The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The exiles felt like a cast-off wife and sold-off children, permanently abandoned by God. He answers with two piercing questions. First, where is the divorce certificate? There is none, because He never divorced them. Second, to which creditor did He sell them to pay a debt? None, because He owed no one. The truth is the reverse: "for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves." They were not victims of God's weakness or poverty; they were captives of their own sin. Then God turns to the deeper wound: "when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?" The failure was not on His side but theirs, no response, no faith. And to any who imagine His arm too weak to bring them home, He points to His power over creation: "at my rebuke I dry up the sea", the very act of the Exodus, and He clothes the heavens in blackness. The God who split the Red Sea and darkened Egypt is not too weak to redeem; He is only waiting for someone to answer when He calls.

Gospel Focus

How many people carry the same lie the exiles believed, that God has divorced them, written them off, and can no longer be bothered to save. Here is the answer: there is no bill of divorcement. God has not cast you off. Your troubles are the fruit of sin, yours and Adam's, not the sign of a God too weak or too poor to redeem. And the cross settles the question of His power and His willingness forever. "Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?" The hand that "dries up the sea" is the same hand that was pierced to buy you back. When Jesus "came," the tragedy Isaiah named was fulfilled, "he came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11), "was there no man... none to answer?" Yet He redeemed anyway. The only thing that keeps a soul in exile now is refusing to answer when He calls, "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts" (Hebrews 3:15). Answer Him. His arm is not shortened. His power is not spent. The way home is open, and He is calling your name.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now the Servant Himself speaks, and every line is remarkable. He has "the tongue of the learned", a taught, disciplined tongue, so He knows "how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." His words are timed for the tired and the broken. And where does He get them? From listening: "he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." Every morning the Servant listens like a pupil before He speaks like a teacher. Then comes the heart of His obedience: "The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back." Unlike Israel, who would not answer, the Servant answers perfectly, no rebellion, no turning away. But notice where obedience leads Him: straight into suffering. "I gave my back to the smiters" (He gave it; it was not merely taken), "and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair", a gross insult and torment, "I hid not my face from shame and spitting." The obedient Servant does not run from the whip, the beard-plucking, or the spit. He offers Himself to it, freely, for us.

Gospel Focus

This is Jesus, foretold seven centuries before Calvary in astonishing detail. He is the One with "the tongue of the learned," of whom the officers said, "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46), whose whole ministry was a "word in season" to weary souls. He is the One whose ear was "opened," who lived to say, "I do always those things that please him" (John 8:29), and "not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). And He is the One who "gave" His back to the smiters. Matthew records the fulfillment word for word: "Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands" (Matthew 26:67), and "they... took the reed, and smote him on the head" (Matthew 27:30). Isaiah saw the plucked beard, the whip, and the spit centuries ahead of time. And every blow was given, not seized: "I gave my back." No one took Jesus' life; He laid it down, "I lay down my life... No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10:17-18). The willing suffering of the Servant is the measure of His love. He did not hide His face from your shame; He took it, so that you would never have to.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

How can the Servant endure the whip and the spit without breaking? The answer is here, repeated three times for emphasis: "the Lord GOD will help me." Because God is His helper, He "shall not be confounded", not put to shame, not disgraced. So He sets His face "like a flint", hard as the hardest stone, immovable in His resolve. Then the scene becomes a courtroom. The Servant is confident of acquittal: "He is near that justifieth me." He throws down a challenge to every accuser, "who will contend with me? let us stand together", let My adversary step forward and make his case. And He knows the outcome: "who is he that shall condemn me?" No one can, because the Judge is on His side. His accusers, who seem so powerful now, will simply wear out and crumble, "they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up." Their case has no future. God's Servant will be vindicated.

Gospel Focus

The Servant's flint-set face is the face of Jesus turned toward Calvary, "he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). He endured the cross not because He felt nothing, but because He trusted the Father who would help Him, "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2). And the courtroom language points to the resurrection. On Good Friday it looked as if the Servant had been condemned; on Easter God declared, "He is near that justifieth me," raising Jesus and thereby vindicating Him, "justified in the Spirit" (1 Timothy 3:16). But here is the wonder for us: Paul takes these very words and hands them to every believer. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died" (Romans 8:33-34). The Servant's confidence becomes ours. Because Jesus stood justified, the accuser has no case against you either. Set your face like a flint. The One who justifies you is near, and every charge against you will wear out like a moth-eaten rag.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter ends by turning to us with two portraits. The first is the God-fearer walking through a dark season: "Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?" Notice, even the obedient believer can walk "in darkness" with "no light", faith does not exempt us from dark valleys. What is the God-fearer to do? Not panic, not scheme, but trust: "let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God." When you cannot see the way, lean your full weight on the God you cannot see. The second portrait is the opposite: "all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks." These are the self-reliant, who will not wait on God in the dark but light their own torches and walk by their own sparks. God's word to them is sobering, "walk in the light of your fire", have it your way, and reap it, "This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." The self-made fire cannot last, and it ends in grief.

Gospel Focus

These two verses lay out the whole gospel choice: trust God's light, or make your own. The believer who "walketh in darkness, and hath no light" is not told to manufacture light but to trust the Lord and lean hard on Him. This is faith at its purest, holding on to God in the dark when you cannot feel or see Him. Jesus is that Light. "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). To walk by your own sparks is to try to save yourself, to light your own path by your own works, your own wisdom, your own religion. It always burns out, and it always ends the same way, "ye shall lie down in sorrow." But to fear the LORD and stay upon your God is to trust the finished work of the Servant who gave His back to the smiters for you. When your night is darkest and you have no light of your own, do not kindle your own fire. Trust the name of the LORD Jesus, lean your whole weight on Him, and He will bring you through to morning.