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do is to realize that the twofold statement of Psa. 40: and Heb. 10: present two versions
of one truth. Just as Matthew and Luke, both recording one utterance of the Lord, use
slightly different words to express their phase of the utterance, yet without fully
exhausting it, so we must take both Old Testament and New Testament records as
supplying a full quotation of the utterance of the Word immediately before He became
flesh and tabernacled among us. The Hebrew word "opened" is karah and is usually
translated "dig", as a grave, a pit, or a well. The feminine form of the noun, however,
mekurah, is translated "birth" in Ezek. 16: 3, and "nativity" in Ezek. 21: 30. Compare
the two references following:
"Thy birth (margin cutting out or habitation) and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan;
thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite" (Ezek. 16: 3).
"The place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity" (Ezek. 21: 30).
This use of the word to dig for birth or nativity is parallel with the words of Isa. 51: 1, 2:
"Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are
digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you."
This strange (to us) use of the word makes the meaning of Psa. 40: clearer. "The ear"
being "digged" is by an easy transition "the body" that was "prepared". The ear standing
as it does for obedience, as in Isa. 50: 5, 6:
"The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away
back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I
hid not my face from shame and spiting."
Some expositors see in this expression "mine ears hast thou opened" a reference to
Exod. 21: 6, where the willing servant is taken and his ear bored with an awl as a sign of
obedience "for ever", an act largely the result of love for wife and children who would
otherwise be left behind had the man gone free. The word "bore" is entirely different
from the word "dig" or "open", nevertheless the type is too beautiful to ignore, and aptly
sets forth that One Who voluntarily laid aside His glory, "and took upon Him the form of
a slave . . . . . and became obedient unto death" (Phil. 2: 7, 8). This body prepared for the
Lord set aside all sacrifice and offering, gathering into one Offering the varied phases and
aspects of sacrifice and obedience, as it is written in the volume of the book:
"Lo, I come to do Thy Will, O God."
The four kinds of sacrifices that were ordained by the law, and which were shadows of
the one Offering of Christ, are divided into two groups--burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin. The former are a sweet savour to God, the latter for the sins of His people. Both
aspects are combined in the one sacrifice of Christ.
By the which will.
It is important when seeking the Scriptural meaning of sacrifice that we bear in mind
the teaching of this passage. "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God" is equivalent to "Lo, I