Isaiah 50:11

Some people refuse to listen to the *Lord’s servant. They want to live in whatever manner pleases him. They care only about themselves. These people would suffer a terrible punishment. The verse refers to their awful deaths.

• This verse may refer to the people whom the Roman army defeated in *AD 70. The Roman army completely destroyed the country called Judah. It was a terrible event. (The Roman army was the most powerful army in the world for many centuries.)

Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible; in the original language, it means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
sackcloth ~ dress of rough material that people wore to show that they were very sad.
exile ~ someone that an enemy takes away to a foreign country.
messenger ~ a person who carries a message on behalf of the sender.
AD ~ years after the birth of Christ.

1. Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

God’s Servant Saves God’s People

Isaiah Chapter s 41 to 55

Gordon Churchyard

The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. Words in round brackets, (…) are explanations.

Chapter 50

1. The third Servant Song

v1 The *LORD says, ‘Where is your mother’s divorce bill? [I mean] the one that I sent her away with. Or to which of the people that I owed credit to did I sell you? I sold you because of your *sins. I sent your mother away because of wrong things [that you did].

v2 Why was nobody there when I came? Why did nobody answer when I called? Was my arm too short to *ransom you? Am I not strong enough to rescue you? Look! With a mere word I can dry up the sea. I can turn rivers into a desert. The fish in them will *rot because there is no water. And they will die because they do not have anything to drink.

v3 I can make the sky wear darkness. I can cover it with rough cloth.’

v4 [The servant says], ‘The *Lord, who is *LORD, has given me a tongue. It has learned [what to say]. I know what to say to encourage very tired people. He wakens me every morning. He wakens my ear to listen, like someone whom he is teaching.

v5 The *Lord, who is *LORD, has opened my ears. I have not *disobeyed him and I have not turned back.

v6 I offered my back to the people that hit me. And [I offered] my cheeks to the people that pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face when [they did these things]. They laughed at me and they *spat at me.

v7 The *Lord, who is *LORD, will help me. Therefore, I will not be ashamed. I have made my face like a stone. So, I know that I will not be ashamed.

v8 He (the *LORD) says that I am right. He is near [to me]. Who, then, is complaining against me? Let us talk to each other! Who has accused me? Let us discuss it together!

v9 Look! The *Lord, who is *LORD, will help me. What person will say that I have done wrong things? People like that will all wear out like old clothes. The [insects called] moths will eat them up!’

v10 Who is there among you that respects the *LORD? And who obeys the word of his servant? Some people walk in the dark and have no light. Let them trust in the *LORD and depend on their God.

v11 But now, go, everyone who has lit a fire. Walk in the light of your fires. Everybody that has provided themselves with a burning torch, go. [Walk] in the light of the torches that you have lit. This is what you will receive from me. You will lie down in terrible pain.

2. Notes

This chapter contains the third ‘Suffering Servant Song’ (poem about the servant that suffers), in verses 4-9. Notice how that the four Servant Songs develop. In this one Isaiah first mentions the idea that the servant will suffer. So we have:

Song of Solomon 1; Isaiah 42:1-3. God describes the good things that his servant will do.

Song of Solomon 2; Isaiah 49:1-13. The servant himself describes what he does. Also, the servant says that its results depress him. But God promises him success.

Song of Solomon 3; Isaiah 50:4-9. The servant describes some of the things that he suffers in his work.

Song of Solomon 4; Isaiah 52:13-53. The servant dies a terrible death, but God raises him to life.

Verse 1 This is a question that needs an answer. It is part of the style of the Book of Isaiah, especially Chapter s 40 to 55. Why are these questions important? Because they make the reader think! Isaiah could have written, ‘There is no bill of your mother’s divorce.’ But he did not. He wanted the reader to answer, ‘There is no bill of my mother’s divorce.’ Who was the mother? Why was the bill of divorce so important?

• The mother was ‘*Zion’, as in chapter 49. Isaiah is speaking here to her children, who were the *Jews. He calls them ‘sons’ 4 times in Isaiah 49:14-26. Many translations today put ‘children’ instead. Isaiah also mentions ‘daughters’ in 49:22.

• The bill of divorce was very important. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 tells us that a woman with a bill of divorce could not marry her first husband again. All through the *Old Testament, God speaks of the *Jews as his wife. If he divorces them, he cannot remarry them. But there is no bill of divorce. The divorce is not legal. God is still ‘married’ to his people. In other words, his special relationship with them has not ended. This should give them hope.

Notice that the end of verse 1 speaks to the sons themselves. Again, this is part of Isaiah’s style, to move from ‘him, her or them’ to ‘you’. God now asks whom he sold the *Jews to, both mother and sons. In those days, if people could not pay money, then they had to sell their wives and children as slaves. The people that they owed money to took their families instead! But God did not owe anything to anybody. He allowed enemies to take away his people because of their *sins. *Sins are our wrong deeds when we do not obey God’s rules.

Verse 2-3 The *LORD asks why nobody answered his questions in verse 1. Some translations change the questions into statements, such as ‘Nobody was there when I came.’ But the *LORD does not make statements here. He asks questions that we must answer. There is a note on ‘*ransom’ at Isaiah 43:3. The *LORD has the resources and the strength to *ransom and rescue his people. By his ‘word’ the *LORD tells people that they have done something wrong. The rough cloth was what people made sacks from. They wore that same kind of cloth when they were very sad.

Verse 4 ‘The *Lord, who is *LORD’ comes in verses 4, 5, 7 and 9. In *Hebrew it is ‘Adonai (master) YHWH (always alive)’. It is a name for God that Isaiah used 17 times in his book. In this chapter, it starts a verse each time. This puts it in an important position. Verses 4-9 are by the servant. He answers the questions in verse 2. That is why they must be questions, and not answers! The answer is not, ‘Nobody’; it is ‘the servant’. Verse 10 makes this clear. Notice two important things in the Servant Song.

• The *Lord, who is *LORD, has taught the servant what to do. (Verses 4-5)

• The *Lord, who is *LORD, will help his suffering servant. (Verses 6-9)

We could translate ‘it has learned’ like this. ‘It is a disciple (someone that learns from a great teacher)’. The people that Jesus taught were his disciples. That is what he called them. Notice that ‘he wakens my ear’; he does not ‘waken me’. There is a difference!

Verse 6 Here, it is clear that the servant is a person. It is not a nation. Notice three things about the punishment:

1) The servant did not deserve it, but he accepted it. (He says, ‘I offered.’)

2) It was probably what a judge ordered. (The verse mentions ‘the people that hit me’.) (Note the court of law in verse 8.)

3) It was personal. (The servant says, ‘they pulled out my beard.’ Also, ‘they laughed and they *spat.’)

‘Spat’ means ‘to send liquid out suddenly from the mouth’. It is a nasty insult.

Verse 7 ‘Stone’ in the *Hebrew Bible is a word that means ‘flint’. This is a very hard stone. It is hard to break it. So, the servant is saying that he will be firm. When people oppose him cruelly, he will continue to carry out his duties for the *LORD.

Verse 8-9 This is a word-picture of a court of law. The servant is sure that he will win the argument. The people that accuse him will be like old clothes. They will wear out. Small insects called ‘moths’ eat clothes that people have made out of wool.

Verses 10-11 Verse 10 tells us that verses 4-9 are by the servant. Then the two verses tell us that we can be like the servant. We can trust God and depend on him. Or we can make our own ‘light’ and follow it. In other words, we can choose how we want to live. But that is not a wise choice. It will end in terrible pain and we will suffer greatly.

3. Something to do

1. Read these parts of the other three Servant Songs: 42:1-4, 49:1-6 and 53:1-12. In some of these verses, the Servant encourages ‘the people that are very tired’, 50:4. Make a list of those verses.

2. To help people, we must listen to God every morning. Do this! Let him wake up your ears!

3. Make the servant your ‘*role-model’. To do that, we must trust God and depend on him. ‘*Role-model’ means someone whom we should copy.

13. heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
    lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
    ransom ~ to give money or goods in order to rescue someone. The word emphasises the price in order to free that person.
    rot ~ to become dirt. This happens to something after it is dead.
    LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
    lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’) it is a name for God.
    Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
    disobey ~ to neglect to obey.'spit/spat ~ to send liquid suddenly from the mouth. This is an insult.
    Zion ~ a name for Jerusalem.
    Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.'Old Testament ~ the earlier part of the Bible.
    sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.'role-model ~ a great person, whose life we want to copy.'role-model ~ a great person, whose life we want to copy.