Sunday, February 28
If Isaiah intended to convey only information, he would lay out all the details regarding the Messiah at once. But in order to teach, persuade, and give his audience an encounter with the Servant of the Lord, he develops a rich fabric of recurring themes in symphonic fashion. He unfolds God’s message in steps so that each aspect can be grasped in relation to the rest of the picture. Isaiah is an artist whose canvas is the soul of his listener.
Read Isaiah 50:4-10. Summarize what these verses are saying. How do you see Jesus in this passage?
We found in Isaiah 49:7 that God’s servant is despised, abhorred, and “a servant of rulers” but that “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship”. Here in Isaiah 50, we learn that the valley is deeper for the gentle teacher whose words sustain the weary (Isaiah 50:4). The path to vindication leads through physical abuse (Isaiah 50:6).
This abuse sounds bad to those of us in modern Western cultures. But in an ancient Near Eastern culture, honor was a life and death matter for a person and his/her group. If you insulted and mistreated someone like this, you’d better be well protected; if they got half a chance, the victim and/or his clan would surely retaliate.
King David attacked and conquered the country of Ammon (2 Samuel 10:1-12) because its king had merely “took David’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away” (2 Samuel 10:4). But in Isaiah 50 people strike the servant, painfully pluck out hairs from his beard, and spit at him. What makes these actions an international, intercosmic incident is that the victim is the envoy of the divine King of kings. In fact, by comparing Isaiah 9:6, 7 and Isaiah 11:1-16 with other “servant” passages, we found that the servant is the King, the mighty Deliverer! But with all this power and honor, for some unthinkable reason, He does not save Himself! This is so strange that people didn’t believe it. At Jesus’ cross, leaders mocked him:
“He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.”(Luke 23:35);
“...let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” (Matthew 27:42).
Read through Isaiah 50:4-10. Write down the spiritual principles depicted here that should be applied to our own lives. Look at yourself in light of the list you make. In what areas could you do better? If discouraged, then read on for the rest of the week.
