Matthew Henry’s Commentary

Posted on June 11, 2021 by The Editor

Ephesians 4:8,11,12; 1 Peter 4:10,11

When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men…And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Being fully persuaded of these things, I conclude that whatever help is offered to good Christians in searching the scriptures is real service done to the glory of God, and to the interests of His kingdom; it is this that hath drawn me into this undertaking, which I have gone about in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, lest I should be found exercising myself in things too high for me, and so laudable an undertaking should suffer damage by an unskillful management.

WILLIAM LINDSAY ALEXANDER (1808-1884): Matthew Henry was the Prince of Commentators.

ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Matthew Henry’s Commentary should be in every household in the land.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is the poor man’s commentary, the old Christian’s companion, suitable to everybody, instructive to all.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): He is allowed by all competent judges, to have been a person of strong understanding, of various learning, of solid piety, and much experience in the ways of God. And his exposition is generally clear and intelligible, the thoughts being expressed in plain words: It is also found agreeable to the tenor of Scripture, and to the analogy of faith. It is frequently full, giving a sufficient explication of the passages which require explaining. It is in many parts deep, penetrating farther into the inspired writings than most other comments do. It does not entertain us with vain speculations, but is practical throughout: and usually spiritual too, teaching us how to worship God, not in form only, but in spirit and in truth.

C. H. SPURGEON: He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. You will find him to be glittering with metaphors, rich in analogies, overflowing with illustrations, superabundant in reflections. He delights in apposition and alliteration; he is usually plain, quaint, and full of pith; he sees right through a text directly…He is deeply spiritual, heavenly, and profitable; finding good matter in every text, and from all, deducing most practical and judicious lessons.

MATTHEW HENRY: I desire that I may be read with a candid, and not a critical eye. I pretend not to gratify the curious; the summit of my ambition is to assist those who are truly serious, in searching the Scriptures daily. I am sure the work is designed, and hope it is calculated, to promote piety towards God and charity towards our brethren, and that there is not only something in it which may edify, but nothing which may justly offend any good Christian.

RICHARD CECIL (1748-1810): The man who labours to please his neighbour for his good to edification, has the mind that was in Christ. It is a sinner trying to help a sinner. How different would things be if this spirit prevailed!

MATTHEW HENRY: If any desire to know how so mean and obscure a person as I am, who in learning, judgment, felicity of expression, and in all advantages for such service, am less than the least of all my Master’s servants, came to venture upon so great a work, I can give no other account of it than this: It has long been my practice, in what little time I had to spare in my study from constant preparations for the pulpit, to spend it in drawing up expositions upon some parts of the New Testament, not so much for my own use as purely for my entertainment; because I knew not how to employ my thoughts and time more to my satisfactions. “Every man that studies hath some beloved study, which is his delight above any other;” and this is mine. It is that learning which it was my happiness from a child to be trained up in by my ever honoured father, whose memory must always be very dear and precious to me. He often reminded me, that a good textuary [one well informed in the Bible] is a good divine; and that I should read other books with this in my eye, that I might be better able to understand and apply the Scripture.

C. H. SPURGEON: Every minister ought to read Matthew Henry entirely and carefully through once at least—you will acquire a vast store of sermons if you read with your notebook close at hand; and as for thoughts, they will swarm around you like twittering swallows around an old gable towards the close of autumn. If you publicly expound the chapter you have just been reading, your people will wonder at the novelty of your remarks and the depth of your thoughts, and then you may tell them what a treasure Henry is. William Jay’s sermons bear indubitable evidence of his having studied Matthew Henry almost daily. Many of the quaint things in Jay’s sermons are either directly traceable to Matthew Henry or to his familiarity with that writer. I have thought that the style of Jay was founded upon Matthew Henry: Matthew Henry is Jay writing, Jay is Matthew Henry preaching.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): How sweetly did my hours in private glide away in reading and praying over Matthew Henry’s Commentary upon the Scriptures! Whilst I am musing on and writing about it, the fire I then felt again kindles in my soul.*

MATTHEW HENRY: If any receive spiritual benefit by my poor endeavours, it will be a comfort to me, but let God have all the glory, and that free grace of His which has employed one utterly unworthy of such an honour, and enabled one thus far to go on in it who is utterly insufficient for such a service. Having obtained help of God, I continue hitherto in it, and humbly depend upon the same good hand of my God to carry me on in that which remains—one volume more, I hope, will include what is yet to done; and I will go on with it, as God shall enable me, with all convenient speed.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Matthew Henry did not live to put a finishing hand to the exposition. He had made ample preparations for the completion of the work, but the providence of God, though mysterious, is always wise.**

C. H. SPURGEON: The latter part of his Commentary was completed by other hands. The writers were Evans, Brown, Mayo, Bays, Rosewell, Harriss, Atkinson, Smith, Tong, Wright, Merrell, Hill, Reynolds, and Billingsley, all ministers. They have executed their work exceedingly well, have worked in much of the matter which Henry had collected, and have done their best to follow his methods, but their combined production is far inferior to Matthew Henry himself, and any reader will soon detect the difference.

WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Good Matthew Henry said, as he was expiring, to his friends in the room, “You have heard and read the words of many dying men―and these are mine; I have found a life of communion with God, the happiest life in the world.”

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*Editor’s Note: During his lifetime, George Whitefield read through Matthew Henry’s Commentary four times, often on his knees, as he prayed over what he was reading.

**Editor’s Note: Matthew Henry began writing his Bible Commentary in 1704, and began publishing it in 1710. By Henry’s death in 1714, he had completed Genesis to Acts. Working from Henry’s own notes, his minister friends completed Romans to Revelation.

 

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The Promise of God’s Great Covenant Oath

Posted on June 4, 2021 by The Editor

2 Corinthians 1:20; Psalm 89:3,4; Psalm 89:28-36

All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW (1808-1878): Why did God not swear by His truth, His wisdom, or by His Power? He was about to proclaim a great truth to the house of David, and, intending to impart the greatest force, solemnity, and beauty to that truth, He swears by His “holiness.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  It appears that it was not a matter of small importance; it being certain that God would not interpose His holy name in reference to what was of no consequence. He affirms that He sware “by His holiness,” because a greater than Himself is not to be found, by whom He could swear.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): It is the beauty of the Divine Being Himself; not so much a separate attribute of His nature, as the perfection of all His attributes.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: It is as if He said, “Holiness is my most illustrious perfection, my grandest attribute; and by it I swear that I will make good my word, that I not lie unto David.” For as “men, verily swear by the greater,” Hebrews 6:16, so He swears by His holiness, His greatest perfection and highest glory.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY (1713-1778): Do you suppose that this was spoken to David, in his own person only? No, indeed; but to David as the antitype, figure, and forerunner of Jesus Christ…And they are the “sure mercies” of our spiritual David—Christ. “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David,” Isaiah 55:3.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: Saints of the Most High who are standing in the region of doubt and are enshrouded by dark providences and are led to ask, “Will God make good the promise upon which He has caused my soul to rest?” should look much to this great truth: God has sworn by His holiness that He will not lie.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): In seasons of deep affliction, when, through unbelief, we are ready to think that God has forsaken and forgotten us, it is well to look back to God’s covenant engagements, whereon, as on a rock, we may stand firm amidst the tempest that surrounds us.

THOMAS LYE (1621-1684):  When our heavenly Father is forced to put forth His anger, He then makes use of a father’s rod, not an executioner’s axe. He will neither break His children’s bones, nor His own covenant. He lashes in love, in measure, in pity and compassion.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod.” Not with the sword, not with death and destruction; but still with a smarting, tingling, painful rod. Saints must smart if they sin, and God will see to that. He hates sin too much not to visit it, and He loves His saints too well not to chasten them.

WOLFGANG MUSCULUS (1497-1563): He does not say, I will visit “them” with the rod; but, I will visit “their transgression” with the rod. We ought to think perpetually, what it is that the rod of God visits in us, that we may confess our transgressions, and amend our lives.

JEAN DAILLÉ (1594-1670): God here says two things—first, that He will chastise them; Next, that He will not, on that account, cast them out of His covenant. “Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.”

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What a blessed “nevertheless” this is, and how sweetly doth it come in here, to give relief to a poor sin-beaten, tempted, and fallen soul! Though poor and wretched, and wanderers from the Lord, as the best of Christ’s children are in themselves, yet in Jesus are they still viewed—and in Him, the Beloved, they are accepted. God the Father hath an eye to His covenant engagements, to His word, to His oath, to His own free everlasting love, and to the ransom which He hath received for their redemption…There is everlasting efficacy, everlasting worth and virtue in the blood of the Lamb; and His blood and righteousness plead more for thee than all thy infirmities cry against thee. Oh, precious Jesus! Oh, gracious God and Father in Christ!

JEAN DAILLÉ: The heavenly Father loves the blood and the marks of His Christ which He sees upon them, and the remains of faith and godliness which are preserved hidden in the depth of their heart; this is why He will not cast them off.

AUGUSTUS TOPLADY: “His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” Therefore, the promise imports that Christ shall reign, not simply as a person in the Godhead (which He ever did, ever will, and ever must); but relatively, as a mediator, and in His office-character as the deliverer and king of Zion. Hence it follows, that His people cannot be lost.

OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658): God is bound in faithfulness to Christ, and in Him, to us. The Covenant is without us; a transaction between God and Christ. Look up to it. God engageth in it to pardon us; to write His law in our heart, to plant His fear so that we shall never depart from Him. We, under all our sins and infirmities, can daily offer a perfect Christ; thus we have peace and safety, and an apprehension of love, from a Father in Covenant—Who cannot deny Himself. And truly in this is all my salvation; and this helps me to bear my great burdens.

JOHN CALVIN: It is a token of singular loving-kindness for Him, upon seeing us prone to distrust, to provide a remedy for it so compassionately. We have, therefore, so much the less excuse if we do not embrace, with true and unwavering faith, His promise which is so strongly ratified, since in His deep interest about our salvation, He does not withhold His oath, that we may yield entire credence to His Word. If we do not reckon His simple promise sufficient, He adds His oath, as it were, for a pledge—the oath is irrevocable, and that therefore we have not the least reason to be apprehensive of any inconstancy.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): And there needs no second oath, the one already made is of endless obligation.

OCTAVIUS WINSLOW: He has bound Himself by this solemn oath to make good to the letter His very precious promise.—You have the warrant and the encouragement to trust in God, to confide in His Word, and to resign yourself and all your interests into His Fatherly, faithful, though chastening hands.

WILLIAM GREENHILL (1591-1677): Man’s faith may fail him some; but God’s faithfulness never fails him: God will not suffer His faithfulness to fail.

JOHN STEVENSON (1798-1858): Who dares deny that the promise of the living God is an absolute security?

HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): He means just what He says, and will do all that He has promised.

ROBERT HAWKER: Think of these things; give thyself wholly to the meditation of them.

 

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The Cure for the World’s Deadliest Virus

Posted on May 28, 2021 by The Editor

Psalm 51:1-5

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The expression intimates that we are cherished in sin from the first moment that we are in the womb.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): I believe David speaks here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him—The Hebrew word translated “shapen,’ means more properly, I was “brought forth” from the womb; and the word translated “conceive” signifies “made me warm,” alluding to the process of the formation of the fetus in the uterus—the formative heat which is necessary to develop the parts of all embryos; to incubate the ova in the female, after having been impregnated by the male; and to bring the whole into such a state of maturity and perfection as to render it capable of subsisting and growing. “As my parts were developed in the womb, the sinful principle diffused itself through the whole, so that body and mind grew up in a state of corruption and moral imperfection.”

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Nor do I see how it could be otherwise, when she first cherished him in her womb. I shall not easily be persuaded to think, that parents, who are sinners themselves will be very likely to produce children without transmitting to them those corruptions of nature with which they themselves are infected—“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,” Job 14:4.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Man’s very nature is corrupted…Thus it is clear that when Christ declared, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” John 3:6, He signified that which is propagated by fallen man is depraved, that whatever comes into this world by ordinary generation is carnal and corrupt, causing the heart itself to be deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” Jeremiah 17:9.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): That child which has just experienced the first birth has been made partaker of “corruptible seed.” The depravity of his parent lies sleeping within him. Could he speak, he might say so—he receives the evil virus which was first infused into us by the Fall—the virus of evil is in him.

CHRISTOPHER NESS (1621-1705): Infants are not innocents, being born with original sin— otherwise infants would not die, for “death is the wages of sin,” Romans 6:23; and the reign of death is procured by the reign of sin, which hath reigned over all mankind except Christ. All are sinners, infected with the guilt and filth of sin.

RICHARD CAPEL (1586-1656): Hence no sooner do we speak, but we lie. “The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies,” Psalm 58:3. As we are in the body, subject to all diseases, but yet, some to one sickness rather than to another: so in the soul, all are apt enough to all sin, and yet some rather more to one vice than to another—but all are much inclined to lying.

A. W. PINK: No child has to be taught to lie—it comes naturally to him—he is born corrupt at the core of his being. This is the just entail of the Fall. Our first parents preferred the Devil’s lie to God’s Truth—and all of their descendants inherit the poisonous virus which then entered into them. By nature both writer, and reader, are liars.

JOHN CALVIN: Indeed, every sin should convince us of the general truth of the corruption of our nature.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): You see, the trouble with all mankind is not that they become sinners by sinning, but they sin because they are sinners. We are born in sin and are shapen in iniquity. The virus of sin is in our being, from the moment we draw our first breath. We readily disobey God and go from one sin to another because of the sinful nature with which we are born.

THOMAS COKE: And I should think that there is need of no other proof that we are all born in such a state, than our own experience, and the present condition of the world we live in.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): As united fires burn the fiercer, and the concentrated virus of many people thrown into the same room infected with the plague, renders the disease more malignant—so a sinful community grows in impiety, as every member joins his brother’s pollution to his own. Nothing is so contagious as bad morals!

H. A. IRONSIDE: We do not all sin in exactly the same way, but the Scriptures say that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23.

A. W. PINK: Precisely, what is the nature of human depravity?

C. H. SPURGEON: The virus of sin lies in its opposition to God—that it is sin against God.

A. W. PINK: This supplies the key to such passages as we have just quoted above in Psalm 51…Here, then, is the terrible nature of human depravity—that his heart is desperately wicked, that his mind is filled with enmity against God, that his will is antagonistic to Him, that he is altogether unconscious of the deadly virus of sin which has corrupted every part of his inner being, and which has completely unfitted him for any communion with the thrice Holy One.

C. H. SPURGEON: The sin that lies within us is not an accumulation of external defilement, but an inward, all-pervading corruption! The taint of secret and spiritual evil is in man’s natural life. Every pulse of his soul is disordered by it. The eggs of all crimes are within our being—the accursed virus, from whose deadly venom every foul design will come—is present in the soul. Not only a tendency to sin, but sin itself has taken possession of the soul, and blackened and polluted it through and through till there is not a fiber of the heart unstained with iniquity!

A. W. PINK: The criminal darkness and delusion which fill every soul in which sin reigns cannot be removed by any agent but God the Spirit—by His giving a new heart and enlightening the understanding to perceive the exceeding sinfulness of sin…Awakened souls were made to feel iniquity cleaving to them like a girdle, and inward corruption like a deadly virus poisoning their very nature, breaking out continually in unholy tempers, defiling all they did or attempted, and thus destroying all hope of justification or acceptance with God on the ground of personal conformity to His requirements. Alive to the truth of an ineffably holy and infinitely perfect God, they were also alive to painful misgivings and fears of guilt; and hence their confessions of sin, sobs of penitence, and cries for mercy.

C. H. SPURGEON: Beloved, if you would be cured of any sin, however spreading its infection, fly to Jesus’ wounds!—“With His stripes we are healed,” Isaiah 53:5. It is a universal medicine. There is no disease by which thy soul can be afflicted but an application of the bruises of your Lord will take out the deadly virus from your soul.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808-1889): “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” 1 John 1:7. Remember it is all sin—even yours. It can wash, it can pardon, it can justify even thee. Take it now, for cleansing and salvation.

 

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Pentecostal Fire

Posted on May 21, 2021 by The Editor

Psalm 29:7; Jeremiah 23:29; Acts 2:1-4

The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.” Pentecost is a suggestive commentary upon this verse.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Some refer this verse, in the figurative and mystical sense, to the giving of the law on Mount Sinai—but rather this may be applied to the cloven, or divided tongues of fire which sat upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost, as an emblem of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit bestowed on them.

CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH (1807-1885): “The voice of Jehovah cutteth out flames of fire,” that is, “sendeth out divided flames of fire.” This is, as Theodoret* observed, very descriptive of the divine action at Pentecost, sending forth divided flames, in the tongues of fire which were divided off from one heavenly source or fountain of flame, and sat upon the heads of the apostles, and which filled them with the fire of holy zeal and love.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The sign given was fire, that John Baptist’s saying concerning Christ might be fulfilled, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,” Luke 3:16—with the Holy Ghost, as with fire. They were now, in the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the memorial of the giving of the law upon mount Sinai; and as that was given in fire, and therefore is called a “fiery law,” Deuteronomy 33:2. The Word of God is like fire.

JOHN GILL: The legal part of it is as fire—like fire, it is quick and piercing, and penetrating into the hearts and consciences of men; and works wrath there, and raises a fearful expectation of fiery indignation; it threatens with everlasting fire; it sentences men to the fire of hell; and the righteous Judge, in the execution of it, will be a consuming fire to wicked men.

MATTHEW HENRY: Fire has different effects, according as the matter is on which it works; it hardens clay, but softens wax; it consumes the dross, but purifies the gold. So the Word of God is to some “a savour of life unto life, to others of death unto death,” 2 Corinthians 2:16. God appeals here to the consciences of those to whom the Word was sent: “Is not my word like fire?” And of the gospel Christ says, “I have come to send fire on the earth,” Luke 12:49.

JOHN GILL: The Gospel part of the Word is like fire, on account of the light the entrance of it gives to sinners; by which they see their own impurity, impotence, and the insufficiency of their own righteousness, and the way of life and salvation by Christ; and by the light of this fire saints are directed in their walk and conversation; and by it immoralities, errors, and superstition, are detected: also on account of the heat of it; it is the means of a vital heat to sinners, the savour of life to them; and is warming and comforting to saints, and causes their hearts to burn within them; it inflames them with love to God, Christ, and one another, and with zeal for truth and the interest of a Redeemer.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Let any one, that has ever noticed its effects, say, whether it is not “like fire,” which dissolves the hardest metal; and “like a hammer, which breaks in pieces.” Go to the populous city of Nineveh, and see all orders of men, from the greatest to the least, dissolved in tears at the preaching of one single prophet, Jonah 3:4-10; or look back to the day of Pentecost, when, by the preaching of Peter, three thousand persons, with their hands yet reeking with the Saviour’s blood, were converted to the Lord. Are not these instances sufficient to shew what wonders the Word of God is able to effect?

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): But however we understand the words, let us take heed lest we think, as some have thought and affirmed, that the sacred writings are quite sufficient of themselves to enlighten, convince, and convert the soul, and that there is no need of the Holy Spirit. Fire itself must be applied by an agent in order to produce its effects; and surely the hammer cannot break the rock in pieces, unless wielded by an able workman. And it is God’s Spirit alone that can thus apply it.

MATTHEW HENRY: From the Spirit we have the Word of God, and by Him, Christ would speak to the world. He gave the Spirit to the disciples, not only to endue them with knowledge, but to endue them with a power to publish and proclaim to the world what they knew; for “the dispensation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal,” 1 Corinthians 12:7.

JOHN GILL: It seems best of all, as before, to understand this of the voice of Christ in the Gospel, which cuts and hews down all the goodliness of men, and lays them to the ground, Hosea 6:5; and is of a dividing nature, and lays open all the secrets of the heart, Hebrews 4:12.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): And as even flames of fire, at the voice of God are divided, so the heart of a sinner is divided and separated, in that day when Jesus speaks to the conscience, from all its idols.

JOHN GILL: Like flames of fire, it has both light and heat in it; it is the means of enlightening men’s eyes to see their sad estate, and their need of Christ, and salvation by Him; and of warming their souls with its refreshing truths and promises, and of inflaming their love to God and Christ, and of setting their affections on things above, and of causing their hearts to burn within them—though it has a scorching and tormenting heat to wicked men, and fills them with burning malice and envy; and, through the corruption of human nature, is the occasion of contention and discord, for which reason Christ calls it fire—it is the occasion of dividing one friend from another, Luke 12:51-53.

C. H. SPURGEON: Note that the emblem was not only fire, but a tongue of fire, for God meant to have a speaking Church.

MATTHEW HENRY: These tongues were cloven, to signify that God would hereby divide unto all nations the knowledge of His grace. “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God, ” Acts 2:11. It is probable that the apostles spoke of Christ, and redemption by Him, and the grace of the gospel; and these are indeed the great things of God.

C. H. SPURGEON: Babel’s curse was now removed—not by a reversing of God’s curse, for God’s curses and blessings are both like the laws of the Medes and Persians which never can be altered; men still spoke the tongues of confusion, but the apostles were able to speak to them all after receiving that miraculous gift of tongues.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In Genesis 11:6,7, divers tongues were given as a judgment upon man’s pride. In Acts 2:3, divers tongues were given in grace to meet man’s need. And in Revelation 7:9-12, the various tongues are all found united in one song of praise to God and to the Lamb.

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*Editor’s Note: Theodoret was born in 393 AD, and was a theologian of the School of Antioch; he was the Bishop of Cyrrhus in Turkey, from 423 until his death in 457 AD.

 

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Heavenly Housing

Posted on May 14, 2021 by The Editor

John 14:1-3

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Our Saviour here intends the encouragement and comfort of His disciples, by assuring them, that in the place whereto He was going before them, there was ample room to receive them and everything to accommodate them in the most delightful manner.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): A hope of future happiness affords strong consolation under present trials. The children of God, if destitute of this, would be “of all men most miserable;” but this renders them incomparably more happy, even under the most afflictive dispensations, than the greatest fullness of earthly things could make them.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We have, secondly, in this passage, a very comfortable account of heaven, or the future abode of saints.

CHARLES SIMEON: We shall consider our Lord’s description of heaven. Our Lord thus describes it: “My Father’s house of many mansions.”

J. C. RYLE: Heaven is “a Father’s house.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): And His Father is our Father, to Whom He was now ascending; so that in the right of their elder brother, all true believers shall be welcome to that happiness, as to their home.

J. C. RYLE: This is one idea of heaven. It is, in a word, home: the home of Christ and Christians. This is a sweet and touching expression. Home, as we all know, is the place where we are generally loved for our own sakes, and not for our gifts or possessions; the place where we are loved to the end, never forgotten, and always welcome.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): There are many mansions, but they are all in our Father’s house.

CHARLES SIMEON: Here seems to be an allusion to the temple at Jerusalem: God dwelt there in a more especial manner; around it were chambers for the priests and Levites. Thus in heaven God dwells, and displays His glory; there also are mansions where His redeemed people “see Him as He is.”

JEREMY BURROUGHS (1599-1647): Heaven would not be heaven without the presence of God.

J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place where Christ Himself shall be present. He will not be content to dwell without His people—“Where I am, there ye shall be also.” We need not think that we shall be alone and neglected. Our Saviour—our elder Brother—our Redeemer, Who loved us and gave Himself for us, shall be in the midst of us forever. What we shall see, and whom we shall see in heaven, we cannot fully conceive yet, while we are in the body. But one thing is certain: we shall see Christ. Let us note that one of the simplest, plainest ideas of heaven is here. It is being “ever with the Lord.”

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Christ is the centre of attraction in heaven.

J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place of “many mansions.”

MATTHEW HENRY: There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory, and Christ exactly knows their number, nor will He be straitened for room by the coming of more company than He expects.

THOMAS COKE: The Greek word μοναι signifies “quiet and continued abodes,” and therefore seems happily expressed by our English word mansion, the etymology and import of which is just the same.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “Mansions” means places of permanent abode. There is only one other occasion in this Gospel in which the word here translated “mansions” is employed, and it is this: “abode,” John 14:23.—“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place of lasting, permanent, and eternal dwellings. Here in the body we are in lodgings, tents, and tabernacles, and must submit to many changes. In heaven we shall be settled at last, and go out no more. “Here we have no continuing city,” Hebrews 13:14. Our house not made with hands shall never be taken down.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Noah’s ark was furnished with “rooms” or “nests,” Genesis 6:14. In every other passage in the Old Testament where that Hebrew word occurs, it is translated “nest.” We hesitate to press the spiritual signification here; yet, we have seen that the ark is such a striking and comprehensive type of our salvation in Christ we must believe that this detail has some meaning, whether we are able to discern it or no. The thought which is suggested to us is, that in Christ we have something more than a refuge, we have a resting place; we are like birds in their nests, the objects of Another’s loving care. Oh, is it that the “nests” in the ark look forward to the “many mansions” in the Father’s House? which our Lord has gone to prepare for us. It is rather curious that there is some uncertainty about the precise meaning of the Greek word here translated “mansions.” Weymouth renders it, “In My Father’s house are many resting places!”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Mansions of love, peace, joy, and rest, which always remain.

J. C. RYLE: Chrysostom, Augustine, and several other ancient writers think the “many mansions” means the degrees of glory…That there are degrees of glory in heaven is undoubtedly true, but I do not think it is the truth of this text. The modern idea, that our Lord meant that heaven was a place for all sorts of creeds and religions, seems utterly unwarranted by the text. From the whole context He is evidently speaking for the special comfort of Christians. There will be room for all believers and room for all sorts, for little saints as well as great ones, for the weakest believer as well as for the strongest. The feeblest child of God need not fear there will be no place for him. None will be shut out but impenitent sinners and obstinate unbelievers.

JOHN MASON (1646-1694): In heaven there is the presence of all good and the absence of all evil.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Heaven is a garment of glory, that is only suited to him that is holy. God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie, hath said it, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14. Mark that word “no man.”—without holiness here, no heaven hereafter. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,” Revelation 21:27. God will at last shut the gates of glory against every person that is without heart purity.

J. C. RYLE: It does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise.

ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): If an unholy man were to get to heaven, he would feel like a hog in a flower garden.

AUGUSTINE (354-430): Heaven is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Our mansion is in God. So ask yourselves, Have you a place in that heavenly home?

JOHN MASON: How can we expect to live with God in heaven if we love not to live with Him on earth?

 

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A Mother’s Law

Posted on May 7, 2021 by The Editor

Proverbs 6:20-23

My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): The church began at first in a family, and was preserved by the godly care of par­ents in instructing their children and household in the truths of God, whereby the knowledge of God was transmitted from generation to generation; and though the church is not confined to such strait limits, yet every private family is as a little nursery to the church. If the nursery be not carefully planted, the orchard will soon decay.

WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): Parents are, by the constitution of things, in an important sense mediators between God and their children for a time. What you give them they receive; what you tell them they believe. This is their nature. You should weigh well what law, and what practice you impress first upon their tender hearts. First ideas and habits are to them most important. These give direction to their course, and tone to their character through life.

WILLIAM GURNALL: Consider it hath ever been the saints’ practice to instruct and teach their children the way of God. David we find dropping instruction into his son Solomon: And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind,” 1 Chronicles, 28:9. Though a king, he did not put it off to his chaplains, but whetted it on him with his own lips. Neither was his queen Bathsheba forgetful of her duty, her gracious counsel is upon record, Proverbs 31:1-31; and that she may do it with the more seriousness and solemnity, we find her stirring up her motherly bowels, to let her son see she fetched her words deep, even from her heart: “What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?” Proverbs 31:2. Indeed that counsel is most like to go to the heart which comes from thence. Parents know not what impression such melting expressions of their love mingled with their instructions, leave with their children.

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Who can estimate the worth of a Christian mother?

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): What amazing affection does a mother feel toward her child which she cherishes in her bosom, suckles on her breast, and watches over with tender care, so that she passes sleepless nights, wears herself out by continued anxiety, and forgets herself!

WILLIAM ARNOT: A father’s commandment is the generic form, and is usually employed to signify parental authority; but here, in addition to the general formula, “the law of a mother” is specifically singled out.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The “law of thy mother” is mentioned to show that the same respect is to be had to a mother as to a father, the commandment and law of them being the same, and they standing in the same relation; which yet children are apt to make a difference in, and while they stand in awe of their father and his precepts, slight their mother and her directions, which ought not to be.

WILLIAM ARNOT: The first feature that arrests attention in this picture is, that effects are attributed to the law of a mother which only God’s law can produce. The inference is obvious and sure; it is assumed that the law which a mother instills is the Word of God dwelling richly in her own heart, and that she acts as a channel to convey that Word to the hearts of her children. The mother should be much with the children herself—so as to drink in what you contain; the only safety is that you be by grace led into Christ, so that what they get from you, shall be not what springs within you, but what flows into you from the Spring-head of holiness. To the children, it is the law of their mother, and therefore they receive it; but in substance it is the truth from Jesus, and to receive it is life. It is the law which converts the soul and makes wise the simple, poured through a mother’s lips into infants’ ears.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Babes receive impressions long before we are aware of the fact. During the first months of a child’s life, it learns more than we imagine. It soon learns the love of its mother and its own dependence—and, if the mother is wise, it learns the meaning of obedience and the necessity of yielding its will to a higher will. This may be the keynote of its whole future life. If it learns obedience and submission early, it may save a thousand tears from the child’s eyes and as many from the mother’s heart.

WILLIAM ARNOT: In the pliant time of childhood, character is molded chiefly by the mother. Many melting stories are told on earth, and I suppose many more in heaven, about the struggle carried on through youth and manhood, between present temptations and the memory of a mother’s law. Almighty grace delights to manifest itself in weakness; and oft the echo of a woman’s voice, rising up in the deep recesses of memory, has put a legion of devils to flight.

C. H. SPURGEON: From a very child Timothy had known the sacred writings, 2 Timothy 3:15. This expression is, no doubt, used to show that we cannot begin too early to imbue the minds of our children with Scriptural knowledge…The Holy Scripture may be learned by children as soon as they are capable of understanding anything. It is a very remarkable fact which I have heard asserted by many teachers, that children will learn to read out of the Bible better than from any other book—we make a mistake when we think that we must begin with something else and lead up to the Scriptures.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The grand point in dealing with children is to insist upon obedience. It is of great importance. If this be carried out from the very first, it will save a world of trouble to both parents and children…Parents are to beware of provoking their children to wrath by arbitrary conduct, by exhibiting partiality towards one more than another, and by needless crossing of the will of the child merely to make a display of parental authority. The child should ever see that the parent has his real interest at heart and that true love is the motive spring of every act. But we must insist on the obedience of children, even in this age of independence—an age specially marked by disobedience to parents and by gross disrespect.

WILLIAM ARNOT: There is in the spiritual department something corresponding to the birth, when the parent travails again until the child be born unto the Lord; and there is here also, something corresponding to the nursing. Great must be the delight of a mother, herself renewed, when she becomes the channel through which the “milk of the Word” flows into her child, 1 Peter 2:2; more especially when she feels the child desiring that milk, and with appetite drawing it for the sustenance of a new life. Oh, woman, if it cannot be said, great is thy faith, even although it should be small as a grain of mustard seed, yet great is thy opportunity!

 

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Tax Time

Posted on April 30, 2021 by The Editor

Luke 21:25; Daniel 11:20; Matthew 22:17

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity…

Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes.

What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “Distress” is now no longer confined to any one people but is international and earth-wide in its reach. The “distress” and suffering caused by the exorbitant cost of living when it is becoming more and more difficult to secure even the bare necessaries of life. The “distress” occasioned by increasing taxation and the accumulation of national debts which must prove intolerable burdens for future generations to bear.

H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): We often hear it said that there is nothing more certain than death and taxes. Taxes seem to be quite certain.

EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Our Saviour, when asked by the Jews whether it were right to pay tribute to Caesar, the Roman Emperor, replied, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” Luke 20:25.

A. W. PINK: God requires us to render submission to human government: to be obedient to its laws, to pay the taxes it appoints, to cooperate in upholding its authority.

H. A. IRONSIDE: As they were about to scourge the apostle Paul, Acts 22:25, he stood on his right as a Roman citizen. I believe there is a lesson for us in that…Since it was right for Paul to claim Roman citizenship in order not to suffer scourging, then it was also incumbent on him to fulfill the responsibilities of that citizenship. And this is true of any citizen of any country in this world. In other words, if I am to have certain protection as a citizen, I owe it to my country to act accordingly when it comes to fulfilling my responsibilities—so, I am to be loyal to my government, pay my taxes…It would be unthinkable that one would be entitled to claim protection from a country if he did not loyally respond to the rightful demands of its government.

EDWARD PAYSON: The justice, and propriety of these commands, is obvious. There is an implied contract, or agreement between a government and its subjects, by which the subjects engage to give a portion of their property in exchange for the blessings of protection, security, and social order. So long as they enjoy these blessings, they receive a valuable consideration for the sums which they contribute for the taxes which they pay for the support of government.

H. A. IRONSIDE: They were willing to use Caesar’s money; they were ready to profit thereby. Then they should pay such taxes to Caesar as he demanded.

A. W. PINK: Evasion in paying taxes is another form of theft.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): The general principles of reason would be quite sufficient to prove its criminality. But the New Testament has added the authority of revelation to the dictates of reason; and thus made it a sin against God, no less than a crime against society, to defraud the revenue. “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom,” is the authoritative language of Paul, Romans 13:7. This precept derives great force from the consideration that it was delivered at a time, and under a government, in which the taxes were not imposed by the people themselves—but by the arbitrary power of a despot, the Emperor Nero. Certainly if, under those circumstances, it was the duty of a Christian to pay the tribute money, any effort which we make to evade it, must be additionally criminal, since we are taxed by the will of our representatives.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It is true, we feel the pressure of the taxes as a burden…But all the functions of government also must of necessity be attended with expense, which the public of course must support. Hence there must be taxes of different kinds, some stated, as “tribute,” and some occasional, as “custom,” upon articles of commerce.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “Tribute and custom,” These two words include all sorts of levies, taxes, subsidies.

EDWARD PAYSON: It is also evident, that the man who possesses a large share of wealth, derives greater advantages from the laws of the land, and from the protection afforded by civil authority, than the man who possesses little or nothing. Or, to place the subject in a little different light—civil governments insure to their subjects the protection of their rights and property from injustice and violence; of course, they have a right to demand a premium for this insurance. This premium ought to be greater or less, in proportion to the property thus insured; in other words, every man is bound in justice to contribute to the support of law and government, in proportion to his property.

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): You would have found, probably, that Lot was reported to be the richest man in Sodom, and if they had to pay income tax, his would have been the highest.

EDWARD PAYSON: The man who by artifice or deceit avoids contributing in proportion to his property, is guilty of injustice and dishonesty. He not only defrauds the government, but does in effect defraud his fellow citizens; for if he contributes less than his proportion, others must contribute more to make up the deficiency.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Most men are more concerned how to save their money than their souls.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Waste is a worse tax than the income tax.

EDWARD PAYSON: It is vain to plead, as an excuse for these things, that government may waste, or misemploy the sums, which are put into their hands. Permit me, before I dismiss this part of my subject, to express a hope, that no one will endeavour to give these remarks a political bearing.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: The excuses usually made in justification of this practice, only serve to show how far even some good people may be imposed upon by the deceitfulness of the human heart. Every time we have made a false return on the schedule which regulates our measure of taxation; or that we have purchased knowingly a contraband article of food, beverage, or dress—we have violated the precepts of the New Testament, have brought the guilt of a complicated crime upon our conscience, and have subjected ourselves to the displeasure of God.

A. W. PINK: Christians especially should set an example as law-abiding citizens, rendering to Caesar that which he has a right to demand from his subjects. They are Divinely enjoined to “render tribute to whom tribute is due,” and thus to pay their taxes promptly and unmurmuringly.

JOHN GILL: Payment of taxes is not a mere matter of prudence, and done to avoid dangerous consequences, but it is, and ought to be, a case of conscience. “They are God’s ministers,” Romans 13:1-4. This is another reason why tribute should be paid them, not only to testify subjection to them, and keep conscience clear, but because they are called unto, and put into this high office by God; for promotion to such honour and high places comes not from east, west, north, or south; but is by the providence of God, who puts down, and sets up at pleasure; they are His vicegerents, they act under Him, are in His stead, and represent His majesty; and therefore, in some sort, what is done to them is done to Him.

 

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Hope in the Living God

Posted on April 23, 2021 by The Editor

Psalm 42:11; Daniel 6:26

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

For he is the living God, and steadfast for ever.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): Is there ever any reason to be downcast?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): It cannot be doubted but that temporal afflictions will produce a very great dejection of mind: for though sometimes grace will enable a person to triumph over them as of small consequence, yet more frequently our frail nature is left to feel its weakness: and the effect of grace is, to reconcile us to the dispensations of Providence, and to make them work for our good: still however, though we are saints, we cease not to be men: and it often happens, that heavy and accumulated troubles will so weaken the animal frame, as ultimately to enfeeble the mind also, and to render it susceptible of fears.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Why art thou disquieted within me?” This may be taken as an enquiring question: Let the cause of this uneasiness be duly weighed. Our disquietudes would in many cases vanish before a strict scrutiny into the grounds and reasons of them. “Why am I cast down? Is there a cause, a real cause?

GEORGE MÜLLER: Actually, there are two reasons, but only two. If we were still unbelievers, we would have a reason to be downcast; or if we have been converted but continue to live in sin, we are downcast as a consequence. Except for these two conditions, there is never a reason to be downcast, for everything else may be brought to God “by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,” Philippians 4:6.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The grand remedy for all unbelieving fears is simply to fix the eye upon the living God: thus the heart is raised above the difficulties whatever they may be.

JOHN COLLINGES (1623-1690): Consider but this—how much there is of God in the affliction. Came it not without God’s knowledge? Why art thou troubled, then? Thy Father knowing of it would have stopped its course if it had been best for thee. Came it not without His command? Why art thou troubled? It is the cup that thy Father hath given thee, and wilt thou not drink it? Is it thy Father’s will that thou shouldest suffer, and shall it be thy humour to rebel? Why dost thou murmur, as if he had done thee wrong? Is it in measure, ordered with care, by the physician’s hand? And a little draught, proportioned to thy strength; measured out according to the proportion of strength and comfort that He intends to measure thee out, to bear it withal? Why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted? Is the end and fruit of it but to make thee white, and purify thee? To purge thy sin past, and to prevent it for the time to come? Lift up thy head, Christian! say to thy soul, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?” Meditate what there is of God in the cause of thy disquietments.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): If God be thine, why this dejection? God is faithful. God is love. Therefore there is room and reason for hope.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): “Hope thou in God.” I shall show thee what a powerful influence hope hath on the Christian in affliction, and how. First, it stills and silences him under affliction. It keeps the king’s peace in the heart, which else would soon be in an uproar. A hopeless soul is clamorous: one while it charges God, another while it reviles His instruments. It cannot long rest, and no wonder, when hope is not there. Hope hath a rare art in stilling a froward spirit, when nothing else can; as the mother can make the crying child quiet by laying it to the breast, when the rod makes it cry worse. This way David took, and found it effectual; when his soul was unquiet by reason of his present affliction, he lays it to the breast of the promise: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God.” And here his soul sweetly sleeps, as the child with the breast in his mouth; and that this was his usual way, we may think by the frequent instances we find; thrice we find him taking this course in two Psalms, Psalm 42 and Psalm 43.

GEORGE MÜLLER: We find the expression “the living God ” many times in the Scriptures, and yet it is the very thing we are so prone to forget. We know it is written “the living God,” but in our daily life there is almost nothing we lose sight of as often as the fact that God is the living God. We forget that He is now exactly what He was three or four thousand years ago, that He has the same sovereign power, and that He extends the same gracious love toward those who love and serve Him. We overlook the fact that He will do for us now what He did thousands of years ago for others, simply because He is the unchanging, living God. What a great reason to confide in Him, and in our darkest moments to never lose sight of the fact that He is still, and ever will be, the living God.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): The Lord—He, and He only, is the true living God, Jeremiah 10:10—Not a dull, dead, senseless God, such as the gods of the nations are; but a God of life, and power, and activity to watch over you, and work for you.

CHARLES SIMEON: Expect deliverance from Him—To what end has God given us such “exceeding great and precious promises,” 2 Peter 1:4, if we do not rest upon them, and expect their accomplishment? The refiner does not put his vessels into the furnace, to leave them there; but to take them out again when they are fitted for his use. And it is to purify us as “vessels of honour,” that God subjects us to the fiery trial. We should say therefore with Job, “When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold,” Job 23:10. It was this expectation that supported David: “I had fainted,” says he, “unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” Psalm 27:13.

HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): There is a living God. He has spoken in His Word. He means just what He says and will do all that He has promised.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: He knows all things, and can do all things. Nothing can escape His vigilant eye; nothing is beyond His omnipotent hand. Hence, therefore, all those who can truly say, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” may add, without hesitancy or reserve, “I shall not want.” The soul that is, in truth and reality, leaning on the arm of the living God can never—shall never, want any good thing.

GEORGE MÜLLER: And through all our times of need, difficulty, and trials, we may exercise faith in the power and love of God. Put your hope in God. Please remember there is never a time when we cannot hope in God, whatever our need or however great our difficulty may be—even when our situation appears to be impossible, our work is to “hope in God.” Our hope will not be in vain, and in the Lord’s own timing, help will come.

 

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The 700th Post** – Submission to God’s Judgments

Posted on April 16, 2021 by The Editor

Leviticus 10:1-3

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “And Aaron held his peace.” Nothing can be more emphatic and beautiful than these words. The venerable father, without murmuring or complaint, bows his head, and adores the Divine Providence in this awful dispensation.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Much is this silence of Aaron to be applauded, whereby he confessed that his sons were slain by the just judgment of God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): And in what did their failure consist? Were they spurious priests? Were they mere pretenders? By no means. They were genuine sons of Aaron, true members of the priestly family—duly appointed priests…Their sin was this: “They offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not.” Here was their sin. They departed in their worship from the plain word of Jehovah, who had fully and plainly instructed them as to the mode of their worship.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): It is an awful thing to introduce innovations either into the rites and ceremonies, or into the truths of the religion of Christ: he who acts thus cannot stand guiltless before his God.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): God had given repeated warning that he would punish with awful severity any willful deviations from his law, Exodus 19:22; Leviticus 8:35; Leviticus 22:9. What would have been the effect if such a flagrant violation of them, in those who were to be examples to the whole nation, were overlooked? Would not a general contempt of the divine ordinances be likely to ensue? For prevention then as well as punishment, this judgment was necessary. And the consequence of it would be, that God would henceforth be honoured as a great and terrible God, and that the whole assembly of the people would learn to tremble at His word, and to obey it without reserve.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We may well think that when Nadab and Abihu were struck with death all about them were struck with horror. Great consternation, no doubt, seized them, and they were all full of confusion; but, whatever the rest were, Moses was composed, and knew what he said and did, not being displeased, as David was in a like case, 2 Samuel 6:8. But though it touched him in a very tender part, yet he kept possession of his own soul, and took care to keep good order and a due decorum in the sanctuary.* He endeavoured to pacify Aaron, and to keep him in a good frame under this sad dispensation. Moses was a brother that was born for adversity, and has taught us, by his example, with seasonable counsels and comforts to support the weak, and strengthen the feeble-minded.

JOHN CALVIN: Lest, therefore, Aaron should give way to such want of self-control, Moses reminds him that he must submit to the just judgment of God.

CHARLES SIMEON: The consideration suggested by Moses composed Aaron’s troubled breast. These were his own sons, just consecrated to the high office they sustained. In them he had promised himself much comfort; and had hoped, that the whole nation would receive permanent advantage from their ministrations. But in a moment he beholds all his hopes and expectations blasted. He sees his sons struck dead by the immediate hand of God, and that too in the very act of sin, as a warning to all future generations. If they had died in any other way, his grief must have been pungent beyond expression: but to see them cut off in this way, and with all their guilt upon their heads, must have been a trial almost too great for human nature to sustain.

JOHN CALVIN: Moses indicates that Aaron yielded to his admonition, and was thus restrained from complaining against God.

MATTHEW HENRY: The most effectual arguments to quiet a gracious spirit under afflictions are those that are fetched from God’s glory; this silenced Aaron. It is true he is a loser in his comforts by this severe execution, but Moses has shown him that God is a gainer in His glory, and therefore he has not a word to say against it: if God be sanctified, Aaron is satisfied. Far be it from him that he should honour his sons more than God, or wish that God’s name, or house, or law, should be exposed to reproach or contempt for the preserving of the reputation of his family. No; now, as well as in the matter of the golden calf, Levi does not “acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children;” and therefore “they shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law,” Deuteronomy 33:9,10.

CHARLES SIMEON: Thus, however painful the stroke was to him, Aaron submitted humbly to it, because it was necessary for the public good, and conducive to the honour of his offended God. It is not improbable too that he would recollect the forbearance exercised towards him in the matter of the golden calf; and that, while he deplored the fate of his children, he magnified the mercy that had spared him.

ADAM CLARKE: Aaron was dumb [according to the original Greek]. How elegantly expressive is this of his parental affection, his deep sense of the presumption of his sons, and his submission to the justice of God! The flower and hope of his family was nipped in the bud and blasted; and while he exquisitely feels as a father, he submits without murmuring to this awful dispensation of Divine justice.

JOHN CALVIN: Wherefore, whenever our passions are too much excited, let us learn that this is the best remedy for quieting and repressing them, to submit ourselves to God, and to humble ourselves beneath his mighty hand. David invites us to this by his own example when he says, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because Thou didst it,” Psalm 39:9.

MATTHEW HENRY: When God corrects us or ours for sin, it is our duty to be silent under the correction, not to quarrel with God, arraign His justice, or charge Him with folly, but to acquiesce in all that God does; not only bearing, but accepting, the punishment of iniquity, and saying, as Eli, in a case not much unlike this, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good,” 1 Samuel 3:18. “If our children have sinned against God,” as Bildad puts the case in Job 8:4, “and he have cast them away for their transgression,” though it must needs be grievous to think that the children of our love should be the children of God’s wrath, yet we must awfully adore the divine justice, and make no exceptions against its processes.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: The answer is this: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” If the creature is to be allowed to judge the Creator, there is an end of all government in the vast universe of God. Hence, when we hear men daring to pronounce judgment upon the ways of God, and undertaking to decide what is, or what is not, fit for God to do, this grand preliminary question invariably suggests itself —“Who is to be judge?” Is man to judge God? or is God to judge man? If the former, there is no God at all; and if the latter, then man has to bow his head in reverent silence.

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*Editor’s Note: Remember that Moses was Nadab and Abihu’s uncle, and he also must have felt this judgment in a very personal way. Thus it argues very well for his own presence of mind in such a sudden and severe tragedy.

**This post marks the 700th post on the Bible Truth Chatroom Website. All previous posts are listed by category and accessible through the links on the Sitemap page.

 

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Strange Fire

Posted on April 9, 2021 by The Editor

Leviticus 9:23,24; Leviticus 10:1-3

Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): This solemn story of sin and punishment is connected with the preceding chapter by a simple “and.” Probably, therefore, Nadab and Abihu “offered strange fire,” immediately after the fire from Jehovah had consumed the appointed sacrifice. Their sin was aggravated by the time of its being committed. But a week had passed since the consecration of their father and themselves as priests. The first sacrifices had just been offered, and here, in the very blossoming time, came a vile canker.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): How ‘quickly’ Nadab and Abihu did that which the Lord “commanded them not” after the priesthood was instituted!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: If such license in setting aside the prescriptions of the newly established sacrificial order asserted itself then, to what lengths might it not run when the first impression of sanctity and of God’s commandment had been worn by time and custom? The sin was further aggravated by the sinners being priests, who were doubly obliged to punctilious adherence to the instituted ritual.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): By their example, they encouraged the people to disregard the laws that had been promulged; and God, by executing judgment on the offenders, showed the whole nation—yea, the whole world also, that “He will by no means clear the guilty.”

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Since He was not glorified by them before the people in the way of their duty, He would glorify Himself in their punishment.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): But what was their sin?

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Nadab and Abihu appear to have entered into the Presence of God wrongfully. They had probably been drinking, for there was a command given afterwards, Leviticus 10:9, that no priest should drink wine or strong drink when he went into the House of the Lord.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: It was the fire which was wrong. Plainly, the narrative points to the essence of the crime in calling it “fire which He had not commanded.”

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): By His command, only fire from the altar should have been offered which originally came down from heaven.

JOHN GILL: This fire was not that which came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, as at the end of the preceding chapter, but common fire, and therefore called strange.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: What was their sin in thus offering it?

MATTHEW HENRY: The priests were to burn incense only when it was their lot, Luke 1:9, and, at this time, it was not theirs.

CHARLES SIMEON: It would seem that they were elated with the distinction conferred upon them, and impatient to display the high privileges they enjoyed. Hence, without waiting for the proper season of burning incense, or considering in what manner God had commanded it to be done, they both together took their censers—though only one was ever so to officiate at a time, and put common fire upon them, and went in to burn incense before the Lord.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN: So this was their crime, that they were tampering with the appointed order which but a week before they had been consecrated to conserve and administer; that they were thus thrusting in self-will and personal caprice, as of equal authority with the divine commandment.

THOMAS GOODWIN: It was a transgression in bringing in, or continuing to use, such human inventions in worship as God had not commanded, and justifying such to be warrantable.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “This is it that the Lord spake.” Where? and when?

MATTHEW HENRY: Where did God speak this? We do not find the very words; but to this purpose He had said, “Let the priests who come near to the Lord sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them,” Exodus 19:22. Indeed the whole scope and tenor of His law spoke this, that being a holy God, and a sovereign Lord, He must always be worshiped with holiness and reverence, and exactly according to His own appointment; and if any jest with Him, it is at their peril. Much had been said to this purpose, as in Exodus 29:43,44; Exodus 34:14; Leviticus 8:35. What was it that God spoke? It was this: “I will be sanctified in those that come nigh me—whoever they are, and, before all the people I will be glorified.”

A. W. PINK: Now, have these unspeakably solemn incidents no message for us today?

MATTHEW HENRY: Whenever we worship God, we come nigh unto Him as spiritual priests. This consideration ought to make us very reverent and serious in all acts of devotion, when we approach God and present ourselves before Him. It concerns us all, when we come nigh to God, to sanctify Him, that is, to give Him the praise of His holiness, to perform every religious exercise as those who believe that the God with whom we have to do is a holy God, a God of spotless purity and transcendent perfection, Isaiah 8:13. When we sanctify God we glorify Him, for His holiness is His glory; and, when we sanctify Him in our solemn assemblies, we glorify Him before all the people, confessing our own belief of His glory and desiring that others also may be affected with it.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): A learned writer explains “that Moses gives to the fire, of which the two sons of Aaron made use, the direct name of fire without any qualification; not calling it strange fire till after he had said that they put incense thereon: so that, considering the mode of expression he uses, it seems as if the fire which Nadab and Abihu employed was not in itself a strange fire, and only became such when they had cast the incense upon it.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Nothing could be permitted to ascend from the priestly censer but the pure fire, kindled from off the altar of God, and fed by the “pure incense beaten small,” Leviticus 16:12.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What is it to offer strange fire before the LORD, but to offer anything of our own, and not with an eye to Jesus, when we come before the LORD? In Exodus 30:9, mention is made of the prohibition of “strange incense” being offered before the LORD. And as incense is generally understood to have reference to the merits of Christ, why may not the sacred fire be supposed to have reference also to the person or oblation of the Lord Jesus?

JOHN GILL: “Strange fire” may be an emblem of dissembled love, such as when a man performs religious duties, prays to God, or praises Him without any cordial affection to Him, or obeys commands not from love, but selfish views; or of an ignorant, false, and misguided zeal, a zeal not according to knowledge, superstitious and hypocritical; or of false and strange doctrines, such as are not of God, nor agree with the voice of Christ, and are foreign to the Scriptures; or of human ordinances, and the inventions of men.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): How greatly God abominates all the sins whereby the purity of religion is corrupted.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Very much of that which passes among men for the worship of God is but “strange fire” after all…The time, however, is rapidly approaching when the strange fire will be quenched for ever, when the throne of God shall no longer be insulted by clouds of impure incense ascending from unpurged worshippers; when all that is spurious shall be abolished.

 

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