Isaiah 50:10-11 Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light?… I suppose that there are very few, if any, who reach old age or even middle life without the painful experience of times of depression of spirits. There come, perhaps, days in the life of every one when all things seem against him. Such times are not foreign to the experience of God's greatest saints, and Isaiah appears to contemplate them as times to be expected by the servant of God. 1. Isaiah is not alone in this. There are numberless instances in Holy Scripture which show how true it is. 2. But whatever the cause, if the conscience is clear from wilful sin, what is our duty under such a state of depression? The text sets before us two things as needful — (1) Obedience. The prophet assumes that those to whom he is speaking will, in spite of their perplexity, obey. He would have them acquiesce in the God-permitted darkness, however trying and painful it may be. Better darkness than a light which is not kindled from above. And yet not seldom it is such a time of depression which drives a man to despair, and leads him in the end to give up his faith altogether. In hours of darkness great is the temptation to have recourse to fires of our own kindling — to seek for light elsewhere than from the "Father of Lights;" and so in the verse following that taken as the text, Isaiah turns to those who are yielding to the temptation, and warns them in tones of scornful irony against false lights of their own kindling. (2) Faith. 3. This week we are watching our Lord in His path through the dark vale of suffering and along the way of sorrows. Our eyes are fixed on but one figure. To-day we contemplate those two points which the Epistle especially brings out — His perfect obedience, and His perfect trust. Let us learn a much-needed lesson — "It is sufficient for the disciple that he be as his Master." (E. C. S. Gibson, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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