Scripture Reading: Isa. 51:9-11; 52:7-15; 53:1
Ⅰ
We can enjoy Christ as the holy arm of Jehovah, signifying the strength of Jehovah, the dynamic might of Christ in His divinity, for the restoration of Zion—Isa. 51:9-11; 52:8-12; 53:1; cf. Exo. 3:13-14; John 8:58:
A
Because of Christ as Jehovah's arm, the dynamic Redeemer, the ransomed of Jehovah will return and come to Zion with a ringing shout, and eternal joy will be upon their heads; they will lay hold on gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away—Isa. 51:9-11; cf. Luke 18:24-27; 19:1-10; 15:23-24.
B
Christ as the arm of Jehovah is a root out of dry ground, having the power to live in any kind of environment for His magnification, and a grain of wheat falling into the earth to die, having the power to live under any kind of limitation for His propagation—Isa. 53:1-2; John 12:24, 37-43; Phil. 4:13.
C
In Exodus 14:19 the arm of Jehovah was the Angel of Jehovah, supplying, protecting, and guiding God's people out of all of the enemy's tyranny, oppression, captivity, deception, and usurpation—3:2, 6; Isa. 52:8-12; cf. Rev. 18:4; Gen. 19:16-29; Rom. 1:24-27; Exo. 1:11-14; 5:1; Acts 5:31.
D
We need to pray that the Lord would set us permanently as a seal upon His heart of love and indelibly as a seal upon His arm of power—S. S. 8:6:
１
Our love for the Lord is the basic factor, element, and essence of our having the Lord as our power and authority—John 21:15-17.
２
All of our hopes are in His keeping love and holding power; whether we can endure to the end does not depend upon our own endurance but on the Lord's preservation; everything depends on God and His preserving power—cf. Exo. 28:9-12, 21, 29-30; Jude 24-25.
Ⅱ
We can enjoy Christ as the reigning God—Isa. 32:1; 52:7-10; cf. 40:9:
A
When we are under God's throne, God's golden administration is within us, and we enjoy the divine light in the redeeming God for the application of God's judicial redemption with the life-river and the life-tree for the enjoyment of God's organic salvation—Rev. 21:23; 22:1-2; 2 Pet. 1:4; cf. 1 Kings 10:18.
B
According to the scene presented in Ezekiel 1, in our inward being we must have Christ as the Man-God on the throne with a clear sky like awesome crystal, with nothing between us and the Lord; the throne in Ezekiel is in the likeness of a sapphire stone of blue, a heavenly color indicating the heavenly situation, condition, and clearness of God's presence—vv. 22, 26; Exo. 24:10; Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3; Col. 1:18b; Rev. 2:4.
C
We need to receive the abundance of grace and the abundance of the gift of righteousness in order to allow grace to reign in us that we might reign in life over Satan, sin, and death—Rom. 5:17, 21; Rev. 3:21.
D
We need to allow Christ as the life-giving Spirit to rule within us, remaining in the restriction of the divine life in our spirit—cf. 4:2; Matt. 5:3, 8; 8:9.
E
The Lord is enthroned upon and inhabits the praises of His people, the sacrifice of praise—Psa. 22:3; 115:17-18; 119:162, 164; Heb. 13:15.
Ⅲ
We can enjoy Christ as the exalted One, the extolled One who is very high, the One who has the preeminence in all things—Isa. 52:13; Col. 1:18:
A
Christ has been exalted far above all to transmit Himself into the church, which is His Body—Phil. 2:9; Heb. 4:14; 7:26; 8:1; Eph. 1:19-23.
B
From the day that He came out to minister on earth and since His ascension, the Lord Jesus has been acting prudently and wisely on earth, and He has prospered in God's good pleasure—Isa. 52:13a; 53:10b; Matt. 11:19:
１
For the Lord Jesus to prosper in God's good pleasure was for Him to fall into the ground to die to accomplish His judicial redemption and to be resurrected for the reproduction, duplication, and glorification of God in His organic salvation—Isa. 52:13; 53:10; John 12:24; Eph. 1:5; Matt. 3:17; Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 5:10.
２
The Acts is a record of the acts of Christ in His heavenly ministry through the apostles in their spirit, carried out wisely and prosperously for the propagation of the resurrected Christ as the wisdom and power of God— Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:14-15; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; 2:6-10.
C
The exalted Christ will surprise many nations, and kings will shut their mouths, because what He is, is altogether different from what they imagined— Isa. 52:15; Acts 8:26-39; 26:19-29:
１
People are surprised to hear that such a great One as Christ was actually a small man who lived in the despised region of Galilee, in the despised city of Nazareth, in the poor home of a carpenter, and that He was rejected and put on the cross and crucified—Isa. 53:2-10a.
２
Instead of majesty, Jesus had poverty, and instead of an attractive form and a beautiful appearance, He had a visage and a form that were marred (disfigured); when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him—52:14; 53:2; Matt. 13:55-57; cf. 2 Cor. 6:10.
３
Men would have expected that when the Redeemer came, His countenance would surely be desirable to them, just as Moses and David were handsome in appearance, yet He had no comeliness, but appeared worn and old; He was a man of thirty, but people took Him for a man of fifty— Acts 7:20; 1 Sam. 16:12; John 8:57-58.
４
In reality, He was altogether lovely and entirely handsome; but this is invisible to our natural eyes and can only be seen through our spiritual eyes—Isa. 52:15b; S. S. 5:10, 16; 1:15; Eph. 1:17-18; Psa. 27:4; Phil. 3:8-9.