Sustaining Ministry
Isaiah 50:4a
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.
Even though the heading in my Bible above Isaiah 50 reads “Israel’s Sin and the Servants’ Obedience,” I didn’t initially read verse 4 as the beginning of a six-verse-long description of Christ, I read it as a practical commission from the Lord to me. But in retrospect, I think that’s part of the point. Friend, isn’t every description of our Servant-King a measure for our own lives? While God hasn’t asked us to raise the dead or heal the blind or give the lame new legs, He has commissioned us to love our enemies and serve our neighbors and speak the truth humbly. And it’s no trivial thing that Christ called Himself ‘The Son of Man’ as He washed Judas’ feet and ministered to countless crowds and prayed in Gethsemane while others slept. He wasn’t just revealing His Godhood; He was demonstrating true manhood—a manhood that we, in submission to Him, can imitate.
When weary souls came to Christ for life-sustaining words from God, they didn’t walk away empty. Will that be true of those who come to us as well?