To make a public example (deyparicas). The word is kindred to detxvups, to exhibit, display, pornt out. Here, there- fore, to expose Mary to public shame (Wye., publish her; Tyn., defame her). The word occurs in Coloss. ii. 15, of the victo- rious Saviour displaying the vanquished powers of evil as a general displays his trophies or captives in a triumphal proces- sion. “ He made a show of them openly.” A compound of the same word (srapadevyparitw) appears in Heb. vi. 6,“ They erucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
21. Shalt call. Thus committing the office of a father to Joseph. The naming of the unborn Messiah would accord with popular notions. The Rabbis had a saying concerning the six
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whose names were given before their birth: “Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Solomon, Josiah, and the name of the Messiah, whom may the Holy One, blessed be His name, bring quickly in our days.”
Jesus (Incovv). The Greek form of a Hebrew name, which had been borne by two illustrious individuals in former periods of the Jewish history—Joshua, the successor of Moses, and Jeshua, the high-priest, who with Zerubbabel took so active a part in the re-establishment of the civil and religious polity of the Jews on their return from Babylon. Its original and full form is Jehoshua, becoming by contraction Joshua or Jeshua. Joshua, the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, was originally named LHoshea (saving), which was altered by Moses into Sehoshua (Jehovah (our) Salvation) (Num. xiii. 6). The mean- ing of the name, therefore, finds expression in the title Saviour, applied to our Lord (Luke i. 47; ii. 11; John iy. 42).
Joshua, the son of Nun, is a type of Christ in his office of captain and deliverer of his people, in the military aspect of his saving work (Apoe. xix. 11-16). As God’s revelation to Moses was in the character of a law-giver, his revelation to Joshua was in that of the Lord of Hosts (Josh. v. 13, 14). Under Joshua the enemies of Israel were conquered, and the people established in the Promised Land. So Jesus leads his people in the fight with sin and temptation. He is the leader of the faith which overcomes the world (Heb. xii. 2). Follow- ing him, we enter into rest.
The priestly office of Jesus is foreshadowed in the high-priest Jeshua, who appears in the vision of Zechariah (ch. iii; compare Ezra ii. 2) in court before God, under. accusation of Satan, and clad in filthy garments. Jeshua stands not only for himself, but as the representative of sinning and suffering Israel. Satan is defeated. The Lord rebukes him, and declares that he will redeem and restore this erring people; and in token thereof he commands that the accused priest be clad in clean robes and crowned with the priestly mitre.
Thus in this priestly Jeshua we have a type of our “ Great High-Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and
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in all points tempted and tried like as we are;” confronting Satan in the wilderness ; trying conclusions with him upon the victims of his malice—the sick, the sinful, and the demon-ridden. His royal robes are left behind. He counts not “ equality with God a thing to be grasped at,” but “empties himself,” taking the “form of a servant,” humbling himself and becoming “ obedient even unto death ” (Philip. ii. 6,7, Rev.). He assumes the stained garments of our humanity. He who “knew no sin” is “made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. v. 21). He is at once priest and victim. He pleads for sinful man before God’s throne. He will redeem him. He will rebuke the malice and cast down the power of Satan. He will behold him “as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke x. 18). He will raise and save and purify men of weak natures, rebellious wills, and furious pas- sions—cowardly braggarts and deniers like Peter, persecutors like Saul of Tarsus, charred brands—and make them witnesses of his grace and preachers of his love and power. His king- dom shall be a kingdom of priests, and the song of his redeemed church shall be, “ unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his own blood, and made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Apoc. i. 5, 6, in Rey.).