In the
Form of a Slave
Php
2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant (KJV)
But
Himself He made void a form of a slave taking Philippians 2:7 (Translated from
Greek)
Php 2:7
But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave… (LITV)
William H.
Grotheer
January,
1974
CHAPTER 2
IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT -- The study of the incarnation in the Old Testament is the
study of the humiliation of Christ as revealed in prophecy, in symbol, and in
types.
From times
eternal a compact of peace had been devised between the Father and the Son
should sin enter the universe, that "the man whose name is the
Branch" would "grow up out of His place" 1 as
the initial act of the redeeming process.
Zec
6:12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying,
Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place,
and he shall build the temple of the LORD
When sin
blighted the Edenic home, this compact was ,activated, and the Son of God
announced to the angelic hosts that - He would leave all His glory
in Heaven, appear on earth as a man, humble Himself as a man, become acquainted
by His own experience with the various temptations with which man would be
beset, that He might know how to succor those who should be tempted. 2
In the
dialogue that followed between Christ and the angels, it was clearly enunciated
that when the hour should arrive for His revelation in humanity, He
"should take man's fallen nature, and His strength would not be even equal
with theirs." 3
IN
EDEN-- Our first parents received their first intimation of the Divine
Plan for their restoration as they stood before the Creator hearing the
sentence pronounced upon the enemy who had led them into sin. To the serpent,
God said: I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel. 4
Gen
3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The hope
of victory was prophesied to be the seed of the woman. However, it was not to
be the seed of Eve as she stood innocent in Eden - there was no need of a
Saviour then - but it was to be the seed of Eve who had just been corrupted by
sin. That Seed who would accept the humanity of the fallen mother
p 7
-- of all living, after four thousand years of continued transgression,
wou1d bruise the serpent's head.
The
contrast between the human inheritance as it might have been, and what it was
after sin entered this world is clearly set forth in the genealogical record of
Adam. It states that "in the day that God created man, in the likeness of
God made he him." But after Adam had sinned, the record reads,
"Adam...begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his
name Seth." 5
Gen
5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Gen
5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their
name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Gen
5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his
own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth
The
only humanity that could be formed in Eve was the fallen, degraded nature that
was hers as a result of sin. So "while Adam was created sinless, in the
likeness of God, Seth, like Cain, inherited the fallen nature of his
parents." 6 The first gospel promise indicated that to
this level "the Seed of the woman" would come in meeting the law of
equivalence. How expressive are these words:
What love! What amazing condescension! The
King of glory proposed to humble Himself to fallen humanity! He would place His
feet in Adam's steps. He would take man's fallen nature and engage to cope with
the strong foe who triumphed over Adam. He would overcome Satan, and in thus
doing He would open the way for the redemption of those who would believe on
Him from the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall. 7
A
REVELATION TO JACOB -- A young man fleeing from his home to escape
the wrath of his infuriated brother stopped for a night of rest. During the
night he dreamed of a ladder "set up on the earth," the top of which
"reached to heaven." On this ladder he beheld angels of God
"ascending and descending." 8
Gen
28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the
top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and
descending on it.
From
the Lord who stood at the top of the ladder, Jacob received the promise which
had been given to Abram and Isaac that "in thy seed shall all the families
of earth be blessed." 9
Gen
28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God
of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
Gen
28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south:
and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.
Awakened
and startled he declared - "How dreadful is this place! this is none
p 8
-- other but the house of God, and this is the gate of
heaven." 10
Gen
28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is
none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Centuries
later, Jesus referred to Himself as this mystic ladder. He declared it to be He
as "the Son of man" 11
Joh
1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the
Son of man.
- the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Becoming a part of humanity, meeting the law of equivalence, He set up on this
earth the gate of heaven, the house of God. The results of that life,
symbolized by the ladder, would reach to heaven. The communication broken by
sin would again be restored to man; for in and through Christ, God would again
commune with fallen mankind.
Any
attempt to sever the ladder from its base on earth, or to substitute other
rungs than those established by Christ Himself, closes the gate of heaven and
substitutes for the true house of God, a false temple edifice. The one and only
true gate to heaven is the incarnate Lord. He is the way, the truth, and the
life, and by Him only can man find access to the Father. 12
Joh
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Several
centuries before this experience in the life of Jacob, a group of people on a
plain in the land of Shinar set up a base on earth by which they planned to
reach heaven. They named it - Bab-el , the gate of God, or the gate to
heaven. 13
Gen
11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Gen
11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they
found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Gen
11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn
them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for
morter.
Gen
11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top
may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad
upon the face of the whole earth.
Gen
11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the
children of men builded.
Gen
11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one
language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from
them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen
11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they
may not understand one another's speech.
Gen
11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all
the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen
11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there
confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter
them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
The
Babylonian concept of the God of heaven is echoed in the statement of their
wise men to Nebuchadnezzar that He is a God, "whose dwelling is not with
flesh." 14
Dan
2:11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none
other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not
with flesh.
If this be
true, then man must build the base on earth to reach up to where God might
be contacted. This basic difference of concept between the message of Babylon,
which results in confusion, and the message of the "mystic ladder" in
Jacob's dream has echoed from that day to this, whether it was literal or
spiritual Babylon projecting their human doubts ind disbelief.
The
prophetic message of the Old Testament was that God would indeed dwell with
man. He would become the seed of-Jacob, and He would set up the gate
p 9
-- to heaven "on the earth." The clear message to Jacob in that
night of loneliness is amplified in the continued revelation of God in the
unfolding of the Bible record.
IN THE
TIMES OF MOSES -- It has been long recognized that the deliverance of the
children of Israel from Egypt is a symbol of the deliverance from the bondage
of sin. When the hour came for God to initiate the deliverance from Egypt, He
appeared to Moses in a burning bush in the region of Horeb on the backside of
the desert. 15
Exo
3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of
Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Exo
3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and
the bush was not consumed.
Exo
3:3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why
the bush is not burnt.
Exo
3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am
I.
Exo
3:5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moses was attracted by the unusual sight of a
desert shrub burning with fire, yet not consumed. As he turned aside to see
this phenomenon, God spoke to him, telling him that He had seen the bondage,
affliction, and sorrow of the children of Israel, and that He now purposed
"to come down to deliver them." 16
Exo
3:8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites.
God did
not propose to work out their deliverance from where He was; but He would
come to where they were to bring them freedom. When Moses asked for
His name, God declared, "I AM THAT I AM." Gesenius translates this
name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as "I shall be what I
am." 17
Exo
3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
The same
as He revealed Himself in the burning bush, so He would be when He would come
down to deliver from the bondage of sin, and so He would ever be.
The
burning bush prefigured the incarnation. The scrubby, thorny desert shrub
fitly represented humanity. Yet filled with the glory of God, it was not
consumed. In Jesus, divinity and humanity were to hold their place, neither
to be assimilated by the other. This divinely planned combination is
stated in clarity by the Spirit of Prophecy as follows:
In Christ, divinity and humanity were combined.
Divinity was not degraded to humanity; divinity held its place, but humanity by
being united to divinity withstood the fiercest test of temptation
p 10
-- in the wilderness.18
The
question is explained further from a different angle:
Was the human nature of the Son of
Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No; the two natures were
mysteriously blended in one person, the' man Christ Jesus.19
Later when
God desired to dwell with the children of Israel in their wilderness
wanderings, this same divine objective was revealed. He said to Moses,
"Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among
them." 20
Exo
25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
The
wilderness tabernacle was covered with "rams' skins dyed red, and a
covering of sealskins above," 21
Exo
26:14 And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed
red, and a covering of sealskins above. (RV)
-
hardly a thing of beauty. But the interior was glorious golden plated furniture
and wall boards; curtains with angelic symbolism woven in gold; and in the Most
Holy Place, the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat of pure gold and the
golden cherubim between which appeared the Shekinah glory. All was to reveal
God's "purpose for the human soul." 22 This,
the Pattern-man was to exemplify. John summarized this concept in these words:
And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled
among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
Father), full of grace and truth. 23
Joh
1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and
truth. (RV)
The
supreme confrontation of the children of Israel with their God was at Sinai.
Here God spoke, His voice not veiled in a human faculty. Israel trembled with
fear. They requested Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear.: but
let not God speak with us, lest we die." 24
Exo
20:19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but
let not God speak with us, lest we die.
Referring to this incident, Moses in his
rehearsal before the children of Israel of God's dealings with them in the
wilderness prophetically described the nature of the coming Voice of God:
And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken
that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words into his mouth; and he shall
speak unto them all that I command him. 25
Deu
18:17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they
have spoken.
Deu
18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that
I shall command him.
p 11
- The Coming One would be from among them, one like unto Moses. God would
seek to instruct them by One who would meet the Law of Equivalence. If then
they did not hear, He could in justice mete out sentence. This is plainly
stated: And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I
will require it of him. 26
Deu
18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my
words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
The
Israelites in their wilderness wanderings had still another representation of
the nature of the incarnation. As they neared the end of their wanderings in
the Sinai peninsula, the "soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the way", and they murmured against God and against Moses because of
the manna and the lack of water. The Lord then permitted the fiery serpents of
the desert to come among them, and "much people
died." 27
Num
21:4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to
compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way.
Num
21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have
ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread,
neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Num
21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the
people; and much people of Israel died.
When
in repentance, they recognized their sin, the Lord instructed Moses to erect a
pole and place on it a serpent of brass, that all who would look might recover
from the bites of the poisonous reptiles.
Num
21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we
have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he
take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
Num
21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it
upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he
looketh upon it, shall live.
Num
21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it
came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived.
This
representation more than any other in the symbolism of the Old Testament
specified the extent to which Christ would go to meet the Law of Equivalence.
He who knew no sin would become sin itself, not merely to meet the penalty of
transgression, thus accepting the wrath of God against the recorded sins of the
world; but also He would clothe His Divine Person with the fallen human nature
of man, that He might meet in that nature the forces which tempt man to sin. It
is well stated: As the image made in the
likeness of the destroying serpents was lifted up for their healing, so One
made "in the likeness of sinful flesh" was to be their
Redeemer. 28 And again: What a strange symbol of Christ
was that likeness of the serpents
p 12
-- which stung them. This symbol was lifted on a pole, and they
were to look to it, and be healed. So Jesus was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He came as the sin bearer... 29
IN THE
TIME OF THE JUDGES -- The book of Ruth pictures community life in Israel
during the time of the Judges. The particular experience recorded symbolizes
the close relationship Christ would sustain to the sons of men in working out
their redemption. The Mosaic law required that if a property had been sold
because of poverty or indebtedness, or if a man had sold himself into bondage
to secure a debt, he could be redeemed, or the property repossessed by one who
was "nigh of kin unto him." 30
Lev
25:24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption
for the land.
Lev
25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his
possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that
which his brother sold.
Lev
25:48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren
may redeem him:
Lev
25:49 Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that
is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may
redeem himself.
The
inheritance of Elimelech had been lost through the years of their sojourn in
the land of Moab. But Boaz, a near kinsman , arranged to redeem that which had
been lost, and by marriage to Ruth re-establish the title to the
inheritance.
Man
through sin had lost not only his inheritance, but was himself in a bondage he
could not break. Because of this -- The work of
redeeming us and our inheritance, lost through sin, fell upon Him who is
"near of kin" unto us. It was to redeem us that He became our
kinsman. Closer than father, mother, brother, friend, or lover, is the Lord our
Saviour. 31
During
this period of Israel's history there were introduced into the human ancestral
line of Christ two women not of the tribes of Israel. Rahab, the harlot of
Jericho, became the wife of Salmon and the mother of Boaz, who in turn married
Ruth, the Moabitess. 32
Rth
4:21 And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed
Mat
1:5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and
Obed begat Jesse
Christ was
not only to be the Saviour of a chosen people, but He was verily to be the Son
of man.
IN THE
BOOK OF ISAIAH -- As would be expected, Isaiah in setting forth the gospel
in prophecy
p 13
-- touched upon aspects of the incarnation previously revealed, and noted
further details regarding the humanity the Saviour would assume as the Son of
man. He first presented the incarnation as a "sign" from the Lord.
He penned:
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil
and choose the good. 33
Isa
7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa
7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil,
and choose the good.
There can
be no question but that the translators of the King James Version were
influenced in their translation of this text by Matthew's quotes, for the
word,'almah, rendered "virgin" is a Hebrew word meaning simply a
young woman of marriageable age. The Hebrew word bethula, does mean
virgin, and is used by Isaiah in five other places, so the conclusion is
inescapable that if he had wished to denote the concept of a virgin in this
Messianic reference, he would have used that word instead
of 'almah. 34 The emphasis is that a woman would bring
forth a son, and that that Son would be "God with us." It is
this concept which Paul grasped when he wrote, "God sent for His Son,
made of a woman." 35
Gal
4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law,
Matthew in
his quotes interpreted it in the light of the event - the woman was a virgin -
but does not seek to lessen Isaiah's emphasis, for Matthew explains the meaning
of Immanuel - "God with us." 36
Mat
1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with
us.
Isaiah
would have us understand that this Child - the seed of the woman - would meet
life's problems in common with every other child of humanity. He would need to
choose the good, and refuse the evil. It would be God with us, at our level,
setting an example in a way that we could understand. The Saviour would not be
insulated from the forces that seek the perversion of man, but He would be a
free moral agent to choose and to decide for Himself in His human
environment. 37
Not only
does Isaiah recognize the nature of the humanity of the coming
p 14
-- One, but stipulated that the One coming would be the embodiment of the
character (name) of the "Mighty God and Everlasting
Father." 38
Isa
9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
This Son,
the Divine One "is given us"; but He comes into humanity as a child -
"Unto us a child is born." This child under the Messianic symbol of
the Branch is declared to "grow out" of the roots of Jesse.
39
Isa
11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots
The
incarnation would give to Christ an ancestral inheritance in humanity like all
of the sons of men receive. As it is stated:
Like every child of Adam He accepted the
results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is
shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to
share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless
life. 40
Isaiah's
great prophecy of the humiliation and suffering of the Lord's servant for sin
in the fifty-third chapter is introduced by a statement regarding Christ's
humanity. He wrote that the Suffering Servant would "grow up before him as
a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground." 41
Isa
53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out
of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him.
As a
tender plant grows from one stage to another until it reaches maturity, so
Jesus would develop from childhood to manhood in harmony with the laws of human
growth - mentally, physically, and spiritually. But the "root out of a dry
ground" presents another symbolism. There is little beauty in such a root,
and so Isaiah noted - "and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that
we should desire him." Commenting on these very verses, the servant of the
Lord has written: Think of Christ's
humiliation. He took upon Himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and
defiled by sin. He took our sorrows, bearing our grief and shame. He endured
all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He united humanity with divinity: a
divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh. 42
IN
CONCLUSION-- In prophecy, in symbolism, and in type, it was foretold that
the One who was to come would accept man's fallen nature - meeting the Law
of Equivalence.
p 15
-- This Seed of the woman - who would be near of kin, like unto His
brethren - would completely bruise the serpent's head. The Sin-bearer, becoming
sin itself, would be lifted up so that those who would see Him in His true
character might have life. He would set up on the earth, a "ladder"
which would reach to heaven. Through His incarnate Self, a door of access would
be opened for the sons of men to the throne of the Eternal.
1. Zechariah
6:12
2. Ellen
G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy,
Vol. I, p. 46
3. 1bid.
4. Genesis
3:15
5. Genesis
5:1, 3
6. Ellen
G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets,
p. 80
7. Ellen
G. White, "Redemption - No. 1", Review & Herald, Feb. 24, 1874
8. Genesis
28:12
9. Genesis
28:14
10. Genesis
28:17
11. John
1:51
12. John
14:6
13. See
Genesis 11:1-9
14. Daniel
2:11
15. Exodus
3:1-5
16. Exodus
3:8
17. William
Gesenius, A Hebrew and English
Lexicon of the Old Testament trans., Edward Robinson, 9th Edition,
p. 384
18. Ellen
G. White, Selected messages,
bk. 1, p. 408
19. Ellen
G. White, Letter 280, 1904 (5BC:1113)
20. Exodus
25:8
21. Exodus
26:14 ARV
22. Ellen
G. White, Education, p. 36
23. John
1:14 ARV footnote
24. Exodus
20:19
25. Deuteronany
18:17-18
26. Deuteronomy
18:19
27.
Numbers 21:4, 6
28. Ellen
G. White, The Desire of Ages,
p. 175
29. Ellen
G. White, Letter 264, 1903
30.
Leviticus 25:24-25, 48-49
31. Ellen
G. White, The Desire of Ages,
p. 327
32. Ruth
4:21, Matthew 1:5
33. Isaiah
7:14-15
34. See Problems in Bible Translation, pp.
152-157, sec., "The Meaning of 'Almah"
p 16
--
35. Galatians
4:4
36. Matthew
1:23
37. Ellen
G. White, Ms. 29, 1899 "He [Christ] was a free agent, placed on probation,
as was Adam, and as is man."
38. Isaiah
9:6
39. Isaiah
11:1
40.Ellen
G. White, The Desire of Ages,
p. 48
41. Isaiah
53:2
42. Ellen
G. White, Youth's Instructor.
December 20, 1900 (4BC:1147)
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