Isaiah 50:4-9 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 50:4-9 on biblegateway.com
Verse 4The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens- wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. Verse 5The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward. Verse 6I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. Verse 7The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; Verse 8he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. Verse 9It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Devotion
Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” wonders what it would be like to be “a rich man.” To be rich, he says, would offer time “to sit in the synagogue and pray”; to “discuss the holy books with learned men, several hours every day” – that would be “the sweetest thing of all.”
Though today’s text ends with painful prospects for anyone God would teach to be a teacher of God’s way, doing so is still Isaiah’s prayer and hope. Morning by morning God wakens us to the word, wakens our ears to listen. As hymnist Carolina Sandell Berg puts it, “Day by day, your mercies, Lord, attend me.”
It is a gift to learn from the Teacher who is full of knowledge and mercy, the Creator of heaven and earth. To be awakened daily to the wonders of the word and this world – ah, that may be “the sweetest thing of all.”
Prayer
Bless this day, dear God. Waken us to learn and listen. Encourage us to speak a word that sustains. Amen.