Our Old Testament reading for this week comes from the prophet Isaiah. Throughout his writings, Isaiah wrote four times specifically about the coming Messiah as God’s Servant, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to our passage today, the other three can be found in Isaiah 42:1-9; Isaiah 49:1-13; and Isaiah 52:13-53:12. In today’s passage, Isaiah has the Messiah speaking for Himself. The Messiah/Servant talks of being perfected by His obedience to God the Father.
In verse 4 we read that the words that Jesus, the Messiah/Servant spoke were the words that the Father gave Him to speak (John 14:10). As we read His words in the Gospels, they are, indeed, words to uplift the weary and beaten down. They are the Words of Life (John 6:68).
Jesus was obedient to all that the Father gave Him to do. He was not rebellious, no matter how difficult it may have been (vs 5). As we know, the opposition Jesus faced was not easy. All throughout His years of ministry the leaders fought against Him. Jesus, the Servant, was obedient to God, even though His enemies, who treated him horribly, tried to provoke Him into rebelling against the Father (vs 6). Jesus remained submissive to His will. We read in this verse just some of the physical torture He went through before the crucifixion - the scourging across the back with the Roman whips, the beatings across the face, including pulling out his beard, and the humiliation of being spat upon.
Jesus knew, as the Son of God, that He had come to be the sacrifice for our sins, yet the human dread of what He would have to go through did not deter Him from going forward (vs. 7). Jesus resolutely determined to stay the course, obeying the Father no matter the cost, as Isaiah said, setting His face like flint, steadfastly determined. The Gospel of Luke describes this in Luke 9:51. Even though Jesus knew what awaited Him in Jerusalem, He set His face to go there anyway. How was He able to do this? It is certainly not easy to go ahead, knowing the torture one would face. Jesus, the Servant, knew He had the Father’s support (vs 8-9). Because He was obedient to the Father’s will He could face any adversary.
As believers and followers of the Messiah Jesus, we can take heart with the trials and opposition we might face for our faith. When we know that God is for us, then we can set our face like flint, as well (vs. 7). We can be, as the Apostle Paul said, steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58). We can endure the trial without wavering.
Isaiah closes up this passage with a warning (vs 10-11). This is a warning to those who try to escape moral and spiritual darkness by trying to light their own fire through their own works of righteousness and following man-made religions. That will end in eternal torment. Don’t try to be self-sufficient in trying to walk in our own light, our own attempts at trying to work our own righteousness. Our own intelligence and accomplishments will fade away, and our own strength will wane, with the results being torment. If we trust in God, instead, He will always help us, and always succeed.
When dark and difficult times come, as they always do, we who have trusted Jesus, do not have to grope around in despair like the unsaved without hope do. We can take God’s hand, and trust Him to lead us. I repeat the call to the unsaved that Isaiah gives at the close of this passage - come to God through His Son, Jesus, and believe.
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