The Dream of Pontius Pilate’s Wife

Posted on August 12, 2022 by The Editor

Matthew 27:15-19

Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Matthew only mentions this passage of Pilate’s wife.

R. BEACON (circa 1909): Seemingly the verse containing it might be removed without affecting the sense or the sequence of the passage. Yet, however slight it may seem, we may be sure there was a divine reason for its insertion in an inspired writing, where nothing is casual.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Observe the special providence of God in sending this dream to Pilate’s wife.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Here was an unlooked-for witness to the innocence of Christ. Notice the peculiar time in which her warning came. It was evidently a dream of the morning—“I have suffered many things in a dream this day.” The day had not long broken—it was yet early in the morning. The Romans had a superstition that morning dreams are true.

MATTHEW POOLE: Whether this dream was caused by God for a further testimony of Christ’s innocence, or were merely natural, cannot be determined. She doubtless refers to some late dream, which possibly she might have after her husband was gone from her, for he was called early, Matthew 27:1, 2.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is not likely that she had heard anything before, concerning Christ, at least not so as to occasion her dreaming of him.

R. BEACON: But it is far from unlikely that Claudia Procula—the name, according to tradition, of the lady whose disturbed dream is recorded by the Evangelist—that she may have seen our Lord. What more probable than that, on one or more of her comings and goings to and from her husband’s palace, she may have come across Him during His visits to Jerusalem?

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Jansenius* thinks that she had now a representation or foresight of those calamities which afterwards befell Pilate and his family.

MATTHEW HENRY: She suffered many things in this dream; whether she dreamed of the cruel usage of an innocent person, or of the judgments that would fall upon those that had any hand in His death, or both—it seems it was a frightful dream, and her thoughts troubled her.

C. H. SPURGEON: Most dreams we quite forget—but so deep was the impression upon this Roman lady’s mind that she does not wait until her lord comes home, but sends to him at once. Her advice is urgent “Have thou nothing to do with that just Man.” She must warn him now, before he has laid a stroke on Him, much less stained his hands in His blood…Whether the dream of Pilate’s wife was a divine revelation of Christ’s glory or not, we cannot tell; but the message she sent to Pilate must have made him even more anxious than before to release Jesus.

R. BEACON: The statement from Pilate’s wife clearly shows that he was, somewhat at least, influenced by her. It is well known that such influence was often exerted by women, and naturally exercised as a rule on the side of mercy. Indeed, the Romans on this very account objected to provincial governors taking their wives with them, lest they should be deflected from the line of rigid justice. And we know how severe the Romans were, though there was much that was excellent in their discipline. Every student of Roman history is aware how conspicuously the manlier virtues stand out in the records of her chroniclers. But with dominion, luxury and skepticism had increased, and there was a condition of ostentatious culture that is only too closely paralleled by not a little that we see around us now. It is always so in the history of nations: first, power; then, wealth and luxury; then, degeneracy. And of such a culture Pilate was probably a crucial type. His very question, “What is truth?” addressed to our Lord, indicated the languid cynicism with which he regarded the matter. But to return to Claudia Procula—and, first of all, may we not surmise, for the reason stated above, that nothing is casual or insignificant in scripture, that it was not merely superstitious feeling that prompted her action?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Although the thoughts which had passed through the mind of Pilate’s wife during the day might be the cause of her dream, yet there can be no doubt that she suffered these torments, not in a natural way, such as happens to us every day, but by an extraordinary inspiration of God.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Doubtless, this was of God, and with a design that a testimony should be bore to the innocence of Christ every way.

MATTHEW HENRY: This was an honourable testimony to our Lord Jesus, witnessing that He was a just man, even when He was persecuted as the worst of malefactors: when His friends were afraid to appear in defence of Him, God made even those that were strangers and enemies, speak in His favour; when Peter denied Him, Judas confessed Him; when the chief priests pronounced Him guilty of death, Pilate declared he found no fault in Him; when women that loved him stood afar off, Pilate’s wife, who knew little of Him, showed a concern for Him.

JOHN CALVIN: God the Father took many methods of attesting the innocence of Christ that it might evidently appear that He suffered death in the place of others—that is, in our place. God intended that Pilate should so frequently acquit Him with his own mouth before condemning Him, that in His undeserved condemnation the true satisfaction for our sins might be the more brightly displayed. Matthew expressly mentions this, that none may wonder at the extreme solicitude of Pilate, when he debates with the people, in the midst of a tumult, for the purpose of saving the life of a man whom he despised. And, indeed, by the terrors which his wife, had suffered during the night, God compelled him to defend the innocence of His own Son; not to rescue Him from death, but only to make it manifest, that in the place of others He endured that punishment which He had not deserved.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Pilate washed his hands before the multitude, and said, “I am free from the blood of this just person.”

C. H. SPURGEON: Ah! Pilate, you need something stronger than water, to wash the blood of that just person off your hands…Knowing Him to be innocent, “when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): There is no doubt that God had appeared unto this woman, testifying the innocence of Christ, and showing the evils which should pursue Pilate if this innocent blood should be shed by his authority.

THOMAS COKE: Josephus* assures us that Pilate was deposed from his government by Vitellius,* and sent to Tiberius* at Rome. And Eusebius* tells us that quickly after having been banished to Vienne in Gaul, Pilate laid violent hands upon himself, falling on his own sword.

MATTHEW HENRY: The Father of spirits has many ways of access to the spirits of men, and can seal their instruction in a dream, or vision of the night, Job 33:15,16.

JOHN CALVIN: As to dreams, which serve the purpose of visions, I shall defer the subject, as I cannot now discuss it at large, and a more convenient opportunity will offer itself.

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*Editor’s Note: Jansenius (1585-1638) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Ypres; Josephus (born 37 A.D.) was a Jewish historian; Eusebius (died 339) was a Greek historian; Vitellius and Tiberius were both Roman Emperors.

 

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The Pool of Siloam

Posted on August 5, 2022 by The Editor

John 9:1-11

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.)

He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There is one little detail here which strikingly evidences the truthfulness of this narrative, and that is one little omission in this man’s description of what the Saviour had done to him. It is to be noted that the beggar made no reference to Christ spitting on the ground and making clay of the spittle. Being blind he could not see what the Lord did, though he could feel what He applied!

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You may be sure that the Pharisees would be in high resentment because Christ did that; for, according to their superstition, to make clay with spittle was a kind of brick-making which must not be done on the Sabbath-day—they would, for that reason, condemn Christ as a breaker of the Sabbath.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Which is by interpretation, Sent.—Why is this parenthetical explanation inserted by John?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The word Siloam was intended to prefigure the true “Shiloh,” “the messenger of the covenant,” Malachi 3:1, the sent of God, John 10:36—the Messiah that should come into the world.

C. H. SPURGEON: “Until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be,” Genesis 49:10. This is the Shiloh for whose salvation Jacob waited, looking for Him who should be sent…Observe the likeness between the words Siloam and Shiloh, in which case, Shiloh would mean the same as Messiah, the Sent One—and would indicate that Jesus Christ was the Messenger, the Sent One of God, and came to us, not at His own instance, and at His own will, but commissioned by the Most High.

J. C. RYLE: All pious Jews would understand the expression which so frequently occurs in John’s Gospel, “He whom God hath sent,” as pointing to the Messiah—It was fitting that He who was “Sent of God” should work a miracle in the pool called “Sent.” This is the view of Chrysostom and Augustine.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Ages before our Lord’s incarnation, the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to tell the Church, when pointing to His Person, and Character: “Behold!” said he, “your God will come and save you!” And how was He to be known? “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,” Isaiah 35:4,5.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): We have heard already about the Pool of Siloam, in John 7:37: there we read, “In the last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said, If any man thirst let him come to Me and drink.” These words were probably spoken on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, on which one part of the ceremonial was the drawing, with exuberant rejoicing, of water from the Pool of Siloam, and bearing it up to the Temple.

J. C. RYLE: Water was drawn from the pool of Siloam every day with great solemnity, and poured upon the altar, while the people sung the 12th chapter of Isaiah.

CHARLES SIMEON: The Jews were wont to pour out the water with joy; referring, in their minds, to the promise, that at that time “living waters should go out from Jerusalem,” Zechariah 14:8; and to that song which the Prophet Isaiah had taught them, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation,” Isaiah 12:3. In the midst of that ceremony, our blessed Lord addressed the whole multitude, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should receive.”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): And now, behold! He makes the same proclamation from His celestial temple—and says, “whosoever will, let him come, let him freely take of this living water,” Revelation 22:17.

CHARLES SIMEON: Our blessed Lord, determining to heal him, made clay of His own spittle, and put it on his eyes, and bade him wash in the pool of Siloam. How strange a remedy was this!

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Had there been the least glimmer of light before, the clay would have shut it all out.

C. H. SPURGEON: Is this the way to give him sight? Yes, our Lord often uses means that seem to be very unlikely to accomplish His purpose…Often, when He is going to open a man’s eyes, spiritually, He first makes him feel more blind than he ever was in all his life.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It certainly was no ordinary proof of faith, that the blind man, relying on a bare word, is fully convinced that his sight will be restored to him, and with this conviction hastens to go to the place where he was commanded.

C. H. SPURGEON: The command was exceedingly specific—“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” So is the Gospel exceedingly specific—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31…If he had refused to go and wash, he would not have received his sight.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): His blind obedience made him see.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): If you do not believe you will not understand—Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe, that you may understand.

ROBERT HAWKER: One word more in relation to this poor man—he was not conscious at the first, who his great benefactor was. Neither could he tell how the Lord had accomplished the wonderful cure. He only knew that he was once blind, and now had sight. Such is not infrequently the case in respect to spiritual mercies. How little do we know of Jesus, when first He manifests Himself to us. And even after renewed love tokens of His favour, how backward we are, in apprehension. All the objects we at first behold in spiritual discernment, are but indistinct, like the sight of him who saw “men as trees walking” in Mark 8:22-26. But, Reader! though you, or I, or any other child of God cannot exactly tell how or when or where the Lord was pleased to accomplish our effectual calling; still the day of small things is not to be despised, when we can truly say as he did: “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Waters of Shiloah” are mentioned in Isaiah 8:6, and said to “go softly.”

CHARLES SIMEON: All of us must of necessity resemble the man while his blindness continued—or, after it had been removed. Let us then inquire whether we can say with him, “This I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” If we cannot, let us remember, that the Saviour is nigh at hand, and that the means used for our illumination, weak as they are, are quite sufficient, if accompanied with His power. Let us take encouragement to ask the influences of His good Spirit, and to pray with David, “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law,” Psalm 119:18.

ROBERT HAWKER: Pause a moment more. If such to a blind man in nature, were the wonders of sight; what must it be, yea what is it daily to a child of God in grace, when his spiritual eyes are opened to see the wonderful things of God’s law?

 

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Faith in Times of Pestilence

Posted on July 29, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 91:1 & 2, 5-7, 9-11

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee…Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is very wonderful when men have lived near to God, and have received special faith to grasp such a promise as this, how they have outlived the most deadly pestilences. I collected sometime ago a little list of names of devout men who in the times of pestilence remained in the field to visit the sick and to attend to those who were dying, and it is marvelous that they outlived all, and their names stand now upon the catalogue of fame as benefactors of the race. They had special faith given, and they used that faith in trusting in God.

WOLFGANG MUSCULUS (1497-1563): Certainly such a confidence of mind could not be attributed to natural powers, in so menacing and so overwhelming a destruction. For it is natural to mortals, it is implanted in them by God the Author and Maker of nature, to fear whatever is hurtful and deadly, especially what visibly smites and suddenly destroys. Therefore does he beautifully join together these two things; the first, in saying, Thou shalt not be afraid; the second, by adding, for the terror. He acknowledges that this plague is terrible to nature; and then by his trust in divine protection he promises himself this security, that he shall not fear the evil, which would otherwise make human nature quail.

C. H. SPURGEON: Walls cannot keep out the pestilence, but the Lord can.

WILLIAM BRIDGE (1600-1670): What faith is this, what trust is that which God hath promised protection and deliverance to in the time of a plague?

C. H. SPURGEON: I have already said that I do not believe that this applies to all believers, for good men die as well as bad men in days of pestilence; but there are some who dwell near to God to whom the promise comes with special power, and they have been able to do and dare for God without fear, and their faith has been abundantly rewarded.

WILLIAM BRIDGE: There is a faith of persuasion, called faith, whereby men are persuaded and verily believe that they shall not die, nor fall by the hand of the plague. This is well; but I do not find in the 91st Psalm that this protection is entailed upon this persuasion, neither do I find this faith here mentioned. There is also a faith of reliance, whereby a man doth rely upon God for salvation; this is a justifying faith, true justifying faith; this is true faith indeed, but I do not find in this Psalm, that this promise of protection and deliverance in the time of a plague is entailed upon this, nor that this is here mentioned.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Those that preserve their purity in times of general corruption may trust God with their safety in times of general desolation.

C. H. SPURGEON: God does not give long life to all His people; yet in obedience to God is the most probable way of securing long life. There are also many of God’s saints who are spared in times of pestilence, or who are delivered by an act of faith out of great dangers.

WILLIAM BRIDGE: What act of faith is it? What faith is it?

C. H. SPURGEON: “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.” To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest wisdom. It is but poor comfort to say “the Lord is a refuge,” but to say He is my refuge, is the essence of consolation.

WILLIAM BRIDGE: I think this is the faith here spoken of in this 91st Psalm—I may call it a faith of recourse unto God—mark verse one, as if he should say, ‘When others run from the plague and pestilence and run to their hiding places, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High—that betakes himself to God as his hiding place and his habitation—he shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty, shall be protected;’ and so at verse nine, “Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling;”—as if he should say, ‘In a time of plague men are running and looking out for habitations and hiding places; but because thou hast made the Lord thy habitation, and hast recourse to Him as thy habitation, no evil shall befall thee, neither shall the plague come nigh thy dwelling.’

JOHN WHITECROSS (circa 1831): Lord Craven lived in London when the plague raged. His Lordship, to avoid the danger, resolved to go to his house in the country. His coach was at the door, his baggage put up, and all things in readiness for the journey. As he was walking through his hall with his hat on, his cane under his arm, and about to step into his carriage, he overheard his negro servant saying to another servant, “I suppose, by my Lord’s quitting London to avoid the plague, that his God lives in the country, and not in town.” It struck Lord Craven very sensibly and made him pause. “My God,” thought he, “lives everywhere, and He can preserve me in town as well as in the country. I will stay where I am.” He continued in London, was remarkably useful among his sick neighbours, and never caught the infection.

WILLIAM BRIDGE: “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,”—in the ways of thy calling and place. Look! when a man in the time of a plague shall conscientiously keep his station and place, and betake himself to God as his habitation; this is the faith that is here spoken of, and this is the faith that God hath promised protection to in the 91st Psalm.

JEREMY BURROUGHS (1599-1647): David would not be afraid though he walked “in the valley of the shadow of death,” because God was with him, Psalm 23:4.

MATTHEW HENRY: No locks nor bars can shut out diseases, while we carry about with us in our bodies the seeds of them—if it take away the natural life, yet it shall be so far from doing any prejudice to the spiritual life that it shall be its perfection. A believer needs not fear, and therefore should not fear any arrow, because the point is off, the poison is out. O death! where is thy sting? It is also under divine direction, and will hit where God appoints and not otherwise. Every bullet has its commission. Whatever is done, our heavenly Father’s will is done; and we have no reason to be afraid of that.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): Where you die—when you die—or by what means is scarcely worth a thought, if you do but die in Christ.

 

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Consider God’s Grand Design in Affliction

Posted on July 22, 2022 by The Editor

Proverbs 13:24; Hebrews 12:5-11; Romans 8:28

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Consider the design of affliction.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): The grand design of God in all the afflictions that befall His people is to bring them nearer and closer to Himself.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The sufferings of the righteous here are not punitive, they are corrective…It is not the sword of the judge, it is the rod of the father, which falls upon the believer—the sword of justice no longer threatens us, but the rod of parental correction is still in use…All His corrections are sent in love, to purify thee, and to draw thee nearer to Himself. Surely it must help thee to bear the chastening with resignation if thou art able to recognize thy Father’s hand.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Ah, dear reader, there is no real rest for your poor heart until you learn to see the hand of God in everything.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,” Psalm 94:12. Here David looks above the instruments of trouble, and eyes the hand of God, which gives it another name and puts quite another colour upon it…Now it is here promised, that God’s people shall get good by their sufferings—the afflictions of the saints are fatherly chastenings, designed for their instruction, reformation, and improvement.

A. W. PINK: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,” Psalm 37:23, yet the path He appoints is not the one which is smoothest to the flesh.

WILLIAM JAY: The people of God may suffer. They may “eat the bread of adversity, and drink the water of affliction,” Isaiah 30:20; their purposes may be broken off, even the thoughts of their hearts—and their schemes frustrated; they may suffer calamity in their worldly circumstances; they may suffer from the loss of health and friends; their trials may be painful and repeated, and “deep may call unto deep,” and they may exclaim, “All thy waves and thy billows have gone over me,” Psalm 42:7.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Such is the nature of Christ’s religion, and such are the terms of His discipleship—suffering and self-denial. This is a truth hard to understand for those who are not initiated into the mysteries of the kingdom of grace. To them it is inexplicable how one who is loved by God, whose sins Christ has forgiven, whose life appears holy, useful, and honoured, could be the subject of divine correction and, perhaps in some instances more than others, seem smitten by God and afflicted. But to those who are students of Christ, who learn at the feet of Jesus, this is no insoluble problem. They understand, at least in a measure, why the most holy are frequently the most chastened.

WILLIAM JAY: It is not only to possess your souls with patience―it is not only to submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God―but to acquiesce in the pleasure of the Almighty.  It is not to say, “This is my grief, and I must bear it;” but, “Here I am, let Him do what seemeth to Him good.” But you cannot render a voluntary, and cheerful, and grateful resignation till you see the righteousness, the wisdom, and, above all, the kindness of His dispensations towards you.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Oh, let this be the one desire and earnest resolve of your soul: “That I may know Him,” Philippians 3:10. “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” Philippians 3:8. Such, then, as have learned of Christ can understand why a child of God should be a child of affliction—why the Lord “trieth the righteous,” Psalm 11:5. Declarations such as these have significant meaning they comprehend very well: “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction,” Isaiah 48:10. “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,” Revelation 3:19. When the present and hallowed results of the divine dealings are somewhat realized and the heart is awakened to more prayer, Christ is more precious, sin is more hated, self is more loathed, holiness is more endeared, and the soul is brought into greater nearness to God.

JEREMY BURROUGHS (1599-1647): Among others, this is one special means whereby an afflicted condition comes to be useful for the increase of grace, because in it the soul gains much experience of God and of His ways. It experiences the goodness and faithfulness of His Word, as we read in Psalm 107: “those who go down into the sea see the wonders of the Lord;” much more do those who come into the seas of troubles and afflictions.  How do they see the wonders of the Lord? They can tell their friends much of the wonders of the Lord towards them.  Israel in the time of trouble cried out, “My God, we know thee,” Hos. 8:2. They knew God more then than before affliction and experiencing of the evil of sin.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600-1661): It is much to come out of the Lord’s school of trial wiser, and more experienced in the ways of God.

GEORGE SWINNOCK (1627-1673): God’s rod, like Jonathan’s, is dipped in honey.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: When the suffering Christian reviews the divine supports he has experienced in his affliction—remembering how God encircled him with the everlasting arms, how Christ pillowed his languid head, how the Holy Ghost comforted and soothed his anguish by unfolding the sweetness and fullness of the Scriptures, sealing promise upon promise upon his smitten heart—his chastened spirit can well exclaim, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word,” Psalm 119:65.  Thou hast broken only to bind up; hast wounded only to heal; hast emptied only to replenish; hast embittered only to sweeten; hast removed one blessing only to bestow another and a greater.

MATTHEW HENRY: David could speak from experience: “It was good for me, that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes,” Psalm 119:71; many a good lesson he had learnt by his afflictions, and many a good duty he had been brought to which otherwise would have been unlearnt and undone. Therefore God visited him with affliction, that he might learn God’s statutes; and the intention was answered: the afflictions had contributed to the improvement of his knowledge and grace. He that chastened him, taught him.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Those afflictions which are accompanied with Divine instructions are great and true blessings.

J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): It is a sad thing when we allow life’s disappointments to make us despondent. The problem of Christian living in this world is not to escape experiences of hardship, but to retain sweetness of spirit in all such experiences…You must have hardships, losses, sorrows. But see to it that you retain through all these a heart gentle as a little child’s, and full of trust and hope.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): Our desire, therefore, is not that we may be without trials of faith, but that the Lord would graciously support us in the trial, and that we may not dishonour Him by distrust—In a thousand trials, it is not just five hundred of them that work “for the good” of the believer, but nine hundred and ninety-nine, plus one.

 

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Consider This

Posted on July 15, 2022 by The Editor

Job 9:12; Job 2:10; Ecclesiastes 7:14

Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?

What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other.

JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): The time of affliction is a time of consideration; and if men are not extremely hardened, they cannot but bethink themselves who sends affliction, and for what end it is sent.

JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Often in prosperity folks are partial in examining and judging themselves, and therefore God brings on affliction, strips them of worldly comforts, makes them sit alone, and examine matters over again.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Consider what? This: that “God also hath set the one over against the other,” and, therefore, thou must take the one as well as the other.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Whatever the providence may be that turns your joy into grief, it is a chastening from the Lord.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): Consider where your affliction originates. It does not originate with yourself, for you love yourself too much for this. It does not originate with men, for they cannot so much as move without the will of God, nor pull one of your hairs out. Rather, it is the Lord Himself who sends this upon you—the sovereign Lord whose hand none can stay and to whom no one can say, “What doest Thou?” It is your reconciled Father in Christ who sends this upon you in His wisdom, goodness, and love, doing so to your advantage. “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,” Hebrews 12:6.

JOHN TRAPP: God hath not only a permissive, but an active hand in all our afflictions.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses, your losses, your sorrows―all―all are in your heavenly Father’s hand. They cannot come unless sent by Him.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let us mark that God intendeth to try His faithful ones. For as much as He suffereth and ordaineth them to be grieved and vexed during this earthly life, so as they pass through many troubles, and things fall not out as they would have them: He seemeth to have forsaken them, yea and even to be their enemy. But we must understand that He doeth it not without cause, and that we have need to be so exercised. And in good faith if a man should deliver us gold or silver, we should fain know whether it were good or no: and if we doubted of it, we would make it pass through the fire. And is not our faith more precious than all the corruptible metals that are tried so carefully? Then is it good reason that so worthy a thing as our faith is should have the fear of God, that it might be tried in good earnest; which thing is then done, when God sendeth us afflictions.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): God delights to increase the faith of His children. Our faith, which is feeble at first, is developed and strengthened more and more by use. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Trials are the winds which root the tree of our faith.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?” James 2:5. Rich in faith—not that they were so, or considered as such when chosen, and so were chosen because of their faith—but the sense is, that they were chosen “to be rich in faith.”

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): A dear old Baptist minister once remarked that “when God means to make a man rich, He takes away his money.”

GEORGE MÜLLER: To have our faith strengthened, we must feel a willingness to take from God’s hand the means for strengthening it. We must allow Him to educate us through trials and bereavements and troubles. It is through trials that faith is exercised and developed. God affectionately permits difficulties, that He may develop unceasingly that which He is willing to do for us, and to this end we should not shrink, but if He gives sorrow and hindrances and losses and afflictions, we should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: The goodness of God to us, combined with a jealous regard to His own glory, constrains Him to conceal the path along which He conducts us. His promise is, “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them,” Isaiah 42:16.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): He hath said, “I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made,” Isaiah 57:16. The time may seem long, but I shall not be detained a moment longer than the case requires. He hath appointed the hour of deliverance, and His time is the best time; for He is a God of knowledge, and blessed are all they wait for Him.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The great Shepherd and Head of the Church has an appointed time and manner for the accomplishment of all His purposes; nothing can be effectually done, but when and where He pleases; but when His hour is come, then hard things become easy, and crooked things straight; His Word, His Spirit, and Providence then will all concur to make the path of duty plain to those who serve Him; though, perhaps, till this knowledge is necessary, He permits them to remain ignorant of what He has designed them for. By this discipline they are taught to depend entirely upon Him, and are afterwards more fully assured that He has sent and succeeded them.

C. H. SPURGEON: Our sorrows shall have an end, when God has gotten His end in them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If we cry to God for the removal of the oppression and affliction we are under, and it is not removed—the reason is not because the Lord’s hand is shortened or His ear heavy, but because the affliction has not done its work…Afflictions are continued no longer than till they have done their work.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Bow that stricken heart, yield that tempest-tossed soul to His sovereign disposal, to His calm, righteous sway, in the submissive spirit and language of your suffering Saviour, “Not my will, but thine, be done!” Luke 22:42. “My times of sadness and of grief are in Thy hand.”

ALEXANDER CARSON (1776-1844): It is God who raises the storm; and it is God who stilleth it. See Jonah 1:1-16.

WILLIAM JAY: And it is this that God Himself has enjoined: “Be still, and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10. This turns submission into acquiescence; this enables the Christian to say, with his Lord and Master, “The cup which my heavenly Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?”

 

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The Other Side of the Rainbow

Posted on July 8, 2022 by The Editor

Revelation 4:1-5; Revelation 10:1-7

Behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): John saw Christ as a mighty Angel come down from heaven, clothed with a rainbow, and His face was as it were the Sun, and His feet as “pillars of fire.” So John had seen him before, in Revelation 1:15,16. It is the peculiar prerogative of Christ, to shine as the sun upon His people, and to lift up the light of His countenance upon them.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “He set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth,” to show the absolute power and dominion He had over the world.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): The rainbow is an illustrious token of mercy and love…Almost every critic of note understands this of the rainbow, which God gave as a sign that the earth should no more be destroyed by water; see Genesis 9:12-17.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “A rainbow around about the Throne!” I have a notion concerning this rainbow, that it was a complete circle. In the 10th Chapter, the Apostle John tells us that he saw “another mighty angel with a rainbow upon his head,” which could hardly have been the semi-circular arc we are accustomed to see in the sky in times of rain and sunshine. It must have been, I should imagine, a complete ring.

ROBERT HAWKER: There are so many very blessed things connected with this token of the rainbow, that I beg the Reader’s indulgence, to dwell upon the subject somewhat more particularly—“Out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices.” Perhaps these were meant to show, the many dispensations of the Lord, both to the Church and to the world. But whatever dispensations come from the throne, they must all pass through the rainbow, for the rainbow was all round the throne, so that nothing could be manifested but through it. And this, very blessedly teacheth the Church, how everlastingly safe all Christ’s redeemed must be, since nothing can come to pass, but it must pass His hands. On the other hand, how awful to His enemies, since Christ is in all dispensations, and nothing can escape Him.

MATTHEW HENRY: The rainbow has fiery colours in it, to signify that though God will not again drown the world, yet, when the mystery of God shall be finished, the world shall be consumed by fire.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): A fire of love to His people, a fire of wrath to His enemies.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): His countenance, like the pillar of cloud between the Israelites and Egyptians, will present a double appearance; and though clothed with the rainbow of peace toward His friends, it will lower on His enemies like a stormy sky; and while His eye, at every glance, pours upon the former a flood of joy, it will flash lightnings on the latter, which will scorch their inmost souls, and fill them with unutterable, inconceivable anguish.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): The Angel that hath a rainbow about His head, hath “pillars of fire” for His feet to consume them who refuse His peace. “He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained,” Acts 17:31.

EDWARD PAYSON: Then shall He come in the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see Him, and yours, my friends, among the rest. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they who condemned Him as guilty of blasphemy will find, to their eternal shame and confusion will find, that He uttered a solemn truth when He said, “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven,” Matthew 26:64. Then shall His murderers find, that He whom they buffeted, scourged, mocked, and crucified, was indeed the Lord of life and glory, and they, with all who have since despised, and all who are now despising His offered grace, will then be convinced by their own sad experience, that “whosoever falls on this stone shall be broken, and that on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder,” Matthew 21:44.

ROBERT HAWKER: Great Father of mercies! hast Thou said, that Thou wilt set thy bow in the cloud, that it shall be a token of thy merciful engagements to mankind? that Thou wilt look upon it, and that Thou wilt remember Thine everlasting covenant? Genesis 9:17. Oh! then, give me grace, to look upon it also; and to behold in it, by an eye of faith, that mighty Angel, even the Lord Jesus Christ, whom John saw clothed with a rainbow round the throne.

EDWARD PAYSON: But it is also necessary to guard against the perversions of such as would derive from it encouragement to hope for heaven while they continue in sin…They may say, since there is so much reason to hope, we will hope for the best, and not despair of salvation, though we should continue a little longer in sin. If any are saying this, I do most solemnly protest against this perversion, this abuse of the grace of God, and warn them of its danger. This is what the apostle calls making Christ the minister of sin, and turning the grace of God into wantonness…If any such still pretend, from what has been said, to hope in God’s mercy, I would remind them of the words of the apostle John: “Whosoever hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure,”1 John 3:3.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): It is necessary, because God calls for it, and will not pardon sin without it. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” Luke 13:3.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” declared the Lord Jesus, “but my words shall not pass away,” Matthew 24:35. To keep His Word is to live. To refuse it is to die eternally! Let not Satan persuade any that God will be better than His Word; He will fulfill it to the letter, though man may think otherwise and hope for mercy apart from Christ.

EDITOR’S NOTE: What a terrible awakening the Day of Judgment will be for those who turn God’s rainbow, His covenant symbol of mercy and love, into a proud emblem of perverted sexual abominations which God condemns in His Word, Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:22-27; and which brought God’s fiery judgment upon Sodom, and a global destructive flood in Noah’s day. It is such an open Satanic affront to God, that surely the “cry of it comes up to heaven,” as God phrased it in Genesis 18:20,21.

A. W. PINK: And “what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?” 1 Peter 4:17. What can it be? What must be the portion of those who love darkness and hate the Light? Only one answer is possible. And Scripture does not leave us in ignorance thereof. “If they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from Heaven,” Hebrews 12:25. Escape they shall not…And in that Day, He shall say, “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me,” Luke 19:27.

C. H. SPURGEON: Oh, turn, you heathens—some of you as vile as the inhabitants of Sodom—turn! turn to God!

 

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A Reminder to Canada on July 1—and to the USA on July 4

Posted on July 1, 2022 by The Editor

Psalm 22:28; Daniel 2:21—Job 12:23; Proverbs 14:34—Psalm 66:7

The kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.

He removeth kings, and setteth up kings—He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again.

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people—He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The cabinet counsels of princes are before God’s eye, 2 Kings 6:11…Kingdoms have their ebbings and flowings, their waxings and wanings; and both are from God.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And this is marked by the extraordinary note “Selah,” or, “Mark well, take notice.” So the term may be understood.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Mark the presence of the great Ruler among the nations. He breaks in pieces oppressive thrones, and punishes guilty peoples. No one can study the rise and fall of empires without perceiving that there is a power which makes for righteousness, and, in the end, brings iniquity before its bar, and condemns it with unsparing justice.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): It is indispensably necessary to the perfection of God’s moral government that it should extend to nations and communities, as well as to individuals. This, I conceive, is too evident to require proof, for how could God be considered as the moral governor of the world, if nations and communities were exempt from His government?

JAMES HERVEY (1713-1758): How can the justice of God, with regard to a wicked nations, be shown, but by executing His vengeance upon them, in temporal calamities?

C. H. SPURGEON: National sins demand national punishments.

JAMES HERVEY: Consider, Sirs, the very essence of political communities is temporal, purely temporal. It has no existence but in this world. Hereafter, sinners will be judged and punished, singly and in a personal capacity only. How then shall He that is Ruler among nations, maintain the dignity of His government over the kingdoms of the earth, but by inflicting national punishments for national provocations?

C. H. SPURGEON: The whole history of God’s dealings with mankind proves that though a nation may go on in wickedness; it may multiply its oppressions; it may abound in bloodshed, tyranny, and war; but an hour of retribution draweth nigh. When it shall have filled up its measure of iniquity, then shall the angel of vengeance execute its doom. There cannot be an eternal damnation of nations as nations, the destruction of men at last will be that of individuals, and at the bar of God each man must be tried for himself. The punishment, therefore, of nations, is national. The guilt they incur, must receive its awful recompense in this present time state.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Though the occasion will require me to take some notice of our public affairs, I mean not to amuse you with what is usually called a political discourse. The Bible is my system of politics. There I read, that “the Lord reigneth,” Psalm 97:1; that “He doth what He pleaseth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,” Daniel 4:35; that no wisdom, understanding, counsel, or power, can prevail without His blessing, Proverbs 21:30; that as “righteousness exalteth a nation,” so “sin is the reproach,” and will even totally be the ruin of any people.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): This is political wisdom on scriptural principles. If “righteousness exalteth a nation,” the open acknowledgment of it is the sure path to national prosperity. If it be not beneath statesmen to take lessons from the Bible, let them deeply ponder this sound political maxim, which commends itself to every instinct of the unsophisticated mind. Indeed it would be a strange anomaly in the Divine administration, if the connection between godliness and prosperity, ungodliness and misery, established in individual cases, should not obtain in the multiplication of individuals into nations.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Justice, reigning in a nation, puts an honour upon it. A righteous administration of the government, impartial equity between man and man, public countenance given to religion, the general practice and profession of virtue, the protecting and preserving of virtuous men, charity and compassion to strangers, these “exalt a nation;” they uphold the throne, elevate the people’s minds, and qualify a nation for the favour of God, which will make them high, as a “holy nation,” Deuteronomy 26:19. Vice, reigning in a nation, puts disgrace upon it: “Sin is a reproach” to any city or kingdom, and renders them despicable among their neighbours. The people of Israel were often instances of both parts of this observation; they were great when they were good, but when they forsook God all about them insulted them and trampled on them.

CHARLES BRIDGES: As they were a righteous or sinful nation, they were marked by corresponding exaltation or reproach. The Scripture records clearly prove this to be the rule of national conduct—not the wisdom of policy, extent of empire, splendid conquests, flourishing trade, abundant resources—but righteousness—exalteth a nation.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Nations who depend for their protection and prosperity upon navies, armies, commerce, and forget God; they are idolaters.

ADAM CLARKE: It is therefore the interest and duty of princes to use their power for the suppression of vice and support of virtue.

EDWARD PAYSON: National judgments are always the consequence of national sins.

C. H. SPURGEON: Go ye this day to Jerusalem, look beneath the buildings of the modern town, and mark the excavations which reveal the utter ruin of the holy city…Why was the siege of Jerusalem the most bloody and horrible in all history?” It was because the Jews rejected the Messiah, and would not believe the testimony of the Living God. O accursed unbelief!

MATTHEW HENRY: If Jerusalem be punished―shall not the nations?

JOHN NEWTON: We likewise are a highly favored people, and have long enjoyed privileges which excite the admiration and envy of surrounding nations: and we are a sinful, ungrateful people; so that, when we compare the blessings and mercies we have received from the Lord, with our conduct towards Him, it is to be feared we are no less concerned than Israel was of old. Some people are startled at the enormous sum of our national debt: they who understand spiritual arithmetic may be well startled if they sit down and compare the debt of national sin.

JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): O that we would but steer our course according to those rare politics of the Bible, those divine maxims of wisdom!

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This is the book on which the well-being of nations has always hinged, and with which the best interests of every nation at this moment are inseparably bound up. Just in proportion as the Bible is honoured or not, light or darkness, morality or immorality, true religion or superstition, liberty or despotism, good laws or bad, will be found in a land.

MATTHEW HENRY: People are ruined, not so much by doing what is amiss, as by doing it and not repenting of it—doing it and standing to it.

EDWARD PAYSON: As sinful nations, like individuals, if they do not reform, usually become worse, it will ever be found that the last days of a nation are its worst days, and that the generation which is destroyed is more abandoned than all preceding generations.

JOHN NEWTON: To stand in the breach, by prayer, that, if it may be, wrath may yet be averted, and our national mercies prolonged—This, I think, is the true patriotism, and the best, if not the only way, in which persons in private life may serve their country.

 

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Absalom’s Memorial & Absalom’s Hair

Posted on June 24, 2022 by The Editor

2 Samuel 14:25,26; 2 Samuel 15:1-6; 2 Samuel 18:9-11,14,15,17,18

In all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.

And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle…Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And ten young men that bare Joab’s armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him…And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him.

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Absalom being desirous to perpetuate his memory, had erected a pillar, which, no doubt, he designed as a mausoleum, and which we may reasonably conclude was equally magnificent with the ambition of him who reared it. But see how short-sighted are mortals! This same Absalom, so far from being buried in this proud monument which he had erected, was killed and buried like a traitor, thrown into a pit, and a great heap of stones laid upon him. The sacred writer mentions this particular, not only to show the vanity of Absalom, but, we may reasonably conclude, to show the vanity of human life in general.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Absalom committed a grievous offence against his father king David, for he sought to rob him of his scepter and wrest the kingdom from his hands, 2 Samuel 15:7-14…The methods he followed thoroughly revealed what a godless and unscrupulous scoundrel he was; see 2 Samuel 15:1-6, and 2 Samuel 16:20 to 2 Samuel 17:4.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Amidst all the beauty of Absalom’s person, we hear nothing of the graces of his mind! Alas! what are all outward attractions but vanity.

THOMAS COKE: It is very evident from the peculiar manner in which it is mentioned in the sacred text, that there must have been something extremely singular, even at that time, in this large quantity of Absalom’s hair.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Absalom had a very fine head of hair; whether it was the length, or colour, or extraordinary softness of it, something there was which made it very valuable and very much an ornament to him. This notice is taken of his hair, not as the hair of a Nazarite, Numbers 6:1-5—Absalom was far from that strictness—but as the hair of a beau. Absalom let it grow till it was a burden to him, and was heavy on him—nor would he cut it as long as ever he could bear it.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): It grew so very thick and long in one year’s time, that he was obliged to cut it; and what might add to the weight of it, was its being oiled and powdered; and, as some say, with the dust of gold, to make it look yellow and glistering.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): An abundance of oil and ointments were used by the ancients in dressing their heads; as is evident, not only from many places in the Greek and Roman writers, but also from several places in the sacred writings; see Psalm 23:5, Ecclesiastes 9:8, Matthew 6:17. Josephus, the Jewish historian, also informs us that the Jews not only used ointments, but that they put gold dust in their hair that it might flame in the sun.

MATTHEW HENRY: When he did cut it, for ostentation he had it weighed, that it might be seen how much it excelled other men’s.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Absalom had a pride in his hair.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Satan himself is described figuratively as being the most beautiful angel, Ezekiel 28:12-17, and his sin was pride, and wanting the throne of his Creator, that he might be God, and worshipped as God, Isaiah 14:12-14. And this was the Satanic character of Absalom’s vanity, and his rebellious sin was in seeking to gain the throne of his father king David. Does not the phrase “after the king’s weight,” suggest something more than merely a physical unit of measure? Absalom weighing his hair every year, perhaps spiritually symbolizes his own assessment of how much his efforts had advanced his plans to gain his father’s throne; and he gloried in the very thought of it.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): Those who cannot blush for sin too much resemble the beasts. There are some so far from this holy blushing that they are proud of their sins. They are proud of their long hair. These are the devil’s Nazarites. “Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him?” 1 Corinthians 11:14. It confounds the distinction of the sexes. Some glory in what is their shame: they look at sin as a piece of gallantry. The swearer thinks his speech is most graceful when it is interspersed with oaths. The drunkard considers it a glory that he can drink to excess.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Sodom rushed forward to that degree of licentiousness so as to be horrified by no enormity. God says that they began by pride, Ezekiel 16:49―and surely pride is the mother of all contempt of God.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In our modern day, Sodomites publically celebrate their sin with annual June parades, which they themselves call “Pride Parades.”

ADAM CLARKE: They glory in their iniquity. This is the highest pitch of ungodliness.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): God often uses the lust a man hath been most indulgent unto to be his ruin, his hangman and executioner; so Absalom’s hair was to him.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The locks of his hair in which he gloried were caught in the low branches of an oak, and there he hung.

JOHN TRAPP: By that head he hanged, which had plotted treason against so good a father; and by the hair of his head twisted and wound about the boughs, God made his hair his halter: those tresses that had formerly hanged loosely on his shoulders—now he hangs by them. He had been accustomed to weigh his hair, and was proud to find it so heavy: now his hair bears the weight of his body, and makes his burden his torment.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Thus the thing of his pride was the instrument of his ruin.

ROBERT HAWKER: Every prelude to the death of Absalom is awful. His death is not after the common visitation of all men. He is first suspended, as it were, a spectacle between heaven and earth, unworthy of being in either.

A. W. PINK: Full opportunity was now afforded him to meditate upon his crimes and make his peace with God. But so far as the sacred record informs us, there was no contrition on his part. As God declared of Jezebel “I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not,” Revelation 2:21, so the life of Absalom was spared a few more hours, but no hint is given that he confessed his fearful sins to God. No, God had no place in his thoughts; as he had lived, so he died—defiant and impenitent. Absalom’s decease presents to us one of the darkest pictures of fallen human nature to be met with in the whole of God’s Word. A more melancholy and tragic spectacle can scarcely be imagined than Absalom dangling from the boughs of that tree.

C. H. SPURGEON: The proud may vaunt themselves of their beauty—their hairy scalp, like that of Absalom, may be their boast—but as the Lord made the hair of Absalom to be the instrument of his doom, so can He make the glory of man to be his ruin. “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18. No man is out of the reach of God—and no nation, either!

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Man’s ultimate problem is his pride.

THOMAS GOODWIN: Adam, our forefather, like rebellious Absalom, sought to dethrone God; that he should be as God was his temptation to sin against Him, Genesis 3:5.

 

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Advice to a Young Woman Entering Into Adult Life

Posted on June 17, 2022 by The Editor

Ecclesiastes 12:1; Proverbs 3:5-7

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): Young women! Deeply ponder, that character for life is usually formed in youth. It is the golden season of life, and to none more truly and eminently so than to the young woman. Her leisure, her freedom from care, and her protected situation, give her the opportunity for this, which it is her wisdom and her duty to consider, embrace, and improve.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” What does the text say? It says in effect, you are not your own, you have no right to yourselves. God made you; He is your Creator: He made you that you might be happy; but you can be happy only in Him. And as He created you, so He preserves you; He feeds, clothes, upholds you. He has made you capable of knowing, loving, and serving Him in this world, and of enjoying Him in his own glory for ever. And when you had undone yourselves by sin, He sent His Son to redeem you by His blood; and He sends His Spirit to enlighten, convince, and draw you away from childishness, from vain and trifling, as well as from sinful pursuits.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): And remember what an obligation it lays upon us to depart from iniquity.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Set out in life with a deep conviction of the momentous consequence of self-discipline. Lay the basis of all your excellences in true religion—the religion of the heart, the religion of penitence, faith in Christ, love to God, a holy and heavenly mind. No character can be well-constructed, safe, complete, beautiful, or useful, without this.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Diligently remember what Christ Himself teaches, that “he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,” John 8:12.

ADAM CLARKE: Remember what thou hast heard, and practice what thou dost remember; and let all obedience be from the heart: “Let thy heart keep my commandments,” Proverbs 3:1.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): The first benefit resulting from this is, that it will bring most honour and glory to God. This ought to be the point in which our actions should center; for to this end were we born, and to this end were we redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that we should promote God’s eternal glory. And as the glory of God is most advanced by paying obedience to His precepts, they that begin soonest to walk in His ways, act most to His glory. But, secondly, as an early piety redounds most to the honour to God, so it will bring most honour to ourselves: for those that honour God, God will honour, 1 Samuel 2:30.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: The perfection of human character consists of piety, prudence, and knowledge. Make that noble trio your own—Cultivate a thoughtful, reflective turn of mind. Look beneath the surface of things; beyond their present aspect to their future consequences. Be somewhat meditative, and learn to restrain your words and feelings, by a rigid self-control. Pay most anxious attention to your temper, and acquire as much as possible its perfect command. More women are rendered miserable, and render others miserable, by neglect of this, than perhaps from any other cause. Let meekness of disposition and gentleness of manner be a constant study.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This advice is specially needed; for youth has so much that is delightful in its novelty to think about, and the world, on both its innocent and its sinful side, appeals to it so strongly, that the Creator is only too apt to be crowded out of view.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): How many young women exist only for amusement and vanity?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Whatever you make most of is your god. Whatever you love more than God is your idol. Many make a god of pleasure; that’s what their hearts are set on.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Fashion is the goddess to whose shrine too many bow with ardent devotion—the mind is filled with pride and vanity, and a deteriorating influence is placed on upon what constitutes the true dignity of the soul. The love of ostentation infects the character…Modesty is the most attractive of all female graces. What is intelligence without it, but bolder impudence? Or beauty, but a more seductive snare? Modesty is a woman’s ornament, investing all her other excellences with additional charms—the blush of purity upon the cheek of beauty. It is her power, by which she subdues every heart that is worth the conquest. Chastity is the robe which every woman should wear, and modesty is the golden clasp that keeps it upon her, and the fringe that adorns it.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): With many people of fashion, infidelity is fashionable.

C. H. SPURGEON: If sin be in fashion, let us be out of fashion.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD: Be not “ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation,” Romans 1:16. Fear not man; fear not the contempt and revilings which you must meet with in the way of duty.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Take heed against flexibility of principle, purpose, and character, in reference to what is right—and obstinate perseverance in what is wrong…Knowing what is right, do it, though you stand alone, and though the world laughs in chorus at you. Possess that due degree of moral courage which, while it leaves you in possession of true shame when doing what is wrong, shall extinguish all false shame in doing what is right…On the other hand, it is no less great, good, and glorious, to say, “I am wrong,” when charged with an error, and convinced that you have committed it. An obstinate perseverance in a bad course, to avoid the shame and humiliation of confessing that you are wrong, is neither dignity nor greatness of mind, but stubborn imbecility.

RICHARD STEELE (1629-1692): Of all the temptations to which the young are exposed, none is more fatal and pernicious than evil company.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: There are evil companions to be avoided. The Scripture says that “the companion of fools shall be destroyed,” Proverbs 13:20…Beware, then, I implore you, to whom you give your company and friendship—and whose company you accept in return.

HENRY VENN (1724-1797): Be therefore deliberate, and discreet in your choice of company. Always say to yourself: “Do I find either reproof, or exhortation, or comfort, or instruction in the great things of God, from their company?”

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: With much the same emphasis do I warn you against bad books…In some respects bad books are more mischievous than bad companions, since they can be more secretly consulted, and lodge their poison more abidingly in the imagination, the intellect, and the heart. A bad book is a bad companion of the worst kind, and prepares for bad companions of all other kinds! There are bad places also, places which endanger you, as well as bad companions and bad books; places where, if you have not already formed bad companionships, you are sure to find them!

MARY WINSLOW (1774-1854): Go nowhere where you cannot take Christ with you.

DUTCH PSALTER 322 (Psalm 119:9): How shall the young direct their way?

What light shall be their perfect guide?

Thy Word, O Lord, will safely lead,

If in its wisdom they confide.

 

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The Elect Lady

Posted on June 10, 2022 by The Editor

2 John 1:1-4

The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; for the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): John calls himself “elder” either on account of his age, or on account of his office, being a bishop or overseer, not only of the church at Ephesus, but of all the Asiatic churches.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): At the time John wrote this Epistle, he could not be less than an hundred years old, if it was after his return from banishment. But the principal point for the Church of God to regard is, the character to whom John wrote—namely, one of the Elect of God.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): She is called the “elect lady.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some think the Greek word “Kyria”, translated “lady,” was the name of the person—the Syriac and Arabic versions read, “to the elect Kyria.” Others think that the word translated “elect” is a proper name, and this person’s name was “Electa;” and then it must read, “to the lady Electa;” but her sister also is so called in verse 13, “the children of thy elect sister greet thee,” and it can hardly be thought two sisters should both have the same name.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Others think that a particular Church is intended, which some think to be the Church at Jerusalem, and that the elect sister means the Church at Ephesus; but these are conjectures—I am satisfied that no metaphor is here intended.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): There is no reason to suppose this elect lady is the church, as some have thought, nor that we should read “the Lady Electa,” as others have suggested.

WILLIAM JAY: But who was this distinguished personage?

H. A. IRONSIDE: The “elect lady” was evidently a Christian woman who, with her children, had embraced the doctrine of Christ. In all probability she was one who had been blessed and helped through John’s ministry.

WILLIAM JAY: She seems to have been a person of high reputation, and of some rank, and able disposition. But whatever her worldly condition, it of itself would never have attracted the notice of John without her character. He regarded her according to her real worth. Birth, and wealth, and honour, are nothing in themselves.

JOHN GILL: This person also is said to be “elect,” either because she was a choice, famous, and excellent person, not only for her birth, nobility, and riches, but for her virtue, grace, and good works; or because she was chosen unto eternal life and salvation.

MATTHEW HENRY: The elect lady—not only a choice one, but one chosen of God.

ROBERT HAWKER: Notice with what confidence John speaks to this lady, in consequence of being an elect child of God. He saith, he loveth her for the truth’s sake—meaning Christ Himself, Who is the truth, John 14:6; and which John saith, “dwelleth in us,” that is, in all the elect, “and shall abide forever.”

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The true doctrine of Election, I believe to be as follows: Those men and women whom God has been pleased to choose from all eternity, He calls in time, by His Spirit working in due season. He convinces them of sin. He leads them to Christ. He works in them repentance and faith. He converts, renews, and sanctifies them. He keeps them by His grace from falling away entirely, and finally brings them safe to glory. In short God’s eternal Election is the first link in that chain of a sinner’s salvation of which heavenly glory is the end. The primary and original cause of a saint’s being what he is, is eternal God’s election.

ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! Do not overlook this, for it is blessed. The elect lady, as John calls her, had in that election all the blessed fruits and effects wrought up in it, as the bud contains all the future blossoms, and foliage of the flower. Together with this electing grace, there is calling grace appointed also: “For whom he did predestinate, them he also called,” Romans 8:30. And in the season of that call, there is given the pardoning grace to all sins. So speaks Paul: “And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses,” Colossians 2:13. Neither doth the blessing stop here, for justification immediately follows: “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,” Romans 3:24. And both sanctification and glory bring up the rear, the sure events involved in the blessed act of God’s sovereign love.

J. C. RYLE: Election can only be known by its fruits. The Elect of God can only be discerned by their faith and life.

JOHN GILL: Which John might know without a special and divine revelation, by the Gospel coming with power to her, and by the grace that was wrought in her; and by the faith of God’s elect, which she appeared to have, seeing it worked by love.

H. A. IRONSIDE: John’s heart had been gladdened by the good report that had reached him of the ways of the elect lady’s household. Her children walked in the truth in accordance with the commandment received from the Father. Hers was a truly Christian home in the midst of an ungodly world.

WILLIAM JAY: Perhaps she was a deaconess; perhaps she had a church in her house; perhaps her mansion was the asylum of the persecuted, and the dwelling where ministers of the word and the brethren always found a welcome and a home. She was pre-eminently pious: the foundation of all her excellencies was her personal and evangelical godliness. She was “walking in the truth.” She exemplified the influence of the truth by her walking in the knowledge, practice, and profession of the truth, and in being “a fellow helper to the truth,” 3 John 1:8.

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL (1635-1711): These are fruits issuing forth from election; they are not the causes of election—but are a consequence of it. Nothing in man, nor any future deeds, moved God to elect a person. The reason for election is nothing but the sovereign good pleasure of God, Ephesians 1:5,9.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Besides, as election rests on the mercy of God alone, it is in vain to seek the cause of it in the worthiness of man.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is lovely and beautiful to see ladies, by holy walking, demonstrate their election of God…The great concern of those who have received Christ is to walk in Him—to make their practices conformable to their principles. As we have received Christ, or consented to be His, so we must walk with Him in our daily course and keep up our communion with Him. The more closely we walk with Christ the more we are rooted and established in the faith. A good conduct is the best establishment of a good faith. If we walk in Him, we shall be rooted in Him; and the more firmly we are rooted in Him, the more closely we shall walk in Him: rooted and built up, Colossians 2:6,7. Observe—we cannot be built up in Christ, unless we be first rooted in Him. We must be united to Him by a lively faith, and heartily consent to His covenant, and then we shall grow up in Him in all things.

 

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