Christ Listened to His Father to Save Those Who Listen to Him

Isaiah 50

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I did not turn back. (Isa 50:5)

Main Idea: Christ listened perfectly to his Father and obeyed completely, even though it meant suffering; as a result, he will save all who turn from self and listen to him.

1. A Nation Who Refused to Listen Is Sent into Exile (50:1-3).
   1. Israel is not divorced, only sent away for sin (50:1).
   2. Israel refused to listen to the sovereign God (50:2).
   3. God is still omnipotent and able to save (50:2-3).
2. A Servant Who Perfectly Listened Is Sent as Savior (50:4-9).
   1. The servant speaks of his perfect obedience (50:4).
   2. The servant speaks of his humble submission to abuse (50:5-6).
   3. The servant speaks of his vindication by God (50:7-9).
3. A Key Question: Will You Listen to the Servant or to Yourself (50:10-11)?
   1. All who have ears to hear the servant will lean on God (50:10).
   2. All who try to walk by their own light will be tormented (50:11).

A Nation Who Refused to Listen Is Sent into Exile

Isaiah 50:1-3

The unifying theme of this brief chapter is listening to God. Jesus Christ called on his hearers to consider carefully how they listen to God’s Word (Luke 8:18) and often finished his teachings with the words, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen” (e.g., Luke 8:8). This chapter begins with God speaking to Judah, explaining the reasons for the exile—what they were and what they weren’t—and it all came down to their failure to listen to God when he called. Next comes a remarkable section of prophecy revealing the heart of the ministry of the servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The essence was his perfect commitment to listen to his Father and to obey even to the point of death. Along with that was Jesus’s perfect teachings and the sweet sustenance his words gave to the weary. The chapter ends with a fork in the road: Will you listen to the servant, or will you listen to your own wisdom? The ends of those divergent roads couldn’t be more infinitely separated—heaven for those who trust in the servant’s words and hell for those who don’t.

The first section of this chapter (vv. 1-3) is God’s direct address to Judah. God was preparing his people more than a century in advance for what he was going to do in response to their idolatries. His desire was to strengthen their faith at precisely the time they needed it the most. For when they were languishing in Babylon, they would be most tempted to believe that God had cast them off entirely, “divorced” them, and would have nothing more to do with them (v. 1). Isaiah had just used the image of Jerusalem as a bride who was bereaved and exiled, who later is lavishly blessed with abundant children (49:18). He will develop it beautifully in chapter 62, in which God rejoices over Zion as a bridegroom over his bride (v. 5). The exile would call all that into question, and they may have felt that God had divorced Israel for her spiritual adultery. But God never divorced Israel, and he was not through with that nation. Neither can they suppose that God sold his children into slavery to satisfy creditors (Matt 18:25).

No, the reason for the exile was plain: Israel was sent far away because of her iniquities (Isa 50:1). When God came to them to demand their loving obedience, they refused to listen (v. 2). And no, the exile did not happen because God had somehow lost his power. Not at all! They could never have been captured “unless their Rock had sold them” (Deut 32:30). God’s hand is not too weak to redeem them, neither does he lack power to rescue them (v. 2). God is every bit as powerful now as he was the day he led them through the Red Sea as on dry land. This is the same God who created the heavens and can do anything he wants to the stars—including turning them black. So he can do whatever he wants on earth (v. 3). Israel was sent away because they stubbornly refused to listen.

A Servant Who Perfectly Listened Is Sent as Savior

Isaiah 50:4-9

The Suffering Servant would be entirely different. By his perfect obedience, the rebels who had been sinfully refusing to listen to God would be saved. These words must refer to Christ, for only Jesus gave himself so fully and so meekly to those who were so viciously abusing him, knowing that God would vindicate him. No one has ever so humbled himself and made himself nothing as did Jesus, even to the point of his death on the cross (Phil 2:9-11). Jesus fulfilled this prophecy.

Throughout Isaiah 50:4-9, the servant (Christ) is speaking in the first person, talking about himself. He begins by revealing the source of his astonishing teaching ministry, saying that the Lord God has given him the tongue of an instructed person and that the effect of the Father’s words is the sustaining of the weary. The servant goes beyond this to speak even of the practical side of how this comes about: every morning the Father would waken the Son and pour words of instruction into his ready ear. The New Testament gives ample evidence of how this was worked out in Jesus’s life. Mark 1:35 tells us of Jesus’s habit of getting up very early in the morning and going to a deserted place where he would pray. Part of that time involved the Father telling the Son specifically what works he would be doing and words he would be speaking that day. In John 7:16 Jesus said plainly, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.” And in direct fulfillment of Isaiah 50, his words were amazingly comforting to brokenhearted sinners. For example, he said to a paralyzed man who had faith, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven” (Matt 9:2). His call to all those suffering under sin’s crushing yoke was alluring: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Isaiah 50:4-5 tells us that the Father taught him what to say and how to say it (see John 12:49).

The text also tells us that the servant was not rebellious to anything the Father told him to do, no matter how costly. He willingly offered his back to his tormenters, his beard to those who would pluck it out, his face to those who would spit on it (v. 6). This astonishing humility was that of the “Lamb of God” who would be led to the slaughter. In all of this degradation, Jesus was not ashamed; no, his glory was to die in submission to his Father’s wise plan. His vindication would come through centuries of exaltation by the Father as the Holy Spirit applied his blood to the elect from every nation.

Paul paraphrases verses 7-9 in Romans 8:33-34. It is exhilarating for us Christians to realize that our vindication from Satan’s accusation and from condemnation (Rom 8:1) has been bought by the blood of the submissive Savior predicted in Isaiah 50. No one will be able to bring a charge against God’s elect because Jesus obeyed on their behalf!

A Key Question: Will You Listen to the Servant or to Yourself?

Isaiah 50:10-11

The chapter ends by asking a question of all who are walking in the darkness of sin. Will you fear the Lord, listen to Christ, and walk humbly through faith in his light? Or will you reject Christ, light your own torch for guidance, and seek to live according to your own wisdom? The first group will be saved; the second will lie down in eternal torment.

Applications

For Christians, we must first recognize our own tendency to wander from God by refusing to obey his Word. Second, we must stand in awe of the astonishing humility and obedience of the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ. We must feel the weight of the abuse he endured and with humble tears acknowledge that it is our sins that produced his sufferings. Third, we must consider his daily pattern of listening to his Father and seek to imitate it by having daily quiet times in the Bible and constant prayer. We must awaken our ears every day to listen to his words of instruction then seek to live out that wisdom, to bless others with the words he gives us to sustain other weary sinners. For non-Christians, here is a warning: If you refuse to trust in Christ, you are effectively making your own torch to light your way. The end of that way is eternal torment. Flee to Christ by faith!

Reflect and Discuss

1. What does this chapter reveal about the importance of listening to God when he speaks?
2. How did Israel fail to listen to God? How do we?
3. How does this chapter predict the humility of Jesus in always seeking to listen to his Father?
4. How are Jesus’s early morning quiet times predicted here? How could we follow Jesus’s example in verses 4-9?
5. How did Jesus’s humble obedience lead to terrible suffering and death, even to death on the cross? How does verse 6 predict some of those sufferings?
6. How could greater levels of obedience by us lead similarly to greater levels of suffering?
7. What is the significance of the words of triumphant vindication in verses 7-9? How was Jesus vindicated by the Father?
8. How does Christ’s resurrection victory guarantee our vindication from all accusation (compare vv. 7-9 with Rom 8:33-34)?
9. To whom does verse 10 appeal? How can Christians hear verse 10 and put it into practice?
10. What is the terrifying warning given in verse 11? How do verses 10-11 capture the wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6?