Scripture Notes | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 21, 1868

Scripture Notes.

Psa. xciv, 12, 13. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

Not he that prospers in his wickedness, is happy; but he whom thou chastenest, O Lord, when he doeth amiss; and thereby teachest to study and obey thy law with greater care and diligence, which will quiet his mind under all his troubles, and at last procure the removal of them; when absolute ruin and destruction, meantime, are preparing for the ungodly.—Bp. Patrick. The sharpest correction, by which God leads men to search, believe, and obey his word, are inestimable benefits. Persecutors and tyrants often are the instruments of this salutary correction to the chosen tribes of God. The persecuted and oppressed, not the persecutors and oppressors, are the happy persons; they will have rest when the day of vengeance overwhelms the wicked. God may, indeed, let his people endure sharp and tedious sufferings, but he “will never leave them, no, nor ever forsake them;” “Therefore, they may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”—Scott.

Jer. xi, 21–23. Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophecy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand: therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

“Those who venture to address presumptuous professors of religion after the manner in which Jeremiah addressed the Jews, must expect to be hated for their faithfulness; how muchsoever they weep over them, and pray for them, or spend themselves in laboring for their good. Though they be harmless and gentle as the lamb, and patient and laborious as the ox, and devoid of guile and suspicion, they will be persecuted, instead ‘of being highly esteemed for their works’ sake; for such men as crucified the holy Lamb of God, will always abhor those who rebuke and warn them as he did; and they would put them to death also, if they had it in their power, and if they could not otherwise silence them. For they want to destroy their reprovers, that they may no more remember, or be tormented by, their faithful testimony. But the Lord knows his servants, and can protect them against all the devices of persecutors; and he will certainly plead their cause, and execute vengeance on their enemies. In every age of the church, ungodly priests have been ringleaders in this diabolical work; ‘a man’s foes’ are often those of his ‘own household,’ and a prophet will be sure to be most without honor in his own country. When the Lord, by any means, discovers to us the enmity and devices of our opposers, we shall find it a peculiar comfort to be able to appeal to him, as the heart-searching and righteous Judge, that we suffer for well-doing, and not for evil-doing; and we should reveal our course, and refer the whole matter to him. We should, however, look well to our spirits, that we ‘be not overcome with evil,’ but that, by patient continuance in praying for our enemies, and showing them kindness, we may, if possible, ‘overcome evil with good.’”—Scott’s Practical Observations.

CUT OFF HIS THUMBS.

JUDGES i. 6. But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

Cut off his thumbs.] “That he might never be able to draw his bow, or handle his sword; and great toes, that he might never be able to pursue, or escape from, an adversary. This species of maiming was common among the ancient Greeks and Romans, it being sometimes practiced by parents on their little sons, (especially the cutting off of the thumbs,) that, by being incapacitated, they might not be called to go to war. It was also sometimes designed as a brand of reproach for cowardice. The Italians, Calmet remarks, have preserved a term poltrone, which signifies one whose thumb is cut off, to designate a soldier destitute of courage and valor; and we use poltroon to signify the same, without considering the import of the word.”—Dr. A. Clarke.

COULD NOT DRIVE OUT.

JUDGES i. 19. And the Lord was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain: but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

This passage has been made the subject of the profane scoffs of Voltaire and his copyists, as though the Lord were unable to succeed against the inhabitants of the valley with their iron chariots; but it is wholly relieved by simply observing, that the he, when it is said, “he could not,” does not refer to the Lord, but Judah.—Horne.