Bible Lessons

Isaiah 50
Jehovah asks of the children of Israel a pointed question: “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away?” Deuteronomy 24:11When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. (Deuteronomy 24:1) gave provision whereby a husband in whose eyes his wife found no favor, because he had discovered some unseemly thing in her, could divorce her. Was this Israel’s experience—that God had given them up lightly, as many marriage contracts are broken when one tires of the companionship? Or was He in debt, and had sold His people to satisfy a creditor?
He answers His own questions in words for Israel to consider deeply:
“Behold, through your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.”
Idolatry was their first great sin, which brought upon them the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, and the later oppressions of the Jews, down to the time their Messiah came. His rejection, and the refusal of the message of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51-6051Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. 54When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 55But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:51‑60)) who came down to testify for the ascended Christ, closed the door to Israel’s blessing as a nation until a new work of grace shall be begun. Until then they are “Lo-Ammi,”—“Not My people” (Hosea 1:99Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. (Hosea 1:9)).
Chapter 49 :4 has its reflection in chapter 50: “Wherefore did I come, and there was no man ? I called, and there was none to answer?”
Jehovah, God Himself, was here, not received by His people Israel (John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11)), yet having an unchanging interest in them and a pitying love for them. Is His hand at all shortened that He cannot redeem, or has He no power to deliver? His power is still seen in the heavens, and on the earth (verses 2 and 3), though as for mankind (not the Jews only now, but the Gentiles also) they have turned away from His love, desire not to know Him.
“The Lord, Jehovah,” He says, speaking of Himself as man, “hath given Me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” (verse 4). Does it not speak deeply to our often cold hearts that Jehovah has learned how to speak to comfort the weary, for Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equally Jehovah, equally God. (Romans 1:1-4,1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (Romans 1:1‑4) where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of holiness; Galatians 4:4-64But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:4‑6); Matthew 28 :19; Romans 9:55Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:5); Zechariah 13:77Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. (Zechariah 13:7)).
We meditate in adoration upon the Person who is here revealed, the Holy Spirit in verse 6 anticipating the sufferings that lay in the path of the Man of sorrows. Fully and entirely God, the Son became man, body (Hebrews 2:14; 10:514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14)
5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5); John 4:6; 20 :276Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. (John 4:6); Psalm 22 :14, 15); sold (Matthew 26 :38; John 12 :27; Acts 2 :27, 31), and spirit (Mark 2:8; 8:128And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? (Mark 2:8)
12And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. (Mark 8:12); Luke 10:21; 23:4621In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. (Luke 10:21)
46And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:46); John 11:33; 13:2133When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, (John 11:33)
21When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. (John 13:21)), and through death and in resurrection He has become Lord and Saviour (2 Peter 2:2020For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. (2 Peter 2:20)! 3 :18; Acts 2 :36).
Verse 10 however makes plain that unlike those who have a heavenly calling i.e., the believers of this present dispensation of grace, upon whom the full light of God's truth has been shed, the believers of that day to come, will walk in darkness, and only know their eternal security when they see the Lord. Those then who will profess to have light, are deluded (verse 11).
How highly favored we are! Do we appreciate it, and bless God for His marvelous kindness and love? And do we seek as much as we should to understand and live in the light of the Word of God?
Messages of God’s Love 2/11/1934