WWUTT 2094 Who Among You Fears Yahweh (Isaiah 50:1-11)

Who is among you that fears Yahweh, that listens to the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on His God when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone.

In our study of the book of Isaiah, we're up to chapter 50 this week, a little bit shorter chapter, just 11 verses long.

And I'll go ahead and begin by reading through the whole thing. Out of the Legacy Standard Bible, hear the word of the

Lord. Thus says Yahweh, where is the certificate of divorce by which

I have sent your mother away, or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom, or have

I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with my rebuke,

I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering. Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I did not rebel, nor did I turn back.

I gave my back to those who strike me, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard.

I did not hide my face from dishonor and spitting. Even now, Lord Yahweh helps me, therefore

I am not dishonored, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.

He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up to each other.

Who has a judgment against me? Let him approach me. Behold, Lord Yahweh helps me.

Who is he who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them.

Who is among you that fears Yahweh, that listens to the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire, and among the brands you have set ablaze.

This you will have from my hand. You will lie down in torment.

Now the key verse to understanding this particular chapter is right there in verse 10. Who is among you that fears

Yahweh, that listens to the voice of his servant? And that's the servant that is speaking through this chapter.

Who is the servant? It is Jesus Christ. This is the pre -incarnate Son of God who is speaking here.

Therefore, if you're reading from the legacy standard, you'll notice the pronouns me and my are capitalized because this is

Jesus speaking. And catch also that at the very beginning of the chapter, it says, thus says

Yahweh, and then Yahweh who is speaking says in verse four, Lord, Yahweh has given me the tongue of disciples.

So you have Jesus being referred to as Yahweh who calls his father Yahweh. I just think that's really cool.

But anyway, so Jesus here is saying, who is among you that fears

Yahweh, that listens to the voice of his servant? If you fear God, then you listen to the voice of his son.

Who is it that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his

God. So here, Judah does not believe, or at least it appears as if they are timid to think that God will save them.

And that is what Yahweh is speaking into. Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom?

God is going to save his people. He punished Israel. He is going to rescue

Judah and restore them back to the land because God is not done with his purposes for them.

And just as we see this call to repentance, turn back from the darkness that you are walking in to the light of Christ.

So the same call may be made of us. Perhaps you have sin you must turn from and come back to Christ and walk as Jesus walked, as said in first John two, six, let's go through this passage again and find more of that application.

So Isaiah 50, beginning in verse one, thus says Yahweh, where is the certificate of divorce by which

I have sent your mother away? Now that's in reference to Israel. If you'll recall,

Israel, the 10 northern tribes were exiled out of their land and God gave them a certificate of divorce.

So they're cut off and they would be exiled out of the land. And then those that would be brought back in would intermingle, intermix with the

Mesopotamians and other tribes that were moved into that area. And they would become the

Samaritans, which they were kind of mutts. They were a hodgepodge, not only of different nationalities, including

Israelites, but they were also a kind of a mix of all different kinds of religions as well.

But for Judah, what about Judah? Remember all of this is being prophesied a hundred years before they're going to be exiled.

So this is prophecy that is being said of them so that when they are in their exile, they may turn back to the words of Isaiah and hear that God had spoken through him that he will deliver his people.

Israel received a certificate of divorce. They were driven out of the land. Judah was also exiled, but God means to restore them to the land.

So by this question, where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away?

This is being asked rhetorically as though to say, I have not cut you off.

I still am devoted to you. God will fulfill his purposes through Judah, bringing them back to the land.

And of course, it's through the Jews that the Messiah would eventually come. Now it appears as if this question, this rhetorical questions being asked here at the start of this chapter is in response to Isaiah 49, 14.

I don't know how much you remember of Isaiah 49 from last week, but in verse 14, it says, but Zion says,

Yahweh has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me. Zion is another word for Judah, for it was in Judah was

Jerusalem. And then Mount Moriah also referred to as Mount Zion, where the temple was built, wherever God dwells.

That is the mountain of God or Zion. Even when God dwelled at Mount Sinai, that was referred to as Mount Zion.

So verse 14, this is Isaiah 49, 14. Zion is used as the same name for Judah.

Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me. In response to that lament, like we've been driven out of our land, we have been sent into exile.

We're going to be destroyed here. God has forgotten me. So Yahweh responds, what do you mean

I've forgotten you? Where's the certificate of divorce by which I've sent your mother away? Like what happened with Israel is not what has happened with Judah.

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Like do I owe somebody something that I had to sell you in order to pay it off?

Behold, you were sold for your iniquities and for your transgressions, your mother was sent away.

So they were sent into exile and it was because of their sin. And then the statement for your transgressions, your mother was sent away.

This is to say that the same sins Israel committed was also what Judah did. They sacrificed to false gods, even sacrificing their children to those false gods.

There was sodomy in the land and all other kinds of reprehensible evil that was going on in the name of God.

This people claimed to worship God, but then they were off also worshiping all of these false gods.

They would not repent when called upon by the prophets to repent. So God exiled them from the land into Babylonian captivity.

It was because of your transgressions that you were sold. Not because I owed anyone anything, but because of your sin.

And it's for your transgressions, your mother was sent away. But even though a greater judgment had come upon Israel, God was not going to bring that kind of judgment against Judah.

Now going on to verse two, why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer?

Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom? So why was there no man when

I came? When I came by the mouths of the prophets is really what the

Lord is saying here. When I sent word to you by those prophets that came to you, why was there no one to stand and answer?

There was no man. No man to stand and answer the Lord's call, the call to repentance, the call to obey, the call to come back into fellowship with God.

And yet there was no man to respond to this. Remember back to Isaiah 3, 12, where God laments, oh, my people, their taskmasters are infants and women rule over them.

Oh, my people, those who guide you, lead you astray and swallow up the way of your paths. So the men who were supposed to stand up and be godly men were not to be found.

Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is my hand so short that it cannot ransom?

So why do you distrust me now? Why do you think that I cannot save you? Is my hand so short that I can't ransom you out of the captivity

I sent you into, sold you for your iniquities? Or have

I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with my rebuke.

I make the rivers a wilderness and their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. This is

Yahweh reminding Judah, remember what I can do with the power of my word. God filled the seas by the power of his word.

He can dry up the seas by the power of his word. If he has to dry up a sea in order to deliver his people, then he will do it.

I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering. This is like Revelation chapter six, where it said, behold, when he opened up the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair.

Therefore, to make this reference here that the heavens are clothed with sackcloth, this would call

Judah's attention to one of the plagues that God had brought upon Egypt.

Because remember, there was the plague of darkness that covered the land. God can bring even the sun into blackness, can cover everything as with sackcloth.

This is an incredible judgment that God could bring upon a land. And so he could bring that judgment upon the

Babylonians in order to deliver his people. He reminds Judah of this so they know who they're dealing with, but also that they would stand in fear.

They would know the power that God has so that they might repent and come back into obedience to God's commands, which they had left, which they were no longer following.

As God can bring this judgment against Babylon, as he brought it against Egypt, he could bring it against Babylon so he could bring it against you.

So therefore turn back and the Lord will deliver you. Now consider verse four,

Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

Now this is again back to a reference to like the prophets, the word disciples is used here, but it's the same sort of a thing.

So this is the son of God speaking. Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of disciples.

I have told these disciples what to say that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

So I'm, I'm sending my messengers to you and they will speak encouraging words to you, help to lift you up even in the midst of your affliction.

And don't we see that when we read from the disciples in the new Testament, specifically

I'm talking about the apostles, these were Christ's disciples. Jesus gave the word to them that they might comfort us.

We read in Romans 15, four, what was written in former days was written for our instruction that through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

So Jesus knows how to bring a word to his people that will encourage them, sustain them.

He awakens me morning by morning, Jesus says, well, Yahweh says he's not named

Jesus yet, of course, but you know what I'm talking about with regard to the son of God, who is the one who is speaking, who is the one who will be called the

Christ. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

Now what is being demonstrated here with the son of God speaking in this way is that the son of God fully and truly obeyed the instruction from the father.

Remember how many times in John's gospel, Jesus says, I have come to do the will of him who sent me.

Jesus perfectly obeys God. Israel did not. So Jesus is fulfilling what

Israel slash Judah did not do. As even said in John one, he came to his own, but his own did not receive him to those who did receive him, who believed in his name.

He gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

That's John one, 12 and 13. So Jesus perfectly obeys the father.

He has given, he or he awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.

Lord Yahweh has opened my ear and I did not rebel, nor did

I turn back. That's exactly what Judah did, but the son of God perfectly obeys the father.

Verse six, I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard.

I did not hide my face from dishonor and spitting. All of this, you might recognize being very prophetic to the point where Jesus is going to be arrested and beaten and crucified.

And the gospels even record that they yanked on his beard. They plucked it out by the tufts when

Jesus was being beaten up by the Jews there at the trial before the high priest.

I gave my back to those who strike me, my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard. I did not hide my face from dishonor and spitting.

Now he's speaking past tense here, but this is all in reference to what he is going to do in laying his life down for his own.

And notice verse seven, even now, Lord Yahweh helps me.

Therefore I am not dishonored. Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed.

Even though the things here that are being prophesied have not yet happened, the son of God is still setting himself as an example to Judah that he trusts the father.

So they must trust the father. Yahweh helps me. I am not dishonored.

So I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed. So if the son of God knows that the father is on his side, how much should

Judah know that they have not been disregarded by God? They have not been cast out and forsaken.

God is still going to fulfill the purposes that he means to fulfill with this people.

Consider what is said about the Christ in first Peter two 21 for to this you have been called since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

He who did not sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth, who being reviled was not reviling and return while suffering.

He did not utter any threats, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness by his wounds.

You were healed for you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

So we follow that example of Christ when he was reviled. He did not revile in return, but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

And so as Judah is being called to do that, so you and I are being called to trust

God. My friends do not doubt, do not despair, do not wonder. Has God left me in this place that I will languish and perish here?

He does mean to save you. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, he will lift you up.

And though you may walk in darkness for a time, what is in store for you is light and life forevermore.

We continue on. He who vindicates me is near. It says in verse eight, who will contend with me?

Let us stand up to each other. Who has a judgment against me? Let him approach me.

Remember, this is the son of God who is speaking. He who kept the law perfectly, who perfectly obeyed the father's will.

So who's going to bring a charge against him? Even though he has submitted himself to have his beard plucked out, to be dishonored and spat upon, and this he did for our sake, that our sins might be forgiven, yet no one can contend with him.

No one can bring a judgment against him. All the judgments that were brought against him were false, but none of them were credible accusations.

Even at the time of his trial, at Jesus' trial, when witnesses came against him, they couldn't even get their testimonies to agree because no one had any charge against him.

The sinless son of God had done no wrong. So verse nine, behold,

Lord Yahweh helps me. Who is he who condemns me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment.

The moth will eat them. You know, that very same question, who is he who condemns me?

Paul borrows that exact phrase in Romans 8 33, who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies who is the one who condemns Christ.

Jesus is he who died. Yes. Rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

And remember the way that this chapter begins, Romans 8 1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And then we get to the payoff at the very end of Isaiah 50, the call to turn from sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ. Who is among you that fears Yahweh, that listens to the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God. So walk in darkness, no more walk in the light.

As said in first John, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.

That's exactly the invitation that's going on here. That's exactly the instruction. Let him trust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his

God and his sins will be forgiven. But then this warning is given to those who will not turn from darkness.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves with fire brands, meaning that they bring destruction, they rebel against God and the kindle of fire could be in reference to the sacrifices that they made to false gods.

So you kindle a fire and you gird yourself with fire brands. Walk in the light of your fire.

You won't walk in the light of Christ. Walk in your fire. In other words, you will be destroyed by fire.

And among the brands you have set ablaze, this you will have from my hand. You will lie down in torment.

So what's being said here is that God will vindicate. He will deliver his people.

Trust in God. He will deliver you. But those who do not trust in God, they will come into judgment.

The very judgment that God will bring upon the enemies of Judah, he will even bring upon those who would not repent and turn back to God.

They would suffer the same fate. My friends, the call that is going out to us here is that we would trust in God, that we would be encouraged by his word, that we would know that he has not forsaken us.

Lest you fall into such despair that you sin against God because you don't trust him, and then you turn from the

Lord to the ways of the world, thinking that you will find some comfort there, what you will find instead is disaster and death.

Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and live. Do not despair in whatever circumstance you might be in.

If you are a follower of Christ, the Lord is with you. Who can condemn? Who can contend with you?

Take comfort. Take heart. The Lord is at hand. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, as we come to the end of this particular lesson, we are so very grateful to you for the word that you have given to us, that you will be with us and you will help us.

We need these reminders that in Christ Jesus, our sins are forgiven so that we don't find ourselves being weighed down by the cares of this world, but we instead cast our cares upon him who cares for us.

If we are convicted of sin, may we repent of that sin, turn from that sin, forgive us

God, and help us to not walk in that darkness anymore, but walking in the light of Christ.

It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. This has been When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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