CHAPTER 50

Is 50:1–11. The Judgments on Israel Were Provoked by Their Crimes, yet They Are Not Finally Cast Off by God.

1. Where … mothers divorcement—Zion is “the mother”; the Jews are the children; and God the Husband and Father (Is 54:5; 62:5; Je 3:14). Gesenius thinks that God means by the question to deny that He had given “a bill of divorcement” to her, as was often done on slight pretexts by a husband (De 24:1), or that He had “sold” His and her “children,” as a poor parent sometimes did (Ex 21:7; 2 Ki 4:1; Ne 5:5) under pressure of his “creditors”; that it was they who sold themselves through their own sins. Maurer explains, “Show the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom …; produce the creditors to whom ye have been sold; so it will be seen that it was not from any caprice of Mine, but through your own fault, your mother has been put away, and you sold” (Is 52:3). Horsley best explains (as the antithesis between “I” and “yourselves” shows, though Lowth translates, “Ye are sold”) I have never given your mother a regular bill of divorcement; I have merely “put her away” for a time, and can, therefore, by right as her husband still take her back on her submission; I have not made you, the children, over to any “creditor” to satisfy a debt; I therefore still have the right of a father over you, and can take you back on repentance, though as rebellious children you have sold yourselves to sin and its penalty (1 Ki 21:25).

bill … whom—rather, “the bill with which I have put her away” [Maurer].

2. I—Messiah.

no man—willing to believe in and obey Me (Is 52:1, 3). The same Divine Person had “come” by His prophets in the Old Testament (appealing to them, but in vain, Je 7:25, 26), who was about to come under the New Testament.

hand shortened—the Oriental emblem of weakness, as the long stretched-out hand is of power (Is 59:1). Notwithstanding your sins, I can still “redeem” you from your bondage and dispersion.

dry up … sea—(Ex 14:21). The second exodus shall exceed, while it resembles in wonders, the first (Is 11:11, 15; 51:15).

make … rivers … wilderness—turn the prosperity of Israel’s foes into adversity.

fish stinketh—the very judgment inflicted on their Egyptian enemies at the first exodus (Ex 7:18, 21).

3. heavens … blackness—another of the judgments on Egypt to be repeated hereafter on the last enemy of God’s people (Ex 10:21).

sackcloth—(Rev 6:12).

4. Messiah, as “the servant of Jehovah” (Is 42:1), declares that the office has been assigned to Him of encouraging the “weary” exiles of Israel by “words in season” suited to their case; and that, whatever suffering it is to cost Himself, He does not shrink from it (Is 50:5, 6), for that He knows His cause will triumph at last (Is 50:7, 8).

learned—not in mere human learning, but in divinely taught modes of instruction and eloquence (Is 49:2; Ex 4:11; Mt 7:28, 29; 13:54).

speak a word in season—(Pr 15:23; 25:11). Literally, “to succor by words,” namely, in their season of need, the “weary” dispersed ones of Israel (De 28:65–67). Also, the spiritual “weary” (Is 42:3; Mt 11:28).

wakeneth morning by morning, &c.—Compare “daily rising up early” (Je 7:25; Mk 1:35). The image is drawn from a master wakening his pupils early for instruction.

wakeneth … ear—prepares me for receiving His divine instructions.

as the learned—as one taught by Him. He “learned obedience,” experimentally, “by the things which He suffered”; thus gaining that practical learning which adapted Him for “speaking a word in season” to suffering men (Heb 5:8).

5. opened … ear—(See on Is 42:20; Is 48:8); that is, hath made me obediently attentive (but Maurer, “hath informed me of my duty”), as a servant to his master (compare Ps 40:6–8, with Php 2:7; Is 42:1; 52:13; 53:11; Mt 20:28; Lu 22:27).

not rebellious—but, on the contrary, most willing to do the Father’s will in proclaiming and procuring salvation for man, at the cost of His own sufferings (Heb 10:5–10).

6. smiters—with scourges and with the open hand (Is 52:14; Mk 14:65). Literally fulfilled (Mt 27:26; 26:27; Lu 18:33). To “pluck the hair” is the highest insult that can be offered an Oriental (2 Sa 10:4; La 3:30). “I gave” implies the voluntary nature of His sufferings; His example corresponds to His precept (Mt 5:39).

spitting—To spit in another’s presence is an insult in the East, much more on one; most of all in the face (Job 30:10; Mt 27:30; Lu 18:32).

7. Sample of His not being “discouraged” (Is 42:4; 49:5).

set … face like … flint—set Myself resolutely, not to be daunted from My work of love by shame or suffering (Ez 3:8, 9).

8. (Is 49:4). The believer, by virtue of his oneness with Christ, uses the same language (Ps 138:8; Ro 8:32–34). But “justify” in His case, is God’s judicial acceptance and vindication of Him on the ground of His own righteousness (Lu 23:44–47; Ro 1:4; 1 Ti 3:16, with which compare 1 Pe 3:18); in their case, on the ground of His righteousness and meritorious death imputed to them (Ro 5:19).

stand together—in judgment, to try the issue.

adversary—literally, “master of my cause,” that is, who has real ground of accusation against me, so that he can demand judgment to be given in his favor (compare Zec 3:1, &c. Rev 12:10).

9. (Compare “deal,” or “proper,” Is 52:13, Margin; Is 53:10; Ps 118:6; Je 23:5).

as a garment—(Is 51:6, 8; Ps 102:26). A leading constituent of wealth in the East is change of raiment, which is always liable to the inroads of the moth; hence the frequency of the image in Scripture.

10. Messiah exhorts the godly after His example (Is 49:4, 5; 42:4) when in circumstances of trial (“darkness,” Is 47:5), to trust in the arm of Jehovah alone.

Who is, &c.—that is, Whosoever (Jdg 7:3).

obeyeth … servant—namely, Messiah. The godly “honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (Jn 5:23).

darkness—(Mic 7:8, 9). God never had a son who was not sometimes in the dark. For even Christ, His only Son, cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

light—rather, “splendor”; bright sunshine; for the servant of God is never wholly without “light” [Vitringa]. A godly man’s way may be dark, but his end shall be peace and light. A wicked man’s way may be bright, but his end shall be utter darkness (Ps 112:4; 97:11; 37:24).

let him trust in the name of the Lord—as Messiah did (Is 50:8, 9).

11. In contrast to the godly (Is 50:10), the wicked, in times of darkness, instead of trusting in God, trust in themselves (kindle a light for themselves to walk by) (Ec 11:9). The image is continued from Is 50:10, “darkness”; human devices for salvation (Pr 19:21) are like the spark that goes out in an instant in darkness (compare Job 18:6; 21:17, with Ps 18:28).

sparks—not a steady light, but blazing sparks extinguished in a moment.

walk—not a command, but implying that as surely as they would do so, they should lie down in sorrow (Je 3:25). In exact proportion to mystic Babylon’s previous “glorifying” of herself shall be her sorrow (Mt 25:30; 8:12; Rev 18:7).