Isaiah 50:7
“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.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Isaiah 50 contains a Servant Song in which the LORD's obedient servant describes the suffering and humiliation he willingly endures while trusting God for vindication.
What Does Isaiah 50:7 Mean?
Isaiah 50:7 shows the LORD's servant standing firm under suffering because he is certain of God's help. The verse comes immediately after the servant describes giving his back to those who struck him and not hiding his face from shame and spitting. Yet rather than collapse, he speaks with steady confidence: "the Lord GOD will help me." His endurance does not come from his own strength but from his trust that God stands with him.
The phrase "I have set my face like a flint" captures unshakable resolve. Flint is hard, sharp, and unyielding; to set one's face like flint is to fix one's purpose so firmly that no opposition can turn it aside. The servant has decided to obey to the end, whatever the cost, because he knows the outcome: "I shall not be ashamed." Christians have long seen in this suffering servant a portrait of Christ, who set His face to go to Jerusalem and endured the cross. Even read in its first setting, the verse models faithful endurance: when help comes from God, shame and defeat do not have the final word. Resolve grounded in God's faithfulness can stand against any humiliation the world inflicts.
In the Original Language
The Hebrew 'azar means to help, support, or come to one's aid; challamish denotes flint or hard rock, used here to picture the servant's immovable determination.
Cross References
“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.”
- Luke 9:51
“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.”
- Isaiah 50:6
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”
- Romans 8:31
Application
When you face opposition or humiliation for doing right, set your purpose firmly and trust that God's help will keep you from final shame.