Trusting in God – Isaiah 50 (Part 1)

One of the things we appreciate about Grimsby Bible Church is the desire to study and submit to the entirety of the Bible. One of the ways we have tried to do that is by systematically studying entire books of the Bible expositionally. The Wednesday night Bible Study group at Grimsby has been going through the book of Isaiah for the past several months and I recently led the group through a brief look at Isaiah 50.

Isaiah 50 is near the beginning of the section of Isaiah (chapters 49-55) that deals with the “Servant of God”. These chapters are among the most frequently cited of Isaiah, but are none-the-less difficult to interpret properly for two main reasons. The Servant sometimes refers to Israel and sometimes to the Messiah and the difference is seldom explicit so we need to infer from the context which meaning is being used. Secondly, as in all of Isaiah (and most Biblical prophecy), the point of view of the narrative shifts frequently (sometimes God is speaking, sometimes Israel, sometimes Isaiah) and there are sometimes very few markers in the text to help us identify the transitions.

In the case of Isaiah 50, the Servant refers to the Messiah and vv 1-3 have God speaking, vv 4- 9 have the Messiah speaking and it concludes in vv 10, 11 with the prophet Isaiah proclaiming.

With that in mind, I outlined Isaiah 50 thus:

1. Why we fail to trust in God.
2. How we can learn to trust Him.
3. The consequences of trusting God and of trusting ourselves.