The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
According to the Targum, these are the words of the prophet
concerning himself; and so say Aben Ezra and Kimchi; but the
latter elsewhere says F16 they are the words of the Messiah,
who should say, "because the Lord hath anointed me"; and another
of their writers F17 is in a doubt about them; either,
says he, they are the words of the prophet with respect to the
Messiah, or the words of the prophet concerning himself; but
there is no doubt but the Messiah himself is the person speaking,
as appears from ( Luke
4:17-21 ) , on whom the Spirit of God was; not his grace and
gifts only, but the person of the Spirit, the third Person in the
Trinity, equal with the Father and the Son; to whom several
divine actions are ascribed, and to whom many things relating to
Christ are attributed, and who is described as residing on him,
and who, by the baptist, was seen upon him, ( Isaiah 11:2 ) (
John 1:32
John 1:33 ) the
phrase denotes his continuance with him, whereby he was
qualified, as man and Mediator, for his office: because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the
meek:
not the Lord, the Spirit that was upon him, for Christ was
anointed with the Holy Ghost; but Jehovah the, Father, he was the
anointer of Christ, by whom he was anointed in some sense from
everlasting, being invested by him with the office of Mediator, (
Proverbs
8:21 ) and in the fulness of time, in the human nature, at
his birth and baptism, with the Holy Spirit, his gifts and grace,
without measure, ( Psalms 45:7 ) (
Acts 10:38 ) ,
hence he has the name of Messiah or Anointed, and from him his
people have the anointing which teacheth all things: and hereby
he was qualified, as a prophet, to preach good tidings to the
meek; such as are sensible of sin, and humbled for it; submit to
the righteousness of Christ; ascribe all they have to the grace
of God and have a mean opinion of themselves, and patiently bear
every affliction: or "poor", as in ( Luke 4:18 ) , the poor of
this world, and as to their intellectuals, and spirit, who are
sensible of their spiritual poverty, and seek the true riches, to
these the Gospel is "good tidings"; and to such Christ preached
good tidings concerning, the love, grace, and mercy of God;
concerning peace, pardon, righteousness, life and salvation, by
himself; concerning the kingdom of God, and the things
appertaining to it: he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted;
whose hearts are smitten and made contrite by the Spirit and Word
of God, and are truly humbled under a sense of sin; who are cut
to the heart, have wounded spirits, and in great pain; these
Christ binds up, by speaking comfortably to them; by applying his
blood; by discovering the free and full pardon of their sins; and
for this, as Mediator, he had a mission and commission from his
Father; he came not of himself, but he sent him: to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening, of the prison
to
them that are bound;
to such who were captives to sin, Satan, and the law, and as it
were prisoners to them, shut up by them, and in them, and held
fast there; but Christ, as he is the author of liberty; obtains
it for his people, and makes them free with it, so he proclaims
it in the Gospel; a liberty from sin, from the damning and
governing power of it; a freedom from the curse and condemnation
of the law; a deliverance from Satan, as of a prey from the
mighty, or as of prisoners from the prison house. The allusion is
to the proclamation of liberty, in the year of jubilee, (
Leviticus 25:10 ) (
Isaiah 49:9 )
. The Targum is,
``to the prisoners appear in light.''It may be rendered, "open clear and full light to the prisoners" F18, so Aben Ezra interprets it; (See Gill on Luke 4:18).