Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 50:1-11 and Luke 6:47-49
As we enter into the third Servant Song (Isa 50:4-11), notice that the Sovereign Lord is repeated four times in this section. Other translations will use Lord GOD. This is the combination of the two Hebrew names Adonai and YHWH. When these two names are used together, the Jews will pronounce them as Elohim (eh-lo-HEEM). Elohim in this form occurs over 600 times in the Old Testament most often in the prophetic books.
Lord (Adonai) speaks to God’s ownership and absolute control over the whole earth. Sovereign or Master are appropriate names for God in this context. This title for God indicates that God is the owner of every human on earth and He is due our full obedience.
YHWH is the personal name of God. This is the name God gave Himself to Moses out of the burning bush. This name speaks of God as the One who was, who is, and who is to come. He is self-existing and eternal. He alone has the power over all creation.
The Messiah is speaking here as a Servant of the Sovereign Lord. The combined name for God gives the Servant’s message a tone of majesty and authority. What the Servant speaks is truth because the words come from the Lord GOD – the one who spoke Creation into existence.
Again the NIV falls a little short in conveying the true depth of this entire verse. The New King James Version says:
“The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary”
The Lord GOD gave Jesus the tongue of the learned or the tongue of disciples (plural). Because of the plural, this is indicating that Jesus’ knowledge level is of the highest order. No one had more knowledge than Jesus. He is the Divine expert. Even at the age of twelve, Jesus baffled the scholars:
“After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46-47).
We know from Scripture that all knowledge resides with God and can only come from him: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov 2:6). Jesus literally came from God as His Word:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-2, 14).
The Hebrew word for “the learned” is limmud meaning follower or disciple. This word only shows up six times in Scripture. The word describes a person formed by their habits. These habits can be good habits or bad habits. In this context, limmud points to the outcome of these habits. Meaning that a person’s habits will either lead them to be commendable or reprehensible. Limmud emphasizes the formative power of the voice they are listening to.
Jesus was the ultimate disciple. He spoke only what he heard from God. God’s voice was the one Jesus was listening to and shaping his actions. Jesus said:
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (John 14:9-10).
What kind of disciples are we? What voice are we listening to? What do we fill our minds with everyday? Jesus told a parable about limmud:
“As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete” (Luke 6:47-49).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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