before us. Israel must `hearken' and `awake' if they are to be saved, He, their Messiah

will `awake' and `hear' so that He may have a word in season for the weary: "The Lord

God hath given Me the tongue of the learned" (Isa. 50: 4). We must remove at once the

false idea created by the word `learned'. Today such a term connotes scholarship and

venerable learning, whereas the word here means, rather `discipleship'.  Isaiah has

already used a word that means `learned' it is yada sepher "to know a book" and occurs

in Isa. 29: 11, 12. Here in Isa. 50: 4 the Hebrew words used is limmud which is found

in the first instance in Isa. 8: 16 where it is translated `disciples'. All God's children

shall be taught (limmud) of the Lord (Isa. 54: 13) in the day of their restoration and so the

Messiah adds to the `awakening' and the `hearing' which must also characterize them,

this attitude of the `learned'.

This `tongue of the disciplined' is given to the Messiah that He may know how "to

speak a word in season to him that is weary". There is no word in the original for

`season' in this passage. The single Hebrew word uth means `to succour' and while the

recognition of this robs us of the lovely associations of `a word in season' it restores what

is more important, a connection with a passage in the N.T.

We have in other studies noted a close connection that exists both physically and

spiritually between the `tongue' and the `ear'. Many are dumb simply because they are

deaf. When the Lord would heal the man who was dumb He removed his deafness:

It has been the experience of most faithful witnesses that the opened ear and the

opened mouth lead to the smitten back, the plucked hair, the shame and the spitting.

Blessed be God, our Saviour Whose heart was tender, set His face `like a flint'. He was

strong in the righteousness of His cause and said:

Adversaries must wax old as a garment, but He remains: