God’s Animal Rights Legislation

Posted on June 5, 2020 by The Editor

Deuteronomy 22:6,7

If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We are amazed to find the Most High God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Sustainer of the vast universe, condescending to legislate about the matter of a bird’s nest; and yet why should we be amazed when we know that it is just the same to Him to provide for a sparrow as to feed a thousand millions of people daily?

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): But doth God take care for birds?

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): Birds? Yes, God takes care of them, and feeds them, and is with them when they die, Matthew 6:26; Matthew 10:29.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): This is one of those merciful constitutions in the law of Moses, which, inspiring the minds of His people with a regard for the animal creation, tended much to humanize their hearts, to breed in them a sense of the Divine Providence extending its care to all its creatures; and to teach them to exercise their dominion over that animal creation with gentleness.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Men were charged to act in kindness even toward the birds.

MATTHEW HENRY: Perhaps to this law our Saviour alludes, Luke 12:6, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” This law, forbids us to be cruel to the brute-creatures, or to take a pleasure in destroying them. Though God has made us “wiser than the fowls of heaven,” and given us “dominion over them,” yet we must not abuse them nor rule them with rigour.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): But we may look for a humane precept in this law. The young never knew the sweets of liberty; the dam did: they might be taken and used for any lawful purpose, but the dam must not be brought into a state of captivity.

MATTHEW HENRY: The dam could not have been taken if her concern for her eggs or young had not detained her upon the nest when otherwise she could easily have secured herself by flight. Now, since it is a thousand pities that she should fare the worse for that which is her praise, the law takes care that she shall be let go. The remembrance of this may perhaps, some time or other, keep us from doing a hard or unkind thing to those whom we have at our mercy.

ADAM CLARKE: They who can act otherwise must be either very inconsiderate or devoid of feeling; and such persons can never be objects of God’s peculiar care and attention, and therefore need not expect that it shall be well with them, or that they shall prolong their days on the earth. Every thing contrary to the spirit of mercy and kindness the ever blessed God has in utter abhorrence. And we should remember a fact—that he who can exercise cruelty towards a sparrow or a wren, will, when circumstances are favorable, be cruel to his fellow creatures.

THOMAS COKE: To this law Moses adds an exhortation; “that it may be well with thee,” as much as to say, “This humanity, this compassion, is one of the things which will very much contribute to draw down upon you the blessing of God.”

MATTHEW HENRY: The Jews say, “This is the least of all the commandments of the law of Moses,” and yet the same promise is here made to the observance of it, that is made to the keeping of the fifth commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” Exodus 20:12, which is one of the greatest—“that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days;” for, as disobedience in a small matter shows a very great contempt of the law, so obedience in a small matter shows a very great regard to it. He that let go a bird out of his hand (which was worth two in the bush) purely because God bade him, in that made it to appear that he “esteemed all God’s precepts concerning all things to be right,” and that he could deny himself rather than sin against God.

ADAM CLARKE: This passage may be understood literally. If they destroyed both young and old, must not the breed soon fail, and would it not in the end be ill with them; and by thus cutting off the means of their continual support, must not their days be shortened on the land?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This law was made partly to preserve the species of birds…This law does not prohibit the taking of her in any other place but in her nest.

THOMAS COKE: There is a fixed season for every thing, Ecclesiastes 3:1…The law seems also to regard posterity; for, by letting the dam go free, the breed may be continued; and as the reason of the law subsists now as well as then, it is doubtless obligatory upon us.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Regard was had, indeed, to the preservation of the breed; but, still there is no question but that it was God’s intention to accustom His people to study humanity. For, if there be one drop of compassion in us, it will never enter into our minds to kill an unhappy little bird, which so burns either with the desire of offspring, or with love towards its little ones, as to be heedless of its life, and to prefer endangering itself to the desertion of its eggs, or its brood. Wherefore, it is not to be doubted but that in this elementary lesson, God prohibited His people from savageness and cruelty.

JOHN GILL: Wherefore the intention of this law is to teach humanity, compassion, and pity in men to one another, and to forbid cruelty, covetousness, and such like vices; as also to instruct in the doctrine of Providence, which has a respect to birds.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): If a gracious God judged it proper to give such a demonstration of His mercy, over all His works, so as to issue such a precept to His people to be merciful—what an argument is this for believers in Jesus to repose themselves with full confidence on a God so gracious and merciful.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It teaches us, in a manner peculiar to itself, the marvellous way in which God provided for everything connected with His people. Nothing escaped His gracious notice; nothing was too trivial for His tender care. No mother could be more careful of the habits and manners of her little child, than the Almighty Creator and moral Governor of the universe was of the most minute details connected with the daily history of His people.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God does not forget the sparrows, but He regards you with far greater interest and care, for He counts the very hairs of your head. He not only knows that there is such a person, but he knows the minutest details of your life and being…And, surely, there is a great force in that truth. Your Heavenly Father knows you so completely that He has counted the hairs of your head: “Fear not therefore; ye are of more value than many sparrows,” Luke 12:7.

MATTHEW HENRY: He who feeds His birds will not starve His babes.

 

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The Essential Illumination of the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 29, 2020 by The Editor

John 3:27; John 14:26; John 16:13-15; Corinthians 2:12-14

A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from Heaven.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself…He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Let no man hesitate to acknowledge, that he is incapable of understanding the mysteries of God, any further than he has been illuminated by Divine grace.

THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): What is the reason that you shall see some things in a chapter at one time, and not at another; have some grace in your hearts at one time, and not at another; have a sight of spiritual things at one time and not at another?  The eye is the same, but it is the Holy Ghost that openeth and shutteth this dark lantern, as I may so call it; as He openeth it wider, or contracts it, or shutteth it narrower, so do we see more or less: and sometimes He shutteth it wholly, and then the soul is in darkness, though it have never so good an eye.

GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): In our day, as well as in former times, He is the teacher of His people.

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Can any man understand the Scriptures without the Spirit of God helps him? Jesus Christ must open our understanding to understand the Scriptures, and the Spirit of God must take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Believe one who is speaking from experience—the Bible cannot be understood simply by study or talent; you must count only on the influence of the Holy Spirit. Your first duty, then, is to begin with prayer. Entreat the Lord that He will in His great mercy deign to grant you the true knowledge of His Word. There is no other interpreter of the Word of God than the Author of that Word, according as it is said, “They will all be taught of God,” John 6:45.

BROWNLOW NORTH (1810-1875): You have got Bibles, read them. You cannot understand them unless the Holy Spirit teach you—therefore, pray for the Holy Spirit.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and that wait on Him continually; to these He will shew His covenant, not notionally, but experimentally. A few minutes of the Spirit’s teaching will furnish us with more real useful knowledge, than toiling through whole folios of commentators and expositors: they are useful in their places, and are not to be undervalued―but it will be our wisdom to deal less with the streams, and be more close in applying to the fountain head. The Scripture itself, and the Spirit of God, are the best and the only sufficient expositors of Scripture. Whatever men have valuable in their writings, they got it from hence; and the way is as open to us as to any of them. There is nothing required but a teachable humble spirit; and learning, as it is commonly called, is not necessary in order to this.

GEORGE MÜLLER: It was my beginning to understand this latter point in particular, which had a great effect on me; for the Lord enabled me to put it to the test of experience, by laying aside commentaries, and almost every other book, and simply reading the Word of God and studying it. The result of this was, that the first evening that I shut myself into my room, to give myself to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours than I had done during a period of several months previously. But the particular difference was that I received real strength for my soul in doing so.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why Christians at this day are at such a loss as to some things is, because they are content with what comes from men’s mouths, without searching and kneeling before God, to know of Him the truth of things. Things that we receive from God’s hand come to us as things from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come to us with the smell of heaven upon them.

JOHN NEWTON: We learn more, and more effectually, by one minute’s communication with Him through the medium of His written Word, than we could from an assembly of divines, or a library of books.

JOHN CALVIN: Here we must remember, that the Scripture is not only given us, but that interpreters and teachers are also added, to be helps to us…Some, which trust too much in their own wit, will vouchsafe to hear no man, and they will read no commentaries. But God will not have us to despise those helps which He offers unto us.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): It seems to be the besetting sin of mankind and one of the most terrible results of the Fall, that there is nothing difficult as to maintain a balance. In correcting one thing we go to such an extreme as to find ourselves in an equally dangerous position.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Richard Cecil says his plan was, when he laid a hold of a Scripture, to pray over it, and get his own thoughts on it, and then, after he had so done, to take up the ablest divines who wrote upon the subject, and see what their thoughts were. If you do not think and think much, you will become slaves and mere copyists. The exercise of your own mind is most healthful to you, and by perseverance, with divine help, you may expect to get at the meaning of every understandable passage. So to rely upon your own abilities as to be unwilling to learn from others is clearly folly; so to study others as not to judge for yourself is imbecility.

JOHN ROBINSON (1575-1625): Make use of the commentaries and expositions of such special instruments, as God in mercy hath raised up for the opening of His Word, and edifying the Church thereby: remembering always, that “the word of God neither came from him nor to him alone,” 1 Corinthians 14:36.  He that depends too much upon other men’s judgment, makes it as if the Word of God came not to himself at all: he that neglects it, as if it came to him only.

JOHN NEWTON: I am glad to be beholden to such helps, either to explain what I do not understand, or to confirm me in what I do.

HULDRYCH ZWINGLI (1484-1531): I study them with the same feelings with which one asks a friend, “What do you understand by this?”

J. W. ALEXANDER (1804-1859): As the Bible is the best of books, so the next best is that which is most like it, which teaches the same thing, or explains the Bible.

 

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Jesus Christ’s Triumphant Ascension Into Heaven

Posted on May 22, 2020 by The Editor

Luke 24:50,51; Acts 1:9; Psalm 24:7-10

He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): There is somewhat very gracious, that Jesus, while in the act of blessing his Church, should be parted from them, and carried up into heaven. Yes! this was not without significancy. The blessing of Jesus is continued. It is one great whole. There is no interruption—our Great High Priest ascended therefore, while blessing, as if to say that His blessing is forever. Those that looked on, when Jesus gradually went up from the Mount of Olives, in presence of the many who were gathered together, saw, and wondered as they beheld, and were no doubt absorbed in contemplation, until the clouds received Him out of their sight. But they knew not what was going on in heaven, but which this scripture of Psalm 24 records.

CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): In Psalm 24, we have an account of the actual entrance of Christ into heaven.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The pomp and triumph of His ascension were displayed in the invisible world…We conceive of Him therefore, from this sublime passage in Psalm 24, as ascending to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God, accompanied with a train of worshipping angels.

ROBERT HAWKER: Perhaps angels; or perhaps the church of the redeemed above, who had died in the faith of Christ before the wonders of His redemption had been wrought; perhaps both angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, were those who demanded the gates and everlasting doors to lift up their heads, at the approach of the almighty Conqueror. For angels, we are told, are at the gates of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:12. And, surely, the souls of the redeemed in glory, who had gained entrance there by virtue of Christ’s blood and righteousness, must have been longing with holy desires for the return of the Lord Jesus.

JOHN NEWTON: The question is asked, who is he that claims this honour? An answer is given, asserting His character, His victories, and the justice of His claims—“The Lord of hosts, the Lord strong in battle, he is the King of glory.”—It was the Lord of hosts whom Isaiah saw, seated upon a throne, his train filling the temple, Isaiah 6:1. The vision filled him with astonishment, and he cried out, “Woe is me, I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” But the apostle John assures us, that when Isaiah said these things, he saw Jesus Christ’s glory and spake of Him, John 12:41.

ROBERT HAWKER: What a sublimity there is in these blessed words; and what a rich treasure they contain, in reference to the person and glory of our almighty Mediator!

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The character here given of Him deserves more attentive consideration. The essential dignity of our Lord is that first mentioned, as “the King of glory,” and “the Lord of glory,” He could claim heaven as His own. There He had from all eternity been “in the bosom of the Father,” John 1:18; there He had “had a glory with the Father before the worlds were made,” John 17:5. “From thence he had descended,” for the purpose of executing the Father’s will, John 6:38. Though He had assumed our nature, and “was found in fashion as a man,” yet was He from all eternity “in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God,” Philippians 2:6,8. He was “the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” Hebrews 1:3. He was “one with God,” in glory equal, in majesty co-eternal: in a word, He was “the mighty God,” Isaiah 9:6; “the great God and our Saviour,” Titus 2:13; “God over all, blessed for ever,” Romans 9:5. Well therefore might His attendant angels call on the hosts of heaven to open wide the portals of those glorious mansions for His admission; since the heaven of heavens were from all eternity His proper, His peculiar residence.

JOHN BOYS (1619-1625): For that all honour and glory belong properly to Him—His is “the kingdom, the power, and the glory,” Matthew 6:13, called in this respect, “The Lord of glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:2,8.

GEORGE ABBOT (1603-1649): Why, He is the Almighty God, of power all-sufficient to preserve and defend His people and church.

JOHN BOYS: If the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in battle, be the King of glory, then Christ, having conquered all His enemies, and made them His footstool, triumphing over death, and the devil which is the founder of death, and sin which is the sting of death, and the grave which is the prison of death, and hell itself which is the proper dominion of the devil and death, is doubtless in Himself, “the King of glory.”

CHARLES SIMEON: True indeed, He Himself received a wound in the engagement; “his heel was bruised,” but He inflicted a deadly wound on “the head” of His enemy, Genesis 3:15, and vanquished him for ever.

HENRY PENDLEBURY (1626-1695): Christ is gone to heaven as a victor; leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all His enemies in triumph at His chariot wheels. He has not only overcome His enemies for Himself, but for all His people, whom He will make conquerors, yea, “more than conquerors.”

JOHN BOYS: For that Christ maketh us partakers of His glory, termed in this respect our glorious Lord Jesus, James 2:1…Heaven’s gates are called “everlasting,” because they shall endure for ever, or because they be the doors unto the life which is everlasting.

JOHN KEBLE (1792-1866): Why are the everlasting gates invited to lift up their heads a second time?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The same verse is repeated again, partly to shame and awaken the dullness of mankind.

ROBERT HAWKER: Is there not, besides Christ’s entrance into glory, another beautiful sense of these words capable of being made of them? Doth not the Lord Jesus demand admission into the hearts of His people, when, as He saith Himself, “Behold I stand at the door and knock?” Revelation 3:20. Doth He not find in every individual instance of His redeemed, the door resolutely shut against Him? And unless He who demands entrance puts in His hand by the hole of the door, and opens for Himself, would not the heart remain everlastingly shut and bolted against him to all eternity? Song of Solomon 5:4, John 1:11,12.

JOHN BOYS: And for as much as He died for our sins, and is risen for our justification, and is ascended on high to give gifts unto men—in this life grace, in the next, glory—what is He less than a “King of glory” towards us.

ROBERT HAWKER: Blessed Jesus, how precious is it to know Thee to be both King of grace, and King of glory!

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): And do not forget that there is another possible application of these words lying in the future, to the conquering Christ who shall come again arrayed in flashing brightness, and the visible robes of His imperial majesty. Again will He appear, mighty in battle, when “in righteousness He shall judge and make war,” Revelation 19:11. For a Christian, one great memory fills the past—Christ has come; and one great hope brightens the future—Christ will come.

 

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God’s Conditional Promise For Times of Pestilence

Posted on May 15, 2020 by The Editor

Psalm 91:1-3, 5-7, 9,10

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. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence…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…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.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The triumphant assurances of this psalm, “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling,”—“the pestilence shall smite thousands and ten thousands beside thee, but not come nigh thee,”—seem to be entirely contradicted by experience which testifies that “there is one event to the evil and the good,” Ecclesiastes 9:2; and that, in epidemics or other widespread disasters, we all, the good and the bad, God-fearers and God-blasphemers, do fare alike, and that the conditions of exemption from physical evil are physical and not spiritual. It is of no use trying to persuade ourselves that this is not so. We shall understand God’s dealings with us, and get to the very throbbing heart of such promises as these in this psalm far better, if we start from the certainty that whatever it means, it does not mean that, with regard to external calamities and disasters, we are going to be God’s petted children, or to be saved from the things that fall upon other people. No! no! we have to go a great deal deeper than that.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): This is a Psalm written for comfort, but it is not addressed to all mankind—neither I venture to say, to all believers, but only those who are described in the first verse. There are some that abide in Christ and His words abide in them. They live near to God. They receive therefore choicer favours than those who do but come and go. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High.”

ROBERT HORN (Circa 1628): That which is here translated “dwelleth,” is as much in weight as sitteth, or is settled; and so, our dwelling in God’s secret place, is as much as our sitting down in it; the meaning is, we must make it our rest, as if we should say, Here will we dwell. From whence we learn, that God’s children should not come to God’s secret place as guests to an inn, but as inhabitants to their own dwellings.

C. H. SPURGEON: He who has learnt to stand in the holy of holies, near the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat, to whom prayer is a constant privilege and enjoyment—he dwells in the secret place. Such a man, living near to God, “shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

MARY B. M. DUNCAN (1807-1867): This is an expression which implies great nearness. We must walk very close to a companion, if we would have his shadow fall on us. Can we imagine any expression more perfect in describing the constant presence of God with His chosen ones, than this—they shall abide under His shadow? In Solomon’s beautiful allegory, the Church, in a time of special communion with Christ, says of Him, “I sat down under his shadow with great delight,” Song of Solomon 2:3—“sat down,” desiring not to leave it, but to abide there for ever. And it is he who chooses to dwell in the secret place of the most High, who shall “abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” There is a condition and a promise attached to it. The condition is, that we “dwell in the secret place”—the promise, that if we do so we “shall abide under the shadow.” It is of importance to view it thus.

C. H. SPURGEON: So there must be great access to God—great familiarity with Him; there must be something of the assurance of faith, before we shall be able to grip such a Word as that which follows in this Psalm. Read it again, and if you have not attained to it, labour after it.

MARY B. M. DUNCAN: He wishes us to know Him, and by His Word and His Spirit, He puts Himself before us. Ah! it is not his fault if we do not know him. It is our own carelessness.

JEREMIAH DYKE (1584-1639): Our safety lies not simply upon this, because God is a refuge, and is an habitation, but “Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee,” It is therefore the making of God our habitation, upon which our safety lies; and this is the way to make God an habitation, thus to pitch and cast ourselves by faith upon His power and providence.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Though God is the judge of the whole world, yet he would have His providence to be especially acknowledged in the government of His own Church—He indeed puts forth his hand indifferently against His own people and against strangers; for we see that both are in common subjected to adversities.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It may befall a saint to share in a common calamity; as the good corn and weeds are cut down together, but for a different end and purpose.

JOHN CALVIN: He restores by corrections His own children, for whom He has a care, to the right way, whenever they depart from it. In this sense it is that Peter says that judgment begins at the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17; for judgment includes all those punishments which the Lord inflicts on men for their sins, and whatever refers to the reformation of the world. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”

JOHN TRAPP: A good man may die of the plague, as did John Oecolampadius, and many others; Hezekiah is thought to have had it, so had Theodore Beza—his family was four different times visited herewith, and he was much comforted under that and other heavy afflictions by this sweet psalm, which, therefore, he hugged and held most dear all the days of his life.

THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY (ANNOTATIONS, 1658): Most dangerous then and erroneous is the inference of some men, yea, of some expositors upon these words of the Psalmist, that no godly man can suffer by the plague, or pestilence…Most interpreters conclude here, that the godly are preserved in time of public calamities; which, in a right sense, may be true; but withal they should have added, that all godly men are not exempted at such times, to prevent rash judgments.

THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): God doth not say here that no afflictions shall befall us, but no evil.

C. H. SPURGEON: As for His saints, it is their consolation that their death is entirely in His hands. In the midst of fever and pestilence, we shall never die until He wills it!

JOHN RYLAND (1753-1825): Plagues and deaths around me fly,

Till He bids I cannot die:

Not a single shaft can hit,

Till the God of love thinks fit.

 

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When Men Act Like Babies, God Raises Up Mothers in Israel

Posted on May 8, 2020 by The Editor

Judges 4:4-9

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This is, I believe, the first instance of female government on record. Deborah seems to have been supreme both in civil and religious affairs; and Lapidoth, her husband, appears to have had no hand in the government.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Who Lapidoth was, or what is meant by the name, is not certain; most take it to be the name of her husband, which seems best, but who he was is not known—some render the words, “a woman of Lapidoth,” taking it for the name of her native place or habitation; but where there was a place of this name no account can be given.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Some have thought that, as Lapidoth is not a very common name for a man,* and means light, and illumination, the expression is symbolical, for the extraordinary degree of grace imparted to Deborah, and particularly on this occasion, of delivering Israel.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In the history of Israel, it was always a proof of the nation’s low condition when the female was thrown into prominence. It was Barak’s backwardness that threw Deborah forward. According to the normal, the divine idea, the man is the head. This is seen, in perfection, in Christ and the Church. Here is the true model on which our thoughts are to be formed.

RICHARD ROGERS (1550-1618): We have heard Deborah’s message to Barak—now follows Barak’s answer to her message in the eighth verse: “If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.” This answer of his seems to yield little to God’s commandment, sent to him by Deborah’s ministry, neither to ascribe anything to God’s promise; and therefore it shows how he profited not from those two strong persuasions to lead him to his duty, but proves that he ascribes more to her presence, then to God’s promise; which, would it be less than a great blemish in him? Besides, she was offended with him—and this she said, “I will go with thee, but it shall not be for thine honour.” Wherein she finds fault with him, and tells him that he should suffer the punishment of his infidelity, while the glory which he might otherwise have had thereby, should be given to a woman, meaning Jael [who killed Sisera], and not in the least part to herself.

JOHN GILL: Now, till Deborah arose, there was no perfect salvation and deliverance wrought for them—until it pleased God to raise her up, and endow her in a very wonderful and extraordinary manner with gifts qualifying her to be a nursing mother to Israel, to teach and instruct them in the mind and will of God, to administer judgment and justice to them, to protect and defend them—in all which, she discovered a maternal affection for them. And as a good judge and ruler of a people may be called the father of them, so she, being a woman, is with propriety called a mother in Israel, having an affectionate concern for them as her children.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Deborah is called “a mother in Israel,” for the same reason as every deliverer of his country is called the “father” of it.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Barak, like a ‘hind let loose,’ was at first timid of responding to Deborah’s call. He had not dared to go forth with his little handful of men unless Deborah had sent for him and assured him of success. The battle was not of Barak’s choosing; it was forced upon him by Deborah.

RICHARD ROGERS: Why then is he afterward so highly commended for his faith?

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Barak’s offer to go with her shows the truth of his faith, for which he is praised [in Hebrews 11:32]; but his refusal to go without her shows the weakness of his faith, that he could not trust God’s bare Word, as he ought to have done, without the pledge of the presence of His prophetess, whom he thought God would preserve and deliver, and himself for her sake.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Women sometimes lend superior courage to men, and the weaker sex proves itself the stronger.

A. W. PINK: Read verses 10 to 24, and note the hind-like swiftness of Barak’s onslaught down the slopes of Mount Tabor. It is significant that the name “Barak” means “lightning,” and, like lightning he burst as a storm on the startled hosts of Sisera, which were scattered by the hand of God at his unexpected approach. Note Judges 4:14: “So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him,” not “with him”—he was running ahead of them all!

C. H. SPURGEON: Look at Barak! After he has once believed in the power of God he marches to the fight and wins the victory! And he is commemorated in soul-stirring words by the poetess, “Awake, awake, Deborah; awake, awake, utter a song; arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.” If you would grow, you must believe your God! He that gets close to God and leans wholly upon God, shall have Divine strength imparted to him.

A. W. PINK: Christians ought to grow and become strong in the Lord. They are exhorted to “be not children in understanding,” 1 Corinthians 14:20. They are bidden to “stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong,” 1 Chronicles 16:13.

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): Oh! it is a crying shame and sin that in all Christian communities there should be so many grey-headed babies, men who have for years and years been professing to be Christ’s followers, and whose faith is but little, if at all.

C. H. SPURGEON: You know the good Methodist woman’s outcry at the funeral sermon when the minister said, “Now that this eminent servant of the Lord is departed, we know of no one to fill his place. The standard-bearers are removed and we have none left at all to be compared with them. It seems as if the glory were departing and the faithful failing from among men.” A worthy mother in Israel called out from the aisle, “Glory be to God, that’s a lie!” Well, I have often felt inclined to say the same when I have heard a wailing over the absence of good and great men—and melancholy prophecies of the awful times to come! “Glory be to God, He will never let His Church die out for lack of leaders! He has a grand reserve somewhere!”

RICHARD ROGERS: Let this be briefly added, that Deborah yielding to, and helping the weakness of Barak in going with him, teaches us to regard, help, and encourage our weak brethren, by counsel, travail, and example.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): If others fail in their duty to us, this does not discharge us from our duty to them, nor take off the obligations we lie under to seek their welfare.

____________

*Editor’s Note: According to Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary (#3941, from #3940), ‘Lapidoth’ is the feminine plural of an unused Hebrew root word probably meaning to shine. Proper names often have spiritual significance (see Hebrews 7:1,2). Perhaps the name of Deborah’s husband is in the feminine form to emphasize that she was the shining spiritual light in their marriage, and that her husband was either unconverted, or a weak man not governing his household as he should. She was certainly more prominent and distinguished than him. And it is plural, either because as married they are one flesh in God’s eyes, but still remain two very different people; or because such was the general spiritual condition of Israel at the time.

 

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The Equitable Poetic Justice of God’s Judgments

Posted on May 1, 2020 by The Editor

Jeremiah 17:10; Proverbs 11:5; Esther 7:9,10: Proverbs 26:27

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): These are proverbial expressions, teaching men to be wise and cautious, lest by their conduct they bring mischief upon themselves; as it often is, the one that digs a pit for another, falls into it himself―or, any man that devises mischief against another, frequently so it is that the same befalls them; as Haman, who prepared a gallows for Mordecai, was hanged on it himself.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Haman was justly hanged on the very gallows he had unjustly prepared for Mordecai. If he had not set up that gallows, perhaps the king would not have thought of ordering him to be hanged. In the morning Haman was designing himself for the robes, and Mordecai for the gallows; but the tables are turned: Mordecai has the crown, Haman the cross.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Was it not an act of what men term, poetic justice?

MATTHEW HENRY: The Lord is known by such judgments. “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead,” Proverbs 11:8.

G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The nets of evil plotting and malicious enterprise swing far out in the tides of human life, but never far enough to enmesh God. He remains beyond them all, and gathering them in the hands of His power, He makes them include the men who weave them to destroy others…It was a fierce and terrible judgment, and yet characterized by poetic justice.

ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): And what a display is made of the Lord’s providential superintendence.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): “I cannot pass over the wonderful harmony of Providence,” says Josephus, “without a remark upon the Almighty power and admirable justice of the wisdom of God, not only in bringing Haman to his deserved punishment, but in entrapping him in the very snare which he had laid for another, and turning a malicious invention upon the head of the inventor.” Well says the heathen poet, “No law is more just, than that the workers of wickedness should perish by the means of their own subtilty.”

ROBERT HAWKER: Pause and contemplate the sure end of the ungodly.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Sin and punishment are inseparable companions…Every man shall be sure to reap as he sows, to drink as he brews, to receive according to that he hath done in the flesh, whether good or evil, 2 Corinthians 5:10―as sure as the night followeth the day, a day of account will come, and God will render unto each man reward or punishment according to his works.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): We are not to suppose that our good works are put in one scale, and our evil works in another; and that, according to the scale which preponderates, our fate shall be. Nor are we to imagine that, when we have done a certain number of good works, the merits of Christ shall be cast, as it were, into the scale, in order to procure acceptance for them. The way of salvation is widely different from either of these. We all, without exception, are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath and indignation. But He has given His only-begotten Son to die for us; and will accept to mercy all who come to Him in His Son’s name. Those who have believed in Christ will in that day be approved as having embraced the proffered salvation: and those who have rejected the Saviour, will be rejected of their God. But still there will be a great difference as to the measure of misery or of happiness which these different parties will inherit. Amongst the righteous, “one star will differ from another star in glory;” and amongst the wicked, some will be “beaten with many stripes, and others with few,” according as circumstances have occurred to extenuate or aggravate their guilt.

MATTHEW HENRY: Sooner or later, in this world or in that to come, He will cause every man to find according to his ways. This is the standing rule of distributive justice, to give to every man according to his work. “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with them: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with them: for the reward of his hands shall be given him,” Isaiah 3:10,11. If services persevered in now go unrewarded, and sins persisted in now go unpunished, yet there is a day coming when God will fully render to every man according to his works, with interest for the delay.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God ever will do justice.

MATTHEW HENRY: Though He does not always do this visibly in this world, yet He will do it in the day of recompence.

CHARLES SIMEON: He records every thing in the book of His remembrance—The thoughts as well as the words of men are recorded in this book, Malachi 3:16; and out of these books shall they be judged, Revelation 20:12,13. Indeed, they are all “sealed up, as it were, in a bag,” in order to be then brought forth as grounds of God’s decision, and as evidences of His equity. Nothing will escape His observation.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564):  When the ungodly are secure, let us know that God’s judgment is indeed hidden, but yet certain, and will shortly overtake them; for when they say, “Peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them,” 1 Thessalonians 5:3…If the judgments of God be so dreadful in this life, how dreadful will He be when He shall come at last to judge the world!

CHARLES SIMEON: Behold, then, What an awful prospect is here opened to the ungodly! There is not a day or an hour in which an ungodly man is not providing misery for himself, and “treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.”

CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Evil shall fall on the heads of its own authors.

A. W. PINK: Note how an exact retribution―“poetic justice” worldlings would call it―overtook Jezebel: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth,” who was murdered at the orders of that wicked queen, there was her corpse consumed by dogs, 2 Kings 9:36.

 

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Walking the Walk That Pleases God

Posted on April 24, 2020 by The Editor

Colossians 1:10―1 Thessalonians 4:1; John 8:28, 29

Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God―Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

Then said Jesus unto them…He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let Christians never forget the practical lesson that, in this verse, as in many other places, Christ is their example and their encouragement. Like Him, however short they may come, let them aim at “always doing what pleases God.”

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What will the Lord be pleased with?

D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): More depends upon my walk than my talk.

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): If we entertain any doubt how we ought to walk we need only look to the Lord Jesus Christ: in Him we see precisely how we ought to walk and to please God.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We should not know how to walk were it not for that one most precious, most deep, most comprehensive sentence which fell from the lips of our blessed Lord, “I am the way.” Here is divine, infallible guidance. We are to follow Him. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” John 8:12. This is living guidance. It is not acting according to the letter of certain rules and regulations. It is following a living Christ—walking as He walked, doing as He did, imitating His example in all things.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He that abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked,” 1 John 2:6. This is the same with that Colossians 2:6, to “walk in Christ;” and with that, 1 Peter 2:21, “to follow His steps.”

CHARLES SIMEON: We must walk in Christ, by a living faith…Our Lord Himself tells us, that “without Him,”―that is, without an union with Him by faith, “we can do nothing,” John 15:5; and Paul tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God,” Hebrews 11:6.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Then the next question is, “Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” Faith is the main question for conscience to decide, together with the following ones, “Do I also keep His Commandments? Do I obey God? Do I seek to be holy as Jesus is holy? Or am I living in known sin and tolerating that in myself which does not and cannot please God?”

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): They who receive the precious gift of faith, thereby become the sons of God; and, being sons, they shall receive the Spirit of holiness to walk as Christ also walked.

A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him,” Colossians 2:6. That is an exhortation to Christians, and its force is, “Continue as you began.” But how had they begun? It was by “receiving Christ Jesus the Lord,” by subjecting themselves to His will, by ceasing to please themselves. His authority was now owned. His commands now became their rule of life. His love constrained them to a glad and unreserved obedience. They “gave their own selves to the Lord,” 2 Corinthians 8:5.

CHARLES SIMEON: By this is meant that we should walk in a continual dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ for all those blessings which we stand in need of. He is the fountain of them all: they are treasured up in Him―Do we need a justifying righteousness? To Him we must look for it, and from Him we must receive it: We must call Him, “The Lord our Righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6. Do we need grace to sanctify and renew our souls? From Him we must receive it, according to our necessities, John 1:16…Those who are striving after a more perfect conformity to their Lord and Saviour, it is well that you are endeavouring to “walk even as Christ walked.” But attempt it not in your own strength. You must be “strengthened with all might in your inward man, by the Spirit of the living God.”

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): “And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us,” Ephesians 5:2. We ought to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us.

JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The will of Jesus Christ is, that those who belong to Him should walk exactly in His footsteps; that they should be, as He was, full of mercy and love; that they should render to no one evil for evil, but endure, for His sake, injuries calumnies, and every outrage. To them all anger and resentment should be unknown.

CHARLES SIMEON: Like Him, we must exercise meekness and patience, and forbearance, and love even to our bitterest enemies, never swerving in the least from the path of duty for fear of them, nor yielding to any thing of a vindictive spirit on account of them, but rendering to them, under all circumstances, good for evil, and committing ourselves entirely to the disposal of an all-wise God, 1 Peter 2:21-23.

C. H. SPURGEON: The large-heartedness of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most glorious traits in His Character. He scattered good of all sorts on all sides.―Do good “as much as lies in you,” to the utmost extent of your power and let that be of every sort.

CHARLES SIMEON: In a word, “the same mind must be in us as was in Him,” Philippians 2:5, under every possible situation and circumstance of life; and then, as “he pleased the Father always,” so shall we infallibly be approved by Him. Like Him, we must live altogether for God, making it our “meat and our drink to do His will,” John 6:34. Like him, we must rise superior to all worldly cares, or pleasures, or honours, “not being of the world, even as he was not of the world,” John 17:16.

J. C. RYLE: And like Him, let them be sure that in so doing, they will find the Father “with them,” and will never be left quite “alone.”

CHARLES SIMEON: And as surely as we tread in His steps in this world, we shall be seated with Him on His throne in the world to come―Up then, and be doing. We have shewn you how to walk and to please God, and you have begun the blessed work: but O, we entreat you to abound more and more! And may “the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

 

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A Three Point Gospel

Posted on April 17, 2020 by The Editor

Job 13:23; Romans 7:18; Romans 5:8

How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We lately met with an old man, in the West of England, who for forty-five years he had never entered any place of religious instruction. He was, however, induced by a friend to come under the sound of the gospel; and, on the very first occasion, his soul was arrested. He continued to attend regularly, and divine light shone in gradually upon his soul. After attending for some weeks, he was speaking to a Christian friend, and telling him, in his own simple style, his spiritual experience. “Sir,” said he, “the first thing I learned was that I had never done a right thing, all my life. The next thing I learned was that I could not do a right thing, my nature was that bad. And, then, sir, I learned that Christ had done all, and met all.”

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This, indeed, is the sum of the Gospel; and an epitome of its operations in the hearts of men.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, these are what we may call, three good things to learn; and, if the reader has not already learned them, we would earnestly entreat him to apply his heart to them now. Let us briefly glance at these three points of Christian knowledge. They be at the very foundation of true Christianity. And, first, then, our poor old friend discovered that he had never done a right thing, all his days.

THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): No man begins to be good till he sees himself to be bad.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: This is a serious discovery for a soul to make. It marks an interesting epoch in the history of a soul when the eyes are first opened and thrown back upon the entire career, from the earliest moment, and the whole thing is found to have been one tissue of sin from beginning to end―every page of the volume blotted, from margin to margin. This, we repeat, is very serious. It marks the earliest stage of spiritual conviction. But there is more than this. Our old friend not only learned that his acts―all his acts―the acts of his whole life had been bad; but also that his nature was bad; and not only bad, but utterly unmendable. This is a grand point to get hold of. It is an essential element in all true repentance.

WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Many will confess, they do not as they should, who will not think by any means so ill of themselves, that theirs is a state of sin and death; whereas, the convinced soul freely puts himself under this sentence, owns his condition―“I am a vile wretch,” saith he, “as full of sin as the toad is of poison. My whole nature lies, in wickedness, even as the dead, rotten carcass does in its putrefaction.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It is of all importance, therefore, for the reader to give attention to the second point learned by our dear old friend. He will have to learn, not only that the acts of his life have been all bad, but that his nature is incurable. No doubt, people differ as to their acts and their ways; but the nature is the same. A crab tree is a crab tree, whether it bear but one crab in ten years, or ten thousand crabs in one year. Nothing but a crab tree could produce even a solitary crab; and hence the nature of the tree is as clearly proved by one crab as by ten thousand. And further, we may say that all the art of man; all his cultivation; all his digging and pruning, cannot change the nature of a crab tree. There must be a new nature, a new life, ere any acceptable fruit can be produced. “Ye must be born again.”

WILLIAM GURNALL: The convinced sinner does not only condemn himself for what he has done and is, but he despairs as to anything he can do to save himself―he sees himself beyond his own help, like a poor, condemned prisoner, laden with so many irons, that he sees it is impossible for him to make an escape, with all his skill or strength, out of the hands of justice. O, friends, look whether the work be gone thus far in your souls!

C. H. MACKINTOSH: But this leads us to look at what our old friend learned, as the third point, namely, that Christ had done all, and met all…The Lord Jesus has met the sins of my life―and the sin of my nature. He has cancelled the former, and condemned the latter. My sinful acts are all forgiven, and my sinful nature is judged. The former are washed away from my conscience, the latter is forever set aside from God’s presence. It is one thing to know the forgiveness of sins, and another to know the condemnation of sin. We read in Romans 8:3 that “God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” It does not speak of the forgiveness of sin. Sins are forgiven―the sinner is pardoned; but sin is condemned―an immensely important distinction for every earnest soul. The reign of sin is ended forever, as to the believer; and the reign of grace is begun.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Christ washes away our sins by his blood, and reconciles our Heavenly Father to us by the sacrifice of his death; but, at the same time, in consequence of  “our old man being crucified with him, and the body of sin destroyed,” Romans 6:6, He makes us “alive” unto righteousness. The sum of the Gospel is, that God, through his Son, takes away our sins, and admits us to fellowship with Him, that we, “denying ourselves ” and our own nature, may “live soberly, righteously, and godly.”

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; this is the sum of the gospel.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): I have heard of a certain man who always carried with him a little book. This tiny volume had only three leaves in it; and truth to tell, it contained not a single word. The first was a leaf of black paper, black as jet; the next was a leaf of red paper—scarlet; and the last was a leaf of white paper without spot.  Day by day he would look upon this singular book, and at last he told the secret of what it meant.  He said, “Here is the black leaf, that is my sin, and the wrath of God which my sin deserves; I look, and look, and think it is not black enough to represent my guilt, though it is as black as black can be. The red leaf reminds me of the atoning sacrifice, and the precious blood; and I delight to look at it, and weep, and look again. The white leaf represents my soul, as it is washed in Jesus’ blood and made white as snow.”

 

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Resurrection First Fruits

Posted on April 10, 2020 by The Editor

1 Corinthians 15:20,23; Matthew 27:50-53

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept…But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): This was also a striking miracle, by which God declared that His Son entered into the prison of death, not to continue to be shut up there, but to bring out all who were held captive. For at the very time when the despicable weakness of the flesh was beheld in the person of Christ, the magnificent and divine energy of His death penetrated even to hell. This is the reason why, when He was about to be shut up in a sepulcher, other sepulchers were opened by Him.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The graves were opened to show that death was now swallowed up in victory.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It is written that they came out of their graves. Of course they did. What living man would wish to stay in his grave?

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The bodies of the saints did not arise, till after Christ was risen.

ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Why the graves should be opened on Friday, and the bodies not be raised to life till the following Sunday, is difficult to be conceived. The passage is extremely obscure.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): It is not likely that the graves opened any considerable time before they came out of their graves.

JOHN CALVIN: In my opinion, the resurrection of the saints, which is mentioned immediately afterwards, was subsequent to the resurrection of Christ. There is no probability in the conjecture of some commentators that, after having received life and breath, they remained three days concealed in their graves. I think it more probable that, when Christ died, the graves were immediately opened: and that, when He rose, some of the godly, having received life, went out of their graves, and were seen in the city.

THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The ancient sepulchres were hewn out of rocks, which being rent by the earthquake, discovered the cells wherein the bodies of the dead were deposited; but though these sepulchres were opened by the earthquake at our Lord’s death, yet the dead in them did not come to life until His resurrection: for Jesus Himself was “the first-born from the dead,” Colossians 1:18, and “the first-fruits of them that slept.”

C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In this, as in all things else, Jesus must have the pre-eminence.

JOHN CALVIN: But here a question arises. Why did God determine that only some should arise, since a participation in the resurrection of Christ belongs equally to all believers?

JOHN GILL: These were saints, such as slept in Jesus; and not all, but many of them, as pledges of the future resurrection, and for the confirmation of Christ’s resurrection, and the accomplishment of a prophecy in Isaiah 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.”

JOHN CALVIN: As the time was not fully come when the whole body of the Church should be gathered to its Head, He exhibited in a few persons an instance of the new life which all ought to expect. For we know that Christ was received into heaven on the condition that the life of His members should still be hid, Colossians 3:3, until it should be manifested by His coming. But in order that the minds of believers might be more quickly raised to hope, it was advantageous that the resurrection, which was to be common to all of them, should be tasted by a few.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We may raise many enquiries concerning it, which we cannot resolve, as, Who these saints were, that did arise? Some think, the ancient patriarchs that were in such care to be buried in the land of Canaan, perhaps in the believing foresight of the advantage of this early resurrection. Christ had lately proved the doctrine of the resurrection from the instance of the patriarchs, Matthew 22:32, and here was a speedy confirmation of His argument. Others think, these that arose were saints such as had seen Christ in the flesh, but died before Him; as His father Joseph, Zecharias, Simeon, John Baptist, and others, that had been known to the disciples, while they lived, and therefore were the fitter to be witnesses to them.

THOMAS COKE: It seems probable that those saints were not some of the most eminent ones mentioned in the Old Testament, but disciples who had died lately; for when they went into the city, they were known by the persons who saw them, which could not well have happened, had they not been their contemporaries.

JOHN GILL: They appeared unto many of their friends and acquaintances, who had personally known them, and conversed with them in their lifetime.

JOHN CALVIN: That they continued long to converse with men is not probable; for it was only necessary that they should be seen for a short time; that, in them, as in a mirror or resemblance, the power of Christ might plainly appear—Another and more difficult question is, What became of those saints afterwards?

MATTHEW HENRY: Some think that they arose only to bear witness of Christ’s resurrection to those to whom they appeared, and, having finished their testimony, retired to their graves again.

JOHN CALVIN: But it is more probable that the life which they received was not afterwards taken from them; for if it had been a mortal life, it would not have been a proof of a perfect resurrection.

MATTHEW HENRY: It is more agreeable, both to Christ’s honour and theirs, to suppose―though we cannot prove, that they arose as Christ did, to “die no more,” and therefore ascended with Him to glory. Surely on them who did partake of His first resurrection, a second death had no power.

C. H. MACKINTOSH: It is a remarkable passage, and shows the complete victory of Christ over death, no doubt.

MATTHEW HENRY: We may learn many good lessons from it: that even those who lived and died before the death and resurrection of Christ, had saving benefit thereby, as well as those who have lived since; for He was the same yesterday that he is today, and will be forever, Hebrews 13:8…Death to the saints is but the sleep of the body, and the grave the bed it sleeps in.

JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): When the author to the Hebrews had given us a catalogue of the worthies of the Old Testament, he saith at last, “These all died in faith,” Hebrews 11:13.  In the faith of what? That they should lie and rot in their grave eternally? No, verily―they all died in faith, that they should rise again.

JOHN CALVIN: We know that “God is the God of the living, and not of the dead,” Matthew 22:32. Accordingly, if we are God’s people, we shall undoubtedly live.

 

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Christian Duty in a Time of National Distress

Posted on April 3, 2020 by The Editor

Joel 2:11,12; Daniel 9:3-6,19

The day of the Lord is very terrible; and who can abide it? Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: and I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land…O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him…O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name

WILLIAM S. PLUMER (1802-1880): To prayer it is often proper to add fasting…In every age pious men have united fasting and prayer in times of distress.

MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Fasting is of use to put an edge upon prayer; it is an evidence and instance of humiliation which is necessary in prayer, and is a means of mortifying some corrupt habits, and of disposing the body to serve the soul in prayer. Their fasting was to express their humiliation―and it signified the mortifying of sin and turning from it, “loosing the bands of wickedness,” Isaiah 58:6,7.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): With respect to sackcloth and fasting―those who lived in ancient times resorted to these exercises when any urgent necessity pressed upon them. In the time of public calamity or danger they all put on sackcloth, and gave themselves to fasting, that by humbling themselves before God, and acknowledging their guilt, they might appease His wrath…Although we may reckon the wearing of sackcloth and sitting in ashes among the number of the legal ceremonies, yet the exercise of fasting remains in force amongst us at this day as well.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): For Evangelicals, this whole question of fasting has almost disappeared from our lives and even out of the field of our consideration. How often and to what extent have we thought about it? I suggest that the truth probably is that we have very rarely thought of it at all. I wonder whether we have ever fasted?

CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Many there are, it is to be feared, who―instead of “fasting twice a week,” have never fasted twice, nor even once, in their whole lives, for the purpose of devoting themselves more solemnly to God…Fasting is grievously neglected amongst us; and all are ready to excuse themselves from it, as unprofitable to their souls―The truth is, that we are as far from observing those other duties, of “weeping and mourning,” as we are that of fasting: and hence it is that fasting is so little in request amongst us.

MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Has it even occurred to us that we ought to be considering the question of fasting?

CHARLES SIMEON: Our Lord indeed intimated, that there would arise occasions which would call for solemn fasts; and He gave directions for the acceptable observance of them. Note Matthew 6:16―“When ye fast.”

LANCELOT ANDREWES (1555-1626): This very “when” shows Christ’s liking of it, that there is a time allowed for it, else He would allow it no “when”―no time at all.

JOHN CALVIN: Fasting is a subordinate aid, which is pleasing to God no farther than as it aids the earnestness and fervency of prayer.

CHARLES SIMEON: But why should it not be as profitable to us as it was to the saints of old?

SAMUEL MILLER (1769-1850): We have no less reason for fasting and humiliation than our fathers of former ages. Let us not imagine that there was some special character either in the men or the events of ancient times which rendered the exercise in question more needful to them than to us. It is to be considered as an occasional, or perhaps, more properly speaking, a special duty, which, like seasons of special prayer, ought to be regulated, as to its frequency and manner of observance, by the circumstances in which we are placed.

C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Why, at this moment we have sin rampant among us almost beyond precedent!

SAMUEL MILLER: Think of the abounding atheism and various forms of infidelity, the pride, the degrading intemperance, the profanations of the Sabbath, the fraud, the gross impiety, the neglect and contempt of the gospel, and all the numberless forms of enormous moral corruption ­which even in the most favoured parts of our country prevail in a deplorable degree.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): There have been times when some one object has seized with a more absorbing power, and a more giant grasp, the intellect of the nation; such as a season of the prevalence of the plague, or other forms of pestilence.

JOHN CALVIN: Pestilence, and other scourges of God, do not visit men by chance, but are directed by His hand.

JOHN GILL (1697-1771): This being one of His sore judgments―judgments upon a wicked world.

CHARLES SIMEON: But we must remember that there is a moral “pestilence” raging all around us, and sweeping myriads into the pit of destruction.

JOHN CALVIN: When God, therefore, calls us to repentance, by showing us signs of His displeasure, let us bear in mind that we ought not only to pray to Him after the ordinary manner, but also to employ such means as are fitted to promote our humility.

MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Deep afflictions call for deep and solemn humiliation.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES: Have our senators before they have gone to the place of legislation, and our councillors and aldermen, before they have entered the civic hall, fortified themselves by fasting and prayer, with the spirit of piety?

ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): What would you think of a man that had a specific for some pestilence that was raging in a city, and was contented to keep it for his own use, or at most for his family’s use, when his brethren were dying by the thousand?

HENRY FOSTER (1760-1844): The times are awful. In such times Scripture characters fasted and prayed. The old Puritans did so.

JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Have you any days of fasting and prayer?

HENRY FOSTER: I have not. Yet I think we ought to.

C. H. SPURGEON: Be awake, Christian, and be aware of God’s design, for the trumpet is sounding, and when the trumpet sounds the Christian must not slumber.

JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): They that fast not on earth, when God calls to it, shall be fed with gall and wormwood in hell―they that mourn in a time of sinning, shall be marked in a time of punishing―and as they have sought the Lord with fasting, Ezekiel 9:4-6, so shall He yet again “be sought and found” of such with “holy feasting,” Zechariah 8:19, as He hath promised, and performed to His people in all ages of the Church.

 

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