Isaiah 50:1

The Bible says in Isaiah 50:1-3, “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” The children of Israel had been taken captive to Babylon. In this passage of scripture God compares their terrible situation to two other terrible situations in life: divorce and debt. And God makes it clear why the children of Israel had lost so much.

It is very revealing that God compares the terrible plight of the Israelites to divorce and debt. Divorce and debt are two of the worse things that can happen to people in this life. What happened to the Israelites when they were taken captive? Among other things: they lost all of their possessions, they were enslaved, and they were humiliated. It is good to think of the ideal situation in life concerning the man-woman relationship. For everyone who gets married, God wants each man to find just the right woman with whom to spend the rest of his life; and God wants each woman to find just the right man with whom to share the rest of her life also. God is love. He brings two people together and gives them love for each other. God knows that their lives will be the best they can be if these two people find the way to nurture their love and and find the way to stay together in love. That is what marriage can be and should be. That is why it says in the New Testament in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” The love of a man and a woman for each other in marriage is supposed to be an image of and a refection of the love of Christ for us.

Other than the decision to receive Christ as Savior, there is probably no other decision in life more important than whom you marry. There are several factors to keep in mind to make sure that you marry the right person. One factor is the Biblical principle of believers not becoming entangled with unbelievers. Your spirits will always be distant from each other if one person is of the Spirit of Christ and the other is not. It says in Second Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Another spiritual principle that is important in regards to marriage has to do with the importance of being led by the Lord to the person that you marry. God said in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” God created men and women, and God created marriage. God created you, and if He wants you to get married, be assured He created just the right person for you to get married to. That is why it is so very important that you pray about whom you will marry. God answers prayer. He may have you wait for several years, but He answers prayer. He will especially answer this prayer because He knows to whom you should marry. When it was time for man to have his wife, God created Eve and God brought her to the man. It says in Genesis 2:22, “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”

A marriage that is entered into in this way is a marriage that is of God. God created the marriage, and He wants the marriage to last. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 19:5-6, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” This is the greatest of ideals for man and woman on this earth: that a man and woman be brought together by God to love each other and to stay together for the rest of their lives. That is the best life possible for anyone who gets married. Since the ideal situation is for a marriage to last, then the worse thing that can happen is for such a marriage to end in divorce. Divorce causes pain. Divorce is costly. Divorce is not what God intended would happen to the marriage of a man and a woman. But when a divorce does happen, often any children involved end up suffering the most, especially if there are hard feelings or emotional outbursts that the children are subjected to.

“Divorce hurts, but it hurts even more to be a victim of divorce.” An attorney used that phrase as his advertisement, showing an adult holding a small child. That is exactly the point that the Lord was making in Isaiah 50:1 when He said, “Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement.” In other words He was comparing the suffering of the children of Israel to that of a child who suffers because the child no longer has its mother due to a divorce. The ideal situation for any child is to have both a loving mother and a loving father for the length of their childhood. To have one of the parents taken away through divorce is not good, if the parent was a good parent and a loving parent. Of course, some people do not have a good marriage and some children do not have a loving parental situation because we live in an imperfect and sinful world. We should always strive for the best relationships, and then we must deal with whatever lot befalls us. And, thankfully, a Christian is able to deal with their lot in life by trusting in the Savior Jesus Christ even if they end up with less than the ideal situation as far as their marriage or family situation is concerned.

The Lord compares the sufferings of the Israelites to children who are the victims of a bad divorce. God also compares their sufferings to those who are in debt. The Lord said to the children of Israel, “which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?” When you are in debt, your creditors have a certain amount of power over you and your freedom of choice. The more debt that you have, the more power that your creditors have over you. The best situation in life is to make at least a little more than you spend, and to save the extra. As your savings increase, you will be able to use those savings to buy other items, and to plan for retirement. Save during the good times because the good times do not last forever. Bad times will come when you will need those savings. Notice what it says in Proverbs 6:6-11, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” The Bible says in Romans 13:8, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” The way that life was meant to be since the Garden of Eden was that man would supply his own needs through work. The best life is to borrow not at all. Those who borrow and owe debts run the risk of causing themselves many sorrows and difficulties.

Though we may not have suffered from a divorce as children or suffered from compiling massive debt, we have all sinned. And God told the Israelites that they had suffered not because of divorce or debt, but because of their sins. God said to them in Isaiah 50:1, “Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.” One of the principles of life that we all need to be forewarned about is the following: we reap what we sow. There are consequences to our actions. And that means that bad actions result in bad consequences. No one escapes this law of life. We are all subject to it on this earth. The Bible says in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Thank God that there is a Savior who can save us from the consequences and the guilt of our sins. The Lord did not spend a lot of time in Isaiah 50 telling the Israelites about their sins. He mentioned that they had suffered because of their sins, and then He went immediately to the subject of His mercy and His ability to save them. We need a Savior because we are sinners, and we need a Savior because no human being can help us. That is why God says in Isaiah 50:2, “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?” Jesus did something for us that no one else could do: He died for our sins. There was no one from among the human race who was qualified to die for the sins of the world. It required the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

The Lord asked two questions to emphasize the fact that He can save anyone, and He can redeem anyone. He asked, “Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?” Every person on this earth is capable of being saved because Jesus saves people and Jesus is all-powerful. No one is too great of a sinner, and no one is too far from God that he or she cannot be saved.

The Lord uses two interesting examples to prove His capacity to save and deliver. If you are not saved, you will die spiritually speaking. God makes the point that He can give life to whom He will because he gives death to whom He will. God says in Isaiah 50:2 and 3, “behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” God brings death to everything that dies, and therefore, He also brings life to everything that lives. God brings darkness wherever there is darkness, and therefore He also brings light wherever there is light. Only God can take away the darkness because He is the creator of darkness. The Lord said in Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Only God can bring life because He is the creator of death. God gives, and He takes away. He brings death or He brings life, as He chooses in this world of His. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:29, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” God is love, and He loves every creature on this earth of His. Jesus has a plan to take away death forever. Life will win over death because of Christ. In this world we find death and darkness. Trust and believe in Jesus and you will have a part in the Kingdom ruled by life and light. The Bible says in First Corinthians 15:55-57, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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