Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that hearkeneth to the voice of his servant? he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, -- let him confide in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God.
Near the end of a chapter about the LORD's Servant comes a question and an instruction. The question marks out a small group inside the nation, and the instruction is for anyone walking a road with no light on it.
The verse does not address the nation as a whole. It picks out the few who respond to the Servant.
Now we learn something more. Though the nation rejects Christ, among them there will be a godly remnant. They will fear God and listen to the voice of His Servant, Jesus. We know from the Gospel story how the Lord's presence among Israel brought this remnant to light. He could say of them, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me" (John 10:27). They find themselves in a nation sunk in deep darkness. But the Lord could say, "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness" (John 12:46).
The word "darkness" does not carry the same sense in Isaiah as it does in the New Testament letters.
Now the prophet spoke, not of the Christian, but of the future godly remnant. He set them in contrast with the mass who turn away and perish, described in verse 11. It should be obvious that the Jewish prophet and the Christian apostle do not use "darkness" and "light" in the same sense.
The distinction is not about behaviour but about position. A believer today may fail to act on the light, yet still stands in it. The person in Isaiah waits for a light that has not yet dawned.
Christians may not always act according to the light, but they walk in the light, as He is in the light. Our Lord says, "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The remnant of that day will trust in the name of Jehovah and rely on their God. But it will be in a different way.
The instruction goes to people who have nothing else left to lean on.
They, in contrast, walk in darkness and lack light. Their call is to trust in Jehovah and rely on their God, when there is nothing else to lean on. These have no light yet. They walk in darkness, yet trust in hope, and they will find a glorious deliverance when He appears.
That trust is not an empty gesture in the dark.
They will be walking in darkness while they hear the word. There is no praise and no freedom in that state... They are told to trust. There is something for faith to take hold of, a rope to cling to in the waters. They hold it until they come to know the full redemption that has been accomplished.
The opening chapters of Luke show real people doing what this verse says, waiting in the dark for a promised sunrise.
There were those who feared the Lord, and yet they walked in relative darkness... But while they still lived in darkness, waiting for the light, they were to trust in the name of Jehovah. That is how He had revealed Himself to them. They were to rely on His faithfulness. This they did, as the opening chapters of Luke's Gospel show. Jesus was "the sunrise... from on high" who came "to give light to those who sit in darkness" (Luke 1:78-79).
The verse looks forward to a specific group. Writers have also applied its counsel to any believer whose way looks dark among God's own people.
But what are the people of the Lord to do? Let them wait upon the Lord, and wait according to the teaching of His Spirit... And if the way seems dark among them, let them remember the word of Isaiah.
God never leaves Himself without a few who listen, and He never leaves them without Himself.
In every age, however great the corruption, God preserves a remnant who fear the Lord and obey His voice... and amid the growing darkness we still have the Lord as our unfailing resource. However dark the day, however great our weakness, we can "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:1).
- Voice — the verse begins with hearing. Fear of the LORD shows itself in obeying the Servant's voice, and that marks out the few from the many.
- Darkness — here it means having no light for the path. Isaiah's darkness and the darkness of the New Testament letters are not the same thing.
- Rope — in that darkness there is nothing else to lean on. Faith gets a rope to grip until full redemption is known.
- Waiting — Luke's opening chapters show real people living this out, trusting God's faithfulness before the sunrise came.
- Deliverance — in every age the Lord is the unfailing resource of those who keep listening. For the waiting remnant, glorious deliverance comes when He appears.
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire, and among the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 50 closes by dividing its hearers in two. Some fear the Lord and walk on without light. Others refuse to wait and make a light of their own. The last verse is God's word to that second group. It asks where a person turns when the dark closes in.
One writer reads this verse as the portion of the Jews who had turned away from God. From it he draws a rule that holds for every sinner:
As for the mass of the Jews who had turned away, their portion follows. It is always vain for a sinful man to trust his own devices or the remedies of men to better his condition before God, or to enjoy lasting comfort. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies and the God of all encouragement. But in the day that is at hand God will expose the folly and the madness of unbelief. Judgment will show what it is to trust in self, and not in Him to whom God directs those who hear His word.
Older translations, which the writers quoted here follow, read "sparks that you have kindled" where the ESV has burning torches, and "lie down in sorrow" for the last line. One writer explains what the picture means, and shows it did not stop with Isaiah's day:
But there were many in those days that did not fear the Lord nor obey the voice of His Servant when He came in grace, and there are today a multitude who are of the same mind. They kindle a fire of their own to light up the darkness, and in the light of it and of its sparks they go on their way. This is figurative language; but how vivid and striking it is!
God's light is there for all, and men still refuse it. One writer traces the refusal to what each light does to a man's view of himself:
It is not that there is no light; there is, and in abundance. There has always been enough light for the salvation of the creature. God has never, at any time or in any place, left Himself without witness. But man prefers the sparks of his own kindling. They are the result of his own discoveries, so they feed his miserable pride of heart. The light given by his Maker does the opposite. It brings his own utter moral depravity into view and humbles him as nothing else can. So that light becomes the object of his deadliest hatred.
Commentators apply Isaiah's warning to teaching that claims to be light. One writer ties it to fellowship with God in 1 John:
However, even in Isaiah's day some preferred to "kindle a fire." They walked in the light of that fire and of the sparks they had kindled. It was just like this in John's day, and still is today. Far too many false teachers prefer the sparks of their own kindling to the light of God's revelation. So they and their followers are in darkness, despite all their claims, and they have no fellowship with Him.
Another writer aims the same warning at two opposite groups. Both love what their own minds produce:
Look at the last verse. There are men who make sparks. They love the product of their own intellects. Let them "walk in the light" of such; but what shall the end be? They "shall lie down in pain." This is a solemn warning to ritualists and rationalists alike. It is for all who do not walk "in the light as God is in the light" (1 John 1:7). That walk is the normal place God has revealed for true believers.
The fire gives heat for a moment. The verse traces what follows to God's own hand. One writer pictures the death of a man who lived by his own fire:
When the soul is once lost, what is left? Sinners warm their frail bodies of clay at a fire of their own kindling for a day or two. That fire chokes them with its smoke more than it warms them. At last they lie down in sorrow, and everlasting shame covers them.… They go to bed, when they die, without a candle.… And this is as poorly made a bed as anyone could wish; for no one can sleep soundly or rest sweetly with sorrow for a pillow.
- Kindle. Refusing God's light does not leave a person passive; he lights a fire of his own to see by, and then walks in it.
- Pride. A man prefers his own sparks because he discovered them, and they flatter him. God's light exposes what he really is.
- Reach. The same fire burns in the pulpit. Commentators apply Isaiah's words to false teachers who swap God's revelation for their own, and to ritualists and rationalists alike.
- Hand. The end is no accident. The verse says the sorrow comes from God's own hand, on the day He exposes the madness of unbelief.
- Bed. The fire warms for a day or two. Then comes a bed with sorrow for a pillow. That is what trusting yourself finally buys.