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

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!

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.

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!