STEADFAST AND STUBBORN SAVIOR!

STEADFAST AND STUBBORN SAVIOR!

Isa 50:4-7

4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

6 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.

7 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.

Luke 9:51

51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

           Stubbornness has earned for itself a bad reputation. Most of the time we understand the word to mean “persistently willful and unreasonable” but it has another meaning as well. Jesus’ stubbornness meant that He was firm and determined.

           Thin lipped and stone faced, Jesus was well aware of the pain involved in persistence. He gave his back to the whip and his face to those who plucked out the beard. He stubbornly took the spitting and the insults because He had a high purpose and that was to redeem the souls of men.

Isa 53:7-8

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

           Stubborn love for you and me made our Savior determined to withstand the insults and pain of redemption. Charles Spurgeon says of the whip: “I have heard that it was made of the sinews of oxen, and that in it were twisted the hucklebones of sheep, with slivers of bone, in order that every stroke might more effectually tear its way into the poor quivering flesh, which was mangled by its awful strokes.” The plucking of the beard was an extreme insult to the Jew who viewed the beard as a symbol of dignity.

           Jesus did not shrink from His task nor wither in the battle for my soul. He was obstinate in the best meaning of that word. He was fixed and unyielding because He had salvation in his hand.

Dear Lord, let me follow you with the same stubborn determination that you showed in saving me. AMEN