Bible Commentaries

Esther 7:10 — THE BITER BIT ‘So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.’ Esther 7:10 I. Though Haman was punished, the royal decree still stood; and when the day came, the Jews would still be massacred. Esther had been signally successful so far; but her work for her nation was not accomplished yet. Emboldened by her victory, she

Job 11:17 — THE BRIGHT SIDE OF GROWING OLDER ‘And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.’ Job 11:17 Nobody ever does, naturally, like the idea of getting older after they have ‘left school.’ There is a sense of oppression and depression about it. The irresistible, inevitable onward march of moments and years without the possibility of one instant’s

Psalms 140:5-6 — GOD THE SOUL’S REFUGE ‘The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords: they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set Sins for me. I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.’ Psalms 140:5-6 In these words of David we see what a believer, who will not betray the truth, has to expect from men, and whither he should flee when assailed by the enemies of the soul. I. The proud hid a ‘snare’ for the king.—They wished to entangle him;

Psalms 24:1-2 — THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.’ Psalms 24:1-2 If it be in truth God’s creation, God’s universe, it must be also the manifestation of God, and address itself ever to what is highest, divinest, most spiritual in us. I. The world being recognised to be the work and manifestation of God, is necessarily

Proverbs 31:28 — THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS WOMAN ‘Her children arise up, and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.’ Proverbs 31:28 I. She has the praise of her husband.—The husband is secondary in the picture, but we are told something about him. He is known as were Job and Boaz in the gates of his city. An elder and a judge, he sits there to be consulted in the simple way

Jeremiah 39:8 — trouble God did not forget it. ‘Lord, when saw we Thee in prison and visited Thee, or when did we see Thee naked and clothed Thee?’ ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My little ones, ye have done it unto Me.’ Illustrations (1) ‘The siege of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon was begun amid the hardships of mid-winter, and was continued, with certain intermissions, for a period of eighteen months. It was a common belief that the city was impregnable, a belief which the false

Zechariah 2:1-2 — lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.’ Zechariah 2:1-2 It was a difficult time in Jewish history. People were coming back from the Captivity. They had to rebuild Jerusalem, to restore the Temple, to make a new nation, as it were, out of the old fragments that were left. No wonder that hearts failed on

Matthew 7:1-2 — AGAINST RASH JUDGMENT ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.’ Matthew 7:1-2 Here we see the rule of God’s judgment in matters between man and man—‘With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.’ Thus, we see that, for the present, God is to us all, even to the unthankful and evil, what He would have us also

Matthew 7:6 — holy, and it is to be treated as you would treat a church or churchyard. Fence it in from the dogs, fence it in from all that desecrates it. All life really is sacred and holy. Your interest, your work in life is holy. —Canon Holmes. Illustrations (1) ‘The picture is of a glorious and a great temple, the priests sacrificing some spotless lamb, and as they stand at the altar the picture is that of an Eastern dog—a coarse, cruel scavenger—creeping up the distance of the temple, and then the priest

Mark 1:41 — STRENGTH AND SYMPATHY ‘And Jesus … touched him.’ Mark 1:41 There is a terrible disease of which we, in England, happily know nothing, the disease of leprosy. The leper can only be described as a broken, helpless, hopeless man. A leper came to Jesus. He had doubtless heard of Him and of His wonderful cures,

Mark 2:5 — nothing of any kind between your soul and Him, there is a pardon, a free pardon, a full pardon, a saving pardon, a soul-healing pardon, even before you discover in your own heart the slightest evidence of a cure? Rev. Canon Edward Hoare. Illustrations (1) ‘ “I know your thoughts,” Christ seems to say; “you accuse Me of pretending to extraordinary powers without any evidence that My claims are well founded. The veriest impostor, you say, may do that. No man has a right to speak so, unless he is

Mark 8:29 — sorts of craft appear—boats which had been there all the time, but unseen because of the dark. The light revealed them! So it was the light of God the Holy Spirit, which on the sudden shined in Peter’s heart, and he knew and saw Jesus as God ( Matthew 16:17, and 1 Corinthians 2:10). Have we ever seen Jesus in that way? If not, it is because we are in the dark, our eyes cannot pierce the blackness of our sin, our habits, or it may be we are not looking! No light, however strong, could be of any use

Luke 1:70 — MODERN PROPHETS ‘As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began.’ Luke 1:70 The message of Zacharias is as true to-day as when he sang. There have been, and there are, prophets and teachers of righteousness all through the ages. God has not left Himself without witnesses; He still has prophets prophesying in the way of

Luke 9:54 — charge of showing himself in this way unworthy of his Christian profession? It is because we are by nature thus different from what we ought to be that Christ has come to give us power to become the sons of God. —Bishop Harvey Goodwin. Illustrations (1) ‘It is the common assumption that what the Samaritan villagers were guilty of was merely a breach of hospitality; that they refused our Lord food and shelter. There was something far worse. It is said that before setting out on this journey “Jesus

John 9:1-3 — from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.’ John 9:1-3 How familiar and how natural to us is this question, this puzzle of the Apostles, of physical pain! And our Lord gives His answer. I. Let us remember, first, how definitely our Lord was accustomed to declare the intimate bond between bodily sickness

Romans 5:8 — It is plain that He Who loves is He Who dies—otherwise there is no argument at all, if one loves and another dies. Therefore the God in the first clause is the Christ in the second clause of the sentence; and the passage exactly agrees with another, 1 John 3:16: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.” And we are glad that our minds should thus meet a certain resting-place upon the Godhead of the Crucified One.’

1 Corinthians 13:2 — THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY ‘And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.’ 1 Corinthians 13:2 The spirit of love is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Is there any test by which as you search the Gospels you will find our Lord so constantly measuring what men are and do as by the test of love? That is the point to which He penetrates

1 Corinthians 2:15 — SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT ‘But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.’ 1 Corinthians 2:15 It is sometimes said that the evidence for the revelation made to man by our heavenly Father must be in all reason and justice precisely the same as the evidence on which we accept any other truth. Yet we find the revelation which

1 Corinthians 9:20-23 — COMPREHENSIVE CHRISTIANITY ‘Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; … and this I do for the Gospel’s sake.’ 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 While never sacrificing for an instant truth or principle, yet, so far as truth and principle admitted it, St. Paul wore the guise and spoke in the accents of the persons whom he addressed. I. The comprehensive character of Christianity

1 Thessalonians 4:9 — BROTHERLY LOVE ‘But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.’ 1 Thessalonians 4:9 ‘Taught of God to love one another!’ It was a new lesson. The Old World had nothing to show that was like it. A little society of men and women in a Greek city, under the Roman rule, sending a contribution to those who were poorer