And the Lord is
pleased to relieve Him of the affliction of His soul, to show Him light, and to
form Him with understanding, to justify the Just One who ministereth well to
many; and the Himself shall carry their sins. On this account He shall inherit
many, and shall divide the spoil of the strong; because His soul was delivered
to death, and He was reckoned among the transgressors, and He bare the sins of
many, and for their sins was He delivered." And again He saith, "I am a worm,
and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All that see Me have
derided Me; they have spoken with their lips; they have wagged their head,
[saying] He hoped in God, let Him deliver Him, let Him save Him, since He
delighteth in Him." Ye see, beloved, what is the example which has been given
us; for if the Lord thus humbled Himself, what shall we do who have through Him
come under the yoke of His grace?
CHAP. XVII.—THE SAINTS AS EXAMPLES OF HUMILITY
LET us be imitators also of those who in goat-skins
and sheep-skins went about proclaiming the coming of Christ; I mean
Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel among the prophets, with those others to whom
a like testimony is borne [in Scripture]. Abraham was specially honoured,
and was called the friend of God; yet he, earnestly regarding the glory
of God, humbly declared, "I am but dust and ashes." Moreover, it is
thus written of Job, "Job was a righteous man, and blameless, truthful,
God-fearing, and one that kept himself from all evil." But bringing
an accusation against himself, he said, " No man is free from defilement,
even if his life be but of one day." Moses was called faithful in all
God's house; and through his instrumentality, God punished Egypt
with plagues and tortures. Yet he, though thus greatly honoured, did not
adopt lofty language, but said, when the divine oracle came to him out
of the bush, "Who am I, that Thou sendest me ? I am a man of a feeble voice
and a slow tongue." And again he said, "I am but as the smoke of a pot."
