acles and difficulties in the exercise of His calling.
According to chap. xlix. 4, He will labour in vain among the great mass
of the covenant-people, [Pg 248] and spend his strength for nought and
vanity. In ver. 7, it is expressly intimated that severe sufferings
shall be inflicted upon Him by the people. That which was there alluded
to, is here _carried out and expanded_. But the suffering of the
Servant of God is here described from that aspect only which is common
to Christ with His members. It is first in chap. liii. that its
vicarious power is pointed out. The Servant of God comes here before us
in His deepest humiliation. Even in the description of His vocation in
ver. 4, the most unassuming aspect, the prophetic office only, is
brought forward. It is only quite at the close that a gentle intimation
is given of the glory concealed behind the lowliness: He there appears
as the judge of those who have rejected Him.

In the Messianic explanation of this Section, the Lord himself has gone
before His Church. We read in Luke xviii. 31, 32, [Greek: paralabon de
tous dodeka eipe pros autous. idou anabainomen eis hIerosoluma kai
telesthesetai panta ta gegrammena dia ton propheton to huio tou
anthropou. paradothesetai gar tois ethnesi kai empaichthesetai kai
hubristhesetai kai emptusthesetai kai mastigosantes apoktenousin
auton.] There cannot be any doubt that the Lord here distinctly refers
to ver. 6 of the prophecy under consideration. There is, at all events,
no other passage in the whole of the Old Testament, except that before
us, in which there is any mention made of being spat upon. But in other
respects, too, the reference is visible: "I gave my back to the smiters
( [Greek: mastigosantes], LXX. [Greek: eis mastigas]), and my cheeks to
those plucking ( [Greek: empaichthesetai]--the plucking of the beard,
an act of degrading wantonness), my face I hid not from shame ( [Greek:
hubristhesetai]) and spitting." _Bengel_ draws attention to the fact of
how highly Christ, in the passage quoted, placed the prophecy of the
Old Testament: "Jesus most highly valued that which was written. The
word of God which is contained in Scripture is the rule for all which
is to happen, even for that which is to happen in eternal life." If, in
respect of the high estimation of prophecy, our age were to follow in
the steps of Jesus, it would also most readily agree with Him as
regards the subject of the prophecy before us. This alone is th