Isaiah 50, A Path Lit by the Servant

The previous chapter foretold a return of Israel to the promised land. The unfaithful Israelites will be offered a servant to guide them.

Isaiah 50:1-3, Desertion

This is what the LORD says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce

    with which I sent her away?

Or to which of my creditors

    did I sell you?

Because of your sins you were sold;

    because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

When I came, why was there no one?

    When I called, why was there no one to answer?

Was my arm too short to deliver you?

    Do I lack the strength to rescue you?

By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,

    I turn rivers into a desert;

their fish rot for lack of water

    and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with darkness

    and make sackcloth its covering.”

The metaphor of an unfaithful wife, fleshed out fully in Hosea, is used to describe Israel's turning away from God. This divorce is solely the actions of Israel; God, the faithful husband, is open for reconciliation. But unlike a mortal husband, God claims full power to restore and rescue. Similar statements about being Israel's husbad are made in Jeremiah 31:31-32.

We see echoes of Exodus here, with dried up seas, rotting fish, skies of darkness.

Isaiah 50:4-6, Awakened every morning

The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue,

    to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

    wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears;

    I have not been rebellious,

    I have not turned away.

I offered my back to those who beat me,

    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;

I did not hide my face

    from mocking and spitting.

Now the servant speaks. God's is described in the third person here, unlike the first three verses.
God servant is awakened every morning by God's voice and is faithful, even suffering for God's message. Is this servant Israel or Isaiah or a future Messiah? Context would indicate that Israel is the nation that needs to be saved and is incapable of responding as the servant does in this passage. Throughout these chapters, the servant seems to be a future annointed one, Messiah, and not Isaiah. The Christian sees Messiah Jesus here, including the suffering he faced before Pilate (see Matthew 26:67-68, 27:27-31.)

This begins the third four "Servant Songs", running to the end of the chapter. The other Servant Songs are in Isaiah 42:1-4,  Isaiah 49:1–6 and Isaiah 52:13–53:12.

Isaiah 50:7-9, Face like flint

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,

    I will not be disgraced.

Therefore have I set my face like flint,

    and I know I will not be put to shame.

He who vindicates me is near.

    Who then will bring charges against me?

    Let us face each other!

Who is my accuser?

    Let him confront me!

It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me.

    Who will condemn me?

They will all wear out like a garment;

    the moths will eat them up.

The servant will endure hardship but not be put to shame. He relies on YHWH to defend him. All his enemies will be put to shame, they "wear out like a garment."

Isaiah 50:10-11, Light of fires

Who among you fears the LORD

    and obeys the word of his servant?

Let the one who walks in the dark,

    who has no light,

trust in the name of the LORD

    and rely on their God.

But now, all you who light fires

    and provide yourselves with flaming torches,

go, walk in the light of your fires

    and of the torches you have set ablaze.

This is what you shall receive from my hand:

    You will lie down in torment.

The choice is to obey the servant and follow his light, or set their own fires and walk away into torment. These chapters will continue to remind Israel to return to God and to look forward to a coming servant, even a suffering servant.

Some Random Thoughts

Having worked through the book of Job, I am aware that many of God's plans are longterm -- they do not, in the short term, necessarily relieve suffering. Here Isaiah is looking down a long road, running for centuries, towards a dramatic Day in which a savior arises and restores the world. The time to the Messiah will be some centuries; the time to that final Day must be at least millennia.