I have already referred to the fact that the word rendered son' ought rather to be rendered servant.' It literally means child' or boy,' and appears to have been used familiarly, just in the same fashion as we use the same expression boy,' or its equivalent maid,' as a more gentle designation for a servant. Thus the kindly centurion, when he would bespeak our Lord's care for his menial, calls him his boy'; and our Bible there translates rightly servant.'
Again, the designation is that which is continually employed in the Greek translation of the Old Testament as the equivalent for the well-known prophetic the Servant of Jehovah,' which, as you will phrase remember, is characteristic of the second portion of the prophecies of Isaiah. And consequently we find that, in a quotation of Isaiah's prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew, the very phrase of our text is there employed: Behold My Servant whom I uphold!'
Now, it seems as if this designation of our Lord as God's Servant was very familiar to Peter's thoughts at this stage of the development of Christian doctrine. For we find the name employed twice in this discourse--in the thirteenth verse, the God of our Fathers hath glorified His Servant Jesus,' and again in my text. We also find it twice in the next chapter, where Peter, offering up a prayer amongst his brethren, speaks of Thy Holy Child Jesus,' and prays that signs and wonders may be done through the name' of that Holy Child.' So, then, I think we may fairly take it that, at the time in question, this thought of Jesus as the Servant of the Lord' had come with especial force to the primitive Church. And the fact that the designation never occurs again in the New Testament seems to show that they passed on from it into a deeper perception than even it attests of who and what this Jesus was in relation to God.
But, at all events, we have in our text the Apostle looking back to that dim, mysterious Figure which rises up with shadowy lineaments out of the great prophecy of Isaiah,' and thrilling with awe and wonder, as he sees, bit by bit, in the Face painted on the prophetic canvas, the likeness of the Face into which he had looked for three blessed years, that now began to tell him more than they had done whilst their moments were passing.
The Servant of the Lord'--that means, first of all, that Christ, in all which He does, meekly and obediently executes the Father's will. As He Himself said, I come not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.' But it carries us further than that, to a point about which I would like to say one word now; and that is, the clear recognition that the very centre of Jewish prophecy is the revelation of the personality of the Christ. Now, it seems to me that present tendencies, discussions about the nature and limits of inspiration, investigations which, in many directions, are to be welcomed and are fruitful as to the manner of origin of the books of the Old Testament, and as to their collection into a Canon and a whole--that all this new light has a counterbalancing disadvantage, in that it tends somewhat to obscure in men's minds the great central truth about the revelation of God in Israel--viz. that it was all progressive, and that its goal and end was Jesus Christ. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,' and however much we may have to learn--and I have no doubt that we have a great deal to learn, about the composition, the structure, the authorship, the date of these ancient books--I take leave to say that the unlearned reader, who recognises that they all converge on Jesus Christ, has hold of the clue of the labyrinth, and has come nearer to the marrow of the books than the most learned investigators, who see all manner of things besides in them, and do not see that they that went before cried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!
And so I venture to commend to you, brethren--not as a barrier against any reverent investigation, not as stopping any careful study--this as the central truth concerning the ancient revelation, that it had, for its chief business, to proclaim the coming of the Servant of Jehovah, Jesus the Christ.
