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In Matthew 12:18-21 we see Christ as the Servant of Jehovah. Exodus 3 reveals that Christ is Jehovah Himself, but in these verses He is the Servant of Jehovah. As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ is the One sent by Jehovah to serve Jehovah’s purpose.
Matthew 12:18a says, “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul has found delight.” Christ is the One chosen and beloved by Jehovah; He is the One in whom Jehovah delights.
Matthew 12:18b goes on to say, “I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will announce justice to the Gentiles.” As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ had Jehovah’s Spirit upon Him. When Christ was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and abode upon Him as the economical power for His ministry. With Jehovah’s Spirit upon Him, He announced justice to the nations. The word justice here means “righteousness” or “righteous judgment.” A righteous judgment is a decision for the right things. The Lord Jesus proclaimed all the right decisions for the Gentiles.
Matthew 12:19 says, “He will not strive nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.” This means that the Lord did not shout or make noise. Instead of crying out to make His voice known in the streets, He was calm and quiet.
Verse 19 indicates that, as the Servant of Jehovah, Christ was no longer free to minister openly. On the contrary, because He had been rejected, He had to hide Himself. As the context of Matthew 12 makes clear, the reason for the rejection and the cause of the Lord’s hiding Himself was His breaking of the religious regulations. This was due to the Lord’s caring for His headship and for the members of His Body.
Matthew 12:20 continues, “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench until He brings forth justice unto victory.” As the Servant of Jehovah, Christ will not break a bruised reed nor quench smoking flax. This indicates that while He was being rejected and opposed, He was still full of mercy. Those who were opposing Him were like bruised reeds and smoking flax, but the Lord Jesus was still merciful toward them.
The Jews used to make flutes of reeds. When a reed was bruised, they broke it. They also made torches with flax to burn oil. When the oil ran out, the flax smoked, and they quenched it. Some of the Lord’s people are like the bruised reed that cannot give a musical sound. Others are like the smoking flax that cannot give a shining light. Yet the Lord will not break the bruised ones nor quench the smoking ones. Although the Lord was rejected, He was still merciful. Even those who had become bruised reeds He would not break, and those who had become smoking flax He would not quench. Rather, He kept open to them the door of mercy and grace.
Among those who believe in the Lord Jesus today, many have become bruised reeds that can no longer give a musical sound. As a rule, the bruised reeds should be broken and thrown away. But Christ will not do this. Moreover, many of His believers no longer burn as a bright light. As a rule, He should quench them all and cast them away. But He will not do this either. Instead, as the merciful Servant of Jehovah, He would use some of those who are as bruised reeds and smoking flax to bring forth justice unto victory. If we think that no one is useful except ourselves, we cannot carry out the Lord’s work. The Lord would select some bruised reeds and smoking flax. He would perfect them so that they could become useful in His hand to bring forth justice unto victory. No matter how much He is opposed, He, the Servant of Jehovah, is still merciful.
“In His name will the Gentiles hope” (v. 21). Due to the rejection by the Jewish religionists, the Servant of Jehovah, with His salvation, turned to the Gentiles. Now the Gentiles put their hope in His name, believing in Him and receiving Him as their Savior.
The Gentiles have hope only in the name of the Lord Jesus. Apart from His name, there is no hope. The worldly people have no hope because they do not have the name of the Lord Jesus. But in His name we, the Gentiles, have our hope.
In Matthew 12:38-41 Christ is unveiled as the One greater than Jonah. When the scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign, the Lord Jesus said that no sign would be given “except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (v. 39). As a prophet, Jonah is a type of Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
“Just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (v. 40). The heart of the earth is called the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9) and Hades (Acts 2:27), where the Lord went after His death. Hades, equal to Sheol in the Old Testament, has two sections: the section of torment and the section of comfort (Luke 16:23-26). The section of comfort is Paradise, where the Lord went with the saved thief after they died (23:43). Hence, “heart of the earth,” “lower parts of the earth,” “Hades,” and “Paradise” are synonymous terms, referring to the one place where the Lord stayed for three days and three nights after His death and before His resurrection. After those three days and three nights, He, as the Son of Man, was resurrected from the heart of the earth.
As the One greater than Jonah, Christ preaches glad tidings to the nations. “Ninevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something more than Jonah is here” (Matt. 12:41). Here we see that Christ, as the Prophet sent by God to His people (Deut. 18:15, 18), is greater than Jonah the prophet. Jonah turned from Israel to the Gentiles and was put into the belly of the great fish. After he had remained there for three days and three nights, he came out to be a sign to that generation for repentance (Jonah 1:2, 17; 3:2-10). This was a type of Christ, who would turn from Israel to the Gentiles and would be buried in the heart of the earth three days and three nights and then be resurrected, becoming a sign to this generation for salvation. As the One greater than Jonah, Christ in resurrection is the unique sign for today.
“The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something more than Solomon is here” (Matt. 12:42). Here we see that Christ, as the Son of David to be the King, is greater than Solomon the king. Solomon (1 Kings 6:1) typifies Christ as the One with wisdom to accomplish God’s eternal purpose, to build up God’s house, the temple, and to rule over God’s kingdom.
Solomon spoke the word of wisdom (3:12, 28). As the One greater than Solomon, Christ speaks the word of wisdom today. Actually, the entire New Testament is a lengthy word of wisdom spoken by Christ as our Solomon.
In 1 Kings 10:1-8 a Gentile queen from Ethiopia, having heard of Solomon’s wisdom and having been attracted by it, came to him. This also is a picture of Christ. Today Christ as the One greater than Solomon is attracting to Himself people from the Gentiles.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the Son of David (1:1) and ends with the Triune God (28:19). In between chapters one and twenty-eight we have the Sower (13:3). The Lord Jesus clearly considered Himself a Sower. In His ministry He apparently was a teacher and a preacher. Actually, in teaching the truth and in preaching the gospel, He was a Sower, and His life was a life of sowing. As the Sower, the Lord Jesus was the Distributor of the divine life.
The Sower is the wonderful person of the Lord Jesus, and the seed sown is also the Lord Himself as the embodiment of the Triune God. Christ has sown Himself as the seed of life into us (vv. 4a, 8). Christ is the seed signified by the word (v. 19), and we, the chosen ones of God, are the soil. In the sight of God, we are the soil for growing Christ. Therefore, Christ as the word is the seed of life sown into us as the soil.
Christ came to earth not only to be with us but also to be sown into our being. Through incarnation He became the seed of life, and in His ministry He sowed this seed into others. This means that He sowed Himself as the embodiment of the Triune God into His believers. As the Sower Christ has sown Himself as the seed of life into our hearts so that He may live in us, grow in us, and be expressed from within us.
Just as the seed of life is planted into the earth, is mingled with the element of the earth, and grows together with the earth to produce the plant, Christ has sown Himself as the seed of life into us as the earth and both He and we grow together. He as the life seed has a certain kind of element, and we as the growing earth also have a certain kind of element, and the two mingle together and grow together to be one plant. This is the Body of Christ constituted with the divine life mingled with humanity. The Body of Christ in reality is a plant growing out of Christ as the life seed into the human heart as the growing earth.
We need to see the vision of Christ, the Sower, sowing Himself as the seed of life into human beings. This vision is the very heart of the Lord’s recovery, for it is related to the desire of the Lord’s heart. Throughout more than sixty years, the Lord has been showing us what is on His heart: He desires to come into us, His chosen people, to be our life in the way of mingling in order to make Himself our element and to make us His expression. Christ, the embodiment and expression of the Triune God, has sown Himself into our being. What a deep and profound matter this is!
By sowing Himself as the seed of life into us, Christ makes us the wheat of life (v. 30b). As the wheat of life we are the many grains produced by Christ (John 12:24). The Triune God in His embodiment has been sown into our being to grow wheat, producing the many grains that can be blended together to be one entity, the one Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17). This thought is high, deep, and profound.
Following the Sower we have the Feeder (Matt. 14:16-21; 15:33-38). Christ has sown Himself into us, and now He is feeding us so that we may grow Him in our being.
As the Feeder, Christ feeds us with Himself as the barley loaves and fish (John 6:9). Whereas the loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ’s life, the fish are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. To satisfy our spiritual hunger, we need both Christ’s generating life and His redeeming life.
As the generating life, Christ grows on the land, the God-created earth. In order to regenerate us, He grew on the God-created earth for reproducing.
Barley signifies Christ resurrected. According to the Scriptures, barley represents the firstfruits of resurrection. In Leviticus 23 the Lord’s people were told to offer the firstfruits of their harvest each year. In the land of Palestine, barley ripens earlier than any other crop and is the first of the harvest. Hence, it typifies the resurrected Christ (v. 10). Barley thus signifies the resurrected Christ, who is our life supply. As the firstfruits, He has become our bread of life. From this we see that the barley loaves signify Christ in resurrection as food to us. The feeding Christ is the resurrected Christ.
The fish in John 6:9 are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. As the redeeming life, He lives in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. The Lord Jesus came not only to the earth created by God but also to the world corrupted by Satan. If He had come only to the earth created by God, He would have been signified only by the barley loaves. But because He also came to the world corrupted by Satan, He is signified also by the fish.
Christ, however, had nothing to do with the corrupted world. Just as fish are not salty though they may live in salt water, so the Lord was not corrupted by Satan though He lived in the Satan-corrupted world. In order to redeem us, He lived in the satanic and sinful world. Nevertheless, He was sinless, unaffected by the world. As the generating life, Christ lived as a proper man in the God-created earth. As the redeeming life, Christ lived in the Satan-corrupted world without being affected by its corruption. We need the Lord Jesus to be both our generating life and our redeeming life. As members of Christ, we are now being fed by Christ with Himself as the resurrected bread of life, and we are being nourished by Him with His redeeming life.
Christ’s feeding us with Himself as the life supply is for us to receive eternal life. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (v. 54). This eternal life is the divine life, which is not only everlasting with respect to time but also eternal and divine in nature.
Through Christ’s feeding we receive eternal life, the divine life, that we may live daily by Him as our life supply. “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57b). Eating is to take food into us to be assimilated into our body organically. Hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us to be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. Then we live by Him whom we receive. Christ, therefore, is not only life but also the life supply, the food that sustains us to live because of Him in our daily walk.
