Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? Isaiah 50:1-3 Jehovah and unfaithful Israel Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D. These Israelites went to the only kind of law with which they were familiar, and borrowed from it two of its forms, which were not only suggested to them by the relations in which the nation and the nation's sons respectively stood to Jehovah, as wife and as children, but admirably illustrated the ideas they wished to express.(1) There was the form of divorce, so expressive of the ideas of absoluteness, deliberateness and finality — of absoluteness, for throughout the East power of divorce rests entirely with the husband; of deliberateness, for in order to prevent hasty divorce the Hebrew law insisted that the husband must make a bill or writing of divorce instead of only speaking dismissal; and of finality, for such a writing in contrast to the spoken dismissal, set the divorce beyond recall.(2) The other form which the doubters borrowed from their law, was one which, while it also illustrated the irrevocableness of the act, emphasized the helplessness of the agent — the act of the father who put his children away, not as the husband put his wife in his anger, but in his necessity, selling them to pay his debts and because he was bankrupt.(3) On such doubts God turns with their own language — "I have indeed put your mother away, but where is the bill that makes her divorce final, beyond recall? You indeed were sold, but was it because I was bankrupt! To which, then, of My creditors (note the scorn of the plural) was it that I sold you? Nay, by means of your iniquities did ye sell yourselves, and by means of your transgressions were ye put away. But I stand here, ready as ever to save, I alone. If there is any difficulty about your restoration it lies in this, that I am alone, with no response or assistance from men." ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D. ) The sinner's responsibility J. Lyth, D.D. I. THE SINNER'S MISERABLE CONDITION. 1. Separated from God. 2. Sold under sin. II. THE OCCASION OF IT. Not the will of God, but his own love of sin, and his consequent disregard of God's offers of deliverance from sin and sorrow. ( J. Lyth, D.D. ) Israel self-ruined Those who have professed to be the people of God, and yet seem to be severely dealt with, are apt to complain of God, and to lay the fault upon Him, as if He had severely dealt with them. But in answer to their murmurings, we have here — I. A CHALLENGE TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE THAT THE QUARREL BEGAN ON GOD'S SIDE (ver. 1). II. A CHARGE THAT THEY WERE THEMSELVES THE AUTHOR OF THEIR RUIN. "Behold, for your iniquities," etc. III. A CONFIRMATION OF THIS CHALLENGE AND THIS CHARGE (vers. 2, 3). 1. It Was plain that it was their own fault that they were cast off, for God came and offered them His helping hand, either to prevent their trouble or to deliver them out of it, but they slighted Him and all the tenders of His grace. 2. It was plain that it was not owing to any lack of power in God that they were led into the misery of captivity, and remained in it, for He is almighty. They lacked faith in Him, and so that power was not exerted on their behalf. So it is with sinners still. ( M. Henry . ) Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? Isaiah 50:2-6 The Mediator: Divine and human C. Stanford, D. D. These words could have been spoken only by the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus They place before our thoughts — I. His DIVINE POWER AND GLORY. Power is naturally calm. The power that sustains the universe is, in fact, most wonderful when, unseen, unfelt, with its Divine silence and infinite ease, it moves on in its ordinary course; but we are often most impressed by it when it strikes against obstructions, and startles the senses by its violence. Knowing our frame, and dealing with us as with children, our Teacher seeks to impress us with a sense of His Divine power, by bidding us think of Him as working by inexorable force certain awful changes and displacements in nature. "I dry up the sea," etc. II. HIS HUMAN LIFE AND EDUCATION. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned," etc. Gradually, it seems, the Divine Spirit, like a mysterious voice, woke up within Him the consciousness of what He was, and of what He had come on earth to fulfil. Morning by morning, through all the days of His childhood, the voice was ever awakening Him to higher consciousness and more awful knowledge. III. THE MEDIATORIAL TEACHING FOR WHICH HE HAD BEEN THUS PREPARED. 1. It is personal. If His own personal teaching had not been in view, there would have been no need for all this personal preparation. "The Lord hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak." This is His own testimony to the great fact that He Himself personally teaches every soul that is saved. 2. It is suitable. Suitable to our weariness. (1) While we are yet in a state of unregeneracy. (2) When we are sinking under the burden of guilt. (3) When fainting under the burden of care. (4) When burdened under the intellectual mysteries of theology. (5) When under the burden of mortal infirmity. 3. The teaching of Christ is minutely direct and particular. When I read that He is ordained to speak "to him" that is weary, I understand that He does not speak in a general, impersonal, unrecognizing way to the forlorn crowd of sufferers, but to every man in particular, and to every man apart. ( C. Stanford, D. D. ) The Redeemer described by Himself In my opinion, these verses (2-6) run on without any break, so that you are not to separate them, and ascribe one to the prophet, another to the Messiah, and another to Jehovah Himself; but you must take the whole as the utterance of one Divine Person. That Jehovah-Jesus is the One who is speaking here, is very clear from the last verse of the previous chapter: "I the Lord" ("I, Jehovah," it is,) "am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." I. BEHOLD THE MESSIAH AS GOD. Link vers. 3 and 6: "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering... I gave my back to the smiters," etc. He, then, who suffered thus, and whom we regard as redeeming us by His death, and as saving us by His life, is no less than the Almighty God. I think the first reference, in these words, is to the miracles which were wrought by the plagues in Egypt. It was Jehovah-Jesus who was then plaguing His adversaries. In a later chapter, Isaiah says that "the Angel of His presence saved them;" and who is that great Angel of His presence but the Angel of the covenant in whom we delight, even Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour? But we must not restrict the text to that which happened in the land of Egypt, for it has a far wider reference. All the great wonders of nature are to be ascribed to Him upon whom we build all our hopes for time and for eternity. The last miracle recorded here, namely, that of covering the heavens with sackcloth, was performed by our Lord even when He was in His death agony. You are not depending for your salvation upon a mere man. He is man, but He is just as truly Divine. II. BEHOLD THE MESSIAH AS THE INSTRUCTED TEACHER (ver. 4). I call your special attention to the condescension of our Lord in coming here on purpose to care for the weak — to speak consoling and sustaining words to them; and also to the fact that, before He performed that service, He learned the sacred art from His Father. For thirty years was He learning much in Joseph's carpenter's shop. Little do we know how much He learned there; but this much we do know, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." And afterwards, when He entered upon His public work among men, He spake with the tongue of the learned, saying to His disciples, "All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." All through His time of teaching, He was still listening and learning. III. BEHOLD JESUS CHRIST AS THE SERVANT OF THE LORD (ver. 5). 1. He speaks of Himself as being prepared by grace. "The Lord God hath opened Mine ear," as if there had been a work wrought upon Him to prepare Him for His service. And the same Spirit, which rested upon Christ, must also open our ears. 2. Being thus prepared by grace, He was consecrated in due form, so that He could say to Himself, "The Lord God hath opened Mine ear." He heard the faintest whispers of His Father's voice. 3. He not only heard His Father's voice, but He was obedient to it in all things. "I was not rebellious." From the day when, as a child, He said to His parents, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" till the hour when, on the cross, He cried, "It is finished," He was always obedient to the will of God. 4. In that obedience, He was persevering through all trials. He says that He did not turn away back. Having commenced the work of saving men, He went through with it. IV. BEHOLD THE MESSIAH AS THE PEERLESS SUFFERER (ver. 6). It has been asked, "Did God really die?" No; for God cannot die, yet He who died was God; so, if there be a confusion in your mind, it is the confusion of Holy Scripture itself, for we read, "Feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." In addition to the pain, we are asked, in this verse, to notice particularly the contempt which the Saviour endured. The plucking of His hair was a proof of the malicious contempt of His enemies, yet they went still further, and did spit in His face. Spitting was regarded by Orientals, and, I suppose, by all of us, as the most contemptuous thing which one man could do to another; yet the vile soldiers gathered round Him, and spat upon Him. I must point out the beautiful touch of voluntariness here: "I hid not my face." Our Saviour did not turn away, or seek to escape. If He had wished to do so, He could readily have done it. Conclusion: Notice three combinations which the verses of my text will make.(1) Verses 2 and 6. Those verses together show the full ability of Christ to save. Here we have God and the Sufferer.(2) Verses 4 and 5. Here you have the Teacher and the Servant, and the two together make up this truth — that Christ teaches us, not with words only, but with His life. What a wonderful Teacher He is, who Himself learned the lessons which He would have us learn!(3) Now put the whole text together, and I think the result will be — at least to God's people — that they will say, "This God shall be our God for ever and ever; and it shall be our delight to do His bidding at all times." It is a high honour to serve God; and Christ is God. It is a great thing to be the servant of a wise teacher; and Christ has the tongue of the learned. It is a very sweet thing to walk in the steps of a perfect Exemplar; and Christ is that. And, last and best of all, it is delightful to live for Him who suffered and died on our behalf. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned. Isaiah 50:4-11 The Lord's servant made perfect through sufferings Prof. J. Skinner, D.D. In vers. 4-9 the servant is again introduced, speaking of Himself and His work, as in Isaiah 49:1-6 . He describes — 1. The close, intimate, and continuous communion with God through which He has learned the ministry of comfort by the Divine word, and His own complete self-surrender to the voice that guides Him (vers. 4, 5). 2. His acceptance of the persecution and obloquy which He had to encounter in the discharge of His commission (ver. 6). 3. His unwavering confidence in the help of Jehovah, and the victory of His righteous cause, and the discomfiture of all His enemies (vers. 7-9). Vers. 10, 11 are an appendix to the preceding description, drawing lessons for the encouragement of believers (ver, 10) or the warning of unbelievers (ver. 11). Although the word "Servant" never occurs in this passage, its resemblance to the three other "Servant-passages" makes it certain that the speaker is none other than the ideal character who comes before us in Isaiah 42:1-4 ; Isaiah 49:1-6 , and Isaiah 52:13; 53:15. The passage, indeed, forms an almost indispensable link of connection between the first two and the last of these. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D.D. ) The Messiah an instructed Teacher R. Macculloch. After the Messiah had been exhibited in the preceding discourse labouring in vain and spending His strength for nought among the Jews, despised of men and abhorred by the nations, when actually employed in His public ministry, it became necessary to explain this surprising phenomenon. It is, therefore, affirmed that the neglect and contempt which He suffered was not owing to any deficiency on the part of this celebrated Teacher, who was eminently qualified for acquainting men with the Will of God, in the knowledge of which He was perfectly instructed. This important qualification was not imparted to Him by any human teacher, neither did He acquire it in the schools of philosophers and orators, nor was it communicated to Him by the most eminent of the prophets, but by the Spirit of the Lord God, to whom it is here attributed. ( R. Macculloch. ) The tongue of the learned C. Ross M. A. I. THE CHARACTER DESCRIBED AS NEEDING THE SAVIOUR'S GRACE. "Him that is weary." This description includes a very large class. All may not ascribe their weariness to the same cause, nor may all be sensible of their weariness to the same extent. Yet all are weary. 1. Not in the world of sense only do you complain of weariness. It is impossible for the unrenewed heart to find rest even in things that are Spiritual. Heaven itself would to such a one cease to be heaven. What a weariness do you find in the religion of Jesus Christ! Of prayer, of public worship, of hearing sermons, of religious conversation, of the service and work of the Lord you say, "What a weariness!" 2. The description, certainly, includes those who are truly anxious about the salvation of their souls. 3. The Lord's weary ones include His own quickened people, who feel the burden of the body of sin, and are cast down because of their difficulties. 4. The assaults of the adversary, too, contribute not a little to the sense of weariness, which often prostrate a child of God. 5. Add to these the numerous and varied trials and afflictions which beset his pathway to heaven, and you have in outline the picture of his case. II. CHRIST'S QUALIFICATIONS TO MEET THE CASE OF SUCH. 1. His participation of our nature. Absolute Godhead could not of itself have conveyed to us sinners one word of sympathy or comfort. Neither could the angels do it. They are total strangers to the weariness to which sinful children of men are heirs. But, the man Christ Jesus becomes a partaker of the very nature whose burdens He sought to relieve. "Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He also took part in the same." 2. As He thus took upon Him our nature, so He also endured our sinless though humbling infirmities. 3. In addition to all this, the Lord God had given Him the tongue of the learned in another sense. I refer to the communication of the Divine Spirit ( Isaiah 61:1 ). Never was there a tongue like Christ's — so learned, so skilled, so practised, and so experienced. "Never man spake like this man." 4. The purpose for which this tongue of the learned was given Him is thus described — "That He should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." (1) A word, (2) a word in season, (3) that He should know how to speak. 5. But when Christ speaks to the weary, it is not to the outward ear merely, but to the heart — with almighty power. And the result is rest. III. THE REST WHICH JESUS IMPARTS, when He speaks the word in season. 1. We are seeking rest by nature everywhere, and in everything but in Jesus. We seek it in the outward world, in the moral world, in the religious world — and we find it not. We seek it in conviction, in ordinances, in doing the works of the law — and still it evades us. We go from place to place, and from means to means, and still the burden presses, and we find no rest. No, and never will, until it is sought and found in Jesus. 2. Yet, in the case of a tried believer, the rest that Jesus imparts does not always imply the removal of the burden from which the sense of weariness proceeds. The burden is permitted to remain, and yet rest is experienced. Wonderful indeed! How is it explained? That burden takes us to Jesus. He pours strength into our souls, life into our spirits, and love into our hearts, and so we find rest. It is also matter of much practical importance, that you take heed not to anticipate or forestall His promised grace. For every possible emergency in which you can be placed, the fulness of Christ and the supplies of the Covenant are provided. But that provision is only meted out as the necessity for which it was intended occurs. 3. There is an hour approaching — the last great crisis of human life — when, we shall all, more than ever, need Him who hath the "tongue of the learned." It will be of all seasons the most trying and solemn — the season that separates the soul from the body, and ushers the immortal spirit into eternity. Is it not our highest wisdom to know this Saviour now? ( C. Ross M. A. ) A word to the weary J. Parker, D.D. I. THE POWER OF SPEAKING TO THE WEARY IS NOTHING LESS THAN A DIVINE GIFT. We may say the right word in a wrong tone. II. Though the gift itself is Divine, IT IS TO BE EXERCISED SEASONABLY. It is not enough to speak the right word, it must be spoken at the right moment. ( J. Parker, D.D. ) Christ speaking a word in season to the weary J. Matheson. I. CONSIDER THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF THOSE THAT ARE WEARY. II. SHOW, FROM THE CHARACTER AND PERSON OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THAT HE IS A SEASONABLE AND ALL-SUFFICIENT SAVIOUR TO THOSE WHO ARE WEARY. The excellency and glory of Christ may not only be perceived by viewing Him in the whole of His mediatorial character; but, also, by fixing on specific parts of it, and showing that there is a Divine suitability to all the exigencies of ruined men. 1. He can give rest to the mind of the man who is wearied with his researches after human wisdom. 2. He can give rest to those who are oppressed under a sense of guilt. 3. He can speak a word in season to those who have wearied themselves in attempting to establish their own righteousness. 4. He can give rest to those who have wearied themselves in vainly trying to overcome their corruptions in their own strength. 5. He can speak a word in season to those who are weary with the weight of affliction and trouble. 6. He can give rest to those who are oppressed and wearied with the cares of this world. 7. Christ can speak a word in season to those who are weary of living in this world. None of the children of men can enjoy rest, or real peace of mind, but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. ( J. Matheson. ) The ministry of preaching R, Roberts. (with Acts 20:27 ). The first passage is spoken by the Messiah, the second by St. Paul. The one looks forward, the other backward. The one speaks of a preparation and fitness for a work yet to be done; the other is a thankful record of a mission already faithfully accomplished. I. IN THE FIRST PASSAGE YOU HAVE THE CHIEF MINISTER OF THE CHURCH ANTICIPATING HIS WORK OF TEACHING AND ANNOUNCING HIS FITNESS FOR THE WORK. 1. Observe the gift with which He claims to be endowed as one element of special fitness for His ministry. Speech was the chief instrument employed by Christ for conveying truth to the minds of men. The dispensation under which we live, so emphatically designated the dispensation of the Spirit, was ushered in by two miracles, both of which related to the tongue The Holy Spirit Himself appeared resting upon each one in the form of cloven tongues as of fire. A second miracle was wrought on the uneducated Galilean apostles, enabling them, without learning, to speak intelligently in the dialects of all the nationalities present, so that every man heard them speak in his own language. And why, at the very founding of Christianity, was this twofold miracle wrought in relation to the tongue, if not to indicate that the Holy Spirit purposed to employ speech as the chief instrument in the regeneration of mankind? 2. The purpose for which this gift of speech is to be employed. "To speak a word in season to him that is weary."(1) You will have to speak to men. suffering, from mental weariness — men who have long searched for truth and failed to find it. See that ye be well furnished with the Spirit, who has promised to guide you into all truth, and who also will help you to guide others into all truth.(2) You will have others wearied in body, through excessive labour or sore affliction. You may tell them of the illustrious Sufferer of Calvary who, though innocent, suffered for our sins; was in all points tempted like as we are; and who, therefore, is able to succour all those who are tempted.(3) You will have others wearied in heart, by reason of bereavement. Imitating the Great Teacher in the bereaved family of Bethany, you must direct the thought of the sorrowful to the resurrection power of Christ, when the mortal shall put on immortality, and the corruptible shall put on incorruption.(4) Others will come to you weary of the vicissitudes, disappointments and reverses of life. With the Master, you may speak to them of the lily, the sparrow, the grass, the flower of the field; how your Heavenly Father careth for these, but how much more He will care for those who have faith in and love towards Him, even to the numbering of every hair on the whitening brow.(5) Others will come with weary consciences, burdened with sin, fearing the wrath to come, carrying with them, it may be, the dread secret of undiscovered and unconfessed crime. Take solemn heed that the word you speak is a word in season. Do not heal lightly the wounds thus made by the Spirit. Do not attempt to soothe the agony by minifying the guilt, or lessening the condemnation, or diminishing the penalty. Do what the Spirit does. Take of the things of Christ and show them unto the penitent; show them in their preciousness, their efficacy, and their all-sufficiency.(6) Others may come to you weary of inbred sin. Open your ear to hear what the Lord your God will say unto you; humbly wait with an upward look to your Great Teacher, and He will give you the tongue of the learned. 3. This learning claimed by the Redeemer is set forth as progressive. "He wakeneth Me morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear that I may hear as disciples do." If our Lord found it necessary to place Himself in the position of a pupil to receive daily instruction from the Divine Father, how much greater need is there for you who are His ministers? You cannot learn in one lesson all that the Holy Spirit has to communicate. Cultivate a sensibility of soul, a readiness to hear the softest, gentlest tone of God, whether in nature, in providence, in history, in the inspired word, or in the deep secrets of your own heart. II. THE NOBLE TESTIMONY OF THE NOBLEST APOSTLE AT THE CLOSE OF HIS MINISTRY AT EPHESUS. ( R .. Roberts. ) The weary world and the refreshing ministry Homilist. I. THE WEARY WORLD. It is not one man that is weary, the generation is weary, the world is weary. All sinners are weary. Wearied with fruitless efforts after happiness. There is the ennui yawn, and the groan of depression heard everywhere. II. THE REFRESHING MINISTRY. "The Lord God hath given me," etc. 1. The relief comes by speech. No physical, legislative, or ceremonial means will do; it must be by the living voice, charged with sympathy, truth, light. 2. The effective speech comes from God. "The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned." No man can speak the soul-refreshing thing unless God inspires and teaches him. 3. The speech that comes from God is a "word in season." It is exactly suited to the mood of the souls addressed. ( Homilist. ) A word in season to the weary E. Johnson, M.A. (with Matthew 11:28-30 ): — I. We may name WOUNDED AFFECTIONS as a very frequent cause of weariness. We do not know, until the blow comes, how heavily we have been leaning on the staff of friendly sympathy. Breaking beneath our weight, it leaves us tottering and weary. But amidst all our heart-troubles the voice of the Saviour is heard saying, "Rest! Come unto Me and I will give you rest." II. THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF OUR DESIRES is another common antecedent of lassitude. All of us are furnished with larger appetites than we have ability or opportunity for satisfying. Pleasure! Money! Power! Reputation! How seldom do men know when they have enough of that which they most desire. So, as the material of sensuous enjoyment becomes exhausted, the sense of emptiness becomes more painful. But in this mood, too, we are met by the Divine Saviour: "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." For Christ would fill the soul with the only object of desire that cannot disappear in its grasp: with the Eternal Himself. III. VACANCY OF MIND AND THE SENSE OF MONOTONY is another common cause of weariness. "Nature abhors a vacuum," as the old philosophers said. The mind cannot endure its own emptiness. It is so constituted that it must have change and variety of impressions and ideas; otherwise it turns upon itself, and its fine mechanism is worn down with useless friction. But He who comes to reveal the Father meets us, too, in this mood of self-weariness. It is His message to tell us of a new self which it is the will of God to impart to us; a new heart in which it may please God to dwell, and with which He can hold fellowship. The man who yields himself to the Spirit, and is born of the Spirit, need no longer be disgusted with himself, having found his nature anew in God. IV. But the load of A GUILTY CONSCIENCE is even more fatiguing than that of a vacant mind. Need it be pointed out how profoundly Christ meets this guilty dejection of the human heart? V. Quite a different cause of weariness is to be found in THE BURDEN OF EARNEST THOUGHT AND NOBLE ENDEAVOUR. For the Christian, it is enough that his Saviour has "suffered in the flesh" — has borne "the weary weight of all this unintelligible world" in uncomplaining meekness. He is to "arm himself likewise with the same mind." ( E. Johnson, M.A. ) Noble gifts for lowly uses W. Baxendale. I. GOD'S HIGHEST GIFTS HAVE THEIR DEFINITE END AND PURPOSE. In Nature, for instance, nothing has been created in vain. And so it ought to be in human life, that world of feeling and desire within the breast of man. You see that the prophet looked upon the tongue of the learned as a gift from God, holding it in trust, where many would have counted it as their own. And he saw it was a gift for very plain and apparent purposes — for men are stewards, and not owners of all that is bestowed upon them. This splendid administrative genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, dominant and even imperious, but only because it has seen into the heart of purposes working themselves out in the midst of the ages, the wealth it has acquired, the influence it commands, has this no meaning in the economy of nations? You only need the touch of Christ to consecrate it and turn it into right channels, and the whole world is blessed thereby. "We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak." II. THIS DEFINITE PURPOSE IS A VERY SIMPLE ONE, AND POSSIBLY AT FIRST SIGHT INSUFFICIENT. Ambition would say so, and ambition is as natural to the human heart as desire itself. We ask great things, we would be great things, we would do them. It must be confessed, however, that no sin of man has been more constant and apparent than that which has made men look down upon these lowly uses belonging unto lofty gifts. A proud reserve has been considered in all ages as appropriate to commanding talents. The statesman's wisdom, the orator's art, the poet's fire, what are they side by side with all that wondrous wealth lavished upon simple fishermen in Galilee, and carried into the home of Lazarus, and spent among the humble poor. Between the highest born among men and the humblest service henceforward there can be no disparity. "If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet," He said to His disciples, "ye ought also to wash one another's feet." And as with individuals, so with nations. God gives special gifts for His own purposes. III. THIS PURPOSE IS A VERY URGENT AND APPROPRIATE ONE. After all, the end is not beneath the means. It needs the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to him that is weary, that word fitly spoken which dries the tear from the eye, and banishes sorrow from the heart. To do away with pain and assuage grief, is not that a noble, a Divine thing? And will you see how Christianity has been doing this in lower and yet very important directions, permeating society by its subtle influences for good? And more when you understand Isaiah's words in their true and spiritual significance, what a field of usefulness unfolds itself! For the great burdens of mankind are not physical, but mental and spiritual. ( W. Baxendale. ) Words in season for the weary F. B. Meyer, B.A. I. THE EDUCATION OF THE DIVINE SERVANT. We must notice the difference between the authorized version and the new. In the one, "the Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know." In the other, "of them that are taught" — or, as the margin reads, "of disciples." The thought being that the Lord Jesus in His human life was a pupil in the school of human pain, under the tutelage of His Father. 1. His education was by God Himself. 2. It was various. He passed through each class in the school of weariness. 3. It was constant. "Morning by morning" the Father woke Him. 4. It dealt with the season for administering comfort. "That I should know how to speak a word in season." There are times when the nervous system is so overstrained that it cannot bear even the softest words. It is best then to be silent. A caress, a touch, or the stillness that breathes an atmosphere of calm, will then most quickly soothe and heal. This delicacy of perception can only be acquired in the school of suffering. 5. It embraced the method. "That I should know how." The manner is as important as the season. A message of good-will may be uttered with so little sympathy, and in tones so gruff and grating, that it will repel. The touch of the comforter must be that of the nurse on the fractured bone — of the mother with the frightened child. II. HIS RESOLUTION. From the first, Jesus knew that He must die. The Lord God poured the full story into His opened ear. With all other men, death is the close of their life; with Christ it was the object. We die because we were born; Christ was born that He might die. On one occasion, towards the close of His earthly career, when the fingers on the dial-plate were pointing to the near fulfilment of the time, we are told He set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. What heroism was here! Men sometimes speak of Christ as if He were effeminate and weak, remarkable only for passive virtues. But such conceptions are refuted by the indomitable resolution which set its face like a flint, and knew that it would not be ashamed. Note the voluntariness of Christ's surrender. The martyr dies because he cannot help it; Christ dies because He chose. It has been thought that the opened ear refers to something more than the pushing back of the flowing Oriental locks in order to utter the secret of coming sorrow. It is supposed to have some reference to the ancient Jewish custom of boring the ear of the slave to the doorpost of the master's house. Under this metaphor it is held that our Lord chose with keen sympathy the service of the Father, and elected all that it might involve, because He loved Him and would not go out free. The images may be combined. Be it only remembered that He knew and chose all that would come upon Him, and that the fetters which bound Him to the Cross were those of undying love to us and of burning passion for the Father's glory. III. HIS VINDICATION. "He is near that justifieth Me." These are words upon which Jesus may have stayed Himself through those long hours of trial. They said that He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. God has justified Him by showing that if He associates with such, it is to make them martyrs and saints. They said that He was mad. God has justified Him by making His teaching the illumination of the noblest and wisest of the race. They said He had a devil. God has justified Him by giving Him power to cast out the devil and hind him with a mighty chain. They said that He blasphemed when He called Himself the Son of God. God has justifi

Benson Commentary Isaiah 50:1 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. Isaiah 50:1 . Thus saith the Lord — God having, by his prophet, in the last three verses of the preceding chapter, comforted his people with an assurance of their deliverance from the tyrannical power of their enemies, here vindicates his justice in suffering them to be exposed thereto, showing that they were the causes of their own calamities. Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement? — God had espoused the Jewish Church, the mother of the individuals of that people, to himself, in a kind of matrimonial covenant, frequently mentioned or alluded to by the prophets; but he seemed to divorce or cast them off when he sent them to Babylon, and afterward did wholly reject the generality of that nation from being his people, and took the Gentiles in their stead; which great and wonderful change was foretold in the Old Testament, (as has been already often observed, and will be again,) and was accomplished in the New. And because God foresaw that this strange dispensation would provoke the Jews to murmur and quarrel with him for casting them off without sufficient cause, as indeed they were always prone to accuse him, and vindicate themselves, he bids them produce their bill of divorce. For those husbands who put away their wives out of levity or passion were obliged to give them a bill of divorce, which vindicated the wives’ innocence, and declared that the husband’s will and pleasure was the cause of their dismission. Now, says God, produce your bill of divorce, to show that I have put you away of my own mere will, and on a slight occasion, and that you did not first forsake me and go after other gods, and by that spiritual adultery violate the marriage covenant into which I had taken you. Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you — Have I any creditors to whom I was obliged or willing to sell you for the payment of a debt? Parents, oppressed with debt, often sold their children, which, according to the law of Moses, they might do, till the year of release, Exodus 21:7 . See also 2 Kings 4:1 ; Matthew 18:25 . But neither of these cases, says God, can be mine; I am not governed by any such motives, nor am I urged by any such necessity. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves — Your captivity and your afflictions are to be imputed to yourselves, and to your own folly and wickedness. Isaiah 50:2 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. Isaiah 50:2-3 . Wherefore, &c. — The general accusation, delivered in the last words, he now proves by particular instances: When I came was there no man. — How comes it to pass, that, when I sent to you by my servants the prophets, there was no man that regarded my message and offer of grace, and complied with my will? Whereby he implies that the generality of the Jews were guilty of gross infidelity and obstinate disobedience, and therefore might justly be rejected. When I called them to repentance and reformation, there was none to come — None to come at my call, or to obey my commands. Is my hand shortened at all, &c. — What is the reason of this contempt and rebellion? Is it because you expect no good from me, but think I am either unwilling or unable to save you? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea — At my word or command I can not only check its proud waves, but make its channel dry. Here, for a proof of his power, God appeals to the miracles he wrought in Egypt, at the Red sea, and at Jordan. I make the rivers a wilderness — As dry and fit for travelling over as a wilderness. I clothe the heavens with blackness — Or, I will, or can clothe, &c. What I once did in Egypt when I drew thick curtains before all the heavenly lights, and caused an unparalleled and amazing darkness to take place for three successive days, to the great terror of my enemies, so I can and will do still, when it is necessary to save my people. And therefore you have no reason to distrust me. And I make sackcloth their covering — I cover them with clouds as black as sackcloth. Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. Isaiah 50:4 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. Isaiah 50:4 . The Lord God hath given me, &c. — The second discourse of the fifth part of Isaiah’s prophecies, according to Vitringa, begins here, and is continued to the seventeenth verse of the following chapter. God having, in the preceding paragraph, asserted his own power; to manifest the unreasonableness of the infidelity of the Jews, and that it was without all excuse, he proceeds to show what excellent and powerful means he used to bring them to repentance and salvation. This and the following passages may be, in some sort, understood of the Prophet Isaiah, but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him. To understand them in this light seems to suit best with the context, for, according to this exposition, the same person speaks here, who is the chief subject of the preceding chapter, and who has spoken in the foregoing verses of this chapter. There, indeed, he speaks as God, but here as man, being both God and man, as is abundantly evident from many passages, both of the Old and New Testaments. By the tongue of the learned is meant, an ability of speaking plainly, convincingly, persuasively, and in all points, so as becomes a person taught of God, and filled with all divine and heavenly wisdom and knowledge. That I should know how to speak, &c., to him that is weary — That is, burdened with the sense of his sin and misery, in which case a word of comfort is most seasonable and acceptable. This was the principal design of Christ’s ministry, namely, to give rest and comfort to the weary and heavy laden, according to what is said Matthew 11:28 . And all the doctrines, reproofs, and threatenings of Christ were directed to this end, to prepare men for receiving comfort and salvation. He wakeneth, namely, me, or mine ear, morning by morning — From time to time, and continually. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned — Either, first, as learned men, or teachers, use to awaken their scholars to hear and learn of them from time to time: or, rather, second, as those that are, or desire to be, learned, use to hear with all possible attention and diligence. Isaiah 50:5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. Isaiah 50:5-6 . The Lord hath opened mine ear — Hath given me a power and will to hear and receive his commands. And I was not rebellious — I readily did and suffered what he required of me. Neither turned away back — From hearing or obeying his will, how difficult or dangerous soever the work might be to which he called me. He seems to allude to some of the former prophets, who had shrunk back, and for a time refused such work as God called them to, as Moses, Exodus 3:11 ; Jonah, chap. 1:3, and others. I gave my back to the smiters — I patiently yielded up myself to the will of those who smote me: I was willing, not only to do, but to suffer the will of God, and the injuries of men: and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair — Which was a contumely or punishment sometimes inflicted on malefactors, Nehemiah 13:25 . I hid not my face from shame — From any manner of reproachful usage, but did knowingly and willingly submit myself thereunto; and spitting — Spitting in a man’s face was used in token of contempt and detestation. All these things were literally fulfilled in Christ, as is expressly affirmed in the gospels; but we read of no such things concerning Isaiah, and therefore it is most safe and reasonable to understand this passage of Christ, and the rather, because it is not usual with the prophets to commend themselves so highly as the prophet here commends the person of whom he speaks. Isaiah 50:6 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. Isaiah 50:7 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 50:7-9 . For, or rather, but, the Lord God will help me — Though as man I am weak, yet God will strengthen me to go through my great and hard work. Therefore shall I not be confounded — Therefore I assure myself of success in my undertaking, and of victory over all my enemies. I have set my face like a flint — I have hardened myself with resolution and courage against all opposition. See the like phrase, Ezekiel 3:8-9 . which Bishop Lowth translates as follows: “Behold I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads: as an adamant, harder than a rock, have I made thy forehead.” The expression, however, sometimes signifies obstinacy and impudence, as Jeremiah 5:3 ; Zechariah 7:12 ; but here a settled and immoveable purpose to persevere in well-doing. He is near that justifieth me — Though God seems to be at a distance, and to hide his face from me; yet he is, in truth, at my right hand, ready to help me, and will publicly acquit me from all the calumnies of mine adversaries; will clear up my righteousness, and show, by many and mighty signs and wonders, that I lived and died his faithful servant. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me — I challenge all my accusers to stand and appear before the Judge, and to produce all their charges against me: for I am conscious of mine own innocence, and I know that God will give sentence for me. Who is he that shall condemn me? — That dare attempt, or can justly do it? Lo, they all — Mine accusers and enemies; shall wax old as a garment — Shall pine away in their iniquity: the moth shall eat them up — They shall be cut off and consumed, by a secret curse and judgment of God, compared to a moth, Hosea 5:12 . Isaiah 50:8 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. Isaiah 50:9 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 50:10 Who 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. Isaiah 50:10-11 . Who is among you that feareth the Lord? — He now turns his speech from the unbelieving and rebellious Jews, to those of them who were, or should be, pious. That obeyeth the voice of his servant — Of the same person of whom he has hitherto spoken, of Christ, who is called God’s servant by way of eminence, and to intimate that, though he was God, yet he would take upon himself the form of a servant. It is hereby signified, that the grace of God, and the encouragement and comfort here following, belong to none but those that believe in and obey this great prophet of the church; which was also declared by Moses, Deuteronomy 18:15 , compared with Acts 3:22-23 . That walketh in darkness — Not in sin, which is often called darkness, but in misery, which the word also frequently signifies; that lives in a disconsolate and calamitous condition. And hath no light — No comfort nor prospect of deliverance. Let him trust in the name of the Lord, &c. — Let him fix his faith and hope in the amiable nature and infinite perfections, and especially in the mercy and faithfulness of the Lord, declared in his word, and in his interest in God, who, by the mediation of this his servant, is reconciled to him, and made his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire — That you may enjoy the light and comfort of it; you that reject the light which God hath set up, and seek for comfort and safety in your own inventions: which was the common error of the Jews in all ages, and especially in the days of the Messiah, when they refused him, and that way of salvation which he appointed, and rested on their own traditions and devices, going about to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting themselves unto the righteousness of God. That compass yourselves with sparks — Of your own kindling. Dr. Waterland and Bishop Lowth translate this latter clause, “who place, or heap the fuel around.” Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled — Use your utmost endeavours to get comfort from these devices. This shall ye have of my hand, &c — This shall be the fruit of all, through my just judgment, that, instead of that comfort and security which you expect by these means, you shall receive nothing but vexation and misery, which shall pursue you both living and dying; for the word ???? , here rendered lie down, is frequently used for dying, as Genesis 47:30 ; Job 21:26 , and elsewhere. Isaiah 50:11 Behold, 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. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 50:1 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. Isaiah 50:4 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. CHAPTER XIX PROPHET AND MARTYR Isaiah 49:1-9 ; Isaiah 50:4-11 THE second great passage upon the Servant of the Lord is Isaiah 49:1-9 , and the third is Isaiah 50:4-11 . In both of these the servant himself speaks; in both he speaks as prophet; while in the second he tells us that his prophecy leads him on to martyrdom. The two passages may, therefore, be taken together. Before we examine their contents, let us look for a moment at the way in which they are woven into the rest of the text. As we have seen, chapter 49 begins a new section of the prophecy, in so far that with it the prophet leaves Babylon and Cyrus behind him, and ceases to speak of the contrast between God and the idols. But, still, chapter 49 is linked to chapter 48. In leading up to its climax, -the summons to Israel to depart from Babylon, - chapter 48, does not forget that Israel is delivered from Babylon in order to be the Servant of Jehovah: "say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed His Servant Jacob." It is this service, which chapter 49 carries forward from the opportunity, and the call, to go forth from Babylon, with which chapter 48, closes. That opportunity, though real, does not at all mean that Israel’s redemption is complete. There were many moral reasons which prevented the whole nation from taking full advantage of the political freedom offered them by Cyrus. Although the true Israel, that part of the nation which has the conscience of service, has shaken itself free from the temptation as well as from the tyranny of Babel, and now sees the world before it as the theatre of its operations, - Isaiah 49:1 , "Hearken, ye isles, unto Me; and listen, ye peoples, from far,"-it has still, before it can address itself to that universal mission, to exhort, rouse, and extricate the rest of its nation, "saying to the bounden, Go forth; and to, them that are in darkness, Show yourselves" ( Isaiah 49:9 ). Chapter 49, therefore, is the natural development of chapter 48. There is certainly a little interval of time implied between the two-the time during which it became apparent that the opportunity to leave Babylon would not be taken advantage of by all Israel, and that the nation's redemption must be a moral as well as a political one. But Isaiah 49:1-9 comes out of chapters 40-48, and it is impossible to believe that in it we are not still under the influence of the same author. A similar coherence is apparent if we look to the other end of Isaiah 49:1-9 . Here it is evident that Jehovah’s commission to the Servant concludes with Isaiah 49:9 a; but then its closing words, "Say to the bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves," start fresh thoughts about the redeemed on their way back ( Isaiah 49:9-13 ); and these thoughts naturally lead on to a picture of Jerusalem imagining herself forsaken, and amazed by the appearance of so many of her children before her ( Isaiah 49:14-21 ). Promises to her and to them follow in due sequence down to Isaiah 50:3 , when the Servant resumes his soliloquy about himself, but abruptly, and in no apparent connection with what immediately precedes. His soliloquy ceases in Isaiah 50:9 , and another voice, probably that of God Himself, urges obedience to the Servant ( Isaiah 50:10 ), and judgment to the sinners in Israel ( Isaiah 50:11 ); and chapter 51 is an address to the spiritual Israel, and to Jerusalem, with thoughts much the same as those uttered in Isaiah 49:14-26 ; Isaiah 50:1-3 . In face of these facts, and taking into consideration the dramatic form in which the whole prophecy is cast, we find ourselves unable to say that there is anything which is incompatible with a single authorship, or which makes it impossible for the two passages on the Servant to have originally sprung, each at the place at which it now stands, from the progress of the prophet’s thoughts. Babylon is left behind, and the way of the Lord is prepared in the desert. Israel have once more the title-deeds to their own land, and Zion looms in sight. Yet with their face to home, and their heart upon freedom, the voice of this people, or at least of the better half of this people, rises first upon the conscience of their duty to the rest of mankind. Hearken, O Isles, unto Me; And listen, O Peoples, from far! From the womb Jehovah hath called me, From my mother’s midst mentioned my name. And He set my mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand did He hide me; Yea, He made me a pointed arrow. In His quiver He laid me in store, And said to me, My Servant art thou, Israel, in whom I shall break into glory. And I-I said, In vain have I laboured, For waste and for wind my strength have I spent! Surely my right’s with Jehovah, And the meed of my work with my God! But now, saith Jehovah- Moulding me from the womb to be His own Servant, To turn again Jacob towards Him, And that Israel be not destroyed. And I am of honour in the eyes of Jehovah, And my God is my strength. And He saith, ‘Tis too light for thy being My Servant, To raise up the tribes of Jacob, Or gather the survivors of Israel. So I will set thee a light of the Nations, To be My salvation to the end of the earth. Thus saith Jehovah, Israel’s Redeemer, his Holy, To this mockery of a life, abhorrence of a nation, Servant of tyrants, Kings shall behold and shall stand up, Princes shall also do homage, For the sake of Jehovah, who shows Himself faithful, Holy of Israel, and thou art His chosen. Thus saith Jehovah, In a favourable time I have given thee answer, In the day of salvation have helped thee, To keep thee, to give thee for covenant of the people, To raise up the land, To give back the heirs to the desolate heirdoms, Saying to the bounden, Go forth! To them that are in darkness, Appear! "Who is so blind as not to perceive that the consciousness of the Servant here is only a mirror in which the history of Israel is reflected-first, in its original call and design that Jehovah should be glorified in it; second, in the long delay and apparent failure of the design, and, thirdly, as the design is now in the present juncture of circumstances and concurrence of events about to be realised?" Yes: but it is Israel’s calling, native insufficiency, and present duty, as owned by only a part of the people, which, though named by the national name ( Isaiah 49:3 ), feels itself standing over against the bulk of the nation, whose redemption it is called to work out ( Isaiah 49:8-9 ) before it takes up its worldwide service. We have already sufficiently discussed this distinction of the Servant from the whole nation, as well as the distinction of the moral work he has to effect in Israel’s redemption from Babylon, from the political enfranchisement of the nation, which is the work of Cyrus. Let us, then, at once address ourselves to the main features of his consciousness of his mission to mankind. We shall find these features to be three. The Servant owns for his chief end the glory of God; and he feels that he has to glorify God in two ways-by Speech, and by Suffering. I. THE SERVANT GLORIFIES GOD He did say to me, My servant art thou, Israel, in whom I shall break into glory. The Hebrew verb, which the Authorised Version translates "will be glorified," means to "burst forth, become visible," break like the dawn into splendour. This is the scriptural sense of Glory. Glory is God become visible. As we put it in Book I, glory is the expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. But, in order to become visible, the Absolute and Holy God needs mortal man. We have felt something like a paradox in these prophecies. Nowhere else is God lifted up so absolute, and so able to effect all by His mere will and word; yet nowhere else are a human agency and service so strongly asserted as indispensable to the Divine purpose. But this is no more a paradox than the fact that physical light needs some material in which to become visible. Light is never revealed of itself, but always when shining from, or burning in, something else. To be seen, light requires a surface that will reflect, or a substance that will consume. And so, to "break into glory," God requires something outside Himself. A responsive portion of humanity is indispensable to Him, -a people who will reflect Him and spend itself for Him. Man is the mirror and the wick of the Divine. God is glorified in man’s character and witness, -these are His mirror; and in man’s sacrifice, -that is His wick. And so we meet again the central truth of our prophecy, that in order to serve men it is necessary first to be used of God. We must place ourselves at the disposal of the Divine, we must let God shine on us and kindle us, and break into glory through us, before we can hope either to comfort mankind or to set them on fire. It is true that ideas very different from this prevail among the ranks of the servants of humanity in our day. A large part of our most serious literature professes for its main bearing this conclusion, that the fellowship between man and man, which has been the principle of development, social and moral, is not dependent upon conceptions of what is not man, and that the idea of God, so far as it has been a high spiritual influence, is the ideal of a goodness entirely human." But such theories are possible only so long as the still unexhausted influence of religion upon society continues to supply human nature, directly or indirectly, with a virtue which may be plausibly claimed for human nature’s own original product. Let religion be entirely withdrawn, and the question, Whence comes virtue? will be answered by virtue ceasing to come at all. The savage imagines that it is the burning-glass which sets the bush on fire, and as long as the sun is shining it may be impossible to convince him that he is wrong; but a dull day will teach even his mind that the glass can do nothing without the sun upon it. And so, though men may talk glibly against God, while society still shines in the light of His countenance, yet, if they and society resolutely withdraw themselves from that light, they shall certainly lose every heat and lustre of the spirit which is indispensable for social service. On this the ancient Greek was at one with the ancient Hebrew. "Enthusiasm" is just "God breaking into glory" through a human life. Here lies the secret of the buoyancy and "freshness of the earlier world," whether pagan or Hebrew, and by this may be understood the depression and pessimism which infect modern society. They had God in their blood, and we are anemic. "But I, I said, I have laboured in vain; for waste and for wind have I spent my strength." We must all say that, if our last word is "our strength." But let this not be our last word. Let us remember the sufficient answer: "Surely my right is with the Lord, and the meed of my work with my God. We are set, not in our own strength or for our own advantage, but with the hand of God upon us, and that the Divine life may "break into glory though our life. Carlyle said, and it was almost his last testimony," The older I grow, and I am now on the brink of eternity, the more comes back to me the first sentence of the catechism, which I learned when a child, and the fuller does its meaning grow "What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." It was said above, that, as light breaks to visibleness either from a mirror or a wick, so God "breaks to glory" either from the witness of men, -that is His mirror, -or from their sacrifice-that is His wick. Of both of these ways of glorifying God is the Servant conscious. His service is Speech and Sacrifice, Prophecy and Martyrdom. II. THE SERVANT AS PROPHET Concerning his service of Speech, the Servant speaks in these two passages - Isaiah 49:2 and Isaiah 50:4-5 : He set my mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand did He hide me, And made me a pointed arrow; In his quiver He laid me in store. My Lord Jehovah hath given me The tongue of the learners, To know how to succour the weary with words. He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear To hear as the learners. My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear. I was not rebellious, Nor turned away backward. At the bidding of our latest prophet we have become suspicious of the power of speech, and the goddess of eloquence walks, as it were, under surveillance among us. Carlyle reiterated, "All speech and rumour is short-lived, foolish, untrue. Genuine work alone is eternal. The talent of silence is our fundamental one. The dumb nations are the builders of the world." Under such doctrine some have grown intolerant of words, and the ideal of today tends to become the practical man rather than the prophet. Yet, as somebody has said, Carlyle makes us dissatisfied with preaching only by preaching himself; and you have but to read him with attention to discover that his disgust with human speech is consistent with an immense reverence for the voice as an instrument of service to humanity. "The tongue of man," he says, "is a sacred organ. Man himself is definable in philosophy as an ‘Incarnate Word’; the Word not there, you have no man there either, but a Phantasm instead." Let us examine our own experience upon the merits of this debate between Silence and Speech in the service of man. Though beginning low, it will help us quickly to the height of the experience of the Prophet Nation, who, with naught else for the world but the voice that was in them, accomplished the greatest service that the world has ever received from her children. One thing is certain, -that Speech has not the monopoly of falsehood or of any other presumptuous sin. Silence does not only mean ignorance, -by some supposed to be the heaviest sin of which Silence can be guilty, -but many things far worse than ignorance, like unreadiness, and cowardice, and falsehood, and treason, and base consent to what is evil. No man can look back on his past life, however lowly or limited his sphere may have been, and fail to see that not once or twice his supreme duty was a word, and his guilt was not to have spoken it. We all have known the shame of being straitened in prayer or praise; the shame of being, through our cowardice to bear witness, traitors to the truth; the shame of being too timid to say No to the tempter, and speak out the brave reasons of which the heart was full; the shame of finding ourselves incapable of uttering the word that would have kept a soul from taking the wrong turning in life; the shame, when truth, clearness, and authority were required from us, of being able only to stammer or to mince or to rant. To have been dumb before the ignorant or the dying, before a questioning child or before the tempter, -this, the frequent experience of our common life, is enough to justify Carlyle when he said, "If the Word is not there, you have no man there either, but a Phantasm instead." Now, when we look within ourselves we see the reason of this. We perceive that the one fact, which amid the mystery and chaos of our inner life gives certainty and light, is a fact which is a Voice. Our nature may be wrecked and dissipated, but conscience is always left; or in ignorance and gloom, but conscience is always audible: or with all the faculties strong and assertive, yet conscience is still unquestionably queen, -and conscience is a Voice. It is a still, small voice, which is the surest thing in man, and the noblest; which makes all the difference in his life; which lies at the back and beginning of all his character and conduct. And the most indispensable, and the grandest service, therefore, which a man can do his fellow-men, is to get back to this voice, and make himself its mouthpiece and its prophet. What work is possible till the word be spoken? Did ever order come to social life before there was first uttered the command, in which men felt the articulation and enforcement of the ultimate voice within themselves? Discipline and instruction and energy have not appeared without speech going before them. Knowledge and faith and hope do not dawn of themselves; they travel, as light issued forth in the beginning, upon the pulses of the speaking breath. It was the greatness of Israel to be conscious of their call as a nation to this fundamental service of humanity. Believing in the Word of God as the original source of all things, -"In the beginning God said, Let there be light; and there was light,"-they had the conscience that, as it had been in the physical world, so must it always be in the moral. Men were to be served and their lives to be moulded by the Word. God was to be glorified by letting His Word break through the life and the lips of men. There was in the Old Testament, it is true, a triple ideal of manhood: "prophet, priest, and king." But the greatest of these was the prophet, for king and priest had to be prophets too. Eloquence was a royal virtue, -with persuasion, the power of command, and swift judgment. Among the seven spirits of the Lord which Isaiah sees descending in the King-to-Come is the spirit of counsel, and he afterwards adds of the King: "He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked." Similarly, the priests had originally been the ministers, not so much of sacrifice, as of the revealed Word of God. And now the new and high ideal of priesthood, the laying down of one’s life a sacrifice for God and for the people, was not the mere imitation of the animal victim required by the priestly law, but was the natural development of the prophetic experience. It was (as we shall presently see) the prophet, who, in his inevitable sufferings on behalf of the truth he uttered, developed that consciousness of sacrifice for others, in which the loftiest priesthood consists. Prophecy, therefore, the Service of Men by the Word of God, was for Israel the highest and most essential of all service. It was the individual’s and it was the nation’s ideal. As there was no true king and no true priest, so there was no true man, without the Word. "Would to God," said Moses, "that all the Lord’s people were prophets." And in our prophecy Israel exclaims: "Listen, O Isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples from far. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me." At first it seems a forlorn hope thus to challenge the attention of the world in a dialect of one of its most obscure provinces, -a dialect, too, that was already ceasing to be spoken even there. But the fact only serves more forcibly to emphasise the belief of these prophets, that the word committed to what they must have known to be a dying language was the Word of God Himself, -bound to render immortal the tongue in which it was spoken, bound to re-echo to the ends of the earth, bound to touch the conscience and commend itself to the reason of universal humanity. We have already seen, and will again see, how our prophet insists upon the creative and omnipotent power of God’s Word; so we need not dwell longer on this instance of his faith. Let us look rather at what he expresses as Israel’s preparation for the teaching of it. To him the discipline and qualification of the prophet nation-and that means of every Servant of God-in the high office of the Word, are threefold. 1. First, he lays down the supreme condition of Prophecy, that behind the Voice there must be the Life. Before he speaks of his gifts of Speech, the Servant emphasises his peculiar and consecrated life. "From the womb Jehovah called me, from my mother’s midst mentioned my name." Now, as we all know, Israel’s message to the world was largely Israel’s life. The Old Testament is not a set of dogmas, nor a philosophy, nor a vision; but a history, the record of a providence, the testimony of experience, the utterances called forth by historical occasions from a life conscious of the purpose for which God has called it and set it apart through the ages. But these words, which the prophet nation uses, were first used of an individual prophet. Like so much else in "Second Isaiah," we find a suggestion of them in the call of Jeremiah. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth from the womb I consecrated thee: I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations." { Jeremiah 1:5 } A prophet is not a voice only. A prophet is a life behind a voice. He who would speak for God must have lived for God. According to the profound insight of the Old Testament, speech is not the expression of a few thoughts of a man, but the utterance of his whole life. A man blossoms through his lips; and no man is a prophet, whose word is not the virtue and the flower of a gracious and a consecrated life. 2. The second discipline of the prophet is the Art of Speech. "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me: He hath made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He laid me in store." It is very evident that in these words the Servant does not only recount technical qualifications, but a moral discipline as well. The edge and brilliance of his speech are stated as the effect of solitude, but of a solitude that was at the same time a nearness to God. Now solitude is a great school of eloquence. In speaking of the Semitic race, of which Israel was part, we pointed out that, prophet-race of the world as it has proved, it sprang from the desert, and nearly all its branches have inherited the desert’s clear and august style of speech; for, in the leisure and serene air of the desert, men speak as they speak nowhere else. But Israel speaks of a solitude that was the shadow of God’s hand and the fastness of God’s quiver; a seclusion which, to the desert’s art of eloquence, added a special inspiration by God, and a special concentration upon His main purpose in the world. The desert sword felt the grasp of God; He laid the Semitic shaft in store for a unique end. 3. But in Isaiah 50:4-5 , the Servant unfolds the most beautiful and true understanding of the Secret of Prophecy that ever was unfolded in any literature, -worth quoting again by us, if so we may get it by heart. My Lord Jehovah hath given me The tongue of the learners, To know how to succour the weary with words. He wakeneth, morning by morning He wakeneth mine ear To hear as the learners. My Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, I was not rebellious, Nor turned away backward. The prophet, say these beautiful lines, learns his speech, as the little child does, by listening. Grace is poured upon the lips through the open ear. It is the lesson of our Lord’s Ephphatha. When He took the deaf man with the impediment in his speech aside from the multitude privately, He said unto him, not Be loosed, but, "Be opened; and" first "his ears were opened, and" then the "bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain." To speak, then, the prophet must listen; but mark to what he must listen! The secret of his eloquence lies not in the hearing of thunder, nor in the knowledge of mysteries, but in a daily ‘wakefulness to the lessons and experience of common life. "Morning by morning He openeth mine ear." This is very characteristic of Hebrew prophecy and Hebrew wisdom, which listened for the truth of God in the voices of each day, drew their parables from things the rising sun lights up to every wakeful eye, and were, in the bulk of their doctrine, the virtues, needed day by day, of justice, temperance, and mercy, and in the bulk of their judgments the results of everyday observation and experience. The strength of the Old Testament lies in this its realism, its daily vigilance and experience of life. It is its contact with life-the life, not of the yesterday of its speakers, but of their today-that makes its voice so fresh and helpful to the weary. He whose ear is daily open to the music of his current life will always find himself in possession of words that refresh and stimulate. But serviceable speech needs more than attentiveness and experience. Having gained the truth, the prophet must be obedient and loyal to it. Yet obedience and loyalty to the truth are the beginnings of martyrdom, of which the Servant now goes on to speak as the natural and immediate consequence of his prophecy. III. THE SERVANT AS MARTYR The classes of men who suffer physical ill-usage at the hands of their fellow-men may roughly be described as three, -the Military Enemy, the Criminal, and the Prophet; and of these three we have only to read history to know that the Prophet fares by far the worst. However fatal men’s treatment of their enemies in war or of their criminals may be, it is, nevertheless, subject to a certain order, code of honour, or principle of justice. But in all ages the Prophet has been the target for the most licentious spite and cruelty; for torture, indecency, and filth past belief. Although our own civilisation has outlived the system of physical punishment for speech, we even yet see philosophers and statesmen, who have used no weapons but exposition and persuasion, treated by their opponents who would speak of a foreign enemy with respect-with execration, gross epithets, vile abuse, and insults, that the offenders would not pour upon a criminal. If we have this under our own eyes, let us think how the Prophet must have fared before humanity learned to meet speech by speech. Because men attacked it, not with the sword of the invader or with the knife of the assassin, but with words, therefore (till not very long ago) society let loose upon them the foulest indignities and most horrible torments. Socrates’ valour as a soldier did not save him from the malicious slander, the false witness, the unjust trial, and the poison, with which the Athenians answered his speech against themselves. Even Hypatia’s womanhood did not awe the mob from tearing her to pieces for her teaching. This unique and invariable experience of the Prophet is summed up and clenched in the name Martyr. Martyr originally meant a witness or witness-bearer, but now it is the synonym for every shame and suffering which the cruel ingenuity of men’s black hearts can devise for those they hate. A Book of Battles is horrible enough, but at least valour and honour have kept down in it the baser passions. A Newgate Chronicle is ugly enough, but there at least are discipline and a hospital You have got to go to a Book of Martyrs to see to what sourness, wickedness, malignity, pitilessness, and ferocity men’s hearts can lend themselves. There is something in the mere utterance of truth, that rouses the very devil in the hearts of many men. Thus it had always been in Israel, nation not only of prophets, but of the slayers of prophets. According to Christ, prophet-slaying was the ineradicable habit of Israel. "Ye are the sons of them that slew the prophets O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets and stoner of them that are sent unto her!" To them who bare it the word of Jehovah had always been "a reproach": cause of estrangement, indignities, torments, and sometimes of death. Up to the time of our prophet there had been the following notable sufferers for the Word: Elijah, Micaiah the son of Imlah; Isaiah, if the story be true that he was slain by Manasseh; but nearer, more lonely, and more heroic than all, Jeremiah, a "laughing-stock" and "mockery," "reviled," "smitten," fettered, and condemned to death. In words which recall the experience of so many individual Israelites, and most of which were used by Jeremiah of himself, the Servant of Jehovah describes his martyrdom in immediate consequence from his prophecy. And I-I was not rebellious, Nor turned away backward. My back I have given to the smiters, And my cheek to tormentors; My face I hid not from insults and spitting. These are not national sufferings. They are no reflection of the hard usage which the captive Israel suffered from Babylon. They are the reflection of the reproach and pains, which, for the sake of God’s word, individual Israelites more than once experienced from their own nation. But if individual experience, and not national, formed the original of this picture of the Servant as Martyr, then surely we have in this another strong reason against the objection to recognise in the Servant at last an individual. It may be, of course, that for the moment our prophet feels that this frequent experience of individuals in Israel is to be realised by the faithful Israel, as a whole, in their treatment by the rest of their cruel and unspiritual countrymen. But the very fact that individuals have previously fulfilled this martyrdom in the history of Israel, surely makes it possible for our prophet to foresee that the Servant, who is to fulfil it again, shall also be an individual. But, returning from this slight digression on the person of the Servant to his fate, let us emphasise again, that his sufferings came to him as the result of his prophesying. The Servant’s sufferings are not penal, they are not yet felt to be vicarious. They are simply the reward with which obdurate Israel met all her prophets, the inevitable martyrdom which followed on the uttering of God’s Word. And in this the Servant’s experience forms an exact counterpart to that of our Lord. For to Christ also reproach and agony and death-whatever higher meaning they evolved-came as the result of His Word. The fact that Jesus suffered as our great High Priest must not make us forget that His sufferings fell upon Him because He was a Prophet. He argued explicitly He must suffer, because so suffered the prophets before Him. He put Himself in the line of the martyrs: as they had killed the servants, He said, so would they kill the Son. Thus it happened. His enemies sought "to entangle Him in His talk": it was for His talk they brought Him to trial. Each torment and indignity which the Prophet-Servant relates, Jesus suffered to the letter. They put Him to shame and insulted Him; His helpless hands were bound; they spat in His face and smote Him with their palms; they mocked and they reviled Him; scourged Him again; teased and tormented Him; hung Him between thieves; and to the last the ribald jests went up, not only from the soldiers and the rabble, but from the learned and the religious authorities as well, to whom His fault had been that He preached another word than their own. The literal fulfillments of our prophecy are striking, but the main fulfilment, of which they are only incidents, is, that like the Servant, our Lord suffered directly as a Prophet. He enforced and He submitted to the essential obligation, which lies upon the true Prophet, of suffering for the Word’s sake. Let us remember to carry this over with us to our final study of the Suffering Servant as the expiation for sin. In the meantime, we have to conclude the Servant’s appearance as Martyr in chapter 1. He has accepted his martyrdom; but he feels it is not the end with him. God will bring him through, and vindicate him in the eyes of the world, For the world, in their usual way, will say that because he gives them a new truth he must be wrong, and because he suffers he is surely guilty and cursed before God. But he will not let himself be confounded, for God is his help and advocate. But My Lord Jehovah shall help me; Therefore, I let not myself be rebuffed: Therefore, I set my face like a flint, And know that I shall not be shamed. Near is my Justifier; who will dispute with Let us stand up together! Who is mine adversary? Let him draw near me. Lo! my Lord Jehovah shall help me; Who is he that condemns me? Lo! like a garment all of them rot, The moth doth devour them. These lines, in which the Holy Servant, the Martyr of the Word, defies the world and asserts that God shall vindicate his innocence, are taken by Paul and used to assert the justification, which every believer enjoys through faith in the sufferings of Him who was indeed the Holy Servant of God. The last two verses of chapter 50 ( Isaiah 50:10-11 ) are somewhat difficult. The first of them still speaks of the Servant, and distinguishes him-a distinction we must note and emphasise-from the God-fearing in Israel. Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, That hearkens the voice of His Ser