CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 12
FER I think we saw last time a certain progress in these chapters. Chapter 11 does not in itself go beyond the Jew. It brings in the kingdom, as it were, in the place of John the baptist’s testimony, and Christianity in place of the mighty works of Christ, but does not in itself go beyond the Jew. It is in this chapter that Christ becomes the hope of the Gentiles and breaks His covenant with Israel.
Ques Does He give a sign of it by His action on the sabbath?
FER That gives the sign of it, but I think He breaks it at the end of the chapter.
Rem Everything was ‘common’ in the days of David, because the Lord’s anointed was in rejection.
FER This chapter goes further than the eleventh. That gives the rejection of Christ, but here we get the [p. 83] unpardonable sin, they attribute the works of the Spirit to Beelzebub.
Rem So you get the nation viewed as apostate, and then those in spiritual relationship with Christ, “whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
FER But to enter upon this new relationship, Christ breaks with His kindred after the flesh. The nation was an evil and adulterous generation, “a wicked generation”. The early part of the chapter shows that He was entirely in the thought and mind of God, and He becomes the hope of the Gentiles: “in his name shall the Gentiles trust”.
Ques At what verse does the break come?
FER I think the Lord takes the ground of being rejected all through the chapter. He justifies what the disciples do by what David did. It is all paving the way for what comes out in the next chapter, that is, the form which the kingdom was to take. Until Christ had broken all association with Israel after the flesh, you could not have the kingdom as in the next chapter. The field is the world. There is no special place for the Jew.
Rem After He has broken with them, He goes out and sits by the sea.
FER Yes; no doubt all is in anticipation. I think the blind and dumb man out of whom the devil was cast was a kind of crucial case. The people said, “Is not this the son of David?” but the Pharisees said it was by Beelzebub. Asking for a sign after that was like a man colour blind asking you to show him something blue.
Ques Does not the sea represent the nations, and the Lord taking His place in the ship mean going out to them?
FER Well, I think He left all the order after the flesh, and presents Himself in a totally different [p. 84] character; the point in the next chapter is, “the sower”, and “the field is the world”.
Rem It was a new beginning.
FER In a certain sense the old closes up. The great subject of Matthew is the kingdom of heaven. In chapter 13 the Lord begins de novo with the disciples. I think there was a special covenant made with Israel in Christ coming after the flesh; it was not the first covenant, it was a special covenant. They had lost everything under the law and the prophets, yet in spite of all that, Christ came; this is referred to in Zechariah, and that He breaks all association with Israel, He refuses all claim of His kindred. It was like beginning with them afresh, and now He breaks that covenant; but then I think it is all in view of the form which the kingdom was to take in the world irrespective of the Jew, it is a question of the children of the kingdom produced by sowing the word.
Rem Both John the baptist and Christ had come, there had been the mourning and the piping, but there had been no response.
FER There is the complete refusal of the testimony of Christ and John, but this chapter goes further, the Pharisees conspire to take away the Lord’s life. They were the responsible and moral heads of the people. The generation is doomed as an evil and adulterous generation.
Rem And now the Lord rejects them.
Rem After the demon was cast out, the people say, “Is not this the son of David?” They ought to have known, there was sufficient testimony.
Ques Do you mean that Christ came in the time of mercy?
FER Yes; you cannot conceive anything more wonderful than that, after everything had been forfeited under law and prophets, Christ came to them.
Ques What passage in Zechariah do you refer to?
FER [p. 85] Where He cuts asunder the staff Beauty, that He might break the covenant with the peoples; this is no new thought at all.
Rem It is very important to see it, because otherwise you do not apprehend the blessed character of the Lord’s coming.
FER The two essential points of the chapter are, that He becomes the object, the hope of the Gentiles, and the covenant of His connection with Israelis broken. Unless you see this, you have not room for the kingdom, as in the next chapter, to come in.
Rem The Lord’s action is inexplicable apart from this.
Ques Does that passage, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice”, show that the Lord came in the way of mercy?
FER I think it indicates that the Pharisees were not at all in the mind of God, but the Lord was. After all, a sabbath not characterised by mercy cannot be a sabbath according to God.
Rem The nation really was in the state described by the ox or ass fallen into a pit.
FER Yes, and their own actions condemned them, for I imagine they were in the habit of showing mercy to the brute creation on the sabbath.
Rem David speaks of things having become common because of his need.
FER The sabbath lost all its holy character when Christ was rejected.
Ques How did the priests profane the sabbath?
FER By offering sacrifices; the service of God takes the first place, the temple service justified it, and here was One greater than the temple. Here all was premonitory to the break-up of the legal system; in a legal system the sabbath had a character in keeping with it, it had a legal character, but the way in which the Lord alludes to it shows that it was about to be broken up.
[p. 86] Rem The leaders of the people had no conception of the state of things, morally all for Israel was gone, and to talk about keeping the sabbath was really ignoring the moral state of things.
FER And here they were rejecting the One greater than the temple.
Ques Is the Lord seen here as the Shepherd about to lead the sheep out?
FER That really was the thought from the beginning, but it is the peculiarity of the gospel of John, that it does not take up the people on their responsibility; but it was the divine thought to lead the sheep out, Christ came for that, the divine purpose is shown in it. Here He goes into the fold and tests those who were there.
Ques What is the force of verse 8, is that another ground?
FER I think it is that the sabbath was to have the character of grace, the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath.
Ques Is that for justifying the disciples?
FER Yes; the Lord says, “if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (verses 7, 8). The legal system was put under angels, but the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath; it is a very important point to see that the system of grace is brought in by the Son of man; the world to come is subject to the Son of man and is brought in by Him; that is the teaching of Hebrews 2.
Ques Were the disciples guiltless because He was rejected?
FER They were morally guiltless, it was a very different case from that of the man gathering sticks on the sabbath day, that was simply profanity; but here the disciples were hungry. I think the Lord [p. 87] allowed it, for He did not stop them, to show what the state of things was.
Rem Then the point is, that He had rights above the sabbath.
FER If the world to come is put under Him, the sabbath is, everything is put under Him. I think it is a terrible thing in a world of suffering and woe that men should condemn the doing of good. An institution like the sabbath could not stop the doing of good, it is right to do well; the sabbath took a legal character under law, but that could not stop God from doing good.
Rem It was not much of a sabbath to the man with the withered hand.
Rem It is the religious leaders who oppose Christ.
FER I think nothing can be more beautiful than to see Christ retiring into the good pleasure of Jehovah (verses 16 - 21). You see the Pharisees take counsel, but Jesus withdraws.
Rem And there was no suspension of power in blessing all that came to Him.
Ques Does the Lord justify the disciples on the ground that the true David was rejected, just as David and his men were justified when they ate the shewbread, being hungry?
FER It has often been said that when the anointed of God was hunted about like a partridge on the mountains, there was no value in the religious system; everything hangs on the anointed of God, in fact the nation stands or falls by the anointed, the idea of it is grace coming in in power.
Rem And now the Lord no longer presses His rights, but goes on in His path of goodness.
FER Yes; but He has His compensation.
Ques Do you mean in the pleasure of Jehovah?
FER Yes. “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen”, etc. He is to show judgment to the Gentiles, and finally in His name the [p. 88] Gentiles trust.
Rem That is introduced to show there was a change.
FER And to place Christ in relation to the Gentiles, to widen the field, the field is enlarged in that way.
Ques What is the object of introducing this quotation here?
FER To show the Lord retiring from Israel into the good pleasure of Jehovah, but becoming an object of hope to the Gentiles.
Ques What is the application of the bruised reed and the smoking flax?
FER I have been accustomed to think it represented the condition of Israel.
Rem That is, He does not interfere with it, lets it go on.
FER “Till he send forth judgment unto victory”. The powers of evil are not put down publicly yet, but God will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.
Rem I thought the word ‘till’ showed that He would quench it by-and-by. He is waiting now.
Ques “In his name shall the Gentiles trust” takes in present and future, I suppose?
FER An application in principle is sometimes given to Scripture when the direct application is not in view; the principle is brought in here. We are Gentiles and He is the object of our trust, but I do not think that He has shown judgment to the Gentiles yet.
Ques What do you think that means?
FER When He comes again, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Ques And glorify God for His mercy?
FER Yes; and yet that very passage is applied to the present time, such scriptures are quoted as having an application in the present time, though their fulfilment is future.
[p. 89] Rem Verses 19 and 20 is a policy of non-interference until the Lord comes again.
FER Yes, I think so; and then we have the state of the leaders of Israel set forth in the possessed with the devil, blind and dumb. They were blind and dumb as far as the Lord was concerned. The Lord was there willing to heal. The man with the withered hand is connected with the sabbath question. I think that the Lord shows that mercy is to characterise the sabbath according to God. I do not think that in the millennium they will lose the sense of the mercy of God, it will characterise the sabbath then. He is Lord of the sabbath, and He disposes of the sabbath as He sees fit, that is in mercy. It is a principle that whenever you get a people in relationship with God they have the sabbath. There was the sabbath before the law was given. The manna was not to be gathered on the sabbath day, and that was before the law. What we as Christians have got is the first day of the week. They tried to do away with the sabbath at the French Revolution, but it would not work. In mercy to man God gave one day in seven. They wanted in the Revolution to break every sign of relationship with God, but it would not do. The sabbath was made for man, not for the Jew only. The Pharisees here raised the question of the power by which Christ wrought, and their answer brings out their complete apostasy, there is no forgiveness for it.
Rem And then follows “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit”.
FER They crown it by asking for a sign; they first prove that they are completely blind, and then ask for a sign.
Rem And in face of that wickedness, mercy was [p. 90] displayed before their eyes; the Lord was in the spirit of that verse, “I will have mercy”. They were on the ground of sacrifice.
FER Yes; the Lord was in the spirit of all that. He was in the mind of God. The sacrifice is no pleasure to God, He delights in mercy. The sacrifice is something which a man thinks he can offer to God, the idea was that of Cain, that man could render something to God. When we offer the sacrifice of praise, we give back to God of His own.
Rem So that they are seen not only breaking the law, losing everything on that ground, but they reject His mercy.
FER What more could be done for them when they attribute to Beelzebub the power by which Christ wrought, the only power which could deliver them from evil? It was impossible for God to go further with them. The sign of the prophet Jonas was a sign of death and resurrection, it closed all.
Rem You get the cross and the glory brought together in that way in Jonah and the queen of the south.
FER But both the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south would rise up in judgment and condemn them. The Lord then goes on to show what the end of that generation would be, that is, that the spirit of idolatry would return with sevenfold power, and their last state be worse than the first. The last form of idolatry will be the worst that has ever been. The kingdom of God had come to them. It was the sway or power of God, that is, a power had come in in Christ superior to everything here. Generally it is the kingdom of heaven that is mentioned in Matthew, but three or four times we get the kingdom of God.
Rem We get the judgment and the glory of God established in Jonas [p. 91] and Solomon.
FER The point for the Jew was that people with less light will rise up in judgment against them. The Lord was greater than Jonas as a prophet and greater than Solomon in wisdom.
Ques Was the Son of man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to be a sign to that generation?
Rem The testimony of Jonas was given after he had been in the whale’s belly.
FER Quite so, and so the death of Christ is presented to them in testimony after His death and resurrection.
Rem But the sign is one thing and the testimony another.
FER The one who testifies is Himself the sign. That is what I understand by Christ being the power of God and the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians. To the Greeks it is foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling-block, but none the less Christ is the sign of God’s intervention on man’s behalf.
Ques Will you say a word as to what the sin against the Holy Spirit was?
FER It is very simple to understand, it is when a man attributes to the evil one the very power of God by which alone he could be delivered from that evil one.
Rem It must be wilful.
Ques What is the application now? It is possible to commit such a sin now, is it not?
FER I think so; suppose you get people converted under the preaching of the word, and there is opposition, and opposers attribute the change to the power of Satan, it would be like it.
Rem It must be a sin against light, a wilful sin, not mere ignorance.
Ques This has never forgiveness. What about “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”?
FER I think that was against the Son of man and another opportunity was given them.
Ques What is referred to by the words, “By whom do your children cast them out”?
FER I think there was some sort of exorcism going on.
Ques Do you think they cast out demons?
FER Yes.
Rem Well, then it must have been by divine power.
FER Quite so, they did not attribute that to the devil, but Christ’s casting out they did. Then comes the close of the chapter, and what is important to note there, as we saw, is that the Lord breaks with His kindred and establishes a relation between Himself and the disciples; the disciples now come into view; in the next chapter it is no longer a question of testimony to the nation, the disciples are the initiated.
Ques What do you think the passage, “That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof” means?
FER It is just that kind of profane, wanton word, a word of such a character as they had been speaking; it is not the sense of idle word as we often understand it, it is a strong expression, and refers, I think, to words like the words of the Pharisees.
Rem You must read it in the light of its context, because everything they said was against the plainest testimony.
FER I do not suppose at the bottom of their heart they believed what they said.
Rem Something like the story they invented about the resurrection, but the Lord shows the folly of it.
FER It is a remarkable thing in connection with the ministry of the Lord that everything was completely measured: here He says, “A house divided against itself shall not stand”.