A Suffering Servant and Type of Christ

“And the LORD was with Joseph…” —Genesis 39:2

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” —Isaiah 53:3

One of the more well-known titles for the Lord Jesus Christ is “Messiah, Son of David.” Certainly, Jesus is the King of Israel in fulfillment of that prophecy. Yet, the Jews also had another name for God’s Christ: “Messiah, Son of Joseph,” a reference to the suffering servant of Genesis 37 and Isaiah 53. Joseph, the son of Jacob was, indeed, a suffering servant of God Almighty; however, his life was a prophetic foreshadow of the Christ to come.

JOSEPH’S LIFE: One Fraught with Sorrow

a. Joseph lost his mother during the birth of his younger brother (Gen 35:18-19).

b. Jacob’s special favor upon Joseph (Gen 37:3) only made Joseph’s brothers hate him all the more (Gen 37:4).

c. Joseph’s brothers conspired to kill him (Gen 37:18).

d. Joseph was sold into bondage by his brothers (Gen 37:28).

e. In the house of Potiphar, Joseph was constantly tempted by a seductress (Gen 39:7).

f. Joseph was imprisoned through lies (Gen 39:12-20).

g. Joseph received only empty promises from those he helped (Gen 40:14, 

23).  Continue at Jon J. Cardwell

See Also: Nine Good Purposes in Our Suffering

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The Minister as Waiter

In Acts 6, we find that famous passage in which the occasion comes for the Apostles to designate the priorities of the Christian ministry. The twelve make it known to the congregation that, above all other ministerial responsibilities and worthy pursuits, they will devote themselves “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Ac 6:4).

The Greek word translated “ministry” in that passage is diakonía. It comes from the verb diakonéō, the normal New Testament verb that is translated, “to minister.” While it eventually takes on the more technical connotation of what we think of as “Christian ministry,” its most basic meaning is to serve. In fact, it’s used this way in the very same passage. In Acts 6:1 we’re told of the problem that prompted the Apostles’ response: the widows of the Hellenistic Jews “were being overlooked in the daily serving (diakonía) of food.”

And the word is used in this most basic sense frequently throughout the gospels.

• Peter’s mother-in-law began ministering (diakonéō) to Jesus after He healed her. What was her ministry? The NASB says, “…she got up and waited on Him” (Mt 8:15, NASB).
• Similarly, the alert slave waiting for his master’s coming is said to wait on (diakonéō) his master and his guests (Lk 12:37, NASB).
• In Luke 17:8, the “unprofitable servant,” who is not thanked for doing his duty, is said to serve (diakonéō) his master while he eats and drinks.   Keep Reading...

The Personal Cure for Pride

Let these four phrases be the heartbeat of our ministries (and our lives):

1. I am a sinner (1 Tim. 1:15)

• Remember what I was (think on the sins you’ve been delivered from)
• Remember what I could be now (if God had not stopped you)
• Remember what I still am (research your own heart)
• Remember what I could yet be (if God removed His restraining grace)

Follow the example of godly me from the past who turned the devil’s deadly weapon of pride back upon himself by using it to keep them humble.

Robert M. McCheyne: “Oh, for true unfeigned humility; I know not how to be truly humble. I know I have cause to be humble, but I do not know one half of that cause; I know I am proud, and yet I do Not know half of my pride.”

J. Edwards: (twenty years after his conversion) “I abhor the bottomless, infinite depths of wickedness and pride left in my own heart.”

Richard Baxter: “Pride not only goes with me into the study, but often chooses my very subject and sometimes my very words. Pride writes my sermon, pride goes with me to the pulpit; it forms my tone and animates my delivery. It takes me off of that which may be displeasing to the people and sets me in pursuit of vain applause from my hearers. And when I have preached, pride goes home with me and causes me to eagerly seek for sings that I am applauded, rather than signs that my message was useful in the saving of souls.” Keep Reading>>>

Book Review - Slave

John MacArthur believes he has ‘uncovered’ something of a cover up. This cover up is by the English Bible translators. Now you may be wrongly tempted to think that in his later years of ministry he has gone off the deep end to join someone like Dan Brown. He hasn’t. He believes “the cover-up was not intentional–at least not initially. Yet its results have been dramatically serious.”

What is the cover-up? It is the translation of the Greek word doulos. The word is most often translated ‘servant’. MacArthur contends that we should be translating it as ‘slave’.

Why? MacArhtur writes:

“While it is true that the duties of slave and servant may overlap to some degree, there is a key distinction between the two: servants are hired’ slaves are owned.”

Read the rest HERE

Deacons: Shock-Absorber Servants

Nine Marks Ministries, has a new e-journal up. The topic is deacons. I read through the articles and thought everything was very helpful.

Here’s an interesting quote. But you’ll want to go read the whole thing. The articles are fairly short but cover a lot of ground.