Two weeks ago we looked at Jesus’ example as the Suffering Servant, a discussion drawn from Dr. Tim Little’s commentary on Isaiah 50 in Episode 106 of The Thinklings Podcast. As we saw from many passages of Scripture, Jesus suffered physically, He suffered unjustly, and He suffered willingly–offering Himself as the sacrificial lamb who would experience agony and death to bring about our salvation.
Yet what allowed Jesus to surrender Himself to such excruciating hardship–to death itself? What got Him through not just the struggle of wills but also the immense (truly unimaginable to most of us) pain of the Crucifixion? What was His “secret”?
Let’s look at the second identity of Jesus we find in Isaiah’s Servant Song:
The Sustained Servant
1. Sustained by the help of God
Let’s recap from the section of Isaiah 50 we studied last time and go on into the next section:
“The LORD God has opened My ear;
And I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.“For the LORD God will help Me;
Isaiah 50:6-9
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
Surely the LORD God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
The moth will eat them up.”
Notice the phrase that shows up twice, each time after a description of a difficult circumstance: “The LORD God will help me.”
That was Jesus’ secret. And it can be ours too.
The same God who called Him to the suffering was the same God who helped Him in the suffering.
Similarly, the same God who leads us into the valley is the same God who is with us in the valley.
Dr. Little even used this valley analogy: “So when you go through a trial, and if it’s like a valley, and it’s really dark, and it’s really bad, what does God want you to do? To trust in Him. He will be the one that will help you.” Just like He helped the Servant–Jesus.
Isn’t that an incredible thought? The same help that enabled Jesus to physically, unjustly, and willingly suffer the Crucifixion is the help that enables us to face our suffering today.
Wow.
It also makes me realize, if God sustained Jesus through the mockery, the humiliation, the pain, the grief, and even the death of His trial and crucifixion, He can and will sustain us through the humiliation, the grief, and the many “deaths” of our trials of chronic illness–and beyond.
No matter your suffering, take heart: the God who sustained His own Son through the cross of His crucifixion is the same God who sustains you–also His child–through the cross of your chronic illness.
Fear not, for I am with you;
Isaiah 41:10
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Matthew 16:24
2. Guided by the light of God
Let’s look at the last verses of the chapter:
“Who among you fears the LORD?
Isaiah 50:10-11
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.
Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment.”
There’s a lot here, and Dr. Little unpacks it beautifully for us. He says, “See, this is what true Christianity is all about. True Christianity isn’t knowing how to walk on the path or get through the path; true Christianity is having faith. It’s believing in the God who will get you through the trial, who will step your feet on the right path, and trusting Him as you walk through that trial.”
He goes on, “That is the essence of fearing the Lord: you obey. Guess what happened to the servant? God says, ‘This is the path you have to walk on–are you going to rebel? Or are you going to obey?’ The next line [says], ‘Who walks in darkness’–are you okay to walk in darkness? Or will you demand additional light? Are you content to take a step of faith like Abram, and go to a land that you don’t know where it is, to leave everything that God has given you, to pick up roots, to go?
“Friend, this is the essence of the Christian life. The Christian life is about belief. . . . You might be going through a valley, and maybe God’s using that valley and that difficult situation so that you might see that you need to simply believe. And I would encourage you to open up the Word of God, meditate on this text, and place your faith in Jesus. Trust in Him and Him alone. The Lord God has already paid the penalty for your sin by sending Jesus to the cross to go on this difficult path. He had to go on this path so that your sins could be forgiven. Trust in Him, and walk the Christian walk, the walk of faith. ‘Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD.’ That’s the response, that’s the Christian life. You trust, you walk in faith, and you trust.
“We want to know. What is knowing attributed to? Rebellion. That’s not faith. That’s not belief. That’s rebellion.”
Ouch. I don’t know about you, but that hits me hard. As humans, we want to know. We itch to have something more tangible to hold on to than God’s quiet “Trust Me, I know what I’m doing.”
(See Lessons From Job: The Faith Perspective and Spiritual Depression: Fear and Faith.)
Again, Jesus provided us the perfect example of not wanting to know everything–not seeking to control or manipulate His circumstances–but yielding Himself fully to His good Father in complete, trusting surrender. Trusting His Father to keep His promises, trusting His Father to accomplish good through His suffering, and trusting His Father to carry Him through the physical, mental, and emotional agony “for the joy that was set before Him” (Heb 12:2).
What about those who don’t trust, who value knowing above believing, who don’t submit to God’s plan?
As we see in these last verses of Isaiah 50, they make for themselves their own light–their own way to navigate through the darkness of this world. But rather than guiding them along God’s truth into God’s glory, it only leads them through temporary, fake illumination to eternal, permanent destruction–the destruction they made and chose for themselves.
I was deeply impacted by what Matthew Henry writes in his commentary on this passage from Isaiah:
It is supposed that though [the child of God] has in his heart the fear of God, and faith in Christ, yet for a time he walks in darkness and has no light, is disquieted and has little or no comfort. Who is there that does so? This intimates that it is a case which sometimes happens among the professors of religion, yet not very often; but whenever it happens, God takes notice of it. It is no new thing for the children and heirs of light sometimes to walk in darkness, and for a time not to have any glimpse or gleam of light. This is not meant so much of the comforts of this life (those that fear God, when they have ever so great an abundance of them, do not walk in them as their light) as of their spiritual comforts, which relate to their souls. They walk in darkness when their evidences for heaven are clouded, their joy in God is interrupted, the testimony of the Spirit is suspended, and the light of God’s countenance is eclipsed.
Vol. IV, pp. 286-87
. . . He that is thus in the dark, (1.) Let him trust in the name of the Lord, in the goodness of his nature, and that which he has made known of himself, his wisdom, power, and goodness. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, let him run into that. Let him depend upon it that if he walk before God, which a man may do though he walk in the dark, he shall find God all-sufficient to him. (2.) Let him stay himself upon his God, his in covenant; let him keep hold of his covenant-relation to God, and call God his God, as Christ on the cross, My God, My God. Let him stay himself upon the promises of the covenant, and build his hopes on them. When a child of God is ready to sink he will find enough in God to stay himself upon.
Henry concludes his commentary on the chapter with a powerful capsule of truth:
Those that make the world their comfort, and their own righteousness their confidence, will certainly meet with a fatal disappointment, which will be bitterness in the end. A godly man’s way may be melancholy, but his end shall be peace and everlasting light. A wicked man’s way may be pleasant, but his end and endless abode will be utter darkness.
Vol. IV, p. 287
In other words, we may face darkness now, but we know the light is more powerful (John 1:5) and that one day we will walk forever in this light. Those who don’t know God, however, may seem to have light now, while they’re really walking in darkness toward an eternity of “utter darkness.”
As we see from this Servant Song, Jesus is not just the Suffering Servant but also the Sustained Servant–the Servant who walked in darkness but trusted in His God–giving us the ultimate example of obeying and trusting God through the valley of suffering.
Dr. Little wraps up his discussion with these words: “This is the liberty of the Christian life. If you believe in God, you trust Him to help you, to sustain you, to guide and direct you, then guess what? You’re free. There’s no anxiety, there’s no concerns, there’s freedom, because guess what? You know God’s going to provide for you. You know that He’s going to care for you. And this is why the Christian can have joy and peace through trials. You believe, you have faith, and you just walk–in darkness.”
Are you walking in darkness right now, in a valley where it’s hard to see what God is doing, let alone where He is? Do you trust Him? Like Jesus, can you rest yourself in His hands and let Him sustain you through your suffering?
The Valley 