Isaiah 50:4-9 – Emulating Jesus, our Master and Lord

Isaiah 50:4-9 returned to the Messianic Servant. This appears to be a soliloquy where this Servant thought aloud concerning Himself. In verses 4-5 He mused about His preparation for the task He was to do. Aa a good learner, He diligently trained and prepared Himself so that He would speak with certainty to lift up and sustain the weary. These two verses suggest that He would go before God early each day with an open and receptive heart to hear from Him. So that from God, He would be effective in accomplishing His mission. He diligently spent the time listening to the Master. What He heard from God He would obediently do. This was what the Lord Jesus did according to Mark 1:35. We are told that “…in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and prayed there for a time.”  This underscores for us that to be effective in ministry there is a necessity to prepare oneself, by constantly coming to the Lord diligently and hear from Him.  

In verse 6, the Servant mused about His sufferings. His body would be abused. His back would be whipped, and His beard would be pulled out. Yet He did not flinch from the abuse. He stoutly endured the insult and withstood the shame. Didn’t Jesus the Lord on the night that He was betrayed went through the whole gamut of what was briefly detailed here? He did not resist the unjust torture at the hands of the High priest and Pilate the Roman Governor. Yet He would be determined to endure the torture to accomplish His task.

However, the Servant was confident that God would vindicate Him. He was confident that all He had to bear would not be in vain. So courageously with the help of God, He set His face like a flint and endured all the pain and suffering. Knowing that God would help Him, He was determined not to be swayed by anyone or anything from accomplishing the task He came to do. His enemies and accusers who came against Him cannot make headway. For He was sure He could live up to the challenge and finish what He came to do unashamedly. So Hebrews 12:2 tells us that  Jesus the author and perfector of our faith “…who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

From the musing of these verses, two things worth our emulation surfaced. Like the Lord Jesus, if we are to be effective in life, we need first to be prepared. We need to yield to the process of being a true disciple. It requires that we connect with God daily and listen to Him with an open and receptive heart. Furthermore, we must also obediently do what He tells us to do. Secondly, we need to nurture confident trust in God. Be assured that He will vindicate us in all unjust accusations. He will enable us to face up to the unjust dealings dish out to us in life. Ultimately, in trusting Him, we will not be put to shame. So we each must be a true disciple and trust in God wholeheartedly. Let’s do it!