Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 34:1-7 — burneth with brimstone. (2)    It will be the day when Christ separates the sheep from the goats, consigning the lost to "hell prepared for the devil and his angels" and welcoming the redeemed into the "joy of their Lord" (Matthew 25). (3)    In Isaiah 34, it is the day in which God will slaughter all of the rebellious nations on earth. (4)    It will be the day when the greatest earthquake ever known shall occur, the sun will become black,

Lamentations 1:1-3 — JERUSALEM, THE GRIEVING WIDOW,The chapter headings which we have adopted here are those of Dr. Anthony L. Ash. See Anthony L. Ash, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 335.THE THEME OF LAMENTATIONS "How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! She has become as a widow, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces is become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her

Ezekiel 16:8-14 — is the marriage of God to Israel, a metaphorical representation of the Sinaitic covenant and the choice of the nation as "God's Chosen People." "Then I washed thee with water" Commentators have struggled with this; but the explanation is in Ephesians 5:25 ff: "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself." Thus the marriage of Christ to his Bride the Church followed

Daniel 10:18-21 — know very little of this subject, due to the absence of specific teaching on it in the Word of God. Here, "Michael is presented as the guardian angel of the Jews."J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 541. The idea of guardian angels for the different nations is hinted at in earlier portions of the Old Testament."Herbert L. Willett, Daniel (New York: Abingdon Press, 1929), p. 757. Cited in this connection were the following passages: "A time is coming

Matthew 13:47-50 — not, however, to appear overly strange to students of the word of God, because: (1) there was a Ham in the ark; (2) a Judas among the Twelve; (3) a man of sin in the temple of God; (4) a mystery Babylon within the historical perimeter of the church; (5) Esau contended with Jacob in the very womb of Rebekah; and, as in her case, the church may often cry, "Why am I thus?" (Genesis 25:22). The parable of the drag net is Christ's pledge that, whatever doubts and perplexities may arise from this

Matthew 27:52 — saints. At first it seems those two events occurred simultaneously; but the next verse notes that it was "after his resurrection" that they actually came out of their graves and appeared in the city, thus the mention of the saints in Matthew 27:52 is for the purpose of revealing which graves were opened. This, of course, is a great miracle of discrimination. Incredulous scholars have sought in vain for evidence of an interpolation here, but none exists. Plummer said, "There is no textual

Matthew 27:66 — thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). 3.    "Woman, behold thy son … Behold thy mother" (John 19:26-27). 4.    "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). 5.    "I thirst!" (John 19:28). 6.    "It is finished" (John 19:30). 7.    "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). I.    "Father

Luke 16:9 — man depend on them for happiness, riches rob him of salvation and the glory of God."Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: Carlton and Porter, 1829), Vol. V, p. 462. 4.    It estranges him from earthly friends. 5.    It surrounds him with false friends. 6.    Wealth promises much and delivers nothing. 7.    It is a constant hazard to his spirituality. The clear meaning here is that "mammon of unrighteousness

Luke 17:7-10 — achievements. This parable was to show that no man can merit salvation. This parable is hailed by Trench as one of "great difficulty";Richard C. Trench, Notes on the Parables of Our Lord (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953), p. 476. especially because it presents the relationship of Jesus and his followers in a much sterner aspect than in most of his teachings. Did the Lord not say, "I have called you friends," and that "no longer do I call you servants"?

John 6:20-21 — and straightway the boat was at the land whither they were going. John abbreviated this wonder by omitting Peter's walking on the water to go to Jesus (Matthew 14:28-31), and also Mark's record that the apostles' "heart was hardened" (Mark 6:52), a remark that proves the conflict between Christ and the apostles over the events on shore. Matthew gave the happy ending of the brief estrangement in his account of how the apostles confessed him and worshipped him after he came aboard (Matthew

Acts 21:22-24 — "poor saints" would be diverted to the greedy priests in the "den of thieves and robbers," so vehemently condemned by the Christ himself. It appears that the absorption into the Jerusalem church of so many Pharisees (Acts 6:7; Acts 15:5) had created a situation in which a Pharisaical party in the church itself was as busy as beavers grafting as much as possible of the law of Moses onto Christianity; and, although they had not yet gone so far as to insist on Gentiles keeping such

Acts 3:19 — again," they knew exactly what he inferred. Ibid., p. 60. Boles also agreed, declaring that: "The blotting out of sins is equivalent to remission of sins; and being baptized is tantamount to turning again." H. Leo Boles, op. cit., p. 59. It is, however, to the great Restoration preacher, Benjamin Franklin, that we turn for one of the most impressive analyses regarding "turn again." It actually means "be converted," as the translators of the KJV rendered it in three

Romans 1:4 — the translators for the purpose of giving a more accurate presentation of what they considered to be the meaning, most of them thinking that the resurrection of Christ was referred to; but the alternative translation in the English Revised Version (1885) margin is undoubtedly correct. This difficult passage was translated "after the resurrection from the dead" by Luther, Erasmus, and others. Charles Hodge, op. cit., p. 20. Barrett translates it "after his resurrection from the dead."

Romans 13:1 — casting great fragments of our civilization into collision with one another, and threatening by their attrition to break up and disappear altogether. Sir Stanley Baldwin, Address: Truth and Politics, delivered at Edinburgh University, November 6, 1925. Modern Essays of Various Types (New York: Charles E. Merrill Company, 1927), p. 213. Thus, Stanley Baldwin described the disastrous effects which always accompany the dissolution of states and the breakdown of authority. Paul's revelation that the

Romans 3:24 — Christ" is, in some ways, the most important in all the Pauline writings, where this expression, or its equivalent, "in whom," "in him," etc., is used no less than 169 times. John Mackay, God's Order (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1953), p. 97. What does it mean to be "in Christ"? It means to be in his spiritual body, called the church, the body of which Christ is the head, of which he is declared to be the Saviour, and which means having a spiritual relationship to Christ,

Romans 5:19 — has not been contrasted with Christ's obedience, but with the cause of that obedience. … It is now shown that these effects were wrought by means of Christ's obedience, the exact contrast of Adam's disobedience. Griffith Thomas, op. cit., p. 158. Fittingly, in view of all that Paul had written, touching upon justification through the "obedience of faith," he brought dramatically to the foreground in this, the climax of his thoughts in that connection, the obedience of Jesus Christ.

Romans 6:2 — Christ" therefore died unto sin "in the person of Christ." This was exactly the thought expressed by Paul, thus: For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died (2 Corinthians 5:14). Christians are thus dead to sin in exactly the same way that they are said to be dead to the law, namely, "by the body of Christ" (Romans 7:4). An old illustration that came of events in the Napoleonic wars emphasizes what is meant. Illustration:

Ephesians 4:4-5 — spiritual body of Christ, the church, made up of Jews, Gentiles, all people and even includes the saved who no longer live on earth. And one Spirit … The reference to the third person of the Godhead seems to anticipate "Lord" (Ephesians 4:5) and "God" (Ephesians 4:6). In any case, the Spirit here is that being called "the Holy Spirit" in the New Testament, who like Christ and like the Father, dwells in Christian hearts. One hope of your calling … This is the

Hebrews 9:2 — fantastically accurate and instructive type of it. Its seven branches stand for the seven divisions of the Bible: (1) the Law of Moses; (2) and the Prophets; (3) and the Psalms (Luke 24:44) in the Old Testament; and the other four divisions; (4) the Gospels; (5) the Book of Acts; (6) the Epistles; and (7) Revelation, in the New Testament, the latter four divisions being implicit by the inherent nature of the books themselves, and from the revelation of three Old Testament divisions enunciated by the Lord himself.

1 Samuel 28:8-14 — pretending not to recognize Saul, R. P. Smith noted that, "When she saw the tallest man in all Israel and heard him request that she bring up Samuel, she must have been dull indeed not to know who her visitor was."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 523. Keil has this: "It was not at the call of the idolatrous king, nor at the command of the abominable witch, nor was it merely by divine permission. No! It was by the special command of God that Samuel left his grave."C. F. Keil, Keil and Delitzsch's