Bible Commentaries

Esther 9:26-28 — day, for almost twenty-five centuries; and, to this writer, it appears as an absolute impossiblity that such a sequence of observances could have been initiated, or kicked off, by some unknown writer's fictitious yarn. It takes twenty times as much faith to believe that allegation as it takes to believe the Bible. "They called these days Purim, after the name of Pur" The word Pur is the Persian word for "lot." which is a reference to Haman's casting lots to decide the day when the Jews would be

Psalms 71:14-16 — answer is this to the inevitable encroachments upon life of age and infirmity. It is not a time for slowing down in the pursuit of holiness; it is not a time for leaving everything to the next generation; it is not a time for slackening zeal in our faithfulness to Christ and his Church. Indeed no! It is time for trusting God, "more and more." It is time for greater fidelity, more loving devotion, and "more and more" constancy in our adherence to the "Faith once for all delivered to the saints." "I

Hosea 10:12 — "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Jehovah, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." We believe that Mauchline was correct in his opinion that: "This verse is not

Matthew 13:17-18 — referred to by Paul as: The great mystery (1 Timothy 3:16)The mystery (Romans 16:25)The mystery of his will (Ephesians 1:9)The mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4)The mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19)The mystery of God (Colossians 2:3)The mystery of faith (1 Timothy 3:9)The mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16) Peter also elaborated the fact that the ancient prophets, and even the angels of God, desired to "look into" those things which they could not fully understand (1 Peter 1:10-12).

Matthew 28:19-20 — all,I should know what God and man is.Alfred Lord Tennyson, poem, "Flower in the Crannied Wall," It need not, then, be thought a strange thing that this Great Commission should contain embryonically so many of the distinctive doctrines of the faith that is in Christ, Among them, and there is no pretense of exhaustiveness, are noted the following: 1.    All authority in heaven … This teaches the divinity of Christ. If these words were spoken by a mere man, they are

Matthew 4:4 — Father, Satan would try to make that very trust the basis of sin, presumptuous sin. The scene is also changed from the roaring wilderness to the sacred precincts of the temple, indicating that there are peculiar temptations to sin in close proximity to faith.

Mark 11:12 — can, the judgment upon Jerusalem which it prophesied. If God did that, why should his harmless warning of it be considered otherwise than as a merciful foretelling of the fate of the chosen people with a view to restraining them and leading them to faith and salvation?

Mark 11:22-23 — And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. This reply must have astonished

Mark 9:43-44 — inconsequential stumbling, but to a complete falling away from God so as to be lost eternally. This is another maxim related not to causing another to stumble, but to one's stumbling himself. The teaching is that whatever must be sacrificed to maintain faith and loyalty to God must be renounced and given up by the disciple, regardless of the personal loss or cost to himself. Hell, into the unquenchable fire … The saddest teaching in the word of God relates to the subject introduced here. The

Luke 14:23 — indicated. Despite this, these words are a favorite text of the persecutor and inquisitor. Long ago, Augustine used this text as a justification for religious persecution. It was used as a defense, and even as a command, to coerce people into the Christian faith. It was used as a defense for the inquisition, the thumb-screw, the rack, the threat of death and imprisonment — and for all those things which are the shame of Christianity.William Barclay, op. cit., p. 200. Christ never intended that kind

Luke 20:27-40 — Hebrews, Hebrews 1:14). Sons of God … sons of the resurrection … This use of the two expressions synonymously is a pledge of a resurrection for the sons of God. The doctrine of the resurrection is a fundamental of Christianity; and no faith is adequate which denies it (see my Commentary on Hebrews, Hebrews 6:2). Even Moses … taught the resurrection of the dead; and the ignorance of the Sadducees of this was the reason for their not believing. Jesus said, "Ye do err, not

Luke 21:20 — happens — that even when we have shown their criticism of a passage to be unfounded, certain critics continue to reject its reliability, we recognize that their objections are based on anti-Biblical presuppositions and must be seen as a kind of faith or (anti-faith) rather than as scholarship and science. The road that one takes at the beginning of a journey determines the goal he will reach. Starting with the conviction that the Bible is unreliable leads us not merely to mistrust it but to

Luke 4:25-26 — 5:17). The big point of the passage, however, is that it was a Gentile widow, a Sidonian, to whom Elijah was sent, and not to any widow in Israel. The reason for this choice lay in the unbelief prevalent in the Israel of that period, and in the contrasting faith of the widow of Zarephath.

Luke 6:47-49 — key to the paragraph. People who build upon Jesus' words build upon the solid rock; people who build upon anything else are doomed to disappointment. The word of Christ alone is the constitution of the church, the ground of eternal hope, the guide of faith, the source of redemption, and the true wisdom of God. All else is shifting sand. An infinite sadness follows the contemplation of religious precepts and traditions which have been incorporated into the historical church, traditions and doctrines

Luke 7:4-5 — cities of the Greek and Roman world as a link of communication between Gentile and Jew, in contact with both — holding to the first by their race, and to the latter by their religion; and who must have materially helped in the early spread of the faith.Richard Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953), p. 241.

John 3:14-15 — became an idol and was defiled and burned up (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Kings 18:4); (the manner of appropriating the blessing is exceedingly diverse in each case, there having been no moral or spiritual conditions whatever in the healing of snake bites, not even faith). Now, when the Pharisees looked upon Jesus on the cross, were they saved? No! Far more than looking is required for salvation in Christ, as revealed in the next verse. And, as for those who would take this verse as the basis for promising salvation

Romans 1:16 — were despised, the great harlot on the Tiber was that city. Jesus had warned his disciples that God himself would be ashamed of any who were ashamed of Jesus and his word (Mark 8.:38); and in this epistolary war-cry, Paul hurled the challenge of his faith in Christ like a steel gauntlet into the face of proud and arrogant Rome. How could he do it? The answer is in the next clause. It is the power of God unto salvation … Ah, yes. Here is the power to save people from sin, from the inevitable

Judges 13:8-14 — strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe" This paragraph is a repetition, for the sake of Manoah, of what was reported in the previous paragraph. "Now let thy words come to pass" This is an indication of Manoah's faith in the word of the messenger from God as previously reported to him by his wife. It should be noted here that God did not elaborate the instructions already given, but merely repeated them, adding nothing whatever to what had already been commanded.

Judges 18:1-6 — (Joshua 3:10 and (2) also by the Philistines (Judges 13:1; Judges 13:5; Judges 14:4; and Judges 15:11). It is a mistake to hold the Danites guiltless in this situation. "Their failure to drive out the Amorites was not due to lack of power, but to lack of faith. The Danites had two choices: (1)    to repent of their unbelief and claim God's promise as they fought against their enemies; or (2)    to look for new territory where the occupants would be helpless and

1 Samuel 17:24-27 — Israel's part of the loving protection of God seems to have been forgotten altogether. After forty days of those continued insults from Goliath, this seems even more incredible. Evidently there burned in the heart of David a most unusual and confident faith in God; and that certainly must have been the secret of God's special blessing in that terrible encounter with Goliath.