Confidence In God

Isaiah 50:1-9

“Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.  Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.  I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. ” (Isaiah 50:1-3)

When God called for his people, the house was vacant and nobody answered.  They hadn’t lost their home because god deserted them or because he had gotten into debt and they had been evicted or taken as bond servants to pay his debts.  They had sold themselves into slavery by deliberate sin like a gambler getting into debt to a loan shark or a drug addict being forced into prostitution to pay off her dealer.   Like the father of the gambler of prostitute, God was there and would gladly help them if they were willing to turn to him for the help.   He has the power to help them because just by his word he can dry up a sea of turn the river into a desert so that the fish all die.  He can blackout the sun or cause it to be like it was trying to shine through a burlap bag. 

“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.  The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.  I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.  For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” (Isaiah 50:4-7)

Once again Isaiah describes his own experience, that god has made him able to speak in a way that is helpful to others,  daily enabling his to understand what God has said.  Because he was not rebellious but yielded to God, turning the other cheek when attacked and enduring the shame and abuse, He knew that God would deliver him and show him to speak the truth.  Once again Isaiah’s experience and description is prophetic of what would happen to Christ. 

First, Christ was abused by the Jews as described in Mark 14:65.  “And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.”  After being turned over to the Romans, he was abused by them as well.  John 19:1-3 describes their treatment of him.  “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.  And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.”  Despite how he was treated, Christ never varied in his way of life, or his teaching, trusting God regardless what they did to him.

"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.  Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.” (Isaiah  50:8-9)

Knowing that God was there to direct him and care for him Christ had no fear of what his opposition would succeed, and Isaiah had similar confidence in God.  Any who stood against him or against Christ would eventually be destroyed just as a piece of clothing will eventually wear out and be discarded.  While the prophecy is primarily about Christ, Isaiah is being used as the example to illustrate what would happen to Christ.