As The Symbol Of Servantship.
IN Psalms 40 we have the expression, “Mine ears hast thou opened;” and in the margin, “digged.” This has been rendered by the Septuagint― “A body hast thou prepared (or fitted for) me.”
1. Ears digged in incarnation. ― The word “digged” means sunk like a well, and it refers to the forming of the ears; that is, in the Lord’s case, to His miraculous conception and birth as Jehovah’s servant. The root-thought is that He came to do the will of Jehovah. All His will could be done only by Him as manifested in the flesh; and as we say, in a figure, we have such an one’s ear-meaning we have the service of his person―so we are to treat the “digged ears” as poetically representing the person of the servant of Jehovah’s will: so that it is not an unnatural rendering of “Ears host thou digged for me,” to render it by “A body halt thou prepared me,” as we have it in Hebrews 10:66In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (Hebrews 10:6). The Holy Ghost, by adopting the translation of the 70, has, indeed, sanctioned this as the true meaning.
2. Ears opened in life-service. ―In Isaiah 1 we have this regarding the Lord as Jehovah’s servant: “The Lord 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 as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, nor turned away back. I gave my back to the smiter, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” This tells us of the obedient One in His humiliation and life-service, and affords a deep insight into His hidden life. Every morning―i.e., when His sleep is over―Jehovah comes to Him, awakens His ear, by making a sign to Him to listen, and then takes Him, as it were, into the school, after the manner of a pupil, and teaches Him what and how He is to preach. “The Lord Jehovah hath given me a disciple’s tongue, that I may know how to set up the wearied with words. He wakeneth every morning; wakeneth mine ear to attend in disciple’s manner.” This was the way of our blessed Lord when He gave Himself up to do the Father’s will in docile susceptibility and immovable obedience. And even in view of the scorn and rejection of His own, and with the cross full in view, He set Himself steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, and submitted to every insult, indignity, and cruelty, and endured the cross, despising the shame. Even in view of “the cup” He gave Himself up to do Jehovah’s will, and He was obedient even unto death. His ear was ever open to do His will, and His tongue was a disciple’s tongue. He waited for Jehovah’s word; and He could say, The words which I speak are not mine; but as the Father hath given me commandment, so I speak.
3. Ears bored in redemption. ―This is brought out in Exodus 21:2-62If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. (Exodus 21:2‑6) (read it). The Father hath given Jesus “a wife,” for we read of “The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife;” and He has also “children,” for we read― “Behold I and the children which God hath given me.” Through redemption He becomes His servant forever, and having been pierced for them on the Cross—loving His own which are in the world, He loves them to the end. He is now continually occupied about them. In John 13 the washing of the disciples’ feet is the symbol of His constant ministry in priestly service for them during His absence. This is the heavenly service of devoted love until He present the Church to Himself glorious, not having spot ox wrinkle, or any such thing―but that it should be holy and without blemish, as Ephesians 5:25-2725Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25‑27) declares. And when He has His saints in His own presence in glory He will still continue to them His service of love. “Verily I say unto you that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat and He will come forth and serve them” (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)).
Our blessed Lord had His ears digged in incarnation—opened in His life-service―bored in His redemption-work, whereby He has bound Himself to perpetual service: He has served on earth and fulfilled all God’s will, being obedient unto death―He now serves in advocacy and intercession in Heaven itself: and He will serve God in the administration of His kingdom in the corning day, and when that is done and He has delivered up the kingdom, “And when all things shall be subdued by Him unto God and the Father, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him that God may be all and in all” (1 Cor. 15:2828And 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. (1 Corinthians 15:28)).
[The following paper treats the subject more fully.]
W. R.