"The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame."
Isaiah 50 : 5 - 7
"Set My face like flint " has been captivating my thoughts for a couple months. At first I pictured It as the ultimate game face. However, the more I read the passage, it became more descriptive of Jesus's heart determination to obey His Father.
When Jesus came to earth He knew what was going to happen to Him. He was sent here on the ultimate rescue mission by His Father. The physical, emotional and psychology pain and torment Jesus would experience was excruciating. Despite it all, Jesus would not rebel against God or turn His back on the mission. Jesus relied on God to help Him.
Three things happened when God helped Jesus :
1 - Jesus was not humiliated.
He was able to endure the most wicked, degrading abuse and rejection without feeling mortified. Jesus was more concerned about how God His Father saw Him.
2 - Jesus set His face like flint.
Jesus prioritized how God viewed the way he lived. Jesus was tempted in every way possible, which would have destroyed the end goal if He succumbed. BUT He chose instead to respond in obedience to God every moment of every day.
3 - Jesus felt no shame.
Even though He was stripped of every human dignity, Jesus did not stop. When Jesus was totally exposed, in excruciating pain and suffering He still was extending God's love and mercy to the thief next to Him. The ultimate shame and regret would have been to not fulfill what God sent Him to do.
" Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasp but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. "
As I live with ALS I too have to "set my face like flint."
I John 2 : 6 says, "Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." So...
“O you redeemed ones, on whose behalf this strong resolve was made—you who have been bought by the precious blood of this steadfast, resolute Redeemer—come and think awhile of Him, that your hearts may burn within you and that your faces may be set like flints to live and die for Him who lived and died for you!”
— C.H. Spurgeon