Monday Meditation
February 16, 2015
From the desk of Dr. A.J. Higgins
The Servant of Jehovah
Behold My Servant Whom I uphold … in Whom My soul delighteth
Isaiah 42:1
God calls upon the universe to “Behold My Servant.” There were others who served God. There is a long list of those whom God referred to as “My servant.” There were men such as Moses, Job, David, and others. Yet in each of these, flaws and limitations were made obvious in their service for God.
Little wonder then that God would call the nations to attention and to look upon a Servant Who is unique and different.
Here is a Servant marked by absolute Dependence upon His Master’s Hand. “My Servant Whom I uphold.” The word translated “uphold” in our A.V. can mean to sustain or to hold in affection. Both truths are fitting. But perhaps it is more in keeping with the flow of thought that here was a Servant who lived a life of total dependence upon His Master. Never was there independent action or self will. There were no acts of omission which His service called for. Likewise, there was no act of service which was not done exactly as it should have been done. Everything done; everything done as directed; everything done perfectly; everything done with no collateral damage. In the words of John 5:19, “What things so ever He seeth the Father do … these doeth the Son likewise.”
There was also Devotion to His Master’s House. We are all familiar with the words of the Hebrew servant of Exodus 21 in which he avowed his love for his master and his family. But did ever a servant so love His Master’s House as to offer, not a relatively insensitive ear devoid of many nerve endings, but to give His entire being in service and sacrifice? Disciples could later in their lives call to mind the words of the Psalmist as they meditated on the life of the Lord Jesus Christ: “The zeal of thine house hath consumed Me” (John 2:17). They recognized in retrospect that all that He did was done in the full energy of His devotion to another, to His Master and His House. Never was there a self-seeking action or a self-promoting deed. The only selfless Man Who ever lived was the One with whom they had walked for those three years.
He was marked by bringing Delight to His Master’s Heart. “Mine elect (chosen one) in Whom My soul delighteth.” The infinite heart of God, with its infinite capacity for joy and sorrow, found infinite delight in His Servant. Here was the only One Whose service was delightful enough to fill the heart of God. The searching and penetrating eye of God, the exacting demands of God, and His lofty standards, could find no defect, deficiency, or damage in the service of this Servant. On the contrary, everything He did brought pleasure to His Master’s heart. But beyond what He did bringing pleasure, how He did it and why He did must have ravished the heart of God. His every motive was pure and untainted. Free of all that would compromise its value and virtue, it rose as a sweet fragrance to God; unseen by men, but a treasure to His Master’s heart.
One final thought from these first few verses. There was Diligence in His Master’s Harvest. Matthew will recount a parable spoken by the Lord in which a man sent his two sons into the fields to work in his harvest (Matt 21). One said yes and didn’t go. One said no and after repented. The Lord did neither. He was diligent in doing His Master’s bidding and went into the harvest field to reap worshipers for God.
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