"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." (Isaiah 50:4) At first we might think that Isaiah is talking about himself but as our passage continues we will see that it describes some of the things that Jesus endured on the earth. I love the part of this verse that says He knows the word that sustains the weary. Many times the word of Christ in the Scriptures has sustained my weary soul!
The verse above can only be about His earthly ministry because the Son of God, in all of His glory with the Father in heaven, did not need to sleep or to be awakened. But while in a human body on the earth we find in the gospels that He was in the habit of waking early to commune with the Father. In His humanity He had to pray to the Father like we do and that is a comforting thing to know. Christ knows what it's like to inhabit a mortal body and to send prayers up to the Father and to wait for His instructions rather than to simply be in the presence of the Father as He was before the incarnation. Because He had to interact with the Father as a human, He understands what it's like for us to speak to the One who is invisible to us. In Hebrews 4:15 the Apostle Paul reminds us that because Jesus lived in a human body on earth, He is able to sympathize with the weaknesses we experience. The word translated "sympathize" is literally "feel for" in the Greek. Jesus knows exactly how we feel.
The Lord Jesus was obedient to the Father and did the Father's will on earth, no matter how difficult it was in human form. We can only obey the Father imperfectly but Jesus obeyed every single commandment, law, and instruction without fault. "The Sovereign Lord has opened My ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away." (Isaiah 50:5) The Apostle Paul phrased it like this: "And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by being obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8)
In regard to what this blessed Servant of the Lord endured for our sake, and in regard to how obedient He was to the Father no matter how much it cost Him, the Servant says: "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." (Isaiah 50:6)
We know from the gospel accounts that Jesus was beaten many times across the back and that He was mocked and spit upon. The gospels don't mention the pulling out of the beard but I don't doubt that it happened. It was a custom to cut a man's beard in order to humiliate him but in Jesus' case they pulled it out. They did this in order to inflict pain as well as humiliation. But God the Father gave Him the strength to endure it and Christ's love for us enabled Him to endure it. He was willing to do His part in the Father's plan of salvation because to Him we were worth it, which is difficult for us to contemplate because we are aware of our faults and failures, but He loved us and wanted us to be with Him for eternity. He counted the cost of what He must do to save us and He considered us worth the price.
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