Isaiah 50

50 : 1 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 ? Behold, for your iniquities were ye sold, and for your transgressions was 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, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness : their fish stinketh, because there 3 is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. 4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary : he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth 5 mine ear to hear as they that are taught. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not 6 rebellious, neither turned away backward. I gave my back to the smitters, and my cheeks to 7 them that plucked off the hair : I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me ; therefore have I not been confounded : therefore have I set my face like a 8 flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me ; who will contend 9 with me ? let us stand up together : who is mine adversary ? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me ; who is he that shall condemn me ? behold, they all shall wax old as a garment ; the moth shall eat them up. 10 Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant ? he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon 11 his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with firebrands : walk ye in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand ; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Chap. 50. This chapter contains no entirely new element, but a fresh view of several which have already been repeatedly exhibited. The first of these is the great truth, that the sufferings of God’s people are the necessary fruit of their own sins (verse 1). The second is the power of Jehovah to accomplish their deliverance (verses 2, 3). The third is the Servant of Jehovah, His mission, His qualifications for it, His endurance of reproach and opposition on account of it (verses 4-9). The fourth is the way of salvation and the certain doom of those who neglect it (verses 10, 11). This perpetual recurrence of the same great themes in various combinations makes the mere division of the chapters a comparatively unimportant matter. It should be ever borne in mind that these divisions are conventional and modern, and that in this part of Isaiah more especially they might have been omitted altogether without any serious inconvenience to the reader or interpreter. A much greater evil than the want of these divisions is the habit of ascribing to them undue authority and suffering the exposition to be governed by them, as if each were a separate prediction or discourse, instead of being arbitrary though convenient breaks in a continued composition, not materially differing from the paragraphs now used in every modern book.

1. 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 general idea of rejection is twice clothed in a figurative dress, first by emblems borrowed from the law and custom of divorce, and then by emblems borrowed from the law and custom of imprisonment for debt. A.

God indeed selleth us over to punishment, but not till we have first sold ourselves to sin; we first most unjustly sell away our souls, and then He most justly selleth away our bodies, our liberty, our peace. Let us beware that whatever we do we charge not God wrongfully, by making Him in the least degree the author of our sins or so much as an accessory to our follies. Bp. Sanderson.—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. H.

2. God had come near to the people, by His word and providence, but without any suitable response on their part. The first clause is explanatory of their being sold and put away, as represented in the foregoing verse. The general truth which it teaches is, that God has never and will never put away His people even for a time without preceding disobedience and alienation upon their part. The other clause precludes the vindication of their unbelief and disobedience on the ground that they had not sufficient reason to obey His commands and rely upon His promises. Such doubts are rendered impious and foolish by the proofs of His almighty power. This power is first asserted indirectly by a question implying the strongest negation: Is My hand shortened, shortened, from redemption? and is there with me no power (i.e., have I no power) to deliver? A.

4. The object seems to be to indicate the relation of Jesus to the Father with special reference to His own human nature. Considered as man, a brother of our race, the Lord God taught Him; opened His ear; became the object of His constant trust for help. H. C.—God the Father hath given to Me, the Messiah, His eternal Word and Son, power to express Him fully unto His people; that I should be able to speak comfortably to the weary and distressed souls; He doth not intermit to furnish me continually with His good Spirit. Bp. Hall.—As applied to Christ, it is descriptive of that power of conviction and persuasion which is frequently ascribed in the New Testament to His oral teachings. As His representative and instrument, the Church has always had a measure of the same gift enabling her to execute her high vocation. A.

Christ has come to give rest unto the weary and heavy laden, light to the mind, peace to the conscience, love to the heart, and all is real, divine, eternal, inexhaustible. Not as the world giveth, for the world does not give freely; it only lends to recall, it only exchanges and barters, often taking more and better things from us than it bestows. The world’s gifts are not what they seem to be. They do not enrich the heart; they do not last; and, above all, they are dead things which cannot give life. But Jesus gives, and gives Himself. Himself is the light, the life, the peace. God and man, eternal and in time, sinless and a Saviour, the Holy One and Redeemer; there is no question, no longing, no disease, which He does not solve, fulfil, heal. He is the way, where before we saw no way, no possibility of either departure out of our misery or arrival in the far-off eternal city. Only by Him can we come to the fountain of living water, to the Father. A. S.

There is not a Sabbath that the pastor does not face many disheartened people sitting in the pews, needing his word of good cheer. If he speaks brave, hopeful words he will help many a weary one to a victorious week. This is part of his work quite as really as the preaching the warnings and threatenings of the law and the Gospel of salvation and life. All of us, wherever we go, are continually meeting those whose hands hang down and whose knees are trembling, and it is our privilege and duty to lift up the one and strengthen the other. Helping by encouragement is one of the very best of all ways of helping. J. R. M.

5,6. The voice, to which the Son of God hearkens, calls Him to lay down His life for the sheep. And He does not turn away from it, but ever replies, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” He endured shame and spitting in loving obedience to His Father’s will. The words are a distinct prophecy of our Lord’s patient sufferings, recorded in the Gospels, and of these alone. He who suffers is the same Lord who clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering (verse 4). Birks.

6. This Scripture contains a description of the indignities our blessed Saviour suffered, and looks more like an historical narration of facts already past than a prediction of events several hundred years before they happened. We can have no doubt, if we compare this account with that of our Lord’s passion in the New Testament, that Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah. Dean Stanhope.—This is among those wonders of that great work, that the sovereign Lord of all, that binds and looses at His pleasure the influences of heaven and the power and workings of all the creatures, would Himself in our flesh be thus bound, the only Son bound as a slave and scourged as a malefactor; and His willing obedience made this an acceptable and expiating sacrifice; among the rest of His sufferings, He gave His back to the smiters. Leighton.

It is the Holy One and the Just, the Perfect Son of God, who was publicly stripped, gibbeted, exposed to shame, compelled to die slowly, like a slave, nailed fast upon a cross. He had come into the world on a mission of love from the world above, a perfect character, clothed in the essential glory of a Divine nature, a being whom all the righteous spirits—angels, archangels and seraphim—had been wont to magnify and adore—such was the visitant who lighted, for once, on the earth, and the race of mankind could not suffer Him to live, tore Him away in their spite from His acts of healing and His gentle mercies even to themselves, and thrust Him out of the world in mockeries that forgot even the appearance of dignity. Bushnell.

The sin of sins is the failure to recognize Jesus for what He is. His person and claims are the touchstone which tries every beholder of what sort He is. How wonderful the silent patience of Jesus! He withholds not His face “from shame and spitting.” He gives “His back to the smiters.” Meek endurance and passive submission are not all which we have to behold there. This is more than an uncomplaining martyr. This is the sacrifice for the world’s sin; and His bearing of all that men can inflict is more than heroism. It is redeeming love. His sad, loving eyes, wide open below their bandage, saw and pitied each rude smiter, even as He sees us all. They were and are eyes of infinite tenderness, ready to beam forgiveness; but they were and are the eyes of the Judge, who sees and repays His foes, as those who smite Him will one day find out. A. M.

Thou Son of the Blessed, what grace was manifest in Thy condescension! Grace brought Thee down from heaven; grace stripped Thee of Thy glory; grace made Thee poor and despicable; grace made Thee bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of sorrow, such burdens of God’s curse as are unspeakable. O Son of God, grace was in all Thy tears; grace came forth with every word of Thy sweet mouth; grace came out where the whip smote Thee, where the thorns pricked Thee, where the nails and spear pierced Thee. O blessed Son of God, here is grace indeed! unsearchable riches of grace! unthought-of riches of grace! grace to make angels wonder, grace to make sinners happy, grace to astonish devils! And what will become of them that trample under foot this Son of God. Banyan.

7. The Saviour endured this cruel insult and this contradiction of sinners against Himself with the moral strength of a precious trust in His God to help Him. In this confidence He set His face like a flint, unflinching, patiently enduring, never recoiling or shrinking. H. C.—Our blessed Saviour, having fixed His end, pursued it resolutely, upon all occasions bearing up against all temptation and opposition; becoming thereby to us an example of true courage and unshaken constancy of mind. Bp. Bradford.

Our Lord was an example of holiness and obedience set before us, and His sufferings make the pattern perfect; had He lived in worldly prosperity, the poor and unfortunate would perhaps have upbraided the rich and prosperous for not following the copy, but would have thought their own hard circumstances a sufficient excuse for not attempting it. But what pretence is now left for any mortal? are we more wretched than our Master? are we poor and therefore discontented? Let us look to Him who had not where to lay His head, and yet paid a cheerful obedience to His God. Bp. Sherlock.

8. The terms in these verses are forensic, pertaining to judicial trials. Jesus had a personal experience under which this figure became fact. The figure leads the thought here: Who will arraign me before the judge? He who vindicates my cause (God) is near me. Who then will dare contend with me in litigation? H. C.

He is near that justifieth me. That is, God, who will vindicate my character and who approves what I do, does not leave nor forsake me, and I can with confidence commit myself and my cause to Him. The word justify here is not used in the sense in which it is often in the Scriptures, as denoting the act by which a sinner is justified before God, but in the proper, judicial sense, He would declare Him to be righteous; He would vindicate His character; He would stand forth as His patron and judge, and would show Him to be innocent. This was done by all the testimonials of God in His favor, by the voice which spake from heaven at His baptism, by all the miracles which He wrought, showing that He was commissioned and approved by God, by the fact that even Pilate was constrained to declare Him innocent, by all the wonders that attended His crucifixion, showing that “He was a righteous man,” even in the view of the Roman centurion, and by the fact that He was raised from the dead, and was taken to heaven, and placed at the right hand of the Father, thus showing that His whole work was approved by God, and thus furnishing the most ample vindication of His character from all the accusations of His foes. Barnes.

It was verified in Christ; by His resurrection He was proved to be not the man that He was represented, not a blasphemer, not a deceiver, not an enemy to Cæsar. The judge that condemned Him owned he found no fault in Him; the centurion that had charge of His execution declared Him a righteous man; so near was He that justified Him. But it was true of Him in a further and more peculiar sense; the Father justified Him when He accepted the satisfaction He made for the sin of man. He was near who did it; for His resurrection, by which He was justified, soon followed His condemnation and crucifixion; He was straightway glorified. H.

9. By a perfectly natural and common transition, the writer passes from comparison to metaphor, and having first transformed them into garments, says directly that the moth shall devour them, not as men, in which light he no longer views them, but as old clothes. This is a favorite comparison in Scripture to express a gradual but sure decay. (Cf. chap. 51:8 and Hos. 5:12.) A.

10. This prophecy of Messiah’s sufferings and of His fidelity to the great work assigned to Him introduces a double lesson of comfort to the faithful, and of warning to His self-righteous adversaries. The Servant here is our Lord Himself, and the address is to His true and humble followers. Birks.

The sentiment of the verse is, If any one among you, really fearing the Lord and obeying the voice of His servant (the Messiah) has been walking in darkness analogous to that through which I have walked, under insult, scorn, contempt, persecution, arraignment before courts of law, and with no light shining on his pathway, let him trust as I have done in the name of the Lord and stay upon His God. H. C.—Darkness of state and condition, in the Scripture, denotes disconsolation and trouble. To be then in darkness, where yet there is some light, some relief, though darkness be predominating, is sad and disconsolate; but not only to be, but also to walk—that is, to continue a course in darkness, and that with no light, no discovery of help or relief—this seems to be an overwhelming condition; yet sinners in this estate are called “to trust in the name of the Lord.” Owen.

Trust in God is the grand principle of religion; it is another word, indeed, for faith, as that term is applied in the New Testament—the grand principle which distinguishes good men from men of the world. The former trust in God, and trusting in Him, their souls are kept in peace. They commit their way to Him, and resign their wills into His hands. R. Hall.

Faith is a plant that can grow in the shade, a grace that can find the way to heaven in a dark night. It can “walk in darkness and yet trust in the name of the Lord.” We read of promises to those that mourn, “they shall be comforted;” to the contrite, “they shall be revived;” to him that walks in darkness and the like—these belong to believers and none else; surely then there are some believers that are in the dark under the hatches of sorrow, wounded and broken with their sins and temptation for them; they are not such as are assured of the love of God; but their mourning is turned into joy, their night into light, their sighs and sobs into praise. Gurnall.

The felt need of God makes us stretch out the hands of our faith and take a stronger hold on God. The stormy sea makes us look for the helping hand of Jesus. And we often learn more of faith in one month of darkness and storm than in years of sunshine. When God would prepare us for higher work, for sweeter peace, for clearer light, He brings them by an increase of faith and increases our faith by trying our faith. The heavenward path of love and prayer is never shut to faith by earthly storms; it is opened by them. From the pillow of stones we see the gates ajar. In the darkness of earth are shown to us the infinite worlds above; our dreams become steps to heaven; and our hills of difficulty mountains of transfiguration. Anon.

Sin is a fact before us; sorrow is a fact we all have to face; death is a prospect we all have to meet. We must find God in the cloud or we are lost. We do find Him in the cloud at Calvary. There sin was at its worst, sorrow at its saddest, and death ever present. There also was God bearing our sins, sharing our sorrows, bearing our death. It is not strange that the darkest hour should touch the heart sooner than the brightest day. When the Lord descends to us in a cloud He does more for us than when He shines from afar. There is the sinner’s hope. There was a great longing in Moses to see the face of God. The answer was the coming of God to Moses in a cloud. Don’t be afraid of any cloud that will bring the Lord nearer to you. There are cloud gates that must be passed before you see the glory of the Lord. Don’t be afraid of the cloud hovering around you. Before the Lord comes you are afraid of it, but afterward you will have passed out of darkness into light and joy. Gibson.

Darkness is a reason for doubting everything but Christ, but a reason for trusting in Him, drawing near to Him and keeping close at His side. Darkness is a reason for distrusting one’s self, and walking warily in prayer, and crying out for Christ’s help, but certainly not a reason for unbelief. Darkness in ourselves and darkness around us is no reason for doubting the light, but for believing in it, loving it and pressing forward to it. Again we say darkness is no reason for doubt, but a strong reason for faith; for it is plain that though a man may be in darkness and have great reason to distrust himself, that is no reason for distrusting Christ, but for pressing after Him; for all the real light of the world is in Him, and he that followeth Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Cheever.

11. “Kindling a fire” and “compassing one’s self with sparks of his own kindling” look as figures to the case of one who walks in darkness—i.e., through scenes of calamity and sore trial, but who, instead of seeking light from God, kindles a little fire and surrounds himself with a few sparks of his own—a miserably poor substitute at best for such sunlight as God’s! The end of such contempt of God and such reliance on self can be nothing better or other than to “lie down in sorrow.” This warning fitly extends to all human endeavors to get up schemes of salvation. H. C.

They refresh and please themselves with a conceit of their own merit and sufficiency, and warm themselves with that; it is both light and heat to them. As they trust in their own righteousness, and not in the righteousness of Christ, so they place their happiness in their worldly possessions and enjoyments and not in the favor of God. Creature comforts are as sparks, short-lived and soon gone; yet the children of this world while they last warm themselves by them, and walk with pride and pleasure in the light of them. They are ironically bid to “walk in the light of their own fire.” Make your best of it while it lasts. This shall ye have of Mine hand (says Christ, for to Him the judgment is committed), “ye shall lie down in sorrow.” A godly man’s way may be melancholy, but his end shall be peace and everlasting light. A wicked man’s way may be pleasant, but his end and endless abode will be utter darkness. H.