The Servant For Ever.

Exodus 21.

1871 298 In the statute law of the Hebrew servant, which is recorded in Exodus 21, there is a striking type of Him who is the only perfect One in Himself; and in all the relations which connect Him with God and man. "If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever."

We ought to be always so sufficiently alive to the grace of God, in giving us figures and types of persons and things (which otherwise we should never be able to understand), as to refuse to take the smallest liberty with the subjects which He thus brings within our reach, and about which He desires to interest us.

Nor is this enough to say — for if the Lord teaches us in this way, they are His own deep thoughts and purposes in Christ His Son. It is not that we should reduce these things to the level of our own ideas, but that our minds should be helped and lifted up out of their own littleness, so as to comprehend the ways of God towards us, and the principle of His actings in grace now, or in the glory by and by. The Hebrew servant is one of the lessons, given us by divine wisdom and love for this end, and shows us the Christ, in His faithful and devoted service to God, and in the midst of the relations which brought Him into this world.

It is a precious thought for our hearts, that the objects of Christ's affections are here, and that His love for the Eve, the bride, the Lamb's wife, which the wisdom of God had counselled from everlasting for a helpmeet; and His delight in the children of His adopting grace, brought Him down into our midst. By unmistakable words and deeds He proved, "I love my master, my wife, my children; I will not go out free," and in acts of continuous and devoted service has He not with equal plainness accepted the alternative, and become the faithful servant forever? What was thus given out to our faith in the type of the master and the wife and the children; or in the figure of the servant, the ear, and the doorpost; has become fact to us, and is the recorded witness of a love that was stronger than death, and which found its delights with the relations which it had formed. This is the picture of the living love of the Lord Jesus, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. Indeed so short does the type of the Hebrew servant fall of the antitype, that when the Lord Jesus departed from this world to the Father in John 13, He only laid aside His garments to gird Himself afresh for His present service of the water and the towel, that "His own might have part with Him," where He is gone for awhile!

And so when He returns a second time to the earthly objects of His affections to renew His intimacy with them in the millennial age, He will again come forth and serve them, yea, gather them around Himself as He said, "that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

May we not add to this, that when He appears in His own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels, and sits upon His own throne as "the Son of man," He will connect all these acquired titles and honours with His own person, as the obedient servant, the faithful and true witness; and come forth in the power of God to bring everything into subjection to Him that appointed Him? In the new character of servant-King will He not take His place in the kingdom of God, and reign therein till He hath put all enemies under His feet, even to that last enemy, death itself? So "when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." Thus the early types of the doorpost, and the bored ear, and the faithful servant, who loved his master and his wife and his children, who would not go out free but be a servant for ever, has been more than fulfilled in generations that are passed away, and in the dispensation which is passing, and will only receive their full accomplishment in the ages that are yet to come, when we shall "be filled into all the fulness of God."

Another character of Christ will open itself to us, if we add to what He was as the faithful servant, (whether by incarnation or by resurrection) the value of the life He laid down in substitution and death. Psalm 40 presents prophetically our Lord as "brought up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, "connecting itself with Exodus 21 though leading on to that further and deeper work of suffering and expiation, on account of the iniquities of those whom (as we have seen) He loved better that His life. As the faithful servant, the Psalm opens by "waiting." "I waited for Jehovah and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He set my feet upon a rook and established my goings." Our consciences, set at rest in the presence of God by the blood of Christ, readily tell us the difference between the love that brought Him down to us, and the dying love which led Him to give Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour — the difference between the bored ear, and the awl, and the doorpost of Exodus 21, and the opened ear (or the ear digged) and the horrible pit, and the cry of Psalm 40. Some other references to these two scriptures may make the difference still plainer.

The Hebrew servant's devotedness kept him in the midst of those he loved better than himself, so that lie would not go out free, or alone. He was in the circle of his own affections, and there was neither blood nor death required; for the question of expiation for sin was not there raised, but the love to "His own which were in the world," with which "He loved them unto the end! "This Psalm speaks of sacrifice and offering for sin; and the Spirit of Christ leads us on from the doorpost to the cross, and Him who hung upon it in that day, when innumerable evils compassed Him about — the hour, where in a love stronger than death He made our transgressions His own, and said, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, Oh! Lord, to deliver me: Oh! Lord, make haste to help me." The state and condition of those He loved was now in question with God, and according to the holiness of His nature; and it is to this Psalm the Holy Ghost refers, as regards the person of our Lord: "wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God."

In this vast circle of Christ's affections, by the sacrifice of Himself He made atonement for all in us that was inconsistent with His own love; and in order to establish the righteousness of God (whose law was within His heart) we see Him living, acting, and dying, that He might glorify God and finish the work that was given Him to do. As the centre of this circle, and forming the way to the blessedness of which the Psalm speaks, He says, "Blessed is that man who maketh Jehovah his trust; and respecteth not the proud nor such as turn aside to lies:" and, as the faithful witness from God to men, adds "Many, O Jehovah my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward; they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee." Moreover, as the obedient servant in testimony, He stood in the midst of the great congregation, and declared, "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart," nor have I refrained my lips, O Jehovah, thou knowest. In result He connects all those whom He thus loved, and on whose account He thus died, with Himself in His own delights with the God whom He so glorified; saying, "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, Jehovah be magnified:" while Ho who wrought out the work which brought "His own "so nigh to God, takes His own place of distance on our behalf, and adds, "but I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer, make no tarrying, O my God!"

There is another character of service on which the Lord entered for the wife and the children whom He loved, which the prophet Isaiah describes as between Jehovah and the nation of Israel in chapter 50 "Thus saith Jehovah, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it, to whom I have sold you?" The devoted loving Hebrew servant of Exodus, or the self-sacrificing servant of the Psalm, "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," has no other rule between himself and the master he served, than "Lo, I come to do thy will: in the volume of the book it is written of me." My meat and drink is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. The opening chapters of Isaiah describe Israel's condition as viewed in connection with "the throne of the Lord, whose train filled the temple;" seraphim cried to seraphim, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; and the posts of the door moved at the voice, and the house was filled with smoke. Prophet and people, judged in the light of this holiness, cried, "Woe is me, for I am unclean, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:" but the emblems of the live coal, and the tongs, and the altar, disclosed to him the secret of what had taken away his iniquity, and purged his sin. The prophet thus strengthened for his own particular service in that day, could, by the spirit of prophecy, point the faith and hopes of Israel onward, as in this fiftieth chapter, to the great Prophet and deliverer of His people, who has since come in as the faithful servant in their midst. The estrangement of the nation from Jehovah, and its bill of divorcement — as well as the yet deeper punishment of the veil upon their hearts, and Lo-ammi written by the finger of God upon them, and upon the city of Jerusalem to this day, have all been taken up by the "servant for ever," and form part of that wondrous work which was given Him to do, and which He finished on the cross. Long ago He took the place in His ministry to Israel, throughout the length and breadth of the land of Canaan, predicted in our chapter, "The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. And I was not rebellious, neither turned away back." Nor was this all, but faithful to Him that appointed Him, He set His face like a flint, and gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: nor did he hide Himself from shame and spitting. The confidence of Christ was unshaken in God, even when dogs compassed Him, and the assembly of the wicked enclosed Him, and He was brought into the dust of death.

The Spirit of prophecy in Isaiah thus sketched in outline the coming One, till really, born of the virgin, the Spirit of God like a dove rested upon Him, and He identified Himself with the children whom He loved in the depths of Jordan, as the fulfiller of righteousness. Jesus "led of the Spirit "passed over in His life all that was signified of Him, whether in types or psalms or prophecies; and by His death and resurrection gained a title to break every yoke, and set the captives free. His love for His own brought Him by incarnation into the place of service forever, signed by the ear, and the doorpost, as we have seen. His dying love brought Him to the cross, that by redemption through His blood we might be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. By His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension to the right hand of God, He has been crowned with honour and glory, and can thus set aside the bill of Israel's national divorcement, in the future day of His service as mediator, when He will put that people under the new covenant, and God shall be their God. "At that time Zion will be no more termed forsaken, neither shall her land any more be termed desolate; for it is written, Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." "Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God."

There remained yet another service for the faithful and obedient servant. The wife and children of His devoted love must not only be met in their very worst state, and redeemed out of it by the shedding of His own blood; but through His effectual work of service towards God in death and resurrection will be caught up in triumph, when He shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. The Master too, by the work of His obedient servant, who would not go out free (and because of His own glory, which was brought out, as well as our deliverance) has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name that is named, not only in this world but in that which is to come, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. The servant-Saviour, who will be also the servant-King, was in His own nature a Son, though a servant; and when looked at in this light, is owned by us as such, in His own essential deity, as "the image of the invisible God," who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. The secret of His marvellous servantship is further unveiled to us (when in the days of His flesh) by Hebrews 5 "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him; called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedec." The master in type, the Jehovah of Old Testament language, is revealed now as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Moreover, by the Lord's departure and entrance upon His offices and services of priestly intercession and advocacy in heaven with the Father; another Paraclete is come down to abide with us, that the wife may know she is not a widow, nor the children left orphans, in this world. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son, is the witness to the bride of the unchanging love of the absent One, and of His return in the day when the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. The Comforter is known to be such by the heart of the bride, as He assures her of the Father's delight in the Son; and that all things that He hath have been given into His bands, as the appointed Heir, by whom also He made the worlds. The Holy Ghost thus satisfies the heart of the bride, as the witness of Christ's love, and the revealer to her of the glory of His person. He also wins her affection for her coming Lord, and draws her onward in hope of the day, when He will appear, and present the Church to Himself, a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Afterwards, and in the day of His heavenly glory, the Lord as Bridegroom will display His wife and children (for whom in His faithful love He served, and gave Himself) descending from above into the Father's kingdom, and the Son's inheritances — to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. "And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

In that day the purposes and counsels of God will be manifested, in accomplished blessing, through "the servant for ever." In that day the faithful and devoted One who would not go out free and alone; that He might by His obedience and death deliver and free every creature from the vanity and bondage to which it was subjected by the fall; will satisfy "the earnest expectation of a groaning creation, at the manifestation of the sons of God," with Himself. The introduction and display of the wife and the children — the bride of the Lamb, and the sons of God — is the appointed hour by Him who is sovereign, and works all things after the counsel of His own will, for the emancipation and deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

The faithful servant-Son said, before He changed His place of service from the earth to the heavens, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now what remains for the Father, but to own by act and deed that the consequences of sin must no longer flow forth in sadness to men, as the causes were borne by Christ — atoned for in His blood — and put away through righteous judgment? It is God Himself who says, There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful." And this is the new "volume of the book "of the new heavens and the new earth, about to be filled by the same loving and obedient servant who, when on earth said, "I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I will not go out free." I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. It is such a love as this that we know — a love that no difficulties could weaken — a love that many waters could not quench — a love that was stronger than death — a love that only found its liberty and its delights in being with the objects which made life worth living for, and gave a charm to it. The ear and the doorpost; the broken body, and the cross; the baptism, and the sepulchre; were the new measures of a love that passeth knowledge. An unwearied love of self-sacrificing devotedness, that could lay a life down in sufferings and death to glorify the master, and by which to get a new title to the wife and children! A love in fact so unselfish and divine that it would only take up this life again in resurrection, in order to gird itself afresh, for other displays of devotedness and attachment to the objects which it loved better than itself, in a new heaven and a new earth, where the former things will have all passed away. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God."