NOTES for Isa 50:4-9

The words about the “tongue of the wise” can be applied not only to Isaiah's own prophetic gift but also to a possibility offered to everyone. This is all the more true because the prophet addresses the whole people of Israel.

How great are the mercy and faithfulness of the Lord, who addresses a person every day regardless of what that person does in his life. God gives him the opportunity to hear the truth, the opportunity not only to hear but also to speak, in order “to sustain the weary.” This gift of speech is given to everyone without exception. The only thing required of the listener is “not to turn backward” and to heed what is heard, however strange it may be.

At times this truth of God may prove entirely impossible for our human consciousness to contain. Isaiah's words speak to us of Christ's sacrifice and of the path of suffering traveled by every person. The Lord is indeed ready “morning by morning to awaken” our ear, if we too can say as He did: “I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”