40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 49:10-50:6 (Episode 491)

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

The Lord is not a God who forgets. The Kingdom of God will be crowded as the chosen come from all over the earth. And God has a very long wingspan. Have a listen. Show Notes: ·       Support 1517 Podcast Network ·       1517 Podcasts ·       1517 on Youtube ·       1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts ·       1517 Events Schedule ·       1517 Academy - Free Theological Education   What's New from 1517: ·       Coming Home for Christmas: 1517 Advent Devotional ·       Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi ·       Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird ·       Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales ·       Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug   More from the hosts: ·       Daniel Emery Price ·       Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast, check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Read some articles, sign up for some academies, go to some events, you know, all that stuff. And while you're over there doing all that stuff, of course, you could become a contributor. Keep all the stuff we're doing happening. You can make a donation.

You can become a donor to the cause. You can just do that as a one-time thing or a reoccurring thing. there's a link right there in the right hand corner of the website or in the show notes of this podcast and uh to those of you who have already done that uh thank you very much you do make it all possible chad we are in isaiah chapter 49 got through uh the first uh the first bit of it and uh some good news and in isaiah 49 you know you get to have the sermon of the lord is coming. And despite all the good reasons that God has to not really deliver his people, since, you know, they are rebellious and they aren't faithful to him and all these things,

that doesn't seem to stop him from after telling them all the reasons that he has for not delivering them, saying, but still going to do it, still going to send my servant, still going to bring about restoration for you yeah that's uh that's grace uh for sure they don't deserve it but they they still still get the redeeming work of god and we're uh we're hearing in typical old testament kind of language what this is going to look like when god restores or redeems or ransoms his people he starts out in verse 8 which we talked about last time saying that uh god is answering. God is helping. This is the father speaking to the son. So this is the Lord speaking to the servant. And the Lord is going to keep him. He's going to make Christ to be a covenant

to the people. He's going to establish the land. He's going to kind of portion out the heritages. Again, this is typical Old Testament kind of language for God giving the kingdom to his people. And then verse 9 echoes a lot of the New Testament language of setting the prisoners free, because it says, he will say to the prisoners, come out, and to those who are in darkness, appear. And that theme of darkness is echoed, of course, in the Gospels as well, where Christ is the light. Now, in the section that follows this, which is kind of halfway through verse 9 through verse 12, we're going to have more of this kind of typical Old Testament language of God guiding people, protecting them, shielding them, bringing them on a road so they don't get

lost. But what's fascinating about this is how this language is going to be picked up by John in Revelation chapter 7. So I'll read 9 through 12 and then just take a quick look at Revelation to see how John basically just borrows this same kind of imagery to describe the blessedness of the saints. So picking up halfway through 9, they shall feed along the ways on all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them. For he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up. Behold, these come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these

from the land of Syene or Sinim, which if you're wondering, no one really knows where that is. That's one of the many locations in the Bible where we're like, ah, we're not too sure. There's a lot of geographical places like that. But anyway, wherever it is, God's going to bring his people from there. So now with kind of that still fresh on your mind, listen to these words. So this is from Revelation 7. This is talking about those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They're before the throne of God. They serve him day and night in his temple.

So this is Revelation 7, 16 and 17. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and god will wipe away every tear from their eyes so pretty cool way in which john is using the language of isaiah and the coming of the kingdom of the servant to describe exactly what those who are part of the kingdom will experience and i think what struck me most is that, okay, Isaiah says that he who has pity on them will lead them. So the one who has pity

on them will lead them. And then John says in that same section, the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. So who's this shepherd lamb who's in the midst of the throne? He's the same one who has pity on them and who leads them. So it's a pretty cool way in which the New Testament is taking the section of Isaiah and using it to describe what life is like for the blessed in the kingdom of God. And even in the change of language, you can see how these interact with each other. So who's the one who has pity on them and leads them? Well, that's the lamb who's in the midst of the throne, who is their shepherd.

So one of many places where the New Testament is so heavily influenced by Isaiah. I just finished reading Romans, I think it was yesterday, and I was struck by how many times Paul quotes Isaiah. It's like over and over and over. So sections like this just make a huge impact on the New Testament. Yeah, I guess I'm not positive about this, but I would think after the Psalms, which are obviously quoted the most in the New Testament, Isaiah's got to be right there after that. Isaiah gets used a lot. And we've talked about before how—or if you go to 30 Minutes in the New Testament and listen to when we did Revelation, we say over and over again, I mean, you cannot understand this book if you're not familiar with the Old Testament. It is the key it is written in.

Yes. And that's because Revelation's sneaky, but Paul might not even, he might not give you a chapter and verse, but he'll say, as it is written. And so at least, you know, he's quoting something. John just plagiarizes like crazy. He doesn't let you know he's doing it. You have to know. Yeah, that's exactly right. There's a meme that I've seen, and I wish I could describe it better, but it's basically a classroom setting. And one guy is like working on his test. And another guy is like kind of leaning over from the other desk. You know, he's obviously looking at what he's writing and imitating that.

And I've seen that meme several times, you know, like talking about the gospel writers, you know, Matthew looking at Mark or vice versa. But that would apply perfectly to, you know, that's the prophets who are writing. And then John is like looking over and he's just copying. He's reusing, he's quoting, he's alluding, he's adapting. he's basically just taking the scriptures and he is using that like you said is the key in which he writes he writes revelation yeah and another kind of neat thing about that is that so in isaiah when he talks about you know not hungering or thirsting and springs of water and making the mountains and highways and all this kind of stuff and then bringing people from north and south and from

wherever the land of Syene is, this, of course, is hearkening back to the Exodus. So you have this ongoing use and reuse and adaptation of the scriptures that begins with Genesis, Exodus, it happens in the prophets, and then when you get to the New Testament, you have this long history where you have this entire vocabulary that is founded in the torah and elaborated in the prophets and psalms which is then elaborated even more when you have the fulfillment in christ so yeah it's just typical scripture interpret scripture right it's all this vast dialogue of apostles talking to prophets and prophets to apostles and the spirits guiding this entire conversation yeah and yeah and you have this uh it's it's interesting

when the prophet describes the sorts of things that are going to be taken care of, and you realize it's like scorching heat and, of course, like hunger and thirst and this kind of stuff, which lets you know that we have very different worries nowadays. This is like great promises to them, like, hey, don't worry. You're not going to die out in the desert from lack of water and too much sun. I'm going to take care of all this, which is great. And then you have, like, the way that the Messianic stuff works and the servant stuff works, and we talked about this a little bit before we started recording, but you don't have Christ yet. Like, he's still promised.

So Isaiah really does, and all the prophets do. um and we're recording this right up this will come out after christmas but uh we're in advent right now um but it really does take both events uh like the incarnation and the the second coming in the the kingdom of god and just doesn't mind just sort of lumping them together and just say hey i'm talking about the same person i'm talking about the same promise yes i'm talking about two different events but but it's the same this is all the same thing because one has is just bringing about the other yeah yeah and i if if more people understood that we would have been saved from dispensational eschatology yes yeah all of this is is is purposely collapsed into uh one message

about a first coming and a second coming because it's all understood to be one act of god where he sends christ he accomplishes our salvation he is resurrected and basically everything is done because his life is our life and his resurrection is our resurrection and all we're waiting for basically is the final final revealing of all this when he when he comes again in glory and the resurrection on the last day and that's the way that the old testament is describing it you know it's a telescopic view as it sometimes is referred to where you know you're taking in the You're looking at ways off, but it's all collapsed together into this one perspective. Yeah, because when you said it, what this is all about is your salvation.

So whether he's talking about the manger or clouds being rolled up as a scroll, the promise is your salvation. They both have to do with that. Yeah. All right. Um, so all this being done, it's got to be some rejoicing, right? Yeah. Let's do some singing, which is what verse 13 does.

So sing for joy, O heavens, and exalt, O earth. A typical way of just describing the entirety of creation, right? Heavens and earth. So everything, everybody sing. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the Lord has comforted his people And will have compassion on his afflicted Now, after we have this note of singing and rejoicing

Because God has comforted, he's had compassion Then you maybe would think the very next verse Would be even maybe, I don't know, even more rejoicing Because of what God has done But it's not We now turn to a complaint so this is what verse 14 is going to begin this is a pretty famous section of isaiah so 14 begins this way but zion said so zion has just heard about this comfort and compassion

the lord has forsaken me my lord has forgotten me so this is the the prophet speaking from the the perspective of the people who have you know yeah sure they've endured a whole lot it was their fault you know but they they have endured exile uh all this all these things have come upon them and so they kind of have this woe is me yeah yeah yeah but god has forsaken us he's forgotten us and then god responds to that complaint here's what he says can a woman forget her nursing child that she have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me. And then I'll pause there for a second. Yeah, that's pretty good stuff right there.

that's just almost that's almost the best it's pretty pretty hard to top that well yeah you have the hey get ready for some singing and some rejoicing you're ready for the comfort and uh and the people say i mean dude i'm pretty sure this this guy has forgotten us he the lord's forsaken us so take a look around like we are forgotten and forsaken and and god's response is uh yeah i don't do that like i i don't forget that's uh that's like that's like a human problem right that's not like that's not a god problem i don't forget yeah he even takes like the premier example of uh someone not forgetting somebody else of course a woman her nursing child you know can this even can this even happen that a woman forgets her nursing child

has no compassion on the son of her womb and god's like well you know theoretically even these could forget so you take your very best example and i am going to blow that out of the water i'm completely going to top that i will not forget you yeah we could add to that i will never not have compassion on you there's kind of a play on words by the way too because the hebrew word for have compassion, the root of that, it's Raham. And the root of that is the word Raham, which means a womb. So compassion is like a womb-type feeling, action. I don't know the best word in English to use to describe that, but it's just like a woman has this womb-like compassion for a child, so God has compassion upon upon us and then verse 16 i always picture this i have engraved you in the

palms of my hands your walls are continually before me i almost picture god like he's talking design and he holds his hands up you know palm forward to the people he's like look you see this i've actually and the word there this is sometimes compared to a tattoo which is fine but it's actually the image of like carving yeah you know like you're like i've actually like carved you in the palms of my hands like a picture of you you're said your walls are continually before me it's like i you know we use that expression sometimes uh you know you know something like the back of your hand this is like i know something like the palms of my hands i'm looking at you i know you i'm not gonna forget you you're like you're not external to me like a baby is to

a mother you're like engraved on my into my flesh so i can't forget you pretty hard to hear that line and and not think of the crucifixion now i know those nails were like in the wrists like i understand um well that's what people say because i mean yeah how how you you have bones there and you get in between there it's very very gruesome however uh it is hard to hear god say i've engrave something on my hands and not think about uh yeah hey ben i'm not gonna forget you um i'm gonna have like the i have the scars uh to prove it yeah i don't know if you have any scars uh chad but uh if you have something like real good scars yeah it's pretty hard to forget uh the event that caused that that brought those about yeah i've got one right on my wrist in fact there you go it's

not a nail scar it's a cut i received when i was six years old a pretty big cut too and yeah i see it and you know people it's faded over the years i mean i'm 55 i was six when this happened but people do on occasion see it and they'll say hey what happened there you know i've told the story many many times yeah scars tell the story and the scars of jesus uh tell the story of our salvation Yeah. Makes you hard to forget, right? It does. Yeah.

Yeah. So if you ever think, you know, it feels like God has forgotten me. It's impossible. It literally can't happen. He's got you engraved in his hands. Now, in 17, we shift a little bit to this idea of people coming back to inhabit Zion and Mother Zion receiving back her children. So pick it up here with verse 17. By the way, the opening two words, your builders, it's a bit of a debate back and forth between those who engage in translation as to whether this should be your sons or your builders, because the Hebrew is very close to both.

So son is ben, to build is banah. And so some translate it your builders, some translate it your sons. I kind of like sons better because I think it's going to fit this context better. Anyway, you can see that in your footnotes and your Bibles. Now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you will be far away. The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears, This place is too narrow for me. Make room for me to dwell in. And then you will say in your heart, Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren, exiled and far put away. But who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone. And from where have these come? And then God says, behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and raise my signal to the peoples and they shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders and kings shall be your foster fathers and queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground, they shall bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. And then you will know that I am the Lord and those who wait for me shall not be put to shame. so that's 19 through uh through 2023 i wanted to read that whole section because it all builds it's not even done yet but it all builds upon this idea of zion who's first of all saying oh god's

forgotten us god's abandoned us god says nope can't happen and then he makes his promise that more or less is this so you feel like a widow you feel like you've been bereaved of your children. You feel like you've been abandoned and like there's no hope. And God says, well, all that's about to change because all of your waste places and desolate places and devastated land, I am going to fill that with children. They're going to come back to you. Everywhere they were exiled, they're going to be brought back. In fact, they're going to be like carried on the hip by royalty. Kings are going to be their foster fathers and queens are going to be the nursing mothers. They're going to bring all of your children back to you, O Zion. And

in fact, there's going to be so many that your children are going to say, well, it's like, we need some more room. Like, it's too narrow in here. We need to expand. We need to expand outward. So it's a beautiful, beautiful way of Isaiah picturing the influx of people into the kingdom of God. They're coming from all different directions. They're Israelites, they're Gentiles, and they're all coming to fill the kingdom so that it will expand and expand and expand so that Zion will no longer be able to say, I'm a widow because she will be married. She can't say, I'm bereaved of my children because her children are brought back to her. She can't say, I'm forsaken because it's going to be a richly populated kingdom of God.

Yeah, and there's this idea that the nations, sort of the people in power, are going to sort of give up their chosen ones, right? So that God has people that belong to him all over the place, and those people will be forced to sort of deliver them over. And then you have some dust licking. yeah yeah that's pretty actually that's a pretty common image too where you have the uh the powerful from other nations you know coming to humbly bow before uh before the israelites and you see that's the old testament way of describing what happens when the kingdom of god expands you know paul will use a little different metaphor he'll talk about we're grafted in right yeah we're grafted into to the tree so a lot of different ways you can describe this

that happens to be a favorite of isaiah and some of the other prophets where the exiled the dispersed of israel will come home they'll be they'll be brought back and you know that's what we see happening in christ that we what we see still happening today as more and more people come come to be part of the kingdom so this isn't like describing some sort of worldwide uh pilgrimage of people moving to israel no the modern nation of israel this is describing people from everywhere coming to zion just like isaiah chapter 2 describes it they're coming into the kingdom and their uh the kingdom expands over over time yeah and and again this you have the there's an eschatological thing that goes on here too like that uh you get the idea that uh heaven

is not going to be, you know, sparsely populated, right? Like, yeah, when I bring everyone in, it's going to be a lot. You're going to be like, can everyone fit here? Yeah. Well, what is it, how does it say in Revelation? You know, after the 144,000, then he turns and there's like these people that nobody can count.

Yeah. Yeah, from every nation, every tribe. And nobody can count these. Almost like the stars in the heaven or the sand on the seashore, right? Almost like that. Yeah. Yeah, so never get the idea that, you know,

in the resurrection, it's going to be just, you know, very, very few. The Bible describes it as innumerable. Yeah, yeah. All right, so wrapping up this chapter, we only got three verses left. This is 24 through 26. Can the prey be taken from the mighty

Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued? For thus says the Lord Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken And the prey of the tyrant be rescued For I will contend with those who contend with you And I will save your children In fact, he goes on to say I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh

And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine and then all flesh shall know that i am the lord your savior and your redeemer the mighty one of jacob there's some good old uh every knee shall bow and every tongue confess going on going on there sometimes you get every knee will bow every tongue confess and sometimes you get everyone will eat their own flesh and drink their own blood but uh it's the same thing uh one's just a little more old testament prophet you know yeah yeah it was a little more a little more graphic yeah he's he's saying listen you got some mighty you got some tyrants uh can can someone take their captives away god's like yeah i can no problem no problem i'll just speak the word

it happens so i'm not worried about that i'm gonna save your children and then i'm gonna turn around and these tyrants and these ones that held them captive, well, I'll make them make themselves their own meal, right? Yeah. And this is actually, you know, this is siege language where you have to, you eat, turn into cannibals, more or less. But anyway, in the end, all flesh shall know. Everybody's going to know.

Everybody's going to bow. Everybody's going to confess that I am the Lord who saves, redeems the mighty one of Jacob. Yeah, that's great. All right. So that's the end of Isaiah 49. Going to get into Isaiah 50 now and going to shift mood a little bit. So we had God doing these great things.

We have heavens, earth, mountains rejoicing. We have Zion complaining, God has forsaken me. He's forgotten me. God responds to that, makes great promises about what he's going to do for his people. and then the tone shifts beginning of 50 to kind of the complaint again uh sort of it's basically describing the the uh response a lot of people have you know why is this happening to us and here's what god says so this beginning of 50 thus says the lord where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which i sent her away or which of my creditors is it to whom i have sold you

behold for your iniquities you were sold and for your transgressions your mother was sent away why when i came was there no man why when i called was there no one to answer is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem or have i no power to deliver behold i by my rebuke i dry up the sea i make the rivers a desert their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst and i clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering so i i maybe you could help me out on this opening verse dan i kind of went back and forth as the best way to explain this so he starts out here by saying okay show me uh your mother's certificate of divorce so this this phrase certificate of divorce which is safer curry curry tattooed that occurs deuteronomy 24 1

It occurs in Jeremiah 3.8. And this is in reference to a, literally, it's the letter of cutting off. So, you know, we have a legal documentation today of a couple divorces. Well, this is the legal documentation of that. So it's a legal document of a cutting away of divorce. So he says, okay, where's that? Show it to me. Or to switch the image a little bit, you know, where are the creditors that I've sold you to?

So it was a practice, not just in Israel, but I don't know how many countries of the ancient world, but a lot of them. Whereas if you got, you couldn't just declare bankruptcy. If you were heavily in debt and you were a family, somebody's getting sold into slavery. That's the way it worked. So, maybe the entire family, maybe one or more of your children. I mean, this just happened. This was a way you paid off your creditors. You couldn't simply say, well, I'm just going to have to declare bankruptcy. Doesn't work that way. Somebody has to pay the debt in one way or another. So, God is saying here, okay, where's this particular divorce that I gave to your mother when I sent her away?

Or, you know, where are these creditors that I've sold you to? and then so that that is said and then he goes on to say look if you want to talk about being sold it was for your iniquities and if you want to talk about a mother being sent away it was for your transgressions so there's kind of two things going on here it seems to me like god is saying listen i didn't i didn't just like willy-nilly divorce zion and send the children away to pay off some debt. The reason that all these things befell you is because of your iniquities, because of your transgressions. That's the way I'm reading it. Yeah, I think what he does here is he's saying that, listen, there is no certificate of divorce. You cannot point to any person that I sold you to

and then they gave me something in return. In other words, none of this is happening to you so that i might gain something right so uh i i'm not the reason this happened i didn't just decide like i wanted to be free of you so here like so i divorced you or i needed to pay off some debts or wanted some some money and so i sold you you chose this not me right yeah yeah that's that's that's what this i think that's what it is is that i i gained nothing from this uh i didn't benefit from it in any way um you did this yeah the onus is all on you the you were the cause of this happening not not me or not even some external circumstance there was no benefit to me for this like i didn't all of a sudden become selfish and decide that this is one of

this is not what it was or have some debts that all of a sudden now are paid off right yeah because i sold you to my no i gained i gained nothing from this and uh this is this is all uh this is all your choice. So this is God's way of explaining what has happened to Zion. So again, keep in mind the historical context too. Isaiah is looking toward what is going to become the Babylonian captivity. It hadn't happened yet during Isaiah's day, but he's looking ahead to that anyway. And then in verse three, or verse two rather, when he says, why when I came was there no man? And why when I called was there no one to answer? It's the idea that God, so God shows up and there's not a single person waiting for him because they all thought this was hopeless

right like god has forgotten us you know there's nothing can nobody can save us now so like their exile is beyond god's ability to reverse and then god responds to that by saying have you thought about that have you considered what i did long ago i mean it's do you think that i am incapable of redeeming you? Have you forgotten that all I have to do is rebuke the sea and it dries up or the rivers and it become a desert. So you have, you know, stinking fish everywhere because I've taken away all their, all their water. Or now he's going to switch directions and look up to the heavens. He says, I can, I can do that to the sea and the rivers. I can also, I can clothe the heavens with blackness. I can wrap the clouds in sackcloth.

So it's not like I am somehow lacking in power or ability to accomplish what needs to be accomplished to redeem you and to rescue you from the situation you're in. I love God when he's talking about his salvation and when he uses the arm language. Like, it's the best. Like, oh, you think I've got this short, stubby arm, huh? In other words, you're too far away that I can't reach you with these Tyrannosaurus Rex arms. I can't reach you. And God always takes this as some kind of insult. He's like, I'm a long-armed God, okay?

Like, I got long arms, man. There's nowhere that you can go that I can't get you. Yeah. I can reach you. North, south, east, west, Babylonia, Egypt. I don't care where you're at. You can be in the darkest, lowest pits, and I can reach down there, too. Just, like, as easy as I can pick something up off my desk here.

Yeah. Yeah. Got that long arm, God. That's a good one. That's what you want. You want a God with long arms, for sure. Yeah, he can never be out of his reach, whether you need to be picked up to be comforted or to be picked up because you're trying to get away from him. He's like, gotcha, pull you right back.

So all that, that was just the opening three verses. That's actually, it's a great lead in then to what's coming next, because what comes next is our next servant song. So this is Isaiah 54, beginning at 50, rather, beginning at verse 4. So we've had two servant songs so far. This is going to be our fourth one. And it's going to be verse 4 through 11. So it's going to take us through the end of this chapter. So we've got a few minutes left here.

We can kind of get into it. Starts out this way. The Lord God has given me, so the me here is going to be the servant speaking. 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 So I've got this, I got the right kind of tongue It's a discipled tongue, right? It's been taught

So my father's given me the words to say in order that I might speak And I speak so well and my words are so true that I can just, with a word, sustain one who is weary. And he goes on to say, morning by morning, he awakens. He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. So it's kind of strange. Never has struck me to this moment how kind of strange that is. I got to wake up this ear.

I don't think about your ears when you're asleep, but I got to wake up that ear. And then he says in verse 5, he's going to continue the ear imagery. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I did not turn backward. Didn't turn backward from him. And then I'll read one more verse. Verse 6 says, I gave my back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

You know what this tells me is that the sorts of things that God is telling him aren't altogether pleasant. He's getting informed about the kind of thing that he is going to have to do, and he has not turned his back on it. Now he's given his back to those who would beat him, but he's not turned his back on God. But this is, when you hear this, you can't help but, I think, to hear Jesus say, listen, I only hear the Father all the time. I only do what he says to do. I only say what he says to say. That's what I do all the time. Never am I not doing that, right?

And some of these things that he's telling me to do, I'm going to do, and they're not pleasant. I mean, you see this in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? Like, Jesus knows what's coming. None of this is a surprise. He's been, he knows what's coming. Isaiah knew what's coming. So certainly Jesus knows. And yeah, he doesn't run away from it.

No. I mean, he says things that need to be said, even if most of his disciples turn away from following him, right? John 6, right? Absolutely. Are you guys going to lead me too? And Peter makes his great confession. Where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life.

You have the words the Father has given you to say. And so that's what you say. This also, what you said, Dan, fits perfectly with the way I will often explain the connection between the messenger of the Lord in the Old Testament and then that same messenger, Jesus, in the Gospels. Because the messenger in the Old Testament, who is the Son of God, what does he do? He just speaks God's words. That's what messengers are supposed to do. They're not going to add commentary. Well, this is what the guy who sent me said, but I'm going to tell you what I think.

No, that's not what a messenger does. He speaks the words he's given to speak, and that's what Jesus does also in the Gospels because his ear has been opened, his tongue has been taught what to say. By the way, this whole verse 5, opening of the ear, it's very similar. It's not the same Hebrew, but it's very similar to Psalm 40, verse 6, which is also quoted in the book of Hebrews in reference to Jesus. So Psalm 40, verse 6 says, In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Eric Sorensen recently did a video where he talked about the Hebrew word there that means like God dug an ear out for him. Yeah, so he's dug this ear, he's opened this ear for the Messiah.

So this ear has been awakened, it's been opened, he hears, and then he speaks what needs to be said. And that, of course, is in contrast. I mean, when he says like, hey, I got this ear dug out for me, and I hear pretty good, and I'm not rebellious. all of this of course is like is saying without saying it unlike the people i'm trying to save who don't have this ear and are when they do hear the word of the lord whether it's coming from isaiah or the messenger later uh are absolutely rebellious right they don't they don't they don't listen to this word at all yeah to the point not of like striking out against the speaker right and that's why they strike his back and pull out his beard and spit in his face so i mean all of this

i mean this is like in what three verses you have the entire ministry of jesus summarized from beginning to end he teaches he preaches he is certainly sustaining the weary with a word but he's also opposed and then he's attacked and eventually he's spit they spit in his face which is precisely what happens leading up to his crucifixion so it's amazing how isaiah is able to compress so much into a few verses yeah i mean well all these years into the old testament chat i mean you i think we have deduced uh but the great problem with israel is this this little tiny clogged rebellious ear that they got going on i mean this is like their this is their primary problem. What they need is a Savior who doesn't have that problem, right? They need a Messiah

that doesn't have this little tiny stopped-up ear that's running around doing its own thing. Rebellious ear is the great problem of the Old Testament. Yes, amen. Amen to that. All right. Well, we are out of time. We will pick it up again next episode. Chad, I'll see you then. See you then. We'll see you next time.