INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH CHAPTER 50

God had not divorced Israel, she had left God by her misconduct.  God had not sold Israel, she sold herself to sin.  God had called but there was no answer─God lets them know that his hand was not too short to reach down and release them─He tells them that he is able to turn out the lights and pull a dark drape over the skies.  God’s servant never flinched at the whipping post─they yanked out his heart and spit in his face, he was untouched by their insults because God was with him. He set his face like a flint and confronted his enemies.  All of Gods enemies will be like moth eaten garments.

EXPOSITION TO ISAIAH CHAPTER 50

1Thus 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.

Is your mother gone because I divorced her?  Have you seen a copy of the divorce papers?  It was your mother’s misconduct that put her away.  When did I sell you to some creditor?  Have you seen the bill of sale?  No, you sold yourself by your wrong doing.  Husbands often sent bills of divorcement to their wives on slight occasions; and fathers, oppressed with debt, sold their children till the year of release.  But this, saith God, cannot be my case:  I am not governed by any such motives, nor am I urged by any such necessity.  Your captivity and afflictions are the fruits of your own folly and wickedness.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT THE TEXT:

 

Deu 24:1-4  When  a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.  And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.  And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;  Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.   Read:  Jer 3:8; 2Ki 4:1; Neh 5:5; Mat 18:25

2Wherefore, 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.

When I called no answer came─Do you think my hand is too weak to redeem you from captivity?  Think again, I can dry up the sea and make rivers dry beds.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

SHED LIGHT ON THE TEXT:

 

Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.   Read:  Exo 14:29; Psa 107:33

3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

No, I am as powerful as ever. I can turn the lights out in the heavens and close the drapes.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT VERIFY THE TEXT:

 

Exo 10:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

 

4The 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.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a silver basket.  God had endowed the prophet with timely words to encourage tired people─he wakes up early in the morning alert and responsive to the will of God.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT GIVE COUNTEREVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

 

Exo 4:11-12  And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.  Read:  Luk 21:15  Joh 7:15-17

5The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

When God spoke, he never turned a deaf ear─he didn’t stick his head in the sand.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT CONFIRM THE TEXT:

 

Isa 48:8  Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

6I 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.

He followed orders and removed his shirt and bent down to the whipping post─they pulled out my beard by the roots and spit in my face.  The eastern people always held the beard in great veneration; and to pluck a man’s beard is one of the grossest indignities that can be offered.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT CARRY WEIGHT REGARDING THE TEXT:

 

Lam 3:30  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

Mic 5:1  Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.  Read:  Mat 5:39; Mar 14:65; Luk 22:63-64

 

7For 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.

Because God stood by him he was not confounded─he was untouched by their insults─sticks and stones may break his bones but words will never hurt him─he was not dismayed or ashamed─he set his face like flint and never once weakened from his determination.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT MAKE THE CASE:

Jer 1:18-19  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

Eze 3:8-9  Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.  As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

8He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

God the vindicator was standing by for him. Let us stand together and confront one another─let my opponent come forward and state his case.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT MAKE THE CASE:

 

Rom 8:32-34  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

9Behold, 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.

The LORD was standing by him like the day that Stephen was stoned─all his enemies would be like a moth eaten garment.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:

 

Isa 51:6-8  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.  Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.  For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

10Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.

If a person fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant even though he has no light to walk in let him trust God and lean upon him.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT LEND EVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

 

Psa 25:12  What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Mic 7:7-9  Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.  Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.  I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

  11Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Many are walking in the light of their own fire and warm themselves from its flames─these people never rely upon the hand of God and so they live among sorrows.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT DEMONSTRATE THE TEXT:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.