Isaiah 50

Isaiah 50:1-3

In this chapter we have, 1. The rejection of the Jews signified by a divorce, because of their contempt of the Messiah, who may be able to save them, ver. 1—3. 2. Christ produces his commission, and professes his readiness to suffer, ver. 4—6. 3. He expresses his confidence in God’s support, ver. 7—9. 4. He comforts his defrauding joints, and threatens the self-righteous and presuming sinners, ver. 10, 11.

God will vindicate his ways to men, and prove his justice in the rejection of the Jewish people.

1. He desires the cause of their rejection may be examined. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce? intimating, either that God had not cast them off, but they, like an adulterer, had treacherously departed from him; or, that if he had divorced them, if the bill was produced, the cause would be found abundantly to vindicate his proceeding: or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? fathers having such a right over their children among the Jews, but God owed nothing either to the Babylonian or Romans, and therefore if they were captives, it was not of him, but themselves. Should, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away; to greatly their wise lusts, they provoked God, by their idolatrics especially; and at last, by crucifying the Redeemer, they brought upon themselves deftur-

tion: Nate, (1.) Though all who are saved owe it to God’s sovereign grace, none are damned but must own it the just reward of their own obstinate imposition. (2.) If sinners tell themselves to work wickedness, they can only hope to earn the wages of sin.

2. He upbraids them with their inattention to his calls by all his prophets, and especially by his Son, who came himself to warn them, yet none regarded. They paid no credit to his word, nor would be persuaded, that he who appeared in circumstances so mean was the almighty Redeemer promised, tho’ he had given such instances of his glorious power in their former deliverances. At his vehicle the sin was devised; by him Jordan became dry ground; he flew the fish of Egypt, when the rivers were turned into blood, v. 2. and covered the Egyptians with that thick darkest which might be felt, v. 3. Or it may refer to his power in raising the thick clouds, and, when he pleases, eclipsing the luminaries of heaven; in all which works his omnipotence is manifested.

3. The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in the season to him: that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning; he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. 5. ¶ The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 6. ¶ I gave my back to the finitiers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7. ¶ For the Lord GOD will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I let my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 8. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is? mine advertise? be him come near to me. 9. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me, who is he that shall condemn me? do, they all shall wax old as a garment: the moth shall eat them up.

Isaiah 50:4-9

We have here our Lord proceeding in his work of redemption, for which he is every way so fully qualified.

1. As endowed with the highest wisdom, that he might know how to preach the gospel which brings out to the weary soul; and constantly receiving from his Father, as the great prophet of his church, those letters of instruction, which, with fidelity and zeal, riding up early he inculcated on his disciples, v. 4. Nate, (1.) The greatest qualification of a minister of God is to know how to address the troubled conscience, and to speak the fessional word to calm the tumult of the soul. (2.) It is God that gives the ability, and he alone can add the blessing. (3.) They who would serve God in the gospel of his Son, must attentively bear him speaking in his revealed word, for there are all the hid treasures of wisdom. (4.) Morning by morning must we be found upon our knees, asking the wisdom which cometh from above; for the most laborious endeavours of the human understanding in the scriptures, without the teaching of God’s Spirit, will never make us wise unto salvation.

2. Patiently suffering. He voluntarily yielded himself up to his Father’s will, as she fervent who had his ear bored, Exod. xxi. 5, 6. became his master’s property for ever; and when he was called to the feverish trials, in the course of his obedience unto death for our redemption, he cheerfully met his sufferings, v. 5. submitting to all that shame, insult, pain, and agony, which he endured from his wicked persecutors, v. 6. See Mat. xxvi. 67. xxvii. 26. Mark xiv. 6, 7. John xviii. 22. Nate, The more we consider what Jesus so readily submitted to our behalf, the more should our hearts be comforted in the persuasion of his willingness to favor all who come to him.

3. Powerfully supported, and boldly accomplishing his work in the face of all opposition. For the Lord God will help me; as man, he needed support from his Father, and found it in the day of his calamity; therefore shall I not be confounded, so as to faint under his sufferings. Therefore have I set my face as a flint, against all the ignominious treatment to which he was exposed; and I know that I shall not be ashamed; his uncle was good, and he was assured in the issue he should not be disappointed, but see the redemption of his people compleated. He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? Let us stand together: who is mine advertise? let him come near to me. The charges that were laid against him, from Satan, from the law, from humanistic persecutors, were all answered; and God, by his resurrection from the dead, declared him fully acquainted of every occasion, and that he had made compleat satisfaction for the sins of his people. Thus holpen of God, no condemnation remained against him; whilst all his enemies, doomed to ruin, like a mosh-eden garment, should utterly and irrecoverably perish, v. 9. Nate, (1.) They who are called to stand up for Christ, have made of courage, and to set their faces as a flint against the revilings of men. (2.) Christ’s service will bear us out; and, however shameful in the eyes of men the preaching of the cross may appear, it is our greatest glory. (3.) Whilst our hearts are led up to

Babes Chord John Child 2. 2. 2.

God for strength, he will not fail us. (4.) A believer in Jesus may now challenge every security; the reformation of his Lord gives him a plan that filereth all condemnation. (5.) The enemies of Christ and his people, however they they prevail for a time, are doomed at last to perish for ever, and the worst which dieth not shall feed upon them.

Mal. iii. 16. PC. exil. 6. Chap. vii. PC. exil. 15. Mal. ii.