2159. That 'servant' means the Lord's human before it was made Divine becomes clear from many places in the Prophets. The reason, which has been given frequently already, is this: The Lord's human, before He cast it off and made it Divine, was nothing else than a servant. His human came from the mother and was for that reason imperfect. From her it possessed a hereditary element which He overcame and utterly cast aside by means of the conflicts brought about by temptations. He did so even to the point when nothing was left of the imperfect and hereditary element received from the mother, indeed until at length nothing whatever from the mother remained. He cast off that which came from the mother so completely that He was no longer her son, as He also Himself declares in Mark,

They said to Jesus, Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside, asking for You. And He answered them. saying, Who is My mother, or My brothers? And looking around on those who were sitting around Him He said, Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother, and My sister, and My mother. Mark 3:32-35; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 8:20-21.

[2] Once He had cast off this human He put on the Divine Human, by virtue of which He called Himself the Son of Man, as may be seen many times in the New Testament Word, and also the Son of God. By 'the Son of Man' He meant truth itself and by 'the Son of God' good itself which belonged to His Human Essence once this had been made Divine. The former state was that of the Lord's humiliation but the latter that of His glorification, which has been dealt with already in 1999.

[3] In the former state, namely the state of humiliation, when He still had the imperfect human with Him, He worshipped Jehovah as one other than Himself, and was indeed like a servant, for the imperfect human is by comparison nothing else. In the Word also therefore that human is referred to as 'a servant', as in Isaiah,

I will protect this city to save it for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant. Isaiah 37:35.

This refers to the Assyrians in whose camp an angel slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand. 'David' stands for the Lord who, because He is yet to come, is, as regards the human, called 'a servant'. That 'David' in the Word stands for the Lord, see 1888.

[4] In the same prophet,

Behold, My servant on whom I will lean, My chosen [in whom] My soul is well pleased. I have put My spirit upon him; he will bring forth judgement to the nations. Isaiah 42:1.

This is a plain reference to the Lord, of whom, when He was in the human, the expressions 'servant' and 'chosen one' are used. In the same prophet,

Who is blind but My servant, and deaf as My angel ¹ whom I will send? Who is blind as the perfect one, and blind as the servant or Jehovah? Isaiah 42:19.

This too is a reference to the Lord, of whom in a similar way, when He was in the human, the expressions 'servant' and 'angel' are used.

[5] In the same prophet,

You are My witnesses, said Jehovah, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Isaiah 43:10.

In the same prophet,

[Then] said Jehovah who formed me from the womb, to be a servant to Him, to bring back Jacob to Him, and that Israel might be gathered to Him - He said, It is a light thing that you should be a servant to Me to raise up the tribes of Jacob. I have given you as a light of the nations, to be My salvation right to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:5-6.

This too is a plain reference to the Lord and to His human before it was made 'a light of the nations' and 'a salvation to the ends of the earth'. In the same prophet,

Who among you fears Jehovah, hearkens to the voice of His servant who walks in darkness and has no brightness? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and lean on his God. Isaiah 50:10.

'Servant' again stands for the Lord's human. His teaching of the way of truth, while He was in that Human, is meant by 'the voice of Jehovah's servant'.

[6] In the same prophet,

Jehovah goes before you, and the God of Israel gathers you up. Behold, My servant will deal wisely; he will be raised up and exalted and lifted up very high. Isaiah 52:12-13.

'Servant' is clearly used in reference to the Lord when He was in the human, because it is said of Him that He will be raised up, exalted, and lifted up. In the same prophet,

He had no form and no honour. We saw him, but there was no beauty in him. He was despised, a man of sorrows, acquainted with sickness. Jehovah was willing to bruise him and make him imperfect. If he makes his soul guilt he will see his seed he will prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah will prosper by his hand. He will see [the fruit of] the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge will the righteous one My servant make many righteous; and He has borne their iniquities. Isaiah 53:2-3, 10-11.

Here reference is openly made, as in the whole of this chapter, to the Lord's state of humiliation. The fact that in that state He was in the imperfect human is also declared, namely in the statements that He was 'a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief', 'was made imperfect', and experienced 'the travail of his soul', besides many other statements, in which state He is referred to as 'a servant'.

Notes de bas de page:

10655. 'You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread' means worship of the Lord and thanksgiving on account of deliverance from evil and from the falsities of evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'the feast' as worship and thanksgiving, dealt with in 7093, 9286, 9287; and from the meaning of 'unleavened bread' as things which have been purified from evil and from the falsities of evil, dealt with in 9992. Consequently 'the feast of unleavened bread' means worship and thanksgiving on account of deliverance from evil and from the falsities of evil. The fact that this was the meaning of that feast, see 9286-9292.

[2] As regards this feast, it should be recognized that the glorification of the Lord's Human, and so the remembrance of this and thanksgiving on account of it, is its proper meaning. The glorification of His Human and the subduing of the hells by the Lord have given mankind deliverance from evils and salvation. For the Lord glorified His Human by means of conflicts against the hells and the victories He always gained over them in those conflicts, the final conflict and victory being that on the Cross, when therefore He fully glorified Himself, as is also His own teaching in John,

After Judas went out Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him at once. John 13:31-32.

In the same gospel,

Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. Now, Father, glorify Me in Your Own Self with the glory which I had with You before the world was. John 17:1, 5.

And in Luke,

Ought not the Christ to have suffered this and to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26.

'Glorifying the Son of Man' means the making Divine of the Human. All these things declared by the Lord had regard, it is self-evident, to His passion on the Cross.

[3] Through that final conflict, which was the passion of the Cross, He completely subdued the hells. This too is the Lord's teaching in John,

Jesus said, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Now My soul is troubled. And He said, Father, glorify Your name. And a voice came from heaven, [saying,] I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. And Jesus said, Now is the judgement of this world, now will the prince of this world be cast outdoors. I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself. This He said, indicating the kind of death He was about to die. John 12:23, 27-28, 31-33.

Hell as a whole is what the term 'the prince of this world' or the devil refers to. From these verses it is evident that by the passion of the Cross the Lord not only overcame and subdued the hells but also completely glorified His Human. From this comes salvation to the human race, for which reason also the Lord came into the world, as He also teaches in John 12:27. It was for the sake of the remembrance of this that the feast of unleavened bread or the Passover was primarily established; and it was why He rose again at that feast.

[4] The reason why on account of deliverance from evil and from the falsities of evil is also meant is that all deliverance from evil comes about through the subduing of the hells by the Lord and through the glorification of His Human; without these there is no deliverance. For a person is ruled by the Lord by means of spirits from hell and angels from heaven. Unless therefore the hells had been altogether subdued, and unless the Lord's Human had been altogether united to the Divine Himself, and had thereby also been made Divine, no one could have possibly been delivered from hell and been saved; for the hells would have always prevailed, because the human being has become such that left to himself his thought consists of nothing other than that which belongs to hell. From this it is evident why it is that the same feast means worship and thanksgiving on account of deliverance from evil and from the falsities of evil.