_Then spake Jesus to the multitude_ Leaving all converse with his adversaries; whom he now gave up to the hardness of their hearts. _The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat_ Or, _chair_ That is, read and expound the law of Moses, and are the appointed teachers of the people. The Jewish doctors... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they bind heavy burdens_ Not only insisting upon the most minute circumstances of the ceremonial law, called _a yoke, Acts 15:10_; and pressing the observation of them with more strictness and severity than God himself did; but by adding to his word, and imposing their own inventions and tradit... [ Continue Reading ]
_All their works they do to be seen of men_ They have the praise of men in view in all their actions. Hence they are constant and abundant in those duties of religion which come under the observation of men; but with respect to those that are of a more spiritual nature, and lie between God and their... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not ye called rabbi_ Do not affect those titles of reverence and respect which give too much honour or authority to man. The Jewish doctors were called _rabbis, fathers_, and _masters_, by their several disciples, whom they required both to believe implicitly what they affirmed, without asking a... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that is greatest among you_, &c. If any one among you would in reality be greater than another, let him be the more condescending, kind, and ready cheerfully to serve others in love. The words may either imply, 1st, a promise that such should be accounted greatest, and stand highest in the f... [ Continue Reading ]
_But wo to you, scribes_, &c. Our Lord pronounced eight blessings upon the mount, he pronounces eight woes here, not as imprecations, but solemn, compassionate declarations of the misery which these stubborn sinners were bringing upon themselves. The reasons of his denouncing these woes are set fort... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, ye blind guides_ Before he had styled them _hypocrites_, from their personal character; now he gives them another title respecting their false doctrine and influence upon others. Both these appellations are severely put together in Matthew 23:23: and this severity rises to the height i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, for ye pay tithe_, &c. Here we have the fifth wo, which is denounced for their superstition. They observed the ceremonial precepts of the law with all possible exactness, while they utterly neglected the eternal, immutable, indispensable rules of righteousness. _Judgment_ That is, just... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup_, &c. This is the sixth wo. They were at great pains to appear virtuous, and to have a decent external conduct, while they neglected to beautify their inward man with true holiness, and a conformity to the divine goodness, or with th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wo unto you, for you are like whited sepulchres_ Here we have the seventh wo. Dr. Shaw, (_Trav._, p. 285,) gives a genial description of the different sorts of tombs and sepulchres in the East concluding with this paragraph “Now all these, with the very walls of the enclosure, being always kept cle... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers' wickedness_ Ye may now be as wicked as they: a word of permission, not of command: as if he had said, I contend with you no longer: I leave you to yourselves: you have conquered: now ye may follow the devices of your own hearts. Ye _serpents_ Our Lord ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Jerusalem, Jerusalem_ The Lord Jesus having thus laid before the Pharisees and the Jewish nation their heinous guilt and impending ruin, was exceedingly moved at the thought of the calamities coming upon them. A day or two before he had wept over Jerusalem; now he bewails it in the most mournful... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, your house_ The temple, which is now your house, not God's; _is left unto you desolate_ Forsaken of God and his Christ, and sentenced to utter destruction. Our Lord spake this as he was going out of it for the last time. _For I say unto you_ Ye Jews in general, ye men of Jerusalem in partic... [ Continue Reading ]