Chapter 50

— continuing the subject of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Servant of Jehovah.

Verses 1-3 — Israel needs a saviour: for salvation (spiritual); deliverance (physical).

Verse 1 — in the first part of the verse we have two questions. They are interrogative analogies. “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, wherewith I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? The first analogy is divorce; second analogy, bondage or slavery.

In the first analogy Israel as a nation is the mother, God is the Father, and the Jews are the children. The Babylonian captivity is the divorce. While most of the Jews will be bitter in this captivity, at least at first, they have no bill of divorcement to show that God has left them. God did not divorce Israel. The Babylonian captivity does not mean that God has deserted or divorced the Jews, but rather that Israel has been the unfaithful wife and has deserted God. The captivity coming up after Isaiah dies will reveal the fact that Israel has been faithless even though God continues to be faithful, even during the Babylonian captivity. So the question brings out this principle: When did I divorce you? Answer: The Jews of the Babylonian captivity do not have any legal document to demonstrate that God has in any way turned His back upon them. They do not possess a bill of divorcement because God has not deserted them. It is impossible for God to desert them under any circumstances; He cannot change and become faithless to them in any possible way. And they are to understand by that that they have left Him, and that the Babylonian captivity is a period of judgment, a judgment that does not change the status of the nation, nor does it change the mission of the nation.

Principle: Discipline from God does not remove the purpose for which we as believers remain on this earth.

The back ground for the second analogy is the fact that often in the ancient world, when the parents were in debt, they sold one or more of their children into slavery. It was forbidden by Exodus 21:7 but it did occur and it is mentioned in 2 Kings 4:1 and in Nehemiah 5:5. God did not sell the children of Israel into captivity or into slavery. Rather, they got themselves in debt through their sins, through their failure to fulfil the purpose for which God called out Israel. This, again, anticipates the Babylonian captivity and it is to encourage the Jews during the period of their discipline that they are not in captivity because the Lord sold them into slavery, but rather because they turned their backs upon the Lord and worked their way into debt. They brought this debt upon themselves.

From the middle of verse one and going through the first part of verse two we have the indictment. “Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions was your mother put away [or divorced].”

Verse 2 — “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called was there none to answer? This is the body of the indictment.

First of all “for your iniquities” — they have wound up in slavery because of their own debts [sins].

“have ye sold yourselves” — this is the niphal stem in the Hebrew which is the reflexive stem. They have done this to themselves. There is a principle here which Isaiah anticipates some half a century before this actually takes place: People are always trying to blame someone else for their troubles, and the Jews tried to blame God.

The indictment is amplified by several illustrations which come up in verse 2. “Wherefore, when I came [a verb in the Hebrew for appointment]” — God made an appointment with Israel and they didn’t show up. They stood God up. The near fulfilment of this indictment has to do with the failure of Israel to assemble themselves in worship. Over the course of some 490 years before the Babylonian captivity God called many assemblies of worship, but instead of coming to worship they were all out practising idolatry. The fact that they did not assemble themselves to worship indicated that they were not believers and they had no interest in the Lord or in His Word. So they failed to keep their, at least weekly, appointment on the Sabbath day. And instead of assembling themselves together and making their appointment with God they stood Him up generation after generation, and this was indicative of the fact that they were not interested in Him.

But behind their failure was a deeper failure and this is the failure to respond to the gospel which was clearly declared to Israel in every generation from Moses to the Babylonian captivity. Notice he says: “When I called", and the call here was the call of salvation, the invitation to receive Christ as saviour; “there was none to answer” — the salvation appeal was continually and habitually [qal active participle] rejected. And this had been going on and on, which means that while Israel was responsible for missionary activity they could not fulfil that activity until first of all they had responded to the gospel. The principle here is very simple: No one can serve the Lord until he has first of all been born again.

In the last part of verse 2 we have two questions regarding deliverance. The first question has to do with spiritual deliverance — “Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem?” The second question has to do with physical deliverance — “have I no power to deliver?”

The spiritual deliverance. The phrase “my hand” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is often associated with the word “hand.” We know this from Psalm 19:1 — “the work of his hands” — creation is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cf Heb. 1:10; Jno 1:3; Col. 1:16. These same hands also hung on Calvary’s cross — Psalm 22:16; John 20:19-28. The hands of Christ are associated with salvation. Psalm 37:24 — speaking of the believer when he sins and when he fails: “Though he falls he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” The hand has the connotation of production and it represents what the Lord Jesus Christ can do. He has created the universe; He has provided salvation; He has provided eternal security for anyone who will believe in Him and receive Him as saviour.

The physical deliverance. If the Jews had responded and had believed in Christ they would not only have been saved for all eternity but they would also have been very productive in time and they would have avoided the 70 years of divine discipline in the Babylonian captivity. The physical deliverance has to do with deliverance from a difficulty. It has to do with the Egyptian bondage and from the Chaldean captivity which is coming up in the near future.

The answers to the two questions are in the last part of verse 2 and in verse 3. In verse 2 we have illustrations of God’s power. First of all the Exodus: “I make the river a desert” — a reference to the drying up of the Red Sea to permit the children of Israel to walk through dry shod. If Jesus Christ had the power to deliver the Jews through the Red Sea incident He has the power to deliver them from the Babylonian captivity.

“their fish stinketh” — another reference to the Exodus. Because there is no water and they die of thirst — Ex. 7:18,21.

Verse 3 — God’s power in nature. He has already demonstrated His power to deliver them through the Exodus. Now God also has power in nature and therefore if He has power in nature He has power to deliver them and to preserve them. “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” God causes these things — hiphil stem. Cf Exodus 10:21-23.

Principle: God is not lacking in power to deliver them physically and God is not lacking in means to deliver them spiritually. But notice the order. The first question has to do with spiritual deliverance for it is much more important to be saved for eternity than to be delivered from a jamb in time.

Verses 4-9 — the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Servant of Jehovah.

Verse 4 — the Man of the message. Jesus Christ came with a message. “The Lord God” is a reference to God the Father, Jehovah Elohim; “hath given me [Jesus Christ] the tongue of the learned” — an idiom for a powerful message. Jesus Christ came with the message of salvation; “that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” — the message of the gospel was for everyone, it was for those who were discourage. The principle “to the weary” is very important to us by application. The word “weary” doesn’t mean tired it means to be frightened, to be upset, to be disoriented. He had a word for the disoriented and the word for the disoriented was the gospel. The Word must be put first. Physical deliverance is not the great issue, the great issue is spiritual deliverance. The social gospel is always in the realm of physical deliverance. It is the gospel of regeneration that provides the solution to man’s problems. Christ, of course, was the Man with a message and when He spoke to the weary He spoke to those who were in difficult situations.

“he wakeneth morning by morning” — Jesus Christ, during His incarnation lived one day at a time, morning by morning. And we as believers on this earth, His representatives, are to do exactly the same. If we live one day at a time we are to focus on that day and in any given day the important thing is the declaration of the gospel.

“he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” — the ear is the organ of perception and so He woke up with the Word, as it were. This is the principle by which we as believers should live. We should awaken with the Word; that’s the way to start the day.

Verse 5 — the Man of obedience. “The Lord God” is, again, a reference to the Father — “hath opened my ear” — in other word, Jesus Christ listened to the instructions of God the Father. The Father had a plan for the Son each day and Jesus Christ obeyed that plan day by day. And one day the Father’s plan said, Now you must go to the cross. And He went to the cross; he was the obedient Servant — Philippians 2:8. “I was not rebellious” in other words, I went to the cross. Christ is speaking from His humanity; deity, of course, is sovereign and not obedient to anything. In the realm of His humanity He obeyed the Father’s will — “neither turned away my back” — this is niphal stem in the Hebrew [reflexive] — I did not turn around and run away from the cross. He faced the ministry the Father had for Him without shirking.

Verse 6 — the Man of suffering. “I gave my back to the smiters” — a reference to the scourging that took place — “and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame [they punched Him and He didn’t draw back] and spiting.” Mark 14:65; Luke 18:31ff.

Verse 7 — the Man of determination. “For the Lord God [Jehovah Elohim, God the Father] will help me” — so terrible was the cross and what He had to endure that He leaned upon the Father for help — “therefore have I not been confounded [insulted or shamed]” — I will not be ashamed and turn back.

“therefore have I set my face like a flint” — the flint here is an arrow head actually. It has to do with the target as the cross and He is saying, I have set myself toward the cross, I will not turn back. The shaft of the arrow is mentioned in Isaiah 49:2 — Christ is a polished shaft. He hits the target; He has good trajectory. Here He is the arrow head and He sets Himself like an arrow in a bow; He will not turn back from the cross. “I know that I shall not be ashamed” — literally: I know that I shall not be put to shame. In other words, He anticipates the resurrection.

Verse 8 — the Man of impeccability. “He [God the Father] is near who justifies me"— literally, the one who justifies me is near. The one who is to justify or to vindicate Jesus Christ is God the Father who justified Him through resurrection; “who will contend with me?” The word “contend” means, Who will go to trial with me? Who will face me in the courtroom? The Jews contended with Christ in going to court with Him in the trials which took place before the cross.

Jesus Christ is the only saviour. Who can stand up in a courtroom [this is addressed now to the Jews who will go into the captivity] and say, Jews I have divorced you? Who can stand up in a courtroom and say, Jews I have sold you into slavery? The One who cannot be blamed for the Babylonian captivity is God the Son. The Jews are going to try to blame it all on the Lord. The Lord’s attitude is: You cannot stand up in a courtroom and say I have deserted you and sold you into slavery.

Here is our Lord’s defence: I am going to the cross for you. The most difficult thing in the world for me is to go to the cross and to die for your sins. The horrors of it are greater than anything you can imagine.

These people are trying to judge the God of Israel by saying: You sold us into slavery; you divorced us. And He is pointing out: Look, when I went to the cross, when I hung between heaven and earth, I bore the sins of everyone who ever lived. I died for the religious Jew who railroaded me to that cross; I died for those who spat upon me; I died for those who beat me with a whip; I died for those who stepped up and slugged me with their fists; I died for those who took me up to the cross; I died for those Roman soldiers who nailed me to the cross. Who can ever come to court and say, I have deserted the human race? I have put the human race in bondage? I have divorced the human race? when I have done the most for the human race.

The cross makes it impossible for any member of the human race who ever lived to go into court and say, It is God’s fault. There is a greater principle than that here. In eternity no one who is in the lake of fire can say, I didn’t have a chance, God is unfair. Because of what happened at the cross and because every person gets the opportunity of being saved, no one can ever go to court and say that God was faithless.

This brings up this tremendous principle that God can only deal fairly with the human race, and that all of God’s fairness is tied up in Calvary’s cross where Christ died for our sins, and that no one who has ever lived or ever will live will ever have an excuse. No one will ever be able to go to court and ask for a new trial or a judgment because they are out of order; God has provided everything, Christ died for the smiters and so on.

“let us stand together” — a technical phrase for a trial. None of the Jews would dare stand to accuse Christ, not the Jews of the day of the Babylonian captivity, nor the Jews of the Sanhedrin in the day that Jesus Christ was tried. The greatest illustration of non-desertion, the greatest illustration of faithfulness, is Christ going to the cross and dying for the very people who put Him on the cross.

Verse 9 — the Man of resurrection and judgment. “Behold, the Lord God [God the Father] will help me” — this help has to do with resurrection — “who is he that shall condemn me?” — No one can condemn the Lord Jesus Christ — “Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment” — those who try to condemn Him are those who reject Him and they will not survive to the unconditional covenants — “the moth shall eat them up.” Just as a garment can be eventually destroyed by a moth, so the moth here is death, and death will put them into the lake of fire. They will never have another chance. Those who sought to accuse the Lord are condemned; they have rejected Him.

The moth is death, the garment that gets old is life or time, and the garment is removed by the moth. Death removes time; they have had their opportunity. It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.

Verses 10-11, two attitudes toward the saviour.

Two attitudes existed in the time of Isaiah; two attitudes existed during the time of the Babylonian captivity; two attitudes existed between the restoration of Israel and the cross, and right down to this very moment there are two attitudes on the earth.

Verse 10 — the attitude of the believer. “Who is among you that feareth the Lord” — “feareth” means trust, reverential trust. It is a recognition of realities. Fear is one of the strongest expressions of reality. But all reality in the spiritual life comes to us by faith, and often the word fear doesn’t mean physical fear, it means spiritual faith. That is what it means here. Who among you uses the faith-rest technique? Who among you claims the promises of God? Who among you puts your trust in the Lord?

“and obeyeth the voice of his servant?” — the servant here is Isaiah. Obeying his voice is obedience to what he has written, the writing of God’s Word. So technically this means obedience to the Word; “walketh in darkness, and hath no light” — when things are difficult — “let him trust in the name of the Lord, and lean upon his God.” This is what the believers attitude should be, obedience to the Word of God.

Verse 11 — the attitude of the unbeliever. “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire” — the unbeliever kindles a fire for the purpose of shooting fire arrows — “that arm yourselves with burning arrows: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.” What this verse says in effect is; Unbelievers, you are always trying to stir up trouble and you can’t stir up trouble without getting your fingers burned in the fire you build. Beware of where you build fires, you may be burned by your own fires. “This shall ye have of my hand; ye shall be down in pain” — in other words, You [speaking to the Chaldeans] who have built this fire to shoot your arrows at believers, you are going to get your hand in the fire and will fall to the ground in pain.

What happened to the Chaldean empire that took the Jews into captivity? They got burned. Principle: When the unbeliever turns against the believer he always gets his fingers burned in time and in eternity.