What does it mean when you say “set your face like flint?” Thanks, Pat Moran
The phrase to which reference is made above pertains to part of a Messianic prophecy. “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). That Isaiah 50:7 is part of a Messianic prophecy is evident from verse 6: “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.” Compare Matthew 26:67; 27:26. The following observation from the commentator, Albert Barnes, explains the different uses of this phrase as well as what it means in the context of Isaiah 50.
To harden the face, the brow, the forehead, might be used either in a bad or a good sense-in the former as denoting shamelessness or haughtiness (see the note at Isa 48:4); in the latter denoting courage, firmness, resolution. It is used in this sense here; and it means that the Messiah would be firm and resolute amidst all the contempt and scorn which he would meet, and would not shrink from any kind or degree of suffering which should be necessary to accomplish the great work in which he was engaged. (Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
