Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost: Old Testament, Isaiah 50:4-10

Isaiah 50:4-10

When I took a class on Old Testament prophets in seminary, my professor emphasized that in our reading of the prophets we should come away with the sense that sometimes it’s hard to know who’s speaking. Is it the prophet? Is it the Lord? My, they sound similar. And they do quite a bit. But as you consider that truth, would you want it any other way? One of the beauties of Holy Scripture is that when we read it or hear it read to us, we do have that subjective sense of “hearing the word of the LORD.” And that, because it is objectively the word of the LORD. It’s a proper response to what we read and hear.

All that to say in our Old Testament reading for the week we encounter that divine “overlap.” Isaiah speaks as a persecuted servant of God. At the same time it is incredibly clear that what Isaiah is speaking by the Holy Spirit are the very words that our Savior will speak of Himself. As you read and reread this text, listen to Isaiah as our brother in Christ. And listen to Christ our Brother and Son of the Father. Their words overlap, but more to it. They declare that our Lord is in His Word to us. 

Through this season and all the days our Lord grants to us on earth, let us hold to the treasure that our Lord lives toward us in His Word.

 

“Who among you fears the LORD?

Who obeys the voice of His Servant?

Who walks in darkness 

And has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the LORD

And rely upon his God.”

– Isaiah 50:10, NKJV