To come more directly to the words, ' Behold my sers-ant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased,' &c.
In the words you have a description of Christ, his nearness to God: ' Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.' And then his calling and qualification : ' 1 will put my Spirit upon him.' And the execution of that calling : ' He shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.' Then the quiet and j^eaceaMe manner of the execution of his calling : ' He shall not strive nor cry, neither shaU any man hear his voice in the streets,' &c.
Behold ! — This word is as it were a beacon lighted up to all the rest. In all the evangelists you have this word often repeated, and the prophets likewise when they speak of Christ ; there is no prophecy ahnost but there is this word, ' Behold.'
Why ? Not to spend time in the variety of acceptions (= acceptations), but to speak of it as may serve for the present purpose. The use of it in the prophet, especially out of which these words are taken, was to pre- sent Christ to the hearts of the people of God then ; therefore, he saith, * Behold,' for Christ was present to the believers then; he did profit before he was, he did good before he was exhibited, because he was ' the Lamb of God slain fi-om the beginning of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8 ; he was yesterday as well as to-day, and to-morrow as well as to-day, * yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever,' Heb. xiii. 8 ; he was present to their faith, and present to them in types and sacrifices, and present in God's acceptation of him for them ; therefore, the prophets mount up with the wing of prophecy, and in regard of the certainty of the things to come, they speak as if they were present, as if they had looked on Christ present, ' Behold my servant,' and ' Behold a virgin,' &c.
But that is not all. Another use of this word ' behold,' was to call the people's minds from their miseries, and from other abasing objects that dejected them, and might force despair. Wliy do you dwell upon your unworthincss and sin ? raise up your mind, ' Behold my servant whom I
A DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST. 0
have chosen,' &c. This is an object -worth beholding and admu-ation, especially of a distressed soul that may see in Chiist whatsoever may com- fort it.
A third end of it is to raise the mind from any vulgar, common, base contents. •'■= You look on these things, and are carried away with common trivial objects, as the poor disciples when they came to the temple ; they stood wondering at the stones. 'What wondrous stones ! what goodly build- ing is here! Mark xiii. 1. So shallow-minded men, they see any eai'thly excellencj', they stand gazing. Alas, saith Christ, do you wonder at these things ? So the prophet here I'aiseth up the minds of men to look on an object fit to be looked on, ' Behold my sei-vant,' &c. So that the Holy Ghost would have them from this saving object, Christ, to raise satisfaction to their souls every way. Are you dejected ? here is comfort ; are you sinful ? here is righteousness ; are you led away with present contentments ? here you have honom-s, and pleasures, and all in Christ Jesus. You have a right to common pleasures that others have, and besides them you have interest to others that are everlasting pleasures that shall never fail, so that there is nothing that is dejecting and abasing in man, but there is comfort for it in Christ Jesus ; he is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady ; therefore, ' Behold my servant.'
This word ' behold,' it is a word of wonderment, and, indeed, in Christ there are a world of wonders, everything is wonderful in him. Things new and wonderful, and things rare, and things that are great, that tran- scend our capacity, are wonderful, that stop our understanding that it cannot go through them. Vulgar things, we see through them quickly, but when we see things that stay our understandings, that raise our understand- ings higher, and that are more capacious than our understandings, here is matter of admiration and wonder. Now whatsoever may make wonderment is in Jesus Christ, whose name is Wonderful, as it is in Isa. ix. 7 ; there- fore the prophet saith, ' Behold.'
My servant. — Christ is called a servant, first, in respect of his creation, because being a man, as a creature he was a servant. But that is not all.
He was a ser^^ant in respect of his condition. Servant implies a base and low condition, Philip, ii. 7. Chiist took upon him the foiTU of a servant ; he emptied himself ; he was the lovrest of all servants in con- dition : for none was ever so abased as our glorious Saviour.
And then, it is a name of office, as well as of base condition. There are ordinary servants and extraordinaiy, as great kings have their servants of state. Christ besides his abasement, he was a servant of state, he was an ambassador sent from the great God ; a prophet, a priest, and a king, as we shall see afterwards ; an extraordinary servant, to do a piece of service that all the angels in heaven, and all the men on the earth joined together, could not perform. This great master-piece of service was to bring God and man together again, that were at variance, as it is, 1 Peter iii. 18, ' to bring us to God.' We were sevei'ed and scattered fi-om God.- His office was to gather us together again, to bring us aU to one head again, to bring us to himself, and so to God, to reconcile us, as the Scripture phrase is, Col. i. 20. Now, it being the greatest work and service that ever was, it requu'ed the greatest servant ; for no creature in the world could perform it. All the angels of heaven would have sunk under this service, to have undergone satisfaction to divine justice ; for the angels themselves, when they sinned, they could not recover themselves, but sunk under their own * That is, ' contentments.' — Ed.