1. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; Because THE LORD hath anointed me To preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted: And the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2. To proclaim the acceptable year of THE LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God: To comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness: THE distinct theme and subject of this Prophecy is The Messiahship of the Saviour. Hitherto foretold by this Prophet as "The Virgin's Son" and "Immanuel":"The Branch and Root of David" and "King upon his throne": "The Salvation" and "The Glory of Jehovah" and "The Man of Sor rows", suffering and making atonement for sin : but here emphatically as THE MESSIAH" or "CHRIST", that is, (as both these names denote), "THE ANOINTED ONE"-anointed by "the Lord Jehovah". The Prophecy in the words of which He announced His Mission in the synagogue of Nazareth, as recorded Luke iv. 16-21; where we find that, on being given the book of the prophet Isaiah to read from it, He opened it at this place: and in which the purposes of that mission, and the end for which He was so "anointed", are briefly but comprehensively set forth. These it is proposed to consider in order :-First, the Anointing itself; and, then, His Mission in its detail as here given. I. We find the ceremony of anointing with oil appointed under the Old Testament in the instances of Prophets, Priests, and Kings, to indicate their appointment and consecration to these offices respectively. (For example,-Priests, Exod. xxviii. 41. Prophets and Kings, 1 Kings xix. 15, 16. 1 Sam. xvi. 1, &c.) But it was reserved for the Prophecy of the coming of the great Antitype of all three, in whom these offices centre and are united-"The Anointed 1 So the Hebrew here, and universally, where our Version has "The Lord God": a mistake (as I have elsewhere observed) into which our Translators were led by the word in having in these instances the pointing of Elohim, which, instead of the Text, they followed. (See 'A Lecture on the importance of an extended knowledge of the Hebrew Original of the Scriptures', published in 1862.) One",-to reveal also the Antitype of the medium of it, the sacred anointing oil; namely, the Holy Spirit of God: as here "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, Because Jehovah hath anointed me." And when this took place we further learn from the occasion, just referred to, (Luke iv. 16, &c.) on which He quoted and applied these words: that it was at His Baptism, when the Spirit had been seen to descend on Him, to which He evidently there alludes, as appears from the context-the first verse of that chapter stating that "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan" (where He had just been baptized) " and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness": whence, after His temptation there, "He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee" (ver. 14): and so to Nazareth, where He quotes and applies these words; "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, &c." Where again (as in ch. xi.) it is not an inspiration only of Christ by the Spirit, as of other heavensent messengers, that is here predicted, but the descent of the Spirit's-self upon Him": as testified by the witness of it, the Baptist," John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him”. (John i. 32.) And again" He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God" [that is, of God speaking in Him immediately and directly; and fully, not—" as in time past to the prophets"-" in sundry portions". Heb. i. 1, Gr.] " for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (ch. iii. 34). Not then given birth that Spirit for the first time; for, from His was in its fulness His, owing to His supernatural conception by the Holy Ghost: but then visibly descending on Him when about to enter on His mission to accredit Him as "The Lord's Anointed". In the power of which, accordingly, He discharged that mission; this His qualification, as Son of Man, for the work that He undertook. For example, His Temptation-the testing of His fitness for that work-entered on in this power, as we just heard stated: "led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil" : (compare the parallel place, Matt. iv. 1.) Not in His Divine power, as " Son of God", which Satan would have then put Him on asserting that so He might get Him to abandon His Mission-but in the power of a spiritually endowed humanity. Which done, it is added"And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about"-the fame of that "power". (ver. 14). As also the Apostle Peter says, in the review of His ministry or public life and acts,-"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil; for God was with Him." (Acts x. 38). And we have further learned that this Spirit is His qualification for administering 1 See 'Discourses on The Life of Christ' by the Author: VI. and VII., His Baptism and Temptation. that future kingdom which is His as "The Messiah”, from that same Prophecy of this Book last mentioned, chapter xi : "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of His roots: And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of counsel and might, &c." Thus far as to the "ANOINTING" spoken of in the Text: and we now proceed to notice II. HIS MISSION, or the purposes for which it is stated He was thus sent, consecrated, and qualified. And here a further and most important light is thrown on this and the whole Prophecy by the quotation of it in part by Him already referred to. I say ' in part'; for it is very notable that He paused and "closed the book" after quoting only about one half, and where there is not even a period :"And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book He found the place where it was written, 1. The Spirit of the LORD is upon me; To preach the Gospel to the poor : To preach deliverance to the captives, |