Isaiah 50
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CHAPTER 50
Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s obedience (50:1–11)
1–3 The Israelites in exile may well have felt that God had “divorced” them or “sold” them into slavery. But here, speaking through Isaiah, God denies that He has divorced or sold them: “Where is your mother’s (Jerusalem’s) certificate of divorce . . . or to which of my creditors did I sell you?” (verse 1). God didn’t cast off the Israelites; rather, they cast Him off. It was because of their sins that they ended up in exile. God didn’t sell them to “creditors”; God doesn’t have creditors!
In verse 2, God rebukes the Israelites for their unbelief. God came to them and called to them—through His prophets—but they didn’t respond; they didn’t believe His promises and warnings (verse 2). “Was my arm too short—my strength too little—to rescue you?” God asks. God is all-powerful; He can dry up the waters and blacken the sky; His judgments cannot be resisted.
4–9 Here the speaker changes: now the “servant of the Lord” is speaking. Unlike the nation of Israel (Isaiah 42:18–20), the ideal servant responds to the Lord in obedience and faith (verses 4–5). Moreover, he does so in spite of being beaten and mocked; he willingly faces suffering. I offered my back . . . I did not hide my face (verse 6). Jesus was this suffering servant; He was beaten, mocked, spat upon (Mark 14:65; 15:15,19). In Isaiah Chapters 52–53, we will learn more about this “suffering servant” of the Lord.
But even though the Lord’s servant suffers, he is not ultimately disgraced (verse 7); the Lord vindicates him (verse 8). We are not told here how the servant is to be vindicated, but we know from the New Testament that the servant—Jesus—was vindicated by being resurrected from the dead (Acts 2:23–24; 3:15). If the Lord vindicates His servant, who then will bring charges against him? (verse 8). No one. Neither can anyone bring charges against the sinless Jesus—nor, for that matter, against His followers, who have been justified through faith in Him (John 8:46; Romans 8:3134). Those who seek to condemn the servant (and his followers) will be destroyed like a garment eaten by moths (verse 9).
10–11 In verse 10, Isaiah says that hearing the Lord and obeying His servant go together; faith and action must be joined (Matthew 7:21; James 2:14,17). Furthermore, to obey the servant—the Servant Jesus—is the same as obeying the Lord, for the Lord and His Servant are one (John 10:30).
Isaiah then says to those who walk in spiritual darkness: . . . trust in the name of the LORD—that is, in the Lord Himself. But to those who choose to trust in themselves—to those who walk according to their own light and not according to God’s word—to them Isaiah says: You will lie down in torment. You will reap what you sow; you who light the fires of evil will end up suffering the fires of judgment.