Isaiah 49:5b
for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord and
my God has been my strength –
Whose opinion matters most to you? Some of us feel
almost paralysed by the weight of other people’s expectations, and our desire for them to approve of what we do, say and think. Others of us think less about
other people’s opinions. But for all of us, there will be some people whose opinions carry particular significance. Some person, or people, who we especially want to think well of us and praise us. Maybe they are the people we
love most. Maybe they are especially gifted or successful in a particular field, and we value their expert opinion. Maybe we crave someone’s approval because they’re notoriously hard to please, and so a compliment from them is especially precious.
The Servant is not – at first glance – someone who
everyone is queueing up to praise. So far, we know that he is quiet and gentle. In future weeks we’ll see that he is also despised and rejected. He’s not a likely candidate for one of those annual lists of ‘The world’s 100 most influential people’. And yet, he doesn’t seem to mind. “For I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord” he says. It is the
Lord’s verdict that matters to him. The rest of the world can hate him, reject him and mistreat him – and indeed, it did, and continues to do so – but that’s not where he looks for validation.
That doesn’t mean that the rejection doesn’t hurt him – it must have wounded him deeply to be despised by those he loves and came to rescue. The world did have the power to bruise him – physically and emotionally. But it doesn’t have the power to completely strip him of his
confidence and strength, because those things come from his Lord. God’s verdict on him is the only one that really matters. That’s what he will listen to most. Even in his final hours, when the crowd is baying for his blood, he will be
honoured in the eyes of the Lord. He will know his Father’s approval, as he is faithful to his calling.
I wonder if the knowledge of his calling was partly what helped him to keep his focus on pleasing God, rather than trying to please the world? The Servant knows who is, and what his life on earth is for. God has chosen and appointed him to his task, so it is God’s honour that he cares about. Although we don’t have the Servant’s
unique role, we too have been chosen and appointed by God. Chosen to be adopted as his children and appointed to live as a holy people, declaring his praises to the world around us.
So today, let’s pray that we would learn from Jesus
how to value God’s opinion of us – as his precious, loved, forgiven children – more highly than we value the opinion of the world.
