Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Jun 1958

We have seen in Isaiah 49.8, that the mouth of Jehovah's Servant was made like a sharp sword, but in 50.4 He says:

"The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of them that are taught (disciples), that I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary."

Solomon speaks frequently of the tongue, both in its capacity for evil and for good. He says,

" The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver" (Proverbs 10.20).

" The tongue of the wise is health" (12.18).

" The tongue of the wise uttereth knowledge aright" (15.2).

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (18.21).

James speaks a good deal about the tongue in chapter 3.1-12, and shows that an uncontrolled tongue is "a restless evil, full of deadly poison." The same tongue may bless God, and curse men who are made in the image of God. Man cannot tame it. Yet through the working of God's manifold grace, the believer may have the tongue of the disciple.

Such was the Lord as Jehovah's Servant. Though He was omniscient as God is, knowing all from eternity to eternity, yet as Jehovah's Servant He was a Learner. It is said of Him, "Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men" (Luke 2.52). He advanced in wisdom, though He was the Wisdom of God (Luke 11.49). "Therefore also said the Wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles; and some of them they shall kill and persecute." This is the same Wisdom who was by God as a Master Workman (Proverbs 8.30).

The Jews asked, "How knoweth this Man letters having never learned?"

(John 7.15). The Lord's answer was, "My teaching is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching" (verses 10, 17). God was the Teacher of His Servant.

The object of God's teaching was that the Lord might know how to sustain with words him that was weary. Weary means fatigued, exhausted, faint. He who sustained the weary was weary Himself, and He who thirsted gave living water (John 4.). The Hebrew word for sustain has the thought of to hasten, as though one hastened to succour someone. Such indeed was the Lord, as we see Him as Jehovah's Servant in Mark's Gospel. He was ever busy in His Master's business. Straightway or immediately, translations of the same Greek word, are more frequently used in Mark than in any other book in the New Testament. Not a moment was wasted by the Lord; He hastened His work to speak words in season to the weary and worn and sad. No one ever knew how to succour the weary with his words like the Lord, and He still carries on the work by His blessed Spirit, whom He sent to be another Comforter.

Jehovah's Servant said,

"He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as they that are taught" (Isaiah 50.4).

"Wakeneth," to be aroused, is derived from a word meaning to be bare, to be made naked. As the awakened eye is uncovered by the lifted eyelid in the morning, so the Lord's ear was uncovered to hear His Master's voice, the voice of Him who was His Father also. Many have uncovered eyes in the morning who have not uncovered ears. They do not listen to the Voice which speaks morning by morning. They may issue forth to the work-a-day world, not having heard the Voice speaking with them. Not so was it with the Lord. He listened more intently than Samuel in the temple (which was the tabernacle) of old, who said, "Speak; for Thy servant heareth," for Samuel did not yet know the LORD, but "the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD" (1 Samuel 3.21), which is the way He reveals Himself to us all-by His word.

The Lord as Jehovah's Servant said,

"The Lord GOD hath opened Mine ear to hear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward " (Isaiah 50.5).

The word "opened" here means to open anything, a door, a book, the mouth, the eyes, the ears, and so forth. In Psalm 40.6 the Lord says, Mine ears "hast Thou opened," or as the R.V. marg. says, "Ears hast Thou digged for Me." The word digged" here is from the Hebrew Karah, and should not be confused with

"to bore or pierce " in Exodus 21.6. When speaking of the Hebrew servant it is said, " Then his master shall bring him unto the door post ; and his master shall bore his ear throhgh with an awl ; and he shall serve him for ever." "Bore" here is from the Hebrew word Ratsa, to bore or pierce. Karah applies to the digging of a well or a pit or grave, as in Genesis 26.25; 50.5. The boring of the ear, in Exodus 21.6, is for the purpose of marking in connexion with ownership and identification, but the digging of the ears, in Psalm 40.6 is with a view to hearing. Gesenius says that the words "Ears hast Thou digged for Me," is a stronger expression than, " The Lord God hath opened Mine ear," though both signify the opening of the ears to hear.

What Jehovah's Servant heard He obeyed. He was not rebellious nor did He turn back from God's command, finding it too difficult to obey. In obedience to God's will He says, " 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." How fully these words were accomplished in Ills mock trials before the Jewish council under Caiaphas and before Pontius Pilate! Some began to spit an Him, and to cover His face, and to buffet Him, and to say unto Him, Prophesy : and the officers received Him with blows of their hands" (Mark 14.65; 15.15, 19, etc.).

Yet, despite the scorn and shame which were heaped upon Him, He, Jehovah's Servant, said,

"For the Lord GOD will keep Me ; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (verse 7).

"Confounded" means, principally, "to wound," but also signifies, "to reproach, to treat shamefully, to injure." The shame, reproach, and all the indignities heaped upon our blessed Lord in the last hours of His life will return upon the heads of the actors in these fearful scenes of hate and malice. Note the reading of the R.V. in Hebrews 12.8: "Consider Him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against themselves." Those who were His enemies will be confounded eternally, hut not the Lord. He, knowing all that lay before Him, set His face as a flint to meet all He had to face; neither the sorrow of His friends nor the hatred of His enemies could turn Him aside. He knew the trials of the Cross would end in the glory of the throne, where He sat down on God's right hand, His work on earth completed.

He further said,

"He is near that justifieth Me : who will contend with Me ? let us stand up together: who is Mine adversary? let him come near to Me" (verse 8).

"He who was manifested in the flesh," was "justified in the Spirit

(1 Timothy 3.16)

I judge the A.V. is right here in printing Spirit with a capital S, indicating that it is the Holy Spirit that is in view ; as the A.V. is again correct in printing Spirit with a capital S in 1 Peter 3.18 : "being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit." It is the Person of the Holy Spirit in both eases.

The Lord was justified in the Spirit in resurrection His resurrection declaring Him to be God's just and holy Servant, as Peter proclaimed Him to be, in Acts 3. How will Annas and Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas stand when they appear before Him in the day of judgement? Will they condemn Him then? It shall be as He says in verse 9 : "Behold, they all shall wax old as a garment the moth shall eat them up." Puny men ! little did they know the truth of the words, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee" (Psalm 76.10).

J. Miller | Jun 1958
Jottings