Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr19/olbpnt1.zip/PNT.001/V00350

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 17KB | 444 lines

00350
 # Mt 12:5
    \\The priests . . . profane the sabbath.\\ The Sabbath was
 the busiest day of the week for the priests in the temple
 service. In this they rightly broke the ordinary Sabbath law,
 because the temple service set aside the law. Compare
 # Joh 7:22,23
 (PNT 70)
00351
 # Mt 12:6
    \\But I say unto you\\, etc. The thought is: If priests in
 the service of the temple can break the letter of the law and be
 blameless, how much more can the disciples of him who is the
 Lord of the temple do so in his service and by his authority?
 (PNT 70)
00352
 # Mt 12:7
    \\But if ye had known what [this] meaneth.\\ They ought to
 have known, for they professed to be interpreters of the law.
    \\I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.\\ The argument is
 that mercy toward these hungering disciples was more acceptable
 to God than sacrifices at the altar, though sacrifice was the
 crown of the Jewish rites. The quotation is from Hosea, and is
 also quoted in Matthew.
 # Ho 6:6 Mt 9:13
 It shows that all our forms, rites and ceremonies are worthless
 before God unless we have kind and merciful hearts.
 (PNT 70)
00353
 # Mt 12:8
    \\For the Son of man is the Lord even of the Sabbath day.\\
 Because the Sabbath is made for humanity, the Lord of humanity
 is the Lord of the Sabbath. Observe, \\is\\ the Lord of the
 Sabbath. He does not, then, abolish it, but has the right to
 make any change in it, in the interest of mankind, that seems to
 him wise. Neither Moses, nor any other mortal, ever claimed to
 be Lord of the Sabbath. This is a declaration of Divinity.
 (PNT 70)
00354
 # Mt 12:9
    \\He went into their synagogue.\\ Evidently he, his disciples
 and these Pharisees, were on the way to it when the conversation
 took place. It was probably at Capernaum.
 (PNT 70)
00355
 # Mt 12:10
    \\A man which had [his] hand withered.\\ That is, dried up
 from a deficient absorption of the nutriment. Luke says his
 "right hand." The disease here indicated results in a loss both
 in size and in power of the arm; for it there is no remedy known
 to man. Compare
 # Mr 3:1-6 Lu 6:6-11
    \\And they asked him.\\ Luke says it was the scribes and
 Pharisees.
    \\Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?\\ In the opinion of
 the Pharisees, to kindle or extinguish a fire on the Sabbath was
 a great desecration of the day, nor was even sickness allowed to
 violate rabbinical rules. It was forbidden to give an emetic on
 the Sabbath, to set a broken bone, or put back a dislocated
 joint. Of course, they had added all this to the law of Moses.
    \\That they might accuse him.\\ Not in the conversation
 merely, but before the local judge, the officers of the
 synagogue, or the council.
 (PNT 70)
00356
 # Mt 12:11
    \\What man . . . shall have one sheep?\\ etc. Such an act of
 mercy to a beast was allowed and usual then.
 (PNT 71)
00357
 # Mt 12:12
    \\How much then is a man better than a sheep?\\ If sheep can
 be lifted out of its suffering on the Sabbath, why not much more
 a man?
    \\Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath days.\\ If
 the Sabbath day would preclude one from doing good, then it
 would be an evil.
 (PNT 71)
00358
 # Mt 12:13
    \\Stretch out thy hand.\\ As the cure is wrought only by a
 word, the Pharisees have no ground of accusation.
 (PNT 71)
00359
 # Mt 12:14
    \\Then the Pharisees went out\\, etc. Their real motive was
 hatred of the Lord, while their pretext was that he had broken
 the Sabbath. While professing to be very religious, they were
 really the servants of the evil one.
 (PNT 71)
00360
 # Mt 12:15
    \\Jesus . . . withdrew himself from there.\\ Left Capernaum
 for the time. He avoided needless danger until his earthly
 ministry was accomplished, and the bitter opposition of the
 Pharisees admonished him to temporarily withdraw.
 (PNT 71)
00361
 # Mt 12:16
    \\Charged them.\\ Those healed. To note about his cures now
 would intensify the hate of his enemies.
 (PNT 71)
00362
 # Mt 12:17
    \\That it might be fulfilled.\\ Thus it was fulfilled.
    \\Isaiah the prophet.\\ See
 # Isa 42:1-4
 (PNT 71)
00363
 # Mt 12:18
    \\Behold my servant.\\ Christ took the form of a servant.
    \\I will put my spirit upon him.\\ Compare
 # 3:17
    \\He shall show justice to the Gentiles.\\ Announce himself
 as judge of the Gentiles. Compare
 # Mr 3:8
 (PNT 71)
00364
 # Mt 12:19
    \\He shall not contend, nor cry.\\ He shall be modest,
 retiring, and not a brazen, noisy declaimer.
 (PNT 71)
00365
 # Mt 12:20
    \\A bruised reed shall he not break.\\ The reed, a hollow
 cylinder, if bruised has its strength destroyed. It thus becomes
 the symbol of the bruised spirit. The tender Saviour will not
 break, but heal.
    \\Smoking flax.\\ The wick of the lamp that had ceased to
 burn clearly. The violent would put it out and fling it away.
 The Lord does not use such violence with those disciples who
 give forth some light, even if it is imperfect.
    \\Till he shall send forth justice.\\ Till he shall sit in
 power and triumph on the throne of judgment.
 (PNT 71-72)
00366
 # Mt 12:21
    \\In his name.\\ In him as the Messiah.
    \\Shall the Gentiles trust.\\ He shall be the "Christ of the
 world," and not of the Jews alone. Compare
 # Joh 4:42
 The prophets clearly and many times declare that the Messiah
 shall be, not a Jewish, but a world's Saviour. The Jews strangely
 overlooked this.
 (PNT 72)
00367
 # Mt 12:22
    \\One possessed with a demon.\\
    See note on "Mt 8:28"
    Compare
 # Lu 11:14
 (PNT 72)
00368
 # Mt 12:23
    \\Is not this the Son of David?\\ The promised Messiah King
 who was to be the Son of David, according to the prophets.
 # Isa 11:10 2Sa 23:5
 (PNT 72)
00369
 # Mt 12:24
    \\The Pharisees heard [it].\\ Compare
 # Mr 3:22-27
 Mark says that some of these Pharisees were scribes who had come
 from Jerusalem. The ecclesiastical authorities at Jerusalem were
 now keeping their watch on Jesus.
    \\Doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub.\\
    See note on "Mt 10:25"
 Beelzebub, the prince of devils, meant the same as Satan. The
 Pharisees assert that the Lord's miraculous power is due to the
 aid of the devil.
 (PNT 72)
00370
 # Mt 12:25
    \\Knew their thoughts.\\ They had not made this charge to
 Christ, but to the multitudes.
    \\Every city or house divided against itself.\\ A general
 truth is stated. Most states and kingdoms fall, not by the power
 of foreign enemies, but by the weakness due to divisions.
 (PNT 72)
00371
 # Mt 12:26
    \\If Satan casteth out Satan.\\ If demons were cast out by
 the aid of Satan, then Satan would be fighting against his own
 servants. His kingdom would be divided against itself.
 (PNT 72 edited)
00372
 # Mt 12:27
    \\By whom do your children cast [them] out?\\ There were
 Jewish exorcists who professed to cast out demons. Josephus
 tells of one named Eleazar, whom he says did cast them out.
 Christ does not say whether they did or not, but argues: "If I,
 by Satan, cast out demons, by whom do your own exorcists, whom
 you assert have this power, cast them out?" Compare
 # Ac 19:13
 (PNT 72)
00373
 # Mt 12:28
    \\If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God,\\ etc. If it is
 the power of God manifest in me, then it demonstrates that I am
 the expected Messiah King, the Son of David, of whom the
 multitude spoke. See
 # 12:23
 (PNT 72)
00374
 # Mt 12:29
    \\How can one . . . seize his goods,\\ etc.? No one can enter
 a man's house and take his goods unless he has first conquered
 him. If I am not the Messiah, stronger than Satan, how could I
 spoil him?
 (PNT 72)
00375
 # Mt 12:30
    \\He that is not with me,\\ etc. The two kingdoms of Satan
 and of Christ are opposed. No neutrality is possible. He that is
 not for me is against me.
 (PNT 73)
00376
 # Mt 12:31
    \\The blasphemy [against] the [Holy] Spirit shall not be
 \\forgiven.\\ Compare
 # Mr 3:28 Lu 12:10
 Much discussion has arisen concerning the nature of sin against
 the Holy Spirit, and nothing is plainer.
 # Mr 3:30
 explains it. It was ascribing Christ's works to demoniac
 influence. These works were wrought by the power of the Spirit.
 (PNT 73)
00377
 # Mt 12:32
    \\Whoever speaketh a word against the Son of man.\\ Personal
 insults even against Christ can be forgiven.  Christ prayed for his
 persecutors. Every sin can be forgiven except that against the Holy
 Spirit.
    \\Speaketh against the Holy Spirit.\\ To observe the work of God's
 Spirit, and pronounce it evil or Satanic, as was done here.
    \\Neither in this world, neither in the [world] to come.\\
 Judgment shall overtake him both here and hereafter.  This would mean
 there is no forgiveness to such a sin under either dispensation.  No
 passage in the Bible affirms more emphatically the doctrine of
 eternal punishment.
 (PNT 73 edited)
00378
 # Mt 12:33
    \\Either make the tree good, and its fruit good.\\ The
 principle is announced in Matthew that the tree is known by its
 fruits.
 # 7:20
 If his own life and works were evil, then he might be evil and
 aided by Satan, but if good, then his power was from God.
 (PNT 73)
00379
 # Mt 12:34-35
   \\Generations of vipers.\\ Poisonous, evil and dangerous, like
 vipers. \\How can ye,\\ etc.? Their hearts were thoroughly evil,
 hence they could only speak and do evil, for "out of the good
 treasure of the heart the mouth speaketh." On the other
 hand, the "good man out of the good treasure of his heart
 bringeth forth good things."
 (PNT 73)
00381
 # Mt 12:36
    \\Every idle word.\\ If we shall be called on to give account
 for every idle, rash, inconsiderate word, how much more for such
 blasphemy as the Pharisees had uttered? How careful, too, should
 we be to see that our speech is pure!
 (PNT 73)
00382
 # Mt 12:37
    \\By thy words thou shalt be justified,\\ etc. Acquitted or
 condemned in the day of judgment. To justify is the opposite of
 to condemn. Those who confess Christ with the mouth shall be
 saved; those who deny him will be lost.
 # Ro 10:9
 Words have a weighty influence on our eternal destiny.
 (PNT 73)
00383
 # Mt 12:38
    \\Master, we would see a sign from thee.\\ Compare
 # 16:1 Lu 11:16,29
 They had just seen a miracle, but demand another. Jesus never
 worked miracles to gratify human curiosity, or to secure popular
 applause.
 (PNT 74)
00384
 # Mt 12:39
    \\An evil and adulterous generation.\\ We must keep in mind
 that the Lord is speaking to his enemies. He compares them to a
 faithless wife. They were faithless to God.
    \\The sign of the prophet Jonah.\\ See next verse. See also
 # 16:4
 (PNT 74)
00385
 # Mt 12:40
    \\As Jonah was . . . in the belly of the great fish.\\ See
 # Jon 1:17
 The great fish was probably not a whale (the Greek is "sea
 monster"), but a white shark, which abounds in the
 Mediterranean, and is said to swallow a horse whole. The miracle
 was the preservation of the life of Jonah during his living
 burial. This was a type of the burial and resurrection of
 Christ.
    \\So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights.\\
 Jesus says that he will "be raised again the third day."
 # 16:21
 Hence, in Jewish usage "the third day" must mean the same as
 "three days and three nights."
    It was and is customary with the Orientals to make any part
 of the day stand for the whole twenty-four hours. Compare
 # 16:21 Mr 7:37
 # 2Ch 10:5 10:12 Es 4:16 Ge 7:4,12 Ex 24:18 34:28
 A traveller in the East writes: "At length the tenth morning
 arrived--the tenth morning because, though we performed
 nominally ten days quarantine, yet it was, really, only eight
 days. We landed at nine o'clock in the evening of the first day,
 and were liberated at six o'clock in the morning of the tenth
 day, but it was held to be ten days according to the custom of
 the East." Christ was buried Friday evening, lay in the grave
 Saturday, and rose Sunday, parts of three days, rose "on the
 third day," and was in the grave the space of time meant in
 eastern usage by three days and three nights.
    \\In the heart of the earth.\\ In the sepulchre.
 (PNT 74)
00386
 # Mt 12:41
    \\The men of Nineveh.\\ The great capital of the Assyrian
 Empire, situated on the Tigris river, in its day the greatest
 city in the world, to which Jonah was sent to warn it of
 judgment for its sins. It has been for many hundred years a
 ruin.
    \\Shall rise in judgment.\\ They repented at the preaching of
 Jonah, but "this generation" of Jews remained impenitent under
 the preaching of "one greater than Jonah." The example of the
 Ninevites condemns the Jews.
 (PNT 74)
00387
 # Mt 12:42
    \\The queen of the south.\\ Of Sheba, supposed to be Sabaea
 in Southern Arabia.
 # 1Ki 10:1
    \\From the ends of the earth.\\ A great distance. On the
 extreme southern shores of Asia.
    \\A greater than Solomon [is] here.\\ A calm assertion of
 superhuman majesty and wisdom.
 (PNT 74)
00388
 # Mt 12:43-45
    \\When the unclean spirit,\\ etc. The application of these
 three verses is found in "even so it shall be unto this wicked
 generation," the Jews. With an occasional tendency to
 repentance, as under the preaching of John, they became worse
 and worse until they crucified the Lord and were destroyed. A
 man with an unclean spirit, a demon, is chosen to represent
 them. He goeth out (transient repentance), returns with seven
 other evil spirits worse than himself (a relapse into sin), and
 the last state is worse than the first, more wicked and more
 wretched. So generally with those who dally with sin.
 (PNT 74-75)
00391
 # Mt 12:46-47
    \\[His] mother and his brethren.\\ On the brethren of the
 Lord,
 See note on "Mt 13:55"
    Compare
 # Mr 3:31-35 Lu 8:19,21
 His brethren did not yet believe in him.
 (PNT 75)
00393
 # Mt 12:48
    \\Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?\\ An allusion to
 his Divine character, which lifted him above the ordinary ties
 of the flesh.
 (PNT 75)
00394
 # Mt 12:49
    \\Behold my mother and my brethren!\\ His real relatives
 are those bound to him by spiritual ties.
 (PNT 75)
00395
 # Mt 12:50
    \\The same is my brother.\\ Not those with fleshly ties, but
 those who do the will of his Father in heaven. Such become God's
 spiritual children, and thus become spiritually related to the
 Son of God. It will be observed that there is no hint of
 adoration of Mary, his mother, here, or elsewhere in the
 Scriptures. That she was immaculately born, as the "Queen of
 Heaven" and the "Mother of God," is a Catholic fable.
 (PNT 75)
00396
 # Mt 13:1
  SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 13
  \\Seven Parables of the Kingdom\\

  Parable of the Sower
  Why He Spoke in Parables
  The Parable of the Sower Explained
  The Parable of the Tares
  The Mustard Seed
  The Leaven
  The Parable of the Tares Explained
  The Hidden Treasure
  The Pearl of Great Price
  The Fish Net

    \\The same day.\\ For the parable of the Sower compare
 # Mr 4:1-9 Lu 8:4-8
    \\By the sea side.\\ The seashore is that of the Sea of
 Galilee, probably near Capernaum, at the northwest corner of the
 lake.
 (PNT 75)
00397
 # Mt 13:2
    \\And great multitudes.\\ Literally, "greatest." There is
 every reason to believe that this was one of the greatest. It
 was the turning-point in his public teaching, since the
 parabolic instruction now begins.
 (PNT 76)
00398
 # Mt 13:3
    \\And he spoke many things to them in parables.\\ Of which
 only samples are preserved, even by Matthew, and still fewer in
 the other Gospels.
    \\Parables.\\ Narratives designed to convey spiritual
 instruction. The parable differs from the proverb in being a
 narrative, from the fable is being true to nature, from the myth
 in being undeceptive, from the allegory in that it veils the
 spiritual truth.
    \\Behold, a sower went forth to sow.\\ It is "the" sower in
 the original. There was grain land on every side, and the figure
 was familiar to every hearer. There are no farm houses in
 Palestine. All live in towns or villages. Hence, the farmers "go
 forth" to sow.
 (PNT 76)
00399
 # Mt 13:4
    \\And when he sowed.\\ The seed-time in Palestine is usually
 in October, about the time when this parable was spoken. Sowing
 is always done by hand.
    \\Fell by the way side.\\ Where the field and the road join,
 or, rather, along the narrow, trodden foot-path through the
 fields, so common in Palestine.
    \\Fowls came and devoured them.\\ The birds, because the
 grains were not covered.
 (PNT 76)