Isaiah 50:7
Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint,     and I know I will not be put to shame.

This is a strange verse, isn’t it? Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been using words like ‘humiliated’ to describe the Servant. God himself has said that the Servant will be ‘despised’ and ‘abhorred’. So how can the Servant say here ‘I will not be disgraced’ and ‘I will not be put to shame’?

It makes more sense when we realise that this idea of ‘being put to shame’ has appeared before, earlier in the book of Isaiah. In chapters 20-45 there are 7 verses where we read of people being put to shame. Each time, the people who face disgrace are the ones who are opposing God. The people who put their trust in other nations, instead of relying on God’s promises to them. The people who make and worship idols instead of worshipping the one true God. The wicked. Those who do evil. Those who blaspheme against the Lord. In those chapters, God makes it clear that those who oppose him will ultimately be put to shame. But he also promises that the people who he saves will never be put to shame.

It’s clear which group the Servant belongs in, isn’t it? He is perfectly obedient to the Lord. He has never rebelled. And so he knows what God’s verdict on him will be. He will never be put to shame. Yes, he will be despised and rejected and humiliated by men, but that will only be temporary. When it comes to God’s final, lasting verdict, the only one that counts, he will be vindicated and honoured. Knowing that, he is able to set his face firmly in the direction of costly obedience, not deflected by any human opinion.

So let’s praise him today for his steadfast obedience, and give him the honour and glory that he rightly deserves.