Meditation 253
Isaiah 50: 4-9
In the book of Isaiah there are four poems known as the Servant Songs, which are written about a certain servant of Yahweh who is called to lead the nations. The first of the Servant Songs is found in Isaiah 40, which is read during Advent. We are told that a divine summons cries out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord, and. someone (the Servant?) responds with “what shall I cry?” A case can be made that the one who responds to the divine summons in Isaiah 40 is the same one who speaks in Isaiah 50. The servant is bringing a message of comfort “[sustaining] the weary with a word. Isaiah 50:4” (Christopher B. Hays. Working Preacher)
The Servant tells us that he has been given “the tongue of a teacher” (verse 4), and he goes on to say “Morning by morning he (God) wakens – wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” The servant is both teacher and learner. Those who are fully invested as teachers are usually those who have learned well, and have been taught by those who have a passion for the job. In this case the teacher is God and the Servant will teach what God has taught. The Servant is so in tune with the teacher that he listens morning by morning for what God has to say.
The Servant in Isaiah was serving in a time when it was not popular to be bringing a message from God to the people. Nevertheless, the Servant is so aware of the calling from God to be both a teacher and a prophet that each morning is begun with the ear being awakened by God. What kind of wonderful faith the Servant must have had to turn to God each morning in confidence that God had a hopeful message for the day.
We often think of hope as the optimism that leads us to believe that things will get better. In the case of the hope that God gives, hope is the recognition of what is good in the midst of how we are living now. Twice the Servant says it is the Lord who helps me (verse 7&9). The Servant looks to the Lord in the midst of his life and he knows he will find the truth that will sustain the weary. In spite of the way the world was unfolding, the Servant knew that God loved the people, and that God was faithful.
In the same way that the Servant in Isaiah was able to begin each day with the ear being wakened to listen to what God has to say, so we are believer are able to do the same. When I think of someone who starts the day listening with hope for God, one of the people I think of is a friend I met in high school. She is always full of the joy of the Lord. She greets life with a smile that comes from the deep joy of knowing she is a child of God. Through her life there has been sorrow, challenge in perusing the calling God gave to her, worry in family and stress for health reasons. She has been given her share of challenges, and yet she is not bitter. She has drawn on the message that God brings each morning to inspire her living for that day, and as she grows in faith, she blesses those around her.
May we, like the Servant in Isaiah, begin each day with our ears wakened to the truth God has for us.