Q. 240. (Vol. 3. p. 197.) “tile shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:2323And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:23)). Matthew does not, as before, cite the words of any one prophet by name, but says generally that what he quotes had been spoken by, or through, the prophets. No such words are to be found in the Old Testament. It is not likely that the evangelist would have quoted from any apocryphal prophecy, nor is there any trace of the existence of such a prophecy. The true explanation is to be found in the impression made on his mind by the verbal coincidence of fact with prediction. He had heard men speak with scorn of the Nazarene,” and yet the very syllables of the word had also fallen on his ears in one of the most glorious of the prophecies admitted to be Messianic. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch (Neizev) shall grow out of his roots.” So he found in the word of scorn the nomen et omen of glory. The town of Nazareth probably took its name from this meaning of the word, as pointing, like our “hurst” and “holt,” to the trees and shrubs for which it was conspicuous.
The general reference to the prophets is explained by the fact that the same thought is expressed. in Jeremiah 23:5; 33:155Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. (Jeremiah 23:5)
15In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. (Jeremiah 33:15); Zechariah 3:8, 6:12; though there the Hebrew word is Zemoch, and not Netzev. A like train of thought is found in Tertullian, and other early Christian writers, in their language to their heathen opponents. “You call us Christians,” they say, “worshippers of Christos; but you pronounce the words Chrestiani and Chrestos; i.e., you give us a name which in your own language (Greek) means good, and so you unconsciously bear testimony to the lives we really lead.”
This seems the only tenable explanation of the passage. It is hardly likely that the evangelist should have referred to the scorn with which Nazareth was regarded. Any reference to the Nazarite vow is out of the question (1) because the two words are spelled differently, both in Greek and Hebrew; and (2) because our Lord’s life presented quite a different aspect of holiness from that of which the Nazarite vow was the expression. That vow, as seen pre-eminently in the Baptist, represented the consecration which consists in separation from the world: the life of Christ manifested the higher form of consecration, which is found in being ice the world but not of it; mingling with the men and women who compose it, in order to purify and save. — Elliott’s Commentary.
(We do not think it well in speaking of one who wrote by the Holy Ghost, to use the phrase “the impression made on his mind, &c.” ED.)
Q. 246. (2). After the Lord had so mercifully restored the Ark to Israel, by compelling the enemy to send it back again, the responsibility rested entirely upon Israel to remove it from Kirjath-jearim. It was not to their honor to allow it to remain there.
The prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. If Israel had d returned unto the Lord with all their hearts (1 Samuel 7:33And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. (1 Samuel 7:3)); the Spirit might have moved the prophet to suggest its removal. But though Samuel by the Spirit commanded Israel (now lamenting after the Lord) to put away their false gods, and to serve the Lord only, he did not command them to remove the Ark to Zion. Since Israel had lost the Mercy-seat through the sinful exercise of their own self-will, the Lord suffered it to remain in an obscure city, until the people had prepared themselves to serve the Lord with all their hearts. Alas! it soon became only too plainly discernible that the eyes of the people were fixed upon the servant, rather than upon the Lord: for when Samuel was old, they asked for a king to the rejection—not of Samuel, but—of the Lord.
The desire for its removal sprang up in the heart of one whose son “thirsted for God in a dry and weary land “ (Psalms 63), and when he communicated this his desire to his brethren, they heartily responded to the same, and the hearts of them rejoiced that sought the Lord. (1 Chronicles 15).
Whether 1 Samuel 14:1818And Saul said unto Ahiah, Bring hither the ark of God. For the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel. (1 Samuel 14:18) refers to the Ark or to the ephod, the fact remains the same, that the self-willed king, frightened probably at the earthquake, and being at a loss to account for the continually increasing commotion in the enemy’s camp, hastily instructed Ahiah to inquire of the Lord, and as hastily countermanded his own instructions. Compare 1 Chronicles 13:33And let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul. (1 Chronicles 13:3). Kirjath-jearim was only a few miles distant from Gibeah of Saul. A. J.
Q. 255. When Mary Just beheld her risen Lord, she was not permitted to “touch” Him, being instantly commissioned by Himself to bear joyful tidings to His “brethren” certain of whom went to the sepulcher, but “Him they saw not” (Luke 24:2424And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. (Luke 24:24)); for “they believed not” (Mark 16:1414Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. (Mark 16:14)). Again, Mary, and “the other Mary,” were presently found at the sepulcher (Mark 16:1414Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. (Mark 16:14) sufficiently explains why these were at the moment unattended by a single apostle), and were returning; when the Lord appeared the second time. The good news had now been proclaimed, and these faithful women were therefore suffered to hold Him by the feet.
“Great is the mystery of godliness.” Though “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” He was ever “ with God.” The Son is in the bosom of the Father; and when on earth, addressing Nicodemus, spake of Himself as “the Son of man which is in heaven.”
Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43) does not conflict with John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17); even as Luke 24:5151And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:51) and Acts 3:20, 2120And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:20‑21), do not conflict with Matthew 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20), and 28:20. The spirit of the dying thief was that day with the Lord in paradise, notwithstanding that our Lord’s ascension did not take place until forty day after His resurrection. A. J.
Q. 272. No sacrilegious action rendered a holy thing less holy; yet he that committed that action thereby became defiled, and must bear the iniquity: for while the law suffered the thief, who, by defrauding his neighbor, had trespassed against Jehovah, first to make restitution, and afterward to bring his trespass-offering, that the priest might make an atonement for him, and his sin might be forgiven him—it did not provide any offering wherewith to make an atonement for sacrilege, Upon Aaron’s forehead rested the plate, inscribed “Holiness to the Lord,” and himself and his sons were personally responsible to the Lord to maintain and to preserve the sanctity of the sanctuary and of the holy things. If they themselves committed, or they suffered any other to commit, sacrilege, they must bear the iniquity. The history of the Ark furnishes us with many examples of the practical carrying out of this divine principle.
The censers used by “Korah and all his company” were counted holy, but those “sinners against their own souls” that offered incense before the Lord in these, bore their own iniquity, being consumed by a “fire from the Lord.”
While we, as believers, rejoice in having been made “priests unto God” —privileged to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus—we cannot be too careful to “draw near with a true heart,” &c., for if we fail to “serve God with reverence and godly fear,” we are in danger of being made painfully to realize that “our God is a consuming fire.” Nor ought we to forget to observe the solemn warning given in 1 Corinthians 11:27-3027Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. (1 Corinthians 11:27‑30). A. J.