Isaiah 50:5. I was not rebellious. “It is the Lord who opens My ears.” So it is for Christ and so it is for all Christians, even if because of weakness and denseness they feel that all things are contradictions and hindrances and faults in sins, anxiety, poverty, blasphemy, etc. Nevertheless, to hear the Word in earnest and to bear all things for the sake of the Word, this is ultimately very difficult.
I turned not backward, that is, “I do not turn back to Egypt and become unbelieving, but I confess the Word with the mouth as well as in deed. I sing the praises of the power and might of that seemingly powerless and foolish Word.”
- I gave My back to the smiters, etc. Christ is the first to undergo a host of afflictions because of the Word, and thus it is for us disciples the supreme usefulness, strength, wisdom, and power which enables us to bear all things, however difficult, for its sake. This is a theme in the Book of Job. The wisdom of the world cannot be put to shame except through foolishness and weakness.
I hid not My face from shame and spitting. What does that spitting accomplish except extolling the wisdom of the world? Thus our face toward the world, if anyone will look at it with spiritual eyes, is so spit upon, so polluted by endless disgraces, that no profession is less imposing in the world than that of those who profess the Gospel. But for one disgrace a hundred glorious rays will one day appear, because the Lord Himself is present as our Helper. He strengthens, preserves, and liberates the hearers” (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 194-195).