Bible Commentaries

2 Kings 3:9-12 — these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab" This statement by the king of Israel was that of an unbeliever. Any threatening disaster he was ready to attribute to Israel's true God, but, fortunately, Jehoshaphat was a man of greater faith. "Is there not here a prophet of Jehovah?" It is remarkable that Jehoram was ignorant of Elisha's presence in the host, but one of his servants told him that the prophet was among them. Having learned this, Jehoshaphat at once stated that the word

Job 17:3-5 — thyself" The next clause demands a negative answer; and since Job's friends who normally should be his surety are not willing to do so, Job prays that God Himself will be his surety in the day of Judgment. Here again we have that magnificent leap of faith which envisioned God Himself as surety for Job against God Himself in the Judgment. What a marvelous premonition (rather inspiration) of God the Son being Surety for his saints against God the Father's Judgment! As Kline expressed it, "This was

Psalms 4:7-8 — service, "God's help in time of need causes more gladness than bumper crops."Kyle M. Yates, Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), p. 497. "In peace… I will lay me down and sleep." As Spurgeon said, "They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep."Charles H. Spurgeon, Ibid., p. 24. These are days when environmentalists are very loud and demanding in their postulations about how to save our earth; but they are totally wrong. Our earth is unequivocally doomed to destruction.

Psalms 78:32-39 — returned and sought God earnestly. And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied unto him with their tongue. For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant. But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: Yea, many a time he turned his anger away, And did not stir up all his wrath. And he remembered that they were flesh, A wind that passeth away, and cometh

Isaiah 7:3-9 — prophecy might have been given at some other point chronologically; but as Rawlinson noted "There is no appearance in this chapter of any need for such theories."G. Rawlinson, op. cit., p. 126. In the final verse of this paragraph, Isaiah's call to faith is uttered with a slogan-like play on words which is almost impossible of translation into English, although James Moffatt's Translation of the Bible (1929) attempted it as follows: "Hold God in doubt; You'll not hold out," or, "Unsure, Insecure!"

Daniel 1:14-16 — Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), p. 908. We do not know whether Daniel was inspired to request this change of diet, or if he did it solely upon his inner conviction of what was right or wrong. We believe that it sprang out of Daniel's attitude of faith and devotion; but the results surely proved that God indeed approved of his action. Occasionally, the inquiry is raised as to how there could have been more danger of pollution to these Hebrew youths in eating the king's food than there was in being

Daniel 11:36 — remaining posterity) to receive an object lesson in what serving the Devil really means. That will be the time when the horrors of the "time of the end" shall unfold. This is that period of which Jesus inquired, "When the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)? As Keil stated regarding this passage, "This revelation of the Lord to Daniel did not concern what was going to happen from the third year of Cyrus to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; but according to the express declaration

Zechariah 10:2 — human apostasy always began. When Paul recounted the awful debaucheries of the pre-Christian Gentile world, he cited first of all the fact that, "Knowing God they glorified him not as God, and neither gave thanks" (Romans 1:21). Christians who leave the faith usually begin in the same way; they stop giving thanks to God, either at the table or anywhere else. Deane stated that all of the things mentioned here refer "to superstitious devices";Ibid., p. 106. in this same line of thought, McFadyen wrote: "Superstition,

Matthew 14:9-12 — can reflect only with sorrow upon the feelings of the godly John when informed of his fate. Herod heard only the music and dancing; John heard only the grating of the prison door as the headsman came to lead him to the block. Yet, through the power of faith, any man in his right mind would prefer the fate of John the Baptist to that of Herod. The disciples went away and told Jesus! That bodes nothing good for Herod, or for any other sinner who opposes or maltreats one of God's faithful children. All

Mark 12:38-40 — … This was accomplished by charging excessive fees and through the abuse of hospitality and generosity. And for a pretence make long prayers … Nothing is quite as showy as a long prayer, and few things any more disgusting. When a popular faith-healer led prayer at the Democratic convention which first nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt for president, it (the prayer) last 31 minutes and 15 seconds; and the Cardinal who led the inaugural prayer at the installation of President John F. Kennedy

Luke 19:5 — ye these things in your hearts? (Mark 2:8). And Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power from him had gone forth, turned him about in the crowd … to see her (he already knew it was a woman, that she had been healed, that she was a woman of faith, and that he would save her soul) (Mark 5:30). But Jesus perceiving their reasonings, answered and said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts? (Luke 5:22). But he knew their thoughts (Luke 6:8). But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their heart,

Luke 5:27-28 — was his purpose of redeeming all men. Jesus did not look upon outward appearances but at the genuine character of men. Never did the genius of the Son of God show more clearly than here. Matthew was a "gift of God" indeed to the Christian faith. His scholarly knowledge of the Old Testament, his intimate understanding of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and his ability to penetrate the sham of the religious hierarchy of that era fully endowed him with unique gifts which enabled the writing

John 16:7 — subjected to monitoring and interpretation by human aides with their inevitable taint of fallibility and bias. An earthly head of such a thing as the true church of Jesus Christ is an impossibility revealed by this verse. If the holy Head of our blessed faith had himself remained on earth, there would have been no Holy Spirit to guide and comfort. Jesus Christ is the one true head of the true church in heaven "and upon earth" (Matthew 28:18-20). Whatever any man, therefore, may be "head

Acts 10:44 — depend upon the repentance and baptism of believers, many strange and untenable theories have been erected. Trenchard, for example, thought that here, "The Pentecostal baptism was extended to Gentile believers on the sole ground of repentance and faith." E. H. Trenchard, op. cit., p. 3. However, there is no mention of repentance in this passage; and, as the Spirit fell on them "as Peter began to speak," it is incorrect to say that they were "believers" when that occurred.

Acts 24:25 — world to the judgment of the Great Day, and that every man shall receive the reward of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. The Christian concept of a universal judgment day is essential to all sanity in this present life. Without faith in the judgment, it must ever appear that the righteous are frustrated; but in this conception of what will finally occur, there lies the conviction that "even a cup of cold water" given in the name of the Lord shall not lose its reward.

Acts 27:21-26 — Here it was reaffirmed by the Lord's angel that Paul would stand before Caesar; and the message of cheer which Paul here delivered was significant, not as his opinion, but as a clear word from the Almighty. The whole episode was calculated to inspire faith in Paul's word among the ship's passengers and crew. Lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee … reveals that Paul had been praying for the lives of all on board, and not merely for himself alone, and that God had answered his

Romans 7:14 — It is the legal system, which says, "Do this and live," that Christ has abolished, and introduced another, which says, "He that believes shall be saved." Ibid., p. 217. In these astounding words of Hodge, the scandal of the "faith only" heresy is concisely stated, including its invariable corollary that even the benevolent terms of the gospel of the Lord Jesus, constituting the ground of our acceptance with God, and delivered by the Christ himself — that even all

2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 — can say the same thing. B.    There is educative suffering, called chastening (Hebrews 12:5-6), which is allowed of God, or even on occasion sent by God, having as its purpose: (1) the correction of faults, (2) the strengthening of faith and (3) the promotion of the soul's eternal welfare. The reaction to this type of suffering (and in a sense to all suffering) is prescribed as follows: (1) the child of God must not despise it; (2) he should submit to it; (3) he must not faint;

2 Timothy 2:11-13 — Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him: if we endure, we shall also reign with him: if we shall deny him, he also will deny us: if we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for he cannot deny himself. All of the nonsense one reads about this and other metrical passages in Paul's writings being "early liturgies" used by the church, or "fragments of hymns" sung by the earliest

Revelation 11:9 — location and occasion. "Look upon their dead bodies three days and a half …" Why do they do such a thing? Because unspiritual and apostate Christians take pleasure in the contemplation of the dead relics of what once was true and living faith. Long after churches have literally chiseled the name of the Son of God off the cornerstones of their houses of worship, and after they have denied his holy religion by the rejection of its great essential doctrine, and after they have made "their