Matthew 11:27-30

27 See Joh_3:35; Joh_17:2.

28 It is this God-consciousness, this recognition of His hand in all things, and more especially in that which is opposed to His apparent will, which gives His slaves heart's ease and rest in spirit. This is especially needed in days of apostasy. When we see the success of His enemies, the failure of His friends, when His own are enmeshed in the delusions of the last days, shall we blame those who must bear this load as they toil? How hard it is for their pride to be involved failure! How great the temptation to throw off the yoke and insure success by methods of their own! O that they would learn to yoke themselves with Him, to bow humbly beneath the failure that is according to God's underlying purpose! Then they will acquiesce when He blinds, as well as when He blesses. Then the yoke will no longer gall, and the load will float from their aching shoulders. The false thought that failure is not of God and that success is His hall mark, has led His saints to imagine that any flagrant disobedience to His will is fully justified if it only results in apparent success. Let us remember that He has characterized these as days of apostasy, so that it is His will that many should depart from the faith, and, consequently, great success may result in great loss to any slave of His who does not contend lawfully. Our business is to please God by suffering rejection along with Him.

1-8 Compare Mar_2:23-28; Luk_6:1-5. See Deu_23:25.

1-8 One of the most significant points in many of the miracles accomplished by our Lord is the fact that they were done on the sabbath. How else could He indicate the great truth that, when Israel is cured of all her ills, it would introduce that great sabbatism which is left for the people of God? Instead of stumbling them, it should have proved His Messianic claims. Moreover, the law of the sabbath was not operative in the sanctuary, and He was the real Temple of God.

3 See Lev_24:5-9; 1Sa_21:1-6.

5 See Num_28:9-10 Joh_7:22-23.

7 See Mat_9:13; Hos_6:6; Mic_6:6-8.

9-13 Compare Mar_3:1-5; Luk_6:6-10. See Luk_13:10-17; Luk_14:1-6; Joh_9:16.

10 Israel is the man with the withered hand. Instead of being punctilious about doing good on the sabbath, they should have been concerned with the fact that they could not work for God on any day. They will not be healed until the millennial rest, during which they wi11 be busy “breaking” the sabbath.

11 See Exo_23:4-5; Deu_22:4.

Mat_14:21 Compare Mar_3:6-12; Luk_6:11; Luk_6:17-19.

16 Hitherto He wished to be known, but now He enters a new phase of His ministry, in accord with the fact that God had hid His proclamation from those who would have made it effective. Before this His voice was heard in the squares, so that Isaiah's prophecy could not be truly applied to Him then. Now, however, He is given a special token of God's approbation, not because He has succeeded, but because He has been faithful in failure. It is especially precious to appreciate the comforting fact that God preferred Him and delighted in Him when all the signs indicated that His marvelous ministry was almost unheeded. Only a crushed reed here, or a smouldering flax there, were the results of His efforts. Contrite hearts and feeble flickers of faith were all He could show, when His message, humanly speaking, should have aroused the whole nation and made them His ardent disciples.

18 Compare Isa_42:1-4.

22-23 Compare Luk_11:14.

22 It is a fact that all human ills have come to the race through the interference of outside malignant spirit forces. Satan introduced sin through Adam. He Who is superior to these invading forces is capable of curing all the ills which man is heir to.

24 Compare Mar_3:22-26.

25 See Mat_9:4; Joh_2:24-25; Rev_2:23.