I offered My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spittle.I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
4 sermons cite this verse
He is near who justifies me. Oh, that's awesome. this is what he's telling himself. And prophecy said, this is what he's going to be thinking or saying. This is what's going to happen to him for you and I. Therefore, I have set my face like plant, and I know that I will not be ashamed. Verse 8, 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? That sounds like Romans chapter 8. Do you hear that? This is the word of God and it would have been in the mind of Christ. Wow. Let it be in your mind. He who finds is the one who gains. We're reading in Proverbs. Jeremiah 29, 12. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while he may be found. …
… Instead, now verse six, I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting because the sovereign Lord helps me. I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. What Isaiah was prophesying is that the Savior would come, and he would come with determination. I've set my face like flint towards Jerusalem. I've set my face like flint toward the cross. I've set my face like flint towards the mission of God. Flint in this context is obviously hard stone. And what it's saying about Jesus is there was a resolve in him, a determination in him, where all along the way there was opposition and challenge. He would say, no, I am determined that I'm going to do what I have come to do. I'm determined that I'm going to show up on Palm Sunday at the right place, at the right time, at just the right moment to do what only I can do. I think Luke had this text in Isaiah maybe in mind when he was describing Jesus coming to Jerusalem as well. He says in Luke 9, as the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven. So this is saying that as it's time for him to come and fulfill the purpose of dying on the cross, being buried in a borrowed tomb, being raised up from the dead, and then ascending back …
Let us now turn to the plea which Christ urged in support of His prayer "Preserve Me, O God: for in You do I put My trust." Did Christ put His trust in His Father? We surely need to ask the question and we know at once what the answer must be. In the matter of faith, as in everything else, He is a perfect example to His people—and we cannot imagine a Christian without faith! Faith is the very life of a true Believer in Jesus! Indeed, without faith he is not a Believer, so Christ was his model in this respect as well as in every other. The words, "in You do I put My trust," may be translated, "in You do I shelter." There is in them an allusion to running under something for shelter. In fact, the best figure I can use to give you the meaning of this sentence is that of the chicks running under the wings of the hen for shelter. Just so do we hide ourselves under the overshadowing wings of the Eternal. As a Man, Christ used this plea with God, that He was sheltering from all evil under the Divine Wings of power, and wisdom, and goodness, and truth. This is an accurate interpretation of the passage, and there are many instances recorded in Scripture in which Christ really did this. Take, for instance that remarkable declaration in Psalm 22:9—"You did make Me hope when I was upon My mother's breasts," as though very early in life, probably far earlier than any of us were brought to know the Lord, Jesus Christ was exercising hope in the Most High. Then again, in the 50th Chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah, we have these words, which must refer to the Lord Jesus Christ, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked out the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting." That verse is immediately followed by this one, "For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." These words were peculiarly appropriate from the lips of Christ, yet each one of His followers may also say, "The Lord God will help me." …
I. So, in the first place, notice that EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR SAVIOR THAT WAS GLORIOUS WAS MADE THE SUBJECT OF SCORN. Begin with His glorious Person, and think how shamefully that was treated by the sons of men in the time of His humiliation. He was betrayed, but the betrayer was one who had been His disciple and who, in the very act of betrayal called Him, "Master." This was shameful cruelty on the part of Judas, not only to betray Him to His enemies, but to hail Him as "Master," in mockery and to kiss Him in scorn. There was shame even in the way in which they went to Gethse-mane to arrest the Savior—with swords and staves, lanterns and torches—as though He had been some desperate malefactor who would resist to the utmost the officers of the law. No lanterns or torches were needed to show the way to the Light of the World! And their swords and staves would have availed them nothing if He had chosen to put forth His Omnipotent power! When He was dragged before Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, His precious Person was the constant subject of scorn, so that He could truly say, "I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting." "The soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They put on Him a purple robe and said, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they struck Him with their hands." And when Pilate brought Him forth to the people and cried, "Behold the Man!" instead of pitying Him in His distress, they shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" His agonies upon the Cross provided further subjects for their contempt and scorn. He could truthfully employ the language of the 22nd Psalm—"All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him." They looked upon His Person as being so utterly contemptible that they desired that He should suffer death in its most ignominious form, "even the death of the Cross." …