The Training of the Servant

“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. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.” Isaiah 50:4

August 19, 2022

The “mystery” Servant of the Lord in chapters 42 and 49 comes into even sharper focus in this third portrait (50:4-11). The “Me” is God the Son. As the Servant of God He would be trained through an intimate relationship with God the Father. We have no idea what the I.Q. of Jesus was, except that it had to have been off the charts. But yet he needed to be taught the Scriptures. There has never been a teacher with the skills of the Servant. We, like the crowds that followed after Jesus, would have been mesmerized by His power in word and deed (Lk. 24:19). He had a trained tongue and a trained ear as He received daily instruction from the Lord in how to comfort the weary. We are all weary people weighed down by the burdens of living in a fallen, sinful world. To so many, life seems pointless. Those who think they are speaking for God call the spiritually deaf and dumb to follow them over the cliff into an eternity without Christ. But then there was Jesus who called the sheep without a shepherd to come to Him who was gentle and humble. He taught with spell-binding clarity in explaining the Old Testament Scriptures. He could do this because He was taught by the Father by the Spirit, His parents, Joseph and Mary, by the exposition of the Scriptures in the synagogue. The mornings were especially important as He learned how to have a word to the needy that was always in season. 

The Servant modeled for us a very important truth. We must be good listeners. We need to listen to God and listen to people to understand their questions and how to answer them. H

A time to pray: “O infinitely wise Father, train me to not be so hurried that I neglect my time with you. I need to know how to more effectively meditate on your Word.”