Lectionary Calendar
Monday, December 23rd, 2024
the Fourth Week of Advent
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 50:6

I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pull out My beard; I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.
New American Standard Bible

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:
Nave's Topical Bible - Assault and Battery;   Jesus, the Christ;   Jesus Continued;   Persecution;   Thompson Chain Reference - Smiting;   Spit upon;   Suffering for Righteousness' S;   Sufferings of Christ;   Vicarious Suffering;   The Topic Concordance - Jesus Christ;   Servants;   Sorrow;   Suffering;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Beard, the;   Hair, the;   Humility of Christ, the;   Persecution;   Prophecies Respecting Christ;   Punishments;  
Dictionaries:
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Beard;   Punishments;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Messiah;   Servant of the lord;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Beard;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Agony;   Beard;   Cross;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Beard;   Crimes and Punishments;   Gestures;   Isaiah;   Israel, History of;   Servant of the Lord, the;   Slave/servant;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Gestures;   Hair;   Micah, Book of;   Righteousness;   Servant of the Lord;   Slave, Slavery;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Atonement (2);   Hair (2);   Quotations (2);   Shame;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Isaiah, Book of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Spitting;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Beard;   Punishments;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Jesus Christ;  
Encyclopedias:
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Beard;   Isaiah;   Messiah;   Peel;   Punishments;   Servant of Yahweh (the Lord);   Shame;   Spit;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Atonement;   Beard;   Messiah;   Servant of God;  
Devotionals:
Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 11;  

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 50:6. And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair — The greatest indignity that could possibly be offered. See the note on Isaiah 7:20.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting. — Another instance of the utmost contempt and detestation. It was ordered by the law of Moses as a severe punishment, carrying with it a lasting disgrace; Deuteronomy 25:9. Among the Medes it was highly offensive to spit in any one's presence, Herod. i. 99; and so likewise among the Persians, Xenophon, Cyrop. Lib. i., p. 18.

"They abhor me; they flee far from me;

They forbear not to spit in my face."

Job 30:10.


"And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?" Numbers 22:14. On which place Sir John Chardin remarks, that "spitting before any one, or spitting upon the ground in speaking of any one's actions, is through the east an expression of extreme detestation."-Harmer's Observ. ii. 509. See also, of the same notions of the Arabs in this respect, Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 26. It so evidently appears that in those countries spitting has ever been an expression of the utmost detestation, that the learned doubt whether in the passages of Scripture above quoted any thing more is meant than spitting,-not in the face, which perhaps the words do not necessarily imply,-but only in the presence of the person affronted. But in this place it certainly means spitting in the face; so it is understood in St. Luke, where our Lord plainly refers to this prophecy: "All things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished; for he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spitted on, εμπτυσθησεται," Luke 18:31-32, which was in fact fulfilled; και ηρξεαντο τινες εμπτυειν αυτῳ, "and some began to spit on him," Mark 14:65; Mark 15:19. If spitting in a person's presence was such an indignity, how much more spitting in his face?

Bibliographical Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "The Adam Clarke Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​acc/​isaiah-50.html. 1832.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary


The servant’s patient endurance (50:4-11)

In this, the third Servant Song, the words again may have an application to the experiences of Israel among the nations. In particular they reflect the experiences of the few faithful Jews who tried to teach, warn and comfort their ungodly fellow exiles in Babylon. The song becomes even more meaningful when applied to the experiences of the Messiah himself.
The servant is taught by God day by day, so that he can give teaching and encouragement to those who need it. Although people respond with opposition and physical violence, the servant does not give up. He learns the meaning of obedience by the things he suffers (4-6). He perseveres because he knows that he has acted blamelessly and that God is with him. And if God is on his side, no one can triumph over him. Those who make accusations against him will not prove him guilty, but will themselves be put to shame (7-9).
In a world of darkness faithful believers walk confidently and do not fall, because they trust in God. Others, who do not trust in God but who make their own ‘fire’ to give them light, will find in the end that the fire burns them. In other words, when people depend on human scheming instead of depending on God, they will find in the end that their scheming is the cause of their downfall (10-11).

Bibliographical Information
Fleming, Donald C. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Fleming's Bridgeway Bible Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​bbc/​isaiah-50.html. 2005.

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting."

Luke 18:31-32 records Jesus' quotation of things mentioned in this verse, declaring that all these things would be accomplished unto the Son of Man; and the gospels faithfully relate how practically all of the things mentioned here were actually done unto Jesus. Cheyne pointed out that plucking the hair off the cheeks is not specifically reported in the gospels as something endured by Jesus, and supposed that the expression was figurative.T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, Vol. II, p. 26. The very fact, however, that such indignities were often inflicted by such men as mocked the Christ is the only proof needed that this too was fulfilled upon the Lord. Besides that, our prophecy states that he gave his cheeks to the men who did such things; and that Jesus most certainly did. Furthermore, Christ stated in Luke 18:31 that "all the things" written in the prophets concerning him would be accomplished; and we cannot believe the plucking of the hair off the cheeks was omitted. This is another instance where the whole truth is discovered only by taking into account both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Another instance is that of the piercing of Jesus' feet in the crucifixion.

Bibliographical Information
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​bcc/​isaiah-50.html. Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

I gave my back to the smiters - I submitted willingly to be scourged, or whipped. This is one of the parts of this chapter which can be applied to no other one but the Messiah. There is not the slightest evidence, whatever may be supposed to have been the probability, that Isaiah was subjected to any such trial as this, or that he was scourged in a public manner. Yet it was literally fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:26; compare Luke 18:33).

And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair - literally, ‘My cheeks to hose who pluck, or pull.’ The word used here (מרט māraṭ) means properly to polish, to sharpen, to make smooth; then to make smooth the head, to make bald; that is, to pluck out the hair, or the beard. To do this was to offer the highest insult that could be imagined among the Orientals. The beard is suffered to grow long, and is regarded as a mark of honor. Nothing is regarded as more infamous than to cut it off (see 2 Samuel 10:4), or to pluck it out; and there is nothing which an Oriental will sooner resent than an insult offered to his beard. ‘It is a custom among the Orientals, as well among the Greeks as among other nations, to cultivate the beard with the utmost care and solicitude, so that they regard it as the highest possible insult if a single hair of the beard is taken away by violence.’ (William of Tyre, an eastern archbishop, Gesta Dei, p. 802, quoted in Harmer, vol. ii. p. 359.) It is customary to beg by the beard, and to swear by the beard. ‘By your beard; by the life of your beard; God preserve your beard; God pour his blessings on your beard,’ - are common expressions there. The Mahometans have such a respect for the board that they think it criminal to shave (Harmer, vol. ii. p. 360). The Septuagint renders this, ‘I gave my cheeks to buffering’ (εἰς ῥαπίσμα eis rapisma); that is, to being smitten with the open hand, which was literally fulfilled in the case of the Redeemer Matthew 26:67; Mark 14:65. The general sense of this expression is, that he would be treated with the highest insult.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting - To spit on anyone was regarded among the Orientals, as it is everywhere else, as an expression of the highest insult and indignity Deuteronomy 25:9; Numbers 12:14; Job 30:10. Among the Orientals also it was regarded as an insult - as it should be everywhere - to spit in the presence of any person. Thus among the Medes, Herodotus (i. 99) says that Deioces ordained that, ‘to spit in the king’s presence, or in the presence of each other, was an act of indecency.’ So also among the Arabians, it is regarded as an offence (Niebuhr’s Travels, i. 57). Thus Monsieur d’Arvieux tells us (Voydans la Pal. p. 140) ‘the Arabs are sometimes disposed to think, that when a person spits, it is done out of contempt; and that they never do it before their superiors’ (Harmer, iv. 439). This act of the highest indignity was performed in reference to the Redeemer Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30; and this expression of their contempt he bore with the utmost meekness. This expression is one of the proofs that this entire passage refers to the Messiah. It is said Luke 17:32 that the prophecies should be fulfilled by his being spit upon, and yet there is no other prophecy of the Old Testament but this which contains such a prediction.

Bibliographical Information
Barnes, Albert. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​bnb/​isaiah-50.html. 1870.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

6.I exposed my body to the smiters. With the reproaches, jeers, and insolence of wicked men, he contrasts the unshaken courage which he possesses; as if he had said that, “whatever resistancemay be attempted by the despisers of God, yet he will baffle all their insults, so that he will never repent of the labors which he has undertaken.” Yet this passage plainly shows that the ministers of the word cannot perform their office faithfully without being exposed to a contest with the world, and even without being fiercely assailed on all sides; for as soon as Isaiah says that he has obeyed the command of God, he likewise adds that “He has exposed his body to the smiters.” The faithful servants of God, when they administer the doctrine of the word, cannot escape from this condition, but must endure fights, reproaches, hatred, slanders, and various attacks from adversaries, who loathe that liberty of advising and reproving which it is necessary for them to use. Let them, therefore, arm themselves with steadfastness and faith; for a dreadful battle is prepared for them. And not only does he describe the persecutions of wicked men, but the reproach of the world; because wicked men desire to be thought to have good cause for opposing the ministers of the word and persecuting their doctrine, and wish that those ministers should be regarded as criminals and malefactors, and held up to universal hatred and abhorrence. For these reasons they lead them with various slanders, and do not refrain from any kind of reproach, as we know well enough by experience in the present day, when our adversaries call us heretics, deceivers, seditious persons, and assail us with other slanders, which were also directed against Christ and the Apostles. (Matthew 27:63; John 7:12; Acts 16:20.)

My face I did not hide from shame and spitting. He not only says that open and outward foes spat and inflicted blows on him, but glances at the slanders which he is compelled to bear from foes who are within and belong to the household; for out of the very bosom of the Church there always spring up wicked men and despisers of God, who insolently attack the prophets. They who wish to serve God must be prepared to endure all these things calmly, that they may walk through evil report and through good report, (2 Corinthians 6:8,) and may despise not only banishment, stripes, imprisonment, and death, but likewise reproaches and disgrace, though they may sometimes appear harder to endure than death itself. While this doctrine belongs to all believers, it belongs especially to the teachers of the word, who ought to go before others, and to be, as it were, standard-bearers.

Bibliographical Information
Calvin, John. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Calvin's Commentary on the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​cal/​isaiah-50.html. 1840-57.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 50

Now in chapter 50 another marvelous prophecy of Jesus Christ and of the humiliation that He would receive from His own people.

Thus saith the LORD ( Isaiah 50:1 ),

Talking to Israel now.

Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away ( Isaiah 50:1 ).

So God is declaring that the nation was divorced. It was put away because of the transgressions. And that God did not sell them to their enemies. They sold themselves by their own iniquities. They had turned from God, the fountain of living water. They worship the other gods; they sold themselves.

Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? ( Isaiah 50:2 )

God said, "I called but you didn't answer. I came but no one met Me." And so Jesus came to His own, His own received Him not. He called unto them; they would not respond. "Have I no power to deliver?"

behold, at my rebuke I can dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and they die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord GOD ( Isaiah 50:2-4 )

And, of course, here's the prophecy now directly of Jesus Christ.

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back ( Isaiah 50:4-5 ).

Now here is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking as the servant and as the obedient servant of the Father. You remember He said, "I came not to do My will but the will of Him who sent Me" ( John 5:30 ). I do always those things that please the Father" ( John 8:29 ). Here he said, "The Lord God hath opened my ear, I was not rebellious, neither turned away back."

In the Old Testament time if you were a slave, you served a six-year term of slavery. It was the responsibility of your master to take care of all of your needs. If you were of marriageable age, he could give to you a bride. But in reality, you could own nothing for yourself. And so the bride, you really didn't own her nor the children that were born. They still belong to your master though you be married to her and you have children by her. Now in the sixth year, after the six years of service, in the seventh year, you could go forth free. But if you say, "But I love my wife. And I love my children. And I love serving here. I want to stay on and I want to serve you." Then he would bring you... He would call the elders of the city. He would bring you to the doorpost of his house. He'd take an awl and drive it through the lobe of your ear. He would open your ear with the awl. He would pin your ear. You'll be pinned to the doorpost by your ear. And then they would put a gold ring through that pierced ear and you would then be a bondslave, a servant by choice for life. Now the Lord said, "He hath opened mine ear that I was not rebellious." That is, He submitted Himself to the Father's will. It's a beautiful picture of the submission of Jesus Christ unto the Father, even to the death of the cross.

I gave my back to the smiters ( Isaiah 50:6 ),

We are told in the scripture that Pilate had Him scourged. Now the scourging was a beating of thirty-nine stripes laid across the back of a prisoner with a whip that they call the cat-of-nine-tails whip. It was a leather whip with little bits of cut glass and lead imbedded in it that would rip open the flesh. The purpose of the scourging was to elicit confessions. It was the third-degree techniques of the Roman government in order to get confessions from convicted felons. In order that they might clear up much of the crime. And a few licks on the back and anybody would confess, even the hardest of criminals. And the idea was with each confession, the next lick would be a little easier and so it sort of encouraged confession. A refusal to confess, each lick would be a little harder, again, to encourage confession. "And as the lamb before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth" ( Isaiah 53:7 ). He said, "I gave my back to the smiters." But He had no sins or crimes against man to confess. And Jesus was scourged by the Roman government. He received thirty-nine stripes, laid across His back. We will read more about this and study more about this next Sunday night as we get into the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and we discover there the purposes of God in His being smitten.

my cheeks also ( Isaiah 50:6 )

We are told that they covered His face and they began to buffet Him. They began to hit Him. And they said, "Prophesy, who was it that hit You?" Now when you can see a blow coming, you have certain natural reflexes of fainting with that blow so that you more or less cushion the blow by an automatic reflex of pulling your head back as you see the blow coming. Our bodies are marvelously coordinated. And you can step off of a curb very smoothly because of the coordination of your body. However, if you've ever stepped off and you didn't know the curb was there, and your mind was not coordinating the activities of the body to step off gracefully, just six inches can be a horrible jar.

When we were over in Israel this last trip, we stayed in the King David Hotel. And in this one fire escape kind of an exit, which we oftentimes used because the elevators were slow, there is one step that is about an inch-and-a-half deeper than the other steps. And we had a lady on our trip who was coming down the steps and when she came to the one step that was just an inch-and-a-half deeper than the other steps, because her mind was not coordinating, it was coordinating for a six-inch step, when she came to the seven-and-a-half inch step, just that extra inch-and-a-half broke her ankle in two places. Because her mind wasn't coordinating to cushion the blow.

So our minds have an automatic reflex action, even as you blink your eyes there is a certain pulling back reflex when you see a blow coming that cushions the blow. Otherwise, boxers would kill each other all the time in the ring. But you see how they are moving and you do that instinctively and automatically. Now they covered the face of Jesus so He could not see the blows coming. So that He could not instinctively pull back. So that the blows landed on His face with full force until they had beaten Him to the place where His face was so bloated and so marred that you look at Him and you would not even know that He was a human being. We'll get to that in Isaiah 52:1-15 next Sunday.

Now here is the prophecy, "I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks,"

to those that plucked off the hair ( Isaiah 50:6 ):

They evidently pulled out His beard by the fistful. And with these beatings, His face was so distorted that you could not even recognize Him as a human being.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting ( Isaiah 50:6 ).

Spitting is a sign in the oriental culture of total disdain and disgust. The Arabs have quite a disdain many times for American tourists. And we have been spit upon or at (good dodger), but they oftentimes disdain the American tourists there. And especially if they try to sell you something and you say, "No, I don't want it." Many times they'll spit at you, just to show their absolute disgust and disdain. It's just a part of their oriental culture. And thus, the Jews not only rejected Him, but they spit upon Him. "My cheeks to the smiters, and I did not hide my face from their shame and their spitting."

Isaiah, in chapter 52, we'll get there next week also, really this all comes together. Chapter 50 begins with the humiliation of Christ and goes on through. It said, "And as many as saw Him were astonished, shocked, and we hid as it were our faces from Him" ( Isaiah 53:3 ). Jesus was not a pretty picture when He redeemed you from your sin. His face was a bloody, bloated mass, swollen and distorted beyond recognition. Covered with spit. His back laid open by the beating. A crown of thorns upon his head. And Pilate said, "Behold the man!" But you couldn't even recognize that He was a man. And yet He did it. He endured it. He did not turn away. His ear was open. He submitted to the will of the Father because He loved you. "And who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross" ( Hebrews 12:2 ), though He despised the spitting, even as you would. And the shame of the whole thing. He despised it. But yet He endured it because His love for you was stronger than anything else. And the joy of being able to wash you and redeem you and to cleanse you from all of your sins was the thing that kept Him going in that moment of disgrace and ignominy. How much He loved us. Oh, God, help us to respond to that love.

For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore I will not be confounded: therefore have I set my face as flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed ( Isaiah 50:7 ).

His trust was in the Father. He had committed Himself unto God and to the will of God completely.

He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and put his trust upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire ( Isaiah 50:8-11 ),

In the last verse he refers to a little pagan ceremony that they went in, that they did.

All ye that kindle a fire put a circle of sparks around you: that you might walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow ( Isaiah 50:11 ).

You that have gone after the false gods. You that are worshipping these false idols. You that are worshipping in this false system. This you're going to have from me. You're going to go down in sorrow.

I do not know how a Jew can read these scriptures and not recognize that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. I do not know how they can look at these and deny the prophecy of Jesus Christ or the fulfillment of Jesus Christ of these prophecies.

Father, we thank You for the great love that You have for us, though we realize how unworthy we are and undeserving. Yet, Lord, You have loved us with an everlasting love. And You have drawn us with Your cords of kindness. And Lord, You sent Your Son, how thankful we are. And now, Lord, we receive Your love. And Father, we love You and we thank You that You chose us that we should be Your disciples, that we should bring forth fruit. That we should serve You and that we should be with You in Your kingdom. We thank You, Lord, that You called us. We thank You, Lord, that You have redeemed us in the blood of Jesus Christ. And that You have accepted us in Him. And now, Lord, we are Your children. May we walk as children in this dark and perverse world. In Jesus' name. Amen.

And now may the Lord be with you. And may the Lord bless you and keep you through this week. May the grace of God abound towards thee in all things. That you might experience the full richness of His love and of His grace towards you in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in His name. "





Bibliographical Information
Smith, Charles Ward. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Smith's Bible Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​csc/​isaiah-50.html. 2014.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Servant’s confidence 50:4-9

This is the third Servant Song (cf. Isaiah 42:1-4; Isaiah 49:1-6; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12). Like the second song, this one is autobiographical, but unlike the first and second songs it contains no reference to the Servant. That it is the Servant who is speaking becomes unmistakable in Isaiah 50:10-11, the "tailpiece" of this song. But what the Servant says, even without that specific identification, leaves little doubt that it is He who is speaking. The obedient and faithful Servant, though deeply troubled, expresses confidence in His calling to proclaim the Lord’s Word and in His ultimate vindication. The reason for the Servant’s uneasiness becomes clearer in this passage. It is because obedience to God would lead to physical and emotional suffering (Isaiah 50:5-6). The extent of this suffering comes out most clearly in the fourth song. [Note: See also, F. Duane Lindsey, "The Commitment of the Servant in Isaiah 50:4-11," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:555 (July-September 1982):216-27.]

Bibliographical Information
Constable, Thomas. DD. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Dr. Constable's Expository Notes". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​dcc/​isaiah-50.html. 2012.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Disdain and abuse are the inevitable consequences of obeying God consistently by declaring His messages. All the true servants of the Lord experience this to some extent (2 Timothy 3:12). This is only the second reference to the Servant as a sufferer (cf. Isaiah 49:7). This theme receives major exposition in the fourth Servant Song. The Servant said He gave Himself over to this type of treatment. It is one thing to endure such treatment, but it is quite another to gladly submit to it without defending oneself. These descriptions picture persecution that Jesus Christ endured literally (cf. Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:30; Mark 14:65; Mark 15:16-20; Luke 22:63). If we did not have the fulfillment of this prophecy in the life of the Lord Jesus, it would be easy to interpret this verse as only a figurative, poetic description of suffering. The literal fulfillment of this and other first advent prophecies should encourage us to expect the literal fulfillment of second advent prophecies. Jesus laid down His life on His own initiative (John 10:17-18).

"It would be impossible for any sinful human being, no matter how fine a person he was, to undergo the sufferings herein described without a spirit of rebellion welling up within him. And if a spirit of revenge took hold of him, we might well understand. Even Jeremiah complained at the way he was being used (cf. Jeremiah 20:9; Jeremiah 20:14 ff., and note Job 3). Only one who was entirely without sin could undergo such suffering without a rebellious spirit [cf. 1 Peter 2:22-23]." [Note: Young, 3:301.]

Bibliographical Information
Constable, Thomas. DD. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Dr. Constable's Expository Notes". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​dcc/​isaiah-50.html. 2012.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

I gave my back to the smiters,.... To Pontius Pilate, and those he ordered to scourge him, Matthew 27:26

and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; of the beard; which, is painful, so a great indignity and affront. The Septuagint renders it, "and my cheeks to blows"; εις ραπισματα, a word used by the evangelists when they speak of Christ being smitten and stricken with the palms of men's hands, and seem to refer to this passage,

Mark 14:65:

I hid not my face from shame and spitting; or from shameful spitting; they spit in his face, and exposed him to shame, and which was a shameful usage of him, and yet he took it patiently, Matthew 26:67, these are all instances of great shame and reproach; as what is more reproachful among us, or more exposes a man, than to be stripped of his clothes, receive lashes on his bare back, and that in public? in which ignominious manner Christ was used: or what reckoned more scandalous, than for a man to have his beard plucked by a mob? which used to be done by rude and wanton boys, to such as were accounted idiots, and little better than brutes x; and nothing is more affronting than to spit in a man's face. So Job was used, which he mentions as a great indignity done to him, Job 30:10. With some people, and in some countries, particular places, that were mean and despicable, were appointed for that use particularly to spit in. Hence Aristippus the philosopher, being shown a fine room in a house, beautifully and richly paved, spat in the face of the owner of it; at which he being angry, and resenting it, the philosopher replied, that he had not a fitter place to spit in y.

x "------------barbam tibi vellunt Lascivi pueri", Horace. "Idcirco stolidam praebet tibi vellere barbara Jupiter?" Persius, Satyr. 2. y Laertius in Vita Aristippi.

Bibliographical Information
Gill, John. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​geb/​isaiah-50.html. 1999.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

Work and Sufferings of the Messiah. B. C. 706.

      4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.   5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.   6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.   7 For the Lord GOD 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.   8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.   9 Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

      Our Lord Jesus, having proved himself able to save, here shows himself as willing as he is able to save, here shows himself as willing as he is able. We suppose the prophet Isaiah to say something of himself in these verses, engaging and encouraging himself to go on in his work as a prophet, notwithstanding the many hardships he met with, not doubting but that God would stand by him and strengthen him; but, like David, he speaks of himself as a type of Christ, who is here prophesied of and promised to be the Saviour.

      I. As an acceptable preacher. Isaiah, a a prophet, was qualified for the work to which he was called, so were the rest of God's prophets, and others whom he employed as his messengers; but Christ was anointed with the Spirit above his fellows. To make the man of God perfect, he has, 1. The tongue of the learned, to know how to give instruction, how to speak a word in season to him that is weary,Isaiah 50:4; Isaiah 50:4. God, who made man's mouth, gave Moses the tongue of the learned, to speak for the terror and conviction of Pharaoh, Exodus 4:11; Exodus 4:12. He gave to Christ the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season for the comfort of those that are weary and heavily laden under the burden of sin, Matthew 11:28. Grace was poured into his lips, and they are said to drop sweet-smelling myrrh. See what is the best learning of a minister, to know how to comfort troubled consciences, and to speak pertinently, properly, and plainly, to the various cases of poor souls. An ability to do this is God's gift, and it is one of the best gifts, which we should covet earnestly. Let us repose ourselves in the many comfortable words which Christ has spoken to the weary. 2. The ear of the learned, to receive instruction. Prophets have as much need of this as of the tongue of the learned; for they must deliver what they are taught and no other, must hear the word from God's mouth diligently and attentively, that they may speak it exactly, Ezekiel 3:17. Christ himself received that he might give. None must undertake to be teachers who have not first been learners. Christ's apostles were first disciples, scribes instructed unto the kingdom of heaven,Matthew 13:52. Nor is it enough to hear, but we must hear as the learned, hear and understand, hear and remember, hear as those that would learn by what we hear. Those that would hear as the learned must be awake, and wakeful; for we are naturally drowsy and sleepy, and unapt to hear at all, or we hear by the halves, hear and do not heed. Our ears need to be wakened; we need to have something said to rouse us, to awaken us out of our spiritual slumbers, that we may hear as for our lives. We need to be awakened morning by morning, as duly as the day returns, to be awakened to do the work of the day in its day. Our case calls for continual fresh supplies of divine grace, to free us from the dulness we contract daily. The morning, when our spirits are most lively, is a proper time for communion with God; then we are in the best frame both to speak to him (my voice shalt thou hear in the morning) and to hear from him. The people came early in the morning to hear Christ in the temple (Luke 21:38), for, it seems, his were morning lectures. And it is God that wakens us morning by morning. If we do any thing to purpose in his service, it is he who, as our Master, calls us up; and we should doze perpetually if he did not waken us morning by morning.

      II. As a patient sufferer, Isaiah 50:5; Isaiah 50:6. One would think that he who was commissioned and qualified to speak comfort to the weary should meet with no difficulty in his work, but universal acceptance. It is however quite otherwise; he has both hard work to do and hard usage to undergo; and here he tells us with what undaunted constancy he went through with it. We have no reason to question but that the prophet Isaiah went on resolutely in the work to which God had called him, though we read not of his undergoing any such hardships as are here supposed; but we are sure that the prediction was abundantly verified in Jesus Christ: and here we have, 1. His patient obedience in his doing work. "The Lord God has not only wakened my ear to hear what he says, but has opened my ear to receive it, and comply with it" (Psalms 40:6; Psalms 40:7, My ear hast thou opened; then said I, Lo, I come); for when he adds, I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, more is implied than expressed--that he was willing, that though he foresaw a great deal of difficulty and discouragement, though he was to take pains and give constant attendance as a servant, though he was to empty himself of that which was very great and humble himself to that which was very mean, yet he did not fly off, did not fail, nor was discouraged. He continued very free and forward to his work even when he came to the hardest part of it. Note, As a good understanding in the truths of God, so a good will to the work and service of God, is from the grace of God. 2. His obedient patience in his suffering work. I call it obedient patience because he was patient with an eye to his Father's will, thus pleading with himself, This commandment have I received of my Father, and thus submitting to God, Not as I will, but as thou wilt. In this submission he resigned himself, (1.) To be scourged: I gave my back to the smiters; and that not only by submitting to the indignity when he was smitten, but by permitting it (or admitting it rather) among the other instances of pain and shame which he would voluntarily undergo for us. (2.) To be buffeted: I gave my cheeks to those that not only smote them, but plucked off the hair of the beard, which was a greater degree both of pain and of ignominy. (3.) To be spit upon: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. He could have hidden his face from it, could have avoided it, but he would not, because he was made a reproach of men, and thus he would answer to the type of Job, that man of sorrows, of whom it is said that they smote him on the cheek reproachfully (Job 16:10), which was an expression not only of contempt, but of abhorrence and indignation. All this Christ underwent for us, and voluntarily, to convince us of his willingness to save us.

      III. As a courageous champion, Isaiah 50:7-9; Isaiah 50:7-9. The Redeemer is as famous for his boldness as for his humility and patience, and, though he yields, yet he is more than a conqueror. Observe, 1. The dependence he has upon God. What was the prophet Isaiah's support was the support of Christ himself (Isaiah 50:7; Isaiah 50:7): The Lord God will help me; and again, Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 50:9. Those whom God employs he will assist, and will take care they want not any help that they or their work call for. God, having laid help upon his Son for us, gave help to him, and his hand was all along with the man of his right hand. Nor will he only assist him in his work, but accept of him (Isaiah 50:8; Isaiah 50:8): He is near that justifieth. Isaiah, no doubt, was falsely accused and loaded with reproach and calumny, as other prophets were; but he despised the reproach, knowing that God would roll it away and bring forth his righteousness as the light, perhaps in this world (Psalms 37:6), at furthest in the great day, when there will be a resurrection of names as well as bodies, and the righteous shall shine forth as the morning sun. And so it was verified in Christ; by his resurrection he was proved to be not the man that he was represented, not a blasphemer, not a deceiver, not an enemy to Cæsar. The judge that condemned him owned he found no fault in him; the centurion, or sheriff, that had charge of his execution, declared him a righteous man: so near was he that justified him. But it was true of him in a further and more peculiar sense: the Father justified him when he accepted the satisfaction he made for the sin of man, and constituted him the Lord our righteousness, who was made sin for us. He was justified in the Spirit,1 Timothy 3:16. He was near who did it; for his resurrection, by which he was justified, soon followed his condemnation and crucifixion. He was straightway glorified, John 13:32. 2. The confidence he thereupon has of success in his undertaking: "If God will help me, if he will justify me, will stand by me and bear me out, I shall not be confounded, as those are that come short of the end they aimed at and the satisfaction they promised themselves: I know that I shall not be ashamed." Though his enemies did all they could to put him to shame, yet he kept his ground, he kept his countenance, and was not ashamed of the work he had undertaken. Note, Work for God is work that we should not be ashamed of; and hope in God is hope that we shall not be ashamed of. Those that trust in God for help shall not be disappointed; they know whom they have trusted, and therefore know they shall not be ashamed. 3. The defiance which in this confidence he bids to all opposers and opposition: "God will help me, and therefore have I set my face like a flint." The prophet did so; he was bold in reproving sin, in warning sinners (Ezekiel 3:8; Ezekiel 3:9), and in asserting the truth of his predictions. Christ did so; he went on in his work, as Mediator, with unshaken constancy and undaunted resolution; he did not fail nor was discouraged; and here he challenges all his opposers, (1.) To enter the lists with him: Who will contend with me, either in law or by the sword? Let us stand together as combatants, or as the plaintiff and defendant. Who is my adversary? Who is the master of my cause? so the word is, "Who will pretend to enter an action against me? Let him appear, and come near to me, for I will not abscond." Many offered to dispute with Christ, but he put them to silence. The prophet speaks this in the name of all faithful ministers; those who keep close to the pure word of God, in delivering their message, need not fear contradiction; the scriptures will bear them out, whoever contends with them. Great is the truth and will prevail. Christ speaks this in the name of all believers, speaks it as their champion. Who dares be an enemy to those whom he is a friend to, or contend with those for whom he is an advocate? Thus St. Paul applies it (Romans 8:33): Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? (2.) He challenges them to prove any crime upon him (Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 50:9): Who is he that shall condemn me? The prophet perhaps was condemned to die; Christ we are sure was; and yet both could say, Who is he that shall condemn? For there is no condemnation to those whom God justifies. There were those that did condemn them, but what became of them? They all shall wax old as a garment. The righteous cause of Christ and his prophets shall outlive all opposition. The moth shall eat them up silently and insensibly; a little thing will serve to destroy them. But the roaring lion himself shall not prevail against God's witnesses. All believers are enabled to make this challenge, Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ that died.

Bibliographical Information
Henry, Matthew. "Complete Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​mhm/​isaiah-50.html. 1706.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Shame and Spitting

July 27th, 1879 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Isaiah 50:6 .

Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other? We cannot doubt but what Isaiah here wrote concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Is not this one of the prophecies to which our Lord Himself referred in the incident recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel at the thirty-first verse? "Then he took unto him he twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him and put him to death." Such a remarkable prophecy of scourging and spitting as this which is now before us must surely refer to the Lord Jesus; its highest fulfillment is assuredly found in Him alone. Of whom else, let me ask, could you conceive the prophet to have spoken if you read the whole chapter? Of whom else could he say in the same breath, "I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth their covering. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair" (vv. 3, 6). What a descent from the omnipotence which veils the heavens with clouds to the gracious condescension which does not veil its own face, but permits it to be spat upon! No other could thus have spoken of Himself but He who is both God and man. He must be divine: how else could He say, "Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness" (v. 2)? And yet he must at the same time be a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," for there is a strange depth of pathos in the words, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Whatever others may say, we believe that the speaker in this verse is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, the Son of God and the Son of man, our Redeemer. It is the Judge of Israel whom they have smitten with a rod upon the cheek who here plaintively declares the griefs which He has undergone. We have before us the language of prophecy, but it is as accurate as though it had been written at the moment of the event. Isaiah might have been one of the Evangelists, so exactly does he describe what our Savior endured. I have already laid he fore you in the reading of the Scriptures some of the passages of the New Testament wherein the scourging and the shame of our Lord Jesus are described. We saw Him first at the tribunal of His own countrymen in Matthew 26:0 , and we read, "Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him: and others smote him with the palms of their hands.'' It was in the hall of the high priest, among His own countrymen, that first of all the shameful deeds of scorn were wrought upon Him. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not." His worst foes were they of His own household; they despised and abhorred Him, and would have none of Him. His own Father's husbandmen said among themselves "This is the heir; let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance." This was His treatment at the hand of the house of Israel. The same treatment, or the like thereto, was accorded Him in Herod's palace, where the fingering shade of a Jewish royalty still existed. There what I might venture to call a pattern mixture of Jew and Gentile power held court, but our Lord fared no better in the united company. By the two combined the Lord was treated with equal derision (Luke 23:11 ). "Herod with his men of war set him at naught, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe." Speedily came His third trial, and He was delivered altogether to the Gentiles. Then Pilate, the governor, gave Him up to the cruel process of scourging. Scourging as it has been practiced in the English army is atrocious, a barbarism which ought to make us blush for the past, and resolve to end it for the future. How is it that such a horror has been tolerated so long in a country where we are not all savages? But the lash is nothing among us compared with what it was among the Romans. I have heard that it was made of the sinews of oxen, and that in it were twisted the knucklebones of sheep, with slivers of bone, in order that every stroke might more effectually tear its way into the poor quivering flesh, which was mangled by its awful strokes. Scourging was such a punishment that it was generally regarded as worse than death itself, and indeed, many perished while enduring it, or soon afterwards. Our blessed Redeemer gave His back to the smiters, and the plowers made deep furrows there. O spectacle of misery! How can we bear to look thereon? Nor was that all, for Pilate's soldier's, calling all the band together, as if there were not enough for mockery unless all were mustered, put Him to derision by a mock enthronement and a mimic coronations and when they had thus done they again buffeted and smote Him, and spat in His face. There was no kind of cruelty which their heartlessness could just then invent which they did not exercise upon His blessed Person: their brutal sport had full indulgence, for their innocent victim offered neither resistance nor remonstrance. This is His own record of His patient endurance. "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Behold your King! I bring Him forth to you this morning in spirit and cry, "Behold the Man!" Turn hither all your eyes and hearts and look upon the despised and rejected of men! Gaze reverently and lovingly, with awe for His sufferings and love for His Person. The sight demands adoration. I would remind you of that which Moses did when he saw the bush that burned and was not consumed fit emblem of our Lord on fire with griefs and yet not destroyed; I bid you turn aside and see this great sight, but first attend to the mandate "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." All round the cross the soil is sacred. Our suffering Lord has consecrated every place whereon He stood, and therefore our hearts must be filled with reverence while we linger under the shadow of His passion. May the Holy Spirit help you to see Jesus in four lights at this time. In each view He is worthy of devout attention. Let us view Him first as the representative of God; secondly, as the substitute of His people, thirdly, as the servant of Jehovah; and fourthly, as the Comforter of his redeemed. I. First, I invite you to gaze upon your despised and rejected Lord as THE REPRESENTATIVE OF GOD. In the Person of Christ Jesus, God Himself came into the world, making a special visitation to Jerusalem and the Jewish people, but at the same time coming very near to all mankind. The Lord called to the people whom He had favored so long and whom He was intent to favor still. He says, in the second verse, "I came" and "I called." God did in very deed come down into the midst of mankind. Be it noted, that when our Lord came into this world as the Representative of God, He came with all His divine power about Him. The chapter before us says, "Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness." The Son of God, when He was here, did not perform those exact miracles, because He was bent upon marvels of beneficence rather than of judgment. He did not repeat the plagues of Egypt, for He did not come to smite, but to save; but He did greater wonders and wrought miracles which ought far more powerfully to have won men's confidence in Him because they were full of goodness and mercy. He fed the hungry, He healed the sick, He raised the dead, and He cast out devils. He did equal marvels to those which were wrought in Egypt when the arm of the Lord was made bare in the eyes of all the people. It is true He did not change water into blood, but He turned water into wine. It is true He did nor make their fish to stink, but by His word He caused the net to be filled even to bursting with great fishes. He did not break the whole staff of bread as He did in Egypt, but He multiplied loaves and fishes so that thousands of men and women and children were fed from His bounteous hand. He did not slay their first-born, but He restored the dead. I grant you that the glory of the Godhead was somewhat hidden in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, but it was still there, even as the glory was upon the face of Moses when he covered it with a veil. No essential attribute of God was absent in Christ, and every one might have been seen in Him if the people had not been willfully blind. He did the works of His Father, and those works bore witness of Him that He was come in His Father's name. Yes, God was personally in the world when Jesus walked the blessed fields of the Holy land, now, alas, laid under the curse for rejecting Him. But when God thus came among, men He was unacknowledged. What saith the prophet? "Wherefore when I came was there no man? when I called was there none to answer?" A few, taught by the Spirit of God, discerned Him and rejoiced; but they were so very few that we may say of the whole generation that they knew Him not. Those who had some dim idea of His excellence and majesty yet rejected Him. Herod, because he feared that He was King, sought to slay Him. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed. He was emphatically and beyond all others "despised and rejected of men." Though, as I have said, the Godhead in Him was but scantily veiled, and gleams of its glory burst forth ever and anon, yet still the people would have none of it, and the cry, "Away with him. away with him, let him be crucified," was the verdict of the age upon which He descended. He called and there was none to answer; He spread out His hands all the day long unto a rebellious people who utterly rejected Him. Yet our Lord when He came into the world was admirably adapted to be the Representative of God, not only because He was God Himself, but because as man His whole human nature was consecrated to the work, and in Him was neither flaw nor spot. He was untouched by any motive other than the one desire of manifesting the Father and blessing the sons of men. Oh, beloved, there was never One who had His ear so near the mouth of God as Jesus had. His Father had no need to speak to Him in dreams and visions of the night, for when all His faculties were wide awake there was nothing in them to hinder His understanding the mind of God; and therefore every morning when His Father wakened Him He spoke into His ear. Jesus sat as a scholar at the Father's feet that He might learn first, and then teach. The things which He heard of the Father He made known unto men. He says that He spoke not His own words but the words of Him that sent Him, and He did not His own deeds, but "my Father," saith He, "that dwelleth in me, he doeth the work." Now, a man thus entirely agreeable to the mind and will of the great God was fitted to be the Representative of God. Both the alliance of His manhood with the Godhead and its perfect character qualified it to he the fittest dwelling of God among men. Yes, dear friends, our Savior came in a way which should at once have commanded the reverent homage of all men. Even His great Father said, "They will reverence my Son." Enough of the Godhead was manifested to impress and nor more, lest it should alarm. With a soul of gentlest mold and a body like our own He was altogether adapted to be the Representative of God. His errand, too, was all gentleness and love, for He came to speak words in season to the weary, and to comfort those that were cast down: surely such an errand should have secured Him a welcome. His course and conduct were most conciliatory, for He went among the people, and ate with publicans and sinners; so gentle was He that He took little children in His arms, and blessed them; for this, if for nothing else, they ought to have welcomed Him right heartily and rejoiced at the sight of Him. Our text tells us how contrary was their conduct towards Him to that which He deserved instead of being welcomed He was scourged, and instead of being honored He was scorned. Cruelty smote His back and plucked off the hair from His face, while derision jeered at Him and cast its spittle upon Him. Shame and contempt were poured upon Him, though He was God Himself. That spectacle of Christ spat upon, and scourged represents what man virtually does to his God, what he would do to the Most High if he could. Hart well puts it

See how the patient Jesus stands, Insulted in his lowest case! Sinners have bound the Almighty hands, And spit in their Creator's face.

When our parents broke the command of their Maker, obeying the advice of the devil rather than the Word of God, and preferring a poor apple to the divine favor, they did as it were spit into the face of God; and every sin committed since has been a repetition of the same contempt of the Eternal One. When a man will have his pleasure, even though it displeases God, he as good as declares that he despises God, prefers himself, and defies the wrath of the Most High. When a man acts contrary to the command of God he does as good as say to God, "This is better for me to do than what Thou bidst me do. Either Thou art mistaken, in thy prohibitions, or else Thou dost willfully deny me the highest pleasure, and I, being a better judge of my own interests than Thou art, snatch at the pleasure which Thou dost refuse me. I judge Thee either to be unwise or unkind." Every act of sin does despite to the sovereignty of God: it denies Him to be supreme and refuses Him obedience. Every act of sin does dishonor to the love and wisdom of God, for it seems to say that it would have been greater love to have permitted us to do evil than to have commanded us to abstain from it. All sin is in many ways an insult to the majesty of the thrice Holy God, and He regards it as such. Dear friends, this is especially the sin of those who have heard the gospel and yet reject the Savior, for in their case the Lord has come to them in the most gracious form, and yet they have refused Him. The Lord might well say, "I have come to you to save you, and you will not regard me. I have come saying to you, 'Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth,' and you close your eyes in unbelief. I have come saying, 'Let us reason together: though your sins be as crimson, they shall be as wool,' but you will not be cleansed from your iniquity. I have come with the promise, 'All manner of sin and iniquity shall be forgiven unto men.' What is your reply?" In the case of many the answer is, "We prefer our own righteousness to the righteousness of God." If that is not casting spittle into the face of God I know not what is, for our righteousnesses are well described as "filthy rags," and we have the impudence to say that these are better than the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Or if we do not say this when we reject the Savior we tell Him that we do not want Him, for we do not need a Savior: this is as good as to say that God has played the fool with the life and death of His own Son. What greater derision can be cast upon God than to consider the blood of atonement to be a superfluity? He who chooses sin sooner than repentance prefers to suffer the wrath of God rather than be holy and dwell in heaven forever. For the sake of a few paltry pleasures men forego the love of God, and are ready to run the risk of an eternity of divine wrath. They think so little of God that He is of no account with them at all. All this is in reality a scorning and despising of the Lord God, and is well set forth by the insults which were poured upon the Lord Jesus. Woe's me that it should ever be so. My God! My God! To what a sinful race do I belong. Alas, that it should treat thine infinite goodness so despitefully! That Thou shouldst be rejected at all, but especially that Thou shouldest be rejected when dressed in robes of love and arrayed in gentleness and pity is horrible to think upon. Do you mean it, O men? Can you really mean it? Can you deride the Lord Jesus who died for men? For which of His works do ye stone Him, when He lived only to do good? For which of His griefs do you refuse Him, when He died only that He might save? "He saved others, himself he cannot save," for He had so much love that He could spare Himself. I can understand your resisting the thunder of Jehovah's power, for I know your insanity; but can you resist the tenderness of Jehovah's love? If you do I must charge you with brutality, but therein I wrong the brutes, to whom such crimes are impossible. I may not even call this cruel scorning diabolical, for it is a sin which devils never did commit, perhaps would not have committed had it been possible to them. They have never trifled with a Redeemer, nor rejected the blood of the seed of Abraham. Shall the favored race spit upon its friend? God grant we may be brought to a better mind. But there is the picture before you. God Himself set at naught, despised, rejected, put to shame, perpetually dishonored in the Person of His dear Son. The sight should breed repentance in us. We should look to Him whom we have scourged, and mourn for Him. O Holy Spirit, work this tender grace in all our hearts. II. And now, secondly, I want to set the Lord Jesus before you in another light, or rather beseech Him to shine in His own light before your eyes: AS THE SUBSTITUTE FOR HIS PEOPLE. Recollect when our Lord Jesus Christ suffered thus it was not on His own account nor purely for the sake of His Father, but He "was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." There has risen up a modern idea which I cannot too much reprobate, that Christ made no atonement for our sin except upon the cross: whereas in this passage of Isaiah we are taught as plainly as possible that by His bruising and His stripes, as well as by His death, we are healed. Never divide between the life and the death of Christ. How could He have died if He had not lived? How could He suffer except while He lived? Death is not suffering, but the end of it. Guard also against the evil notion that you have nothing to do with the righteousness of Christ, for He could not have made an atonement by His blood if He had not been perfect in His life. He could not have been acceptable if He had not first been proven to be holy, harmless, and undefiled. The victim must be spotless, or it cannot be presented for sacrifice. Draw no nice lines and raise no quibbling questions, but look at your Lord as He is and bow before Him. Understand, my dear brothers and sisters, that Jesus took upon Himself our sin, and being found bearing that sin He had to be treated as sin should be treated. Now, of all the things that ever existed sin is the most shameful thing that can be. It deserves to be scourged, it deserves to be spit upon, it deserves to be crucified; and because our Lord had taken upon Himself our sin, therefore must He be put to shame, therefore must He be scourged. If you want to see what God thinks of sin, see His only Son spat upon by the soldiers when He was made sin for us. In God's sight sin is a shameful, horrible, loathsome, abominable thing, and when Jesus takes it He must be forsaken and given up to scorn. This sight will be the more wonderful to you when you recollect who it was that was spat upon, for if you and I, being sinners, were scourged, and smitten, and despised, there would be no wonder in it; but He who took our sin was God, before whom angels bow with reverent awe, and yet, seeing the sin was upon Him, He was made subject to the most intense degree of shame. Seeing that Jesus stood in our stead, it is written of the eternal Father that "He spared not his own Son." "It pleased the Father to bruise him: he hath put him to grief"; He made His soul an offering for sin. Yes, beloved, sin is condemned in the flesh and made to appear exceeding shameful when you recollect that, even though it was only laid on our blessed Lord by imputation, yet it threw Him into the very depths of shame and woe ere it could be removed. Reflect, also, upon the voluntariness of all this. He willingly submitted to the endurance of suffering and scorn. It is said in the text, "He gave his back to the smiters." They did not seize and compel Him, or; if they did, yet they could nor have done it without His consent. He gave His back to the smiters He gave His cheek to those that plucked off the hair. He did not hide His face from shame and spitting: He did not seek in any way to escape from insults. It was the voluntariness of His grief which constituted in great measure the merit of it. That Christ should stand in our stead by force were a little thing, even had it been possible; but that He should stand there of His own free will, and that being there He should willingly be treated with derision, this is grace indeed. The Son of God was willingly made a curse for us, and at His own desire was made subject to shame on our account. I do not know how you feel in listening to me, but while I am speaking I feel as if language ought scarcely to touch such a theme as this: it is too feeble for its task. I want you to get beyond my words if you can, and for yourselves meditate upon the fact that He who covers the heavens with blackness, yet did not cover His own face, and He who binds up the universe with the girdle which holds it in one, yet was bound and blindfolded by the men He had Himself made; He whose face is as the brightness of the sun that shineth in its strength was once spit upon. Surely we shall need faith in heaven to believe this wondrous fact. Can it have been true, that the glorious Son of God was jeered and jested at? I have often heard that there is no faith wanted in heaven, but I rather judge that we shall want as much faith to believe that these things were ever done as the patriarchs had to believe that they would be done. How shall I sit down and gaze upon Him and think that His dear face was once profaned with spittle? When all heaven shall lie prostrate at His feet in awful silence of adoration will it seem possible that once He was mocked? When angels and principalities, and powers shall all be roused to rapture of harmonious music in His praise, will it seem possible that once the most abject of men plucked out the hair? Will it not appear incredible that those sacred hands, which are "as gold rings set with the beryl," were once nailed to a gibbet, and that those cheeks which are "as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers," should have been battered and bruised? We shall be quite certain of the fact, and yet we shall never cease to wonder, that His side was gashed, and His face was spit upon? The sin of man in this instance will always amaze us. How could you commit this crime? Oh, ye sons of men, how could ye treat such an One with cruel scorn? O thou brazen thing called sin, thou hast, indeed, as the prophet saith, "a whores forehead"; thou hast a demons heart, hell burns within thee. Why couldst thou not spit upon earthly splendors? Why must heaven be thy scorn? Or if heaven, why not spit on angels! Was there no place for thy spittle but His face? His face! Woe is me! His face! Should such loveliness receive such shame as this? I could wish that man had never been created, or that being created, he had been swept into nothingness rather than have lived to commit such horror. Yet, here is matter for our faith to rest upon, Beloved, trust yourselves in the hands of your great Substitute. Did He bear all this shame? Then there must be more than enough merit and efficacy in this, which was the prelude of His precious death and especially in His death itself there must be merit sufficient to put away all transgression, iniquity, and sin. Our shame is ended, for He has borne it! Our punishment is removed: He has endured it all. Double for all our sins has our Redeemer paid. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, and let peace take full possession of thy weeping heart. III. But time fails us, and therefore we will mention, next, the third light in which it is our desire to see the Savior. Beloved, we desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ AS THE SERVANT OF GOD. He took upon Himself the form of a servant when He was made in the likeness of man. Observe how He performed this service right thoroughly, and remember we are to look upon this third picture as our copy, which is to be the guide of our life. I know that many of you are glad to call yourselves the servants of God; take not the name in vain. As Jesus was, so are you also in this world, and you are to seek to be like Him. First, as a servant, Christ was personally prepared for service. He was thirty years and more here below, learning obedience in His Father's house, and the after years were spent in learning obedience by the things which He suffered. What a servant He was, for He never went about His own errands nor went by His own will, but He waited always upon His Father. He was in constant communication with heaven, both by day and by night. He says, "He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." The blessed Lord or ever the day broke heard that gentle voice which called Him, and at its whisper He arose before the sunrise, and there the dawning found Him, on the mountain side, waiting upon God in wrestling prayer, taking His message from the Father that He might go and deliver it to the children of men. He loved man much, but He loved His Father more, and He never came to tell out the love of God without having as man received it fresh from the divine heart. He knew that His Father heard Him always, and He lived in the spirit of conscious acceptance. Have you ever noticed that sometimes a passage will begin, "At that time Jesus answered and said," and yet there is no notice that He had been speaking to anybody before, or that anybody had been speaking to Him? What He said was an answer to a voice which no ear heard but His own, for He was always standing with opened ear, listening to the eternal voice. Such service did Jesus render, and you must render the same. You cannot do your Lord's will except you live near to Him. It is of no use trying to preach with power unless we get our message from our heavenly Father's own Self. I am sure you as hearers know the difference between a dead word which comes from a man's own brain and lip, and a living word which the preacher delivers fresh as the manna which fell from heaven. The word should come from the minister like bread hot from the oven, or better still, like a seed with life in it; not as a parched grain with the germ dead and killed, but as a living seed which roots itself in your souls, and springs up to a harvest. This made our Lord such a good servant that He listened to His Father's voice and yielded Himself to the Father's will to perfection. Our text assures us that this service knew no reserve in its consecration. We generally draw back somewhere. I am ashamed to say it, but I mourn that I have done so. Many of us could give to Christ all our health and strength, and all the money we have, very heartily and cheerfully; but when it comes to a point of reputation we feel the pinch. To be slandered, to have some filthy thing said of you; this is too much for flesh and blood. You seem to say, "I cannot be made a fool of, I cannot bear to be regarded as a mere impostor"; but a true servant of Christ must make himself of no reputation when he takes upon himself the work of his Lord. Our blessed Master was willing to be scoffed at by the lewdest and lowest of men. The abjects jeered at Him; the reproach of them that reproached God fell upon Him. He became the song of the drunkard, and when the rough soldiery detained Him in the guard-room they heaped up their ridicule, as though He were not worthy of the name of man.

They bow their knees to me, and cry, "Hail, King": Whatever scoffs or scornfulness can bring, I am the floor. the sink, where they it fling: Was ever grief like mine?

The soldiers also spit upon that face Which angels did desire to have the grace And prophets once to see, but found no place: Was ever grief like mine?

Herod and Pilate were the very dross of men, and yet He permitted them to judge Him. Their servants were vile fellows, and yet He resigned Himself to them. If He had breathed upon them with angry breath, He might have flashed devouring fire upon them, and burned them up as stubble; but His omnipotent patience restrained His indignation, and He remained as a sheep before her shearers. He allowed His own creatures to pluck His hair and spit in His face. Such patience should be yours as servants of God. We are to be willing to be made nothing of, and even to be counted as the offscouring of all things. It is pitiful for the Christian to refuse to suffer, and to become a fighting man, crying, "We must stand up for our rights." Did you ever see Jesus in that posture? There is a propensity in us to say, "I will have it out." Yes, but you cannot picture Jesus in that attitude. I defy a painter to depict Him so: it is somebody else, and not Christ. No! He said, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting." There is something more here than perfect consecration in the mere form of it, for its heart and essence are manifest in an obedient delight in the will of the Father. The words seem to me to express alacrity. It is not said that He reluctantly permitted His enemies to pluck His hair, or smite His back, but it is written, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." He could not delight in it; how could He delight in suffering and shame? These things were even more repugnant to His sensitive nature than they can be to us; and yet, "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame." He was ready for this dreadful treatment, for He said, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" He was ready for the cup of gall, and willing to drink it to its dregs, though it was bitterness itself to Him. He gave His back to the smiters. All this while now follow me in this next point there was no flinching in Him. They spat in His face, but what says He in the seventh verse. "I have set my face like a flint." If they are about to defile His face He is resolved to bear it; He girds up His loins and makes Himself more determined. Oh, the bravery of our Master's silence! Cruelty and shame could not make Him speak. Have not your lips sometimes longed to speak out a denial and a defense? Have you not felt it wise to be quiet, but then the charge has been so excessively cruel, and it has stung you so terribly that you hungered to resent it. Base falsehoods aroused your indignation, and you felt you must speak and probably you did speak, though you tried to keep your lips as with a bridle while the wicked were before you. But our own beloved Lord in the omnipotence of His patience and love would not utter a word, but like a lamb at the slaughter He opened not His mouth. He witnessed a good confession by His matchless silence. Oh, how might how gloriously mighty was His patience! We must copy it if we are to be His disciples. We, too, must set our faces like flints, to move or to sit still, according to the Father's will, to be silent or to speak, as most shall honor Him. "I have set my face like a flint," saith He, even though in another place He cries, "My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels." And do you notice all the while the confidence and quiet of His spirit? He almost seems to say, "You may spit upon Me, but you cannot find fault with Me. You may pluck my hair, but you cannot impugn my integrity; you may lash my shoulders, but you cannot impute a fault to Me. Your false witnesses dare not look Me in the face: let Me know who is mine adversary, let him come near to Me. Behold, Adonai Jehovah will keep Me, who is he that shall condemn me! Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up." Be calm then, O true servant of God! In patience possess your soul. Serve God steadily and steadfastly though all men should belie you. Go to the bottom of the service, dive even to the very depth, and be content even to lie in Christ's grave, for you shall share in Christ's resurrection. Do not dream that the path to heaven is up the hill of honor, it winds down into the valley of humiliation. Imagine not that you can grow great eternally by being great here. You must become less, and less, and less, even though you should be despised and rejected of men, for this is the path to everlasting glory. I have not time to expound the last two verses of the chapter, but they read you a noble lesson. "He gave his back to the smiters"; if, then, any of you walk in darkness and have no light, this is no new thing for a servant of God. The chief of all servants persevered, though men despised Him. Follow Him, then. Stay yourselves upon God as He did, and look for a bright ending of your trials. He came out into the light ultimately, and there He sits in inconceivable splendor at His Father's right hand, and so shall all the faithful come out of the cloud and shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Only bear on with resolute patience, and glory shall be your reward, even as it is His. IV. Lastly, I am to set Him forth in His fourth character, as THE COMFORTER OF HIS PEOPLE; but I must ask you to do this, while I just, as it were, make a charcoal sketch of the picture I would have painted. Remember, first, our blessed Lord is well qualified to speak a word in season to him that is weary, because He Himself is lowly, and meek, and so accessible to us. When men are in low spirits they feel as if they could not take comfort from persons who are harsh and proud. The Comforter must come as a sufferer; He must come in a lowly broken spirit, if He would cheer the afflicted. You must not put on your best dress to go and visit the daughter of poverty, or go with your jewels about you to show how much better off you are than she. Sit down by the side of the downcast man and let him know that you are meek and lowly of heart. Your Master "gave his back to the smiters, and his cheek to them that plucked off the hair," and therefore He is the Comforter you want. Remark not only His lowliness, but His sympathy. Are you full of aches and pains this morning? Jesus knows all about them, for He "gave his back to the smiters." Do you suffer from what is worse than pain, from scandal and slander? "He hid not his face from shame and spitting." Have you been ridiculed of late? Have the graceless made fun of your godliness? Jesus can sympathize with you, for you. know what unholy mirth they made out of Him. In every pang that rends your heart your Lord has borne His share. Go and tell Him. Many will not understand you. You are a speckled bird, differing from all the rest, and they will all peck at you; but Jesus Christ knows this, for He was a speckled bird, too. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," but not separate from such as you. Get you to Him and He will sympathize with you. In addition to His gentle spirit and His power to sympathize, there is this to help to comfort us namely, His example, for He can argue thus with you, "I gave my back to the smiters. Cannot you do the like? Shall the disciple be above his Master?" If I can but get on the doorstep of heaven and sit down in the meanest place there I shall feel I have an infinitely better position than I deserve, and shall I think of my dear, blessed Lord and Master giving His face to be spit upon, and then give myself airs, and say, "I cannot bear this scorn, I cannot bear this pain!" What, does the King pass over the brook Kedron, and must there be no brook Kedron for you? Does the Master bear the cross, and must your shoulders never be galled? Did they call the Master of the house "Beelzebub," and must they call you "Reverend Sir?" Did they laugh at Him, and scoff at Him, and must you be honored? Are you to be "gentleman" and "lady" where Christ was "that fellow"? For His birth they loaned Him a stable, and for His burial He borrowed a grave. O friends, let pride disappear, and let us count it our highest honor to he permitted to stoop as low as ever we can. And, then, His example further comforts us by the fact that He was calm amid it all. Oh, the deep rest of the Saviors heart! They set Him up upon chat mock throne, but He did not answer with an angry word; they put a reed into His hand, but He did not change it to an iron rod, and break them like potters' vessels, as He might have done. There was no wincing and no pleading for mercy. Sighs of pain were forced from Him, and He said, "I thirst," for He was not a stoic; but there was no fear of man, or timorous shrinking of heart. The King of Martyrs well deserves to wear the martyr's crown, for right royally did He endure: there was never a patience like to His. That is your copy, brother, that is your copy, sister you must write very carefully to write as well as that. You had need your Master held your hand; in fact, whenever children in Christ's school do write according to His copy, it is always because He holds their hand by His Spirit. Last of all, our Savior's triumph is meant to be a stimulus and encouragement to us. He stands before us this morning as the Comforter of His people. Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest ye be weary and faint in your minds; for though He was once abased and despised, yet now He sitteth at the right hand of God, and reigns over all things; and the day is coming when every knee shall bow before Him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. They that spat upon Him will rue the day. Come hither, ye that derided Him! He has raised you from the dead, come hither and spit upon Him now! Ye that scourged Him, bring your rods, see what ye can do in this day of his glory! See, they fly before Him, they invoke the hills to shelter them, they ask the rocks to open and conceal them. Yet it is nothing but His face, that selfsame face they spat upon, which is making earth and heaven to flee away. Yea, all things flee before the majesty of his frown who once gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. Be like Him, then, ye who bear His name; trust Him, and live for Him, and you shall reign with Him in glory forever and ever. Amen.

Bibliographical Information
Spurgeon, Charle Haddon. "Commentary on Isaiah 50:6". "Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible". https://www.studylight.org/​commentaries/​spe/​isaiah-50.html. 2011.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile