Correspondence: 2 Cor. 12:16; Matt. 12:40; Heb. 5:7

From: Young Christian: Volume 2, 1912

Narrator: Chris Genthree

2 Corinthians 12:16; Matthew 12:40 • 3 min. read • grade level: 8

Question 54: Kindly explain 2 Corinthians 12:16¹⁶But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (2 Corinthians 12:16). J. H. M.

Answer: There were many things said against Paul. (See 2 Cor. 10:2, 10; 11:4,12-15, 23-26; 12:11²But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (2 Corinthians 10:2)
¹⁰For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. (2 Corinthians 10:10)
⁴For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (2 Corinthians 11:4)
¹²But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. ¹³For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ¹⁵Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:12‑15)
²³Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. ²⁴Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. ²⁵Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; (2 Corinthians 11:23‑26)
¹¹I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. (2 Corinthians 12:11))

In 2 Corinthians 12:16¹⁶But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (2 Corinthians 12:16) he is going over what others said about him. He did not burden them himself, but, being crafty, he caught them with guile. 2 Corinthians 12:17-18¹⁷Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? ¹⁸I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? (2 Corinthians 12:17‑18) show that neither he nor any he had sent, had done this. In 2 Corinthians 4:1-2¹Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; ²But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:1‑2), he flatly contradicts such an allegation. “We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

Question 55: Please explain how the time is reckoned during which the Lord Jesus remained in the grave. Matthew 12:40⁴⁰For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40). Someone has said the Lord must have been crucified on Wednesday, to make three days and three nights; but according to Mark 15:42⁴²And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, (Mark 15:42), it was on Friday, the preparation day. M. W. S.

Answer: “And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:5)). From sunset to sunset is the Jewish day. The Lord Jesus was crucified and buried on the sixth day of the week; this is counted one. The seventh day, on which the disciples rested, is another. Mary went and viewed the grave at night when the sabbath was past (Matt. 28:1¹In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. (Matthew 28:1), read “dusk” instead of “dawn”); the sepulcher was still closed; but early in the morning she pays another visit, and finds it open and empty this is the third day.

Luke 23:56⁵⁶And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56) and 24:1 show that only the Sabbath intervened between buying and bringing the spices by the women.

You will find a sample of this kind of reckoning in 1 Kings 6:37-38³⁷In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Zif: ³⁸And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. (1 Kings 6:37‑38).

Question 56: Does Hebrews 5:7⁷Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; (Hebrews 5:7) refer to Christ or to Melchizedec?

Answer: It refers to Christ. “Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee” (Heb. 5:5⁵So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. (Hebrews 5:5)), is His personal glory. “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec” is His official glory.

It is His history here on earth that makes us feel how truly able He is to take part in the sorrows of redeemed men. Here below He went into all the anguish of death, in dependence on God, praying to Him who was able to save Him out of death. Being here only to obey and to suffer, He did not save Himself. He submitted to God’s will, obeyed Him implicitly, depended on Him for all He needed.

He took death on Himself, and felt its weight upon His soul. He suffered the consequences of what He had undertaken to do, and felt what it was to be under God’s hand in judgment.

His godly fear was in understanding aright man’s sinful condition and what it deserved from God. But He was obedient unto death, perfect in it all. He learned obedience by the things He suffered, then perfected—glorified as man— He became author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him.

Hebrews 5:7⁷Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; (Hebrews 5:7) is the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

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