Isaiah 50

The LORD says, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions. Wesley: The scope of this and the next chapter is to vindicate God’s justice and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of their own calamities. Behold—you can blame none but yourselves and your own sins, for all your captivities and miseries.

Judah is not sold because the LORD is bankrupt; the missing bill is the point. The sending-away is consequence of iniquities, not a feint. No dispute here: no creditor; sold for iniquities; mother sent away for transgressions. The dereliction of the Jews is not because the Servant of 49 cannot save.

Where is that bill of divorcement? Calvin: the Lord shews that he is not the author of the divorce, but that the people went away by their own fault and followed their lusts, so that they had utterly broken the bond of marriage. Who is the creditor to whom I sold you? You cannot bring this reproach against me; on account of your transgressions you have been sold and reduced to slavery. Did the Lord divorce his heritage? Did he make void the covenant? Certainly not; when he did not bestow upon them his wonted favor, it was a kind of divorce or rejection.

Two contrasts—the wife is divorced by the husband’s fault or because she is unchaste; children are sold for the father’s poverty or by their own fault. Not sold because he is bankrupt; sold for iniquities. Present want of favor looks like divorce; the Husband did not cancel the bond.

Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Wesley: Wherefore—the general accusation delivered in the last words he now proves by particular instances. When—when I, first by my prophets, came to call them to repentance. No man—that complied with my call. To answer—to come at my call. Is my hand—what is the reason of this contempt? Is it because you think I am either unwilling or unable to save you? A wilderness—as dry and fit for travelling as a wilderness.

The prophets’ summons is an earnest call to repentance; none complied. The hand is not shortened. Both affirm: he came; none answered; sea dried at his rebuke. Those who stayed away did not stay because he could not redeem, but because they would not come. The point is refusal of an earnest call.

Why did I come? Calvin: still it is not he who prevents them from being immediately set at liberty; they grow old and rot in their distresses, for the Lord was ready to assist them if they had not rejected his grace and kindness. He approaches by the preaching of the Word and by tokens of fatherly kindness. It is an instance of extreme ingratitude to refuse to accept the grace of God which is freely offered. By shortening hath my hand been shortened? Who would venture to plead against God that his power was diminished? Their sins were the hinderance.

Freely offered grace refused; both the beginning and the progress of the evil arise from the people. He came; none answered; the hand is not short. Egypt’s sea is the proof he can still deliver. Calvin’s offer is not a sneer at Wesley’s prophetic call; both hear a coming they would not meet.

I clothe the heavens with blackness. I make sackcloth their covering. Wesley: I clothe—when it is necessary to save my people, I cover them with thick and dark clouds black as sackcloth, Rev. The image recalls the plagues on Egypt. The same power that can darken the heavens is not the bankrupt creditor of v. 1. Neither side disputes this: heavens clothed; sackcloth covering. The LORD who can still save. The light promised to the nations in 49:6 is not cancelled by this blackness.

I clothe the heavens with blackness. Calvin: he mentions that thick darkness which was spread over all Egypt during the space of three days. The heaven was clothed as with a mourning dress. God, who had so miraculously assisted the fathers, was prevented by their ingratitude from granting relief to the miseries which now oppressed them.

Egypt’s darkness is the token that power is not the lack. Ingratitude, not a shortened hand, is why relief delays. The same LORD who led out of Egypt still has a Servant whose word is light.

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. Wesley: Given me—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. The tongue—all ability of speaking plainly, and convincingly, and persuasively. Weary—burdened with the sense of his deplorable condition. Wakeneth—me, from time to time, and continually. To hear—he by his Divine power assists me to the practice of all his commands and my duties, with all attention and diligence.

The speaker is Christ, the taught one whose word sustains the weary. Where they meet: tongue given; ear wakened; the weary helped. The light for the nations in 49:6 now has a morning ear.

The Lord GOD is the speaker. Calvin: after twice convicting them of guilt he adds consolation; this passage is commonly explained so as to relate to Christ, as if it had not been applicable to the Prophet. For my own part, I have no doubt that Isaiah comes forward as one who represents all the servants of God, not only those who were from the beginning, but those who should come afterwards. Hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know a word in season to the weary. No man is fit to teach who has not first been qualified by God; all things necessary for discharging their office are gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Christ is not denied; the Head includes the members who comfort the faint. Both traditions hear: tongue of the taught; weary sustained; morning by morning. The chief duty of the word is to soothe wretched men. None are good teachers but those who have been good scholars.

The Lord GOD has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I have not turned not backward. The head-note still governs: he was obedient in that work, and God is present with him. The opened ear of v. 4 now answers as non-rebellion.

Christ does not turn back. The call is made in earnest; the Servant’s yes is true. Ear opened; not rebellious; not turned backward. The Servant who is light to the nations in 49:6 is here the disciple whose ear is opened and who does not turn back.

The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear. Calvin: the opening of the ear refers not only to doctrine but to the whole calling; the Lord opens the ear not only when he declares his will, but when he powerfully affects a man’s heart and moves him to render obedience. And I was not rebellious: he undertakes nothing at random, but, being fully convinced of God’s calling, he discharges the office of a teacher, though it is laborious and difficult, because he is ready to obey.

Spirit-moved hearing, not a bare announcement. Common reading: ear opened; not rebellious. The Head’s servants are made willing. Calvin’s “whosoever hath heard and learned from the Father cometh to me” is the same Christ both camps name, not a second gospel.

I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting. Wesley: I gave—I patiently yielded up myself to those who smote me.

The taught Christ of v. 4 actually gives his back. The verse shows the Servant’s willing obedience under abuse; Wesley does not read it as a statement of atonement doctrine. Both confess: back, cheeks, face not hidden. Smiters; the Servant is not rebellious. The point is the patient yield of the one meant directly of Christ.

I exposed my body to the smiters. Calvin: the ministers of the word cannot perform their office faithfully without being exposed to a contest with the world, and even without being fiercely assailed on all sides. My face I did not hide from shame and spitting: out of the very bosom of the Church there always spring up wicked men who insolently attack the prophets. While this doctrine belongs to all believers, it belongs especially to the teachers of the word, who ought to go before others as standard-bearers.

The Head’s servants share the spitting; Calvin names the same slanders as were directed against Christ and the Apostles, without turning the verse into a 53-style atonement argument. Back given; face not hid.

For the Lord GOD will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won’t be put to shame. The head-note still governs: God is present with him. Help is why the flint-face holds.

The Servant knows he shall not be put to shame because the LORD helps, not because a party won. Help; not disgraced; face like flint. The obedient Christ of vv. 4–6 now stands. The point is the present God.

For the Lord Jehovah will help me. Calvin: so great courage comes from God’s assistance; he is fortified against all the attacks of the world. I have set my face as a flint: the servants of God, being so shamefully treated, must have sunk had they not withstood them with a forehead of stone. It is not enough that God is willing to help us, if we do not also feel it; confidence is demanded. I shall not be confounded: special assistance is promised to godly teachers and ministers of the word.

The Head’s ministers turn wholly to God. Either reading: help; flint; not ashamed. Those who tremble at the contest, Calvin says, were never duly qualified—not a sneer at Wesley’s present God, but the same help felt.

He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Wesley: Justifieth—God will clear up my righteousness, and shew by many and mighty signs and wonders, that I lived and died his faithful servant. Let him come—I am conscious of mine own innocency, and I know that God will give sentence for me.

Christ’s innocency is public; he lived and died the faithful Servant. The vindicator is near; adversaries may come. Not a culture court; the point is the LORD who sentences for the obedient Servant. The light of 49:6 is not a condemned light.

He is near that justifieth me. Calvin: the Prophet mentions nothing peculiar to himself, but testifies what the Lord will always be toward faithful ministers. That any one may make this protestation, his conscience must be pure; the promise belongs only to those who have been called by God and who sincerely perform their duty. Let us stand together: so great is the force of truth that it does not dread the light of day. God, whose cause we plead, is our Judge, and will at length acquit us.

The near Justifier is the very Lord who helps in v. 7. He who justifies is near; stand together. Calvin will say in v. 9 that this block is the ministry of the Word, not a second reading of universal salvation forced back onto the Servant’s innocency.

Behold, the Lord GOD will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up. Wesley: They—mine accusers and enemies. The moth—shall be cut off and consumed by a secret curse.

Accusers of the faithful Servant wear out. Who will declare him guilty? The help of v. 7 answers. Lord GOD helps; moth eats them. The Servant who is light remains uncondemned.

Who is he that condemneth me? Calvin: Paul appears to allude to this passage—“It is God that justifieth; who shall condemn?” We may safely have recourse to the judgment-seat of God when we are well assured that we have obtained his righteousness by free grace through Christ. But here Isaiah handles a different subject; for he does not speak of the universal salvation of men, but of the ministry of the Word, which the Lord will defend against the attacks of wicked men. All who fight with the Word of God shall fall and vanish away; like garments they perish, consumed by worms.

Fierce dogs that bark at godly teachers fade, however high their authority. Help; none shall condemn; moth-eaten garments. Calvin’s free-grace aside is the gospel already in the Servant, not a second gospel; the verse itself he keeps as the Word defended.

Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in the LORD’s name, and rely on his God. Wesley: The voice—of Christ, who is called God’s servant, by way of eminency and to intimate that though he was God, yet he would take upon himself the form of a servant. In darkness—not in sin, but in misery, that lives in a disconsolate and calamitous condition. Trust—let him fix his faith and hope in the mercy, and faithfulness, of the Lord, declared in his word, and in his interest in God, who by the mediation of this servant is reconciled to him and made his God.

“Darkness”—misery, not a sin-ledger; the call is to trust the name and stay upon God. Fear the LORD; obey the Servant’s voice; walk in darkness; trust. The Servant of 49 is here the voice to obey. Those who have no light are told to trust, not to kindle v. 11’s torches.

Who is among you that feareth the Lord? Calvin: he directs his discourse to believers, that they may suffer themselves to be guided by the Word of God. Their number is small; yet he addresses them separately, that they may detach themselves from the mixed crowd. Let him hear the voice of his servant: God does not wish to be heard but by the voice of his ministers. By darkness he means not the ignorance or blindness of the human understanding, but the afflictions by which the children of God are almost always overwhelmed. If they have walked in darkness, they shall at length enjoy the light of the Lord.

“Darkness”—affliction of the children of God, matching Wesley’s misery-not-sin. Fear; hear the servant; trust the name. The remnant must detach from the crowd and become obedient to that Word. The light they will enjoy is the LORD’s, not a later scheme of ages.

Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow. Wesley: All ye—you that reject the light which God hath set up, and seek for comfort and safety, by your own inventions. Walk—use your utmost endeavours to get comfort from these devices. This—this shall be the fruit of all, you shall receive nothing but vexation and misery.

The light God set up is the Servant’s voice in v. 10; own inventions cannot replace it. The point is rejecting the light already given. Those who perish do not perish because no light was set up, but because they would not trust it.

Lo, all of you kindle a fire. Calvin: he upbraids them with choosing to kindle for themselves their own light, instead of drawing near to the light of God—the consolation of the Word versus empty words of comfort. They rejected this light in order to kindle another, and shall be consumed by this light as by a conflagration. Walk in the flame of your fire: ironical permission denoting disappointment. From my hand: men who have forsaken the light of the Word, and who seek consolation from some other quarter, shall miserably perish.

Own light is not the Servant’s light. Fire kindled; lie down in sorrow. The fork is God’s light versus ours.