own prophets. He foretells what shall in like manner come to pass in His own case. He gives them beforehand this test by which they might afterwards try His claim. Jonah's miraculous deliverance,' represented in a figure the resurrection of our Lord. No greater sign should or could be given to them than this. 2 CLXXXVII. THE MEN OF NINEVEH. St. Matthew xii. 41, 42. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Our Lord having referred to the prophet Jonah as a type of Himself, proceeds to speak of the men of Nineveh, to whom Jonah preached, as a contrast to the men of that generation. These heathen repented at the preaching of a man; here those who claim to be the seed of Abraham, who profess to be the people of God, reject the voice of the very Son of God. "They will reverence my Son." So would one naturally have thought. And yet what was the fact? What the "great fish" of the Hebrew original, the monster of the deep (the word in the LXX means no more) here in the E. V. popularly called a whale, might have been, matters not. The whole event is removed out of the range of our experience. It is remarkable that the two miracles of the Old Testament, which, tried by natural laws, seem to make the largest demand upon our faith, should both be referred to in 4 the New Testament. 1Pet. ii. 14-16. Some have supposed that in either case we have the record of a vision or dream. The three days and three nights are put by a common figure (synecdochically, as it is called) for a term comprising parts of that whole period. 2 The original word in Heb. xi. 19 means parable. 3 Heb. i. 1, 2. 1 66 "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." The Lord has continually to draw these contrasts. Many shall come from the East and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out." What a glimpse this gives us of things reserved unto the judgment of the great day! So too He contrasts the conduct of the Queen of Sheba with the conduct of that generation. Her earnestness condemns their indifference. She took more pains to hear the less than they to listen to the greater. She came, as it were, from the world's end to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now the case is reversed. The greater comes to the less. Wisdom's self descends to visit men. The eternal Wisdom of God,-He claims to be no less-is in their midst, and at their doors, and they not only take no pains to consult Him,3 but even blaspheme.* 2 CLXXXVIII. THE LAST STATE WORSE THAN THE FIRST. St. Matthew xii. 43-45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; 11 Kings x. She was, according to Josephus (Antt. VIII. vi. 5) Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. It is however more generally supposed to be Sabea, in the South of Arabia Felix. It was at all events far enough to be described to the men of that generation as "the uttermost parts of the earth." It would have been the world's end to a Jew. 2 Prov. i. 20; viii. 1, 22, 23. This is the inference, implied rather than expressed. The Lord contents Himself with simply calling attention to His claims. Compare St. Matt. xii. 6. St. Luke (xi. 33-36) adds here other sayings of our Lord, of which St. Matthew has elsewhere (v. 15; vi. 22, 23) already recorded the substance. Our Lord doubtless, after the manner of teachers among the Jews, was in the habit of repeating His solemn sayings. This is evident from a comparison of St. Luke viii. 16 with xi. 33; the same saying twice recorded, in a different connexion, by the same Evangelist. Had we only had the first of these, hostile critics would have said that one or other of the Evangelists had confounded two events. X and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. The Lord has given us a glimpse of the world of spirits. The Pharisees pretended to know much of this. The Lord here tells them what they did not seem to know, the danger of relapse. He who knows all things, traces for their warning the course of that foul spirit which He came to dispossess, and which they preferred to entertain. The spirit of evil even then at work among them is called unclean, because it is his aim to defile the Temple of God.' In desert places and uninhabited he can find no work to do. He is restless till he can return to those haunts of men where he can do mischief. Sometimes the spirit of evil seems for a time voluntarily to quit its abode. There is a lull in the storm. But by-and-by it bursts out afresh with sevenfold fury. The heart is too often prepared for its return, like a house made ready for a welcome guest. The man goes from bad to worse. The occasional acts of evil become the settled habit of the soul. This short prophetic parable which described the downward course, the headlong career, of the nation of the Jews, has too often its unhappy parallel among those who profess and call themselves Christians. We see it in the case of the demon of drink, and other dreadful vices, not really exorcised by the grace of God, and eradicated by the power of His Holy Spirit. No reformation short of a really religious one is proof against the return of the spirit of evil. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Bad as was their beginning, their ending is worse.3 With the hypocrite and half-hearted, the latter end is worse than the beginning. 1 Cor. iii. 17. 2 "Habits are the daughters of action."-Jer. Taylor. 3 Bp. Sanderson (Ser. v. Ad Aulam) applies this parable in the case of covetousness:-"It is an evil spirit, but withal a subtle, and can slily wind itself in at a little hole; but having once made entrance and gotten possession, it is not so easily ousted again. Rather it will quickly set open a wide door to seven more." CLXXXIX. ANOTHER BEATITUDE. St. Luke xi. 27, 28. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. While Scribes and Pharisees blaspheme, an honest and simple soul utters words of blessing. Amid the "contradiction of sinners against Himself" comes in this woman's commendation in striking contrast. With true womanly feeling she pictures to herself the joy such a son must prove to a mother's heart. To the honest admiration of this mother in Israel, who simply envied the mother of such a son, the Lord replies in memorable words. He does not deny the peculiar blessedness of her whom an angel from heaven had pronounced "highly favoured," "blessed among women;" who of all the women in the world had been singled out for such honour, and whose own prophetic words were even then beginning to be fulfilled, "Behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." But1 He calls her off from this to the consideration of another blessedness, not confined, as this of necessity was, to one, but in which all who will may share. For to stand in that coveted relation to Christ according to the flesh could be the lot of but one, and it was idle to dwell upon it. So He foresaw and would provide against that adoration which some pay to the Mother, while they neglect to keep the word of the Son. There are those who dwell upon her blessedness, while they disobey His saying. Our Lord, it must be observed, does not here say, as we might have expected, "my word," but "the word of God." He is Himself "the Word."2 To hear Christ is to hear God 1 The compound conjunction of the original seems to have the force of "true, but." 2 St. John i. 1. Himself. But what is it to keep the word? We may learn. what it is from the case of her whom this woman commended. We are told, "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." And of her it is said, "Blessed is she that believed." To keep is to ponder, to meditate in our minds. To keep is to believe and obey. CXC. HE SHOWETH WHO ARE HIS MOTHER AND HIS BRETHREN. St. Matthew xii. 46-50. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. The mother and brethren1 of our Lord, we find, could not on this occasion come to Him because of the crowd which had gathered round Him. Therefore it was that they stood without. And the word was passed on from one to another that He was wanted. What they wanted Him for was probably to draw Him away from that work which they thought would wear Him out. Our Lord, whose meat it was to do On the vexed question of the Brethren of the Lord, the various views, it may be noted again, are stated at length by Alford in St. Matt. xiii. 55. 2 Compare St. Mark iii. 32; St. Luke viii. 19. Alford notes that St. Luke introduces this incident" without any precise note of sequence;" that St. Mark's "standing without, &c.," is one of his precise details; that St. Matthew "here has some remarkable and graphic details also. .. Both accounts were from eyewitnesses; the one noticing the outstretched hand; the other, the look cast round." ... |