Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Our chapter today may be divided into three portions. There is an opening introduction in the first three verses, then the third servant song in verses four through nine. Finally, there is a short conclusion and summary in the last two verses.
At school I am carrying almost a dozen students on my roll that I haven’t seen in several weeks. I know that I’ll probably never see many of them again, but I cannot forget them because no withdrawal papers have been signed yet. So officially, they are still mine. Again, in the middle eighties one of my students disappeared in the middle of February without a trace. Neither his family, girlfriend or anyone had a hint of what had happened to him. So he was reported as missing. In late April when the spring thaw finally came, his car was discovered at the bottom of a ditch in Hardin county, where he had skidded to his death two months earlier. A death certificate was issued and in a way, the family was relieved to finally know the truth. The Coroner’s paperwork only confirmed what had happened so many weeks before. Perhaps the family had already guessed the worst, since the student’s disappearance was so completely out of character.
After all, who in his right mind would leave family and friends behind when all of the relationships were firm, friendly and stable? Who indeed? Is this the mind of the Lord in the matter of our first three verses here? Israel had separated herself from the holy covenant relationship with God. However, as the abandoned Lord, God questions Israel through His prophet Isaiah. Where is the documentation for this divorce, He asks, where is a record of the children being sold?, He demands. He continues with the legal terms even as He points out that the separation and slavery were the result of Israel’s own choice.
This choice is similar to that of so many American family fragments who have chosen to depend on handouts from our own Federal purse. In other ways have our American citizens abandoned the God of heaven. Very very many have become accustomed to spilling their emotions to high-priestly counselors of humanism, and in so doing have become emotionally trapped in dependent relationships. So dependent are so many that when the Gospel is presented, they appear not to be able to comprehend. Perhaps the most deaf are those trained in the liberal denominations. Should we be so surprised why the people of Isaiah’s time do not hear when the Lord calls? And yet, even as our own society attempts to establish theological immunity to the gospel, all such efforts are in vain. There is still a spiritual hunger in the land. And as we see here the arm of the Lord has not been shortened, He is still able to rescue His own.
This is the sovereign Lord we are talking about. He is able to dry up the sea and turn rivers to desert. Even man can do that. In the last decade or so the Russians have taken so much water for irrigation that the entire Aral Sea has dried up. Do you remember learning the ABC seas in geography? The Aral, the Black, and Caspian, located at the southern edge of the Soviet Union. The Aral was the smallest of the three. God can do even more; we have only to remember that the great plains and the Mongol desert were once under water to appreciate what He can do.
With the preparation of this introduction we may now turn to the third Servant song. If you remember, the first Servant song was concerned with His patient acceptance of His calling. The second song focused on the toil and frustration of that calling, as Derek Thomas observes. In this third Servant song, He stands up to the desperate fury of God’s worst enemies.
Hear the beauty of Christ’s words here as the Spirit reveals His preparation for battle so many centuries before the conflict. Should we doubt such preparation? The morning of the British march on Concord town, the assembled militiamen at Lexington green sang Old Hundredth to keep their spirits up. Once the British bands drowned the hymn out, the battle was quickly begun. Several years later another song was played by the same foe at Yorktown. They marched out to surrender to the tune of A World Turned Upside Down. Within God’s own providence there was to be a heavenly triumph to this song revealed so long before the battle through Isaiah. Listen to the themes and words of this inspired poetry which was lovingly practiced on our behalf in the trials before and on Calvary.
In verse four we see that the Servant to come will come to do and say another’s words and purpose. Who else will Christ serve but His Divine Father, the Sovereign Lord of the universe. It is He who would waken His Servant morning by morning. I know this is corny, but should we look at these songs of instruction like we would at the alphabet song or the preamble songs used by little children to memorize important information and ideas? Of course we realize that our Savior did not need to learn like we constantly must struggle. But, look carefully at the last phrase in verse four where we see this: “like”, see it? “like one being taught.” Of course this song is not sung for Christ’s benefit alone. No, we are allowed to hear it so that we can marvel at God’s providential preparation for events long after Isaiah’s time.
In verse five we see the essential difference between the Christ and us. Jesus has not been rebellious; He, unlike the children of Israel and unlike us, has not drawn back. Friday there was a fight at school. We sensed that both students did not want to fight, because there was no power in their punch. Not so in Jesus’s attack on the power of death, or on Satan himself.
Yet, the battle would be real, and the battle more subtle and sophisticated than Satan would realize until it was too late! See verse five where Jesus would offer His back to those who would beat Him? When Jesus appeared before Pilate after taking the beating that would have destroyed more common men, Pilate was impressed. Here indeed was a Man’s man who could take the worst beating the Romans could offer and still stand. See also where His beard was plucked and torn out by the handfuls. Ouch, we flinch when our razors get just a little dull.
Jesus would hide not His face from mocking or spitting. And why would He do all of these things? “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.” Indeed He wouldn’t; a Roman centurion observed from the bottom of the cross that Jesus must be Lord indeed. What gave Jesus the strength to go through the trials was the certain knowledge that God is near and will help Him. Who can bring charges, who can accuse, who can confront, who could condemn Christ? They will all perish who participate in the folly of the crucifixion. Isn’t it ironic that the same God who will not let His people go because they do not have the proper certificate of divorce, will let those same people crucify His Son on the cross with less cause than He had against them?
In these last two verses Isaiah challenges all of those who read this passage about the Messiah. “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?” If this song of Christ could be known so many years before it was acted out, how should we respond? Is not this Sovereign God in control of events, peoples and places to a depth we have long forgotten? Should not a God who reveals such things as we have read and heard in this long book of Isaiah be feared and obeyed?
Then in the next phrase we have a puzzle: “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light trust in the name of the Lord.” This phrase should be contrasted with the opposite phrase in the last verse: “all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches”. I recently heard a story about an older person who took up picture puzzles. They labored over the puzzle for three solid months. Finally it was completed and they began bragging about it. After a while the puzzler’s friends got tired of hearing about it. They asked if three months wasn’t an incredibly long time after all. “Well, I should hope not”, declared the puzzler, “after all the note on the box estimated seven to ten years”!
What we have in the puzzle of these two verses is the very humility of God’s elect, who would still be stumbling around in the dark, were it not for the eternal light of Christ revealed to us through the Words of Scripture and by the power of the Spirit. Contrast those who know how black the night of sin once was to those who trust their humanistic torches and flames to lead them to contentment and social salvation. May we who have known the light of the gospel never ever envy the tiny little humanistic matches raised as lights in the dusking darkness of John Lennon’s new age of Aquarius. Instead let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Savior of our souls and the Lord of our Life as well. Amen.
Resources Used:
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentery Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
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23 October 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.