We have before had occasion to remark that it is the Lord Jesus Himself who gives us the most solemn statements as to the eternal doom of the wicked. It is settled here for eternity. The beast and the false prophet are both taken red handed, and forthwith cast alive into the “lake of fire.” A thousand years after, the devil also is cast in where they are. But there are others too. Turn to Isaiah 30:30-3330And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. 31For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. 32And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. 33For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. (Isaiah 30:30‑33). The Assyrian is the king of the North who has a very large place in Isaiah and. Daniel. Verse 33, which should read, “for the king also it is prepared,” shows us that he too will be there as well as the beast and the false prophet. They will share the same fate. No doubt the conduct of the sheep was governed by the effect the testimony had on them. The millennial earth will be a very blessed place. First of all, the Lord will deliver creation, there will be universal peace, and the Lord will purge out of His kingdom all that do iniquity. The earth will yield her increase worthily of His reign, and there will be such tremendous plenty that even the poor, neglected, ass will eat clean provender that has been winnowed with the hand. This gives us an idea of what it will be like. Oh, there is a good time coming! But there is only One who can put all things right, and He is called “the desire of all nations.” It will be a blessed time for those living then, but we who believe shall have a better place; we shall reign with Him, these will be reigned over.
It will be a reign of righteousness. “The child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.” Some may think this a very difficult scripture: but if a man's life now is reckoned at seventy years, a tenth of this would be seven, and a tenth of man's then life of a thousand years would be one hundred; as seven years now, so would one hundred years then, represent but the age of a child. Any rebellion or covert sin will be dealt with instantly. But though, no doubt, they will know what has gone before, yet if there be no work of grace in their souls, they will be as ready to fall at the end of the millennium as Adam was in Eden. There must be repentance and faith towards God, if man is to be right in his soul, and kept of God.
In our authorized version of 25:46 it might look as if there were two Greek words for the two English words “everlasting” and “eternal"; but it is one and the same word. Whether “life” or “punishment” they are alike “everlasting.” Life in the millennium is predicated as “life for evermore” (Psalms 133), or “everlasting life” (Daniel 12:2). Believers now have eternal life and besides, we are waiting for it. Daniel 12 speaks of a national resurrection of Daniel's people, now asleep in the dust of the earth, i.e., lost, but they among the Gentiles shall awake (compare Ezekiel 37) “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Ezekiel 37 takes in the whole twelve tribes.
The ten tribes will not go through the great tribulation in the land. God will bring these now lost to human vision—into the wilderness, and purge out all the rebels among them, for none of the rebels will go into the land. I apprehend that those who shall enter will have life in their souls. The remnant of Judah who returned in the days of Ezra from Babylon were once more in the land for the presentation to them of the Messiah, but they rejected Him and would not have His reign, and this accounts for their present scattering and ultimate going through the great tribulation. We have a remarkable illustration of this in Joseph and his brethren. Why did he give them such exercise before revealing himself to them? Because he loved them. And the way Judah pleads for Benjamin foreshadows the work that will be wrought in the soul of the future remnant at the end. I see the Spirit of grace and supplication. So it will be with many in Israel bye and bye. When the veil is taken away they will look on Him whom they pierced, and He will take away out of their flesh the stony heart that said, “Away with him,” and will give them a heart of flesh. Then will they take up the still prophetic language of Isaiah 53, confessing their guilt.
The Lord has not kept back anything. As He drew near the end of His public ministry the hatred of the religious leaders increased, and we get the Lord denouncing these religious leaders. If we turn to Psalms 40, we find He kept back nothing. He declared God's faithfulness and His righteousness, and He also declared what He would do at the time of the end, and how He will have His own kingdom here, and purge out of it all that offend.
So when He had finished all these sayings He said unto His disciples, “Ye know that after ten days is the feast of the passover and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified” (vers. 1, 2). There He definitely discloses when His death would take place. These religious leaders did not want it to occur then when Jerusalem was full of people, for they were under the Roman yoke and they would have to answer for it if there was any uproar among the people then. But Judas came forward, and they could not let that opportunity pass. Yet on the surface there appears a difficulty here. But it is only on the surface: if we knew all we should see that there is never any real difficulty. There are those who think the Lord did not partake of the passover when the Jews did and some try to get over it by quoting the marginal reading of Exodus 12:66And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. (Exodus 12:6). “Thou shalt kill it between the two evenings,” as though they were at liberty to do it any time of the twenty four hours. But if we turn to Exodus 29:38, 3938Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: (Exodus 29:38‑39), we find the same expression there. The day commenced in the evening, and the evening that closed one day was continued by the evening that begun the next. So in verse 8 of the next chapter we find the same expression where it cannot mean that the one evening was twenty four hours after the other. There is a feast which continues twenty four hours. In Leviticus 23:27-3227Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 28And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. 30And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. 31Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. (Leviticus 23:27‑32) we find it put in quite another way, yet still meaning the whole twenty four hours. Now turn to Deuteronomy 16:22Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. (Deuteronomy 16:2). The words “of the herd” throw no little light. Not only was the lamb to be eaten, but also the free-will offerings. This helps us to understand some things that seem a difficulty. Verse 4 reads “Neither shall there anything of the flesh which thou sacrificest the first day at even remain all night until the morning.” If it might be divided between twenty four hours that would be very peculiar, but go on to ver. 6, “Thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou earnest forth out of Egypt” Thus it had to be offered as a sacrifice, and the Lamb must be sacrificed at the temple, and on another day they could not get it done.
But then this is what puzzles a good many, what we get in John's Gospel. In Matt. 26 the name of the woman is not given, but John 12 tells us it was Mary of Bethany who anointed the Lord. The Gospel of Matthew was written at a very early date, and no doubt Mary may have been living, and if her name had been revealed it might have exposed her to persecution. John wrote very late when, no doubt, she was no longer living and so would be beyond the power of persecution. A difficulty however arises as to the “six days” of John 12, where as in our chapter (verse 2) it is “two days.” The Lord spent those closing days in the bosom of the home of Bethany. It was “six days” before the passover that He came there, and it says there they made Him a supper. It does not say immediately He arrived, but while He was there. It is brought in there because of the truth we get in the chapter preceding; so I don't see any real difficulty.
No doubt the Lord's faithfulness intensified the animosity of the religious rulers. He was hated without cause. “Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people.” Psalms 2 says: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah and against his anointed.” Acts 4 shows us it is the Jew and the Gentile who are gathered together there “Imagine” in Psalms 2 is the same word as “meditate” in Psalms 1:22But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:2). So it is the leaders of the people who are here meditating to take the life of their Messiah. “But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.” But the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, and the Lord was to die at that very time. So what they had proposed as to the time was upset. But we shall get to that presently.
Verse 6. It was known as the house of Simon the leper. He was a cured leper, and it is possible, as some have thought, that he was the father of Martha and Mary, and Lazarus. It is also called Martha's house, she received the Lord into her house. We cannot be positive who this Simon was, so we say no more except that it is not the Simon who is spoken of in Luke 7. That scene is in Galilee, this in Judea. And further, the woman of Luke 7 was an immoral person, a well known sinner, but there is not a single syllable to indicate anything like that of Mary of Bethany. Again, the woman in Luke comes uninvited and was one whom Simon did not want to see; but in John 12 it is a family scene. Then the woman of Luke 7 came prepared to anoint his feet—not to wash them; but she found them soiled. The common courtesies of the East were lacking on this occasion, but she washed the Savior's feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and anointed them with ointment. With Mary, it was hers but to anoint (His head and) His feet, as love and care had already not been wanting—His feet were clean. Here at Bethany the house is filled with the odor of the ointment. Here is worship, and as we worship we should carry away the savor of it too. The unnamed woman of Luke 7 remains unnamed. She was not Mary Magdalene, out of whom seven demons had been cast, but known as a “sinner” — “her sins many.”
But this woman does more: she brake the box and poured it on His head. There is no stint here, but the contrary. Would that we were more after this pattern in our worship and had more to give the blessed Savior.
John lets us know who it was that led in the complaint—Judas Iscariot. The others were led by him. It was not that he cared for the poor, but he carried the bag and was a thief, and he coveted that money. What an awful thing coveteousness is! It takes the place in the heart which the Lord Jesus had a right to. The three great sins in the land were covetousness, disobedience, and confidence, confidence in their own strength, and in their own wisdom. So you get the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold; the defeat at Ai; and then the deceit of the Gibeonites. Things seen (the lust of the eyes) are dangers to us. If we are not on our guard we want to possess them. But “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” is better than all possessions.
John furnishes in his Gospel many helps to the understanding of the Synoptists (Matthew, Mark and Luke). No man can throw light on the word of God. It gives its own light, and the wisest teacher can only tell of the light it has thrown on him.
“This waste!” (ver. 8) —insulting to the Lord, and very unbelieving of them! How could it be waste if expended on the Lord? Well, as I said just now, it was not waste even as regards Mary, for there was that wonderful commendation of the Lord. We must be receivers before we can give, and Mary was a receiver. Martha was a giver, and the Lord Jesus was her guest, but Mary was the Savior's guest. Alas, we are often content with taking in but few drops, no wonder then we can only give out a few drops; but if rivers are to flow out from us we must receive rivers. With the Lord's presence there is always abundance of provision—His presence always gives plenty.
Matthew does not tell us the valuation. There is about half a crown difference between the appraisal of Judas in John 12, and the amount received by Judas for his betrayal of the Lord. They run very close together, and it shows the power of Satan. The price according to Exodus 21 is the price of a slave; of a freeman the price was double.
The Lord does not resent their rudeness but He does take up and vindicate the woman. And it is very blessed for us, if we are misjudged, not to defend ourselves, but leave our course to Him. Mary did not say anything in self-justification when blamed by her sister in Luke 11. The Lord commended her then. He loved Martha, but He commended Mary. She was the possessor of the good part which should not be taken away from her. Mary is content to be silent and the Lord defends her and does it better than we ever can. We see then, how, as always, love waits on opportunity. Here was one, and love seizes it. He was despised and rejected of men, but here was a heart that appreciated Him. She was eloquently telling out that verse in Song of Solomon “Thy Name is as ointment poured forth.” What a fearful thing to put anything in competition with the Lord!
The Holy Ghost tells us she “poured” the ointment, which speaks of profusion. Those who at his death prepared to do him honor and went to the sepulcher were too late. He was risen before they arrived.
Verse 13, stands out quite unique. We do not find the Lord using similar language of any other. I do not think we could limit this gospel to any character of glad tidings, for Matthew will prove very helpful to the remnant. We know they will be acquainted with this, so therefore this will go on to the time of the end.