This short pericope is another transition. It connects with the third Servant Song, but it introduces a new speaker and develops a different topic. The new subject is the importance of listening to the Servant and the Lord.
50:10 The Lord (v. 11) now addressed the Israelites through Isaiah again (cf. v. 1). He picked up the "whos"from verses 8 and 9 and asked who among His people feared the Lord and obeyed the instruction of the Servant. Fearing the Lord and obeying the Servant are synonymous. The Israelites too, like the Servant, were walking in darkness, not the darkness of sin but the darkness of being called by God to a mission that involved suffering and misunderstanding (cf. v. 6; 42:6; Exod. 19:4). Such a people should trust in the reputation and character of the Lord and rely on Him, like the Servant (cf. vv. 7-9; Col. 2:4-7).
50:11 The Lord contrasted the way of sorrow, in this verse, with the way of trust, in verse 10. The Israelites who refused to trust God and obey the Servant in their dark mission, and instead tried to escape the dark by lighting their own fires, would experience torment. They would encounter this if they refused to trust God for deliverance from the Babylonians, and they would encounter it in their larger relationship with God. The Lord would send them torment, not vindication (cf. vv. 8-9). The Lord may have been using the figure of a person binding a flaming torch to himself so he could keep his hands free while working his way out of darkness. In such a case it was only too common for people to set their own clothes on fire accidentally.
