Isaiah 50 has been questioned by some scholars as to whether it is a Messianic passage. The basis of the question has been that it is not quoted from in the New Testament. However, once you read and consider Isaiah 50 little question remains as to its Messianic picture.
Chapter 50 of Isaiah commences with two rhetorical questions: one using the metaphor of divorce and the other the metaphor of slavery for unpaid debt. God describes Israel’s iniquities as the cause for his actions with the picture of losing a father and a master. And, yet, God through the proclamation of His word spoke through his prophets to Israel, willing to bless them.
Therefore, in verse four, the voice changes from God to Isaiah, in which Isaiah inserts himself as the one speaking on God’s behalf:
The Lord GOD has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught (Isaiah 50:4).
Isaiah describes himself as the one appointed by God to deliver God’s message, a call to repentance and dependence upon the LORD:
Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God (Isaiah 50:10).
Yet, sadly, Isaiah prophesies that Israel will not trust in the LORD, but rather be self-dependent and in turn receive their due.
Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment (Isaiah 50:11).
Isaiah 50 has Messianic themes running throughout its eleven verses. For example, Isaiah 50:6 describes the pre-crucifixion persecution that Jesus endured:
I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).
Furthermore, Isaiah’s use of “light” and “dark” are similar to those used by John regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ:
Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God (Isaiah 50:10).
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God (John 3:19-21).
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).
Therefore, Isaiah 50 should be read and understood as a testimony that God is sovereign and not dependent upon the actions of humans (“Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?” Isaiah 50:2), and in His purpose He chooses to offer redemption and to use human beings to carry His message. We see this in His use of frail Isaiah, we see this in the use of the apostles, and we see this in the use of His children to take the gospel to the world:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”(Romans 10:14-15).
Most significantly, however, we see God’s use of the perfect human, the very Son of God, Jesus Christ. He is not a frail vehicle of God’s Word like Isaiah or like us, but rather He is the very Word of God made manifest in the person Jesus Christ.
He was not rebellious (Isaiah 50:5), but rather submitted himself to the persecution of human hatred (Isaiah 50:6). He, for our blessing and for God’s glory, persevered to the cross, setting his “face like flint,” knowing that ultimately he would conquer sin and death and reign victoriously: “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Therefore, we are called to fear God through the very Word and to call upon Him to be saved: “Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” (Isaiah 50:10).
But, those who do not hear the Word and rely on the false light of their own human autonomy will not know God, nor enjoy a covenant relationship with Him, but they will know eternal torment:
Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment (Isaiah 50:10-11).
