Isaiah 50:4b-5a

He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;

Yesterday we heard about the Servant’s well-instructed tongue. Today we find that his ears are equally well-trained! At first glance, we might not be surprised by this verse. We know that the Servant, who is speaking here, has been appointed by God to bring God’s wayward people back to him. Since the Servant is working for the Lord, it makes sense that he should listen to his boss.

But we know, better than Isaiah did, that this Servant is in fact Jesus, God’s own son. God himself in a human body. That being so, why does he need to be quite so disciplined about listening to his Father? Doesn’t he already know everything he needs to know? He has the closest relationship to God of anyone who has ever lived. Yet he still begins each day by listening to the words of the Lord. He comes to his Father humbly, seeking instruction and guidance. As we’ll see tomorrow, he wants to hear and obey the Father, rather than going his own way and serving his own agenda.

When the Lord wakens the Servant with his words, the Servant is alert and attentive. He doesn’t want to miss any of it. No pressing snooze and going back to sleep. God’s voice is not an unwelcome interruption to his day, but the thing he most wants to hear.

If God’s own son needed to listen to the Father, how much more do we? If we’re ever tempted to think ‘I don’t need to read the Bible today … I already know what God’s going to say’, let’s remember this image of the Servant, deliberately tuning his ears to his Father’s voice.

And let’s pray today that we would increasingly love to listen to our Father’s voice, as the Servant does.