Responding to the Practical Problem of Evil, or Isaiah's Third Servant Song - chapter 50

Griffith, struggling with the
vexing problem of theodicity 

One of the biggest attacks against Christianity is the problem of evil, specifically the issue of unjust suffering.  Often this objection is brought up as if they have found a chink in our armor, like the Christian has never thought about the issue.  “Oh yeah, Mr. Defender of the Faith, here’s a curve ball for you – if God is good why do bad things happen?”  The answer is, “How long do you have?”  because the Bible talks about the problem of unjust suffering page after page after page. 

Everyone has these kinds of problems.  You can hear it in the voice of my 18 month old son as he cries – “Why do bad things happen to good people!”  But the severity of unjust suffering extends from things like being forced to take a nap when you don’t want to, to sorrow and pain that most of us could never begin to comprehend. 

Let’s consider the third “Servant Song,” found in Isaiah 50.  (Read the message on the fourth song, Isaiah 53, here).  This chapter answers the problem of unjust suffering, not from an intellectual perspective, but from a practical perspective – what should we do when life seems unfair?

The Context of Isaiah 50

In Isaiah 50, there are two different servants of the Lord who are suffering on the extreme end of the spectrum of suffering.   These two servants illustrate two very different approaches to this sort of problem.  The first servant is Israel in verses 1 to 3 and the second is the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 4 to 9.  Isaiah then concludes the chapter in verses ten and eleven with some applications for us.  Now would be a good to read Isaiah 50, looking for

* two servants,
* two kinds of unjust suffering,
* two approaches to dealing with our problems.

James Tissot, The Flight of the Prisoners

In this post we’ll consider the first servant and his problem.  The first servant is the nation of Israel (and we can also think of Judah).  They went through incredible suffering of siege and captivity (Israel 722 B.C. Judah 586 B.C.).  When you think about the worst way to die, rarely does a person say a siege.  But it should be towards the top of the list.  Their food supply is cut off.  And people do crazy things when they are starving, like eating their own children (see 2 Kings 6:24-30 for a gruesome example).  When taken they are forced into slavery.  These sort of extreme sufferings form the background of verses one to three.

The Blame Game

In response, Israel felt like God had abandoned them.  This is expressed through the metaphor of divorce and also being sold into slavery in verse one.  In Bible times, if a person was in incredible debt the collectors would come and take even their family and sell them as slaves to get their owed money.  (See 2 Kings 4 for an example.)

Putting these things together, (along with Isaiah 49:14) the picture the Israelites paint of the Lord is far from flattering.  They say He is like a husband who has walked out on us for no good reason and a father who has sold us to pay for His gambling debts.  God is portrayed as a deadbeat loser and Israel is the innocent victim.

Anyone who has tried to seriously help a troubled marriage knows this tune well.  Typically each person says something like “I’m not saying I’m perfect, BUT they do this, this, this, and don’t do this, this, this.”  And if you only heard the story from one person’s perspective you might think that the other spouse is completely to blame.  Well, it takes two to tango.  We all tend to minimize our own actions and pass off our responsibility.  In most marriages, things go poorly because both parties have serious flaws.

But in the situation we’re considering, Israel is married to God and they have the audacity to point the finger and say “It’s all His fault! I don’t know what I could have done differently!  He’s impossible to please!”  Well, God sets the record straight.  He asks “where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away?” 

Wait a minute!  I thought God hated divorce?  (Mal. 2:16)  Does God actually divorce his people?

YES!  God did actually divorce Israel.  She was actually sent away (end of verse one).  Read Jeremiah 3:6-11 and  Isaiah 54:5-8.  God really had divorced Israel.  But as these references show, it was only for a time.  In Deuteronomy 24:1-4 we find that a person could not take back his wife if he wrote her a certificate of divorce.  But God is different.  He will take back his wife, Israel. 

The call for the certificate of divorce was to remind Israel why the separation happened.  The NET Bible explains it this way: “The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred.  Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white.  The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.”  God explains in 50:1 “because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgression your mother was sent away.”  (see also Isaiah 59:1-2)

The Frosting on the Cake

Yes, the blame was Israel’s alone for the separation.  But on top of that, God had given opportunity after opportunity for reconciliation and all they had to do was admit their guilt.  But when He came, no one heard.  As Jeremiah says “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.  Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck.  They did worse than your fathers” (Jer. 7:25, 26). 

The Lord then reminds them that He was more than willing and able to redeem them.  If He had the power to part the Red Sea and the Jordan and bring darkness over the land of Egypt, then surely He could have saved them from the coming invasion.  But they were unwilling to be saved.

Is Our "Unjust Suffering" Really Unjust?

So this is the first servant of the Lord and the first category of “unjust suffering.”  Many people today complain just like Israel did, that life is unfair, that they deserve better, and they bemoan what they call undeserved calamity.  But often, God’s response is: “Wait a minute.  Let’s get the record straight.  This is NOT unjust suffering.  You brought this upon yourself and you just don’t want to admit it!”

All too often marriages fall apart or there is division in the church or weakness in our testimony or depression and unfruitfulness.  And our response is to complain like Israel and say “Why is God doing this?”  But God is not the cause; we are.  Blaming others for the consequences of our own sin may help us feel better for a while, but it can never solve our problems.  And so often we don’t suffer immediately for our faults.  God patiently gives us chance after chance (Rom. 2:1-5 comes to mind).  But in the end, God is not mocked, a man reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7).  A mature response to suffering is to take serious time in prayer to ask the Lord “Are you trying to get my attention?  Am I being disciplined for my sin?”

The first servant in Isaiah 50 gives us important insight to coping with unjust suffering - first make sure that you didn't just bring it on yourself.  If you did, don't make it worse by blaming the problem on God. That was Israel's problem  Their self-centeredness and rebellion are excellent examples of what not to do.  And their terrible example sets the stage for what we read next, in verses four through nine, the of God's Great Servant in the midst of unparalleled suffering.