I Have Given Help to One Who Is Mighty

I Have Given Help to One Who Is Mighty

“Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy ones, and said: ‘I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted a young man chosen from the people.” Ps. 89:19.

The holy saints received a vision of the help that is given to us in Christ, and they prophesied of the grace that would come to us. 1 Pet. 1:10.

When God gives us help, it is help that is sufficient so that we can live a life that is worthy of the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 2 Cor. 6:17-18.

Jesus was a young man from His people; He had to become like His brethren in all things. Heb. 2:17. However, He proved Himself to be a mighty man precisely in that state, one who is highly exalted above all other mighty men. He is the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29), and He has the preeminence in all things. Col. 1:18.

Christ has an entire flock of excellent brothers who are truly mighty men, who have the same Spirit and the same attitude of heart as He does. He has done everything to help them to become like Him, in life and in their nature, and He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Heb. 2:11. All of them have been excellent, mighty men in sacrificing and humbling themselves, but they have never attained to Jesus’ degree of humiliation and sacrifice. 1 Tim. 6:16. They suffered injustice with joy, but not to the degree that Jesus did. They denied themselves, but never as perfectly as their great Brother. They overcame in life’s many temptations and trials just as He overcame, and they will therefore receive a place together with Him on His throne. Rev. 3:21. However, they did not overcome from beginning to end nor attain perfection as He did. In the resurrection of the dead Christ will be like the sun, and His fellow brethren like lesser suns and twinkling stars. 1 Cor. 15:41-42; Matt. 13:43.

Mighty men do not arise unless there are particularly difficult circumstances. Mankind’s great difficulty is that we have a flesh from which arise temptations to do evil. None of the mighty men in the old covenant could overcome this flesh. The law was weak because of this flesh. Rom. 8:3. All of mankind would have been lost if Jesus, the mightiest of all mighty men, had not partaken of flesh and blood as we and had not perfectly overcome everything that dwells in the flesh. Did He become impure as a result? Absolutely not! A person does not become defiled by what he hates, condemns, and judges to the utmost.

In the midst of being made sin for us, and sin being condemned in His flesh (Rom. 8:3), His heart and mind remained perfectly pure throughout His entire life. Therefore it is now possible for us to preserve this purity of heart by His great power and help. He is mighty to save. Isa. 63:1. He does not want to be the only mighty man, but He wants to help us to become worthy mighty men and brothers together with Him for all eternity. It would not have been a great thing for Him to be a mighty man all by Himself, together with a flock of small children who had not grown up to manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Eph. 4:13.

Jesus was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Rom. 1:3. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In this Spirit, which He had from His heavenly Father, He fought a courageous and manly battle against this flesh of David of which He had voluntarily partaken for our sakes, and against the flesh of His mother, His disciples, and wherever else He came up against it. When we read Hebrews 5:7 we can see that this was not an easy battle.

As His true followers we need to have that same manly firmness, and to show it in our battle against the flesh. We need to be firm in our faith, firm and unshakable in the battle against our own flesh, so that we do not give in the least little bit in the many temptations that come from the flesh. We need to be firm in love, righteousness, truth, and goodness, until the end. Then we will become partakers of divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and together with Jesus we will be exalted from among the people.

Together with Christ, these mighty men will descend when all ungodliness is destroyed at Armageddon and the millennium is established. Joel 3:11 and Rev. 19:11-21.