Standing Firm
Isaiah 50:4-9 (RCL 50:4-9a)
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
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- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
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Key Verse: Isaiah 50:4a –
“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”
Have you ever known some aged saint who possesses a steady faith in God, even in the face of hardship or loss? I have known people whose lives have been filled with suffering, who might have ample cause to accuse God of abandoning them or failing to care for them as they expected. Yet, they persevere in faith and devotion, pressing on with daily prayers and looking to God for strength.
Some might say that such steady faith is the key to survival for people facing hard times. Rather than blaming God for the trials that come their way, they trust in God for the strength to endure them. Instead of complaining that God has allowed them to suffer, they seek what lessons God might teach them through the painful experience.
This is precisely the picture we find in Isaiah 50:4-9. The passage is commonly regarded as the third of four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah (the others are 42:2-4, 49:1-6, and 52:13-53:12), even though the word “servant” does not appear in the text. Like the second Servant Song (49:1-6) the prophet’s words are written in the first person, as if he is the servant. [DD]
A teacher who learns (vv. 4-5)
The words of Isa. 50:4-9 were probably written late in the exilic period by a prophet who wrote in the tradition of Isaiah. He is often called “Second Isaiah,” or “Isaiah of the Exile” (See “The Hardest Question” in the online resources for more on this).
The prophet’s audience consisted mainly of people who were born in Babylon and knew of life in and about Jerusalem only from stories told by their parents or grandparents. The lead-in to the third Servant Song follows the literary form of a lawsuit (50:1-3) which declares that the people’s “mother” (a corporate reference to their ancestors) was guilty of iniquities and transgressions, for which the time in exile was punishment.
The prophet speaks in the voice of the servant, as one who has also suffered. Rather than complaining, he said the experience had taught him something, and he sought to encourage others by passing on what he had gained. “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher,” he wrote, “that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word” (v 4a). [DD]
The servant had learned to make the most of his suffering – not letting his pain be wasted but transforming it into growth and greater maturity. And what the servant learned, he taught: “how to sustain the weary with a word.”
What the servant was called to do in these verses, God’s servants today may still do. We don’t have to let trouble turn us into victims, but may learn from suffering and turn our pain into wisdom and share it. Have you faced hard times and learned from them? Have you ever passed on that wisdom to others? [DD]
That kind of learning does not come easy: working through grief is a daily task. The prophet wrote that God “wakens my ear” morning by morning “to listen as those who are taught” (v. 4b) – to become a student of suffering.
Isaiah was not describing an angelic alarm clock, but a daily openness to God’s Spirit. Whether suffering or not, there is much God can teach us every day if only we pay attention, thinking theologically through all the activities of daily life.
If we don’t learn something about God’s care every day, we’re not paying attention. Our natural tendency is to be so caught up in ourselves and our needs (or wants) and our duties that we overlook the many ways in which God may be speaking.
For the servant, the key was seeking to be constantly faithful to God. The conjunction of “the Lord GOD has opened my ear” and “I was not rebellious” (v. 5) is not random: the two are intimately related. The servant “did not turn backward” from God, but faced forward, looking toward God, listening with open ears. [DD]
The servant, however, was talking about more than hearing. The Hebrew Bible does not have a specific word for “obey,” but uses the word that also means “to hear.” We understand this. When parents give children an instruction and don’t get a quick response, they often ask “Did you hear me?” Theoretically, to hear is to obey. The implication is that if one truly hears God speak, he or she will obey, and not turn back.
Jesus would later suggest a similar thought, for many who were within the sound of his voice did not hear his words to the point of understanding or obedience. Thus, Jesus was prone to punctuate important teachings with “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9, 23; 11:16 and parallels). While the translation “let him hear” implies permission, Jesus’ intent was imperative: “Whoever has ears to hear had better listen!” (NET).
A sufferer who perseveres (vv. 6-8a)
The servant of Isa. 50:4-9 said he awakened to learn from God each day. Apparently, on some of those days he awoke with a raw back and sore cheeks from being attacked by detractors. “I gave my back to those who struck me,” he wrote, “and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting” (v 6).
Apparently, the prophet’s mixed condemnation and consolation were not always welcome. He described physical abuse at the hands of detractors: public beatings, pulling of the beard, spitting in the face (v. 6).
All of these actions suggest typical ways of shaming and humiliation in the ancient Near East. Cutting or pulling the beard, for example, was designed to call one’s masculinity into question, leading to public embarrassment (2 Sam. 10:4; Isa. 7:20, 15:2; Jer. 48:37). Similarly, spitting in the face was a ritual means of insulting another person, causing public shame (Num. 12:14, Deut. 25:9). Even today, we think of it as an expression of gross contempt: “He might as well have spit in my face!”
Despite persecution experienced at the hands of those he sought to help, the servant said he persevered because “the Lord GOD helps me.” The servant understood that what is shameful or disgraceful in human eyes may be honored in God’s eyes. Thus, he was able to say “I have set my face like flint” (v. 7) despite the rain of blows or spit or painful tugs at his beard. Other people may have sought to humiliate him, but it was not their opinion he valued: it was God he sought to please. “Therefore,” he said, “I have not been disgraced … and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near” (v. 7-8a).
A God who vindicates (vv. 8b-9).
The final two verses turn the assurance of vv. 6-7 into a challenge for others. Like a boxer who beckons his opponent to aim another blow at his already-bloodied face, the servant challenged those who had beaten and insulted him. In a pair of corresponding poetic lines, he cried “Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me” (v. 8).
The servant may have been down, but not out. He was bloodied, but not beaten. Words, blows, and insulting spittle might come his way, but he was able to shake them off and feel no disgrace, because he knew something his tormentors did not understand. They did not know the God he knew. They did not comprehend true nobility.
The servant’s persecutors could treat him as worthy of punishment, but he knew “It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?” (v. 9a). No man or woman can impose guilt on one who is upright in God’s eyes. They may sling mud or throw stones, but the mud doesn’t stick and the stones bounce away. It was the servant’s accusers who were guilty and deserving of punishment (vv. 1-3): he had remained faithful to God.
The servant was confident that his perseverance would lead to God’s preservation. Trials would come, but he would endure. In contrast, a more tenuous fate awaited his opponents: “All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up” (v. 9b). His accusers might have felt right in their own eyes and powerful in their own strength, but they were no more permanent than a cloak that appears impressive today but is destined to become worn out and moth-eaten. [DD]
And what does the servant have to do with us? Images from Isa. 50:4-9 are often applied to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of what it means to be God’s servant. The third Servant Song begins by describing the servant as a teacher who learns daily from God. “Teacher” was perhaps the most common title attributed to Jesus during his adult ministry, and he spoke of spending time in prayer and of what he had gained from the Father (Luke 10:22).
In Mark 10:34, Jesus predicted that he would be mocked, beaten, and spat upon. Accounts such as Mark 14:65 reflect the details of this prophecy in line with what the servant of 50:7-8 endured.
Although many Christians rightly see the fulfillment of Isa. 50:4-9 in the life and ministry of Christ, we must be careful not to limit the prophet’s message to what happened in Jesus. Isaiah held forth an ideal for all who would find their sense of purpose and identity in the eyes of God rather than the world’s view. That challenge remains: are we listening, following, and trusting God no matter what others do?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Isaiah 50:4-9
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
How do you help your student withstand blow after blow after blow that they take growing up? Here’s the hardest part: you can’t take the blows for them? You can stand beside them as they are taken. You can help them back up when they have been knocked down. You can sit and cry with them as they lay on the ground, but you can’t take all their blows for them. Literally you can’t because you can’t always be there with them. Figuratively, you don’t want to because how will they learn to deal with them after you are gone if you try and take them all? So what do you do? Be present.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Isaiah 50:4-9
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