Isaiah 50:4-11 (The 3rd Servant Song)

Isaiah 50:4-11 - The 3rd Servant Song

As Jesus was trained, so we must be trained to be true disciples (servants).

SONG 3 describes the Servant’s Training (Isaiah 50:4-11).

The Servant Songs emphasise five characteristics of the true Servant.
To be God’s Servant like Jesus,we must develop:
1. A heart of gentleness, sensitivity and compassion.
2. A trained tongue
3. A hearing ear
4. A sacrificial love
5. A face like flint.

1. A Heart of gentleness, sensitivity and compassion.
If we represent and serve God we must have His heart of compassion for people, especially the lost. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

2. A Trained Tongue:“The Lord GOD has given Me the (trained) tongue of the learned (disciple), that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary” (Isaiah 50:4). God wants to train our tongue to speak His words to people, to uplift the down, but not to encourage them in their sin. If our tongue is loose we cannot serve God well, for we will often misrepresent God.

3. A Hearing Ear (this is the key to the whole training). “He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away” (v4,5).

Jesus spent time first thing in the morning to hear God’s voice - to listen for God’s guidance and instruction. Like us, He had to learn who He was and what
His mission was - from the Word and the Spirit. A servant must learn to LISTEN to His Master or he ends up busy about his own business not the Master’s. A waiter must listen for the order or he is useless, even if he is bright and has a great personality. Take time in the Word, and be quiet before Him and listen.

Say: “Speak Lord, Your servant listens.” Get into NEUTRAL. You can’t listen
if your head is full of your own ideas. You have to set them aside and keep praying: “Your will be done, not my will.” When He speaks, test it and then if it checks out, obey it. People get stuck when they get fixated on a certain idea, person or way they imagine things have to be (whether a job, a certain husband, a wife, a ministry) and miss God because that vision becomes an idol. We have to always lay it down (even if it has something of God in it) and give it back to God. Then He can develop, purify and increase it. Thus we stay open to hear Him more. We can be like a waiter who
only hears the first few words and then rushes off. Take time, and remove all your pre-conceived ideas and listen.  

Ask God questions and expect to receive God’s answers: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” - James 1:5-8.

God revealed to Jesus His Mission and His suffering and He did not turn away but embraced it:

4. A Sacrificial Love: “I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting” (v6). Being a servant means going the extra mile, self-denial, being willing to lay your life down if God requires.

See also SONG 4 (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).

Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and
dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my Servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me” (John 12:24-26).

5. A Face like Flint. He must perservere against opposition, knowing that God will vindicate. “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near me. Surely the Lord GOD will help me; who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up” (v7-9).  

God will exalt and back up His true servants, while those who oppose them will diminish. When you truly represent God, when they resist you, they resist God because you are submitted and identified with God and He identifies with you. We see this is absolutely true with Jesus- you can’t know God apart from trusting and obeying His Servant Jesus:  

“Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His SERVANT?
He says to you: “Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon his God. Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks: (If you) walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled (your own ideas, philosophies, opinions, religions that suit you rather than trusting in Christ and His teachings) - this you shall have from My hand: you shall lie down in torment (the Servant has been given authority to judge)” (v10,11).