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"For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light." Mark 4:22
A prophetic scripture compendium (with cross references) expounded with
conservative Bible commentaries
(many more can be viewed on the downloadable pages on the opposite side of this page)
The following scriptures are given to encourage you to study the above holy writings from God's prophecies as found in His word.
"It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 13:11
"God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Corinthians 2:10
"Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which hath been kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: 27 To God the only wise, {be} glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen." Romans 16:25-27
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Psalm 30, LXX, Jerome's Version (from the "Online Bible") :
1 For the end, a Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David. I will exalt thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and not caused mine enemies to rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to thee, and thou didst heal me.
3 O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from Hades, thou hast delivered me from among them that go down to the pit.
4 Sing to the Lord, ye his saints, and give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.
5 For anger is in his wrath, but life in his favour: weeping shall tarry for the evening, but joy shall be in the morning.
6 � And I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.
7 O Lord, in thy good pleasure thou didst add strength to my beauty: but thou didst turn away thy face, and I was troubled.
8 To thee, O Lord, will I cry; and to my God will I make supplication.
9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to destruction? Shall the dust give praise to thee? or shall it declare thy truth?
10 The Lord heard, and had compassion upon me; the Lord is become my helper.
11 Thou hast turned my mourning into joy for me: thou hast rent off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
12that my glory may sing praise to thee, and I may not be pierced with sorrow. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever.
Psalm 30, LXX, Augustine's (3rd-4th century A. D.):
I will exalt Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast taken Me up
Thou hast not made Mine enemies to rejoice over Me.
O Lord, My God, I have cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed Me'
"O Lord, Thou hast brought back My Soul from hell, and Thou hast saved Me from them that go down into the pit
Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of His.
And make confession of the remembrance of His holiness
For in His indignation is wrath" . "And life in His will.
In the evening weeping will tarry. And exultation in the morning.
But I said in my abundance, I shall not be moved for ever"
O Lord, in Thy will Thou hast afforded strength unto my beauty
Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me, and I became troubled;
Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto my God will I pray
The Lord hath heard, and had mercy on Me, the Lord hath become My helper.
Thou hast turned My mourning into joy to Me" "Thou hast turned my mourning into joy to me. Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.
That my glory should sing unto Thee, and I should not be pricked"
O Lord, my God, I will confess unto Thee for ever.
Cross references:
Psalms 86:13, LXX (Thomson version) ; "For Thy mercy ot me hath been great; Thou hast delivered my soul from the deepest mansion of the dead.."
Psalms 16:10 LXX (Thomson version) ; "that Thou wilt not leave my soul in the mansion of the dead nor suffer Thine holy one to see corruption." [My ft]
[ft] "mansion of the dead" as Thomson translates in these two versus is from the greek "hades"
Acts 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also, my flesh shall rest in hope:
27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption:
28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou wilt make me full of joy with thy countenance."
Theodoret interprets it of the restoration of the human nature by Christ, through His resurrection from the dead."
John Gill; "...but joy [cometh] in the morning; alluding to the time when all nature is fresh and gay, when man rises cheerful from his rest, darkness removes, light breaks forth, and the sun rises and sheds its beams, and everything looks pleasant and delightful; moreover, the mercies of God are new every morning, which cause joy, and call for thankfulness; and especially it is a time of joy after weeping and darkness, when the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings; as it will be to perfection in the resurrection morn, when the dead in Christ will rise first, and be like to Him, and reign with Him for evermore."
Augustine's Exposition ; "PSALM 30
TO THE END, THE PSALM OF THE CANTICLE OF THE DEDICATION OF THE HOUSE, OF DAVID HIMSELF.
1. To the end, a Psalm of the joy of the Resurrection, and the change, the renewing of the body to an immortal state, and not only of the Lord, but also of the whole Church. For in the former Psalm the tabernacle was finished, wherein we dwell in the time of war: but now the house is dedicated, which will abide in peace everlasting.
2. It is then whole Christ who speaketh. "I will exalt Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast taken Me up"
(ver. 1). I will praise Thy high Majesty, O Lord, for Thou hast taken Me up. "Thou hast not made Mine enemies to rejoice over Me." And those, who have so often endeavoured to oppress Me with various persecutions throughout the world, Thou hast not made to rejoice over Me.
3. "O Lord, My God, I have cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed Me (ver. 2). O Lord, My God, I have cried unto Thee, and I no longer hear about a body enfeebled and sick by mortality.
4. "O Lord, Thou hast brought back My Soul from hell, and Thou hast saved Me from them that go down into the pit" (ver. 3).
Thou hast saved Me from the condition of profound darkness, and the lowest slough of corruptible flesh.
5. "Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of His." The prophet seeing these future things, rejoiceth, and saith, "Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of His. And make confession of the remembrance of His holiness" (ver. 4). And make confession to Him, that He hath not forgotten the sanctification, wherewith He hath sanctified you, although all this intermediate period belong to your desires.
6. "For in His indignation is wrath" (ver. 5).
For He hath avenged against you the first sin, for which you have paid by death. "And life in His will." And life eternal, whereunto you could not return by any strength of your own, hath He given, because He so would. "In the evening weeping will tarry." Evening began, when the light of wisdom withdrew from sinful man, when he was condemned to death: from this evening weeping will tarry, as long as God's people are, amid labours and temptations, awaiting the day of the Lord. "And exultation in the morning." Even to the morning, when there will be the exultation of the resurrection, which hath shone forth by anticipation in the morning resurrection of the Lord.
7. "But I said in my abundance, I shall not be moved for ever" (ver. 6). But I, that people which was speaking from the first, said in mine abundance, suffering now no more any want, "I shall not be moved for ever."
8. "O Lord, in Thy will Thou hast afforded strength unto my beauty" (ver. 7). But that this my abundance, O Lord, is not of myself, but that in Thy will Thou hast afforded strength unto my beauty, I have learnt from this, "Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me, and I became troubled;" for Thou hast sometimes turned away Thy Face from the sinner, and I became troubled, when the illumination of Thy knowledge withdrew from me.
9. "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto my God will I pray" (ver. 8). And bringing to mind that time of my trouble and misery, and as it were established therein, I hear the voice of Thy Firs-Begotten, my Head, about to die for me, and saying "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto My God will I pray."
10. "What profit" is there in the shedding of My blood, whilst I go down to corruption? "What profit" For if I shall not rise immediately, and My body shall become corrupt, "shall dust confess unto Thee?" that is, the crowd of the ungodly, whom I shall justify by My resurrection? "Or declare Thy truth?" Or for the salvation of the rest declare Thy truth ?
11. "The Lord hath heard, and had mercy on Me, the Lord hath become My helper." Nor did "He suffer His holy One to see corruption "[1] (ver. 10).
12. "Thou hast turned My mourning into joy to Me" (ver. 11). Whom I, the Church, having received, the First-Begotten from the dead,[2] now in the dedication of Thine house, say, "Thou hast turned my mourning into joy to me. Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness." Thou hast torn off the veil of my sins, the sadness of my mortality; and hast girded me with the first robe, with immortal gladness.
13. "That my glory should sing unto Thee, and I should not be pricked" (ver. 12). That now, not my humiliation, but my glory should not lament, but should sing unto Thee, for that now out of humiliation Thou hast exalted me; and that I should not be pricked with the consciousness of sin, with the fear of death, with the fear of judgment. "O Lord, my God, I will confess unto Thee for ever." And this is my glory, O Lord, my God, that I should confess unto Thee for ever, that I have nothing of myself, but that all my good is of Thee, who art "God, All in all."
George Horne Ver. 11. "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. This might be true of David, delivered from his calamity; it was true of Christ, arising from the tomb, to die no more; it is true of the penitent, exchanging his sackcloth for the garments of salvation; and it will be verified in all us, at the last day, when we shall put off the dishonours of the grave, to shine in glory everlasting."
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Isaiah 26:19 LXX (Thomson version) "The dead shall be raised up again, even they in the tombs shall be raised up: and they in this land shall be filled with joy: for the dew from thee is healing for them; but the land of the ungodly shall fall. "
Dead SeaScrolls(A) ; "But your dead ones shall live with My dead body they shall arise. They shall awake and sing O inhabitants of the dust. Because your dew is as the dew of light and the earth shall cast out the departed."
KJV Isaiah 26:19 " Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."
Cross references:
Matthew 27:52-53 "And the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints who slept, arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many.
Isaiah 25:8 Webster's Bible ; "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people will he remove from all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken {it}."
Isaiah 60:1-2 Dead Sea Scrolls ; " Rise, shine; for your light is come, the glory of YHWH is risen upon you. (2 .) For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations but He shall arise even YHWH will shine on you, and his glory upon you shall be seen."
Isaiah 60:1-2, LXX ; "Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 2 Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and there shall be gross darkness on the nations: but the Lord shall appear upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."
Psalm 110:3, LXX, (Thomson version) ; "With thee shall be the government; in the day of thy power-in the splendours of thy holies from the womb : before the morning star I begot thee."
This verse of prophecy supports the promise that Messiah's (ie. "My dead body") would be resurrected and that of particular note declared in the LXX as well as the Dead Sea Scroll text ; is that the "dew of light" shall fall on, as the Dead Sea Scrolls has it ; " your dead ones" that were to be cast out of the earth. (ft1)
[ft1] see Matthew 27: 52&53; "52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." This verse also shows the word-picture association of " dew" and "light" in prophecies of Christ's and our resurrection. The Vulgate (Douay-Rheims) and the Dead Sea Scrolls use this same imagery and the Douay- Rheims has it as ; "Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin."
Keil and Delitzsch ; "...there is born the gentle dew, which gives new life to the bones that have been sown in the ground..." and; "... The dew from the glory of God falls like a heavenly seed into the bosom of the earth..."
John Gill ; " Ver. 19. "[together with] my dead body shall they arise"; or, "arise my dead body"; the church, the mystical body of Christ, and every member of it, though they have been dead, shall arise, everyone of them, and make up that body, which is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, and that by virtue of their union to Him: there was a pledge and presage of this, when Christ rose from the dead, upon which the graves were opened, and many of the saints arose,... "(ft2 see Mt 27:51-53") [ft]
[ft] Matthew 27:51-53, vs.51 ; "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose
53 And came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many...."
as sure as Christ's dead body was raised, so sure shall everyone of His people be raised; Christ's resurrection is the pledge and earnest of theirs; because He lives, they shall live also; He is the First Fruits of them that slept: or as in like manner He was raised, so shall they; as He was raised incorruptible, powerful, spiritual, and glorious, and in the same body, so shall they; their vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body. This is one of the places in Scripture from whence the Jews [ft]
[ft] T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 90. 2, & Cetubot, fol. 111. 1. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 62. 3. Targum in loc. Elias Levita in his Tishbi, p. 109. says the word yti�l'ben> is never used in Scripture but of the carcass of a beast or fowl that is dead; and never of a man that is dead, but of him that dies not a natural death, excepting this place, which speaks of the resurrection of the dead;..."
John Gill ; " But the words are spoken of one who did not die a natural, but a violent death, even the Messiah Jesus; and so just according to the Rabbin's own observation."-
This is one of the places in Scripture from whence the Jews prove the resurrection of the dead; and which they apply to the times of the Messiah, and to the resurrection in His days.
"Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust"; this is a periphrasis ( evasion of speech) of the dead, of such as are brought to the dust of death, and sleep there; as death is expressed by sleeping, so the resurrection by awaking out of sleep; which will be brought about by the voice of Christ, which will be so loud and powerful, that the dead will hear it, and come out of their graves; and then will they "sing", and have reason for it, since they will awake in the likeness of Christ, and bear the image of Him the heavenly One: "for thy dew [is as] the dew of herbs"; the power of Christ will have as great effect upon, and as easily raise the dead, as the dew has upon the herbs, to refresh, raise, and revive them; so that their "bones", as the prophet says, "shall flourish like an herb", see Isaiah 66:14 [ft4]
[ft4]"When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, And your bones shall flourish like grass; The hand of the LORD shall be known to His servants, And His indignation to His enemies."
"and the earth shall cast out the dead"; deliver up the dead that are in it, at the all powerful voice of Christ; see "see Rev. 20:13". The Targum is, "but the wicked to whom thou hast given power, and they have transgressed thy word, thou wilt deliver into hell;" see "Revelation 20:14,15".( for the demise of the ungodly that are not found in the " Book of Life")
Ireanaus ; " 1. Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him a second birth after his dissolution into earth, Esaias thus declares: "The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is from Thee is health to them." and again (Isaiah 66:14): "I will comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem: and ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish as the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to those who worship Him.And Ezekiel speaks as follows: "And the hand of the LORD came upon me, and the LORD led me forth in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones.
And He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were many upon the surface of the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, Thou who hast made them dost know. And He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and thou shalt say to them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD to these bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I will stretch skin upon you, and will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. And I prophesied as the Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass, when I was prophesying, that, behold, an earthquake, and the bones were drawn together, each one to its own articulation: and I beheld, and, lo, the sinews and flesh were produced upon them, and the skins rose upon them round about, but there was no breath in them. And He said unto me, 'Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, These things saith the LORD, Come from the four winds (spiritibus), and breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I prophesied as the Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into them; and they did live, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great gathering.' " And again he says, "Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will set your graves open, and cause you to come out of our graves, and bring you into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall open your sepulchers, that I may bring my people again out of the sepulchers: and I will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live; and I will place you in your land, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. I have said, and I will do, saith the LORD." As we at once perceive that the Creator (Demiurgo) is in this passage represented as vivifying our dead bodies, and promising resurrection to them, and resuscitation from their sepulchers and tombs, conferring upon them immortality also (He says, "For as the tree of life, so shall their days be"),
Matthew Henry ; "...as the spring-dews, that water the earth, and make the herbs that lay buried in it to put forth and bud, so shall they flourish again, and the earth shall cast out the dead, as it casts the herbs out of their roots. The earth, in which they seemed to be lost, shall contribute to their revival. When the church and her interests are to be restored neither the dew of heaven nor the fatness of the earth shall be wanting to do their part towards the restoration. Now this (as Ezekiel's vision, which is a comment upon it) may be fitly accommodated, (1.) To the spiritual resurrection of those that were dead in sin, by the power of Christ's gospel and grace. So Dr. Lightfoot applies it, ... in John 12.24. [my ft]
[ft] John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
" 'The Gentiles shall live; with My body shall they arise'; that is, they shall be called in after Christ's resurrection, shall rise with Him, and sit with Him in heavenly places; nay, they shall arise My body (says he); they shall become the mystical body of Christ, and shall arise as part of Him." (2.) To the last resurrection, when dead saints shall live, and rise together with Christ's dead body; for He arose as the First-Fruits, and believers shall arise by virtue of their union with Him and their communion in His resurrection.
He is shown to be the only God who accomplishes these things, and as Himself the good Father, benevolently conferring life upon those who have not life from themselves."
E.J. Young ; " What man has lost, God can restore. His purposes will be carried out, irrespective of what man may say or do. The verse thus constitutes a glorious declaration of triumph; more than that, it is also a prayer directed to God Himself. Those who have died are His; for that reason they shall live."'
From Adam Clarke's Commentary; "Kimchi refers these words to the days of the Messiah, and says, "Then many of the saints shall rise from the dead. " And quotes Daniel 12:2. Do not these words speak of the resurrection of our blessed Lord; and of that resurrection of the bodies of men, which shall be the consequence of his body being raised from the dead?" and "The dew of herbs "The dew of the dawn"- Lucis, according to the Vulgate; so also the Syriac and Chaldee."
Benjamin Keach ; "In the world to come , and resurrection from the dead, Isaiah 26:19, ?Thy dew is as the dew of herbs.' This is an acclaimation of God, whose gracious power and most powerful grace which He exercises in the resurrection of believers is called dew, and compared to the dew that falls upon herbs : as if He had said, as the dew of heaven refreshes and raises up those herbs which were, as it were, dead and withered because of the sun's heat so thy power, O God, shall raise up and make Thy dead to live, &c. For the connection of the whole verse, and propriety of the words, show that the resurrection of the dead is here treated of."
Adam Clarke ; ".Do not these words speak of the resurrection of our Blessed Lord; and of that resurrection of the bodies of men, which shall be the consequence of His body being raised from the dead ?"
2000+ yr. old Date seeds from Israel were carefully nurtured to produce the plant seen above. Seeds are word pictures of resurrection from the dead.
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Isaiah 61:10-11 LXX ; "And they shall rejoice in the Lord with joy.
Rejoice in the Lord, O my soul, for He hath clothed me with the mantle of Salvation, and with a coat of gladness, He hath crowned me as a bridegroom with a crown and adorned me as a bride, with jewels, and like the earth blooming with flowers. And as a garden causeth its seeds to vegetate, so will the Lord God cause Righteousness to spring up, and joy, in the presence of all nations."[my ft]
[ft] I capitalized Righteousness as I believe this refers to Christ Himself who sprang up from the garden tomb; Who is our righteousness. see Jeremiah 23:6 "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety: and this is his name by which he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." The word "coat" (or tunic) is as it is translated in the New Testament rather than "undergarment" as Thomson has.
Isaiah 61:10-11 AV/MT ; " I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations" [my ft]
[ft] Dead Sea Scroll (DSS) Qumran ; (10.) "I will greatly rejoice in YHWH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; because he clothed me with the garments of salvation, with the robe of righteousness he wrapped me, as a bridegroom beautifies himself like a priest, and as a bride puts on her jewels. (11.) because as the earth puts out her branch, and as the garden causes her seeds to spring up; so the YHWH God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up in the presence of all the Gentiles."
Psalm 85:11-13 LXX "Truth has sprung out of the earth; and righteousness has looked down from heaven. For the Lord will give goodness; and our land shall yield her fruit. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set his steps in the way."
John 12:23-24 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:"
Psalm 19:1-5 LXX "For the end, a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day to day utters speech, and night to night proclaims knowledge. 3 There are no speeches or words, in which their voices are not heard. 4 Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 5 In the sun he has set his tabernacle; and he comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber: he will exult as a giant to run his course."
Psalm 93:1-2 LXX "For the day before the Sabbath, when the land was first inhabited, the praise of a Song by David. The Lord reigns; he has clothed himself with honour: the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength; for he has established the world, which shall not be moved."
Revelation 1:13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band."
Revelation 19:12-16 : vs.12 "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."
Revelation 1:13 And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden band.
".He hath clothed me with the mantle of Salvation" Christ is the Righteousness of God and need not be clothed with righteousness and salvation, (or as the LXX "put on the mantle of salvation") and as Jesu (Jeshua) He is God's Salvation; nevertheless He had became "sin for us" therefore after the resurrection He was glorified. Now He bestows His righteousness to us and salvation. He is now seen in heaven with His ".vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." And "...clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden band." He is now ".clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, with which he hath girded himself:" (see Psalm 93:1) T. Mc.
A.B. Simpson ; " Christ, the Second Adam, is represented in type in the first head of humanity. From one father all the generations of earth have sprung, inheriting his curse and transmitted nature and depravity, by virtue of their oneness wih him in blood and birth. So Christ, the Second Adam, has also His spiritual seed and offspring, and by virtue of their union with Him they share His high place of acceptance and sonship, and partake in all the benefits of His obedience and satisfaction to the claims of justice. We were recognized in Him when He died and rose again. We were born out of Him in our regeneration. And we share with Him all His rights and destinies. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive" ( 1 Corinthians 15:22). This does not mean that all men shall be made alive in Christ, but 'all men who are in Christ' shall be made alive."
Matthew Henry ; " v. 11. It is not like a day of triumph, which is glorious for the present, but is soon over. No; the righteousness and salvation with which the church is clothed are durable clothing; so they are said to be, ch. 23:18. The church, when she is pleasing herself with the righteousness and salvation that Jesus Christ has clothed her with, rejoices to think that these inestimable blessings shall both spring for future ages and spread to distant regions. (1.) They shall spring forth for ages to come, as the fruits of the earth which are produced very year, from generation to generation. As the earth, even that which lies common, brings forth her bud, the tender grass at the return of the year, and as the garden enclosed causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth in their season, so duly, so constantly, so powerfully, and with such advantage to mankind will the Lord God cause righteousness and praise to spring forth, by virtue of the covenant of grace, as, in the former case, by virtue of the covenant of providence. See what the promised blessings are- righteousness and praise (for those that are clothed with righteousness show forth the praises of him that clothed them); these shall spring forth under the influence of the dew of divine grace. Though it may sometimes be winter with the church, when those blessings seem to wither and do not appear, yet the root of them is fixed, a spring-time will come, when through the reviving beams of the approaching Sun of righteousness they shall flourish again. (2.) They shall spread far, and spring forth before all the nations; the great salvation shall be published and proclaimed to all the world and the ends of the earth shall see it."
Albert Barnes : For as the earth bringeth forth- This figure is several times used by the prophet (see the notes at Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 55:10-11). The idea is an exceedingly beautiful one, that, on the coming of the Messiah, truth and righteousness would spring up and abound like grass and fruits in the vegetable world when the earth is watered with rain.
Her bud - The word "bud" we now apply usually to the small bunch or protuberance on the branches of a plant, containing the rudiments of the future leaf or flower. The Hebrew word, however, ( xm;c, tsemach ), rather means the germ, the shoot, or the young and tender plant as it comes up from the earth; that which first appears from the seed."
W. Clarkson (Pulpit Commentary) ; "As the well-cultivated garden has in it living forces which will show themselves in fairest flowers and richest fruits, so has the Lord our God in himself all the wisdom, grace, and power which will be manifest in righteousness and praise, springing forth in the sight of all the nations."
Hosea 13:14 LXX quote from an early church "father' Lactantius " and I will redeem Him from the power of the grave. Where is thy judgment, O death? or where is thy sting?" [my ft]
[ft] Lactantius has the following for verse 13 ; "This my Son is wise, therefore He will not remain in the anguish of His sons."
Apostolic LXX (quoted by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:54b, last part of the verse, and vs. 55) : Vs. 55 "O death, where {is} thy sting? O grave, where {is} thy victory?"
Cross references:
Psalm 49:15 LXX "But God shall deliver my soul from the power of Hades, when he shall receive me."
Luke 11:21-22 "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22 But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour in which he trusted, and divideth his spoils."
Philippians 2:8-9 "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:"
Lactantius ; "But since He had foretold that on the third day He should rise again from the dead, fearing lest, the body having been stolen by the disciples, and removed, all should believe that He had risen, and there should be a much greater disturbance among the people, they took Him down from the cross, and having shut Him up in a tomb, they securely surrounded it with a guard of soldiers. But on the third day, before light, there was an earthquake, and the sepulchre was suddenly opened; and the guard, who were astonished and stupefied with fear, seeing nothing, He came forth uninjured and alive from the sepulchre, and went into Galilee to seek His disciples: but nothing was found in the sepulchre except the grave-clothes in which they haft enclosed and wrapt His body. Now, that He would not remain in hell,(5) but rise again on the third day, had been foretold by the prophets. David says, in the fifteenth Psalm:(6) "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption." Also in the third Psalm:(7) "I laid me down to sleep, and took my rest, and rose again, for the Lord sustained me." Hosea also, the first of the twelve prophets, testified of His resurrection:(8) "This my Son is wise, therefore He will not remain in the anguish of His sons: and I will redeem Him from the power(9) of the grave. Where is thy judgment, O death? or where is thy sting?" The same also in another place:(10) "After two days, He will revive us in the third day." And therefore the Sibyl said, that after three days' sleep he would put an end to death:--
"And after sleeping three days, He shall put an end to the fate of death;and then, releasing Himself from the dead, He shall come to light, first showing to the called ones the beginning of the resurrection."
John Gill ; - I will ransom them from the power of the grave,.... That is, "when" or "at which time" before spoken of, and here understood, as the above interpreter rightly connects the words, "I will" do this and what follows:
I will redeem them from death; these are the words, not of Jehovah the Father, as in Hosea 1:7; but of the Son, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt, which was a typical redemption, Hos_13:4; in whom is the help of his people laid and found, Hos_13:9; the Word of the Lord, as the Targum; who is the true God, the mighty God, and so equal to this work of redemption and who is also the near kinsman of the redeemed as one of the words here used implies, and so to him belonged the right of redemption: the persons redeemed are not Israel after the flesh, but spiritual Israel, whether Jews or Gentiles; a special and peculiar people, chosen of God, and precious, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; and who, in their nature state, are under sin, in bondage to it, and liable to the curse of the law, the wrath of God, hell and damnation; which are meant by the "grave" and "death", and so needed a Redeemer to ransom them: for the word for "grace" should be rendered "hell" .., as it often is; and "death" intends not corporeal one only, but eternal death, or the second death; and both signify the wrath of God due to sin, and which God's elect are deserving of, and Christ has bore, and delivered them from; and the curse of the law, which he has redeemed them from, being made a curse for them; and eternal death, the equivalent to which he has suffered, and so has saved them from it, and all this by redeeming them from their sins, the cause of it; and which he has done by giving a redemption or ransom price, which is his blood, his life, yea, himself, and which the first of the words here used imports. It is indeed true, that, in consequence of all this, there will be a redemption by him from a corporeal death, and from the grave; not as yet, for the ransomed of the Lord die as others, and are laid in the grave, the house appointed for all living; but in the resurrection morn there will be a redemption, a deliverance of the bodies of the saints from the grave, from mortality and corruption; yea, of them from the moral corruption of sin, and all the defilements of it, as well as from all afflictions and diseases, and from death itself, which shall have no more dominion over them; to which purpose the words are applied by the apostle; See Gill on 1Cor._15:55; and so by some ancient Jews to the Messiah, and his times; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; that is, the utter destruction of them for the plague or pestilence is a wasting destruction, Psa_91:6; it is the same which in New Testament language is the abolishing of death, 2Ti_1:10; which is true of eternal death with respect to the redeemed, which Christ's death is the death of, he having by his death reconciled them to God, and opened the way to eternal life for them, which he has in his hands to give unto them; and of corporeal death and the grave, which Christ has utterly destroyed with respect to himself having loosed the builds of death, and set himself free, and on whom that shall have no more dominion; and, with respect to his pie, he has destroyed him that had the power of it, which is the devil; he has put away and abolished sin, the cause of it; he has took away that which is its sting; so that it may be truly said, as the apostle quotes these words, "O death, where is thy sting?" he has removed the curse from it, and made it a blessing; he has abolished it as a penal evil, so theft it is not inflicted as a punishment on his people; and in the last day will entirely deliver them from the power of that, and of the grave; and then that which has slain its millions and millions, a number not to be numbered, will never slay one more: and that grave, which devoured as many, will never be opened more, or one more put into it; and then it may be said, "O grave, where is thy victory?" thou shall conquer no more, but be at an end; see 1Cor._15:55
Matthew Henry on 1 Cor.15:55; "O death! where is thy sting?" Where is now thy sting, thy power to hurt? What mischief hast thou done us? We are dead; but behold we live again, and shall die no more. Thou art vanquished and disarmed, and we are out of the reach of thy deadly dart. Where now is thy fatal artillery? Where are thy stores of death? We fear no further mischiefs from thee, nor heed thy weapons, but defy thy power, and despise thy wrath. And, O grave! where is thy victory? Where now is thy victory? What has become of it? Where are the spoils and trophies of it? Once we were thy prisoners, but the prison-doors are burst open, the locks and bolts have been forced to give way, our shackles are knocked off, and we are for ever released. Captivity is taken captive
2. The foundation for this triumph is here intimated, (1.) In the account given whence death had its power to hurt: The sting of death is sin. This gives venom to his dart: this alone puts it into the power of death to hurt and kill. Sin unpardoned, and nothing else, can keep any under his power. And the strength of sin is the law; it is the divine threatening against the transgressors of the law, the curse there denounced, that gives power to sin. Note, Sin is the parent of death, and gives it all its hurtful power. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, Romans 5:12. It is its cursed progeny and offspring. (2.) In the account given of the victory saints obtain over it through Jesus Christ, 1Corinthians 15:56. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting. He has made atonement for sin; he has obtained remission of it. It may hiss therefore, but it cannot hurt. The strength of sin is the law; but the curse of the law is removed by our Redeemer's becoming a curse for us. So that sin is deprived of its strength and sting, through Christ, that is, by his incarnation, suffering, and death. Death may seize a believer, but cannot sting him, cannot hold him in his power. There is a day coming when the grave shall open, the bands of death be loosed, the dead saints revive, and become incorruptible and immortal, and put out of the reach of death for ever. And then will it plainly appear that, as to them, death will have lost its strength and sting; and all by the mediation of Christ, by his dying in their room. By dying, he conquered death, and spoiled the grave; and, through faith in him, believers become sharers in his conquests. They often rejoice beforehand, in the hope of this victory; and, when they arise glorious from the grave, they will boldly triumph over death. Note, It is altogether owing to the grace of God in Christ that sin is pardoned and death disarmed. The law puts arms into the hand of death, to destroy the sinner; but pardon of sin takes away this power from the law, and deprives death of its strength and sting. It is by the grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, that we are freely justified, Rom_3:24. It is no wonder, therefore, (3.) If this triumph of the saints over death should issue in thanksgiving to God: Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord, 1Co_15:57. The way to sanctify all our joy is to make it tributary to the praise of God. Then only do we enjoy our blessings and honours in a holy manner when God has his revenue of glory out of it, and we are free to pay it to him. And this really improves and exalts our satisfaction. We are conscious at once of having done our duty and enjoyed our pleasure. And what can be more joyous in itself than the saints' triumph over death, when they shall rise again? And shall they not then rejoice in the Lord, and be glad in the God of their salvation? Shall not their souls magnify the Lord? When he shows such wonders to the dead, shall they not arise and praise him? Psa_88:10. Those who remain under the power of death can have no heart to praise; but such conquests and triumphs will certainly tune the tongues of the saints to thankfulness and praise - praise for the victory (it is great and glorious in itself), and for the means whereby it is obtained (it is given of God through Christ Jesus), a victory obtained not by our power, but the power of God; not given because we are worthy, but because Christ is so, and has by dying obtained this conquest for us. Must not this circumstance endear the victory to us, and heighten our praise to God? Note, How many springs of joy to the saints and thanksgiving to God are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests, of our Redeemer! With what acclamations will saints rising from the dead applaud him! How will the heaven of heavens resound his praises for ever! Thanks be to God will be the burden of their song; and angels will join the chorus, and declare their consent with a loud Amen, Hallelujah."
Keil and Delitzsch ; "...The Apostle Paul has therefore very properly quoted these words in 1Co_15:55, in combination with the declaration in Isaiah 25:8, "Death is swallowed up in victory," to confirm the truth, that at the resurrection of the last day, death will be annihilated, and that which is corruptible changed into immortality..."
2000+ yr. old Date seeds from Israel were carefully nurtured to produce the plant seen above. Seeds are word pictures of resurrection from the dead.
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Prophecies of the Exaltation of
the Yeshua or Jesus the Messiah or Christ
Samples from the main study
Including His session at the Father's Right Hand as Priest and King
as well as His Return to judge the living and the dead.
John 12:16 "These things His disciples understood not at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written concerning Him, and that they had done these things to Him."
Psalm 110:1-7, LXX (Thomson version) vs.1 ; "The Lord said to my lord; sit at My right hand; till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Vs 2 Out of Sion the Lord will send thee a rod of power : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.
Vs.3 With thee shall be the government ; in the day of thy power-in the splendours of thy holies from the womb: before the morning star I begot thee.
Vs.4 The Lord hath sworn and will not change : thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek.
Vs. 5 The Lord at thy right hand hath crushed kings in the day of His wrath.
Vs. 6 He will judge among the nations : He will multiply slaughters : He will crush the heads of many on earth.
Vs.7 He will drink of the brook in the way. Therefore he will lift up his head.
Justin Martyr has for verse 3 ; "With Thee shall be, in the day, the Chief of Thy Power, in the beauties of Thy saints. From the womb before the morning star, have I begotten Thee." (this verse,3, expounded separately, see below)
Cross references :
Isaiah 9:2-3 Septuagint (Vaticanus) ; "The multitude of the people, whom Thou hast brought back in Thy joy, they shall rejoice in Thy presence, like them who rejoice in the harvest, and like them who are dividing spoils;"
Matthew 22: 41-45 ; va.41 "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
45 If David then call Him Lord, how is He His son?"
Psalm 2:4 "4 He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and the Lord shall mock them.
5 Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his fury.
6 But I have been made king by him on Sion his holy mountain,
7 declaring the ordinance of the Lord: the Lord said to me, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel.
10 Now therefore understand, ye kings: be instructed, all ye that judge the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in him with trembling.
12 Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye should perish from the righteous way: whensoever his wrath shall be suddenly kindled, blessed are all they that trust in him."
Mark 16:19 "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God."
Ephesians 1:18-23, vs. 18 "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
1 Peter 3:22 "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."
Psalm 45:6-11, vs 6 ; "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.
7 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy fellows.
8 Myrrh, and stacte, and cassia are exhaled from thy garments, and out of the ivory palaces,
9 with which kings' daughters have gladdened thee for thine honour: the queen stood by on thy right hand, clothed in vesture wrought with gold, and arrayed in divers colours.
10 Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father's house.
11 Because the king has desired thy beauty; for he is thy Lord."
1Corinthians 15:24-28, 24 "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."
Hebrews 1:1-14,vs. 1 ; "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall beheirs of salvation?"
Hebrews 10:12-21, vs.12 "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
21 And having an high priest over the house of God;"
Justin Martyr ; "...that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him from the dead, and would keep Him there until He has subdued His enemies the devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him as good and virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the consummation--hear what was said by the prophet David. These are his words: "The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem; and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. With Thee is the government in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy saints: from the womb of morning have I begotten Thee."
Augustine ; ... We know that Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father, since His resurrection from the dead, and ascent into heaven. It is already done: we saw not it, but we have believed it: we have read it in the Scripture, have heard it preached, and hold it by faith. So that by the very circumstance that Christ was David's Son, He became His Lord also. For That which was born of the seed of David was so honoured, that It was also the Lord of David. Thou wonderest at this, as if the same did not happen in human affairs. For if it should happen, that the son of any private person be made a king, will he not be his father's lord?"
and again ; "Christ, therefore, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Son is on the right hand of the Father, hidden from us. Let us believe. Two things are here said: that God said, "Sit Thou on My right hand;" and added, "until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool;" that is, beneath Thy feet. Thou dost not see Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father: yet thou canst see this, how His enemies are made His footstool. While the latter is fulfilled openly, believe the former to be fulfilled secretly. What enemies are made His footstool? Those to whom imagining vain things it is said, "Why do the heathen so furiously rage together: and why do the people imagine a vain thing?" etc.(1) ... He therefore sitteth at the right hand of God, till His enemies be placed beneath His feet. This is going on, this is taking place: although it is accomplished by degrees, it is going on without end. For though the heathen rage, will they, taking counsel together against Christ, prevent the fulfilment of these words: "I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession"? ... "Their memorial is perished with a cry;" but, "The Lord shall endure for ever:"(2) as another Psalm, but not another Spirit, saith.
5. And what followeth? "The Lord shall send the rod of Thy power out of Sion" (ver. 2). It appeareth, brethren, it most clearly appeareth, that the Prophet is not speaking of that kingdom of Christ, in which He reigneth for ever with His Father, Ruler of the things which are made through Him: for when doth not God the Word reign, who is in the beginning with God? For it is said," Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever." To what eternal King? To one invisible, incorruptible. For in this, that Christ is with the Father, invisible and incorruptible, because He is His Word, and His Power, and His Wisdom, and God with God, through whom all things were made; He is "King eternal;" but, nevertheless, that reign of temporal government, by which, through the mediation of His flesh, He called us into eternity, beginneth with Christians; but of His reign there shall be no end. His enemies therefore are made His footstool, while He is sitting on the right hand of His Father, as it is written; this is now going on, this will go on unto the end. ..."
Matthew Henry ; "This psalm is pure gospel; it is only, and wholly, concerning Christ, the Messiah promised to the fathers and expected by them. It is plain that the Jews of old, even the worst of them, so understood it, however the modern Jews have endeavoured to pervert it and to rob us of it; for when the Lord Jesus proposed a question to the Pharisees upon the first words of this psalm, where he takes it for granted that David, in spirit, calls Christ his Lord though he was his Son, they chose rather to say nothing, and to own themselves gravelled, than to make it a question whether David does indeed speak of the Messiah or no; for they freely yield so plain a truth, though they foresee it will turn to their own disgrace, [ see my ft]
[ft1] Mt. 22:41-46 "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 'The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.' 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."
Psalm 110:3 LXX (Thomson version);"With thee shall be the government; in the day of thy power-in the splendours of thy holies from the womb : before the morning star I begot thee."
Cross references:
Psalm 110:4 "The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec."
Isaiah 49:5, LXX (Thomson version) ; " And now, thus saith the Lord, Who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to gather Jacob to Him, and Israel. I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord. And My God shall be My strength." Dead Sea Scroll : " And now says YHWH Who formed You from the womb to serve Him, to return Jacob to Him, and to gather Israel to Him, and I shall be glorious in the eyes of YHWH, and My God shall be My Strength."
Job 11:17 LXX "And thy prayer shall be as the morning star, and life shall arise to thee as from the noonday."
Job 38:12-13 LXX "Or did I order the morning light in thy time; and did the morning star then first see his appointed place; 13 to lay hold of the extremities of the earth, to cast out the ungodly out of it?"
Edersheim ; " This whole psalm has in it the following revelations ; Christ's resurrection, ascension, eternal priesthood, exaltation to rule on His throne, and His inheritance as conquerer over all of His enemies. As the "crown of the psalms", Luther said 'it is worthy to be overlaid with precious jewels, and verse 5 a "well-spring, nay, a treasury of all Christian doctrines, understanding, wisdom, and comfort, richer and fuller than any other passage of Holy Writ.'
This psalm was termed by ancients the 'sun of our faith', the treasury of holy writ, as Augustine says, 'short in words, but in sense infinite.' "
John Prideaux says : 'For He cometh forth as 'heir apparent' of the Almighty, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.' "
Augustine; "...For unto this wast Thou born from the womb before the morning star, that Thou mightest be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec.".
Albert Barnes; "...The Septuagint renders it, "With thee is the beginning in the day of thy power, in the splendor of thy saints, from the womb, before the light of the morning have I begotten thee." So the Latin Vulgate. Luther renders it, "After thy victory shall thy people willingly bring an offering to thee, in holy adorning: thy children shall be born to thee as the dew of the morning." DeWette, "Willingly shall thy people show themselves to thee on the day of the assembling of thy host in holy adorning, as from the womb of the morning, thy youth (vigor) shall be as the dew." Prof. Alexander, "Thy people (are) free-will offerings in the day of thy power, in holy decorations, from the womb of the dawn, to thee (is) the dew of thy youth." Every clause of the verse is obscure, though the "general" idea is not difficult to perceive; that, in the day of Messiah's power, his people would willingly offer themselves to him, in holy robes or adorning, like the glittering dew of the morning; or, in numbers that might be compared with the drops of the morning dew."
Spurgeon ; "...Some refer this passage to the resurrection, but even if it be so, the work of grace in regeneration is equally well described by it, for it is a spiritual resurrection. Even as the holy dead rise gladly into the lovely image of their Lord, so do quickened souls put on the glorious righteousness of Christ, and stand forth to behold their Lord and serve him. How truly beautiful is holiness! God himself admires it. How wonderful also is the eternal youth of the mystical body of Christ. As the dew is new every morning, so is there a constant succession of converts to give to the church perpetual juvenility. Her young men have a dew from the Lord upon them, and arouse in her armies an undying enthusiasm for him whose "locks are bushy and black as a raven" with unfailing youth. Since Jesus ever lives, so shall his church ever flourish. As his strength never faileth, so shall the vigour of his true people be renewed day by day. As he is a Priest-King, so are his people all priests and kings, and the beauties of holiness are their priestly dress, their garments for glory and for beauty: of these priests unto God there shall be an unbroken succession. The realisation of this day of power during the time of the Lord's tarrying is that which we should constantly pray for; and we may legitimately expect it since he ever sits in the seat of honour and power, and puts forth his strength, according to his own word, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
"Thy people, etc. " 'In homage, they shall be like a company of priests in sacred vestments, for they shall appear "in the beauties of holiness". In number, they shall be like the countless dewdrops "from the womb of the morning", sparkling in the rays of the rising sun, and reflecting his radiance. In glory they shall bear the likeness of Christ's resurrection in all its vernal freshness: "Thou hast the dew of thy youth" Benjamin Wildon Cart (quoted by Spurgeon)
Keil and Delitzsch ; "...David here hears that the king of the future exalted at the right hand of God, and whom he calls his Lord, is at the same time an eternal priest. And because he is both these his battle itself is a priestly royal work, and just on this account his people fighting with him also wear priestly garments."
Psalms 110:4 Spurgeon "...he that reads with understanding will see little enough of David here except as the writer. He is not the subject of it even in the smallest degree, but Christ is all. How much was revealed to the patriarch David! How blind are some modern wise men, even amid the present blaze of light, as compared with this poet prophet of the darker dispensation."
"...None of the kings of Israel united these two offices, though some endeavoured to do so. Although David performed some acts which appeared to verge upon the priestly, yet he was no priest, but of the tribe of Judah, 'of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood'; and he was far too devout a man to thrust himself into that office uncalled. The Priest King here spoken of is David's Lord, a mysterious personage typified by Melchizedek, and looked for by the Jews as the Messiah. He is none other than the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. The Psalm describes the appointment of the kingly priest, his followers, his battles, and his victory."
Spurgeon on Ver. 4. "The Lord hath sworn and will not change : thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek". "...We have now reached the heart of the psalm, which is also the very centre and soul of our faith. Our Lord Jesus is a Priest King by the ancient oath of Jehovah: "he glorified not himself to be made an high priest, "but was ordained there unto from of old, and was called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. It must be a solemn and a sure matter which leads the Eternal to swear, and with him an oath fixes and settles the decree for ever; but in this case, as if to make assurance a thousand times sure, it is added, " and will not repent." It is done, and done for ever and ever; Jesus is sworn in to be the priest of his people, and he must abide so even to the end, because his commission is sealed by the unchanging oath of the immutable Jehovah. If his priesthood could be revoked, and his authority removed, it would be the end of all hope and life for the people whom he loves; but this sure rock is the basis of our security -the oath of God establishes our glorious Lord both in his priesthood and in his throne. It is the Lord who has constituted him a priest for ever, he has done it by oath, that oath is without repentance, is taking effect now, and will stand throughout all ages: hence our security in him is placed beyond all question.
The declaration runs in the present tense as being the only time with the Lord, and comprehending all other times. "Thou art, "i.e., thou wast and art and art to come, in all ages a priestly King. The order of Melchizedek's priesthood was the most ancient and primitive, the most free from ritual and ceremony, the most natural and simple, and at the same time the most honourable.
That ancient patriarch was the father of his people, and at the same time ruled and taught them; he swayed both the sceptre and the censer, reigned in righteousness, and offered sacrifice before the Lord. There has never arisen another like to him since his days, for whenever the kings of Judah attempted to seize the sacerdotal office they were driven back to their confusion: God would have no king priest save (except) His Son. Melchizedek's office was exceptional; none preceded or succeeded him; he comes upon the page of history mysteriously; no pedigree is given, no date of birth, or mention of death; he blesses Abraham, receives tithe and vanishes from the scene amid honours which show that he was greater than the founder of the chosen nation. He is seen but once, and that once suffices. Aaron and his seed came and went; their imperfect sacrifice continued for many generations, because it had no finality in it, and could never make the comers thereunto perfect. Our Lord Jesus, like Melchizedek, stands forth before us as a priest of divine ordaining; not made a priest by fleshly birth, as the sons of Aaron: he mentions neither father, mother, nor descent, as his right to the sacred office; he stands upon his personal merits, by himself alone; as no man came before him in his work, so none can follow after; his order begins and ends in his own person, and in himself it is eternal, "having neither beginning of days nor end of years The King Priest has been here and left his blessing upon the believing, and now he sits in glory in his complete character, bestowing for us by the merit of his blood, and exercising all power on our behalf."
see the CD ROM for the remainder of the exposition
2000+ yr. old Date seeds from Israel were carefully nurtured to produce the plant seen above. Seeds are word pictures of resurrection from the dead.
link to this site at: http://www.hadassah.org.il/English/Eng_SubNavBar/Departments/Clinics+and+Institutes/Natural+Medicine+Research+Unit/Germinating+Ancient+Seeds/default.htm
click on the above or copy and paste the entire link above to go to the site in Israel
click on this video link (below) to see how nicely the 2000 yr. old seed-to-plant is growing and the high security surrounding it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NY3rG_0tlA
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Psalm 118:22-24, LXX; "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.
vs.23 This has been done of the Lord: and it is wonderful in our eyes.
vs.24 This is the day which the Lord has made: let us exult and rejoice in it"
cross-references:
Zechariah 4:7, LXX ; "Who art thou, to complete this great mountain before Zorobabel, that thou shouldest prosper? whereas I will bring out the stone of the inheritance, the grace of it the equal of my grace." [my ft]
[ft] Matthew Henry ; "Christ is our Zerubbabel; mountains of difficulty were in the way of his undertaking, but nothing is too hard for him. What comes from the grace of God, may, in faith, be committed to the grace of God, for he will not forsake the work of his own hands."
Matthew 21:42 "Jesus said unto them, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures? 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.'"
Mark 12:10 "And have ye not read this Scripture? 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner;"
Luke 20:17 -18 "And He beheld them and said, "What is this then that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner'?"
Vs.18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." [my ft]
[ft] the stone that was to be broken would in due time 'grind him into powder'. This is a prophecy of Christ's exaltation as He could only accomplish this after His resurrection
Acts 4:11 " This is 'the stone which was set at nought by you builders and which has become the head of the corner.' "
Ephesians 2:20 "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,"
Ephesians 2:21 "in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord."
Ephesians 2:22 "In Him ye also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit."
1 Peter 2:4-7 "Coming to Him as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,"
vs.5 "ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
Vs.6 "Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture: "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he that believeth in Him shall not be confounded."
Vs.7 " Unto you therefore who believe, He is precious; but unto those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,"
Adam Clarke ; "This passage, as applied by our Lord to himself, contains an abridgment of the whole doctrine of the Gospel.
1. The Lord's peculiar work is astonishingly manifested in the mission of Jesus Christ.
2. He, being rejected and crucified by the Jews, became an atonement for the sin of the world.
3. He was raised again from the dead, a proof of his conquest over death and sin, and a pledge of immortality to his followers.
4. He was constituted the foundation on which the salvation of mankind rests, and the corner stone which unites Jews and Gentiles, beautifies, strengthens, and completes the whole building, as the head stone, or uppermost stone in the corner does the whole edifice.
5. He is hereby rendered the object of the joy and admiration of all his followers and the glory of man. This was done by the Lord, and is marvellous in our eyes."
Matthew Henry ; "...it was God himself that highly exalted him, and gave him a name above every name; and it is marvellous in our eyes."
Spurgeon; " ...As for those who reject him, we hear with trembling these words from the lips of the loving Jesus: but those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."
"...With great delight I now pass to the second topic, which is CHRIST EXALTED- 'The Stone which the builders refused is become the Head Stone of the corner'-that is to say, at this moment Christ has the chief place of honor in the building of God. He is the Head Stone, for He is higher than the kings of the earth: He is higher than all the opposing powers of wisdom or of superstition; and He is the Head over all things to His church. Glory be to His name, in the midst of His people He is above all and over all: we worship Him with rapture. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, 'for by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him,.' There is none like Him among the sons of men; in all things He has the pre-eminence. He that was crucified is now enthroned; He that lay in the grave now reigneth in glory. Nor is He alone eminent for His position of honor, but for His surpassing usefulness. He is the Head Stone of the corner, that Stone which joins two walls together, and is the bond of the building. Jew and Gentile are now one in Christ Jesus. It is true He is a stone in Israel's wall, but He is also a Stone in the Gentile's wall in Him is neither Jew nor Gentile distinctively, for they are both there inclusively. He hath made both one. The Pharisees would have it that the wall should finish within the line of Judah's race, but not so thought our Master. His heart went forth to the other sheep which he had that were not yet of the fold. This made them wrathful, but their wrath did not prevent His accomplishing His design, and now He is the bond of the building, holding Jew and Gentile in firm unity. This precious Corner Stone binds God and man together in wondrous amity, for He is both in one. He joins earth and heaven together, for He participates in each. He joins time and eternity together, for He was a man of few years, and yet He is the Ancient of Days. Wondrous Corner Stone! Thou dost bind all of us together who are in Thee, so that by love of thee we are builded together for a temple of the Holy Ghost. Thou art the perfect bond, the eternal holdfast, the divine cement which holds the universe in one. Is it not written, 'By him all things consist' Our Lord Jesus Christ then is brought up from all rejection and shame to which His enemies put Him to be by usefulness and by honor the grandest personage upon the face of the earth; and all this none the less, but all the more, because He was rejected. He lost nothing by His enemies. They scourged His back, but they did not rob Him of that imperial purple which now adorns Him; they crowned Him with thorns, but those thorns have increased the brilliance of His diadem of light; they pierced His hands, and thereby prepared them to sway an irresistible scepter of love over men's hearts: they nailed His feet, but those feet stand firm for ever upon the throne of sovereignty: they crucified Him, but His crucifixion led Him to His greater honor, since He therein finished the work which was given Him to do, and now also God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. As it has been, so is it, and so shall it be: man's opposition to the gospel will not interfere with it one single whit, but the eternal purposes of Jehovah shall be fulfilled. Our adversaries may mine and undermine, they may openly oppose and secretly assail, but upon this rock, even upon Christ, shall the truth and the church for ever rest, and no harm shall come to it. The Lord will lift the Stone which the builders refused, and make it to become the Headstone of the Corner; therefore let us not fail nor be discouraged.
Already our text has been fulfilled. Our Lord Christ was dead and buried, but His foes were desperately afraid that He would rise again, and so they rolled a stone to the tomb's mouth and sealed it; but He rose for all that, and became the First-fruits of them that slept, the Headstone of the resurrection. His resurrection utterly defeated those who reckoned upon destroying His power. What could they do against one whom death itself could not silence? When His resurrection attested His mission, what could they say against Him? Nor was this all, for to add to His honor He was received up into heaven. Beyond the eternal hills He rose, the gates of heaven opening at His coming; and amidst the acclamation of angels and redeemed spirits He ascended to the highest place that heaven affords.
What a change from Gabbatha and all the maltreatment of the Pavement to the sea of glass mingled with fire, and to the seat of infinite majesty! Jesus has gone from the bar to the throne, and there He sitteth in majesty. His adversaries may grind their teeth at Him, but the King is set upon the holy hill of Zion beyond their wrath. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" Jehovah Jesus is King and none can challenge His sovereignty.
At Pentecost, too, this was fulfilled, for when His few and humble disciples were inspired by the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with tongues of fire, all Jerusalem rang with the wonder, and then again the despised and rejected stone was made the head stone of the corner. Very speedily throughout the known world the testimony of His name was made to sound forth till his word had gone forth as far as the sun's utmost track, and all nations beheld the light thereof. Then the gods of the heathen tottered, and colossal systems of idolatry were ground to powder. Glory be unto thee, O Christ; thou didst triumph gloriously in those first ages of thy church! That triumph is proceeding still. It will be consummated by-and-by. What confusion will take hold upon the hearts of His adversaries when He shall be revealed! He is hidden now, and His people with Him, but the day draweth nigh when He shall come a second time to be admired in all them that believe. What astonishment will then take hold upon those who refused His righteous claims. Then will they know that this is the Lord's doing; though it will be terrible in their eyes. All intelligent beings, even down to the blackest devil of hell, shall at the second advent of our Lord be obliged to confess that the stone which the builders refused hath become the head stone of the corner. The Man of Nazareth shall be Lord of all before the eyes of all mankind. For that we diligently look. I call upon you, dear brothers and sisters, this morning, greatly to rejoice in the fact which we have thus brought before you. It is a grand truth that Christ Jesus is now enthroned beyond the reach of those who rejected and despised Him,."
For further comment on this verse see the Exaltation section of this study.
John Gill ; "...But notwithstanding the former and present rejection, and ill treatment of him, he is become the head of the corner: he is the corner stone in the building which knits and cements it together, angels and men, Jews and Gentiles; Old and New Testament saints; saints above, and saints below, and in all ages and places, all meet, and are united together in this corner stone; which also strengthens and supports the building, and holds it together, and is the ornament and beauty of it: he is the chief corner stone; he is higher than the kings of the earth; he is superior to angels, and the chiefest among ten thousands of his saints; he is exalted above all creatures, angels, and men, who, by the Jewish builders, was despised and rejected, and scarce allowed to be worthy the name of a man:"
Luke 1:31 ; "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Cross references :
2 Samuel 7:12 "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom."
2 Samuel 7:13 "He shall build an house for my name, and I will estables the throne of his kingdom for ever.
Psalms 132:11 "The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:7 LXX (Thomson version) ; "His government shall be great and to His peace there is no boundary, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it, and support it with judgment and justice, henceforth and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this."
Jeremiah 23:5 "Behold, 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."
Ezekiel 37:25 "And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Amos 9:11 "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:"
Matthew Henry ; "...that after the sceptre had been long departed from that ancient and honourable family it should now at length return to it again, to remain in it, not by succession, but in the same hand to eternity. His people will not give him that throne, will not acknowledge his right to rule them; but the Lord God shall give him a right to rule them, and set him as his king upon the holy hill of Zion. He assures her, [1.] That his kingdom shall be spiritual: he shall reign over the house of Jacob, not Israel according to the flesh, for they neither came into his interests nor did they continue long a people; it must therefore be a spiritual kingdom, the house of Israel according to the promise, that he must rule over. [2.] That it shall be eternal: he shall reign for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end, as there had been long since of the temporal reign of David's house, and would shortly be of the state of Israel. Other crowns endure not to every generation, but Christ's doth, Proverbs 27:24. The gospel is the last dispensation, we are to look for no other.
V. The further information given her, upon her enquiry concerning the birth of this prince.
1. It is a just enquiry which she makes: "How shall this be? v. 34. How can I now presently conceive a child" (for so the angel meant) "when I know not a man; must it therefore be otherwise than by ordinary generation? If so, let me now how?" She knew that the Messiah must be born of a virgin; and, if she must be his mother, she desires to know how. This was not the language of her distrust, or any doubt of what the angel said, but of a desire to be further instructed.
2. It is a satisfactory answer that is given to it, v.35. (1.) She shall conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, whose proper work and office is to sanctify, and therefore to sanctify the virgin for this purpose. The Holy Ghost is called the power of the Highest. Doth she ask how this shall be? This is enough to help her over all the difficulty there appears in it; a divine power will undertake it, not the power of an angel employed in it, as in other works of wonder, but the power of the Holy Ghost himself.
(2.) She must ask no questions concerning the way and manner how it shall be wrought; for the Holy Ghost, as the power of the Highest, shall overshadow her, as the cloud covered the tabernacle when the glory of God took possession of it, to conceal it from those that would too curiously observe the motions of it, and pry into the mystery of it."
John Gill ; "Ver. 32. He shall be great, &c.] In his person, as God-man; this child born, and Son given, being the angel of the great counsel, the mighty God, and everlasting Father; Isaiah 9:6 which is here referred to; and in his offices, in his prophetic office, being that great and famous prophet Moses spoke of, mighty in word and deed, in his doctrine and miracles; in his priestly office, being a great high priest, both in the oblation of himself, and in his prevalent intercession; and in his kingly office, being the King of kings, and Lord of Lords; and in the whole of his office, as Mediator, being a great Saviour, the author of a great salvation for great sinners; in which is greatly displayed the glory of all the divine perfections: great also in his works, the miracles that he wrought, as proofs of his Deity and Messiahship, the work of redemption, the resurrection of himself from the dead, and of all men at the last day; and in the glory he is now possessed of in human nature, at the Father's right hand, where he is highly exalted above all principality and power:
Ver. 33. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob, &c.] Not over the Jews, the posterity of Jacob, in a literal sense; but over the whole Israel of God, consisting of Jews and Gentiles. For as his father David reigned over the Idumeans, Syrians, and others, as well as over the house of Judah and Israel, so this his son shall reign over both Jews and Gentiles: his kingdom shall be from one end of the earth to the other, even over all the elect of God; who in successive generations call themselves by the name of Jacob, and surname themselves by the name of Israel, of whatsoever nation they be; and this reign of his shall be "for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end"; referring to Isaiah 9:7 see also Daniel 2:44, Daniel 7:14 he shall reign in the hearts of his people here unto the end of the world; and with his saints a thousand years in the new heavens and new earth; and with them to all eternity, in the ultimate glory."
and shall be called the Son of the Highest; that is, of God, of whose names is `!Ay*l.[,,( Hebrew font) "the Most High"; see Genesis 14:18-20 not by creation, as angels and men, nor by adoption, as saints, nor by office, as magistrates, are called "the children of the Most High", Psalm 82:6 but by nature, being the eternal Son of God; of the same nature with him, and equal to him: for he was not now to begin to be the Son of God, he was so before, even from all eternity; but the sense is, that he should now be known, owned, and acknowledged to be the Son of God, being as such manifested in human nature, and should be proved to be so by the works he wrought, and declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead:
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. Christ, as God, is the Son of God, as man, the son of David; a name often given to the Messiah, and by which he was well known among the Jews; and as Christ descended from him as man, in a literal sense, he had a right to the throne of his father David; and the Jews themselves say, that he was "nearly allied to the kingdom" : but here it intends not his throne, in a literal, but in a figurative sense; for as David was a type of the Messiah in his kingly office, hence the Messiah is called "David their king", Hosea 3:5 so his throne was typical of the Messiah's throne and kingdom; which is not of this world, but is in his church, and is set up in the hearts of his people, where he reigns by his Spirit and grace; and this is a throne and kingdom "given" by the Lord God. The kingdom of nature and providence he has by right of nature, as the Son of the Highest; the kingdom of grace, or the mediatorial kingdom, the kingdom of priests, or royal priesthood, is a delegated one; his Father has set him as king over his holy hill of Zion; and he is accountable for his government to him, and will one day deliver it up complete and perfect."
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Psalm 18:47-50, LXX ; vs 47 ; "It is God that avenges me, and has subdued the nations under me; 48 my deliverer from angry enemies: thou shalt set me on high above them that rise up against me: thou shalt deliver me from the unrighteous man. 49 Therefore will I confess to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name. Vs 50 LXX (Thomson Version) ; "He is magnifying the deliverences of His king, and shewing mercy to His anointed-to David and his seed forever."
Cross references:
2 Samuel 22:48-51, LXX (Thomson version) ; vs 48 ; "The might Lord Who is my avenger, Who chastiseth the people under me, who leadeth me out from my enemies,-
vs 49 From them who are stirred up against me, Thou will raise me up. From the man of violence, Thou wilt deliver me.
Vs 50 For this cause I will give Thee thanks, O Lord, among the nations.
I will sing melodiously to Thy name.
Vs 51 He is magnifying the deliverances of His own king, And shewing mercy to His anointed- To David and his seed forever."
Psalm 47:2-9 (Thomson version) ; vs. 2 ; "for the Lord Most High is aweful- a great king over all the earth.
Vs 3 He hath subjected tribes to us, nations also under our feet.
Vs 4 He hath chosen for us His inheritance the excellency of Jacob which He loved.
Vs 5 God ascended at the triumphant shout-the Lord, at the trumpet's sounding.
Vs. 6 O sing praises to our God ; sing praises. Sing praises to our king ; sing praises.
Vs 7 Since God is king of the whole earth ; O sing praises with understanding.
Vs 8 God hath commenced His reign over the nations : God is seated on His holy throne.
Vs 9 The heads of families assembled with the God of Abraham. Because the mighties of the land belong to God, they have been exceedingly exalted." (vs.2 "aweful" or "terrible" is in today's vernacular "awesome")
Romans 15:8-9 "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises {made} to the fathers: 9 And that the Gentiles might glorify God for {his} mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name."
John Gill ; Ver. 48. " 'He delivereth me from mine enemies', &c.] From Saul and his men, from Ishbosheth and Abner, from Absalom, and the conspirators with him; so all believers are delivered out of the hands of their enemies by Christ, as that they can serve the Lord without fear; and so Christ himself is delivered from all his enemies, being raised from the dead, and set at the right hand of God, where he must reign till all enemies are put under his feet; 'yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me'; David was lifted up from a low and mean estate, and placed on the throne of Israel, above all those that rose up against him, and sought to destroy him; and the saints are set upon their high places in Christ, where they are out of the reach of their enemies to do them any harm; and Christ, he is highly exalted at the right hand of God, above all principality and power, might and dominion, and every name that is named in this world; 'thou hast delivered me from the violent man'; either from Saul, from whom David was delivered; or from Satan the enemy, the son of wickedness, who shall no more exact upon and afflict the Messiah,..." Ver. 50. Great deliverance giveth he to his king, &c.] Not that is king over him; for he is King of kings and Lord of lords; but that is made king by him, as David was; who did not usurp the throne, but was anointed king by the appointment of God, and was placed by him upon the throne; to whom he gave great deliverance from his enemies, or "magnified salvations" to him; which were great in kind, and many in number; and as Christ is, whom God has set as his King on his holy hill of Sion, against whom the Heathen raged, and kings and princes set themselves; but he is delivered from them all, and saved from the power of death and the grave, and ever lives to reign over, protect, and defend his people; in 2 Samuel 22:51, it is, he is "the tower of salvation for his king", with which compare cf. Proverbs 18:10; vs.50 "...'and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore'; which may be understood either of David literally, who was the Lord's anointed, and to whom God showed mercy in various instances; and then by his seed is meant the Messiah, who was of his seed according to the flesh; or of the Messiah, whose name signifies Anointed; and who is often called David, cf. Ezekiel 34:23,24 37:24,25 cf. Hosea 3:5; and so some of the Jewish doctors from this verse prove that the name of the Messiah is David: and by his seed are meant his spiritual seed; all the elect of God, who are given him as his children, to whom he stands in the relation of the everlasting Father: and as mercy is kept with him for evermore, cf.Psalm 89:28; so it is shown to them in regeneration, in the forgiveness of their sins, and in their everlasting salvation."
Matthew Henry ; " Thus the Son of David, though he sees not yet all things put under him, yet knows he shall reign till all opposing rule, principality, and power shall be quite put down. 2. That his seed should be forever continued in the Messiah, who, he foresaw, should come from his loins, v. 50. He shows mercy to his anointed, his Messiah, to David himself, the anointed of the God of Jacob in the type, and to his seed for evermore. He saith not unto seeds, as of many, but to his seed, as of one, that is Christ, Galatians 3:16. It is he only that shall reign for ever, and of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end. Christ is called David, Hosea 3:5. God has called him his king, Psalm 2:6. Great deliverance God does give, and will give to him, and to his church and people, here called his seed, for evermore. In singing these verses we must give God the glory of the victories of Christ and his church hitherto and of all the deliverances and advancements of the gospel kingdom, and encourage ourselves and one another with an assurance that the church militant will be shortly triumphant, will be eternally so."
J.F.B. commentary ; " vss. 49, 50. Paul (Romans 15:9) quotes from this doxology to show that under the Old Testament economy, others than the Jews were regarded as subjects of that spiritual government of which David was head, and in which character his deliverances and victories were typical of the more illustrious triumphs of David's greater Son."
Keil and Delitzsch; "...Psa 18:49-50 - (Hebr. Bible.: 18:50-51); "Paul has a perfect right to quote Psa_18:50 of this Psalm (Rom_15:9), together with Deu_32:43 and Psa_117:1, as proof that salvation belongs to the Gentiles also, according to the divine purpose of mercy. What is said in Psa_18:50 as the reason and matter of the praise that shall go forth beyond Israel, is an echo of the Messianic promises in 2Sa_7:12-16 which is perfectly reconcileable with the Davidic authorship of the Psalm, as Hitzig acknowledges.
"...In whom, but in Christ, the son of David, has the fallen throne of David any lasting continuance, and in whom, but in Christ, has all that has been promised to the seed of David eternal truth and reality? The praise of Jahve,(Jehovah) the God of David, His anointed, is, according to its ultimate import, a praising of the Father of Jesus Christ."
John 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
4 And where I go ye know, and the way ye know."
Spurgeon (selections from his commentary) ; "Jesus was to die: their Lord, whom they sincerely loved, was about to go from them by a shameful, painful death. What tender heart could bear to think of that? Yet he had told them that it would be so, and they began to remember his former words wherein he had said that the Son of man would be betrayed into the hands of wicked incarnate would be scourged and put to death. They were now to pass through all the bitterness of seeing him accused, condemned, and crucified. In a short time he was actually seized, bound, carried to the high priest's house, hurried to Pilate, then to Herod, hack again to Pilate, stripped scourged mocked, insulted. They saw him conducted through the streets of Jerusalem bearing his cross. They beheld him hanging on the tree between two thieves, and heard him cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" A bitter draught this! In proportion as they loved their Lord they must have deeply grieved for him: and they needed that he should say, "Let not your heart be troubled." To-day those who love the Lord Jesus have to behold a spiritual repetition of his shameful treatment at the hands of men; for even now he is crucified afresh by those who account his cross a stumbling-block and the preaching of it foolishness. Ah me! how is Christ still misunderstood, misrepresented, despised, mocked, and rejected of men! They cannot touch him really, for there he sits enthroned in the heaven of heavens; but as far as they can, they slay him over again. A malignant spirit is manifested to the gospel as once it was to Christ in person. Some with coarse blasphemies, and not a few with cunning assaults upon this part of Scripture, and on that, are doing their best to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. It is a huge grief to see the mass of mankind pass by the cross with averted eyes as if the Savior's death was nothing-nothing at least to them. In proportion as you feel a zeal for the Crucified, and for his saving truth, it is wormwood and gall to give in this age of unbelief. Christ Jesus is nailed up between the two thieves of superstition and unbelief, while around him gathers still the fierce opposition of the rude and the polished, the ignorant and the wise.
In addition to this, the apostles had for an outlook the expectation that their Lord would be away from them. They did not at first understand his saying, "A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." Now it dawned upon them
that they were to he left as sheep without a shepherd; for their Master and head was to be taken from them. This was to them a source of dread and dismay: for they said to themselves, "What shall we do without him? We are a little flock; how shall we be defended when he is gone, and the wolf is
prowling? When the Scribes and Pharisees gather about us, how shall we answer them? As for our Lord's cause and kingdom, how can it be safe in such trembling hands as ours? Alas for the gospel of salvation when Jesus is not with us!" This was a bitter sorrow: and something of this kind of
feeling often crosses our own hearts as we tremble for the ark of the Lord.
My heart is sad when I see the state of religion among us. Oh for an hour of the Son of man in these darkening days! It is written, there shall come in the last days scoffers"; and they have come, but, oh, that the Lord himself were here in person! Oh, that the Lord would pluck his right hand out of his bosom, and show us once again the wonders of Pentecost, to the confusion of his adversaries, and to the delight of all his friends. He has not come as yet! Well-nigh two thousand years have rolled away since he departed, and the night is dark, and there is no sign of dawn. The ship of the church is tossed with tempest, and Jesus is not come unto us. We know that he is with us in a spiritual sense; but, oh, that we had him in the glory of his power! ."
"He is faithful and true, and his power can effect his promise: let us depend trustfully upon him, and perfect peace shall come into our hearts. These disciples knew that the Savior was to be away from them, so that they could not see him nor hear his voice. What of that? Is it not so with God, in whom we believe? "No man hath seen God at any time"-yet you believe in the invisible God working all things, sustaining all things. In the same manner believe in the absent and invisible Christ, that he is still as mighty as though you could see him walking the waves, or multiplying the loaves, or healing the sick, or raising the dead. Believe him, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Believe in him as ever living, even as you believe in the eternity of God.
You believe in the eternal existence of the Most High whom you have not seen, even so believe in the everlasting life of the Son of God. Ay, though you see him die, though you see him laid in the grave, yet believe in him that he has not ceased to be. Look for his reappearance, even as ye believe in God. Yea, and when he is gone from you, and a cloud has received him oat of your sight, believe that he liveth, even as God liveth; and because he lives, you shall live also. You believe in the wisdom of God, you believe in the faithfulness of God, you believe in the goodness of God;"-Even as ye believe in God," saith Jesus, "believe also in me." Faith in Jesus Christ himself as an ever-living and divine Person, is the best quietus for every kind of fear, he is the "King Eternal, immortal, invisible," "the Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;" and therefore you may safely rest in him. This is the first ingredient of this priceless comfort.
But now our Lord proceeded to say that though he was going from them he was only going to his Father's house. "In my Father's house are many mansions." Ay, but this was sweet comfort. "I am going," said he, "and on my way you will see me scourged, bleeding, mocked, and buffeted; but I
shall pass through all this to the joy and rest, and honor of my Father's house." God is everywhere present, and yet as on earth he had a tabernacle wherein he specially manifested himself, so there is a place where he in a peculiar manner is revealed. The temple was a type of that matchless abode
of God which eye hath not seen, we call it heaven, the pavilion of God, the home of holy angels and of those pure spirits who dwell in his immediate presence. In heaven God may be said in special to have his habitation, and Jesus was going there to be received on his return to all the honor which awaited his finished service, he was, in fact, going home, as a Son who is returning to his father's house, from which he had gone upon his father's business. He was going where he would be with the Father, where he would be perfectly at rest, where he would be above the assaults of the wicked; where he would never suffer or die again; he was going to reassume the glory which he had with the Father or ever the world was.
Oh, if they had perfectly understood this, they would have understood the Savior's words, "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father." Imagination fails to picture the glory of our Lord's return, the honorable escort which heralded his approach to the Eternal City, the heartiness of the welcome of the Conqueror to the skies. I think the Psalmist gives us liberty to believe that, when our Lord ascended, the bright ones of the sky came to meet him, and cried, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." May we not believe of bright seraphs and ministering angels that-
"They brought his chariot from on high
To bear him to his throne;
Clapped their triumphant wings, and cried,
The glorious work is done."
"He was seen of angels." They beheld that "joyous re-entry," the opening of the eternal doors to the King of Glory, and the triumph through the celestial streets of him who led captivity captive and scattered gifts among men. They saw the enthronement of Jesus who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, but was then and there crowned with glory and honor. These are not things of which these stammering lips of mine can speak, but they are things for you to consider when the Spirit of the Lord is upon you.".
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"Jesus has gone by the way of Calvary up to his Father's house all his work and warfare done, he is rewarded for his sojourn among men as man. All the shame which his work necessitated is now lost in the splendor of his mediatorial reign. Ye people of God, be no more troubled, for your Lord is King, your Savior reigns! Men may still scoff at him, but they cannot rob him of a ray of glory! They may reject him, but the Lord God omnipotent has crowned him! They may deny his existence, but he lives! They may rebelliously cry, "Let us break his bands asunder, and cast his cords from us," but the Lord hath set his King upon his holy hill of Zion, and none can thrust him from his throne. Hallelujah! "God hath highly exalted him, all given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Wherefore let not your hearts be troubled by the noise of controversy, and the blasphemy and rebuke of an evil age. Though there be confusion as when the sea roareth and the fullness thereof, and the wicked foam in their rage against the Lord and against his anointed, yet the Lord sitteth upon the flood the Lord sitteth King forever. Again let us say, "Hallelujah!" The Prince hath come unto his own again; he hath entered into his Father's palace; the heavens have received him. Why should we be troubled?
Thirdly, our Lord gave his servants comfort in another way: he gave them to understand by implication that a great many would follow him to the Father's house. He did not only assure them that he was going to his Father's house, but he said, "in my Father's house are many mansions."
These mansions are not built to stand empty. God doeth nothing in vain; therefore it is natural to conclude that a multitude of spirits, innumerable beyond all count, will rise in due time to occupy those many mansions in the Father's house. Now I see in this great comfort to them, because they doubtless feared that if their Lord was absent his kingdom might fail. How would there be converts if he were crucified? How could they expect, poor creatures as they were, to set up a kingdom of righteousness on the earth?
How could they turn the world upside down and bring multitudes to his feet whom he had purchased with his blood, if his conquering right arm was not seen at their head? The Lord Jesus in effect said, "I am going, but I shall lead the way for a vast host who will come to the prepared abodes.
Like the corn of wheat which is cast into the ground to die, I shall bring forth much fruit, which shall be housed in the abiding resting-places."
"...Though they seem to-day to be a small remnant, yet he will fill the many mansions. This stands fast as a rock- "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." They boast that "they will not come unto Christ;" but the Spirit of God foresaw that they would reject the salvation of the Lord. What said Jesus to those like them? "Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life." The wicked unbelief of men is their own condemnation; but Jesus loses not the reward of his passion. We fling back into the faces of the despisers of Christ the scorn which they pour upon him, and remind them that those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed, their names shall be written in the earth. What if they come not to him? it is their own loss, and well did he say of them, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Their wickedness is their inability and their destruction.
They betray by their opposition the fact that they are not the chosen of the Most High. But "the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." This matter is not left to the free will of man, so that Jesus may be disappointed after all. Oh no, "they will not come unto him, that they may have life;" but they shall yet know that the eternal Spirit has power over the human conscience and will, and can make men willing in the day of his power. If Jesus be lifted up he will draw all men unto him. There shall be no failure as to the Lord's redeeming work, even though the froward reject the counsel of God against themselves. What Jesus has bought with blood he will not lose; what he died to accomplish shall surely be performed; and what he rose again to carry out shall be effected though all the devils in hell and unbelievers upon earth should join in league against him. Oh, thou enemy, rejoice not over the cause of the Messiah; for though it seem to fall it shall arise again!
But our Lord went much further, for he said, "I go to prepare a place for you." I think he did not only refer to the many mansions for our spirits, but to the ultimate place of our risen bodies, of which I will speak before long.
In our Lord's going away, as well as in his continuance in his Father's presence he would be engaged in preparing a place for his own. He was going that he might clear all impediment out of the way. Their sins blocked the road; like mountains their iniquities opposed all passage; but now that he is gone, it may be said, "The breaker is come up before them, and the Lord on the head of them." [my ft]
[ft] Micah 2:13 "The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and have gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them."
Micah 2:13, LXX ; "they have broken through, and passed the gate, and gone out by it: and their king has gone out before them, and the Lord shall lead them."
He hath broken down every wall of partition, and every iron gate he hath opened. The way into the kingdom is opened for all believers. He passed through death to resurrection and ascension to remove every obstacle from our path."
".Now the saints could not be perfected without being washed in his precious blood, and renewed by the Holy Spirit; and so the Savior endured the death of the cross; and when he arose he sent us the sanctifying Spirit, that we might be fitted for his rest. Thus he may be said to have prepared the place of our rest by removing from its gateway the sin which blocked all entrance.
He went away also that he might be in a position to secure that place for all his people. He entered the lory-land as our Forerunner, to occupy the place in our name, to take possession of heaven as the representative of all his people. He was going that he might in heaven itself act as Intercessor, leading before the throne, and therefore be able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him. He was going there to assume the reins of providence, having all things put under he feet, and having all power given to him in heaven and in earth he might bless his people abundantly. By being in heaven our Lord occupies a vantage-ground for the sure accomplishing of his purposes of love. As Joseph went down into Egypt to store the granaries, to prepare for Israel a home in Goshen, and to sit upon the throne for their protection, so hath our Lord gone away into the glory for our good, and he is doing for us upon his throne what could not so advantageously have been done for us here.
At the same time, I am inclined to think that there is a special sense in these words over and above the preparing of heaven for us. I think our Lord Jesus meant to say, "I go to prepare a place for you" in this sense-that there would in the end be a place found for their entire manhood. Mark that word, "a place." We are too apt to entertain cloudy ideas of the ultimate inheritance of those who attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
"Heaven is a state," says somebody. Yes, certainly it is a state; but it is a place too, and in the future it will be more distinctly a place. Observe that our blessed Lord went away in body; not as a disembodied spirit, but as one who had eaten with his disciples, and whose body had been handled by them. His body needed a "place," and he is gone to prepare a place for us, not only as we shall be for a while, pure spirits, but as we are to be ultimately-body, and soul, and spirit. When a child of God dies, where does his spirit go? There is no question about that matter we are informed by the inspired apostle- "absent from the body, present with the Lord." But matter, and something yet remains. My spirit is not, the whole of myself, for I am taught so to respect my body as to regard it as a precious portion of my complete self-the temple of God. The Lord Jesus Christ did not redeem my spirit alone, but my body too, and consequently he means to have a "place" where I, this person who is here, in the wholeness of my individuality, may rest forever. Jesus means to have a place made for the entire manhood of his chosen, that they may he where he is and as he is.
Our ultimate abode will be a state of blessedness, but it must also be a place suited for our risen bodies. It is not, therefore, a cloudland, an airy something, impalpable and dreamy. Oh, no, it will be as really a place as this earth is a place. Our glorious Lord has gone for the ultimate purpose of preparing a suitable place for his people. There will be a place for their spirits, if spirits want place; but he has gone to prepare a place for them as body, soul, and spirit. I delight to remember that, Jesus did not go as a spirit, but in his risen body, bearing the scars of his wounds. Come, you that think you will never rise again, you who imagine that the scattering of our dust forbids all hope of the restoration of our bodies; we shall go where Christ has gone, and as he has gone. He leads the way in his body, and we shall follow in ours. Ultimately there shall be the complete redemption of the purchased possession, and not a bone shall be left in the regions of death, not a relic for the devil to glory over. Jesus said to Mary, "Thy brother shall rise again;" he did not need to say 'thy brothers spirit shall live immortally'; but thy brother shall "rise again," his body shall come forth of the tomb. Well might the apostles' hearts be comforted when they learned the blessed errand upon which their Lord was going!
The next consolation was the promise of his sure return: "If I go away to prepare a place for you, I will come again." Listen, then! Jesus is coming again. In the same manner as he ascended he will return-that is, really, literally, and in bodily form. He meant no play upon words when he so plainly said, without proverb, "I will come again," or more sweetly still, "I go away and come again unto you." This is our loudest joy-note, "Behold, he cometh!" This is our never- failing comfort. Observe that the Savior, in this place, says nothing about death, nothing about the peace and rest of believers till he is come; for he looks on to the end. It is not necessary to put every truth into one sentence; and so our Lord is content to mention the brightest of our hopes, and leave other blessings for mention at other times, here the consolation is that he will come, come personally to gather us in. He will not send an angel, nor even a host of cherubim to fetch us up into our eternal state; but the Lord himself will descend from heaven. It is to be our marriage-day, and the glorious Bridegroom will come in person.
When the Bride is prepared for her Husband, will he not come to fetch her to his home? O beloved, do you not see where our Lord's thoughts were?
He was dwelling upon the happy day of his ultimate victory, when he shall come to be admired in all them that believe. That is where he would have his people's thoughts to be; but alas! they forget his advent. The Lord shall come; let your hearts anticipate that day of days. His enemies cannot stop his coming! "Let not your heart be troubled." They may hate him, but they cannot hinder him; they cannot impede his glorious return, not by the twinkling of an eye. What an answer will his coming be to every adversary!
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How will they weep and wail because of him! As surely as he lives he will come; and what confusion this will bring upon the "wise men'" who at this hour are reasoning against his Deity and ridiculing his atonement! Again I say, "Let not your heart be troubled" as to the present state of religion; it will not last long. Do not worry yourselves into unbelief though this man may have turned traitor, or the other may have become a backslider, for the wheels of time are hurrying on the day of the glorious manifestation of the Lord from heaven! What will be the astonishment of the whole world when with all the holy angels he shall descend from heaven and shall glorify his people!
For that is the next comfort-he will receive us. When he comes he will receive his followers with a courtly reception. It will be their marriage reception; it shall be the marriage supper of the Son of God." [my ft]
[ft] cf. Revelation 19:9 "And he saith to me, Write, Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith to me, These are the true sayings of God."
" Then shall descend out of heaven the new Jerusalem prepared as a bride for her husband. Then shall come the day of the resurrection, and the dead in Christ shall rise. Then all his people who are alive at the time of his coming shall be suddenly transformed, so as to be delivered from all the frailties and imperfections of their mortal bodies: "The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Then we shall be presented spirit, soul, and body "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing"; in the clear and absolute perfection of our sanctified manhood. presented unto Christ himself. This is the sweetest idea of heaven that can be, that we shall be with Christ, that we shall see him, that we shall speak to him, that we shall commune with him most intimately, that we shall glorify him, that he will glorify us, and that we shall never be divided from him for ever and ever.
"Let not your heart be troubled," all this is near at hand, and our Lord's going away has secured it to us.
For this was the last point of the consolation, that when he came and received his people to himself he would place them eternally where he is, that they may be with him. Oh, joy! joy l joy! unutterable joy! Can we not now, once for all, dismiss every fear in the prospect of the endless bliss reserved for us?
"See that glory, bow resplendent!
Brighter far than fancy paints!
There in majesty transcendent,
Jesus reigns, the King of saints.
Spread thy wings, my soul, and fly
Straight to yonder world of joy.
Joyful crowds, his throne surrounding,
Sing with rapture of his love;
Through the heavens his praises sounding,
Filling all the courts above.
Spread thy wings, my soul, and fly
Straight to yonder world of joy."
John 16:4-11, (Jesus speaking) ;vs.4 ; "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
5 " But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'
6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
8 "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 "of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 "of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;
11 "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
John Gill ; "ye may remember that I told you of them; which might serve greatly to confirm them in the faith of him as the omniscient God, and the true Messiah, and encourage them to depend on his veracity and faithfulness in his promises; that since the evil things which he spoke of came upon them, so they might hope, believe, and expect, that all the good things he had assured them of, should be accomplished; and also to engage them to bear their sufferings with the greater patience, since they were appointed by God, and foretold by their Lord and master."
"...Moreover, Christ's going away was expedient for his people; since he went to open the way for them into the holiest of all, by his blood; to take possession of heaven in their name and stead; to prepare mansions of glory for them; to appear in the presence of God for them; to be their advocate, and make intercession for all good things for them; to transact all their business between God them; to take care of their affairs; to present their petitions; to remove all charges and accusations; and to ask for, and see applied every blessing of grace unto them. The particular instanced in, in the text, of the expediency of it, is the mission and coming of the Spirit:"
"for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. The Spirit of God in some sense had come, before the death of Christ; he had appeared in the creation of all things out of nothing, as a joint Creator with the Father and Son; he was come as a spirit of prophecy upon the inspired writers, and others; the Old Testament saints had received him as a spirit of faith; he had been given to Christ as man, without measure, and the disciples had been partakers of his gifts and graces; but he was not come in so peculiar a manner as he afterwards did; as the promise of the Father, the glorifier of Christ, the comforter of his people, the spirit of truth, and the reprover of the world: there are reasons to be given, why the Spirit of God should not come in such a manner before, as after the death of Christ. The order of the three divine persons in the Trinity, and in the economy of man's salvation, required such a method to be observed; that the Father should first, and for a while, be more especially manifested; next the Son, and then the Spirit: besides, our Lord has given a reason himself, why the Spirit "was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified", John 7:39;"
Ver. 10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, &c.] The "righteousness" here spoken of, does, in the first sense of the word, design the personal righteousness of Christ. The Jews had traduced him as a wicked man, said he was a sinner himself, and a friend of publicans and sinners; that he was guilty of blasphemy and sedition, maintained a familiarity with Satan, yea, that he had a devil: now the Spirit of God, by the mouth of Peter, on the day of "Pentecost", proved, to the conviction of the Jews, that all this was slander; that Christ was an innocent, holy, and righteous person, and a man approved of God among them, as they themselves must be conscious of, Acts 2:22; of all which, his going to the Father, and being received by him, were a full proof and demonstration. The effusion of the Spirit in that extraordinary manner upon the disciples, showed that he was gone to the Father, and had received from him the promise of the Holy Ghost, which he then shed abroad; and his going to the Father, and being set down by him at his right hand, made it clear that he came from him, and was no impostor; that he had acted the faithful and upright part, and was free from all the charges the Jews had laid against, him. Moreover, this may also be very well understood of the mediatorial righteousness of Christ, which he, as the surety and Saviour of his people, was to work out and bring in for them, in obedience to the law of God; which required holiness of nature, perfection of obedience, and bearing its penalty, death; all which were complied with by Christ, and so the whole righteousness of the law was fulfilled by him; and which is imputed by God as the justifying righteousness of all that believe in Jesus; and the proof of his having wrought out this, lies in his going to the Father;."
Matthew Henry ; "The coming of the Spirit, according to the promise, was a proof of Christ's exaltation to God's right hand Acts 2:33, and this was a demonstration of his righteousness; for the holy God would never set a deceiver at his right hand.
[2.] Of Christ's righteousness communicated to us for our justification and salvation; that everlasting righteousness which Messiah was to bring in, Daniel 9:24. Now, First, The Spirit shall convince men of this righteousness. Having by convictions of sin shown them their need of a righteousness, lest this should drive them to despair he will show them where it is to be had, and how they may, upon their believing, be acquitted from guilt, and accepted as righteous in God's sight. It was hard to convince those of this righteousness that went about to establish their own Romans 10:3, but the Spirit will do it. Secondly, Christ's ascension is the great argument proper to convince men of this righteousness: I go to the Father, and, as an evidence of my welcome with him, you shall see me no more. If Christ had left any part of his undertaking unfinished, he had been sent back again; but now that we are sure he is at the right hand of God, we are sure of being justified through him."
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Isaiah 11:10, LXX (Charles Thomson Version) ; "Therefore there shall be in that day the root of Jesse, even He Who riseth up to rule the nations : in him nations will put their trust, and His resting place shall be glorious."
Isaiah 11:10 Dead Sea Scrolls, "There shall be in that day a root of Jesse who shall stand as an ensign of the people to Him shall the Gentiles pursue and His resting place shall be glory."
Isaiah 11:10a Hippolytus' LXX; "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up out of it."
Cross references:
Romans 15:12 "And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust." (Note that the New Testament quote of this verse is closer to the Septuagint than the Dead Sea Scroll and the King James Version.)
Revelation 5:5 "And one of the elders saith to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose its seven seals."
Isaiah 59:19-21 (Charles Thomson version) "and they from the west shall revere the name of the Lord; and they from the risings of the sun, his glorious name. For he will come like an impetuous stream- for the wrath of the Lord will come with fury. Vs. 20 For the sake of Sion the Deliverer will come, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Vs.21 And this shall be my covenant with them, said the Lord, this spirit of mine which is upon thee, and these words which I have put in thy mouth shall not fail from thy mouth, nor from the mouth of thy seed, (for the Lord hath spoken)from this time forth forever."
Alfred Edersheim ; "In Abram the stem was cut down to a single root. This root first sprang up into the patriarchal family, then expanded into the tribes of Israel, and finally blossomed and bore fruit in the chosen people. But even this was only a means to an end. Israel had possessed, so to speak, the three crowns separately. It had the priesthood in Aaron, the royaldignity in David and his line, and the prophetic office. But in the "last days" the triple crown of priest, king, and prophet has been united upon Him Whose it really is, even JESUS, a "Prophet like unto Moses," the eternalpriest "after the order of Melchizedek," and the real and ever reigning "Son of David." And in Him all the promises of God, which had been given with increasing clearness from Adam onwards to Shem, then to Abraham, to Jacob, in the law, in the types of the Old Testament, and, finally, in its prophecies have become "Yea and amen," till at the last all nations shall dwell in the tents of Shem."
C.H. Spurgeon ; "...think of Christ's rest in His grave. the Divine Son of God in due time condescended to take upon Himself the mantle of our inferior race. He appeared at Bethlehem, a Man-child, having assumed our nature in its utmost weakness. He lived here upon earth a toilsome life; little rest did He know. His labor afforded Him sweet solace, for in doing the will of His Father He had meat to eat of which even His disciples knew not; but rest was seldom His portion. He had come here to serve, not to be served, to toil with all His strength; but, at last, His labors were all over, and He bowed His head, and said, "It is finished." Christ did not fall asleep until His work was all done; there was nothing more for that dear and most precious body to do. There it hangs upon the cross, still and quiet. I see Joseph and his friends extracting the nails, bringing the body down the ladder, reverently washing it, wrapping it in fine linen and costly spices, and then laying it in the tomb of honor. Men designed that he should be buried in a felon's grave; but it was not so, for he made His grave with the rich and honorable counselor, Joseph of Arimathaea." "I conducted you to the place of His rest where Joseph and Nicodemus and the godly women laid him in the grave, and there He rested. I like to think of that Jewish Sabbath, when He took His greater Sabbath, resting, seeing no corruption, as He would have done in that time, in such a hot climate, if it had not been for the preserving power of God, and the nature of His body, which could not see corruption because it had no taint of sin about it. there the Great Champion lay and rested. I do not wonder that the angels came and sat, one at the head and the other at the foot of the spot where He had lain, for there was something very glorious and sublime about that rest.
While He lay there, He was the terror of His foes; they sealed the tomb, and set a watch, lest he should escape them after all. In the tomb, He was the grief of His friends, for they thought He was gone for ever. Had they but known what they ought to have known, had they but remembered and understood what Christ had told them, they would have realized that He was but resting a little while, and that he would soon rise again in glorious triumph from the dead. I say that, even while He sleeps there in that new tomb, His rest is glorious,.."
"...He hath performed it all, and now He rests. He who is Himself life and immortality lies there locked in the arms of death. He who makes all spirits, and gives breath to every nostril that breathes, deigns for a little season to surrender Himself as a captive in the bonds of death, in that very act destroying death for all His people, putting an end to sin, achieving the eternal purpose of the blessed God, and opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Oh, tread lightly o'er the spot where our dear Lord once slept, for in that sleep He was truly glorious!
Now, beloved friends, our divine Lord has gone away from us up into His rest in glory. 'this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made his footstool.' He is taking His rest now, for His work is done. there is nothing for Him to do, or for us to do, by way of perfecting righteousness and salvation; Christ has accomplished it all, and now He rests. It must be divinely glorious to Him thus to sit down on the right hand of God. He is not now fighting as a warrior, for He has already been to Edom, and has returned with his garments dyed in blood, having trodden all His enemies in the winepress of His wrath. Now He rests, and with an unbroken calmness of spirit waits until the ages shall have rolled on, till the end shall come, till He shall have trodden Satan finally beneath His feet, till he shall send out that last great summons, "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." till then, He rests in glory, and His rest is glorious.
I suspect, however, that my text specially relates to the rest that is to come to this earth in the latter days. I will not go into the question of dates, or the arrangement of future events; if you read the chapter from which our text is taken, you have the great fact plainly foretold: "But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' don. they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." I do not know that everybody will be converted, but everybody will be enlightened; and every harmful agency will be restrained from evil. If the wolf still remains a wolf, it will dwell with the lamb without injuring it. though shall be such {lays of happiness and peace on earth yet, that men shall hang the sword upon the wall, and study war no more; children shall ask their fathers what was the ancient use of swords, and spears, and helmets, and guns, for they shall be no more employed in destroying precious lives. the power of sin shall be broken, and there shall be a general spreading of the principles of life, and light, and truth, and love, and liberty, over the whole earth. Well may we sing,
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'O long expected day, begin;
dawn on these realms of woe and sin!'
"When that day of the Lord comes, 'His rest shall be glorious.' then shall men say, 'the King of glory reigns, His unsuffering kingdom is established on the earth.' We may not live to see that day, and we cannot tell when it will be; it is a pity ever to dogmatize about prophecy, which will always be understood when it is fulfilled, but probably most of it not till then. When all the prophecies in that wonderful Book of the Revelation have been fulfilled, in the light that we shall then have, we shall wonder that we did not understand it before; but we do not, we cannot, we shall not comprehend its mysteries until Providence shall loose every seal, and spread the Book open before us; but, certainly, whenever Christ's reign on earth begins, 'His rest shall be glorious.' "
Hippolytus ; "For these are truly divine and glorious things, and things well calculated to benefit the soul. The prophet, in using the expression, a lion's whelp, means him who sprang from Judah and David according to the flesh, who was not made indeed of the seed of David, but was conceived by the (power of the) Holy Ghost, and came forth from the holy shoot of earth. For Isaiah says, "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up out of it." That which is called by Isaiah a flower, Jacob calls a shoot. For first he shot forth, and then he flourished in the world."
Keil and Delitzsch ;".And it will come to pass in that day: the root-sprout of Jesse, which stands as a banner of the peoples, for it will nations ask, and its place of rest is glory." The first question which is disposed of here, has reference to the apparent restriction thus far of all the blessings of this peaceful rule to Israel and the land of Israel. This restriction, as we now learn, is not for its own sake, but is simply the means of an unlimited extension of this fulness of blessing. The proud tree of the Davidic sovereignty is hewn down, and nothing is left except the root. The new David is shoresh Yishai (the root-sprout of Jesse), and therefore in a certain sense the root itself, because the latter would long ago have perished if it had not borne within itself from the very commencement Him who was now about to issue from it. But when He who had been concealed in the root of Jesse as its sap and strength should have become the rejuvenated root of Jesse itself (cf., Rev_22:16), He would be exalted from this lowly beginning ...(latin word deleated here) into a banner summoning the nations to assemble, and uniting them around itself. Thus visible to all the world, He would attract the attention of the heathen to Himself, and they would turn to Him with zeal, and His menuchâh, i.e., the place where He had settled down to live and reign (for the word in this local sense, compare Num_10:33 and Psa_132:8, Psa_132:14), would be glory, i.e., the dwelling-place and palace of a king whose light shines over all, who has all beneath His rule, and who gathers all nations around Himself."
John Gill ; "and his rest shall be glorious; "...Some understand it of his death, which, though ignominious in itself, yet glorious in its consequences; a glorious display of the condescension and love of Christ was made in it; and glorious things have been effected by it: others, of his grave, which was an honourable man's; his grave was made with the rich; though perhaps better of his rest in glory; when he had done his work, and sat down at the right hand of God, he was crowned with glory and honour; or rather it may design his church, which is his rest, Psa_132:13 which is glorious, with his righteousness, grace, and presence, and being put in order by him, as an army with banners; and especially it will be, when all the glorious things spoken of it shall be fulfilled."
Barnes ; "There shall be a root of Jesse - There shall be a sprout, shoot, or scion of the ancient and decayed family of Jesse; see the note at Isa_5:1. Chaldee, 'There shall be a son of the sons of Jesse.' The word "root" here - rc,nEshoresh - is evidently used in the sense of a root that, is alive when the tree is dead; a root that sends up a shoot or sprout; and is thus applied to him who should proceed from the ancient and decayed family of Jesse; see Isa_53:2. Thus in Rev_5:5, the Messiah is called 'the root of David,' and in Rev_22:16, the root and the offspring of David'
Which shall stand - There is reference here, doubtless, to the fact that military ensigns were sometimes raised on mountains or towers which were permanent, and which, therefore, could be rallying points to an arm or a people. The idea is, that the root of Jesse, that is, the Messiah, should be conspicuous, and that the nations should flee to him, "...and rally around him as a people do around a military standard..."
Shall be glorious - Hebrew, 'Shall be glory.' That is, shall be full of glory and honor. It shall be such as shall confer signal honor on his reign. The Chaldee understands this of his place of residence, his palace, or court. 'And the place of his abode shall be in glory.' The Vulgate renders it, 'and his sepulchre shall be glorious.' "
Barnes ; "In that day - That future time referred to in this whole prophecy. The word "day" is often used to denote a long time - or the time during which anything continues, as "the day" denotes all the hours until it is terminated by night. So "day" denotes the time of a man's life - 'his day;' or time in general; or the time when one shall be prominent, or be the principal object at that time. Thus it is applied to the time of the Messiah, as being the period of the world in which he will be the prominent or distinguished object; Joh_8:56 : 'Abraham rejoiced to see my day;' Luk_17:24 : 'So shall the Son of man be in his day.' The expression here means, that somewhere in that future time, when the Messiah should appear, or when the world should be put under him as the Mediator, the event would take place which is here predicted. As the word 'day' includes "all" the time of the Messiah, or all his reign from his first to his second advent, it is not to be supposed that the event would take place when he was personally on earth. Isaiah saw it in vision, as "one" of the events which was to occur after the 'root of Jesse' should stand as an ensign to the nations."
Matthew Henry ; "...It had a further reference to the days of the Messiah and the accession of the Gentiles to his kingdom; for to these the apostle applies Isa_11:10, of which the following verses are a continuation. Rom_15:12, There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. That is a key to this prophecy, which speaks of Christ as the root of Jesse, or a branch out of his roots (Isa_11:1), a root out of a dry ground, Isa_53:2. He is the root of David (Rev_5:5), the root and offspring of David Rev_22:16.
1. He shall stand, or be set up, for an ensign of the people. When he was crucified he was lifted up from the earth, that, as an ensign of beacon, he might draw the eyes and the hearts of all men unto him, Joh_12:32. He is set up as an ensign in the preaching of the everlasting gospel, in which the ministers, as standard-bearers, ..under which we may enlist ourselves, to engage in a holy war against sin and Satan. Christ is the ensign to which the children of God that were scattered abroad are gathered together (Joh_11:51), and in him they meet as the centre of their unity.
2. To him shall the Gentiles seek. We read of Greeks that did so (Joh_12:21, We would see Jesus), and upon that occasion Christ spoke of his being lifted up, to draw all men to him. The apostle, from the Septuagint (or perhaps the Septuagint from the apostle, in the editions after Christ) reads it (Rom_15:12), In him shall the Gentiles trust; they shall seek to him with a dependence on him.
3. His rest shall be glorious. Some understand this of the death of Christ (the triumphs of the cross made even that glorious), others of his ascension, when he sat down to rest at the right hand of God. Or rather it is meant of the gospel church, that Mount Zion of which Christ has said, This is my rest, and in which he resides. This, though despised by the world, having upon it the beauty of holiness, is truly glorious, a glorious high throne, Jer_17:12.
4. Both Jews and Gentiles shall be gathered to him, Isa_11:11. A remnant of both, a little remnant in comparison, which shall be recovered, as it were, with great difficulty and hazard. As formerly God delivered his people, and gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered (Psa_106:47; Jer_16:15, Jer_16:16), so he will a second time, in another way, by the powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the word. He shall set his hand to do it; he shall exert his power, the arm of the Lord shall be revealed to do it. (1.) There shall be a remnant of the Jews gathered in: The outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah (Isa_11:12), many of whom, at the time of the bringing of them in to Christ, were Jews of the dispersion, the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad (Jam_1:1; 1Pe_1:1), shall flock to Christ; and probably more of those scattered Jews were brought into the church, in proportion, than of those which remained in their own land. (2.) Many of the nations, the Gentiles, shall be brought in by the lifting up of the ensign. Jacob foretold concerning Shiloh that to him should the gathering of the people be. Those that were strangers and foreigners shall be made nigh. The Jews were jealous of Christ's going to the dispersed among the Gentiles and of his teaching the Gentiles, John_7:35..."