Servant Song III in Isaiah

“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. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 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 50:4-6, ESV) [Read Isaiah 50:4-11]

Isaiah 50:4-11 has been identified by scholars as the third of the Servant Songs. We have looked the last two days at the first two, Isaiah 42:1-4 and Isaiah 49:1-6. This one is a bit different in that the Servant himself describes how he is faithful to God. He has the tongue of one who is taught. How helpful is that? He uses this ability to encourage and sustain the weary. Every morning God awakens the servant and he is ready to hear, to be taught. But even with listening to God, being taught by Him, there is persecution for the Servant. Those who oppose him strike his back, pull out his beard, ridicule and spit upon him. This is very indicative of the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, who endured scourging, spitting and beating. The prophecy of His suffering told of here and in other places in Isaiah are in all four gospels, in Matthew 26:67, in Mark 14:45, in Luke 22:63-65 and in John 19:1. Here is the one from Matthew 26:67: “Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?” The Suffering Servant that Isaiah told about in his Servant Songs was Jesus Christ the Lord. Even though the Jews of Jesus’ day knew these scriptures, they could not relate them to the teacher, healer, miracle worker, and the one arrested, mocked and killed on the cross. They expected a Messiah who was militarily strong and overcoming, whose Kingdom would rout the Roman rule.

Verses 7-11 in this Servant Song pose some problems in interpretation. Even though hard times come upon the Suffering Servant, He will be steadfast, will not flinch. Verse 8 reminds us of a court and those seeking vindication. Did not that happen to Jesus in the mock trial before the Sanhedrin and His appearance before Pilate? The metaphor of the vindicators wearing out like a moth-eaten garment shows there is no substance to their claims, full of holes. No hymn ends this Servant Song, but it seems to turn to the disciples who are enduring persecution. They are asked if they fear and trust God. Or do they light their own lights and try to live by their own illumination? This hearkens back to the example of the Suffering Servant who, by contrast follows, listens to and is taught by God. “I and my Father are one,” Jesus said. The last part of 50:11 warns of those who foolishly continue to follow their own light without relying upon God. Is it to gain their attention that the prophet warns them if they walk in their own light they will end up in torment? Certainly this is true and definitely a caustic warning. Will the warning work to turn them back to God?

As in the first two Servant Songs, Isaiah touches on the role of the Suffering Servant and of His disciples. An outline emerges from these verses:

I. The Servant listened and learned (50:4-5)
II. The Servant endured suffering (50:6)
III. The Servant confidently depended on God (50:7-9) IV. Disciples are challenged to follow the Servant’s example (50:9-11)

Prayer: God, help us as we study this Servant Song that we will accept and follow the teaching of Your Word. With praise we pray: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, September 23, 2010

Prayer Power

“Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (-Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV) [Read Ephesians 3:14-21].

Ephesians 3:14-21 is Paul the Apostle’s prayer for the Christians at Ephesus, throughout Asia Minor, and even to the ends of the world—to us today who read his prayer and marvel that the Apostle would kneel to pray for believers everywhere.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, the great English poet, wrote: “More things are wrought by prayer/Than this world dreams of.” Knowing the power of prayer, our means of communication to the very throne of God, borne along by the Holy Spirit who “intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26), how can Christians not pray? I put great store in prayer. It has been my means of spiritual strength ever since I became a Christian at age nine. Prior to that, I had already been praying the much-loved prayer from The New England Primer: “Now I lay me down to sleep, /I pray the Lord my soul to keep; /If I should die before I wake,/I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Modern child psychologists are now saying we should not teach this prayer to our children because it is morose, speaks of death, and will give children a complex. But to me, this simple prayer did (and still does) express trust and commitment to the Lord of glory to care for His own during hours of rest. He keeps His forever vigil beside His own. Try that simple prayer nightly; it works!

Prayer can encompass every care we have, every praise we raise, every thanks we offer, every plea we make. This very day, I am seeing an answer to prayer, and I praise God for it. My second-eldest granddaughter, Dr. Christina Marie Berenguer, is graduating today from five long years of surgical internship. Prior to that, she had four years of college and three years of medical school. Altogether, to reach her goal of Medical Doctor, Surgeon, she has studied hard and worked diligently. Her goal was reached because she felt a calling from God to be a doctor, and she pursued a course to achieve the aim. Many prayed for her, including her parents and grandparents, and others. Lying ahead is her brand new practice and the work she is well-trained to do. As Paul states in his prayer, God did “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” Praise be to God! Keep a prayer journal! Mark off answers to your prayers. Then you will see that God rewards our faithful praying. Claim scripture promises as you pray. “Watch and pray.” (Matthew 26:41).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, June 18, 2010

Jesus Before the Sanhedrin

“The high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ ‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied ‘But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ “ –Matthew 26:63-64 (NIV)

The Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court, was determined to bring about the death of Jesus Christ. At the house of Caiphas, the high priest, Jesus faced his Jewish accusers. This court did not have the power, under Roman rule, to assign the death penalty. They would have to send Jesus on to Pilate for the death sentence. Between these two trials were the travails of Peter and Judas. Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas, in great chagrin, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the temple, threw the coins down, then went out and committed suicide by hanging. And while these notable events were taking place, Jesus was sentenced to capital punishment on the evidence of false witnesses.

Notice how Jesus accepted Messianic titles: Christ, the Son of God; the Son of Man; the One sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One; the One who will return, coming on the clouds of heaven. How much Jesus told his unbelieving accusers of God’s plan and purpose in his death and future glory! Did these purveyors of the Jewish law, those who knew the prophecies and could quote them, not know that the Innocent One who stood before them was the one of whom Isaiah wrote in his great Messianic prophecy? (Read Isaiah 53). Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant predicted the vicarious suffering and death of Jesus. The One who stood before the Sanhedrin was He. And the Sanhedrin clamored for His death. They, in their headstrong determination were, unawares, fulfilling God’s plan and purpose in the redemption and restoration of mankind.

Jesus, though He had remained silent up until this point in His mock trial, gave in a brief statement the expanse of Who He is and what He will do. Emmanuel, the Son of Man, God with us—and the future victorious One who will return in the clouds of glory to receive those unto Himself who believe. Before the unbelieving and unaccepting Sanhedrin, He established Who He is and His eternal purpose. Praise be to God!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Saturday, March 27, 2010

Gethsemane: Place of Prayer and Betrayal

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will…He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’..Now his betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.’ “ –Matthew 26: 36, 39, 42, 48 (NKJV).

All four of the gospel writers give their accounts of Jesus going with eleven of his disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. He took a little further in with him Peter, James and John who, like the other eight, went to sleep while Jesus prayed in such agony.

Gethsemane was a place to which Jesus withdrew to pray. It was a garden outside the city of Jerusalem, across the Brook Kidron, and up a short distance on the Mount of Olives. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed the most impassioned prayer we have recorded from his lips. “Father, let this cup pass from me.” We see the humanness of Jesus in this prayer. He knew in advance what would befall him, the suffering, agony and shame.

Who among us does not dread physical suffering, especially that inflicted by others? Is there any soldier who faces the thick of battle without dread and fear of physical suffering?

Jesus was in a battle to overcome Satan and the powers of darkness. His death was immanent, predicted in prophecy, in place before the foundation of the world. In Gethsemane, Jesus showed the height of His emotional agony. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” He prayed. “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” In Gethsemane the sweat drops from Jesus’ brow were as drops of blood. In the garden He won in advance the victory in His death to come. He would suffer untold agony but His determination and God’s will would be fulfilled. In Gethsemane He did not suggest another way. We learn from Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane the important principle of voicing our human desires and fears, while at the same time seeking God’s perfect will, His way and His guidance.

Even though the hymn, “Go to Dark Gethsemane” is exceedingly somber, it is beautiful, deep and meaningful. The words penned by James Montgomery (1771-1854) recount well the suffering Jesus endured in the garden and the subsequent events. In some hymbooks, the signature verse following the title is: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38, NIV). I went to the hymnbook and read (and sang) the words of all four stanzas. Revisit in your meditations during this Holy Season Gethsemane, the Judgment Hall, Calvary and the empty tomb.

Go to dark Gethsemane
You who feel the tempter’s pow’r;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray. (“Go to Dark Gethsemane” by James Montgomery)

Then came the betrayer, Judas, with a crowd armed with swords and clubs to take Jesus. Judas had been paid a mere thirty pieces of silver by the chief priests to lead the arresting party to Him. Judas knew Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray. It was not hard to find Him on that dark night. A servant’s ear got cut off in the confusion. Immediately Jesus healed the man’s ear. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, had done his terrible deed. He returned the money—blood money—to the Jewish leaders. Since it was blood money, they could not use it for regular treasury purposes. They bought a field and named it for Judas, making it a cemetery, place of the dead. In the Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem, the potter’s field was used to bury people who died while visitors to the Holy City—even despised Gentiles.

And Judas’ end? He went out and hanged himself. Suicide was better than living with the weight and guilt of his abominable deed.

Gethsemane. I’ve had the privilege of visiting this garden, walking its paths, kneeling near where Jesus prayed. Giant, twisted trees, so experts tell us, were there even from before Jesus’ time. With awe and deep humility, I knelt beneath a gnarled olive tree and identified at least in part with what Jesus endured on His knees as He wrestled to fulfill His purpose in God’s plan to save even me. To reject the sacrifice of Christ would be a greater betrayal than even that which Judas Iscariot carried out in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Think on these things.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Thursday, March 25, 2010

Anointing Jesus for His Burial

“And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. . . (Jesus said) ‘For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.’ “ -Matthew 26: 6-7, 12 (NKJV) (Read Matthew 26:6-13)

Matthew’s account of the anointing of Jesus at the home of Simon the Leper (a person Jesus healed) is one of His anointings recorded in the gospels. Luke 7: 36-50 gives another anointing in the house of Simon the Pharisee. That account tells of a ‘woman of the city, a sinner’ anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair, and Jesus’ telling her that her sins were forgiven. Another anointing occurred at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha in Bethany six days before the Passover. Mary took a pound of oil of spikenard and anointed Jesus’ feet. “The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” (John 12:3). Again, Jesus said: “She has kept this for the day of my burial.”

To anoint was a sign of being set aside for a task. Symbolically, to anoint was an official declaration of appointment to office, political or spiritual. The anointing of Jesus recognized Him as the Messiah sent from God. It’s rather amazing that His anointing were made by women who recognized Him as the Messiah and had the courage in a mixed group to boldly anoint Jesus. Men looked on and disparaged the waste of the oil that could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. It had other meanings as well. Anointing was used in healing the sick and embalming for burial. It was this latter custom, with his death soon impending, that Jesus said the act had been performed by the woman.

God had already anointed and appointed Jesus to come into the world and as the Perfect Lamb of God be offered as the sacrifice for sin. We Christians see Jesus as the Anointed One. God’s presence and power were present in the woman’s anointing of Jesus. She was but the willing vessel to perform the act.

Each of us is anointed as a Christian. The oil may not be applied to our heads, as in the account of the woman anointing Jesus. But spiritually, we are anointed. Paul speaks of anointing of the Christian in 2 Corinthians 1:21: “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ..has anointed us in God.” John tells of the Christian’s anointing in his letter, I John 1:27: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you…” May we ponder on and thank God for our own anointing.

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Friday, March 19, 2010