who fears Jehovah and hearkens to the voice of His Servant, which (i.e., although the same) walks in darkness and dispenses with all splendor,—let him trust, etc.—הָלַךְ חֲשֵׁכִים, comp. Isa_9:1; the accusative is the acc. localis according to analogy of הָלָךְ רוּחַ ,צְדָקוֹת.
Isa_50:11. Instead of מְאַזְּרֵי some would read מְאִירֵי according to the Syriac; or even arbitrarily change the reading (Hitz.) to מְאַוְּרֵי (a non-Hebrew word formed from the Arabic). Both are unnecessary. אִזַּר is the direct causative Piel=“to make compass about.”—למעצבה וגו׳ is not=ye shall lie in torment; לְ denotes the terminus in quem of the laying (Job_7:21; Lam_2:21, comp. 2Sa_8:2; 2Sa_12:16; 2Sa_13:31).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. As the discourse of the Servant, which forms the pith of this chapter, was introduced by a word of Jehovah’s, so now it is concluded in the same way. For that Isa_50:10-11, are the words of Jehovah appears from this ye shall have from my hand. He turns to the two classes into which Israel separates in relation to the Servant of God. Even after Israel, for the most part, has rejected the Servant of Jehovah, those that fear God and hearken to the voice of the Servant spite His lowliness and obscurity, and lean on Him, may still be blessed (Isa_50:10). But those who with flaming torches and burning arrows raged against the Servant of God and His cause are told that the fire kindled by them shall devour themselves. That will be the painful punishment prepared for them by the Lord (Isa_50:11).
2. Who is among—in sorrow, Isa_50:10-11. As Isa_50:6 in a measure formed a prelude to the positive statements concerning the suffering of the Servant contained in 53, so hath no light (splendor) are a prelude to the negative ones (Isa_53:2 b). Walketh in darkness along with hath no light, which is the reverse side, is the Biblical expression for the deepest misery, unalleviated by a ray. Therefore whoever, spite of this miserable exterior (see Text. and Gram.), still heeds the voice of the Servant, may trust in the name of Jehovah (Psa_33:21) and lean on his God (Isa_10:20; comp. Isa_30:12; Isa_31:1); therefore he may comfort himself by the promises of grace given Isa_50:1-3.—The enemies of the Servant are called fire-kindlers. Doubtless a fire is meant that burns in them and by which they then set the outward world on fire. For wickedness is a fire, and the wicked, poisonous tongue (which we are specially to understand by זִיקוֹת) is, in Jam_3:5-6, expressly called a little fire that yet sets a world on fire, and a world of iniquity. Making one’s girding of fiery darts may be said in the same sense as one speaks of girding with strength (Psa_18:33; Psa_18:40), or with joy (Psa_30:12), i.e. figuratively. Fiery darts are their favorite weapons. Gesenius seems to think of a fire inadvertently kindled, because in Isa_50:11 a he finds only the continuation of the figure of the darkness and the thought of arbitrary self-help. Others refer the kindling of a fire to the persecutions of the prophets, or to the insurrections of the Jews against the Romans. Of course events of this sort may contribute to the accomplishment of what the Prophet would say. But it is perverse to think exclusively of special events. All that wicked Israel did, directly and indirectly, against the Servant of God, with fiery darts kindled with hell fire, only kindled a fire that consumed themselves. Thus their own fire turned into a fire of divine wrath, and into that they were constrained to enter. Jerusalem with the Temple perished in it. Of that day when this fire must burn, the Lord says in advance to them: from my hand is this come upon you; in torment ye shall lay yourselves down. The day when Israel shall experience that fiery judgment from the Lord is the day when, after having played their part, they shall lie down; but they then lie down not in repose, but in torment.
Footnotes:
[11]Who.
[12]splendor about him.
[13]gird.
[14]fiery darts.
[15]torment.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_50:1. The church of the Lord may be sorely punished, it may be overrun with enemies, partly destroyed, reduced, as in the days of Elijah, to 7,000 that are invisible, but it can never receive a bill of divorce. For what God has joined together men shall not put asunder. If this be true of the original and Christian marriage, why not still more of the original type of marriage? Eph_5:23 sqq.
2. On Isa_50:2. “Quia veni et non erat vir. Veni in carnem, inquit, sum mortuus pro vobis, resurrexi, implevi et exhibui praesens omnes promissiones. Verum vos me non recepistis. Sicut est Joh. i.: ‘venit in propria et sui eum non receperunt.’—Numquid abbreviata et parvula, etc. Jactat potentiam suam contra Judaeos et objurgat eos. Quasi dicat: vos me ideo negligitis, quod sine aliqua pompa veniam. Spectatis corporale regnum et hanc infirmitatem contemnitis. Verum ego sic soleo; numquam liberavi vos per virtutem, sed semper per infirmitatem, in qua summa virtus et potentia est, et tum soleo esse potentissimus, cum prorsus nihil posse existimor.” Luther.
3. On Isa_50:2. At My rebuke. “God can destroy the wicked by a rebuke (Psa_9:6). When He rebuked the Red sea it became dry (Psa_106:9). And when Christ threatened the wind it became still (Luk_8:24). If God can then do so much by chiding, what will happen when He joins the deed to the word, and takes the iron sceptre or the goad in hand (Psa_2:9; Act_9:5)?” Cramer.
4. On Isa_50:4 sqq. Luther, who renders לשׁון למודים by “learned tongue” still gives in his commentary the explanation that thereby is not to be understood a “lingua magistri,” but a “lingua discipuli” or a “lingua discipulata, quae nihil loquitur, nisi quod a Deo didicit.” And with this agrees admirably what the Lord, especially in the Gospel by John, so often affirms, that He says nothing but what He has heard from His Father, that He does nothing but what He has received from the same, wills nothing but what He wills (Joh_3:11; Joh_3:32; Joh_4:34; Joh_5:19; Joh_5:30; Joh_6:38; Joh_7:16; Joh_8:16; Joh_8:38; Joh_10:18; Joh_10:37-38; Joh_12:49-50; Joh_14:10; Joh_14:31; Joh_15:15; Joh_16:32). But that the Lord was not docile only with reference to speaking and doing, but also with reference to suffering, He says Himself in the words: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt,” Mat_26:39. And hence, Paul testifies that Christ was obedient unto death, even the death on the cross (Php_2:8).
5. On Isa_50:6. The Lord said, Luk_18:31-33 : “Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For He shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death: and the third day He shall rise again.” Regarding this it must be noted, that there is no other Old Testament passage that declares that the Servant of God would be spit upon. Moreover no other passage speaks at least so plainly of scourging and smiting. It is further very probable that “ὑβρισθήσεται” especially answers to לחיי למרטים; for if anything can be an ὕβρις, it is this ill-treatment of the face. It is accordingly in the highest degree probable that in Luk_18:31 sqq. the Lord had especially in mind our passage. It then appears also what good reason we have for referring our passage to the Servant of Jehovah.
On Isa_50:7-9. “Spes confisa Deo nunquam confusa recedit.”—“He who holds out through Passion-week with Christ alone, must and shall also keep Easter there with Him.” Foerster.
7. On Isa_50:11. Regarding the meaning and the fulfilment of this passage, both may be best learned from what Josephus (bell. jud. VI. 4, 5 sqq.) relates concerning the taking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Titus had commanded to preserve the Temple. But “τοῦδὲ (viz., τοῦ ναοῦ) κατεψήφιστο τὸ πῦρ ὁ θεὸς πάλαι.” A Roman soldier, “δαιμονίω ὁρμῇ τινι χρώμενος” casts a fire-brand through the golden window into the Temple. Titus hastens up and commands to extinguish the conflagration. He is not heard, or men will not hear. A soldier secretly applies fire to the door-posts of the Temple building proper. The Temple was consumed “ἄκοντος καίσαρος.” Josephus repeatedly testifies that it was the Lord that gave the Temple to the flames, and thereafter the whole city of Jerusalem. One might fancy, while reading his account, that he had in mind the words of our text: “This shall ye have of Mine hand.” And who does not think also of: “ye shall lie down in sorrow” (torment) when reading of the surviving Jews, how some were sent off to the mines, some kept to contend as gladiators and with wild beasts in the theatres, the rest sold as slaves (Josephus, l. c. VI. 9, 2).
HOMILETICAL HINTS
7. On Isa_50:1-3. Sermon of consolation in times of the Church’s distress. What are we to think of the present conflicts of the Church? 1) We must regard them as a divine chastisement for the sins of the church, and suffer ourselves to be led by them to repentance (behold for your iniquities are ye sold—and no one answered Isa_50:1-2)—2) We ought not to despair in these conflicts, but comfort ourselves in the expectation of a gracious deliverance. For God a. is willing for it, because He has neither given the church a bill of divorce, nor can give it (Isa_50:1, where is the bill, etc.); b. He has also the power to do it (is my hand shortened, etc., Isa_50:1, I clothe the heavens, etc., Isa_50:3).
2. On Isa_50:4. The Lord says Mat_11:28 : “Come unto me all ye that are weary,” etc. That is a right well-intended summons and worthy of all confidence. For no one can in fact so refresh the weary as He. Has not God just for this given Him an instructed tongue? “This too may serve to comfort (the weary) when they pour out their hearts toward the servants and children of the Lord, who, mighty in His word, tried and preserved under many a cross, have learned by experience, after their Redeemer’s example, to speak a word in season to the weary (weak, wretched, comfortless, that bear away at their cross nearly tired out, and nearly unable to get on).” Schriver, Seelenschatz, Theil. IV. 9 Pred. § 6. If, by the waters of such distress and tribulation, there remain still a little spark of faith, apply yourself diligently to consider the word of God, that it may not be utterly quenched, although the devil will be marvellously glad to hinder it. How Christ comforts one by His dear word! As also it is said: “The Lord hath given me a learned tongue,” etc. Tholuck, “Hours of Devotion,” p. 252.
3. On Isa_50:4-9. Passion Sermon. The sufferings of the Lord. 1) The ground of them (obedience, Isa_50:4-5); 2) The nature of them (ill-use of every sort on the part of those that hated the Lord, Isa_50:6-7); 3) The use of them (that we may boldly say: who will contend with me? who is He that condemneth? [Rom_8:33-34] Isa_50:8-9).
4. On Isa_50:6. “O Lamb of God, how hast Thou tasted to their full extent the impositions of human sinfulness! The blindness and wickedness of the human heart could only become manifest by contrast with Thy holiness, as night is only known in its entire darkness by contrast with the spotless light; and thus it has now even happened. And thou wast silent, and Thou hast endured all contradiction of sinners, silent when they struck Thee with their fists, when they spit in Thy face—the unjust thus treating the Just one, the servants their Lord, the creature the Only Begotten of the Father! “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks … shame and spitting:” thus it is written of Thee. Innocent Lamb of God, how hast Thou borne the sins of the world, and been obedient unto the depths of humiliation! Tholuck, l. c. 493.
5. On Isa_50:10-11. Penitential Sermon. God is love, and at the same time holiness and justice. He bears the rod Gentle and the rod Woe. He announces to us the law and the gospel. To-day also He turns to the pious and the wicked, and offers to each His own. The Lord to-day presents to us life and death. 1) He offers life to those that fear Him (Isa_50:10). 2) But He presents death to those who have kindled their heart, word and work at the flames of hell, and thereby set ablaze a fire in which they shall themselves perish (Isa_50:11).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–11 no man--willing to believe in and obey Me (Isa…
I--Messiah.
no man--willing to believe in and obey Me (Isa 52:1, Isa 52:3). The same Divine Person had "come" by His prophets in the Old Testament (appealing to them, but in vain, Jer 7:25-26), who was about to come under the New Testament.
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hand shortened--the Oriental emblem of weakness, as the long stretched-out hand is of power (Isa 59:1). Notwithstanding your sins, I can still "redeem" you from your bondage and dispersion.
dry up . . . sea-- (Exo 14:21). The second exodus shall exceed, while it resembles in wonders, the first (Isa 11:11, Isa 11:15; Isa 51:15).
make . . . rivers . . . wilderness--turn the prosperity of Israel's foes into adversity.
fish stinketh--the very judgment inflicted on their Egyptian enemies at the first exodus (Exo 7:18, Exo 7:21).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 1. Thus saith the Lord — As in reply…
1. Thus saith the Lord — As in reply to Zion’s complaint, and in justification of himself.
Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? — In effect, the words are: “Your mother, or Zion, to whom I am married, and claim still an indissoluble marriage bond, has no such bill of divorcement, except as she has herself made it by departure from me. Consequently, her children are not chattels to be sold into bondage. Earthly fathers do this, but I never. The children of Zion may break away from me and sell themselves, but I am faithful to my covenants — my part of the bond — for ever. You are doers of these evils; your mother has put herself away.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Isa_50:1-3. The third oracle meets another doubt which must…
Isa_50:1-3. The third oracle meets another doubt which must have occurred to the exiles, viz., that the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel has been broken beyond possibility of renewal. In Isa_50:1 this fear is dispelled by the help of two analogies from common life.
Where is the bill … whom I have put away?] (better, as R.V., wherewith I have put her away). No such document exists. Although Jehovah has had good reason to adopt this extreme measure (Jer_3:8), He has not done it, but has left the way open for a reconciliation. The effect of the “bill of divorcement” was to make the separation absolute and final; the woman was free to marry another, but could not after that be received back by her former husband (Deu_24:1-4). (A specimen of the form of words used by later Jews is given in Dalman’s Aramäische Dialektproben, p. 5.) In Mohammedan law a man may divorce his wife twice and take her back without any ceremony, but a third divorce (or a triple divorce conveyed in one sentence) is final, unless the woman have contracted a fresh marriage in the interval and been released from it either by divorce or the death of the husband (Koran, Sura 2:229 f.; see Lane, Modern Egyptians, chap. 3). Both the Mosaic and the Mohammedan laws accord to a husband the unrestricted right of divorce, and for this reason the Jewish custom was pronounced by our Lord to be inconsistent with the true idea of marriage and a concession to the weakness of human nature (Mat_19:3 ff.; Mar_10:2 ff.).
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which of my creditors is it &c.] i.e. “what creditor of mine is there to whom” &c.? The selling of children into slavery in payment of a debt is another practice tolerated, though hardly approved, by the Law (Exo_21:7; cf. 2Ki_4:1; Neh_5:5). Since it is inconceivable that Jehovah should have a creditor, so it is impossible that He should have surrendered His rights over His own children.
Behold, for your iniquities &c.] This is the true explanation of the slavery of the children and the divorce of the mother, and this cause is removed by the offer of forgiveness (Isa_40:2). It is remarkable that the prophet does not, like Hosea and Ezekiel, directly attribute sin to the ideal mother of the nation, but only to the individual Israelites, to whom this whole expostulation is addressed (cf. Hos_2:2).
For have you sold yourselves render with R.V. were ye sold (so again ch. Isa_52:3). The phrase is frequently used in the Book of Judges of the delivering of Israel into the power of its enemies (Jdg_2:14 &c.).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (1) Where is the bill . . .?—The thought…
L.
(1) Where is the bill . . .?—The thought seems suggested by Isa_49:14, but expands in a different direction. Both questions imply a negative answer. Jehovah had not formally repudiated the wife (Judah) whom he had chosen (Deu_24:1) as he had done her sister Israel (Jer_3:8; Hos_2:2). He had no creditors among the nations who could claim her children. On the law of debt which supplies the image, comp. Exo_21:7; 2Ki_4:1; Neh_5:5. The divorce, the sale, were her acts and not His.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 This chapter seems to be made up of short…
This chapter seems to be made up of short fragments, which the collector, or collectors, of Isaiah"s writings regarded as too precious to be lost, and which they consequently here threw together, though in reality they were detached utterances, and are not even connected in subject-matter. Vers. 13 are a rebuke to the exiles for deeming themselves wholly rejected, and not rising to the occasion now that deliverance is at hand. Vers. 4-9 carry on the account of "the Servant of the Lord" from Isa_49:12, further describing his humiliation, and declaring his steadfastness and his faith. Vers. 10, 11 are an exhortation to weak believers generally, and contain an encouragement and a warning.
Where is the bill of your mother"s divorcement? On account of her persistent "backsliding," God had "put away Israel," Judah"s sister, and had "given her a bill of divorce" (Ver. 3:8). But he had not repudiated Judah; and her children were wrong to suppose themselves altogether cast off. (see Isa_49:14) They had, in fact, by their transgressions, especially their idolatries, willfully divorced themselves, or at any rate separated themselves, from God; but no sentence had gone forth from him to bar reconciliation and return. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you! Neither has God exercised the right, regarded as inherent in a parent, (Exo_21:7 2Ki_4:11 Neh_6:5, Neh_6:8) of selling his children to a creditor. They are not sold he has "taken no money for them"; (Psa_44:12 Isa_52:3) and the Babylonians are thus not their rightful owners (Isa_49:24) they are still God"s children, his property, and the objects of his care. For your iniquities... for your transgressions; rather, by your iniquities... by your transgressions. The separation, such as it was, between God and his people was caused by their sins, not by any act of his.
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HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-3. Explanation of exile.
The Lord would impress on his exiled people that their calamities found their explanation not in him but in themselves; and we shall find, when we look, that this is the account of our estrangement and distance from God.
I WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR ISRAEL"S EXILE?
1. It was not any fickleness in God. He had not acted toward Israel as a husband often acted toward the wife of whom he was weary; there had been no changeableness on his part.
2. It was not his necessity. The father might sell his son when hard pressed by pecuniary straits; but God could never, by any supposition, be reduced to such necessities. He who can say, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills," the generous Donor of all gifts, and bountiful Source of all treasures, cannot be in want of anything.
3. It is not his inability to protect or to redeem. There was abundance of Divine power to preserve from captivity or to rescue from it. He who could "dry up the Red sea," and in whose hand are the storms and tempests of the sky, could defeat any armies of the invader, or could bring out of bondage, if he chose.
4. It was their own disobedience which accounted for it their iniquities, their transgressions (ver. 1); it was their heedlessness and disobedience when the voice of the Lord was heard rebuking and inviting (ver. 2).
II WHAT ACCOUNTS FOR OUR ALIENATION FROM GOD?
1. Nothing in him. He is not unwilling that we should return and be reconciled; he does not weary of his children; he has been obliged to condemn us, but he "earnestly remembers us still." His attitude is one of gracious invitation: all the days of our life long he "stretches out his hands" toward us. He is not unable. The power which God shows in nature, in his control of the elements, in regulating the tides of the sea, and directing the tempest in the sky, is small and slight in comparison with that he shows in redeeming a fallen race; mechanical or miraculous power is of a far inferior kind to that which is moral and spiritual. And the Author of nature is the Redeemer of man; he has completed a glorious work of mercy and restoration. He has made it possible for the most guilty to be forgiven, for the foulest to be cleansed, for the most distant to return. There is no obstacle to our restoration in God.
2. Everything in us. We "will not come unto him that we may have life.
(1) We do not listen when he speaks; we go on our way, regardless of the fact that God is speaking in his Word, in the sanctuary by Jesus Christ, in his providence.
(2) Or we do not reflect when we hear. We may come and listen and understand, but go away" hearers only, and not doers; "we are the "people that do not consider.
(3) Or we do not decide. We feel and we entertain the question of returning; we may say, "I will arise," but we do not; conviction loses the name of action; we defer, and remain in exile. C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. Selling ourselves.
For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves." Reference is to the right which fathers in the East possessed, of selling their children into slavery; and also to the power of judges to condemn malefactors to slavery. The Jews sold themselves to work wickedness, and the judgment which came upon them, in their being sold into the hands of their Babylonian enemies, was consequently, in fact, their own work. They might say that they were sold; God convicts them by reminding them of the truth they preferred not to see. The deeper truth was that they, sold themselves. Illustrate from Goethe"s drama of " Faust." In Scripture a man who is fully resolved on a course of action, is said to have "sold himself" to that course; (see 1Ki_21:20) and a Divine judgment, which takes form as the conquest of a nation by its enemies, is called a "selling" to the enemy. (see Jud_1:2:14 10:7) St. Paul even uses the same figure in Rom_7:14, saying, "The Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." The figure suggests that, by giving himself up to wilfulness, self-indulgence, and sin, a man expects to get a price, and deludes himself into the idea that the price will be worth the risk. Practical applications may be made by considering
I MAN, THE SELLER.
1. What has he to sell? Himself his powers, time, gifts, relationships, influence, and possibilities.
2. Has he any right to sell? No real right, but an apparent right. It is the first sign of man"s going wrong, that he claims the right to sell himself, or do what he pleases with his life. A man is really not his own. He has nothing that is his own, and so he has nothing to sell. He must take himself out of the hands of God before he can sell himself to anybody; and the possibility of doing this is the peril involved in trusting man with a limited free-will. Still, it should be clearly seen that, when any man sells himself, he sells stolen property, for a man is not his own he is God"s.
II SELF, THE BUYER. It is the custom to personify evil, and call it Satan, and in the early stages of religious knowledge such personifications are helpful. But the worst Satan, the true Mammon, is Self. He is the purchaser; and no slave-master ever figured the tyranny with which "Self" rules the slaves he purchases. "He is the free man whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides.
III PLEASURE, THE PRICE. Self-gratification, indulgence of the lower over the higher powers and faculties. Is the price ever, even at first, worthy of the thing sold? Christ has redeemed us from this slavery to self. The purchase price is spoken of as "his own blood." Redeeming us for himself is really buying back for us our own true selves. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of…
Isa_50:1-3
Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement?
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Jehovah and unfaithful Israel
These Israelites went to the only kind of law with which they were familiar, and borrowed from it two of its forms, which were not only suggested to them by the relations in which the nation and the nations sons respectively stood to Jehovah, as wife and as children, but admirably illustrated the ideas they wished to express.
(1) There was the form of divorce, so expressive of the ideas of absoluteness, deliberateness and finality--of absoluteness, for throughout the East power of divorce rests entirely with the husband; of deliberateness, for in order to prevent hasty divorce the Hebrew law insisted that the husband must make a bill or writing of divorce instead of only speaking dismissal; and of finality, for such a writing in contrast to the spoken dismissal, set the divorce beyond recall.
(2) The other form which the doubters borrowed from their law, was one which, while it also illustrated the irrevocableness of the act, emphasized the helplessness of the agent--the act of the father who put his children away, not as the husband put his wife in his anger, but in his necessity, selling them to pay his debts and because he was bankrupt.
(3) On such doubts God turns with their own language--I have indeed put your mother away, but where is the bill that makes her divorce final, beyond recall? You indeed were sold, but was it because I was bankrupt! To which, then, of My creditors (note the scorn of the plural) was it that I sold you? Nay, by means of your iniquities did ye sell yourselves, and by means of your transgressions were ye put away. But I stand here, ready as ever to save, I alone. If there is any difficulty about your restoration it lies in this, that I am alone, with no response or assistance from men. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
The sinners responsibility
I. THE SINNERS MISERABLE CONDITION.
1. Separated from God.
2. Sold under sin.
II. THE OCCASION OF IT. Not the will of God, but his own love of sin, and his consequent disregard of Gods offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Israel self-ruined
Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But in answer to their murmurings, we have here--
I. A CHALLENGE TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GODS SIDE (Isa_50:1).
II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THEMSELVES THE AUTHOR OF THEIR RUIN. Behold, for your iniquities, etc.
III. A CONFIRMATION OF THIS CHALLENGE AND THIS CHARGE (Isa_50:2-3).
1. It Was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace.
2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity, and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still. (M. Henry.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 10 Isa_50:1-3. Thus saith the Lord, Where is the hill,…
SINFUL ISRAEL SELF-RUINED
Isa_50:1-3. Thus saith the Lord, Where is the hill, &c.
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Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But, in answer to their murmurings, we have here—bill.
I. A CHALLENGE TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GOD’S SIDE (Isa_50:1). They could not say that He had done them any wrong, or had acted arbitrarily.
1. He had been a Husband to them; and husbands were then allowed to put away their wives upon any little disgust (Deu_24:1; Mat_19:7). But they could not say that God had dealt so with them; true, they were now separated from Him, but whose fault was that? What evidence could they produce that He had dealt with them capriciously?
2. He had been a Father to them; and fathers had then a power to sell their children for slaves to their creditors; and they were then sold to the Babylonians, as they were afterwards to the Romans; but did God sell them for payment of His debts? When God chastens His children, it is neither for His pleasure nor His profit (Heb_12:10).
II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THEMSELVES THE AUTHORS OF THEIR RUIN. “Behold, for your iniquities,” &c.
III. A CONFIRMATION OF THIS CHALLENGE AND THIS CHARGE (Isa_50:2-3).
1. It was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble, or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace (Isa_50:2; Mat_21:34; Jer_35:15). He called to them to leave their sins, and so prevent their own ruin; but there was no man, or next to none, that complied with the messages He sent them: and it was for this that they were sold and put away (2Ch_36:16-17). Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, who would have gathered Jerusalem’s children together, but they would not; and for that transgression it was that they were put away, and their house left desolate (Mat_21:41; Mat_23:37-38; Luk_19:41-42). When God calls men to happiness, and they will not answer, they are justly left to be miserable.
2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still.—Matthew Henry; Commentary, in loco.
I. A picture of the sinner’s miserable condition! separated from God—sold under sin. II. The occasion of it: not the will of God—but his own love of sin—and his consequent disregard of God’s offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow.—J. Lyth, D.D.: The Homiletical Treasury: Isaiah, p. 69.
THE TEACHER OF THE WEARY
Isa_50:2-4. Behold, at my vebuke I dry up the sea, &c.
For the young, this is fresh, beautiful, sunlit life; to the old, it is often what Talleyrand found it, who in the journal of his eighty-third year, wrote “Life is a long fatigue.” The first cry of a soul when Divinely wakened to its true condition is after a Teacher, who in a way suited to its weakness will teach it secrets suited to its wants. Such a Teacher has been found for us all, and the “words in season that He speaks are the ‘words of eternal life.’ ” Listen to this Teacher, for He is speaking to us now. He speaks in the style of God. Beginning, “Thus saith the Lord” (Isa_50:1), He at once announces His Divinity. He then goes on to speak of Himself as a man (Isa_50:5-6). These words, therefore, could have been spoken alone by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They place before our thoughts—
I. HIS DIVINE POWER AND GLORY.
Power is naturally calm. Yet perhaps a storm will make a child think of power more than the sunshine will. Knowing our frame, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His power by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature; “I dry up the sea,” &c. One day, with a casual blow of his hammer, Hugh Miller laid open a block in a quarry, and there discovered a fossil fish, supposed to be the first of its own variety ever seen by mortal. There it lay, “dried up” [1526] turned into a thing of stone. Whose work was this? Christ’s name is traced in sacred cypher on the foundations of the lasting hills; He dried up the sea; He made the river a wilderness, &c. It is a joy to think that the power so mighty to destroy is now all mediatorial.
[1526] For חבאש, stinketh, read תיבש, is dried up; so it stands in the Bodleian MS., and it is confirmed by the LXX, ξηρακθησονται,—Lowth.
II. HIS HUMAN LIFE AND EDUCATION.
The Lord not only became a man, but assumed humanity in its humblest form; an apostle says, “He emptied Himself.” Gradually, it seems (Luk_2:40; Luk_2:52), the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious Voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil; morning by morning (Isa_50:4) the Voice was ever wakening Him to a higher consciousness and more awful knowledge; nor was His equipment complete until He uttered His last cry from the cross (H. E. I. 858–863).
III. THE MEDIATORIAL TEACHING FOR WHICH HE HAD BEEN THUS PREPARED.
1. It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. “The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned,” &c. The education of a human soul is not to be entrusted to any created being. A million messengers may bring us wisdom, but Christ is the Personal Agent who employs them all. “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.”
2. It is suitable; “that I should know how to speak a word in season.” Suitable to our weariness
(1.) while we are yet in a state of unregeneracy. Christ knows how to speak to such so as to kindle sympathy and waken response; He knows how to speak a word that gives life, the only “word in season” to men “dead in trespasses and sins.”
(2.) When we are sinking under the burden of guilt. The law of God demands a perfect obedience; you are unable to meet that demand. All the while Christ was on earth, He was learning how to take that burden from you (Heb_5:8).
(3.) When we are fainting under the burden of care. When you are ready to learn, Christ is ready to teach (Psa_55:22). To cast your burden upon the Lord is to cast yourself upon Him—yourself, with all you carry.
(4.) When we are burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology. Such difficulties form an essential part of the Christian discipline of many. Those who feel them are tempted, on the one hand, to rest in the authority of human reason, and, on the other, in the authority of the Church. But, who can teach us so surely the things that relate to Christ, as Christ Himself? Christ, wise in His speech, and wise in His silence, may not give us all the knowledge we wish for, but He will give us all we need.
(5.) When we are under the burden of mortal infirmity. “The faint old man sits down by the wayside a-weary.” At first he thought within himself—
‘I am a useless hull,’tis time I sunk;
I am in all men’s ways, I trouble them,
I am a trouble to myself.”
But Christ has spoken to his soul, and dispersed those sad imaginations, by the power of thoughts that renew his inward strength (Isa_40:29-31). There sits a man who was once an active thinker; but he has just tried to read one of his own books, and could not understand it. When other teachers have gone their way, Christ comes, and says, “Learn of Me” (Mat_11:28-30).
3. It is minutely direct and particular. The Good Shepherd “calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out;” “the Master is come, and calleth for thee.”
“Thou art as much His care as if beside
Nor man nor angel lived in all the earth;
The sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide
To light a world, or wake an insect’s birth:
They shine and shine with unexhausted store;
Thou art thy Saviour’s darling—seek no more.”
Solomon calls wisdom a “tree of life;” and the heavenly Teacher’s wisdom is like the mystical tree of life, bearing “twelve manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit every month.” You can never go to that tree out of season; you can never go to it seeking fruit and finding none; for as one has said, “you carry with you the season, and make it the season of the tree.”—C. Stanford, D.D., Symbols of Christ, pp. 146–172.
He who speaks is the second person of the ever blessed Trinity; He speaks in that character of a Mediator which He had covenanted from all eternity to bear, and which required that in “the fulness of time” He should be made flesh, and dwell among men. This is the explanation of the mystery that He who in one verse speaks as God (Isa_50:3), in the next describes Himself as a learner. How the man Christ Jesus became informed of the nature and obligations of the mediatorial office is a profound mystery; all that we are told is, that it was gradually (Luk_2:52; H. E. I. 858–863), so that morning by morning something new was told, till at last the whole task of labour, ignominy, and death, lay spread before the view of the Surety of our race. But though we may not be able to penetrate the mystery of the process, the result was that our Lord entered upon His mission possessing “the tongue of the learned.” Not according to any anticipation that the “learned” men of the world would have favoured, if this prediction had been made known to them. His was the profounder and more important knowledge of the human heart; and therefore He was able to do what all their wisdom and science would never have enabled them to accomplish, He knew how to speak words in season to the weary. He has been the great Comforter of our race. Millions burdened by sin and sorrow have been helped and strengthened by Him.
In this respect His ministers should strive to be like Him. Intellectual culture they are not to disregard, but their supreme ambition should be to attain to such a knowledge of the heart, in all its varying experiences, and of the adaptation of God’s truth thereto, that they also may know how to speak words in season to the weary—right words at the right time.—Henry Melvill, B.D: Sermons Preached on Public Occasions, pp. 125–147.
The text is a word for the weary from One in whose sympathy the human heart finds its refreshment and strength. In the work of cheering weary hearts, Christ excels immeasurably all others. God, who gave to Moses the tongue of terror, and to Isaiah the tongue of a fellow-sufferer with God’s people, has given to Christ, in a singular and incomparable sense, the tongue of one who has drunk our cup, navigated all the seas of our experience, and become one with us in all that pertains to human suffering and conflict. Christ has the tongue of experience. Robertson strains language when he speaks of the “human heart of God.” But we may speak of the human sympathy of “the man Christ Jesus”—the “Son of God.” His human heart has experienced human woes—toil, weariness, disappointment, sorrow, and curse. He was made in all things like His brethren, to assure us of God’s sympathy. Not that God knows our suffering the more familiarly, or sympathises with us the more tenderly, because He has experienced them in our nature. His omniscience marks the quiver of each heart-pang. His sympathy is as abounding and deep as the ocean, for “God is love.” But we cannot conceive adequately of the sympathy of an abstract First Cause. Roman Catholics are right when they tell us that we can only realise God’s acquaintance and sympathy with human sorrow as we look at a human fellow-sufferer possessing the most susceptible of tender human hearts. Their error is in pointing us to the Virgin Mother instead of the Incarnate Son. Because Christ has the tongue of experience, therefore His sympathy is the more effective. Apply these thoughts to—
1. Physical sufferings. Christ’s experience of hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, &c. (Isa_50:5-6). Christ has imparted a new meaning to all God’s assurances in the Old Testament, and given existence and force to all the consolations of the New, since they all are God’s, and God is Christ. Listen to the tongue of experience as it becomes the tongue of sympathy (Psa_103:13; 2Co_4:17; Heb_2:10; Heb_2:14).
2. Temptations. Some say that since Christ could not have yielded, therefore He had no true experience of conflict with evil. But can you say, that because the steadfast Christian is so full of Christ that he cannot allow himself to sin, therefore he has no true experience of conflict? In point of fact, the victor knows the cost of withstanding temptation far more than he who is vanquished by it (Heb_4:15; Heb_2:18). Christ has fought His way to victory all along our path, and the way of holiness is crimson with His blood. Read the answers given by Christ (Matthew 4), and remember that He learnt to speak them in a conflict severer far than yours, that you may hear them clear and sure above the din and clangour of your sharpest contests with self and sin (H. E. I. 866–871).
3. The derision of the world. Many times was He reviled and scorned; while in John’s Gospel we read of six most determined attempts on the part of His foes to do their worst. Realise all the sympathy which Christ conveys when He tells us that we suffer these things “for His name’s sake.”
4. The treachery of friends. Christ’s experience of the desertion of His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. Let all deceived hearts dwell restfully upon the assurance (Heb_13:5).
5. The impenitence of sinners. The praying father or mother, weary of the son’s or daughter’s impenitence. Christ wept over Jerusalem, and then went down into the city to die for her. His heart still melts with tenderness.
6. Bereavement (John 11) In weeping with them, He has wept with us. In raising Himself, He has shown all mourners that He will raise again the dead (Joh_11:25-26). A word in season for you.
7. Divine sovereignty. How many perplexed brains and weary hearts there are by reason of the mystery of God’s dealings! It seems strange that God’s Son should be called upon to experience this perplexity and weariness, till we hear Him cry, “If it be possible,” & c., and, “O my God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?” But His experience only makes God’s word the more assuring, that the Providence that upholds the sparrow, counts our hairs, and attends our every step, will order all things well (Rom_8:28).
The value of the text is not so much that Christ suffered this or that, as that He suffered so deeply (Heb_5:7-8; Heb_2:18). The thoroughness of Christ’s experience (Isa_50:5). No sun ever rose upon His daily path, but it revealed some fresh experience of human toil, conflict, trial, or sorrow. So it is with us. But every sun that rises on our daily path, lights it with a fadeless ray, revealing, parallel with our life, the experience of Him who has tabernacled in our flesh, and who speaks to our hearts in the fulfilment of a ministry of sympathy, in which He has no rival.
CONCLUSION.—Those who go in the way which they light up for themselves can only have sorrow and darkness (Isa_50:11). But those whose way is lit up by His love, who obey and follow, trust and love Him, as sheep their shepherd, shall have no darkness, but their sorrow shall flee away and God Himself shall comfort and refresh them.—David Arundell Hay.
GOD’S REBUKE OF UNBELIEF, AND CHALLENGE TO FAITH
Isa_50:2. Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
It was not because God was unable to deliver them, that His ancient people had been led away as captives, but solely on account of their sins (Isa_50:1, &c.) But He wished them to realise the fact that notwithstanding their sins, in virtue of His possession of unlimited power He could easily fulfil His promises of deliverance. We, too, need to realise more distinctly this fundamental truth—God’s almighty and unchangeable power. Know it we do, but we often do not realise it. We often act as though we really believed that the Lord’s power had diminished. Our text rebukes our unbelief, and challenges our faith. It may be used—
I. TO STIMULATE THE CHURCH IN THE PROSECUTION OF HER MISSION. Her mission is to save—instrumentally to save the world. But her success is small when compared with the multiplied agencies employed, &c. Is the Lord’s hand shortened at all? No. His purpose and His power are unchanged. Early triumphs of Christianity—Pentecost, &c. His hand has been with His Church wherever there has been believing prayer and effort. It is this that is lacking: not prayer and effort, but believing prayer and effort. It is unbelief that shortens God’s hand, and it only (Mat_13:58). [1529]
[1529] There is nothing too hard for God. When we look at the human side of the question, difficulties and obstacles rise on every hand, and hedge our way and hinder our progress; and if our view is only a human view, we sink discouraged and dismayed. But if, on the other hand, we will take a look at the Divine side of the question, how soon our fears vanish, and our difficulties disperse! With God all things are possible, and the faith that takes hold upon His arm partakes of His omnipotence.
There are many things which men have done that seemed impossible at the first. The power of mechanical or chemical forces, directed by scientific intelligence, exceeds by far the bounds of ordinary belief; but when we pass from this sphere into that upper realm where the Almighty rules and presides, surely nothing is beyond the reach of His almighty hand!
Hence, in estimating possibilities or probabilities of success in any course, it is for us to inquire first of all, What is the will of God concerning the matter? Does He undertake the cause? Is He upon the side of its success? Are we doing His will rather than our own? If the work we undertake is His work, and if He has appointed us to do it, we may move on in all the calmness of a living faith, without one doubt or fear, knowing that He “who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” can give us victory. The thing which God wishes to be done can be done, and, if we will be workers with Him, shall be done, for neither men nor devils can restrain the arm of our wonder-working God. Let us, then, have courage, and banish fear. Let us work the works of God, confident that our labour will not be fruitless, and that our victory is assured by Him before the fight begins.—A. T.
II. TO COMFORT THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
1. In seasons of providential trial. Such seasons are common. But God has engaged to support or deliver His people whatever may be the nature of the trial through which they are passing. He is equal to every emergency. Rely upon the promises of God. He has sustained, comforted, and delivered, and He will. Faith argues from the past to the present and the future (1Sa_17:34-37; Psa_63:7; 2Co_1:8-10; 2Ti_4:17-18). “Walk on the waters of trial by a living faith, and you shall find them solid as marble beneath your feet. Hang upon the simple power and providence of God, and you shall never be confounded.”
2. In seasons of doubt and fear in relation to their final salvation. God’s people are sometimes doubtful and desponding respecting their eternal safety. When they contemplate the difficulties and dangers, the temptations and the snares that beset their path, heaven seems to be an uncertain inheritance, and they are ready to conclude they shall never reach its happiness and glory. Opposed to them stands the power of Satan; the allurements of the world, the forces of evil within, the cares and afflictions of life, &c. But we have promises and examples that are calculated to dissipate every doubt and to banish every fear that we shall not eventually triumph. Abraham, Job, David, Paul, &c. Divine grace has been, and still is, all-sufficient (H. E. I. 1066, 2363–2377).
III. TO ENCOURAGE THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER. Though desirous to be saved, many are full of doubts and difficulties and questionings. There is nothing that appears so difficult to a convinced sinner as his own salvation. But the question is not whether you can save yourself, but whether GOD can save you. You know He can. Every moral difficulty has been removed by His infinite love in the gift of His Son, &c. True, you have broken the divine law, &c., but Christ has honoured and fulfilled it, as your substitute and representative, &c. Therefore the forgiveness of sin is consonant with God’s righteousness as well as His mercy (Rom_3:24-26). Nor can there be any effectual opposition made by Satan to the sinner’s rescue. He is mighty, but Christ is almighty—“Able to save to the uttermost, &c.”—Alfred Tucker.
THE POWER OF GOD
Isa_50:2-3. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, &c.
There are other declarations of like purport in the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa_51:9-10; Isa_51:15; Isa_63:11-13). They speak to us of Divine power. The mighty works referred to could not be performed by any false god. The deliverance of God’s ancient people from Egypt was attended with such amazing miracles, and with such a sudden destruction of their foes, that none but an Almighty Being could have performed it.
I. Let us attempt with reverent humility to form some conception of the nature of God’s power (H. E. I. 2269–2274).
1. The power of God is that ability or strength, whereby He can do whatever He pleases—whatever His infinite wisdom directs, and the perfect purity of His will resolves (Isa_46:10; Psa_115:3). It is almost superfluous to say that the Almighty cannot do anything which implies or involves a contradiction, nor anything repugnant to His own perfections, either in relation to Himself or to His creatures, &c.
2. The power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of His nature. “God hath a powerful wisdom to attain His ends without interruption, a powerful mercy to remove our misery, a powerful justice to punish offenders, a powerful truth to perform all His promises.”
3. This power is originally and essentially in His nature—underived. “Power belongeth to God.” “He is the Source, Centre, Assemblage of all the might that is; containing in Himself the unfathomable depths of Omnipotence, as of Being.”
4. It follows that the power of God is infinite. Nothing can be too difficult for the Divine power to effect (Gen_18:14). A power which cannot be opposed (Dan_4:35).
II. Let us view with reverent astonishment the manifestations of God’s power.
1. In creation. “Examine individuals, systems, worlds beyond worlds, scattered in boundless profusion through the wide realm of space. They sprang forth at His voice, and they are sustained by the hand of God. All are ‘vouchers of Omnipotence!’ ” (Gen_1:3; Psa_8:3-4; Isa_42:5; Isa_42:8, &c.) Pythagoras called those fools, who denied the power of God.
2. In the government of the world.
(1.) In natural government, or preservation. God is the great Father of the universe, to nourish as well as create it (Psa_36:6). He keeps all the strings of nature in tune, &c.
(2.) In moral government—restraining the malice of Satan and the wickedness of man, &c.
(3.) In His gracious government—delivering His Church, effecting His great and glorious purposes by the simplest means, &c.
3. In the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and in suspending or reversing the usual laws of nature on special occasions. These are the hidings of God’s power. Submissive nature yields and obeys (Psa_114:5-7).
4. In the work of our redemption by Jesus Christ. Our Saviour is called “the power of God.” His incarnation, miracles, resurrection, &c.; the publication of redemption by such feeble instruments; the wonderful success of their ministry.
5. In the conviction and conversion of sinners, the perseverance of His people amidst all the temptations and afflictions to which they are exposed.
III. Let us consider with prayerful concern the practical lessons which this subject teaches.
1. The fear of God (Jer_5:22, &c.) If God be against us, it matters not who they be that are for us. “Fear Him,” therefore, “who hath power to cast into hell.” “On this ground, as well as on the ground of His other perfections, we should bow before Him with lowly reverence, and while we tremble to place ourselves in an attitude of antagonism to Him, we should seek His favour, protection, and blessing.” Confidence in God amid all the conflicts and afflictions of this probationary state. All needful assistance and comfort, &c., will be vouchsafed (2Co_9:8; Eph_3:20).
2. The assurance that all His plans and purposes will be finally accomplished (Psa_37:5).
“Engraved as in eternal brass,
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines,” &c.
—Alfred Tucker.
THE APPEAL OF ALMIGHTY POWER
Isa_50:2-3. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? &c.
Review the circumstances under which this appeal was addressed to sinful Israel of old. The principles of Divine truth and religion the same under all dispensations.
I. The Lord comes and calls sinners to repentance, but they do not regard Him.
1. He does this in manifold ways.
(1.) By the voice of conscience. Representative of the supreme law—inward monitor, &c., ever urging the abandonment of the sinful and the adoption of the true and pure, &c.
(2.) By the events of Providence. The whole system of Providence is in operation for none other than religious ends and purposes. Mercies are sent to allure, judgments to alarm (H. E. I 56–59, 66–70).
(3.) By His Word. The Bible is God speaking to man, &c. Everywhere it calls to repentance, &c.
(4.) By His ministers. He speaks to man, by man. Samuel thought it was only the voice of Eli that called him, but it was God’s voice. The true minister is God’s ambassador (2Co_5:18-20).
(5.) By His Son. “His servant”—the Saviour, so often introduced in these prophecies with dramatic directness, as speaking in His own name (Mat_21:37; Joh_1:10-11; Act_3:13; Heb_1:1).
(6.) By His Spirit. Speaking to the ear of the inner man by the ministries of friendship, or the incidents and intercourse of common life; by sickness, &c., stirring up an unwonted anxiety about the things which belong’ to our peace. Though He has been treated so shamefully, He still speaks, strives, pleads, &c.
2. But sinners do not regard Him. As of old, they heed not the Divine calls, they slight His gracious offers, they reject the messages sent, &c., as unworthy their regard, &c.
II. The Lord gives astonishing proof of His ability and willingness to save, yet sinners do not believe it, and trust in Him. “Behold, at my rebuke,” &c. He who by His mere threatening word has dried up the sea, and turned rivers into a hard and barren soil, so that the fishes putrefy for want of water, and eclipsed the lights of heaven, can with infinite ease come with a gospel of deliverance from sin and punishment. He can perform stupendous miracles of grace—save sinners to the very “uttermost.” No limit can be set to His omnipotent grace.
Yet sinners will not believe it. Like a condemned criminal who will not believe even when he sees the Queen’s pardon. If sinners will not believe God’s Gospel, how can they be saved? We may as well expect a man to be fed by bread that he will not eat, or to be cured by medicine that he will not take, as expect a man to be saved by a Gospel that he will not believe.
Or they neglect it. Like the old miser who is so busy with his ledgers and gold bags that he does not heed the alarm of fire, and therefore perishes. So with the worldling. We tell them of danger and of salvation, but they are so busy, &c., they just leave the matter alone—they neglect it.
Or they despise it. Like a poor but proud man who despises relief when offered, because he must go and receive it as a gift. If sinners could take their little, petty, paltry doings and buy God’s salvation, they would have it, but because they must have it as a gift, they will not receive it.
III. The Lord justly complains that He is thus disregarded and doubted. “Wherefore,” &c.? Not the language of anger, but sorrowful lament, wounded friendship, grieved love, &c. As a faithful father, &c. A just complaint. Such conduct is manifestly unreasonable, shamefully ungrateful, exceedingly sinful, imminently dangerous, &c. (Pro_1:26). It keeps back the blessings which God is ready to confer. It is highly dishonouring to God. It disputes the Divine Word, rejects the clearest evidence, limits the Omnipotent One, &c. Think of this. Hear and obey the Divine call. “Repent and believe the Gospel.” If you reject it, the responsibility rests upon you, and you must give account to God.—Alfred Tucker.
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE
Isa_50:3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, &c.
If there be sermons in stones, there must be a great sermon in the sun; and if there be books in the running brooks, no doubt there is many a huge volume to be found in a sun suffering eclipse. All things teach us, if we have but a mind to learn. Let us see whether this may not lead us into a train of thought which may, under God’s blessing, be something far better to us than the seeing of an eclipse.
I. Eclipses of every kind are part of God’s way of governing the world. In olden times the ignorant people in England were frightened at an eclipse; they could not understand what it meant. They were quite sure that there was about to be a war, or a famine, or a terrible fire, &c. So it still is in the East. By many an eclipse is looked upon as something contrary to the general law of nature. But eclipses are as much a part of nature’s laws as the regular sunshine; an eclipse is a necessary consequence of the natural motion of the moon and the earth around the sun, &c. Other eclipses happen in God’s providence and in God’s grace. Here, as in nature, an eclipse is part of God’s plan, and is in fact involved in it.
1. Let me invite your attention to providence at large. How many times have we seen providence itself eclipsed with regard to the whole race. God sends a flood, famine, war, plague, &c. It is just the same with you in your own private concerns. When you were rejoicing in the brightness of your light, on a sudden a mid-day midnight has fallen upon you; to your horror and dismay you are made to say, “Whence does all this evil some upon me? Is this also sent of God?” Most assuredly it is. Your penury, sickness, bereavement, contempt, all these things are as much ordained for you, and settled in the path of providence, as your wealth, comfort, and joy. Think not that God has changed. It involves no change of the sun when an eclipse overshadows it. Troubles must come; afflictions must befall; it must needs be that for a season ye should be in heaviness through manifold temptations.
2. Eclipses also occur in grace. Man was originally pure and holy; that is what God’s grace will make him at last. Some of you are in the eclipse to-day. I hear you crying, “O that it were with me as in months past,” &c. You are apt to say, “Is this a part of God’s plan with me? Can this be the way in which God would bring me to heaven?” Yes, it is even so. In God’s great plan of grace to the world, it is just the same. Sometimes we see a mighty reformation worked in the Church. God raises up men who lead the van of the armies of Jehovah. A few more years and these reformers are dead, and their mantle has not fallen upon any, &c. Think not that eclipses of our holy religion, or the failure of great men in the midst of us, or the decline of piety, is at all apart from God’s plan; it is involved in it, and as God’s great purpose, moving in the circle, to bring forth another gracious purpose on earth must be accomplished, so an eclipse must necessarily follow, being involved in God’s very way of governing the world in His grace.
II. Everything that God does has a design. When God creates light or darkness He has a reason for it. He does not always tell us His reason. We call Him a sovereign God, because sometimes He acts from reasons which are beyond our knowledge, but He is never an unreasoning God. I cannot tell you what is God’s design in eclipsing the sun; I do not know of what use it is to the world. It may be, &c. However, we are not left in any darkness about other kinds of eclipses; we are quite certain that providential eclipses, and gracious eclipses, have both of them their reasons. When God sends a providential eclipse He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men for nought. It is to draw our attention to Himself. Doubtless, we should entirely forget God, if it were not for some of those eclipses which now and then happen. Sometimes troublous times tend to prepare the world for something better afterwards. War is an awful thing; but, I doubt not, it purges the moral atmosphere, just as a hurricane sweeps away a pestilence. It is a fearful thing to hear of famine or plague; but each of these things has some effect upon the human race. And evil generally goes to make room for a greater good. God has sent thee providential trouble. He has a gracious design in it. Many men are brought to Christ by trouble. Eclipses of grace have also their end and design. Why has God hidden His face from you? It is that you may begin to search yourself, and say, “Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me” (H. E. I. 1644–1648). God’s people are afflicted in order that they may not go astray (H. E. I. 66–70, 190–194).
III. As all things that God has created, whether they be light or whether they be dark, have a sermon for us, no doubt there are some sermons to be found in this eclipse. What is it that hides the sun from us during an eclipse? It is the moon. She has borrowed all her light from the sun month after month; she would be a black blot if the sun did not shine upon her, and now she goes before his face, and prevents his light from shining upon us. Do you know anything at all like that in your own history? Have you not a great many comforts which you enjoy upon earth that are just like the moon? They borrow all their light from the sun, &c. Oh, how ungrateful we are when we let our comforts get before our God! No wonder that we get an eclipse then.
1. Let the Christian recollect another sermon. The sun is always the same, and God is unchangeable.
“My soul through many changes goes,
His love no variation knows.”
2. A total eclipse is one of the most terrific and grand sights that ever will be seen. If on a sudden the sun should set in tenfold darkness, and never should rise again, what a horrid world this would be! And then the thought strikes me—Are not there some men, and are there not some here, who will one day have a total eclipse of all their comforts? What ever eclipse happens to a Christian, it is never a total eclipse: there is always a crescent of love and mercy to shine upon him. But mark thee, sinner, when thou comest to die, bright though thy joys be now, and fair thy prospects, thou wilt suffer a total eclipse. Can you guess what the Saviour meant, when He said “outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth?” Hear me while I tell thee the way of salvation.—C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 183.
HUMAN WEARINESS: THE VARIETY OF ITS SOURCES, AND THE ONE SOURCE OF RELIEF FROM IT
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.
There are many causes of weariness and sadness; as many as there are sources of cheerfulness and vigour in body and mind.
1. Wounded affections. When the seat of our pleasant emotions and sweet affections becomes filled with bitterness, we cannot wonder that exhaustion of energy should ensue, and the strong man be bowed down! Few who have advanced far in life, but have been thus attacked in the tenderest part of their being; and the power of resistance decreases as youth is left behind. Many, most dear, have vanished from the scene; former friends have perhaps lifted up the heel against us. We do not know, until the blow comes, how heavily we have been leaning on the staff of friendly sympathy. But amidst all our heart-troubles, the voice of the Saviour—deeply learned in the sorrows of humanity—is heard saying, “Rest!” “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” The words are words of authority, and of comfort because of their authority.
2. Disappointment of our desires. All are furnished with larger appetites than they have ability or opportunity for satisfying them. Pleasure! Money! Power! Reputation! Desire outruns our slow and pausing faculties. And this is a great cause of fatigue; we cannot keep up with ourselves, one part of our nature lags behind another. Again, the goal of our desire is ever receding. What an interesting picture does Ecclesiastes give of this universal experience! But in this mood, too, we are met by the Divine Saviour; for Christ would fill the soul with the only object of desire that cannot disappear in its grasp; with the Eternal Himself.
3. Vacancy of mind and the sense of monotony. “Nature abhors a vacuum;” the mind cannot endure its own emptiness. Imagine us left alone in a depeopled world, shut up in a room walled with reflecting glass, where nothing but our own image should meet us at every turn,—the very thought is unendurable; and something like this occurs when we fail to obtain diversion from self. But it is Christ’s 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 will please God to dwell, and with which He can hold fellowship; the soul comes to rest on an Eternal Power that is not ourselves, yet intimately related to us.
4. The load of a guilty conscience. It may be difficult to forgive another; it is more difficult to forgive oneself. How profoundly Christ meets this guilty dejection of the human heart! The power which He claimed on earth to forgive sins is continued, in a declarative sense, in His Church, and sin-laden souls may be warned that in disbelieving the Gospel of forgiveness they tacitly reject Christ’s authority; in believing it they rely on the promises of One to whom all things are given by the Father, and they are at rest
5. Earnest thought and noble endeavour. Not only the bad use of mind and life, but their right and loyal use, brings its own peculiar experience of suffering. Preachers, philanthropists, strenuous labourers in every good cause, exhaust their energies in ministering to others’ need; and after exhibiting pictures of cheerfulness and animation in public, sink, when alone, into occasional collapse. Instructive examples of such reaction are given in Bible story, e.g., Elijah. In the finest minds, a fretfulness and dissatisfaction with results may be found, where onlookers see a noble success. But to them, as to all weary ones, Christ, who “suffered in the flesh,” says, “I will give you rest;” and to all who trust Him, He gives the rest and re-invigoration they need.—G. Johnson, M.A., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv. pp. 264–266.
All around us are multitudes of weary people; weary from many causes—poverty, anxiety, spiritual despondency, non-success in Christian labour, delay in the coming of recognised answers to prayer. For all these tried and burdened hearts, Jesus, the relief-bringer, has His word in season. By these words of His, He does not release us from our duties, but helps us to perform them. He teaches us to trust Him, and trust is restful. As the infant drops over on its mother’s bosom into soft repose, so faith rests its weary head on Jesus. He giveth His beloved sleep, so that they may wake up refreshed for their appointed work. It is not honest work that really wears any Christian out [1532] it is the ague fit of worry that consumes strength, furrows the cheek, and brings on decrepitude (H. E. I. 2053, 2057, 2058), and from this destructive temper Christ delivers us (H. E. I. 952–961).
[1532] That giant of Jesus Christ who drew the Gospel chariot from Jerusalem to Rome, and had the care of all the Churches on his heart, never complained of being tired. The secret was that he never chafed his powers with a moment’s worry. He was doing God’s work, and he left God to be responsible for the results. He knew whom he believed, and felt perfectly sure that all things worked together for good to them that loved the Lord Jesus.—Cuyler.
There is another weariness most distressing; that which is called ennui, the disgust and despair which result from the discovery that all the so-called “pleasures of the world” cannot satisfy the soul. But even for this Christ has “a word in season” (Mat_11:28-30). [1535]—Theodore Cuyler, D.D.
[1535] See the hymn commencing—
“Oh, comfort to the dreary!”
THE GOSPEL A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
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.
Our blessed Lord is here represented as speaking of His own office and ministry. How gracious was that office! How full of condescending pity and love to man was that ministry! (Joh_3:17; Luk_4:18-19.) In our text we have a true account of the tendency of the Gospel. It brings rest and refreshment to those who are seeking rest in the world, but whose hopes must end in disappointment.
I. THE ACTUAL STATE AND WANTS OF MANKIND. On every hand are evidences of the fact that this is a weary world. On our race sin has laid many burdens of care and sorrow. Our fellow-men sorely need to be cheered and strengthened.
II. THE SUITABLENESS OF THE GOSPEL TO THE EXISTING STATE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANKIND. It has “a word in season,”
1. For those who are weary in the service of sin.
2. For those who are weary under the painful consciousness of their guilt in the sight of God.
3. For those who are weary in striving against sin.
4. For those who are weary under the burden of temporal suffering.
5. For those who are weary under the growing infirmities and inconveniences of old age.
1. Lay hold of its great and precious promises.
2. Pray for all Christ’s ministers, that they, like their Master, may be taught how to speak words of cheer and comfort. This is one of the most valuable forms of the learning which it is possible for them to possess.—James Ford, A.M.: Twelve Sermons, pp. 1–22.
Men need religion as they need bells for the common purposes of human life. The forms of old and effete infidelity, as well as the more subtle and pseudo-scientific scepticism of the present age, all fail just where Christianity eminently succeeds—in adaptation to the common wants of men. The opponents of the Gospel, who marshalled their forces a century ago, made no attempt to supply its place as a religion which met the every-day wants of men. They mined the foundations of the building; they thundered at the doors; they battered its walls; but they never tried to erect a better system in its place. That attempt was left to later ages. It was for Rénan and Strauss to try to substitute for Christianity another theory of religion, and to meet the demand which the mother of Hume made of her son, “Give me something to lean on in the place of the faith you have undermined.”
But our modern theorists find that it is one thing to destroy, another to build up. Does infidelity give anything on which men can fall back for comfort and support amid the common troubles of life, &c.? Does it speak in sweet accents of a rest that remaineth when weariness insupportable creeps over mind and body? We claim for Christianity that it does this very thing. It meets the every-day wants of those who embrace it. It condescends to notice the every-day weariness of tried and troubled souls. It is a Gospel that speaks to the worn and exhausted spirit. The voice like a bell chiming along the ages is, “The Lord God hath given me,” &c.
I. THE SPECIAL CLASS TO WHOM THE GOSPEL IS ADDRESSED. Is not amazement awakened when this text tells us that the Gospel is sent to be a message of comfort to the weary? For this Gospel was the fruit of the tears, and blood, and agony of the dear Son of God. Does it not seem a strangely costly sacrifice, when God’s dear Son drinks to its dregs the cup of condemnation, that He may speak comfort to him that is weary? The weary are everywhere upon this earth of ours. All feel a sense of oppressive fatigue. The consciousness of exhaustion is a thing so common, of such almost universal experience, that it seems one of the lesser ills of life, and beneath the notice of the Gospel. But Christ came to give men a religion which should meet their common wants, their everyday necessities. And hence it is a message to the weary, whatever the cause of their weariness be.
1. Toil. Or
2. Trial. Or
3. Sin. [1538]
[1538] A brave Crusader on the field of battle was always conspicuous in armour richly gilt. Amidst the sombre hues in which others were arrayed, amidst the cold blue light of gleaming steel, his harness shone golden like the sun. There was a gaiety in his very armour that seemed to speak of a light heart within. But when one day he fell, pierced with a Saracen dart, they undid the fastenings of his breast-plate, and to the amazement of his comrades found that the inner surface of his armour was studded with iron points that pierced the quivering flesh. The panoply which gaily flashed back the sunbeams, was all the while an instrument of self-inflicted torture to its wearer. There are more men who wear such armour than we wot of. There are many who wear a gay countenance, but feel within the bitterness of death. For the appetite for sin has palled. The heart has grown weary and sick of sin, thinking of lost purity, and broken promises, and departed self-respect; the very life becomes a burden, and yet they dare not die. “They weary themselves to commit sin.”—Cheney.
II. THE INSTRUMENT WHICH GOD EMPLOYS TO RELIEVE THE SOUL THAT IS WEARY.
“A man of words “is a term of contempt. We tell people that “deeds, not words,” are our test of character. But what a momentous significance for evil or for good one word may have! On yonder hill, outside the walls of Bethany, in the midst of an astonished group, Lazarus stands a living man, though his grave-clothes are still upon him. The dead body on which corruption’s work had begun is thrilled with a new life. One word did that. So, when Christ promises salvation, and comfort, and rest to the weary, it is a word through which the priceless blessing comes. The unquestionable meaning of the text is, that the instrument which God uses to give relief to the weary is Christ’s word, Christ’s Gospel, the message of His love for sinners.
It must be spoken in season. There are, in human experience, chances that exist but for one moment. They come and go like a flash. So are there crises in the history of every human soul. There are times when the heart seems poised upon a pinnacle. Now a breath may turn it one way or the other; and then a word spoken is a word in season. Bereavement, &c. And for that blessed work our Lord gives you “the tongue of the learned.” But no man ever acquired the fruits of ripened knowledge—the harvest of wise words that speak comfort to the weary—without sowing the seed and watching over it with care. He must be learned, not in books of theology and libraries of religious instruction, but learned in the results of a personal experience.—Bishop Cheney: The Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii. pp. 79–82.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Isa 50:2-4
Isa 50:2-4
These words could have been spoken only by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. They place before our thoughts:—
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I. His Divine power and glory. Power is naturally calm. The power that sustains the universe is, in fact, most wonderful when, unseen, unfelt, with its Divine silence and infinite ease, it moves on in its ordinary course; but we are often most impressed by it when it strikes against obstructions, and startles the senses by its violence. Knowing our frame, and dealing with us as with children, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His Divine power, by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature. "I dry up the sea; I made the rivers a wilderness," etc.
II. His human life and education. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned," etc. Gradually, it seems, the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil. Morning by morning, through all the days of His childhood, the voice was ever awakening Him to higher consciousness and more awful knowledge.
III. The mediatorial teaching for which He had been thus prepared. (1) It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. "The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak." This is His own testimony to the great fact that He Himself personally teaches every soul that is saved. (2) It is suitable. Suitable to our weariness: (a) while we are yet in a state of unregeneracy; (b) when we are sinking under the burden of guilt; (c) when fainting under the burden of care; (d) when burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology; (e) when under the burden of mortal infirmity. (3) The teaching of Christ is minutely direct and particular. When I read that He is ordained to speak "to him that is weary," I understand that He does not speak in a general, impersonal, unrecognising way to the forlorn crowd of sufferers, but to every man in particular, and to every man apart.
C. Stanford, Symbols of Christy p. 147.
Reference: Isa 50:2-6.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 243.
Isa 50:4
Weariness comes to man through various channels and from many sources. 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. What is the word in season for such cases as these? Surely the word in season to many is, Release your strain, moderate your speed, economise your health. What shall it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your life?
II. Some men are weary with pleasure; I would say a word in season to them. 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. There is no creature either in heaven or earth who shall ever find the real fruit of happiness growing upon any tree but that of loyal obedience to the authority of God.
III. Some men are weary with well-doing which seems to come to so poor an end. The word in season for such men is this:—Think that God still holds on to His Divine purpose, and that were He to grow weary in well-doing, He would plunge the world into desolation in a moment. And be sure of this, that nothing good is ever lost.
IV. There are those who are weary of the strife with sin—what is the word in season to them? 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. "Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
E. Mellor, In the Footsteps of Heroes; p. 92.
References: Isa 50:4.—E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 264; W. Baxendale, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 347; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., 79. 1. 5, 6.—T. B. Dover, A Lent Manual, p. 124. Isa 50:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1486; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 325.
Isa 50:7
The happiest of gifts for a man to be born with into the world is strength of will; not that a man can by it avoid suffering and sin; but for this—that suffering especially raises and heightens the strong will; that when it forsakes sin it forsakes it without a sigh. Happiness within, attractiveness towards others, ease of repentance and amendment, firmness against opposition, are the splendid dower which the strong will brings to the soul. It is our wisdom then to ask, How shall we keep or make our wills strong?
I. We cannot do this merely by persisting in having our own way as we call it. Our own way may be wrong; and no one ever uses the word strength in connection with crime or fault—never calls a sinful, a wilful, a violent man a strong man. The reason is evident, namely, that wilful sinning is only using a will in the direction in which it is easiest to use it. And this cannot make the will stronger, any more than a mind would grow strong which employed itself only on ’intellectual work which presented no difficulty to it. The will must make progress by avoiding things to which it is prone, and by aiming at things which it simply knows in any way to be good, although for the time being it may be that they are not fully desired.
II. There are times when there rises before us a noble ideal of what we ought to be, and we feel an impulse to believe we might be. What is that ideal? It is the "will of God concerning us," as St. Paul says. It is what we may each become by the power of the Spirit of God. Into this ideal we cannot at once pass. But we can be ever approaching it. It is not in human nature to make that sudden change, but it is perfectly possible to make a beginning. And for this purpose we must call in the aid of that very will itself to act upon our will; for there is no power in us higher, more primary, than the will. If the will is to be affected, the will itself must do the work. Suppose one resolve be made; then here at once our will begins to be of constant use to us, and to grow stronger in itself. Our will is not really acting at all when it is working out, however strongly, a natural inclination. The will is only strengthened when it is set to active work, something which we have clearly seen to be our duty, although when we come to do it we find the pursuit of it tax our strength exceedingly.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College, p. 39.
References: Isa 50:7.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 246; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 151, vol. xvi., p. 143.
Isa 50:10
I. Consider the character of those who are visited with the experience described in the text. Two features stand prominently forth—the pious mind, the godly, Christlike life. (1) The pious mind. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord?" The fear of the Lord was the sign of the godly character and the strength of the godly life. It describes, under the conditions of the older dispensation, the spirit and the attitude of the man to whom the mind and the will of God were not only substantial, but supreme realities in the conduct of his life—the man who set the Lord always before him, and who knew, in his secret soul, that the one great concern of life was to stand right with Him. (2) He will manifest his fear by a godly, Christlike life. "That obeyeth the voice of His servant." He who has an eye for God will also have an eye for Christ. He who feareth the Father obeyeth also the Son, and recognises Him at once as the "Sent of God."
II. The condition of experience described in the text. "Who walketh in darkness and hath no light." (1) The plainest source of this darkness is the seeming frustration of our holiest and most unselfish purposes, a dreary want of success in what seems to us our best and most Christlike work. (2) We may be passing through very heavy pressures of affliction, and missing the comfort, the hope, which we think God should bring to us. We cry that we are forsaken. (3) But the main source of the darkness which sometimes buries the most pious and faithful under its pall is the shadow of their own sinful nature, which at moments it seems to them hopeless even for God to attempt to redeem.
III. The text tells us of the believer’s trust and stay. Stay yourselves on God. That is, hold to your duty, the duty next to your hand, in the strength of God. Keep firm in the broad highway, and await the inevitable dawn. Night is not the inevitable thing: "There shall be no night there." The dawn is inevitable; for God lives, and God is light.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Higher Life, p. 205.
I. We must admit that there is wrong somewhere when the mind and soul are not in a state of peace and happiness. Pain is the alarm-bell which tells us something is wrong. If all were perfectly right within us and about us, satisfaction and thankfulness would fill the spirit. But if we are dissatisfied and apprehensive and distressed, then there is something wrong; such a state has a sufficient cause. But suppose people who are restless and suffering mistake the cause of their trouble, suppose they think it comes from something from which it does not come, all their efforts to cure it will be useless. He who takes God’s will, as it becomes known to him, and makes it his own, is one with God, is reconciled to God. However dark or uncertain or apprehensive or distressed may be his spirit, that does not in the least interfere with his reconciliation with God, any more than the anguish of neuralgia shakes a man’s credit with his banker. But it is quite certain that many of these reconciled souls attribute their perplexities to a wrong cause; they think their sufferings prove that their hearts are not right in the sight of God. Whereas it often happens that their bodies are not right, or their heads are not right.
II. Here comes in the secret of this good text: "Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." The triumph of Christianity over doubts engendered by disease can only come from a simple, manly confidence in the unchangeable goodness of God. To win this may be the life-discipline for some, and noble is the attainment when such in despondency can say, "Though He slay me, yet will I put my trust in Him."
W. Page-Roberts, Liberalism in Religion, p. 157.
I. To some persons it may seem strange advice to tell them, that in the hour of darkness, doubt, or sorrow they will find no comfort like that of meditating on the name of the ever-blessed Trinity. Yet there is not a prophet or psalmist of the Old Testament who does not speak of the "name of the Lord" as a kind of talisman against all the troubles which can befall the spirit of man. It was for this simple reason, that it is by that name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that God has revealed Himself. That is the name by which He bids us think of Him; and we are, more or less, disregarding His commands when we think of Him by any other.
II. Man may give God what name he chooses. Absolute, Infinite, First Cause, and so forth, are deep words; but they are words of man’s invention, and words which plain, hardworking, hard-sorrowing folks do not understand; and therefore I do not trust them, cannot find comfort for my soul in them. But Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are words which plain, hardworking, hard-sorrowing men can understand; and can trust, and can find comfort in them; for they are God’s own words, and, like all God’s words, go straight home to the hearts of men.
III. Some will tell you, that if you are sorrowful it is a time for self-examination, and for thinking of your own soul. I answer—In good time, but not yet. Think first of God. For how can you ever know anything rightly about your own soul, unless you first know rightly concerning God, in whom your soul lives and moves and has its being? Others may tell you to think of God’s dealings with His people. I answer—In good time, but not yet. Think first of God. For how can you rightly understand God’s dealings, unless you first rightly understand who God is, and what His character is? Truly to know God is everlasting life; and the more we think of God by His own revealed name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the more we shall enter, now and hereafter, into eternal life, and into the peace which comes by the true knowledge of Him.
C. Kingsley, Discipline and Other Sermons; p. 75.
References: Isa 50:10.—W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, p. 312 (see also Old Testament Outlines, p. 210); Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 139, vol. v., p. 32; A. Watson, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 113; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 263.
Isa 50:11
In this text the many fictitious sources from which men seek to derive happiness are compared to a fire kindled, and sparks struck out by way of relieving the darkness of the night. It is of course implied in the metaphor, that true happiness, the real and adequate complement of man’s nature, resembles the divinely created and golden sunlight.
I. This comparison does not lead us to deny that pleasure and gratification of a certain kind are derivable from worldly sources. Just as man can relieve himself in great measure from the discomfort and inconvenience of natural darkness, by kindling a fire and surrounding himself with sparks, so can he alleviate, to a certain extent, the instinctive sense of disquietude and dissatisfaction, so irksome to him at intervals of leisure, by the various enjoyments which life has to offer. These are lights which gleam brightly for a moment, but will fade and die down beneath the sobering dawn of eternity.
II. Consider the drawbacks of worldly enjoyments. (1) Unsatisfactoriness adheres in their very nature, inasmuch as they are all (more or less) artificial. They are miserable substitutes, which man has set up to stand him in stead of that true happiness, which is congenial to his nature, and adapted to his wants. (2) The fitful character of the enjoyment derived from worldly sources renders it comparable to a fire and sparks struck out. (3) A fire requires constantly to be fed with fresh fuel, if its brilliancy and warmth are to be maintained. Hence it becomes an apt emblem of the delusive joy of the world, falsely called happiness, which is only kept alive in the worldling’s heart by the fuel of excitement. (4) But perhaps the chief drawback of the worldling’s so-called happiness is that it is consistent with so much anxiety—that it is subject to frequent intrusions from alarm, whenever a glimpse of the future untowardly breaks in upon his mind. It is in the night-time, when the kindled fire glows upon the hearth, and man pursues his employments by the light of torch and taper, that apprehensions visit his mind, and phantom forms are conjured up which scare the ignorant and the superstitious. It is the dim foreboding of evil that cankers effectually the worldling’s joy.
E. M. Goulburn, Sermons in the Parish Church of Holywell, p. 429.
References: Isa 51:1—C. P. Reichel, Old Testament Outlines, p. 213 (see also Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 366); Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1050; E. de Pressensé, Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 321. Isa 51:1, Isa 51:2.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. v9. Isa 51:2, Isa 51:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1596. Isa 51:3.—Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 153. Isa 51:5.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 244.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11
Isaiah
THE SERVANT’S WORDS TO THE WEARY
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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.
There is a remarkable contrast between the stately prelude to the section of the prophecy in Isa 49:1 - Isa 49:26, and the ideal in this text. There the Servant calls the isles and the distant peoples to listen, and declares that His mouth is ‘like a sharp sword’; here all that is keen and smiting in His word has softened into gentle whispers of comfort to sustain the weary.
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 Messiah is here represented as having the tongue of ‘them that are taught,’ and as having it, because morning by morning He has been wakened to hear God’s lessons. He is thus God’s scholar-a thought of which an unreflecting orthodoxy has been shy, but which it is necessary to admit unhesitatingly and ungrudgingly, if we would not reduce the manhood of Jesus to a mere phantasm. He Himself has said, ‘As the Father taught Me, I speak these things.’ With emphatic repetition, He was continually making that assertion, as, for instance, ‘I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak . . . the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak.’
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.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 1. The children of Zion (Isa_49:20-21) are addressed. Their…
1. The children of Zion (Isa_49:20-21) are addressed. Their servitude is not irrevocable; Jehovah has not formally repudiated Zion (Deu_24:1); nor, though they had to learn by discipline, can any creditors claim His people as slaves (2Ki_4:1): cp. Jer_24:4-6; Ezekiel 37.
2, 3. The imagery is from the exodus from Egypt.
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2. Wherefore.. answer] These clauses emphasise the hopelessness of Israel's case from a human point of view. Only the divine power could effect the deliverance of the exiles.
4. The Servant of Jehovah is here the speaker (as in Isa_49:1). He is taught by Jehovah, receiving the divine message each morning.
To speak, etc.] RV 'to sustain with words him that is weary.'
5, 6. The Servant does not shrink from his mission in spite of the suffering and humiliation involved.
7, 9. Being sustained by the strength of Jehovah, and therefore confident of victory, he is unflinching and challenges his adversaries.
10, 11. Words addressed by the prophet to the Israelites; let the faithful ones amongst the exiles trust in Jehovah (Isa_50:10); as for those who resist Him and arm themselves against His prophets, their weapons shall recoil upon themselves (Isa_50:11).
10. Read, '.. servant? he that walketh in darkness and hath no light, let him trust,' etc. (RV).
11. Sparks] RV 'firebrands.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 10 Heb. goel, Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
redeemer
Heb. goel, Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Servant Speaks of His Determination and Suffering
CHAPTER 50
The Servant Speaks of His Determination and Suffering
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(Isa 50:1-3 belong to the preceding chapter.)
1. The cause of Zion’s present desolation (Isa 50:1-3) 2. The Servant’s self-witness (Isa 50:4) 3. His obedience and His suffering (Isa 50:5-6) 4. His victorious triumph (Isa 50:7-9) 5. The two classes: Those who fear Him and those who reject Him (Isa 50:10-11) The Suffering One is speaking. Little comment is needed on this chapter if the reader will use the above outline.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Defection of Israel Atoned for by the Servant…
The Defection of Israel Atoned for by the Servant of Jehovah.
The opening of this chapter continues the picture of the Lord and His Church, represented by Zion, His bride, whom He seeks with the faithfulness of His eternal love.
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v. 1. Thus saith the Lord, in addressing the Jewish nation in general, all members of which were presumably members also of the Lord’s Church, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, the reference being to the document which the Jewish Law provided for, Deuteronomy 24; Jer 3:1, whom I have put away? The mother, Zion-Jerusalem, is here distinguished from her children or such as were commonly recognized as her children. Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? The picture is that of the sale of children to creditors, to be kept in peonage until the debt had been paid off by the labor of the children. Cf 2Ki 4:1. Behold, for your iniquities, their many guilty actions, have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions, their many breaches of faith and of the covenant, is your mother put away, being obliged to bear the wickedness of her children to which she had yielded.
v. 2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man, namely, to listen to the message of His prophets? when I called, was there none to answer? to assent to the preaching by which He intended to save their souls. The Jews had persisted in their disobedience and hardened their hearts against the Lord’s merciful offers. Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Did He no longer possess almighty power to save His people? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, as when He made a path through the Red Sea for the children of Israel, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stinketh because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. Cf Exo 14:21; Exo 7:18-21.
v. 3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, as in Egypt, Exo 10:21, and I make sackcloth their covering, the garment of mourning, whose color was dark. Since the Lord was the absolute Master of the elements, it was an easy matter for Him to protect Israel from the wrath of the enemies and to overthrow the tyrants everywhere. Yea, more: this was only a minor consideration, for the Lord had a complete salvation for His people in mind through the obedience of His Servant, who is now introduced as speaking.
v. 4. The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, one versed in the art of the orator, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary, to him that is of a broken and contrite spirit, Mat 11:28. It is rightly said of the Messiah, Christ the Lord, "Never man spake as this man," Joh 7:46. Cf Mat 7:29. He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned, to have the proper spiritual understanding of the Lord’s will and to yield a glad obedience to it. Cf Psa 40:6-8; Heb 10:5-7.
v. 5. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, to listen with cheerful willingness, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, not even when His soul was sorrowful even unto death and His human nature was trembling with the severity of the afflictions which He suffered. Cf Psa 22:12-21; 1Pe 2:22.
v. 6. I gave My back to the smiters, in the terrible seourgings to which He was subjected in His great Passion, Mat 26:67-68; Mat 27:26 ff. ; John 19, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, in the indignities heaped upon Him, which would arouse a storm of indignation in any other human being; I hid not My face from shame and spitting, accepting both blasphemous mockery and actions with the spirit of divine humility which characterized Him throughout His sufferings.
v. 7. For the Lord God, the all-powerful Jehovah, the God of the covenant, to whom He has appealed time and again, will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded, the assistance given to His soul by the strength of Jehovah keeping Him from being submerged in misery and shame; therefore have I set My face like a flint, meeting all mockery with the conquering power of His unflinching will, and I know that I shall not be ashamed, His vindication would finally be brought about.
v. 8. He is near that justifieth Me, His innocence being established in the last great Judgment; who will contend with Me? The guilt of all mankind was indeed imputed to Him, but in His own person He was ever the Holy One of God, whom no man could convict of sin. Let us stand together, appearing before the tribunal of the almighty Judge of the universe; who is Mine adversary? Let him who believes that he has a case against the Messiah step forward. Let him come near to Me. It is a defiant challenge which the Servant of Jehovah sends forth in the consciousness of His innocence.
v. 9. Behold, the Lord God will help Me, standing at His side against all enemies; Who is he that shall condemn Me? namely, by bringing a charge which may be substantiated. Lo, they, the adversaries, all shall wax old as a garment, falling into dust as it rots; the moth shall eat them up, such is their fate, since they have dared oppose the Holy One of God.
v. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, in the proper respect for His majesty, but not in slavish dread, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, which is the Word of God, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? this being the lot of such as side with the Lord. Let him trust in the name of the Lord, in the midst of all tribulation, and stay upon his God, since in Him is full and complete security for all believers.
v. 11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, the adversaries who persist in their hatred of the Lord, that compass yourselves about with sparks, the reference being to the tying up of tarred tow around arrows, these being shot into a besieged city for the purpose of setting houses on fire; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled, to be consumed by the fire which they themselves had lighted. This shall ye have of Mine hand, namely, as their lot and punishment; ye shall lie down in sorrow, in the extremity of pain, in the tortures of hell. He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11 Where is the certificate of divorce with which I…
Where is the certificate of divorce with which I divorced your mother?
Yahweh speaks of Zion as if the city were the mother of the people who lived there and of sending the people into exile as if he were divorcing their mother. (See: Metaphor)
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Where is the certificate of divorce with which I divorced your mother?
Yahweh asks this rhetorical question so that the people would produce "the certificate of divorce," which would provide the reason Yahweh sent them into exile. AT: "Show me the certificate of divorce with which I divorced your mother." (See: Rhetorical Question)
To which of my creditors did I sell you?
Yahweh speaks of sending the people into exile as if he were selling them. (See: Metaphor)
To which of my creditors did I sell you?
Yahweh asks this question to emphasize that he did not sell them because he owed a debt to a creditor. It is implied that this is what the people had thought. AT: "I did not sell you because I owed a debt to someone." (See: Rhetorical Question)
you were sold because of your sins, and because of your rebellion, your mother was sent away
Yahweh gives the reason for sending the people into exile, which he speaks of as if he had sold them and divorced their mother. This can be stated in active form. AT: "I sold you because of your sins, and I divorced your mother because of your rebellion" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
translationWords
Yahweh
divorce
sin
rebel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 50:1-3 This disputation shows that God was not forced…
50:1-3 This disputation shows that God was not forced to give Israel up, and therefore he could take the nation back as his people if he desired.
50:1 God was not at fault for the people’s problems; it was their sin that brought about their exile (see also 59:1-15). • Jerusalem—the mother city of Judah (Ps 87:5-6)—was destroyed, and the people of Judah were taken into exile in 586 BC.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.