Isaiah 50:4-11 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary… "Morning by morning He openeth mine ear to hear as the scholars." If we would rightly understand this Divine application of Isaiah's words, we must first understand the human application of them, looking through the type to the anti-type, and thus beholding the Servant of Jehovah as "blind" and "deaf, yet "well-pleasing" to God as one "magnifying the law and making it honourable," and both shadowing forth and preparing the way for the perfect service of the perfect Servant. Taking first then this human view of the text, observe — I. The closed ears of God s scholars. "He openeth mine ear. In the earlier description of Israel, associated with Isaiah's call to the prophetic office (a passage more frequently quoted in the New Testament than any other words of the Old), the ear is said to be "heavy," and the heart "gross," and the eyes "closed." Alas! this is the sorrowful condition not only of Israel but of humanity. II. The closed ears Divinely opened. "He openeth." The ear is too heavy for the word itself to penetrate tilt He who breathed it comes. By Him it is opened, at a time of spiritual crisis oftentimes, but even then the scholar of God is too often deaf to his Teacher's voice. His ears need to be often opened anew. "Morning by morning." We must all be day scholars in the school of God. And we learn "as the scholars." The double meaning of this word "scholar" suits the meaning of the passage admirably. A "scholar" is one who is learning his alphabet, and a "scholar" is also one that knows much more than his fellow-men, and can teach them with the "tongue of the scholar." But there must be learning before teaching, and if we are scholars in God's school we shall know "more than the ancients." What then are His lessons? 1. The first lesson God teaches is a lesson of obedience (ver. 5). 2. The second lesson God teaches is a lesson in patience (ver. 6). Morning by morning the Divine voice calls us to suffer as well as to do. 3. The third lesson God teaches is a lesson in boldness (ver. 7). Flint-like are the true scholars of God. Omnipotence is on their side and they know it. 4. The fourth lesson God teaches is a lesson in service (ver. 4). The ear is opened that the tongue may be loosed to speak for Him who opened it. Every scholar must be a teacher. Look at the application of the text to Jesus Christ. Isaiah was His favourite book, and this text doubtless was often in His mind, as it was once upon His lips. (1) Do we learn obedience? He also "learned obedience by the things that He suffered," so that it was "His meat" to do the will of God always, and in Him only was the ideal attitude of obedience realized. "Lo I come: I delight to do Thy will, O My God."(2) Do we painfully learn the lesson of patience? Let us "consider Him who endured the contradiction of sinners."(3) Do we gain something of His boldness? It was when the persecutors of the earliest disciples marvelled the boldness which they showed that "they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus," for at His feet they had learned this manly virtue. (4) Do we attempt service? How did God's holy Servant fulfil His consoling mission by speaking words in season to the weary? And the old lesson is also the new, "Have faith in God." The "faith" of the New Testament is the "trust" of the Old. (H. C. Leonard, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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