q Luke x. 21. 2. 1 Cor. i. Cor. iii. 14. 8 ch. xvi. 17. day. 24 But I 8 25 9 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, I see Ps. viii. O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast 27. hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it 27 All things are delivered i and no man knoweth the Son, ji.e. by. tch, xxvii. 18. seemed good in thy sight. John iii. 35: xiii. 3: xvii. 2.1 Cor. xv. unto me j of my Father: 27. i render, were. their doom. The same is strikingly set before us in the history of Jonah's preaching at Nineveh. 24, and 22.] These verses are connected with those respectively preceding them thus: If these mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidonin Sodom-they would have, &c.; but, since no such opportunity was afforded them, and ye, Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum, have had and rejected such, it shall be more tolerable, &c.' And as to the saying of our Lord, 'If more warnings had been given they would have repented,' -it is not for the infidel to say, Why then were not more given?' because every act of God for the rescue of a sinner from his doom is purely and entirely of free and undeserved grace, and the proportion of such means of escape dealt out to men is ruled by the counsel of His will who is holy, just, and true, and willeth not the death of the sinner; but whose ways are past our finding out. We know enough when we know that all are inexcusable, having (see Rom. i. ii.) the witness of God in their consciences; and our only feeling should be overflowing thankfulness, when we find ourselves in possession of the light of the glorious Gospel, of which so many are deprived. That the reference here is to the last great day of judgment is evident, by the whole being spoken of in the future. Had our Lord been speaking of the outward judgment on the rebellious cities, the future might have been used of them, but could not of Sodom, which was already destroyed. This shall be more tolerable is one of those mysterious hints at the future dealings of God, into which we can penetrate no further than the actual words of our Lord reveal, nor say to what difference exactly they point in the relative states of those who are compared. See also Luke xii. 47, 48. 25.] This is certainly a continuation of the foregoing discourse; and the answered, which seems to have nothing to refer to, does in reality refer to the words which have immediately preceded. The at that time is not chronological, but gives additional solemnity to what follows. There may have been a slight break in the discourse; the older interpreters, and others, insert the return of the Apostles: but I do not see any necessity for it. The whole ascription of praise is an answer: an answer to the mysterious dispensations of God's Providence above recounted. With regard to the arrangement in Luke, see note on Luke x. 21. I thank thee] Not merely, I praise Thee,' but in the force of the Greek word, I confess to Thee, 'I recognize the justice of Thy doings;' viz. in the words Even so, Father, &c. Stier remarks that this is the first public mention by our Lord of His Father; the words in ch. x. 32, 33 having been addressed to the twelve (but see John ii. 16). We have two more instances of such a public address to His Father, John xi. 41; xii. 28; and again Luke xxiii. 34. It is to be observed that He does not address the Father as His Lord, but as Lord of heaven and earth: as He who worketh all things after the counsel of His will, Eph. i. 11. hast hid.... hast revealed] more properly, didst hide, and didst reveal, in the deeper and spiritual sense of the words; the time pointed at being that in the far past, when the divine decrees as to such hiding and revealing were purposed. See 1 Cor. ii. 9-12. these things, these mysterious arrange ments, by which the sinner is condemned in his pride and unbelief, the humble and childlike saved, and God justified when He saves and condemns. These are 'revealed' to those who can in a simple and teachable spirit, as babes, obey the invitation in vv. 28-30, but 'hidden' from the wise and clever of this world, who attempt their solution by the inadequate instrumentality of the mere human understanding. See 1 Cor. i. 26-31. 27.] In one other vi. 49: 1. 15. but the Father; "neither knoweth any man the Father, u John i. 18: save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son k will reveal him. and and 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 y For my yoke easy, and my burden is light. ki. e. is minded to. place only in the three first Gospels (be- Almighty Father has full entire possession our nature. is preceding. As the Son is the great Revealer, and as the to whomsoever He will is by His grace extended to all the weary -all who feel their need-so He here invites them to receive this revelation, learn of Me. But the way to this heavenly wisdom is by quietness and confidence, rest unto the soul, the reception of the divine grace for the pardon of sin, and the breaking of the yoke of the corruption of No mere man could have spoken these words. They are parallel with the command in Isa. xlv. 22, which is spoken by Jehovah Himself. labour and are heavy laden] the active and passive sides of human misery, the labouring and the burdened, are invited. Doubtless, outward and bodily misery is not shut out; but the promise, rest to your souls, is only a spiritual promise. Our Lord does not promise to those who come to Him freedom from toil or burden, but rest in the soul, which shall make all yokes easy, and all burdens light. The main invitation however is to those burdened with the yoke of sin, and of the law, which was added because of sin. All who feel that burden are invited. 29.] learn of Me, both from My example,' which however is the lower sense of the words, and 'from My teaching,' from which alone the rest can flow; the revelation of vv. 25 and 27. ye shall find rest unto your souls is quoted from Jer. vi. 16 Heb. Thus we have it revealed here, that the rest and joy of the Christian soul is, to become like Christ: to attain by His teaching this meekness and lowliness of His. Olshausen makes an excellent distinction between lowly in heart, an attribute of divine Love in the Saviour, and lowly, or poor, in spirit, ch. v. 3: Prov. xxix. 23, which can only be said of sinful man, knowing his unworthiness and need of help. heart 30.] is only here used of Christ. a Deut. xxiii. 25. XII. 1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath 1 Sam. xxi. 6. day. 3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4 how he entered into the house of God, and 1 did Exod. xxv. 30. eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, Lev. xxiv. 5. 32, 38. Lev. с Exod. xxix. neither for them which were with him, priests? 5 Or have ye not read in the viii. 31: xxiv. 0. Num. xxviii. 22. Chron. vi. but only for the law, how that on 9. John vii. the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? 6 But I say unto you, That 18. Mal. iii. in this place is fm one greater than the temple. 7 But if 1 our two earliest MSS. read, they did eat. m read, that which is greater. 1. grace, the rest which Christ gives is yet to be viewed as a yoke and a burden, seen on this its painful side, of conflict and sorrow but it is a light yoke; the inner rest in the soul giving a peace which passeth understanding, and bearing it up against all. See 2 Cor. iv. 16. The XII. 1-8.] THE DISCIPLES PLUCK EARS OF CORN ON THE SABBATH. OUR LORD'S ANSWER TO THE PHARISEES THEREON. Mark ii. 23-28: Luke vi. 1-5. In Mark and Luke this incident occurs after the discourse on fasting related Matt. ix. 14 sq.; but in the former without any definite mark of time. The expression at that time is, I conceive, a more definite mark of connexion than we find in the other Gospels, but cannot here be fixed to the meaning which it clearly has in ch. xi. 25, where the context determines it. We can merely say that it seems to have occurred about the same time as the last thing mentioned -in the same journey or season. plucking the ears was allowed Deut. xxiii. 25, but in the Talmud expressly forbidden on the Sabbath. It was also (Levit. xxiii. 14, apparently, but this is by no means certain: see note on Luke) forbidden until the sheaf of first-fruits had been presented to God, which was done on the second day of the feast of unleavened bread at the Passover. This incident, on that supposition, must have occurred between that day and the harvest. It is generally supposed to have been on the first Sabbath after the Passover. For a fuller discussion of the time and place, see note on Luke as before. 3.] It appears from 1 Sam. xxi. 6, that hot bread had been put in on ye the day of David's arrival; which therefore, Levit. xxiv. 8, was a sabbath. The example was thus doubly appropriate. Bengel maintains, on the commonly received interpretation of Luke vi. 1, that 1 Sam. xxi. was the lesson for the day. But the Jewish calendar of lessons cannot be shewn to have existed in the form which we now have, in the time of the Gospel history. 5.] The priests were ordered to offer double offerings on the Sabbath (Num. xxviii. 9, 10), and to place fresh (hot, and therefore baked that day) shewbread. In performing these commands they must commit many of what the Pharisees would call profanations of the Sabbath. So that, as Stier (ii. 4), not only does the sacred history furnish examples of exception to the law of the Sabbath from necessity, but the Law itself ordains work to be done on the Sabbath as a duty. 6.] The Greek has merely greater, and the best MSS. have it in the neuter gender, which sustains the parallel better a greater thing than the temple is here. See John ii. 19. The inference is, If the priests in the temple and for the temple's sake, for its service and ritual, profane the Sabbath, as ye account profanation, and are blameless, how much more these disciples who have grown hungry in their appointed following of Him who is greater than the temple, the true Temple of God on earth, the Son of Man!' I cannot agree with Stier that the neuter would represent only "something greater, more weighty than the temple,-namely, merciful consideration of the hungry, or the like:" it seems to me, : h g Mic. vi. 6, 7, 8. ch. ix. 13. xiv. 3. John ix. 16. had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and 8 HOSEA VI. 6. not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of man is Lord [ even] of the sabbath day. 9 And when he was departed thence, he went into. their synagogue: 10 and, behold, [ there was] a man which had his hand P withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? Luke xij.14: that they might accuse him. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, i will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? much then is a man better than a sheep! it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the • omitted in the three oldest MSS. 4 read, is there. n omit. P literally, dry. as above, to bear a more general and sublime sense than the masculine; see ver. 41, &c. 7.] The law of this new Templeservice is the law of charity and love:mercy and not sacrifice, see ch. ix. 13;all for man's sake and man's good;-and if their hearts had been ready to receive our Lord, and to take on them this service, they would not have condemned the guiltless. 8.] On the important verse preceding this in Mark ii. 27, see note there. The sense of it must here be supplied to complete the inference. Since the Sabbath was an ordinance instituted for the use and benefit of man,-the Son of Man, who has taken upon Him full and complete Manhood, the great representative and Head of humanity, has this institution under his own power. See this teaching of the Lord illustrated and expanded in apostolic practice and injunctions, Rom. xiv. 4, 5, 17: Col. ii. 16, 17. 9-14.] HEALING OF THE WITHERED HAND. Mark iii. 1-6: Luke vi. 6-11. 9. when he was departed thence] This change of place is believed by Gres. well to have been a journey back to Galilee after the Passover. (Diss. viii. vol. ii.) It is true that no such change is implied in Mark and Luke; but the words here point to a journey undertaken, as in ch. xi. 1; xv. 29, the only other places in this Gospel where the expression occurs. In John vii. 3, the cognate expression, "Depart hence," is used of a journey from Galilee to Judæa. So that certainly it is not implied here (as Meyer, al., suppose) that the incident took place on the same 12 How Wherefore 13 Then And he see Exod. Deut. xxii. 4. xxiii. 4, 5. We know from day as the previous one. narrative is found in Mark and Luke with dry] “withered," literally “dried up," as in Mark of which the use had been lost and the vital powers withered. The construction of this verse is involved: there is a double question, as in ch. vii. 9. Our Lord evidently asks this as being a thing allowed and done at the time when He spoke but subsequently (perhaps, suggests Stier, on account of these words of Christ), it was forbidden in the Talmud; and it was only permitted to lay planks for the beast to come out. 18.] Our Lord does no outward John v. 18: 1 see ch. x. 23. k k ch. xxvi. 1. other. 14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a counx. 39: xi. 53. cil against him, how they might destroy him. 15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: m and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 16 and charged them that they should not make him known: 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken m ch. xix. 2. n ch. ix. 30. p ch. iii. 17: xvii. 5. п O ISA. xlii. 1. by Esaias the prophet, saying, 18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, P in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21 And in his name shall the Gentiles $ trust. q see ch. ix. 32. Mark iii. 11. 19. 22 4 Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the [tblind and] dumb both spake and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of I render, the judgment. 8 render, hope. tomitted in some of the oldest MSS. act the healing is performed without 17.] (announce) judgment to the Gentiles, viz. in his office as Messiah and Judge. In these words the majesty of his future glory is contrasted with the meekness about to be spoken of: q. d. And yet He shall not,' &c. 20.] A proverbial expression for, He will not crush the contrite heart, nor extinguish the slightest spark of repentant feeling in the sinner.' Until He shall have brought out the conflict, the cause, the judgment, unto victory, -caused it, i. e. to issue in victory-i. e. such shall be his behaviour and such his gracious tenderness, during the day of grace: while the conflict is yet going on,- the judgment not yet decided. 22-45.] ACCUSATION OF CASTING OUT DEVILS BY Beelzebub, anD OUR LORD'S DISCOURSE THEREON. DEMAND OF A SIGN FROM HIM HIS FURTHER DISCOURSE. Mark iii. 20-30: Luke xi. 14— 36, where also see notes. This account is given by Luke later in our Lord's ministry, but without any fixed situation or time, and with less copiousness of detail. See also ch. ix. 32, and notes there. Mark (iii. 23-29) gives part of the discourse which follows, but without any determinate sequence, and omitting the miracle which led to it. 23. Is not this] This form of question is properly a doubtful denial, involving in fact a surmise in the affirmative. Surely this is not . . . ?' the son of David] see ch. ix. 27, St. |