I Hid Not My Face from Shame and Spitting (Isaiah 50:6)

2023-11-17

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. (Isaiah 50:6)

The LORD voluntarily gave Himself to be beaten and spit upon. His beard was ripped out. The torture He faced was severe. “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?” (Matthew 26:67-68). “And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head” (Matthew 27:30). “Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26).

However, He purposed in His heart to bear our sin and shame. “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” (Isaiah 50:7). He saw something far greater ahead: a redeemed humanity with a new heaven and earth. Most of all, He would glorify His Father in heaven. To be like our Lord is to bear with troubles of this life but seeing something better ahead. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).