Isaiah Post 29 - The Third Servant Song (Chapter 50)

In chapter 50, we read the third Servant Song of Isaiah.

The first three verses liken Israel to an immoral wife.  Ouch.

But Israel was not sent away because God didn’t love her.  No, it was because of her own sin that she was sent away.  Indeed, the first verse of this chapter reads thusly:

“Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities you have sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

The Servant begins His song in verse 4.

“The LORD God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.

The LORD God has opened My ear;
And I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.

We see here a lovely prophecy about the wisdom and obedience of the Messiah.  The gospels don’t show much about His childhood. He was born, escaped to Egypt, returned to Nazareth, spoke to the teachers in the temple around His bar mitzvah age, and then we don’t see Him again until He was 30.

But let's pause and look at the glimpse of His boyhood that we do have.  In Luke 2:41-50  we see the Servant having astonishing wisdom as He spoke with those teachers at the temple.  At age 12, He already knew that He was to be about His Father's business.  It was not common for the Jews to call YHVH father.  Chapter 2 of Luke wraps up with Yeshua growing in wisdom and stature; in favor of both God and man.

Yeshua as a boy, in the temple at Passover

When Isaiah describes the learning of the Servant, it is clear that the wisdom came from the Father - His learning came morning by morning - and Yeshua did not rebel or turn away.  He was obedient.  He knew who He was and that He would suffer.

Verse 6 is fulfilled in the gospels and gives us a preliminary prophecy of how the Servant would suffer:

I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

What follows in verses 7-9 is an assurance that YHVH will be the help for the Messiah.

This short chapter wraps up with a warning in the last two verses.  Fear the LORD and obey His Servant! But those who walk in their own way will lie down in sorrow.

“Who among you fears the LORD?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.

Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment.

Those who “light fires” refer to people who have their own schemes and their own gods. (For example, Aaron’s sons in Leviticus 10:1, when they burned strange fire in the tabernacle).

The Hebrew word used for torment actually means grief or sorrow.  A place of pain.

You want to know this Servant of YHVH!  Without Him, we have no true light.

Yeshua Messiah - Light of the World!

For the next post on Isaiah, click here.


If you would like to start at the beginning of this series on Isaiah, click here.