THE PERFECT SERVANT

“THE PERFECT SERVANT”

Exodus 21:  1-10: Isaiah 53:

Taught by:  Carolyn Sissom

Sunday, April 13, 2008

www.eastgateminsitries.com

Exodus 21: 1-6 is a principle of becoming a Bondservant (Greek word is Doulos).  A voluntary LOVE-SLAVE UNTO DEATH.  (Rev. 12:11) “And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the Word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”  These verses provide a marvelous picture of JESUS CHRIST and those Overcomers who are being conformed to His image and likeness.

(Verse 2)  The servant shall serve for six years and go out free in the seventh.  This is known today as the minister’s sabbatical.  The Lord will often use His ministries in seven-year cycles until they are mature enough to not be burned out.

The servant in these verses can be viewed from two perspectives:  either Jesus the Servant or the ministries (Eph. 4:11) as servants. 

JESUS THE SERVANT:                                    THE MINISTRIES AS SERVANTS:

Master -      The Father (John 8:29)                    MASTER – The Lord Jesus

Wife -           His Bride   (Rev. 21:9)                    Wife – The Church

Children -     His Sons (Heb. 2:13)                       Children – The Offspring

(Verse 6) – The boring of the ear was a symbol of obedience and perpetual servitude.  The servant would then forever carry about in his body the marks of this servitude, even  as the Lord Jesus forever wears the marks of the Cross (John 20:27: Thus said He to Thomas, reach here your finger, and behold My hands; and reach here your hand, and trust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing..: (Gal. 6:17) “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

May our ear be joined to the door? (Jn. 10:7) Yoked and nailed to the entrance.

There are many passages of Scripture that described Jesus, the Perfect Servant.  Isaiah 41, 48-53; Phil. 2: 1-11, Jn. 13: 1-20; Heb. 10:9; Lk. 2:49; Jn. 6:38; Rom. 15:3; Lk. 22:27)

It is interesting to note that the word SERVANT is singular in the book of Isaiah prior to chapter 53 (His death, burial and resurrection).  Servant becomes and army of servants beginning with Isa. 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the SERVANTS of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, says the Lord.”

ISAIAH 53 – THE SUFFERING SERVANT

This chapter is one of the most beloved and important chapters in the whole bible.  It is the most vivid and detailed picture of Jesus Christ in death, burial and resurrection found in the Scriptures.  We would all do well to commit it to memory.  I saw a quote on the internet today.  “May I read the Word of God  until I become like the Word. 

“In Isaiah 49, the speaker, is the unnamed Servant of the Lord, depicted in the role of a prophet in this Servant poem, no royal traits are referred to.  He is a mediator of the Word of God (4), who is humiliated by men (6) but wholly undeterred.  The outstanding point of contrast with other prophets, name Jeremiah, is his willing assent to suffering and shame, a theme amplified in chapter 53.  His confidence in his final vindication is unshakeable. (9)

In Isaiah 52, the speaker is God Himself.  It is impossible for any Christian to read this passage without immediately thinking of its fulfillment in Christ, many centuries later.   There is the contrast between deep suffering and subsequent triumph.  There is a natural reaction to such sufferings to turn away from the sufferer, but more than that it was very common place of ancient Israel to despise and reject people in deep suffering.”  (David F. Payne)  Shallow people will still reject those who are in deep suffering.

Isaiah 53 – in the previous passages, the Servant has been described as the ideal prophet or Teacher who is conscious of a world-wide mission in the service of God, which He performs amid discouragement and persecution with inflexible purpose and the unfaltering assurance of ultimate success. The most striking feature of this passage is the unparalleled sufferings of the Servant, and the effect they produce upon the minds of His contemporaries. 

1. The prophet is aware that his message will largely fall on unbelieving ears.
2. The Suffering Servant would grow up under the fostering care of Jehovah like a fresh sprout from the stump of a felled tree and as a root that draws nourishment from a hidden source within.
3. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, (Hebrew) and one from whom men held themselves aloof.”
4. “Sure our diseases He did bear, and our pains he carried,” Those who saw Jesus suffer imagined that He was made to suffer by God for His own sins.
5. He suffered the chastisement which brought us peace by putting an end to the enmity between sinful men and a Holy God.
6. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin”
7. He remained silent when He could have vindicated Himself, and that under extreme provocation.
8. He was taken away “by a violence which cloaked itself under the formalities of a legal process.”
9. “They assigned Him His grave with the thieves that were crucified with Him, yet he was buried “with a rich one after His death,”
10. “Yet it pleased the Lord to crush him.”  In that God saw with satisfaction the self-sacrifice of His Son and His accomplishment of redemption.
11. Because of the travail of His soul, He shall see the happy results of His sufferings, namely the formation of the church as His satisfying reward.  (Heb. 12: 1-2)
12. ‘I will place Him among the great conquering ones of the earth,” and, like the great of the earth, He, too, receives His spoil as a reward for his vicarious sufferings.

Wisdom would exalt Him.  But His success and triumph would correspond with the depth of his humiliation and suffering.  Men would be put to silence with sudden astonishment at His defacement.  His humanity (earthly image) gave way to Deity (heavenly image). (Rom 1:23)  Many would be shocked, and many would be sprinkled.  Many would be made dumb at the appearance of His sufferings and many would silence themselves in veneration of the Servant of all who became the Lord of All!  His incarnation and redemption brought truths to light which men had never considered.  Such love had never been demonstrated (Jn. 3;16).  The healing and cleansing of the nations will be affected through a people who have had their image changed.  Their carnal mind laid down will be the key to their becoming His medicine and cure.  Those who suffer with Him will reign and be glorified with Him. 

Let the church wake up so that God can shake up her complacency (52:2).  Only then can we sit down with Him in the Throne and a place of righteous judgment!  Because of these abuses, many have given up too easily.  Let us have a fresh vision of Him and the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil 3).  In Isaiah 52:13 we saw the height to which the Servant of Jehovah is called.  In 52:14 and 53: 1-3, we see the depth to which He has gone to affect the reality of His exaltation.  This is an unbelievable message, but some have said “amen” and have entered this New Covenant.  Christ (the Arm) in us is becoming Christ on us!  Jesus grew up in the Presence of the Father, and the Christ who indwells His people is maturing as well (Gal. 4:19)

Phil 2: 1-10:  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill you my joy, that you be likeminded, having the same love being of one accord, of one mind, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.”

THE CIVIL LAW

(Exodus 21:7-23:33)

The laws of civil society should be based on God’s moral laws.  These laws include the rights of persons such as slaves, parents, and pregnant women.  There are also rights of property (22) and personal integrity. (23)

21: 1-36

The Rights of Persons:

1. The regulations of slavery
2.  Wrongs done to a fellowman.
3. Injuries resulting from carelessness or neglect

The Rights of Property:

1. Laws dealing with theft.
2. Laws dealing with dishonesty.

The Requirements of Personal Integrity:

1. Laws of proper conduct.
2. The administration of common justice
3. The observance of the feastal seasons.

Te Promise of God:

1        The assurance of the Divine Presence with Israel

2        A blessed future was predicted based upon obedience.

After the Ten Commandments, this was the first installment of the Laws for the Hebrew nation.  They were written in a Book, the Book of the Covenant, and sealed with blood. (Ex. 24: 4-8)

These various laws were about kidnapping, death for murder, cursing parents, eye for eye, compensation, seduction, stealing, damage to crops, restitution, sorcery, cohabitation with an animal, idolatry, kindness to widows and orphans, lending, pledges, not cursing a ruler, firstfuits and firstborn, false reports, mobs, consideration for animals, justice, bribes, strangers, Sabbath, sabbatical year, the Passover, Feast of Harvest, Feast of Ingathering , a kid not to be boiled in its mother’s milk, no covenant with the Canaanites, obedience to be rewarded by the Lord.

God promised that He would send the Hornet and drive out the enemy, “By Little and Little”.

23:  20-33:  “Behold I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.  Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgress ions for MY NAME IS IN HIM.  But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries.  For my angel shall go be you and bring you in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.  You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images,  And you shall serve the Lord your god and he shall bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in your land; the number of your days I will fulfill.  I will send my fear before you and will destroy all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs unto you.  And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivirte, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will drive them out from before you in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against you.  By little and little I will drive them out from before you, until you be increased, and inherit the land.  And I will set your bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and you shall drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them, or with their gods.  They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for is you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto you.”

Next Week the Mount of Transfiguration in the Old Testament and we will begin The Tabernacle of Moses.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries, Inc.

We stream our messages weekly, www.eastgateminsitries.com

Scripture is from King James Verse with text and quotes from F.F. Bruce Bible commentary and Principles of Present Truth by:  Kelly Varner.