A very important thing is suggested at the opening of Matthew 10. In sending out the twelve, He told them to heal the sick and to preach the kingdom of God. They were to cure diseases and to challenge the claims of God in the face of the world. But had God come into the world, bringing salvation, in order to surrender His own rights to man’s necessities? He could not do it, and we, if in a right mind, could not wish it. The glory of the gospel is that He is glorified while we are saved. Could we enjoy a robbery? It would be robbery, if we could get a blessing which took glory from God. We get this in the cross, if we read it in a right way. It is the glory of the gospel that God could be just, and yet the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. We get a sample of that here. He tells them, then, to take with them neither scrip nor money nor bread: “You are going forth on My message; lean on Me. No man goeth a warfare on his own charges. I will take care of your necessities, and you, let your moderation be known unto all.” Then, “whosoever will not receive you, shake off the dust of your feet.” While there is a graciousness attaching Christian ministry, there is a solemnity too. The Lord would have that character affixed to it. We see it in Paul at Antioch when he shook off the dust of his feet and came to Iconium, and we see it in Nehemiah when he shook his lap and said, “So God shake every man from his house that performeth not this promise.” There is a constellation of glories, not only in the character, but in the style of the Lord’s ministry.
J. G. Bellett