When I Survey
H. Hoeksema
Book 6, Chapter 3
The Immovable Confidence of the Servant of Jehovah

"...I set my face like a flint." (Isaiah 50:7)

We have been discussing the theme of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah as He is pictured in Isaiah 50.

Of Him we learned, first of all, that as the Son of God in human nature He has a most intimate knowledge of God and divine things. The Lord God had given Him the tongue of the learned. He knows how to speak a word in due season. And He addresses Himself to those who are weary, that is, to those who are burdened under the load of guilt and sin and corruption.

However, we found that this learned Servant of the Lord finds no acceptance in the world. They hate Him, they despise and reject Him, and cast Him out. They smote and scourge Him and plucked off the beard, and covered His face with shame and spitting. He was utterly despised and reviled.

Finally, we found that in all His suffering and maltreatment He was very meek and humble. He was not rebellious. He did not turn away when they heaped suffering and contempt on Him. But on the contrary, He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and He did not hide His face from shame and spitting.

We may well ask the question: how is all this humanly possible? How can the Suffering Servant of the Lord, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, so willingly and meekly and patiently endure all His suffering? He is indeed very meek and patient. But what is the secret of this power?

The answer is found in the words of Isaiah 50:7-9, to which we wish to call attention in the present chapter: "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. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together: who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they shall all wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up."

This, therefore, is the reason why the Suffering Servant of the Lord can be so truly meek and patient. This is the secret of His power. He is the Servant of Jehovah. And His power is an immovable confidence in the Lord His God. In Him, and in Him alone, does He put His trust.

In the face of all opposition the Suffering Servant of Jehovah here challenges all His enemies with an emphatically triumphant question: Who will contend with Me? Who is Mine advarsary? Who is he that shall condemn Me? The implication is, of course, that no one can successfully contend, strive, in opposition to the Servant of the Lord. When they attempt to do so, they shall surely be defeated. Hence, He challenges His enemies: "Let us stand together." He looks about Him at all that try to oppose Him, and asks: "Who is mine adversary?" And the implication is that no one even dares to come forth, knowing that he shall be worsted in the fight. Hence, He challenges: "Let him come near me." He even asks the question: "Who is he that shall condemn me?" conscious of the fact that He represents an absolutely just cause, which no one can possibly condemn. And if for the cause which He represents they shall nevertheless condemn Him, it will only be their own condemnation. The reason why the Servant of Jehovah thus approaches and confronts His enemies with such a triumphant challenge is that He has unshakeable confidence that His cause is the cause of God. Therefore He is absolutely certain that God will help Him, and that He in the end will justify Him, while all His enemies shall wax old like a rotten garment, in which the moth already operates with its process of corruption. For God shall surely justify His own cause. It is the cause of His eternal covenant and kingdom that shall surely stand, and be realized, and have the victory. It is the cause of His own glorious name, the cause of His justice and faithfulness, of His own righteousness and everlasting mercy. And, therefore, let the world rage and rave: He, the Servant of the Lord, stands unmoved and unmovable. He sets His face like a flint. Let all the powers of darkness rise up against Him, falsely condemn Him, reveal their hatred of Him, and even execute the sentence of death upon Him: God will help Him, take His side, and justify Him. Therefore He is perfectly confident that He shall never be confounded, and that the cause for which He stands is God's cause and shall surely have the victory. Such is the perfect and immovable confidence of the Servant of Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ, in all His suffering and agony and sorrow.

What a marvelous spectacle this Servant of Jehovah presents as He is pictured to us in the Scriptures, particularly in the gospel narratives!

Literally He stands all alone in the whole world.

Yet He stands steadfast and absolutely immovable.

He stands over against all the powers of darkness as the Servant of the Lord. He knows that He is taught of the Lord, for the Lord openeth His ear and awakeneth Him morning by morning. He is perfectly confident that when He speaks a word to the weary, His speech is always of God, Who to them is the God of their salvation. In this confidence He is able to stand entirely alone.

Nowhere in the entire world does this Suffering Servant of Jehovah find any support. There is no one among the children of men who defends Him, who pleads for His cause, who takes it up for Him. Even His kinsmen are afraid of Him, afraid that He will suffer defeat because of His enemies, afraid that He is mad and that in His madness He will hurt Himself. That is the reason why, on a certain occasion, they attempt to draw Him away from the crowd and take Him home with them. For thus we read in Mark 3:31,32: "There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee." But when it is a question of the cause of God, this Servant of Jehovah even disowns His mother and His brethren. "And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." (Mk. 3:33-35) The same is evident, though from a slightly different point of view, from the passage in John 7:2-9. His brethren evidently did not believe on Him, but nevertheless wanted Him to show His power and His glory, which they doubted, in the very center of Jewish life, in Jerusalem, and on the feast day. For thus we read: "Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence and go to Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him." But the Suffering Servant of Jehovah did not seek this carnal popularity, but always stood for the cause of God. And therefore He answered His brethren: "Then said Jesus unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. When he said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee." Also from this it is evident that His brethren also did not approve of His attitude and did not believe in Him. Alone He stood for the cause of God, and for its sake He repudiated even the ties of blood.

The same is true in regard to His relationship to His disciples, the narrow circle of men who forsook all and followed Him. For when the Lord revealed unto them that He is the Suffering Servant of Jehovah, and "that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day", Peter, who had just confessed that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, "began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee." And in saying this, he evidently represented the opinion of all the disciples. But the Servant of the Lord remained immovable, standing alone for the cause of God. And therefore He answered Peter: "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." All alone He stood when the climax of His suffering drew nigh, and the accursed tree was in sight. For on the way to the garden of Gethsemane He said to His disciples: "All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." It is true, they were willing to defend Him with the power of the sword. But when they understood that the Lord determined to go in the way of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah and trusted absolutely in Him alone, "then all the disciples forsook him and fled." (Matt. 26:31,56)

He stood alone, therefore, for the cause of God over against His kinsmen and His disciples. And always He stood for the cause of God.

Thus He also stands over against the whole wicked world. They all utterly despise Him, great and small, rulers and people, high priests, Pharisees, and scribes, as well as the rabble of the nation. They will have nothing of Him. They pull up their noses at Him in utter contempt. In the streets of their cities they shun Him and do not meet Him with a friendly greeting. On the contrary, they attack Him. In bitter and fierce anger they pull out His beard. They cover His face with spittle. They scourge His back. They condemn Him, and reckon Him with the most abominable criminals. They judge Him worthy of death, even of the death of the cross. They think no punishment too severe for Him. And all this has its reason in the cause for which He stands, which is the cause of God. His friends forsake Him. His kinsmen are afraid of Him. He becomes a stranger to His brethren. Even the quiet woman that usually keeps all things, hiding them in her heart, appears to be afraid sometimes that He stands for the wrong cause. And His enemies round about Him loudly proclaim that His cause is out of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. Therefore they proclaim, in word as well as deed, that He will be confounded, that His cause will suffer defeat, and that it will presently become evident that even God does not want Him.

Yet, under all these circumstances, when all have forsaken Him and He stands utterly alone, His trust is evidently still in the Lord His God and looking about at His enemies He sends forth the challenge: "Who shall condemn me? Or who shall contend with me?"

Marvelous challenge, indeed!

How must this utterly strange and unique attitude of the Servant of Jehovah be explained?

Was there, then, not every reason for Him to lose all confidence in His cause, and all courage to proceed on His way? Does, then, the question never arise in His mind and heart whether, perhaps, the whole world after all was right and He alone was wrong? Is He never shaken in His conviction that His cause is the cause of God and that, therefore, it must be right and that, too, over against the judgment of all men, as expressed by rich and poor, learned and unlearned, Pharisee, priest, and scribe?

But no, He stands immovable.

He claims that no one can possibly contend with Him, that no one can condemn Him and His cause, that no one can successfully be His adversary, because it is God that will justify Him and that justifies Him even now while all men rise up against Him. With this bold challenge He stands in the midst of the condemning, reviling, and cursing enemies. Even in the very hour when everyone apparently contends with Him, and when all, in this contention, appear to be stronger than He, He nevertheless maintains that to contend with Him is impossible and inconceivable, is utter folly. He is absolutely confident that all who rise against Him in judgment will surely be defeated. Even to the very last, when all the world executes its sentence of condemnation upon Him; when it appears that the sentence of the Lord from heaven corroborates that of the whole world, when all men curse Him and God forsakes Him, He still claims that no man can possibly bring anything against Him. He challenges His judges and all the powers that be: "Let us stand together: who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me." With those that revile and condemn Him He places Himself and His cause before the Judge of heaven and earth Who judges righteously, and Who is the only one that can finally decide. Standing there with them, He is confident that He will be justified and that His cause will never be condemned. He is thoroughly convinced that His enemies and their cause will be put to shame. They all shall wax old as a garment, and the moth shall consume them. And when they all shall have perished, He and His cause will still stand, because it is the cause of God. Therefore, He knows that He shall never be put to shame.

Of two things He is absolutely convinced, and they constitute the ground of His confidence.

First of all, He lives in the immovable conviction that His cause is the cause of God and His righteousness. And, second, He is also perfectly assured, all appearances of things to the contrary, that the righteousness of God will triumph, because God alone is God and the power of darkness cannot prevail against Him. In Him is the confidence of the suffering servant of Jehovah.

Therefore, He tells His enemies that He shall never be confounded.

Confounded is one who is put to shame because something of which he was confident, and of which he spoke to others, after all proves to be nothing but a daydream, a product of his own imagination. He represents a certain cause and proclaims to all who come into contact with him that he shall have the victory. He boasts about it. He is wholly confident of it. And now he must finally experience that the cause of which he boasted is nothing but an illusion, that it has come to nothing. Bitterly disappointed is he. He stands shamefaced before those to whom he boasted of the certainty of his cause. The more important, the greater the cause which he represents, and the more confidently he boasted that it surely should be realized, the more deeply he shall be confounded. And he who is thus confounded because his cause, about which he boasted that it should have the victory, suffers defeat is also being put to shame. In profound disappointment he shall have to be ashamed. And the more he boasted of his cause, the more bitter his shame shall be.

But thus it will never be with the Servant of Jehovah and with the cause which He represents. Of this the Servant of Jehovah is absolutely confident. Everything, absolutely everything, He puts at stake for His cause, the cause of God. His own name and honor, His reputation and life He voluntarily surrenders. They finally even tear His garment from His body and draw His blood drop by drop out of His veins. Mockingly they tell Him that even God, in Whom He trusted, does not want Him, and that He to Whom He entrusted His cause has utterly forsaken Him. Thus they deliver to Him the tangible proof that His cause is before God and men a lost cause, and that it is utterly hopeless. Yet, even in that hour of utter shame and desolation He proclaims: "I will never be confounded; I will never be put to shame. It is God that justifies Me." He proclaims: "Although it seems as if the world has overcome Me, I nevertheless maintain that I overcome the world. Although the things that are seen seem to proclaim that the world condemns Me, yet I maintain that My condemnation by the world is essentially the condemnation of the world itself. Although the prince of this world seems to celebrate his triumphs, nevertheless he is now being cast out. Even in this hour of utter confusion I know that I shall never be confounded. I still say to the weary, even in My hour of shame and desolation: 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' Out of this hour of shame and desolation comes eternal glory for you and for Me. For out of this condemnation comes My and your justification forevermore. I, not they, have the victory. Therefore I set My face like a flint. I will never compromise. I will never deny the cause of God's eternal covenant."

O, what an immovable confidence does this Servant of Jehovah, this Christ of God, reveal in all His suffering and desolation!

What, then, is the ground of His confidence?

What is the secret of His power and trust?

The answer is in one word: it is Jehovah God. He is confident that Jehovah God, or the Lord Jehovah, is ever on His side and will surely help Him. He is perfectly confident that Jehovah God will justify Him. That is the secret of His power. He, Adonai Jehovah, for the sake of His eternal covenant and for the eternal glory of His great name, which He never gives to another, had drawn Him out of the womb of His mother -- Him, the Son of God in human nature. He, Adonai Jehovah, had from the very dawn of awakening consciousness as a little child caused Him to trust in Him even on His mother's breast. He, Jehovah God, had taught Him to say in the very first words which His stammering baby-lips could utter: "Thou art my God." In that unshakable confidence the Servant of Jehovah never wavered. Thus it remained in all His life on earth. Thus it still was in the hour of darkness, when the waves of desolation roll over His anxious soul, even when all that see Him on the accursed tree mock at Him and put out the lip at Him and jeer, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God" (Matt. 27:43); even when He may well complain in the words of Psalm 42, "With anguish as from piercing sword reproach of bitter foes I hear, while day by day, with taunting word, where is thy God, the scoffers sneer." Even then, in His darkest hour, He still sings:

O why art thou cast down, my soul
And why so troubled shouldst thou be?
Hope thou in God, and Him extol,
Who gives His saving help to me.

Or, in the words of our text, He still challenges: "For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded. He is near that justifieth me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?"

In that confidence He knows that He shall be justified.

He knows that He is the Servant of the Lord. And on Him alone is His confidence. He knows that as the Servant of the Lord He was taught by Him. For God opened His ear, and He awakened Him morning by morning. Therefore He knows that He must always be and always is in the things of the Father. He was deeply and clearly conscious of the fact that He stood for the cause of God's covenant in the midst of the world. For that reason He can put His face as a flint. His cause is the cause of God, the cause of Adonai Jehovah. If He should go under, God would go under. And that is forever impossible. If He should be confounded, the Lord God Himself would be confounded. And that is utterly inconceivable. If He should be defeated, the cause of God's covenant would be defeated. And that is eternally impossible. For God is the Lord, Adonai, the Lord of all. He is Jehovah, the eternal I Am. He is the One that eternally is. He is the eternally unchangeable One, the Rock, in Whom there is no changeableness or shadow of turning. His faithfulness is sure. He can never deny Himself. And because He cannot deny Himself, He cannot possibly deny His Servant. Besides, He is the only Lord, the Lord over all, the Sovereign of heaven and earth. And the only Lord, the Almighty God, is also the only judge. His counsel shall stand, and He shall do all His good pleasure. No one can or ever will resist His will. And therefore, He will surely justify His Servant, Who stands for His cause, in order that He may be praised and glorified by all His creatures. He is near to His Servant. He helps Him. He surrounds Him. He gives Him power and strength. He protects Him. And of that nearness of the Lord His God, the Servant of the Lord is perfectly conscious. For even in the depth of His suffering He still cries out: "My God, my God..."

In this confidence He was never put to shame.

Justified He surely was.

O, in His deepest hour of suffering all the bulls of Bashan come upon Him to condemn Him. They take up His challenge and loudly shout: "We shall contend with thee; we shall bring thee into judgment and condemn thee. We shall so confound thee that no one ever dares to mention thy cause in the world again."

And apparently they succeed for a while.

Nevertheless, He that justified Him is near, near even in the hour of His darkest agony, near to the very cross. Already in the judgment before Pilate it becomes evident that He is the One that was justified. For the process of judgment after all really condemned those that meant to condemn Him. They may indeed loudly shout and cry for His condemnation and crucifixion. But in the midst of all this tumult the worldly judge nevertheless expresses the sentence, "I find no guilt in him." Justified He is already at the time when He hangs on the accursed tree. For a while the enemies may still rage and rave at the cross, and shout that He is now utterly lost, and that God does not want Him. Nevertheless, presently, about noon, the entire scene changes. A mysterious and fearful darkness descends upon the cross. Terror is struck in the hearts of the enemies. And henceforth they are silent. In that darkness both the Servant of the Lord and His accusers and murderers stand in the judgment of God. And in that judgment the Servant is justified.

Presently the earth quakes and the rocks rend and the graves are opened.

And before many hours God raises Him from the dead, justifying Him and His cause, and at the same time justifying all His people. And presently He comes again to judge the quick and the dead. And then it shall appear forever that His cause is the cause of God's covenant.

Blessed are they that put their trust in Him!