In Matt. 9:1-8, all the power of the enemy against man is brought into the presence of the Lord in the case of the paralytic; moral disease in the scribes, physical and spiritual disease in the paralytic, thus severally manifested and dealt with by the Lord. But by saving man from the last, He brings out the first, in smiting which He takes opportunity to deliver from the second. But this exhibition of power altogether disconcerts the upholders of the religious system in authority, and provokes jealousy which causes them to oppose the work of God, using the word and name. of God as a pretext. (Matt. 9:3 and 34.) They first hold aloof themselves (1 Sam. 14:18, 19; Matt. 9:3), and then openly oppose it, preventing the people from reaping the benefit of it. (1 Sam. 14:24; Matt. 9:34, 36; 12:24, 37.) The two cases of the sick of the palsy and Matthew the publican show the result of the Lord's spiritual work. “Jesus” —the One who should save His people from their sins—upon those who, though His people, yet were enslaved and oppressed by the world and the flesh—when the paralytic is brought to Him, He immediately delivers him from his spiritual bondage; for though quickened in soul—for Jesus calls him son or child—he was as helpless for good in spirit as in body, by reason of the fleshly religious power (scribes and Pharisees, Matt. 9:8—occupiers of Moses' seat, Philistines; 1 Sam. 14:21) which kept him in deadly fear lest after all he should be among the last. Jesus therefore at once says to him, “Be of good courage, child: thy sins are forgiven,” changing him thereby from a man of doubt and fear to a man of faith, turning him from being the enemy's slave to be His own free man: from henceforth to smite the foe by glorifying God. (Matt. 9:1, 9; Luke 5:20, 27; compare 1 Sam. 14:21.)
Passing from thence Jesus sees a man named Matthew, a quickened soul (for Jesus never spoke in the way He did to Matthew to any but men of faith), but hindered, and hidden, and choked (1 Sam. 14:22) by the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this life, the power of the world (Ephraim, the fruitfulness of the earth). He delivers him in an instant from all his foes by a word. He says, “Follow me,” and leaving all he rises up and follows Him. So that from that time he likewise becomes a smiter of the Philistines together doubtless with many others like him (Matt. 9:9, 10), “following hard after them in the battle.”
In Matt. 5; 6:7, Jesus is seen to be the Messiah—the Prophet, with power and authority on earth to reveal the truth and mind of God, but to be rejected by the Jewish system which claimed that place for itself—the power of interpreting the word. (Compare Matt. 7:28, 29; 1 Sam. 10:8; 13:8, 12.) In Matt. 8; 9, He manifests Himself as the Priest come to make intercession for the transgressors, being in His own person all that was shown forth in the ark of God Himself the mercy-seat, the Spirit of God abiding on Him, and the glory of God shining forth from Him; being in Himself the Bread of life, the fulfilling of the law and the only lawful possessor of priestly power. (Compare Matt. 8:17; 9:6, 12, 18; 1 Sam. 14:18, 19.) Again is He rejected as such by the Jewish system, for what do the Pharisees want with a Physician seeing that they are strong and not ill? or what need had they of a Priest, for they were righteous men, not sinners? Further on (Matt. 9:18, 34) He is shown to be a Prince and a Savior, Lord of all power and might, with all power given unto Him in heaven and earth; and the Heir to whom the inheritance belongs, but His claims denied and Himself blasphemously rejected by the Pharisees, though they were their own judges in pretending to do the same things themselves.
This course of things is exactly paralleled in the history of Saul. He first usurps the place of Samuel the prophet, the one who had power with God to reveal God's mind and obtain deliverance on the ground of personal merit; thus, rejecting Samuel, he is himself rejected. He must dispense with the priests and the ark of God, really treating them as unnecessary things, though making a great show of reverence for them; talking to the priest but neither inquiring by them of God, nor waiting for a message from Him; but saying to the priest, as though finding Him a hindrance instead of a help, “Withdraw thy hand,” and hurrying of to the battle without him. (See 1 Sam. 14:18-20.) At last, puffed up by pride, he is found casting out and ready to slay the prince—the heir of his kingdom, the one who had proved that he had power from God who “had wrought this great salvation in Israel—who had wrought with God this day.” (See 1 Sam. 14:38-45.)
In Matt. 5; 6:7, Jesus attacks the enemy on the ground of the word, and drives him completely from all his positions; showing Himself therein as the Prophet, the revealer of the mind of God. In Matt. 8; 9:1, 18, He manifests His priestly power in the cleansing, healing, and casting out the demons, “taking our infirmities and bearing our diseases” (chap. 8:17), granting forgiveness of sins (chap. 9:16), healing the sick in soul; having mercy not sacrifice—having to do with sinners, not with righteous (chap. 9: 12, 18).
From Matt. 9:14-34, these lines of character are gathered up, and the third ground of authority, that of King of Israel, brought in, only to be more decisively rejected than ever by those who were leaders of the people. From verses 14-17, He reveals Himself as the Prophet, not repairing the old thing but bringing a new blessing from God and new vessels to contain it. From verses 19-22 He is seen as the Priest, the Priest after God, not contracting defilement by contact with the polluted, but communicating cleanness from Himself, who because He was the sacrifice could as Priest bring unto God on the ground of atonement every unclean one that touched Him by faith. This is linked in with His position as Messiah the King of Israel (see Matt. 18:23-34), where He raises the dead, gives sight to the blind, and casts out the demons by virtue of His kingly authority, the Anointed One of the Lord, the Son of David.
In Matt. 5; 6:7, the Lord takes an attitude of resistance and defense, driving the enemy from God's ground in the old things, which they had falsely occupied (1 Sam. 13:1, 5; Michmash— “hidden treasures;” Bethel— “house of God"), namely, the word; in chapter viii., from the man of faith; in chapter 9:1-18 from quickened souls. In chapter 9:14-17 the principle of the new thing is established and from that vantage-ground the Lord goes out to attack the enemy in his own stronghold (1 Sam. 14:28: Beth-aven— “house of vanity"); the unclean touches the clean unbidden and goes away cleansed (vers. 19-22); life comes into the presence of the dead one and the rises up (ver. 26): the blind pursue the seeing One and receive sight; the dumb demoniac brought to Him is delivered and speaks.
From chapter ix. 87, 88; x., the new thing is fully brought out—the kingdom of the heavens—its conditions and characteristics enunciated and described, its work appointed and its path marked out. In chapter 11: 2-16 the last stragglers are brought up and the tremblers that lingered in their biding places brought out; in chapter 11:16-19 the last enemy is smitten from God's ground (chap. 11:20-24), the battle carried over their own territory—hypocrisy laid bare, and unbelief and hardness of heart visited with destroying judgment. (Chap. 11:25-80.)
Jesus gathers up all His work: Prophet of the Father; Priest to God the Father; King from the Father. The Prophet-witness to the Father as the Lord of the heaven and the earth, the present Revealer of the Father to the babe of faith; the King in the Father's power over all things; the Father's Son unknown of the world witnessing of Him as its Lord; the Son known personally of the Father and personally knowing the Father, revealing Him in the same personal knowledge and relationship to the babe of faith; the Son of the Father invested with all the Father's authority and power to bring all things in subjection to His yoke of love and peace and blessing. In His whole work, character, a person rejected of man but owned of God and of faith; proved to be of God by His manifested power; acknowledged by the crowds who groaned under the bondage imposed upon them by their religious leaders, being harassed and weary as sheep not having a shepherd—led into a desert of stones and not into green pastures and still waters; all soul-good denied them, and instead only burdens laid upon their shoulders by those who, though destitute of spiritual power themselves, yet coveted to be the acknowledged exponents of God's truth to the world, in order to which end they labored to keep in abject submission those who owned their sway (Matt. 9:35, 36; 1 Sam. 14:24-26); who now gladly crowded after One bringing spiritual power, and by it bodily deliverance, and, withal rest, and liberty.
The mind is lost in wonder when considering the great salvation as to earthly things which the Lord wrought in Israel (Matt. 10); unclean spirits cast out, every disease and bodily weakness healed (ver. 1); the dead raised, the lepers cleansed (ver. 8), demons cast out; but the Lord shows that notwithstanding this His mission by His disciples would seem to fail, and they themselves be rejected through hypocrisy and unbelief and the prejudice of system. Yet through it all the remnant of faith would obtain deliverance, those who amidst conflicting counsels and the strife of men clung to Him alone, leaving with them the comforting assurance for their individual souls that no act of faith, however small, could pass unheeded since it was ministered to Himself.
In Matt. 11 the power of system over the human mind is strikingly set forth. There the one most in the mind of God and least oppressed by the tradition of men yet belonging to the old thing—the system owned of God—is so influenced by the current of thought among those with whom his lot is cast that he hesitates to take for his soul's comfort and nourishment the blessed sweet truth that He had come, even the Christ who was sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and had power on earth to save from grief and evil in spirit, soul, or body those who should trust in Him. It is John who came neither eating nor drinking, and scarcely daring to stretch out his hand to take of the sweet spiritual blessings though in owning the Christ he had a right to all.
But the Son of man came eating and drinking, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners, enjoying all the blessings in the land as from God and unto Him, using all for His glory, and as means and opportunities to smite the enemy (compare Matt. 11; 1 Sam. 14:24-30). At this time the moment has arrived (Matt. 12:1-8) for the Son of man to manifest Himself in His full authority as Lord of all. Even to the house of God, the temple, and the sabbath, with authority and commission from God to sweep away all the vain imaginations of men, and to break down human devices in the things of God and upon the ground of being Lord of all, and in particular the Chief and Captain of His people, answerable for them in everything, and they alone responsible to Him, does He reply to the captious fault-finding and envy of the Pharisees. As speaking for the people He quotes the same scripture in Matt. 9:18, in proof of His right to call sinners, namely, that Jehovah had willed to have mercy upon those who had no claim in law or righteousness upon Him for the sake of His priest. And now He quotes this scripture (chap. 12: 7) in connection with David's obtaining the show-bread for himself and men, to prove to the Pharisees that they had no right to question the actions of His followers since God had willed to have mercy upon all who owned Him, and really dealt with Him alone as Head and Chief and Lord, responsible and accountable for all things done in His name, and by those owning His sway. It was not merely that the act was a guiltless one, in itself, by-and-by if it had been a guilty one, He was prepared to take the charge and consequences and responsibility of it upon Himself.
Having thus utterly routed the enemy, working by the world and the flesh in the things of God, at every point where a stand had been made, the Lord now pursues His victory still farther, carrying the battle into the synagogues on the sabbath day. (Compare 1 Sam. 14:31; Matt. 12:9, &c. Ajalon— “of a stag,” the place of a clean animal delighting in high places. So a synagogue was a place for refreshing and communion, a place of delight for those clean before the Lord.) It is here the crowning victory on Jewish ground takes place and is the occasion of the evil heart of man for the first time consciously compassing the death of Jesus; thus unconsciously beginning to work out the pre-determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Just so it was by reason of the people enjoying the fruits of Jonathan's victory, without acknowledging that the life was forfeited to God, thus bringing the curse of God upon Israel that caused Saul to compass Jonathan's death, falsely supposing that it was the breaking of his command that had caused God's face to be turned away.
If 1 Sam. 14:24-46 be compared with Matt. 12:1-22, the workings of the spirit of evil in the evil heart of unbelief against the man of faith—Jesus are clearly seen. Jesus is therein exhibited tasting the sweets of the power which God had given Him as Son of man, His Anointed One, to deliver His people from the power of evil. Just as honey was one of God's promised blessings to His people in the land, so was deliverance from sin, sickness, disease, and death God's promised blessings by His Messiah; and had the people but been willing to take freely of these, great would have been the salvation wrought in Israel and great the triumph over all their enemies; instead of which, blinded by the false teaching of their rulers, and their own unbelief, they repented not; they refused to be saved from their sins (Matt. 11:20-24), though willing enough to participate in their own fleshly way in the mere earthly blessings which came in as part of the results of the Lord's work as Son of man; grasping them as fleshly men and not receiving them as those whose lives were forfeited to God.
But the Lord would not permit them to deal with Him as to His claims in this fleshly way. He would not commit Himself to them, for He knew what was in man. Therefore when He had healed great crowds, He charged them that they should not make Him publicly known, in order that He might be just the meek and silent One, with gentlest touch and lightest footfall, before He brought forth His judicial victory as anointed Son of God. And when they would have taken Him to make Him king, He departed by Himself alone into the mountain to pray, and causes many of His disciples to go away back and walk no more with Him by telling them that none can come to Him except it were given them of His Father.
But like Saul the rulers of the Jewish system had a plan whereby to remedy this reveling in the things of the flesh which spread through all the people, little knowing that the remedy was as fleshly as the sin, namely, to multiply their religious duties—to observe with severest straitness all the law, maxims, customs, traditions, and observances; to roll a great stone of work and labor, not for God but man. And when these fleshly commands were obeyed and earthly things were brought under the sanction of the worldly religious system, then one might take his fill of flesh, unawed by the fact that God's wrathful judgment because of broken law hung over them.
But Jesus takes occasion by the healing of a blind and dumb man possessed by a demon to show the principles of His kingdom, opposed as it is to the power of Satan, and the power by which it is made for men and in man—the Holy Spirit—and the character of those who shall be found inheriting it when He shall come to take possession in that day of judgment unto victory. (Matt. 12:22-37.) The Lord then shows that the dreaded place of death, the valley of hell, the heart—of the earth must encompass Him ere He can take His kingdom, and that this generation would be condemned in that day since they refused to be identified with Him in that place, but chose rather to delight themselves as men in the flesh with fleshly things; and therefore when He should reign in peace and glory they should be east out into the forsaken place while many far-off ones should be brought nigh.
This period of His ministry concludes with a solemn description of the condition of Israel, associating it with the case of the dumb man possessed by a demon whom He had healed. It shows that since they would reject the indwelling Spirit—out of envy speaking injuriously of Him, therefore the great work which He Himself had wrought in their midst would be rendered abortive and that the sweeping and beautifying of the empty house, however they might boast of it, would but render them a more attractive abode to the powers of evil and the more fit instrument for the exhibition of his perfect power. (Matt. 12:38-45.)
Then He points plainly to those who should inherit with Him His kingdom by association with Himself in His work for them and persons who like Himself should be the rejected ones, who would have been the means of deliverance to. Israel but who should become their supplanters because of their unbelief. Having in plain unmistakable words pointed out what should characterize those who are to enter into His kingdom, namely, doers of His Father's will, being identified with Him in the work of which Jonas was the sign (vers. 38-42; 46-50), Jesus next proceeds to lay the same thing before the people in parables, showing the reason for the failure in, the earthly thing was not in the word, but in the people; that the same power that had wrought so mightily hitherto could continue the work until not a foe remained, but it needed faith and so long as there was unbelief and sin unjudged among the people God, would not answer nor deliver them. (Compare 1 Sam. 14:26, 37; Matt. 13:1-28.)
(To be continued, if the Lord wilt)