Chp.103 ~ The Silence Of The Lamb Before Herod But The Voice Of Living Water Before All Who Understa
“Then what is next said in the Psalm—‘For trouble is near, for there is none to help me. Many calves have compassed me; fat bulls have beset me round. They opened their mouth upon me as a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones are poured out and dispersed like water,’—was likewise a prediction of the events which happened to Him. For on that night when some of your nation, who had been sent by the Pharisees and Scribes, and teachers,5 came upon Him from the Mount6 of Olives, those whom Scripture called butting and prematurely destructive calves surrounded Him.
Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 250). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
We continue following along with Justin's discourse with Trypho and the Jews. Justin continues here to try to explain the cross through David's prophetic Psalm in the foreshadow of his own sufferings. For the Davidic Covenant, sometimes equated with the New Covenant, promises that the Messiah would suffer in the same ways and be tempted at every point as David had. But what separates David's sufferings from the Messiah is that David had an advocate of mercy and a mediator of grace. The Messiah, on the other hand, was to be cut off from this mercy and grace to stand on his own righteousness. But the Messiah opened not his mouth for his own defense before his accusers, that his body of death should become the voice of God before those who desire the living water of his eternal fountain of resurrection life.
John 4:10–15 (NKJV)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
John 11:25–27 (NKJV)
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
And the expression, ‘Fat bulls have beset me round,’ He spoke beforehand of those who acted similarly to the calves, when He was led before your teachers. And the Scripture described them as bulls, since we know that bulls are authors of calves’ existence. As therefore the bulls are the begetters of the calves, so your teachers were the cause why their children went out to the Mount of Olives to take Him and bring Him to them. And the expression, ‘For there is none to help,’ is also indicative of what took place. For there was not even a single man to assist Him as an innocent person.
Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 250). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
Since there was none to be his advocate and to defend his cause, he remained silent to fulfill the Father's promise. For he was to be David's advocate and the mediator of David's prayers. In this, we too have an advocate of Justice and Righteousness, and we too have a mediator of mercy and grace. Our liberty from evil can only be found in the drops of blood that Christ sweat to qualify for our Justification. Outside of his heart melting under the wrath of God in our place there can be no assurance of the Spirit of Grace. For in this obedience, as the silent Lamb of God, we have assistance of His innocence to plead for more grace and power to do righteousness in the earth. Outside of his death there is no help or salvation; outside of his resurrection there is no assurance of forgiveness or peace with God. Outside of his doctrine we only add sin to sin, creating children of wrath void of light and life.
And when Herod succeeded Archelaus, having received the authority which had been allotted to him, Pilate sent to him by way of compliment Jesus bound; and God foreknowing that this would happen, had thus spoken: ‘And they brought Him to the Assyrian, a present to the king.’1 Or He meant the devil by the lion roaring against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan, showing that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which he performed. For ‘Sata’ in the Jewish and Syrian tongue means apostate; and ‘Nas’ is the word from which he is called by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single word Satanas. For this devil, when [Jesus] went up from the river Jordan, at the time when the voice spake to Him, ‘Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee,’2 is recorded in the memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him, even so far as to say to Him, ‘Worship me;’ and Christ answered him, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan: thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’3 For as he had deceived Adam, so he hoped4 that he might contrive some mischief against Christ also.
Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 251). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
When God chooses to be silent before the judgments of men, he is giving them over to their sins. This is not a healthy sign upon those who insist to remain in their ways and hold onto the imaginations of their own understanding. In this, God has decreed the judgments of these counsels of men to be apostate. They are to be considered by the Christian disciple as doctrines of demons and are not to be entertained. For in these, the worship of the true God is blasphemed, attributing these teachings of mere men to be the counsel of Almighty God. To be healed of this apostasy, these men must come out from accusing God and get behind (or under) the doctrines of Christ. For it was in this image that Adam was intended and originally designed. But if these heretics continue in their mischief against Christ, they will suffer the punishment of the apostate and the serpent--unforgiveness.
Moreover, the statement, ‘All my bones are poured out5 and dispersed like water; my heart has become like wax, melting in the midst of my belly,’ was a prediction of that which happened to Him on that night when men came out against Him to the Mount of Olives to seize Him. For in the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them, [it is recorded] that His sweat fell down like drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass:’6 His heart and also His bones trembling; His heart being like wax melting in His belly:7 in order that we may perceive that the Father wished His Son really8 to undergo such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say that He, being the Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him and inflicted on Him. Further, the expression, ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat,’ was a prediction, as I previously remarked, of that silence, when He who convicted all your teachers of being unwise returned no answer at all.
Justin Martyr. (1885). Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Vol. 1, p. 251). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.
Jesus prayed not for Herod but for those of the faith of the Samaritan woman who wanted living water rather than the welfare of Herod whose bread is corrupted by worms (Acts 12:23). The flesh which Christ gives to eat and the blood which Christ gives to drink is an uncorruptible meal that only those who believe can receive the life of its power. He was given no drink, that those who believe might be received through the mediation of his prayer before his Father. Though he was silent before the apostasy of the serpent's accusations, he was not silent in his intercession for the saints before the Father. Since there was none (of his own) who would be (or could be) his advocate, he prayed: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk.23:34). He is not praying for those who willfully murdered him, but for those poor, ignorant children and calves of these vicious bulls.
Is your throat dry? Does your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth when your Savior is blasphemed? Are you silent and ashamed when the cross of your salvation is dishonored? Do you have nothing to say about him who was your Advocate, here? Indeed, if there is no voice in your heart for the heart that melted to wax in your place, then there is no life in your heart for the future of his glory and victory over your shame. You are no better than the bulls who gorged him to death with the horns of selfish pride. Do you have no answer to the accusation of your shame? If your tongue clings to the roof of your mouth then your shame remains!
