(Isa. 50:4-9)

Those who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ, confessing Him to be both their Saviour and Lord, are called to follow in His steps (1 Pet. 2:21). They are to be characterized by His mind and spirit (Phil. 2:5). This being so, whatever helps us to learn of Him must have its importance for us. Let m therefore notice some incidents in His life which serve to show His mind as the obedient Man. What we see in Him is the very opposite of the spirit of the world- lawlessness.

Turning first to the Gospel of Luke (2:51) we read that our Lord returned with His parents to Nazareth and was subject to them. Wondrous grace! He the Creator (Col. 1:16) acting as subject to His creatures.

Today when so many are throwing, off all rule, even at an early age, considering it unmanly to be-subject to their elders, He sets forth what is pleasing to God. And this was true of all those thirty years upon which the Father put His seal of approval at the time of His public appearance. .

Let us follow Him into the scene of His wilderness-temptation, and think particularly of that occasion when we are told the devil "brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him upon a pinnacle of the temple." The wicked one desired that He should make a public display of Himself by casting Himself down from that height. The suggestion is that He take this way to show Himself to be the Son of God, for since evidently His confidence is in the Word of God, as shown in the previous temptations, is it not written that Divine protection and preservation will be given the One who dwells in the secret place of the Most High and so abides under the shadow of the Almighty? (Ps. 91:1,11,12). Why not put God to the test according to what is written, and so in the presence of the multitude thronging the temple courts show that He is the Son of God, Israel's Messiah? Then they would surely acclaim Him, and He could take the kingdom already proclaimed as at hand without further delay, and bring to the oppressed people its blessings and glories. Was it not His by right? Was He not born to be their King? Again the Lord answers from the Word:"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This at once exposes the evil of the suggestion. To do as bidden would be tempting, not obeying, God; it would not be acting at His command, but at the word of another (and such an one!), to follow whom would be self-will on His part. The Lord's answer also indicates what His "ways" are, reference to which in the psalm the devil had omitted from his evil use of its holy words. The opposite of tempting God is to discern and be subject to His revealed will. In such ways the Divine protection and preservation are assured. The character of His life, its words and deeds, is given in such statements as:

"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do."

"I can of Mine own self do nothing; as I hear I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent Me."

"I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me."

"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work."
"The works that the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me."

"I do always those things which please Him."

"I speak that which I have seen with My Father." He was ever with the Father in all His pathway through this world, He ever dwelt in His secret place.

O blessed, obedient Man! God's perfect Servant, God's holy One, the faithful and true Witness, the Righteous, ever loving righteousness and hating iniquity, our Example, whose mind and spirit is to be formed in us and whose steps we are to follow. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."

So He would not seek a place for Himself, He would not make a public display, no matter how specious the argument for it, or seemingly great the immediate results to be attained. No propitious combination of circumstances, as men would judge, will lure Him from the only right way for man-that of following the will of God, and in no independent sense his own or that of another creature. Man's true and full blessing lies in recognizing and obeying that will alone, his will being to do that will. In such dependence and subjection man attains his true dignity as God's creature in fellowship with Him.

The pride of life which is of the wicked one, and characterizes the world which lies in him, and is a principle governing fallen man, had no place in our blessed Lord, and in the power of His life which is now ours by faith we are to judge it and exclude it from our practice. The life of Jesus is to be manifest in us.

But on other occasions also, it seems to me, the Lord meets this form of temptation. May not this be true of Mary's action at the marriage feast of Cana? Her words seem to convey the thought that she desired Him to make a public display of His power. This He could detect, for He knew what was in man, and feeling in the suggestion the prompting of the same evil one He had met in the wilderness, though unwittingly proposed by Mary, He refuses it. "Mine hour has not yet come." He waits for the hour of the Father's will.

Another effort along this line is seen when His brethren after the flesh try to persuade Him to popularize Himself by going up to Jerusalem to the feast (John 7). "If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world." Here is an appeal of the same nature, virtually an attack in the light of what we have been considering, and here in particular connected with unbelief (ver. 5). Does it not seem that the great adversary sought even through our Lord's immediate family to constrain Him to do something for His own aggrandizement, and so to act from Himself, instead of in entire subjection to the Father and only at His direction? And while this was impossible in His case, yet by reason of His perfect moral character as Man He only felt more keenly the evil involved in such suggestions.

In connection with this incident we read that the Lord said:"I go not yet up to this feast, for My time is not yet full come." But later we find Him in the temple speaking as never man spake, as the officers bear witness who were sent to take Him. He abode still in Galilee after thus answering His brethren, waiting until His time had fully come. Does it not suggest His perfect obedience? Of Him it could be truly said, "He never was before His time, and never was behind."

Ah, the lust for popularity which so powerfully influences those who love the things of this world had no place in His heart! We are to purge ours of its snare.

He has left us an example that we should follow in His steps, and we do well to be on our guard against the wiles of the devil in this matter of worldly favor, for such suggestions make a strong appeal to the flesh which is still in us. Such motives may even subtly find a place in our spiritual activities, in our service for the Lord, marring what we do in His name and professedly for His sake alone. "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me."

Another incident of similar import to those we have mentioned, is seen in Peter's remonstrance when the Lord speaks of His suffering and death. On that occasion the Lord brands it as an effort of Satan to turn Him from the path of obedience to the will of the Father. Compare John 10:18.

Upon these occasions, we may say, we see our Blessed Lord's obedience in the face of pressure directly or indirectly exercised by Satan. Let us now observe His spirit of obedience in somewhat different circumstances.

A striking example is found in John 11. The home at Bethany where Jesus loved to dwell was passing through a time of trial. The message sent to the Lord is:"He whom Thou lovest is sick"; and further emphasizing the close attachment between Him and this family it is recorded, "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." Our first thoughts would have been to rush to the sick-bed, and do everything possible to stem the tide of grief by our sympathy and help. But not so with that obedient Son. His one thought was for the glory of God (ver. 4). Satan would have been glad to see Him go under the pressure of tears and pleadings, but no-"He abode two days still in the same place where He was." When the Jews saw our Lord weeping they said:"Behold how He loved him! And some of them said, Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" Yes, He could, but His eye was on the calendar of heaven, and He was here for the glory of God. So His perfect obedience to the Father's will caused His ways to seem strange to the natural man. "The world… .knew Him not," and in the same sense it cannot know or understand us if, as abiding in Him, we walk "even as He walked" (1 John 3:1 with 2:6).

But now consider Him as that hour draws near which had been before Him on many previous occasions. Certain Greeks who desired to see Jesus approach Andrew and Philip, as they tell Jesus (John 12:20). He answered them, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." The cross comes before Him, for the corn of wheat must die if it is to bear much fruit. The coming of the Greeks suggested this to Him. That hour, however, cannot be contemplated without trouble of soul (ver. 27). Never was the soul of this obedient One troubled because of even one of His own thoughts, or words, or deeds, as we are so often, for He knew no sin, did no sin, and in Him was no sin. His trouble arose out of the anticipation of the awful darkness and separation which the cross would bring when He was made sin for us. Is it any wonder that He cries out, "What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?" No, He cannot, for the cause connected with that hour is the glory of the Father's name, and however dreadful the prospect, He is not moved from the one great purpose of His path, and so says, "Father, glorify Thy name." The answering Voice from heaven declares, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." Our gracious Lord was bringing glory to the Father's name by His obedient walk among men, and the Father would further glorify His name in the Son through the work of that terrible "hour" now so near and the glorious fruitage which would spring from it in resurrection.

The hour having arrived, "Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said, 'Whom seek ye?' " (John 18:4). He delivered Himself up into their hands, as He had said, "No man taketh My life from Me." He gave it up freely for our redemption, but as in perfect obedience to the Father and for His glory.

Truly, He could say, "I seek not mine own glory." We who are His, who are of that fruit brought forth through His death, should not now seek our own glory, or yield in any way to the temptation to display ourselves, but walk even as He walked, in all lowliness, meekness, and grace. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of (from) Me:for I am meek and lowly in heart:and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Robert Deans