I N D E X
THE LORDØS ANOINTED 31
What we are assured of is that from Birth to Death, in Resurrection and Ascension, every step of the way of the
Saviour along the path of His voluntary self-emptying, was safeguarded by the Spirit that was not given by measure
unto Him. Most of us have been given `posers' by objectors, who in their ignorance or their arrogance demand to
know whether the babe at His mother's breast, was at the same time conscious that `by Him all things were created'.
They ask how can it be possible that He Who made all things could nevertheless sit weary on a well and ask a
woman for a drink. We gladly admit that we have no need to probe into these sacred things. The persistence with
which the Scriptures introduce the ministry of the Holy Ghost at every turn and crisis has been written to satisfy that
believer once and for ever on all such matters and we rejoice in such a Saviour, Who acted throughout the whole
course of His ministry as One Who `though He was rich, YET FOR OUR SAKES He became poor' and instead of using
this most blessed `poverty' as a weapon against His essential Deity or His most wondrous Love, we realize that
`through His poverty' we can alone become rich.
One further aspect of this great and important `anointing' must be given a place, but as it will take us back `or
ever the earth was' and deal with things entirely beyond our ken, we shall have to tread carefully. First, we must
turn to Psalm 2, where most will know already that it speaks of the Lord's `Anointed' (Psa. 2:2). We know that this
anointed One is `King' (Psa. 2:6) and `Son' (Psa. 2:7) but we may not all be aware that the margin of the Authorized
Version reminds us that the word translated `set' in verse 6, is also translatable by the word `Anointed'. Let us look
at it this way. From one point of view, the anointing of a king was but pouring a small quantity of oil upon his head.
Unless this anointing has some fuller and richer significance, it does not seem of much importance. We however
may appreciate that `anointing' means `appointing', the anointing oil, or the anointing by the Holy Ghost, always
meant appointing to some office, like that of Prophet, Priest or King.
Now we read in 1 Peter 1:19,20 that the Saviour was foreordained before the foundation of the world, as `A
Lamb without blemish and without spot', and with this association with the beginning of creation, let us turn to two
passages in the book of Proverbs. Most of the Proverbs are either those written by Solomon, or for Solomon's
guidance, but there are some words of wisdom recorded, of which `the words of Agur' demand attention. We give
Moffatt's translation, that by its difference from the Authorized Version may stimulate interest:
`The cry of a man weary with the quest for God:
"I am weary, O God,
weary and worn in vain;
I am dull as a clod,
with no quick brain.
I am no master of thought,
of the Deity I know nought.
Who ever climbed to heaven and then came down?
Who ever gathered the wind in his fingers,
or wrapped the waters in a robe of clouds,
or fixed the bounds of earth?
What is his name, or his son's name?
You do not know it?' (Prov. 30:1-4).
There is a strange and startling anticipation of future revelation here, the association of a `Son' with the Creator
nothing positive is said. No man by searching can find out God unto perfection, but there is a gleam here, that,
when time for fulfilment shall have come, it will be proved to be the dawning of the Day star upon the night of
human folly. We turn back to the eighth chapter, where Wisdom is personified, and we might take with us the fact
of a later revelation, that `Christ is the Wisdom' of God.
`The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old' (Prov. 8:22).
There is no word for `in' in either the Greek version (the Septuagint) or the original Hebrew. We wait however,
until we reach the last book of the Canon before we read that Christ Himself is `The Beginning of the creation of
God' (Rev. 3:14). The word reshith used in Genesis 1:1 is found in Genesis 49:3 where it speaks of Reuben the
firstborn, the beginning of strength, who, however, like Cain was a failure. The word `possessed' takes us to the
beginning, for it is the same word translated `gotten' and is the same word that gives us the name `Cain' in Genesis