One With Our Lord as Witnesses
The third word from the Old Testament quoted in the second chapter of Hebrews which attests the humanity of our Lord is this: “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me.” These words from Isaiah 8:18 were originally from the lips of Isaiah, who said: “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given are for signs and for wonders in Israel for Jehovah of hosts.” Dr. W. J. Erdman once remarked that when Isaiah’s two sons walked along the streets of Jerusalem they were living sermons for the children of Israel to read. The name of one was “Mahershalal-hash-baz,” and whenever an Israelite looked upon this son he heard God saying to him “the spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth.” If he believed God he knew that this was a prophecy of the terrific judgment of God that was to fall on a sinning nation. Isaiah’s other son was “Shear-jashub,” or “the remnant shall return,” and the discerning Israelite who could read this sermon aright saw in it the glad hope of God’s grace in the day of judgment saving a remnant of those who put their trust in him. The name of the father of these two sons, “Isaiah,” means “the salvation of Jehovah.”
Evidently the thought is that our Lord and we, his brethren, are still for signs and wonders in setting forth the salvation of Jehovah in its two phases, of terrific judgment that is to come upon a disobedient world and the glad message of salvation to the remnant who shall believe.
The second quotation from the Old Testament used in the second chapter of Hebrews to prove our Lord’s true humanity is in these remarkable words: “I will put my trust in him.” How can this quotation have any bearing on the fact that he is our brother and that he lived down here as a man?
The Heart-Throbs of Our Human Lord
The quotation is from the second verse of Psalm eighteen: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust.” These originally are “the words of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” But, as a noted Bible teacher has pointed out, the Holy Spirit put into the mouth of David words that went infinitely beyond his own experience, words that could only be fulfilled in their true meaning when the greater Son of David came and met the forces of evil that were faintly foreshadowed by the enemies David met.
Read through the eighteenth Psalm as the words of the Lord Jesus. It is an inspired description of the awful conflict of the powers of darkness against the Son of man, when he tasted death for every man. Have you ever wondered why there were not given to us in the four Gospels more intimate glimpses of the human heart-throbs of Jesus? Have you wished that you might enter somewhat into the meaning of Gethsemane, rather than to have him go into the garden alone? Read in the eighteenth and other Messianic Psalms the human heart-throbs of the Son of man.
“I love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge;