And this humiliation of the Son of God was marked not only through His life and ministry (as we have been noticing somewhat in detail), but in the person that He had previously assumed (being in the esteem of men nothing better than the “carpenter, the son of Mary"), and also very strikingly in His death, which He subsequently accomplished at Jerusalem, in all the circumstances of it, as well as in the fact itself. The demands made upon Him then were just what the fallen creature in his pride would naturally have made. “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him.” (Matt. 27:39.) But these demands, such was the perfectness of His service and subjection, Jesus the Son of God utterly resisted. He had before this met the same temptation immediately from Satan himself, He met it now at the hand of man. Satan had sought to have Him glorify himself (Matt. 4:6); and man, moved by that pride that had been the old transgression in the garden, now sought the same; but He was found faultless, Satan and man came, and had nothing in Him. Thus was He “crucified through weakness.” Everything that the pride of the fallen creature would scorn and reject, and count as weakness, was in Him; but in this was God's delight and honor; for a Son of man thus, in the loss of reputation and life, in the cross and its shame, met all the rebukes and enmity of man's pride and apostasy: “For thy sake have I borne reproach,” might Jesus say to the Father: “the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” And, oh, what a savor of rest with God must all this have given to His blood! The satisfaction of it we know (and this is our comfort) entered so deeply, that “Jehovah said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake.” (Gen. 8:21; Eph. 5:2.)
And thus also can He, a Son of man, hold glory and a kingdom in righteousness. In His person, throughout His life, and by His death, as we thus see, He has given its answer to all the pride and assumption of man; and He can therefore take the honor of dominion which man has forfeited, and hold it again in righteousness. He has loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; His throne shall therefore be forever and ever. He was once crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God now; and the kingdoms of the world shall be His hereafter. And should not we, beloved, be ready to be “weak in him,” accounted of the world vile, if it will, that our present life may be more in the power of the same God, and our coming glory, glory at the hand of our God, in company with the once-nay, the still-despised Jesus?
But not only was He thus the perfect Servant, both of the Father and of sinners, while here among us, even unto death, and all its circumstances, but now in heaven the Son of God is waiting on us; as He said, when leaving His church, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” How with them, but as using His title to all power for them? as it is written also in Mark, “And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.” But not only as working with them thus in their ministry, but He serves in the heavenly temple, continually making intercession there for us, washing still His disciples' feet, till He presents them faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. And even then, when He comes forth from this His sanctuary on high, commissioned to make His enemies His footstool, it will be as the servant of the glory of God that He will come forth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth. (Isa. 43:1-4.) And, more wondrous still, when this is done, and the enemy and the avenger are stilled, He will wait on those who shall then be found His faithful watching saints, for “He will gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” (Luke 12:37.) And at last, in the midst of the throne, He will forever feed them, and lead them unto living fountains of waters. (Rev. 7:17.)
Thus is He the true David, no change of scene or circumstances working any change in His character as the servant of Jehovah's glory and of His people's joy. The perfectness of all this could not have been duly set forth in David, had David hesitated for a moment to retire when the time for the revelation of the glory of His throne and kingdom had come. But, as we have seen, he did not; when David ceased to have service to do, David would be no more-his right hand knew no cunning but this. And so with Jesus, who emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant. He glorified not Himself; “Not my will, but thine be done,” was ever His word. But God has highly exalted Him as Solomon, and given Him a name which is above every name, in the which every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. God has said to Him, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” He has crowned Him with glory and honor now, and will put all things under His feet hereafter. He will bring Him forth the second time into the world, and all the angels of God shall worship Him. On His thigh and on His vesture shall His name be written, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” To Him whom men despised, to this servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, all nations shall call Him blessed. His throne shall be, forever and ever; the oil of gladness shall anoint Him above His fellows; and the God of the whole earth shall He be called.
The King shall be seen in His beauty then; He shall bless the people like Solomon, and sustain them in, all their necessities (2 Chron. 6), on His breast-plate and on His shoulders bearing their names continually. And like as Solomon builded cities, and fenced them with walls and bars, so that “all Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon,” so, says the King by His prophet, “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting-places.” (1 Kings 4:25 2 Chron. 8:4; Isa. 32:18.) The word of knowledge was with Solomon, and largeness of heart, (even as the sand that is on the sea-shore) was given to him, and the spirit of understanding to discern judgment; so upon the greater than Solomon shall the Spirit of the Lord rest, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” (Isa. 11:2-4.) And Zion shall then be in her beauty also. King Solomon made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as the sycamore-trees that are in the vale for abundance; but when the glory of Jehovah rises upon Zion, she shall shine in fullness of beauty-every land shall deck her forth-gold from Sheba, and incense, the treasures of Midian and Kedar, and the glory of Lebanon shall be there. “I will make the place of my feet glorious,” says the King; “for brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver.” (Isa. 60) And upon her citizens shall the blessing be again pronounced, “Happy is the people that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is Jehovah.” (2 Chron. 7; Psa. 144:15.)
Such, and far beyond the range of our thoughts, will be the Kingly glory of our Beloved; but these features of it we gather from the typical times of David and Solomon, upon which we have been now meditating, and which we would now, in closing, thus further and distinctly present.
First, it is to be the kingdom of the Son-it is the Son, and not the servant, who is to establish and inherit it; as we have already seen, the house was built by Solomon, and not by David. It is therefore to have the value of the Son upon it and about it, and this is everything to us; for this is the character of its stability and joy. Its stability, because it is not to be committed to the fallibility and weakness of a servant, as we, read, “The servant abideth not in the house forever;” but it is to be set in the strength of the Son, and shall therefore abide forever, for “the Son abideth ever.” This kingdom cannot therefore be moved: “the earth and the inhabitants thereof are dissolved,” says Jesus the King, “I bear up the pillars thereof;” and in token of this stability, the pillars of Solomon's house were called Jachin and Boaz. And we have spoken of its joy, because the full and unspeakable delight of the Father in the Son shall rest on the kingdom that is His; and in token of this joy, the Lord said of the house that Solomon had finished, “Mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.” And what must the repose of the creation be when thus dwelling in the light of the Father's favor—when the complacency which He has in the Son of His love-is thus beaming and resting on everything! As the precious ointment on the head went down to the skirts of the garments, and the light that from between the cherubim gladdened the high priest on his entrance into the holy place, fell with equal luster on the names of the twelve tribes which he bore upon his breastplate then.
But, secondly, throughout the kingdom there shall be a constant remembrance of “the man of sorrows;” as everything in the temple, the stones that fitly framed it together, the gold and the silver, the brass and the iron, all spake increasingly of David, for David in his trouble had prepared them all. (1 Chron. 2:14.) Psa. 132 is Solomon's pleading with Jehovah to arise into the rest which he had prepared for Him, and to fill it with glory and blessing, on the ground of his father's afflictions. “Lord, remember. David and all his afflictions,” says he; and upon this ground he prays,” Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength; let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy; for thy servant David's sake, turn not away the face of thine Anointed.” The afflictions of David were thus known amidst the glories of Solomon, and so the Lamb that was slain shall be in the midst of the throne. As our fallen earth bears upon it everywhere the trail of the serpent, so will the kingdom wear the traces of the blood of the Lamb, The tabernacle and all vessels of ministry were sprinkled with blood; and so the heaven and earth, the true tabernacle, or place of meeting, with all things that are therein, shall have the memorials of the crucified Jesus about them; for “blessing, and honor, and glory, and power unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb,” shall be heard from the heaven, and the earth, and the sea together. (Rev. 5:12, 13.)
And, lastly, the kingdom shall be the place of thanksgiving and praise, and God, even our own God, shall accept this worship, and rest in it as His honor forever. As when the temple was finished, as we have already noticed, and the ark was in its place under the wings of the cherubim, and everything was in due order, “it came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God" (2 Chron. 5:13, 14), so in the kingdom shall all be displaced to make room for the glory, all be silenced but the ceaseless unwearying song of joy and praise. Praise is now too much checked and hushed by our own thoughts upon God and His ways, faith not being at all times ready to interpret His works aright. But then the whole scene will awaken praise, for nothing will be seen, nothing heard, that can of itself hinder praise; our own thoughts will be forever silenced, and God, in the love of the Son, will be seen and heard all around, and everything shall therefore be then full of praise. And indeed this our faith should ever now anticipate; let faith displace our own thoughts, and we shall then, even now, be giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, and thus in spirit begin the praise in the joy of the kingdom. For praise from the heavens, and praise from the earth; praise by the angels in their hosts, and praise by the kings of the earth and all people; praise from the heaven of heavens, and praise from the mountains and hills, beasts and all cattle, shall gladden and surround Him whose name alone is excellent, and His saints who love Him, and His people who serve Him, shall be satisfied forever and ever.
(Concluded front page 321.)