The Lord then demands why He had rejected her. He had come Himself, in Christ, to be in her sorrows, and with equal power to save, and had been rejected, found no man to call when He answered. The humiliation of Christ is most touchingly put forth. Thus the Remnant come to be distinguished, and Christ takes the place of Servant, and though, thereon, Israel was in darkness, and the Remnant, he who obeyed His voice should trust in the Lord—how faithful, we have seen; those who kindled sparks for themselves would, of the Lord's hand, lie down in sorrow. All now hangs on this rejection of Christ, who speaks by His Spirit in the prophet, and presents Himself as Jehovah, but made a Servant in Israel.
Note this chapter contains the humiliation of Christ—His place of subjection in contrast with His divinity. Chapter 53 contains the expiation He accomplished for the people, and for many, in contrast with the exaltation of the Servant, which is other than His being Jehovah, distinctly.
We have here the moral question, of the rejection of Israel by Jehovah, fully tried—what Israel had done in rejecting Jehovah when He came in grace in Jesus, lowly for their sakes, the true character of the humbled Holy One clearly brought out. He is justified by Jehovah. To this is added the consequent exhortation to the Remnant in the latter days, who listen to His voice as the Servant of Jehovah.
Note—the appeal is after the divorcement. This gives it a most important, and deeply interesting character of grace, not developed perhaps, but they are to stand in the name of the Lord, and stay upon their God after this. This is pure grace, resting on what God is.
It is reasoning with Israel upon the circumstances in which Christ's coming placed it—first, the general fact of the rejection, then the nature of Christ's first coming, to the distinction of the Remnant.
5. I do not apply the boring of the servant's ear with an awl to the "opening mine ear" (it is fixing the sign or symbol of service, as receiving command, to the post, i.e., the master's house, i.e., marking the constancy of service) though they are both connected with the same subject. I should apply the boring of the ear of the servant (more especially, i.e., therein it was exhibited and fulfilled) to the Lord's willing subjection to death after He took upon Him the form of a Servant, and had identified Himself with His Master's wife's and children's interest (for His Master had given Him a wife and she was His Master's and His, and thus became the tie to the Master) "being found in fashion as a Man, he humbled himself," etc., being unwilling, even though He could (for He must have gone out without His wife) have gone out free—He preferred to subject Himself for His and their sakes. It was love, and the accomplishment of love. The "opening the ear" is, I take it, submission, intelligent submission to His Father's will, not love after He was a Servant, such, I think, as chapters 40 and 52 express it, as saints, and our Lord throughout, especially in John's Gospel; so Matt. 12, but especially in His becoming a Servant. Therefore the Father saith "Behold my Servant"; so compare Isa. 53, Heb. 2, and John 12, Ka-ri-tha (Thou hast digged, Psalm 40) seems to make Him a Servant, "ears hast thou digged for me"; compare Ezek. 16:3, 21, 353And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. (Ezekiel 16:3)
21That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? (Ezekiel 16:21)
35Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord: (Ezekiel 16:35); Hebrew, verses 30, 29, 14, also Isa. 51:11Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. (Isaiah 51:1), for the word, " Thou hast formed me to be a Servant," was Israel as a witness, as we have seen Him to be the only faithful One actually of Israel, and therefore applicable in principle to Him, though spoken of literal Israel. The ear marked the servitude, as reception of command, "Thou hast formed a body for me," in which I am to be a Servant. And observe it is the Son, as before His incarnation, who says " Ears hast thou digged for me," and accordingly it was in His incarnation He took on Him the form of a Servant, as see Phil. 2. Then pa-thakh ("he opened," Isa. 52:22Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. (Isaiah 52:2)) is generally subjection to servitude. "Behold, saith he, I am thy Servant." When the Lord Jesus had taken the glory (Christhood) upon Himself in behalf of man, man then being apostate, "it became him for whom are all things," etc., therefore, "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience," therefore He had "the tongue of the learned and knew how," etc., therefore "Behold," "Consider him!" Yigel (he openeth, Job 36: to) He openeth their ear to discipline, instruction, and the like, to make the mind to understand. Thus, by faith in Christ Jesus we are made to understand the Scriptures, it is an yigel ("He openeth") to us; so of any revelation of God's mind. It is connected, however, with willingness to obey, but concerns the communication of the matter of the obedience. It is the knowledge, the intelligence necessary to obedience—the opposed to "closing the ear" that they should not hear the perception of the will, or at least the communication of God concerning it; so, the Lord, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear."