Isaiah 50:1. Thus saith the LORD,
There is always something weighty coming when you have this preface. If God speaks, we ought to hear with reverence, with attention.
Isaiah 50:1. Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
God is here addressing his ancient people; they had been given up, as it were, left, forsaken. They compared themselves to a wife who had been divorced by her husband, or to children who had been sold by their father because of his extreme poverty. The Lord says, «Now, tell me, have I really put away my chosen people as a man in a pet puts away his wife? Have I really sold you to profit by you? What benefit is it to me that you are carried away captive, and that you are left without comfort?»
Isaiah 50:1. Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
It was not God's changeableness, but their own sinfulness, that had brought upon them all their sufferings. The Jews might have remained a nation in possession of their own land to this day, if they had not turned aside unto idols. It was not that God cast away his people whom he did foreknow; but they cast him off, they sold themselves. Now, if any child of God has fallen into trouble of heart, and has lost his comfort, let him not blame God; his sorrow is caused by his own act and deed. And if any man or woman here should be in deep trouble brought on by sin, let them not set it down to their destiny, let them not call God unkind; but let them take the blame to themselves: «For your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.»
Isaiah 50:2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?
It is Christ who is speaking here by the mouth of the prophet. When he came, there was «no man.» He could not find in all the nation any faithful one to help him in his great redemptive work. «He came unto his own, and his own received him not.» He preached repentance and faith throughout the land; but they cried, «Crucify, him! Crucify him!» They loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Isaiah 50:2. Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
If you are in the worst plight in which you can be, God can still help you. Despair of yourself; but do not despair of him. If you have come to the very bottom of all things, and the last ray of hope is quenched in midnight darkness, God is still the same. Hear what he says to you, «Is my band shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?» Can he not break the bonds of drunkenness? Can he not deliver the unchaste from their vile passions? Can he not pick up from the dunghill the outcast and the offcast? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is the salvation of the greatest sinners impossible for him to accomplish? That can never be, for he is «mighty to save.»
Isaiah 50:2. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
God divided the Red Sea, he parted the Jordan asunder, and made a way for his people to pass over. He who has done this can do anything. When God takes up the case, impossibility is not in the dictionary. However great your sorrow, however deep your misfortune, or however grievous your sin, if God comes to deal with it, he will make short work of all your troubles, and all your despair.
Isaiah 50:3-4. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
This is Christ speaking again. When he came here, though be found no man able to help him, none to come and join him in the redemption of his people, yet he gave himself up to the tremendous task. He became instructed of the Father. He was taught to speak a word to weary ones. «Never man spake like this Man.» There is no gospel like his gospel, no doctrine like his doctrine. He went to God in private «morning by morning.» He received his message from his Father, and he came and delivered it to the people. Oh, what a glorious Christ we have!
Isaiah 50:5. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
He had his ear bored, as slaves had when they would not go out free, but meant to remain with their master. Christ had a bored ear, an opened ear. He never rebelled against God's will. He was obedient to the Father, even unto death. If you want to know how obedient he was, hear me read the next verse:
Isaiah 50:6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my checks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Now let me go back a little, and read again the third verse, «I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.» «I gave my back to the smiters, and my checks to them that plucked off the hair.» It is the same divine Person, who musters the hosts of heaven till the very skies are blackened with the artillery of God, who here says, «I gave my back to the smiters, bowing down to the brutal Roman scourge, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.» You remember the scene that I pictured last Sunday night, the whole band of soldiers mocking Christ, and even spitting upon him. That was the fulfillment of these words, «I hid not my face front shame and spitting.» That same Christ, without whom was not anything made that was made, whose face is the sun of heaven, whose glory is matchless and unsearchable, says, «I hid not my face from shame and spitting.» Do not say, then, that God has no love to you. Do not say that he has cast you away as a husband divorces his wife. Talk no more as if there were no help for you, no means of your deliverance. Behold how low your Saviour stooped, how gracious he was to suffer so much for guilty men, and be encouraged to trust him. He who gave his back to the smiters says to you, «The chastisement of your peace was upon me, and with my stripes you are healed.»
Isaiah 50:7. For the Lord GOD will help me;
This is Christ still speaking. Though God himself, yet as the God-Man, looking to his Father for help in the dread struggle through which he went to save us, he declared, «The Lord God will help me.»
Isaiah 50:7. Therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
And he was not; he went through with all that he had undertaken. He drank our bitter cup till none of the dregs remained. He bore the terrible wrath of God, which else would have rested on it for ever; God helped him, and he bore it all.
Isaiah 50:8-9. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with, me? let us stand 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? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Will any now come to battle against Christ, and hope to conquer him? Voltaire used to say, «Crush the Wretch!» but where is Voltaire now? And those who agreed with Voltaire, where are they now? But Jesus ever liveth and reigneth, and God is with him. He who shall once come to battle with our glorious Lord shall soon know the power of Christ's weakness, and the omnipotence of his death.
Isaiah 50:10. Who is among you
Here is a very blessed question. Christ, having passed through all the trouble that could be passed through, and having come out of it triumphant, now looks round on all his followers, on all the children of God, and he says, «Who is among you»
Isaiah 50:10. That feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
Do you see the drift of it? Our Saviour trusted, and he was not confounded. He stayed himself upon God even when he said, «My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?» and be came off a conqueror. Trust you in God, and you also will be victorious. Let your strength be drawn from that strong and mighty One who is pledged to help all who trust him, and you shall triumph even as Jesus did. Do you refuse to trust God? Then listen to this:
Isaiah 50:11. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.
If you think to make yourselves happy in sin, go and do it. If you fancy that your own righteousness will save you, go and try it.
Isaiah 50:11. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Your fire shall not warm you; your sparks shall not enlighten you; you will have to lie down to die, and you shall lie down in sorrow. O my dear hearers, the time will come when every one of us must put off this body, and lie down to die! God grant that we may none of us have to lie down in sorrow; but instead thereof, having trusted in God, may he light our candle for us in the last moment, that we may fall asleep in Jesus, and wake up in his likeness in the everlasting glory! May God bless to us the reading of his Word! Amen.