But the Lord Jehovah will help me therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
In Isaiah 50 the Lord's Servant speaks, and He has just described the beating and the spitting He accepted. Verse 7 is the turn: in the middle of that shame He says God helps Him, so nothing can break Him — but who is this speaker, and what makes a face like flint different from stubbornness?
Who is speaking? One writer holds that the obedient man here is Himself God. (Where the ESV has "the Lord GOD," older translations print "the Lord Jehovah.")
The Lord Jehovah had chosen to become a man on earth, and to walk here in obedience, owning God. Christianity alone fully explains this, for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all truly and equally Jehovah. And He who came in this way to do the will of God as man here below was, as we know, the Son. Being Himself God and Jehovah, He could look up and say, "The Lord Jehovah has opened My ear."
Why flint, and not some other stone?
challamish means "hard rock." God brought water out of it (Deuteronomy 8:15; Psalm 114:8). Christ, because of those who opposed Him, set His face like a flint, and He knew He would not be ashamed (Isaiah 50:7).
Notice the order in the verse: the help comes before the flint.
He was in the place of man, but He fully relied on divine help (verses 7 and 9). Even so, the path involved not only the shame, the beating and the spitting we have spoken of, but death itself. With His heart full of love and His face firm like a flint He pressed forward with holy resolve, and He was slain.
So the firmness is not self-will.
He set His holy face to do the will of God, even though that will meant for Him the deep, unspeakable sorrows of the cross. He set His face like a flint, and He knew He would not be ashamed. Obedience and God's vindication go together. The two were united in Jesus. He obeyed and never swerved. He left His cause and His vindication with the One who judges righteously.
One writer sets this verse beside the day Jesus turned toward Jerusalem.
"When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem." In Isaiah, "I set My face as a flint." He was carrying out His Father's will here, as in all His course. Redemption had to come through the cross. He "learned obedience through what He suffered." It was the same obedience as at the beginning... more painful, and of course He felt the difference. Still He goes on in the same blessed spirit and earnestness.
He said it before the shame came. The answer came at the tomb.
But God has taken Him out of death, He has raised Him from among the dead! What a victory! What a vindication of the perfect life of Jesus! What a justification! "Blessed Saviour," our hearts say, "You are worthy!" The glory of the Father raised Him from the dead. The Father was the first visitor to His tomb — before the disciples, before Mary, even before the angels. His satisfaction in Him was so complete!
Paul does not leave these words with Christ alone.
Many have pointed this out before. The apostle Paul quotes this passage in Romans 8:33, and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here says of Christ. It would be childish to deny that it applies to the Lord because of this. It is hardly less childish to miss the precious hint that the same Spirit now applies to us what He then spoke in God's vindication of the rejected Christ. This is the Christian's blessed, present privilege — being joined to Christ risen, after God undertakes to glorify the One whom the Jews and Gentiles cast out.
That share has a cost. A face like flint is not popular company.
When the Lord set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive Him. The disciples wanted to call down fire on them. If you set your face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, those who are half-hearted will not receive you. "The Lord is at hand."
- Help — the verse begins with God's help, not with human grit; the flint face rests on "the Lord GOD helps me."
- Flint — the word means the hardest rock. It pictures a face that opposition cannot turn, set toward the will of God.
- Obedience — the road to Jerusalem drew out the same obedience as at the start. It was more painful, yet carried on with the same steady earnestness.
- Vindication — He left His cause with the One who judges righteously. God answered by raising Him, so obedience and vindication belong together.
- Ours — Paul lends His words to believers in Romans 8:33. The same confidence is ours now, and so is the same cold welcome from the half-hearted.
He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is mine adverse party? let him draw near unto me.
In Isaiah 50 God's Servant is speaking, fresh from being beaten, insulted and spat on. He does not defend Himself; He calls for a trial, sure that the God who vindicates Him stands close by.
The speaker here is both the suffering Servant and Israel's own God. That is why the outcome is never in doubt:
Isaiah introduces God's elect Servant, put in the place of Israel who had rejected Him. He is just as truly the obedient and suffering One as He is the Jehovah God of Israel who made heaven and earth. So whatever insults He endured, the outcome is certain, and all the way through He counts on full vindication.
If God is near to vindicate, when did He act?
If Christ is not raised, where is His justification? Men treated Him as someone unfit for decent society, unfit even to live in this world. They treated Him with every indignity. Is He left without any justification at all? No, certainly not! Man crucified Him, but God raised Him. His resurrection is His justification, because by it God has declared that man's treatment and judgment of Him was wrong. In Isaiah 50 the Spirit of Christ speaks through the prophet. They strike Him; they pull the hair from His cheeks; they heap shame on Him; they spit in His face. Then He says, "He is near that justifies Me"! So He was, and God raised Him from among the dead. He is declared to be the Just One, the Holy One — yes, the Son of God by resurrection.
Because the vindicator was near, the Servant never lifted a hand for Himself.
One most precious feature of our Lord's obedience to His Father's will was His complete committal of Himself to the Father. No thought of self-vindication entered His mind. "He is near that justifies me" was always the spirit in which He moved on toward the cross. When one of His disciples drew a sword to defend Him in the garden, He said to him, "Put your sword back into its place… Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
So what became of those who did contend with Him?
So Jehovah challenges His foes and sees their ruin sealed in their momentary triumph over Him whom, if man killed, God raised again from the dead. Notice what has often been pointed out: the apostle Paul quotes this passage in Romans 8:33 and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here says of Christ… The same Spirit now applies to us what He spoke then in God's vindication of Christ rejected.
The words belong to Christ first. Then faith takes them up:
The speaker is Christ Himself. He put Himself in the believer's place to bear his sins and endure their judgment. Now He stands right outside it all and asks: can anything once laid to His account still be found against Him? God has justified the absolute perfection of His work by raising Him from the dead. So who can condemn Christ?… Faith can take up the very words of Christ — indeed, the Holy Spirit makes them our own. If no one can bring a single charge against Christ, no one can bring one against us.
God's nearness still holds for the believer others misjudge today, though the clearing of his name may take time.
In Isaiah 50 the prophet speaks of the Lord, "He is near that justifies Me."… He will always justify what is right, even if we have to wait some time for Him to do so.
- Near — The Servant speaks these words while being struck and spat on. He does not answer His accusers, because the One who vindicates Him is standing close.
- Raised — God's verdict came as resurrection. Man judged Him a criminal; God reversed the sentence by raising Him from among the dead.
- Silent — He never defended Himself. When a disciple drew a sword in the garden, He told him to put it away.
- Shared — Paul lifts this courtroom challenge in Romans 8 and gives it to believers. No charge can stick to Christ, so no charge can stick to those who are in Him.
- Waiting — The same nearness holds for the believer misjudged today. God will vindicate what is right, even if He takes His time.