Isaiah 50:1-3

TEACH, CHAPTER 50

a.

OBJECTIONS CANCELLED

TEXT: Isaiah 50:1-3

1

Thus saith Jehovah, 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 stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.

3

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

QUERIES

a.

Why bring up the subject of divorce?

b.

What is meant by the question, ... was there no man?

c.

What do stinking fish have to do with the subject?

PARAPHRASE

This is what Jehovah says to your objections: I am the husband, you are my wife. You know My law says when a husband divorces his wife he must give her a written certificate of divorce. You say I have divorced you, Israel, and I am putting you awaywhere is the certificate? No, I have not divorced you, you have left me. Look at it another way: Do you think you have gone into slavery because I sold you to pay somebody a debt I owed them? I owe no one! You are going into slavery because you wanted to be as much like the Babylonians as possible. It is your rebellion against Me and your infatuation with and dependence upon ungodly men that will bring about your enslavement to them. Why did everyone try to hide and keep away from Me when I came to save you? Why did no one answer Me when I called through My prophets? Have I ever given anyone reason to think that I could not save you from every enemy? No, you and all your ancestors have seen with your own eyes that I have saved you from greater powers than men. I have dried up seas and rivers and some of you have seen the heaps of rotting, stinking fish when this has happened. I have also worked great miracles in the heavens which some of your ancestors saw and have written in your scriptures. No, you are not going to be enslaved because I am powerless to help you or because I wanted it that way, says Jehovah.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 50:1 ACCUSATIONS: Judah is trying to justify herself against Jehovah's accusations (through His prophets) and against His promise of her impending captivity, with some accusations of her own! Judah is trying to blame Jehovah for her troubles with Babylon. She is accusing Jehovah of casting her off illegally, or without justification. That is the impenitent sinner's usual ruse. Jehovah answers by referring them to His Law. The Law of Jehovah is, of course, His willa revelation in human terms of His very nature. It is not Jehovah's nature to do anything without justification. In the matter of divorce, for example, if there is legal cause for a man to put away his wife, he must certify the legality of it by a written bill of divorcement (Deuteronomy 24:1 f). There is no written bill of divorcement from Jehovah. Israel is separated from Jehovah by her own doingnot His! She has gone after other lovers (cf. Hosea 1-3). The Lord did not want the separation, nor is He responsible for it. Another objection Israel might propose is that the Lord will give her up to slavery because Babylon has some claim upon Him. The thought is preposterous. Jehovah owes no one! Jehovah is not man that He has creditors. No one has any claims upon Him! Israel will go away into slavery because of her own weaknesses, not God'S. Judah had flirted with the Babylonians off and on for a number of years (cf. comments on Isaiah, ch. 36-39). The separation was her doing, not the Lord'S. Jehovah's attitude toward Israel is graphically portrayed in the experience of Hosea with his wife.

Isaiah 50:2-3 ACTUALITIES: Israel has accused Jehovah of insensitively casting her off. The actual facts are quite different. Many times Jehovah came to Israel (through prophets and providential judgments and redemptions) to rescue her from her headlong plunge into pagan slavery, but she would not listen. This is the historical record! Furthermore, the actual facts are that God demonstrated that He not only wanted to save Israel from enslavement but He had the power to save her. Time and time again He came, but none responded. In fact, He was rejected (cf. Isaiah 30:8-11), until in the fulness of time He came incarnate to His own and they crucified Him! Delitzsch interprets these as the words of The Servant. Certainly Isaiah 50:4 f would seem to be The Servant'S, and these may very well be His also. The apparent reference to the Red Sea exodus (... at my rebuke I dry up the sea.) would indicate these to be the words of Jehovah. Since Jehovah and the Servant are essentially One (John 1:1-18; John 14:8-11; Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9), Isaiah constantly shifts from One to the other in these latter Chapter s. This is not unusual. It is the shortened perspective aspect of O.T. prophecy. It may be nearer the correct interpretation to understand Jehovah as the speaker in Isaiah 50:1-3 and the Servant in Isaiah 50:4-11. Whatever the case, the point of this passage is to emphasize the righteousness and justness of God in Israel's imminent enslavement and to implore Israel again that He is not only willing but able to save her if she will hearken to His leading. The final and full revelation of Jehovah's redemptive purpose will be in the Person of The Servant, and that is who addresses Israel next.

QUIZ

1.

What kind of accusation is Jehovah countering by the reference to a bill of divorcement?

2.

What accusation would be answered by speaking of creditors?

3.

Why did Israel go away into captivity?

4.

Who is speaking in verses one-three?

5.

How has Jehovah demonstrated His power to save?