The Sabbath-School

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 19, 1882

The Sabbath-School.

Comments on Lesson for January 28.

THIS lesson is found in Luke 11 and Matt. 23. On the first portion of the lesson, the power of persevering prayer, we take the following comments from Clarke:—

The prayer related here by Luke is not precisely the same as that mentioned by Matthew; and indeed it is not likely that it was given at the same time. That in Matthew seems to have been given after the second passover, and this in Luke, was given probably after the third passover, between the feasts of tabernacles, and the dedication. It is thus that Bishop Newcome places them in his Greek "Harmony of the Gospels."

There are many variations in the MSS. in this prayer; but they seem to have proceeded principally from the desire of rendering this similar to that in Matthew. Attempts of this nature have given birth to multitudes of the various readings in the MSS. of the New Testament. It should be remarked also, that there is no vestige of the doxology found in Matthew, in any copy of St. Luke's Gospel.

Verse 6. In his journey is come—Or, perhaps more literally, A friend of mine has come to me out of his way, which renders the case more urgent—a friend of mine benighted, belated, and who has lost his way, is come unto me. This was a strong reason why he should have prompt relief.

But if we persevere knocking; This sentence is added to the beginning of verse 8 by the Armenian, Vulgate, four copies of the Itala, Ambrose, Augustin, and Bede. On these authorities (as I find it in no Greek MS.) I cannot insert it as a part of the original text; but it is necessarily implied; for as Bishop Pearce justly observes, unless the man in the parable be represented as continuing to solicit his friend, he could not possibly be said to use importunity; once only, to ask, is not to be importunate.

Verse 9. And (or therefore) I say unto you, Ask—Be importunate with God, not so much to prevail on him to save you, as to get yourselves into a proper disposition to receive that mercy which he is ever disposed to give. He who is not importunate for the salvation of his soul, does not feel the need of being saved; and were God to communicate his mercy to such, they could not be expected to be grateful for it; as favors are only prized and esteemed in proportion to the sense men have of their necessity and importance.

The terrible denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees is thus eloquently paraphrased by Geikie:—

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! Ye plunder the houses of desolate widows left without protectors, and to hide your doings, make long prayers while at such work! For you say in your hypocrisy, ‘Long prayers make a long life,’ and some of you boast that you pray nine hours a day! Believe me, ye will receive for all this the greater damnation hereafter."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! ye stand in the gateway of the kingdom of Heaven, that kingdom I have come to set up, and not only do not yourselves enter, but even close the doors I have opened, that ye may keep those from entering, who wish to do so."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! Instead of helping men into the kingdom of the Messiah, ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, that your party may profit by him, and when he is gained, what do you make of him? A son of hell, by your example, two-fold more even than you are yourselves."

"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If any one swear by the temple, it is not binding; but if he swear by the gold which belongs to the temple—the gilding, the golden vessels, or the treasure—he is bound by his oath.’ Fools and blind! for which is the greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? You say, in the same spirit, ‘If any one swear by the altar, his oath is not binding on him; but if he swear by the gift that he has laid on the altar, he must keep his oath.’ Fools and blind! for which is the greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He who swears by the altar swears by it, and by all the things on it, and he who swears by the temple swears by it, and by him that dwells in it. And he who swears by Heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! for ye affect to be so strict in observing the law that you pay a tenth to the temple of even the sprigs of anise and cummin in your garden borders, and yet at the same time you neglect the great commands of the law: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. You ought certainly to attend the lighter demands of law, but surely not to leave the far greater neglected. Blind guides who strain out the gnat from the wine and swallow the camel! Sticklers for worthless trifles, regardless of matters of moment."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! Ye make clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but, within they are full of robbery and incontinence. Blind Pharisee, clean first the inside of the cup and dish, that the wine taste no more of plunder and lust, and that the outside may not only seem clean by your washing it, but be clean, by the taking away of that defilement which your life gives it, in spite of your cleansings."

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! You are like the whitewashed tombs all over the land—fair outside, but full within of the deadliest uncleanness—the bones of men, and all corruption. You pass yourselves off as religious, but in your hearts you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

Over against the eastern hall in which Jesus now stood, and from which he looked down into the valley of the Kedron, lay, on the slope of the Mount of Olives, the tombs of the prophets, the southmost of which is yet known as the tomb of Zechariah. In sight of these monuments, ranging his eyes from grave to grave, he burst out afresh—

"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, actors! Ye build fine tombs over the old prophets, and beautify those of the saints, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in their martyrdom of these holy men.’ But when you call them ‘your fathers,’ you bear witness that you are their sons—and you are, not only in natural descent, but in your spirit. You are of kin in heart to the prophet murderers! Fill up, therefore, the measure of iniquity your fathers before you filled in their day—by slaying me and those I shall send to you! Serpents! brood of vipers, for vipers your fathers were, and vipers are ye. how can ye escape the judgment of hell! That ye may not do so, behold, I send to you prophet-like apostles, and rabbis, and scribes. Some of them ye shall kill and crucify; some ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city—that on you, the leaders of the people, may come the punishment of all the innocent, righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to that of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, who was stoned by command of King Joash in the court of the temple, between the shrine and the altar. Believe me, all these things will come in this generation."

Zechariah, of old, had denounced the sin of Israel, as Jesus had that of the priests and rabbis. "Why transgress ye," he had asked, "the commandments of the Lord? Ye cannot prosper! Because ye have forsaken Jehovah, he hath forsaken you."

"O Jerusalem! Jerusalem," he continued, "that killest the prophets, and stonest those sent in love to thee; how often have I desired to gather thy children, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, and ye refused to come under my loving protection, by accepting me as the Messiah. Behold, your house is left to you! I come from the time of the divine help and guard, over you and your city, which I was sent to offer, is past."

"I tell you ye shall not see me henceforth, after my death, which is near at hand, till I appear again in my glory. Then you shall be only too eagerly willing to hail me as the Messiah, though now ye refuse even to let others thus hail me. Then, when too late, you will cry, as the crowds did when I entered your city, ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’"

Thus the breach between the future and the past was finally made complete. The whole hierarchy, from the high priest its primate, to the Levite its curate, and the rabbi its university professor or tutor, had been denounced before the people in language which they must resent if they were to retain any authority at all. Either Jesus, or the church as it was, with all its innumerable personal interests, must perish. It had come to this, indeed, before this last tremendous indictment of the system; and the certainty that nothing could avert his being sacrificed to the fanaticism and vested interests arrayed against him, had alone caused such a protest. He had no reasons for further reserve. It was fixed that he must die at their hands, and the irreconcilable opposition between the system for the sake of which he was to be martyred, and his own character and work must once more, for the last time, be brought out in full contrast, that every one might choose for himself, for which he would decide.