As we approach the story of our Lord’s suffering during what we call this Holy Week, and especially as we draw near to the remembrance of his crucifixion on Friday, we search the scriptures for clues to the interpretation of his passion — for guides to understand the deepest meaning of all that Jesus goes through. And surely, few passages in the Old Testament help us more to understand than do the four Servant Songs that are found in what we call the Second Isaiah book.
Most scholars now agree that Isaiah is to be divided into three distinct books, all of which share common motifs and theology, but which were assembled in three different periods in Israel’s life: Isaiah chapters 1-39 from about 740 B.C.; Isaiah 40-55 from 550-538 B.C. and addressed to Israel exiled in Babylonia; and Isaiah 56-66 from various times after 538 B.C. to Israelites returned to Jerusalem. Our text for the morning forms the third Servant Song in Second Isaiah, the others being Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; and the famous Suffering Servant Song in Isaiah 52:13—53:12, which we will treat in two weeks.
Probably the Servant in this song is to be identified with an idealized Israel of the future (cf. Isaiah 41:8-9; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20) — Israel as she is meant to be, Israel as Second Isaiah calls her to be. As that Servant, Israel is called by her God in 50:4-9a to suffer for the sake of all nations — a call particularly clear in 52:13—53:12 and in the passion of our Lord. But surely, this passage in 50:4-9a also reflects the nature of the office of all true prophets and the nature of Second Isaiah’s prophetic ministry itself.
The prophet tells us the source of all true prophecy in the Old Testament. It comes from God. The prophet is like a pupil before a schoolmaster God, and God alone gives him the words he is to speak. Every morning God wakens the prophet’s ear and delivers to him the words he is to proclaim (v. 4). Apart from that communication from God, the prophet has nothing to say. Only false prophets give their own opinions or pontificate on the course of events out of their own minds (cf. Jeremiah 23:18-32; Ezekiel 13:6-7). They are like those preachers who preach out of their own thoughts and not out of the Word of God given in the scriptures.
This intimate teaching given by God to his servants shows us that we really cannot understand the prophetic writings except in a similar intimate relation with our God, namely, in day-by-day prayer and meditation with him. True prophecy rises out of the closest fellowship with the Lord, and we can understand it also only in that context.
Our text tells us, however, that the prophet-servant of the Lord is attacked and abused because of the message that he delivers (vv. 5-6). He is whipped, taunted by having his beard pulled out, spit upon, and scorned by his contemporaries. In short, he becomes a laughing-stock, as did the prophet Jeremiah also (Jeremiah 20:1-3). The populace neither believes nor heeds his message. And the servant knows that will be his fate! Yet, he does not shrink from his task, given him by God (v. 5). He sets his face “like a flint” (cf. the Greek of Luke 9:51) to proclaim God’s Word and to suffer the consequences.
Whence comes the servant’s confidence in the face of calumny? It comes from God, who “helps” him (v. 7). He will finally be shamed in his society only if his prophecy proves untrue. But in his intimate relation to God, he knows that he “shall not be put to shame” (v. 7). God will prove his Word true; God will, by his actions toward Israel, fulfill the words that the prophet-servant speaks. The servant will be shown to be right — vindicated (v. 8). And of course that demonstration is why we have particular prophecies in the Old Testament — because they proved true in history and were fulfilled and brought to pass and therefore shown to be the true words of God.
In such confidence, the prophet-servant issues a challenge to his abusers. “Who will contend with me?” he asks (v. 8). That is, who will go to court with me? Let him state his case. Because God, who helps the prophet, will prove him innocent of falsehood, while those who have opposed the prophet will meet their end.
That the portrayal given us in this passage accurately describes what happens to our Lord in the last week his life cannot be doubted — although this is not a prediction in the Old Testament of the Christ. Rather, it is a description of the true prophet and servant’s role, and Jesus Christ takes upon himself and fulfills the final shape of that role during the week of his passion. Our Lord speaks and does only what he hears from God (cf. John 8:28). He willingly accepts the suffering that comes with that ministry. “Not my will, but thine be done” (Mark 14:36 KJV). He is subjected to scorn and whipping and spitting, like the servant before him (Mark 15:15-20). And finally he is killed for his faithfulness to his God. But God does not desert his servants, not even in death, and so there will come Easter morn when all that Jesus Christ has said and done will be vindicated and proved true. His will be shown to be the way that leads to eternal life. His will be shown to be the true will of God.
If we can bring our text down to a personal level for a moment, is this not a message for all of us servants of God, also? It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus Christ in our age and society. There are some in our world who are suffering torture and death for that faithfulness. But even in our country, we may be laughed at, shunned, denied opportunities because of our faith. And we may have to suffer to hold a marriage together, or eschew some material comforts, or stand up to criticism and scorn for our way of life (cf. 1 Peter 4:1-6). After all, our Lord proclaimed that those of us who would be his disciples are required to take up a cross and die to our own wills and desires.
But if this Servant Song and the passion of our Lord teach us nothing else, they witness to the fact that God’s way, taught us in the scriptures, is true — that it is the way that leads to life and to joy eternal. God never deserts his servants. And he will vindicate his own. As Paul writes, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). Nothing and no one can defeat us. And in the end, we shall be even more than conquerors through him who loves us (Romans 8:37).