WHEN we read in Revelation 4:11After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1)1 That God created all things, and that for His pleasure they are and were created, we can but feel, as we look around and see indifference to God and His claims — man living to please and gratify himself, if not in open hatred and rebellion against God — how in all ways man has failed to answer to the purpose for which he was created. From the fall to the present day, when God looks down on man, what does He see? In the words of Romans 3:11, 1211There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:11‑12): “There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable.”
Was then God’s purpose in the creation of man for His pleasure to fail of its accomplishment? Blessed be God! no. There was One, who in coming into this world said, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God” (Ps. 40: 7, 8).
In Him God was “well pleased”; words spoken of Him by God at the beginning of His ministry when baptized of John (Mark1:11), and again towards the close of that blessed pathway of obedience on the mount of transfiguration (Matt. 17:55While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)).
But God’s delight in Jesus and His service in perfect obedience is so infinite, that He cannot, as it were, refrain from telling us, who know Him, of it; and in His amazing grace calling us to share with Him in that delight. Turn to Isaiah and let our hearts dwell on the blessed Object of God’s good pleasure, “Behold My Servant.” Had we become servants to sin and Satan instead of to God? Alas! yes. “All gone out of the way;” and so for God’s purpose in man to be accomplished His Son takes man’s place — the servant’s place.
What a contrast to the first man is this perfect Second Man! Of Him God says, “Behold My Servant.” There is One to whom God can point our hearts, because He has found satisfaction — infinite satisfaction — in Him. Not one flaw in the pathway of perfect obedience, but always saying and doing what pleased God. “I do always those things that please Him” (John 8:2929And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. (John 8:29)). And mark that all this blessed service was in perfect acquaintance with, and subjection to, the will of God. His ears were opened (Ps. 40:6). This verse is speaking of Christ becoming incarnate (not as having his ear bored to the door, which was done when He was crucified, and became a servant forever) for Hebrews 10:55Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5) interprets it, “A body hast Thou prepared Me.” But the opening of His ears was also a daily thing throughout His pathway: “He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learner.” What alertness in learning the will of His God! What perfect subjection in carrying it out at all cost to Himself! “The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 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” (Isa. 1:5, 65Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:5‑6)).
What a lesson to us all this is! How often in our desire to serve God we do what we think is pleasing to Him and serving Him, when it is only our own will. Oh! for the opened ear morning by morning to learn His will for us, and for the obedience of Christ in carrying it out. We have been sanctified unto the “obedience... of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1: 2). Let us, then, beloved fellow-believers, have the Lord Jesus Himself before us, for He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Let our service, and by this I do not mean only ministry, whether to the saints or in the gospel, but the daily service of our lives, be it in small things or in great, as men speak — I say, let our service flow from a knowledge of our Father’s will gained by the ear opened to hear it, and from a heart that delights in doing that will by reason of its being engaged with, and knit to the One who found in it His meat and drink. God would have it thus with us, and so presents Christ to our eyes saying, “Behold My Servant whom I uphold: Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth.” If, then, our eye be single for Christ, our whole body shall be full of light, and we shall understand what the will of the Lord is. Can we indeed behold God’s chosen One, the whole delight of His soul, without being knit to Him? How beautiful to hear this telling out of the delight of God in His Servant that you and I might find our delight in Him too.
John’s heart was engaged in rapture with Him when He said, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:3636And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:36)). It was with no thought of preaching or even of testimony there, I believe, but the expression of a satisfied heart; nevertheless it was a blessed testimony, and the effect of it was seen in that the two disciples which heard John speak “followed Jesus.”
In Isaiah 42., God, after giving expression to His soul’s joy in His servant, goes on to speak of His service, a service not calculated to make a stir in the world in one sense. “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.” It was not a service to catch the popular fancy, but a service carried out in grace and tenderness, and yet with unflinching steadfastness and power. A bruised reed He would not break, nor quench the smoking flax, but He “shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Till everything contrary to the mind of God is judged and set aside, till “all things” are reconciled to God by Him (Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20)), there could be no possibility of failure nor turning back.
Of “My Servant” God could say with unhesitating certainty, “He shall not fail nor be discouraged.” No, not even the rejection of His Person and ministry by His own, who received Him not, turned Him back or discouraged Him. Look at Jesus in Matthew 11., where He has to upbraid the cities wherein His mighty works had been done. Does He give all up and leave Israel and the world sunk in all their wretchedness and sin? No, He “at that time” said, “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Thank God, there were, yea, there are, the babes to whom these things could be revealed. But how could the Lord thank the Father at such a time of apparent failure of His ministry? “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” It was good in the Father’s sight, and that was enough for the subject Servant, whose only delight was in what pleased the Father.
But, I repeat, does He give up, and ask that the “gates of righteousness” might be opened to Him to go back, as He might have done, alone into the glory which He had before the world was, leaving man in his helplessness and sin? Ah! no. His obedience did not stop short of death itself, for “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Having taken upon Him “the form of a Servant,” He “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” His obedience being perfected in death, as risen from among the dead He can now say, “Open to Me the gates of righteousness... this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous (or righteous ones) shall enter” (Ps. 118:19, 20). Again, “I have gloried Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:44I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. (John 17:4)).
What blessed and abundant fruits of the service of Christ and the travail of His soul! A company of righteous ones sanctified according to the will of God, and fitted for His presence; and if we glance into the future, we see all things reconciled to God by Him.
Nor is this all. Christ’s service does not even end at the cross. Having finished on earth the work God gave Him to do, He might have gone out free; but in the words of Exodus 21:55And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: (Exodus 21:5), He said, “I love My Master, My wife, and My children; I will not go out free.” The perfect Servant did not find His Master’s service irksome; it was His delight — His meat and His drink. He loved His Master, and so at the cross His ear was bored, and He became a Servant “forever.”
But just as the accomplishing the will of God in His service on earth had as a part of that will the sanctification of a people to God, so His present and His eternal service to God takes account of those whom He has thus sanctified.
In John 13. with what infinite tenderness and grace do we find Jesus serving His people, washing their feet soiled in the pathway through this defiling scene, and so fitting them for communion and worship to the glory of God and the joy of His heart.
In Luke 12:3737Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:37) we get the service of Jesus in eternity, ever ministering to the joy and satisfaction of His people, making known to them all the fatness and pleasures of the Father’s house, and the fullness of the Father’s love, thus causing ceaseless songs of adoration and worship to ascend to the glory of His God forever and ever.
Well indeed may our hearts then dwell on the words, “Behold My Servant whom I uphold: Mine Elect in whom My soul delighteth.”
“O fix our earnest gaze,
So wholly, Lord, on Thee,
That with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see.”
W. H. S. F.