Reaching Out as a Servant to Someone Who is Weary

A servant performs duties for others and is often associated with someone who is employed as domestic ‘help’ or as a personal attendant. God calls us to be a servant to others.

Today we are looking at Isaiah 50:1-11 to learn how we can reach out as a servant to someone who is weary.

These verses start off by asking, “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce.” Isaiah 50:1

Divorce is a word that has lost its sting even though it is hurting and destroying the relationships of many husbands and wives. You might have experienced the pain it has brought into your marriage. If not, it might have touched someone you were close to as it has with me.

This passage is directed to the exiled Israelites who are slow to respond to the LORD calling them because they believed their ties to the motherland were broken beyond hope.

God is asking a series of rhetorical questions that expect negative answers.

Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Isaiah 50:1

There was no bill of divorcement because they still belonged to the LORD.

There was no bill of sale because God had never given them up!

Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, Isaiah 50:1

In Israel, if a bill of divorce was given, they were free to remarry but there was no such bill given to Israel or the previous generation.

This story creates a picture of a comparison of Israel’s implied divorce yet there was actually not a divorce.

God sent Israel into exile to purge those that didn’t belong to Him but Israel still belonged to Him.

As we continue reading these verses, we see that this wicked generation of Israel sold themselves because of sin.

His unmeasured grace was so great that God canceled their sin and redeemed them!

God offers you (and me) His grace and mercy. If you have accepted Him, He has canceled your sin!

Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Isaiah 50:2

Equipping You as a Servant

We are talking this month about weariness. Most of us have been weary at some point in our adult lives. Our energy is totally spent to the point that we feel we cannot go on.

“The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned. Isaiah 50:4

These verses are speaking of Jesus yet they are speaking to my heart and I hope to yours too.

God is speaking confidence into your weary heart to prepare you to serve others.

You will have the Tongue of the learned.
You will know how to speak.
You will encourage those who are weary.
God will wake you morning by morning.
He will awaken your ear.
You will hear as the learned.

The Song of the Servant

Isaiah 50:5-9 is the song of the servant who although rejected, learned to comfort the weary because God was on his side.

These are amazing verses that are filled with encouragement that God will equip you to do what He has called you to do.

The LORD will prepare you to teach. (vs 4,5)
The LORD will help you (vs 9)
Trust in the name of the LORD (vs 10)

Reach Out to the Weary

There are so many women around me who are weary.

They are emotionally weary, physically weary from doing too much for their families, weary because of cancer or constant pain, weary from their life of sin, and just plain tired of the daily grind.

You might be weary too. Yet, in reaching out to someone who is weary, you will be strengthened.

These verses were written to Israel in another time yet I think they still apply to you and me today.

When I started to reach out to other women, I started an emotional healing process from a hard season in my life. There is something about having a servant-heart to others that will bless you in return.

I encourage you to step out in faith that God will equip you with the words to encourage with the heart of a servant to someone who is weary.