Bible Commentaries

Nahum 3:5 — saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame." "Uncover thy skirts" "This seems to have been a part of the punishment for fornication and adultery (Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:26 f; Ezekiel 16:36; and Hosea 2:8-9)."J. M. Powis Smith, op. cit., p. 338. Also, based upon Assyrian inscriptions and monuments, Billerbeck and Jeremias' conclusion was that, "It was an Assyrian method of treating female captives."Ibid.

Zephaniah 2:3 — theologians claiming eternal salvation on the basis of "faith alone," and declaiming continually on the love and mercy of God does not echo the teachings of the Word of God. Even the apostle Paul said, "I count not myself to have apprehended" (Philippians 3:13); and, in Jesus' picture of the eternal judgment (Matthew 25), those turned aside into eternal doom were precisely those who were the most cocksure that they were fully entitled to eternal life. Christ also asked, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and

Zechariah 11:14 — 8 elaborated this in detail. The Pharisees boasted about being Abraham's sons; but Jesus said, "Ye are the sons of the devil?' "If ye were Abraham's sons, ye would believe in me." Also Paul noted that Christians are "the seed of Abraham" (Galatians 3:26 f). "The brotherhood between Judah and Israel" What brotherhood? If this is a reference to the northern and southern kingdoms of the old states of the Jews, neither of them was in existence; and the northern kingdom had already disappeared forever

Zechariah 12:3 — field, that defies any effort to dislodge it. All who attempt it shall be sorely wounded. The church of Christ is founded upon the eternal Rock of truth; it is the little stone cut out of the mountain without hand that shall fill the earth (Daniel 2:34-35); it is the "stumbling stone" for racial Israel; it is "the stone which the builders rejected" (Matthew 21:42); "He that falleth upon this stone shall be broken to pieces: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as dust" (Matthew 21:44). "It

Zechariah 14:17-18 — grace upon his people. And the full impact of these verses is that it is available nowhere else in the universe except in Jesus Christ our Lord. "The Father... hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). What has this to do with "the feast of tabernacles?" That feast was the response of the Old Israel to the blessing and commandment of God; but the Old Israel is no more. God divorced her in the days of Hosea and has married another, the New Israel

Zechariah 4:10 — their kings and the grandeur of the first temple, many of them wept when they first beheld the foundations of Zerubbabel's temple. "To the unenlightened mind the greatest achievement both in the making and in its completion seems trivial"Ibid. (Ezra 3:12-13). "The eyes of Jehovah" also referred to as "these seven" must be understood as a figure for God Himself who will be pleased with the further establishment of his people in their former dwelling place; but more is meant. The completion of the

Malachi 3:3 — spiritual house… a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ, etc. (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 2:5). The sacrifices "in righteousness" offered by the Christian include: our faith (Philippians 2:17), the love of God (Mark 12:33), our words, "the calves of our lips" (Hosea 14:2), our confession of Christ (Hebrews 13:15-16), our baptism into Christ (Romans 12:1), our praise (Hebrews 13:15), our contributions (Philippians 4:18), our songs (Colossians 3:16), our prayers (Revelation

Matthew 11:12 — opened, sought to enter it prematurely, not by the gates which God would open, … but by such breaches as they themselves sought to make in its walls.J. W. McGarvey, The Fourfold Gospel (Cincinnati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company), p. 283. Instances of such violence are: (1) Some tried to make him king by force (John 6:15). (2) the mother of James and John sought to obtain secular appointments for her sons in the kingdom (Matthew 20:21). (3) Some supposed the kingdom would appear immediately

Matthew 21:44 — "without hands," in the sense that it was not dependent upon human agency or upon the natural processes of procreation. That little stone, Christ, from such humble beginnings (in the earthly view) grew and filled the whole earth (Daniel 4:34-35). This intriguing statement of our Lord (Matthew 21:44) suggests another remark he made, "The scriptures cannot be broken" (John 10:35). Men who think they break the Scriptures only break themselves; those who stumble or fall upon Christ

Matthew 26:57 — high priest, where the scribes and elders were gathered together. Christ was tried six times, three times before the Romans and three times before the Jewish tribunals: 1.    Before Annas 2.    Before Caiaphas 3.    Before the Sanhedrin 4.    Before Pontius Pilate 5.    Before Herod Antipas 6.    Before Pilate again THE FIRST TRIAL Matthew omitted the first trial and arraignment

Matthew 27:32 — And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to go with them, that he might bear his cross. Executions inside the city were forbidden (Numbers 15:35; 1 Kings 21:13; Acts 7:58; Hebrews 13:12). The necessity for having someone bear Jesus' cross probably derived from his fainting from physical weakness induced by the scourging and long previous night of brutal abuse. Luke's detail that Simon was coming

Matthew 5:24 — outlined in which it is imperative that the true follower of Christ "go" to his brother. These are: (1) when a brother has aught against such a one (this passage), (2) when such a one has been wronged by a brother (Matthew 18:15-17), and (3) when one shall observe that a brother has been overtaken in any fault (Galatians 6:1). Need it be said that this is the only procedure laid down in God's word for dealing with the sins of a brother? Furthermore, these divinely imposed procedures are

Matthew 8:32 — importance of this knowledge to all mankind, the loss of the herd of swine was a trifling incidental. As soon as the demons had their way, the swine perished. This is always the case when Satan has his way. Judas permitted Satan in his heart (Luke 22:3), and very soon afterwards, he went out and hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). If God is to be charged with all that is permitted, He would then be guilty in the case of floods, earthquakes, wars, pestilence, and indeed for all the unfortunate and destructive

Mark 10:42-44 — world. Whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all … Only Jesus Christ was "chief" or "first" among the apostles, being designated by the Holy Spirit as "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession" (Hebrews 3:1); and, although the rule of greatness being determined by service applied to every apostle and to all Christians of all ages, this must be understood primarily as a reference of Jesus to himself, as the next verse emphatically proves.

Mark 8:34-35 — the soul's assumption of the role of Jesus Christ throughout life, the reception of his Holy Spirit, the indwelling of "the mind that was in him" (Philippians 2:5), the permitting of the word of Christ to dwell in the soul richly (Colossians 3:16). Taking up the cross has no reference to the wearing of any ornament, nor to the trials of life, nor the common misfortunes of humanity, but to the conscious acceptance of the Saviour's total will. The teaching in this passage is not a prescription

Mark 9:7 — beloved Son: hear ye him. What is meant by the overshadowing cloud? Did it envelop all of the group or only Jesus, Moses, and Elijah? From the fact of God's presence in the Old Testament having been indicated by the pillar of a cloud by day (Exodus 13:21), as well as from other associations of clouds with the presence of God (Psa. 79:14; 1 Thessalonians 4:17, etc.), there is a strong inclination to make the same association here; but a comparison with the baptismal scene (Matthew 3:16-17) in which

Luke 8:27 — the detail of the man's wearing no clothes. In this series, several dissertations on demon possession have already been written, supporting the conclusion that: (1) demon possession was certainly a fact in those times; (2) it could be a fact today; (3) if it is not a fact today, it is due to the success of Jesus in destroying the works of Satan; and (4) there are too many unknowns regarding human behavior today to allow any dogmatic conclusion to the effect that such a phenomenon has perished from

Ephesians 2:2-3 — egocentric self. The prince of the powers of the air … The character in view here is most assuredly Satan, who is called the "god of this world" in 2 Corinthians 4:4, and who was called the "prince of this world" (John 14:30; John 16:11) by none other than the Christ himself. Only those who consciously reject the teaching of the New Testament can deny the existence of the personal ruler of this world's darkness. Christ himself taught people to pray, "Deliver us from

Hebrews 11:31 — spies down from her window on the city wall, and by which her house was identified at the capture of the city, foreshadowed that "through the blood of the Lord all who trust and hope in God shall have redemption." F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 329. Spurgeon said of this eleventh chapter that it "recites the victories of faith"; Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company), Vol. 3, p. 269. and then he goes ahead to enumerate Enoch's victory over

Hebrews 2:17-18 — 18:15) who was specifically promised as one who would be "like unto his brethren." That Christ was made "in all things" like his brethren should be qualified by the considerations that: (1) in his birth; (2) in his sinlessness; and (3) in his death for our sins according to the scriptures, Christ was utterly different from all others who ever lived. The expression "merciful and faithful high priest" involves a dual relationship, toward God and toward man. "Merciful"