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. — Isaiah 50:7

THERE was no flint in the heart of Jesus, but there was much in his face. He was as resolute as he was submissive. Read verse 6 and this verse together — "I hid not my face from shame and spitting. . . I have set my face like a flint." Gentleness and resolve are married.

In Luke 9:51, we read,"he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem:" In our Lord there was no turning aside, though none helped him, and every one hindered him. He was neither confounded by thoughts within his own soul, nor rendered ashamed by the scorn of others.

1. By the offers of the world. They would make him a king. His triumphant ride into Jerusalem proved how easily he could have become a popular leader. By a little compromise he might have won an enthusiastic following as a religious teacher.
2. By the persuasions of friends. Peter rebuked him. All the disciples marveled at his determination. His relatives sought a very different career for him. Many yield to well-meaning friends; but Jesus set his face like a flint.
3. By the unworthiness of his clients.

• He that ate bread with him betrayed him.


• His disciples forsook him and fled.


• The whole race conspired to put him to death.

4. By the bitterness which he tasted at his entrance upon his great work as a substitutionary sacrifice. Gethsemane, the betrayal, the fa]se accusation, the mockery: these were sharp commencements, and many have shrunk when the fire has begun to kindle upon them; but Jesus stood firm.
5. By the ease with which he could have relinquished the enterprise.

• Pilate would have released him had Jesus pleaded.


• Legions of angels would have come to his rescue.


• He might himself have come down from the cross.


• He was not held to his work by inability to quit it, but only by that love which is strong as death. He said, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me": the impossibility lay in his resolve to redeem his people.

• The people: "Let us see whether Elias will come to save him."


• The priests, etc.: "If he be the King of Israel," etc.


• The thieves: "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us."

1. Our purpose must be God's glory, as his was.
2. Our education must be God's teaching, as his was.
3. Our life must combine active and passive obedience, as his did (see verses 5 and 6).
4. Our strength must lie in God, as his did.
5. Our path must be one of faith, as his was. Note verse 10, and its remarkable connection with the whole subject.
6. Our resolve must be carefully made, and steadily carried out till we can say, "It is finished," in our manner and degree.

A secret divine support was rendered to the human nature of our Redeemer; for the great work in which he was engaged required abundant strength. One has well said that "it would have broken the hearts, backs, and necks of all the glorious angels in heaven, and all the mighty men upon earth, had they engaged in,it." Upon the Father's aid the Lord Jesus relied, according to our text; and this enabled him to contemplate the tremendous woes of the passion with a resolve of the most steadfast kind. Faith in God is the best foundation for a firm resolution, and a firm resolution is the best preparative for a great undertaking. There is nothing so hard but that it can be cut by that which is harder: against his hard labor our Lord set his harder determination. His face was as a flint; you could not turn him to leave his work, nor melt him to pity himself. He was set upon it: he must die because he must save his people; and he must save his people because he loved them better than himself.

The saints endeavor to imitate the strong resolve of their Lord to yield themselves up. For instance, a Scottish peasant, dying as a martyr on the scaffold, said,"I came here to die for Christ, and if I had as many lives in my hand as I have hairs on my head, I would lay them all down for Christ."

Oh, what a sea of blood, a sea of wrath, of sin, of sorrow and misery, did the Lord Jesus wade through for your internal and eternal good! Christ did not plead, "This cross is too heavy for me to bear; this wrath is too great for me to lie under; this cup, which hath in it all the ingredients of divine displeasure, is too bitter for me to sup off, how much more to drink the very dregs of it!" No, Christ stands not upon this; he pleads not the difficulty of the service, but resolutely and bravely wades through all, as the prophet shows. Christ makes nothing of his Father's wrath, the burden of your sins, the malice of Satan, and the rage of the world, but sweetly and triumphantly passes through all. Ah, souls, if this consideration will not raise up your spirits above all the discouragements that you meet with, to own Christ and his service, and to stick and cleave to Christ and his service, I am afraid nothing will! A soul not stirred by this, not raised and lifted up by this, to be resolute and brave in the service of God, notwithstanding all dangers and difficulties, is a soul left of God to much blindness and hardness. — Thomas Brooks