The Lord God has given me an instructed tongue… Isaiah in chapter 50, from verse 4, looks ahead to the day a teacher will be taught to know the words which would refresh others. This teacher will walk in obedience to God’s commands, will and purpose for his life, even giving himself to those who wished him physical harm and who would ultimately take his life (v5-6).
The Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint... He won’t know disagrace, or shame, he will walk trusting God, who he will know for sure will vindicate him (v7).
Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voce of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? So, setting his face like flint, he will walk into dark places, places where there will be no light, where there will be no human affirmation or support, no last-minute rescue (as Isaac once was rescued from an otherwise certain execution), but will face and walk to his death.
In Luke, Jesus we see Jesus teach (with an instructed tongue), then after the transfiguration turn towards the city where he will die. Luke mimics Isaiah telling us that Jesus ‘set his face like flint towards Jerusalem’ (Lk 9.51). Surely it is into Isaiah’s darkness he will now willingly walks out his last days.
We are called to follow God. That means walking where we may not know, nor can understand. It means trusting God when we have no appreciation of how we will even survive sometimes. It means we too are called to set our faces like flint, to trust, and not to light our own fires (Is 50.10-11).
Being a prophetic church (by which I mean the prophetic church the whole New testament church is called to be) is being a people who live like this, who trust God and follow him step by step. which would refresh those who were ready to receive Gods revelation to them.