God’s Righteous Servant and God’s Wicked Servant - Isaiah 50:1-9

Please turn with me to Isaiah 50.

As we continue to make our way through the second half of the book of Isaiah, God introduces to Judah and to us His Servant, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus  But God also refers in these chapters to the nation of Israel as His Servant.  Sometimes, as we read through Isaiah, it is difficult to know which one the word “servant” refers to.  

However, there is one obvious difference between these two servants of God: God is highly displeased with His servant Israel because of her idolatry and her total lack of faith.  But of His Servant Jesus, God says in chapter 42:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isaiah 42:1-4 ESV)

The nation of Israel should have been God’s witness to the world of His glory.  But they failed miserably in that task.  Not only did they not glorify God in the world, but they brought great reproach upon Him by eventually becoming even more wicked than the Gentile nations that surrounded them.  Not only did they refuse to magnify and exalt and glorify God among the nations, but they did the exact opposite: Israel robbed God of the glory He was due by giving it to idols.

Thus God’s pronouncement against His servant Israel in chapter 48, verse 22: “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”  Israel had become a wicked servant whom the Lord was against.  God has determined to withhold His blessings from them and punish them by means of the Babylonians.

In contrast to His wicked servant Israel, the Lord Jesus is the Servant in whom His soul delights.  All the glory and honor that Israel failed to give to God, Jesus will reclaim.  While Israel turned from God and did not serve Him, the Lord Jesus will be absolutely faithful and do ONLY those things His Father commands Him.  Everywhere that Israel fell short in their service to God, His good and faithful servant Jesus will be entirely successful.

Jesus is spoken of specifically in four passages in Isaiah which commentators refer to as the four “Servant Songs”. 1  The first one from which I’ve already quoted is in chapter 42 where He is declared to be the servant in whom God’s soul delights.  Last week, we read from the second “Servant Song” in chapter 49:

3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.”  5  And now the Lord says, . . . 6  . . . “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

God’s righteous Servant will bring infinitely more glory to God than the nation of Israel ever could have.  What all of Israel never could have done, the Messiah will do single-handedly: He will glorify God throughout the entire world by bringing salvation to every nation, to the ends of the earth, through His complete and perfect submission to God’s will.

Today, we look at the third of the four Servant Songs, beginning in chapter 50.  We’ll begin in verse 1, but the song begins in verse 4 and goes through verse 9.  Let’s read our text together:

[50:1] Thus says the LORD: “Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away?  Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?  Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
[2] Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer?  Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?  Or have I no power to deliver?  Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. [3] I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering.”
 
[4] The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.  Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. [5] The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. [6] I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
 
[7] But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. [8] He who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who is my adversary?  Let him come near to me. [9] Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty?  Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Let’s look at verse 1.  In this verse we see, by means of God’s assessment of the people of Judah, the classic response of evil people to dire circumstances.  When the going get’s tough, the ungodly blame the Lord: “Where is God?  Why has He allowed all these bad things to happen to such good people as we are?  Why is He upset with us?  What did we do to deserve this?” 

Judah is like an adulterous wife who has been divorced.  But she can’t figure out why.  So she blames her husband.  She likens God to a man who has divorced His wife for reasons she cannot grasp.  God’s response to Judah is, “Show me the divorce papers I wrote up against you!“  There aren’t any.  God didn’t send adulterous Judah away, she left! 

They also treat God as though He were a poor man who got into debt over his head and he has to sell his children into slavery because of his own irresponsibility.  But God is indebted to no one!  Rather, Judah is enslaved to her enemies because of her own actions, not God’s.  In accusing God of wrong-doing, they sound exactly the same way as the people of today.

How is it that the “good Christian people” of Judah find themselves threatened by their merciless enemies from Babylon?  From their perspective, it’s inexplicable that God would have a problem with them!  “Why would God divorce us?  Why has He abandoned us and sold us into slavery?  What did we ever do to deserve such treatment as this?” 

“It’s a mystery!  We just can’t figure it out.  The only logical conclusion is that there is something wrong with God.  God must not be as good as we thought He was.  Or He’s just not paying attention to our troubles for some reason.  Or maybe He would really like to help us out of this mess, but He isn’t able to do so.  Even though we know God is all-loving, obviously He isn’t all-powerful.  There’s something seriously wrong with God.”

Once again, had the people of Israel paid any attention to their own Scriptures, had they listened to any of the prophets God sent them instead of killing them, they would have understood the source of their problems: Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.  God is saying to them, “I’m not the problem here.  I didn’t divorce you.  There’s nothing wrong with Me!  You are are the problem!  You are suffering at the hands of your enemies because of your rejection of Me.” 

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who are made righteous, and those who claim to be inherently righteous, or self-righteous.  The people of Judah were an example of the latter.  The self-righteous never admit their guilt.  Their troubles are always someone else’s fault.  Even though they were a nation designated as God’s own chosen people, they collectively robbed God of His glory and gave it to idols.  Then they turn around and blame God for not being sensitive to their needs.  “Why did You divorce us?  Why did You sell us into slavery?  We have done nothing to deserve such abusive treatment from You!“ 

Does this sound like ANYBODY you’ve heard of before?  Judah is a monumental example of the fact that the wicked are the last to recognize their own wickedness.  They were perpetually hard-hearted towards the things of God.  Therefore, they have no peace or blessing from God.

In Isaiah, God refers to two servants: the people of Israel, and the Messiah.  Here is the glaring contrast between God’s two servants: His servant Israel suffers because of her own unrighteousness.  But His inherently righteous Servant, the Lord Jesus, will suffer because of the sins of others.  The self-righteous vs. the inherently righteous.

God says in verses 1 through 3, “Judah, you suffer, not because of any shortcoming on My part, but because of your iniquities and your transgressions.”  Now in verse 4, God’s Righteous Servant, the Lord Jesus speaks.  He too will suffer.  He will suffer for the sake of His people by bearing their sins upon His own shoulders.  He will be cursed for iniquities and transgressions that are not His own.  He will take upon Himself the curse His people deserve.  Look at verse 4:

4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.  Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

This is an autobiographical peek into the early life of the Lord Jesus.  I believe we see here something of Christ’s relationship to His Father when Jesus was a young man.  There was a constant, daily communion which Jesus enjoyed with the Father.  When Jesus spoke with authority, it was because God Himself had given Him the tongue of those who are taught. 

We see the evidence of that when He was just 12 years old.  In Luke 2, we read these words:

46 After three days they [Joseph and Mary] found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Luke 2:46-49 ESV).

This is what Isaiah is talking about in verse 4 when the Lord’s Servant says, The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught.  Morning by morning, or day after day God spoke to the Lord Jesus and instructed Him with such wisdom and understanding of all things spiritual that He could “sustain with a word him who is weary.”

Everywhere Jesus went, he sustained the weary with His words.  This is the Servant of God who doesn’t snuff out the smoldering wick, nor does He break the weakest bruised reed.  He was always speaking and ministering and healing among the weak and weary and downtrodden.  He said to the weary of heart, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29 ESV).

Then, according to verses 5 & 6, God also instructed the Lord Jesus in regard to the manner in which He would suffer for us.  And Jesus willingly accepted His Father’s will: I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

“I gave my back, My cheeks, and my face.”  This is the exact opposite mindset of God’s other servant, Israel.  In Isaiah 48, God says of the people of Judah, “I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass . . . .”  But Jesus is the Servant in whom God’s soul is well pleased.  Why?  He says in 50:5, because the Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.” 

Jesus did not rebel.  Jesus did not turn away from God’s commands.  Unlike Israel and Judah who are obstinate and hard-headed and deaf to God’s call, Jesus is totally compliant, He has ears to hear what God says, and He obeys His Father even to the point of giving His back to the scourge, giving His face to those who ripped out His beard, suffering the disgrace and shame of having His precious face spat upon. 

The servant Israel is not like the servant Jesus.  Israel was not willing to suffer in order to be holy to God.  They did not drive out the inhabitants of Canaan when their adversaries rose up against them.  They did not forsake the idolatry of the peoples around them.  They did not keep themselves holy and separate from the nations.  They did not obey God’s commands and observe His ordinances.  In fact, Israel would go so far in the opposite direction from God that it would be the servant Israel who spits in the face of the Servant Jesus. 

But the heart of Christ was such that [He] made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant [lit. “slave,” doulos], being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7-8 ESV).

Jesus was as determined to obey His heavenly Father as Judah was determined to ignore Him.  Zechariah described them with these words:

"They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.  (Zechariah 7:12 NASB).

Judah is repeatedly described as suffering from spiritual deafness.  God calls to them again and again, “Listen to me!  Pay attention to My words!  Hear this!”  But their hearts and heads and necks are hardened like flint, and their ears were stopped against the Lord so that they could not hear.

But Jesus says, “Morning by morning he awakens . . . my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.  Jesus, the Righteous Servant, heard God’s word and obeyed His voice.  So much so was He determined NOT to be like the people of Judah that He says in Isaiah 50, verse 7, I have set my face like a flint. 

Flint is an English word used to translate several different Hebrew words.  Flint was used in a variety of ways among ancient people.  But the primary feature of flint is its hardness.  Jesus uses it here as a means of describing His own resoluteness, His own tenacity, His own stubborn refusal to disobey His Father, His determination to suffer and die in humble submission to God for the sake of His people. 

Finally, Jesus speaks of His own eventual vindication.  Because of His obedience to God, in the end, after the suffering and the pain and the death of the cross, the Father will exalt Him:

[8] He who vindicates me is near.  Who will contend with me?  Let us stand up together.  Who is my adversary?  Let him come near to me. [9] Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty?  Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

The scene here is the courtroom once again.  Jesus is on trial and God the Father is the Judge.  And Jesus speaks to His accusers, “Now, all of you who want to contend with Me, all of you who hate Me, all of you who count yourselves to be God’s people but My adversaries, come forward.  Take the stand and become a witness and declare Me guilty before My Father!  Let’s see who remains standing.” 

•    It is difficult to imagine being one of those who ripped the beard from Jesus’ face, who suddenly, in the day of judgment, discovers what it was that he did. 
•    All those who participated in the flogging of Jesus in order to make an example of Him to any others who would defy the rulers of Israel and the peace of Rome; can you even begin to grasp the horror of realizing you nearly beat to death the Son of God? 
•    Suppose you were the one who blindfolded Jesus and struck Him in the face and mocked Him by demanding that He prophecy who it was who hit Him.

Imagine reading the book of Isaiah and realizing God was speaking of you and your barbaric treatment of God’s Servant in whom His soul delights.  And then reading that God has vindicated Jesus while saying of you, “All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.” 

But what does the writer of Hebrews say regarding God’s Servant?  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  (Hebrews 13:8 ESV).  Jesus will remain forever, while all of His enemies will perish at the hand of His Father. 

Luke tells us, When the days drew near for him to be taken up [that is, to die, to be resurrected, and to be taken up into glory], he set his face to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51 ESV).  How good is that?  How good is it that the Lord Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem where He knew they would pluck out His beard, rip His back to shreds, and beat Him beyond recognition?  How good is it that we have a tenacious Savior who was determined to accomplish all His Father’s will, even if the Jews hated it?  How good is it that as stubborn as God’s wicked servant had been to rob Him of his glory, the righteous Servant of God was just as unyielding in His obedience in order to glorify His heavenly Father and ours, in everything?

Jesus did not go to Jerusalem ignorantly.  He did not go there to offer the Jews one last shot at making Him their King and re-establishing the kingdom of David.  He went to offer His back to the scourge, to offer His cheek to His enemies, to offer His face to mockers, and to give His life for His friends.  That is why Jesus is the Servant who pleases the soul of God.

 (John MacDuff, "The Mind of Jesus" 1870)  "Yet I want Your will to be done--not Mine!" Luke 22:42

Where was there ever resignation like this? The life of Jesus was one long martyrdom. From Bethlehem's manger to Calvary's cross, there was scarcely one break in the clouds; these gathered more darkly and ominously around Him--until they burst over His devoted head as He uttered His expiring cry! Yet throughout this pilgrimage of sorrow--no murmuring accent escaped His lips. The most suffering of all suffering lives--was one of uncomplaining submission.

"Yet I want Your will to be done--not Mine!" was the motto of this wondrous Being! When He came into the world He thus announced His advent, "Lo, I come, I delight to do Your will, O my God!" When He left it, we listen to the same prayer of blended agony and acquiescence, "O My Father, if it is possible--let this cup pass from Me! Yet I want Your will to be done--not Mine!"

This is the Servant in whom God’s soul delights, and the Servant whom Israel despised and still despises.  Do our souls delight in Him?

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1. The four “Servant Songs” of Isaiah are 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13 - 53:12.