When discoursing with His disciples after His resurrection, the Lord said “that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning” Him (Luke 24:4444And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:44)), indicating the concurrence of testimony found in the Old Testament Scripture as to Himself. The subject of the opened ear is one of these.
The Hebrew Servant
In Exodus 21 we have a deeply-interesting Jewish ordinance. It established that the Hebrew servant who should be bought must fulfill his prescribed term of service, and he was afterward entitled to his liberty, but should he have acquired, during his servitude, a wife and children, these he must surrender to his master, going out alone. In case, however, his affection to his master, to his wife and to his children precluded his doing so, provision was made by Jehovah for him to take on perpetual service. His master, in presence of the judges, should then bore his ear with an awl, by which procedure his service would be forever. In this striking act, we see a beautiful type of that incomparable Servant — that blessed One whose service to His Father (or master), to His church (or wife), and to His earthly people (or children) shall be as perpetual as it is profound.
If we now turn from “the law of Moses” to “the Psalms” (see Psalm 40), we find again the opened or digged ear of this devoted Servant. Though the poor and the needy One, He was mighty to save and strong to deliver, but He is depicted here as the sorrowing, suffering Witness bent upon doing the bidding of God, in the body which had been prepared Him. He waited patiently upon Jehovah-Elohim, delighting to do His will. What a picture is this of the perfect Servant, the sent-one of God! And in the midst of it we read that beautiful exclamation that forms the divine answer to the exquisite type of Exodus 21: “Mine ears hast Thou opened [or digged].”
The Opened Ear
Again, if we add to these the completing testimony of “the Prophets” (see Isaiah 50:4-74The Lord God 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. 5The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 6I 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. 7For 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 50:4‑7)), we get a yet fuller description of the devotedness of this perfect Servant. “The Lord God,” He says, “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 [or learner]. 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.” Surely no language could more touchingly express how truly He had emptied Himself to become the dependent Man upon earth! And here we may remark how suitably the ear, being that organ through which commands are received, is in these Scriptures made the subject of the prophetic teaching concerning God’s faithful Servant. Nothing could be more beautiful than the attitude of the Lord Jesus as listening morning by morning with the opened ear of a subject will, to take instructions from His Father!
Thus also may we understand what otherwise might seem inexplicable — His refusal to do at one time what He really does shortly afterward. There are three instances of this in John’s gospel. In the second chapter His mother, as they sit together at the marriage in Cana, says to Him significantly, “They have no wine.” In His answer He affirms, “Mine hour is not yet come.” But there was but a short break before He wrought the kindly miracle that manifested forth His glory! Also in the seventh chapter, when His brethren suggest His going up to the great feast of tabernacles, “then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready,” indicating surely to us that while they did their own will, He waited upon the will of Another. So He abides in Galilee, but a day or two afterward goes up to Jerusalem, and what a message He is charged to convey! Again in the eleventh chapter, after receiving from the beloved sisters of Lazarus the message concerning his sickness, He abides two days still in the same place where He was. “Then after that” He gives the unexpected word to His disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” When the touching appeal from the sorrowing family reached Him, He had received no word from the Father, and consequently, resisting the impulses of His love, He remains where He was.
As the girded Servant He must wait orders through an opened ear. What must He have felt in His deep human compassion and sympathy, as in His omniscience He followed the ravages of the disease up to its culmination in death, tarrying throughout the whole two days, expecting the word on which He waited? At length He gets this morning note; the Lord Jehovah wakened His ear to hear as the learner, and He gives the signal for departure.
Human Fears
Now, however, arises another thing. His disciples, in the timidity of unbelief, bring in their human fears and would dissuade Him from returning to Judea; there is a lion in the way! How full of divine wisdom and of heavenly light is the ready reply with which He not only silenced their objections but banished their anxieties! “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” And thus as He would not be induced by the precious, tender love of His human heart to move towards Judea until He had Jehovah’s word in His ear, so on the other hand will He not be deterred from returning thither by any apprehensions of Jewish enmity or Satanic opposition. The will of Him who sent Him had fallen upon His opened ear, and it is enough.
The Perfect Servant
What a lesson in subjection to the Father’s will do these scriptures convey to us if we had only His teachableness of spirit! He is unmoved by His mother’s suggestions, by His brethren’s entreaties, and by His own heart’s promptings, and equally is He unhindered by the dissuasions which come from His disciples. As the perfect Servant, in absolute submission of will and perfect self-surrender, He waits upon Jehovah’s word, and having that, He treads the hitherto-untrodden path of a perfectly obedient and dependent man. He who was Jehovah’s fellow gave Himself unto suffering and servitude and hid not His face from shame and spitting. Precious, peerless Savior!
A Body Prepared
If, in conclusion, we may add a word as to His distinct characters of service to us, three well-known scriptures will bring its past, its present, and its future character divinely before us. In Hebrews 10 the Apostle refers to Psalm 40, a scripture we have already looked at, where the words “Mine ears hast Thou opened” are quoted from the Septuagint: “A body hast Thou prepared Me.” In that body He bare our sins, and by His death delivered us from the wrath to come. He was serving us there, for this was the will of God, that through such service He should glorify Him and take spoils from the enemy.
In John 13, before going away, knowing the Father had committed everything to His hand, He lays aside His garments and becomes the girded Servant of our present daily need. In the same act He rebukes His disciples for their unseemly strife (compare Luke 22:2424And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. (Luke 22:24)) and sets before them what His ministrations on behalf of His saints should be during the long night of His absence. He would be a pattern for our care and love to one another.
The Girded Servant
And lastly, in Luke 12 — where He gives every true saint the credit of being a watcher for His return—He lovingly cheers their hearts with the hitherto-unheard-of disclosure that He had a deeply-cherished purpose to fulfill in the glory, even that of making us to sit down to meat and coming forth Himself even then also as the girded Servant of those whom He will delight to serve forever. May we have the understanding so opened by Him of the opened ear, that through grace we may gather up this lesson from the law of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets concerning Himself. We are indwelt by the same Spirit. May we exhibit the same self-denial for the glory of our Master.
W. R. D. (adapted), Christian Friend, Vol. 6