Revised
Common Lectionary - Third Sunday in Lent, 23 March 2014 & Annunciation of
the Lord for Tuesday, 25 March 2014
PRAYER:
Thematic
God of
wilderness and water,
your
Son was baptized and tempted as we are.
Guide
us through this season,
that we
may not avoid struggle,
but
open ourselves to blessing,
through
the cleansing depths of repentance
and the
heaven-rending words of the Spirit. Amen.
OR
Artist
of souls,
you
sculpted a people for yourself
out of
the rocks of wilderness and fasting.
Help us
as we take up your invitation to prayer and simplicity,
that
the discipline of these forty days
may
sharpen our hunger for the feast of your holy friendship,
and
whet our thirst for the living water you offer
through
Jesus Christ. Amen.
OR
God of
the covenant,
in the
glory of the cross
your
Son embraced the power of death
and
broke its hold over your people.
In this
time of repentance,
draw
all people to yourself,
that we
who confess Jesus as Lord
may put
aside the deeds of death
and
accept the life of your kingdom. Amen.
OR
God of
the living,
through
baptism we pass from the shadow of death
to the
light of the resurrection.
Remain
with us and give us hope
that,
rejoicing in the gift of the Spirit
who
gives life to our mortal flesh,
we may
be clothed with the garment of immortality,
through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Intercessory
Faithful
God of love,
you
blessed us with your servant Son
so that
we might know how to serve your people
with
justice and with mercy.
We
gather the needs of ourselves and others,
and
offer them to you in faith and love,
seeking
to be strengthened to meet them.
Prayers
of the People, concluding with:
Shape
us and transform us by your grace,
that we
may grow in wisdom and in confidence,
never
faltering until we have done all that you desire
to
bring your realm of shalom to fulfillment. Amen.
Scripture
Enduring
Presence,
goal
and guide,
you go
before and await our coming.
Only
our thirst compels us
beyond
complaint to conversation,
beyond
rejection to relationship.
Pour
your love into our hearts,
that,
refreshed and renewed,
we may
invite others to the living water
given
to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lectionary
Scriptures:
Exodus
17:1 All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the
wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh’s commandment, and
encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses
said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”
3 The
people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and
said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and
our livestock with thirst?”
4 Moses
cried to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost
ready to stone me.”
5
Yahweh said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel
with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike
the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did
so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the name of the place
Massah,[a] and Meribah,[b] because the children of Israel quarreled, and
because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”
Footnotes:
a.
Exodus 17:7 Massah means testing.
b.
Exodus 17:7 Meribah means quarreling.
Psalm
95:1 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our
salvation!
2 Let’s
come before his presence with thanksgiving.
Let’s extol him with songs!
3 For
Yahweh is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
4 In
his hand are the deep places of the earth.
The heights of the mountains are also his.
5 The
sea is his, and he made it.
His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh
come, let’s worship and bow down.
Let’s kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,
7 for
he is our God.
We are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep in his care.
Today,
oh that you would hear his voice!
8 Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
9 when
your fathers tempted me,
tested me, and saw my work.
10
Forty long years I was grieved with that generation,
and said, “It is a people that errs in their
heart.
They have not known my ways.”
11
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They won’t enter into my rest.”
Romans
5:1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ; 2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace
in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only this, but
we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:
5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were yet
weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die
for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare
to die. 8 But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much
more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath
through him. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by
his life.
11 Not
only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom
we have now received the reconciliation.
John
4:5:1 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground
that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore,
being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth
hour.[a] 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a
drink.” 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 The
Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask
for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans.)
10
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to
you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you
living water.”
11 The
woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
So where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father,
Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his children, and
his livestock?”
13
Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again;
but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing
up to eternal life.”
15 The
woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty,
neither come all the way here to draw.”
16
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The
woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus
said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five
husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said
truly.”
19 The
woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers
worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place
where people ought to worship.”
21
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. 22 You worship that
which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the
Jews. 23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The
woman said to him, “I know that The Messiah comes, he who is called The Christ.
When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
26
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.” 27 At this, his
disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one
said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” 28 So the
woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
29 “Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?”
30 They
went out of the city, and were coming to him. 31 In the meanwhile, the
disciples urged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But
he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”
33 The
disciples therefore said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to
eat?”
34
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to
accomplish his work. 35 Don’t you say, ‘There are yet four months until the
harvest?’ Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that
they are white for harvest already. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers
fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice
together. 37 For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38
I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and
you have entered into their labor.”
39 From
that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the
woman, who testified, “He told me everything that I did.” 40 So when the
Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two
days. 41 Many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman,
“Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves,
and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Footnotes:
a. John
4:6 noon
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Annunciation
of the Lord for Tuesday, 25 March 2014
PRAYER:
Thematic
O God,
we
rejoice in your salvation,
for
your Spirit brought to life in Mary
the one
who saves your people from their sins.
Send
your Spirit on your church
to
quicken all that is barren in us,
that we
may give birth to Christ
for our
world today. Amen.
Intercessory
O
Loving One,
your
daughter Mary prayed to be your faithful servant.
Hear
the prayers of our hearts on behalf of your world.
Prayers
of the People, concluding with:
Ever-surprising
One,
as your
messenger came to Mary
with
words of your favor
and the
pledge of wondrous new life,
may we,
in our day,
prove
ourselves
as
ready to serve you,
and as
willing to bear the life you offer,
for the
blessing of our world. Amen.
Scripture
God of
impossibilities,
you
chose to enter human flesh
through
the one who called herself lowly.
Teach
us who daily receive announcements of Christ's coming
to live
as Mary did,
trusting
in your power
to
bring your desire to fulfillment. Amen.
Lectionary
Scriptures:
Isaiah
7: 10 Yahweh
spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either
in the depth, or in the height above.”
12 But
Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.”
13 He
said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience
of men, that you will try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.[a]
Footnotes:
a. Isaiah
7:14 “Immanuel” means “God with us”.
Psalm
45: For the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A contemplation by the sons of
Korah. A wedding song.
1 My
heart overflows with a noble theme.
I recite my verses for the king.
My tongue is like the pen of a skillful
writer.
2 You
are the most excellent of the sons of men.
Grace has anointed your lips,
therefore God has blessed you forever.
3 Strap
your sword on your thigh, mighty one:
your splendor and your majesty.
4 In
your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and
righteousness.
Let your right hand display awesome deeds.
5 Your
arrows are sharp.
The nations fall under you, with arrows in
the heart of the king’s enemies.
6 Your
throne, God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of equity is the scepter of your
kingdom.
7 You
have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
8 All
your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia.
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments
have made you glad.
9
Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women.
At your right hand the queen stands in gold
of Ophir.
10
Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear.
Forget your own people, and also your
father’s house.
11 So the king will desire your beauty,
honor him, for he is your lord.
12 The
daughter of Tyre comes with a gift.
The rich among the people entreat your
favor.
13 The
princess inside is all glorious.
Her clothing is interwoven with gold.
14 She
shall be led to the king in embroidered work.
The virgins, her companions who follow her,
shall be brought to you.
15 With
gladness and rejoicing they shall be led.
They shall enter into the king’s palace.
16 Your
sons will take the place of your fathers.
You shall make them princes in all the
earth.
17 I
will make your name to be remembered in all generations.
Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks
forever and ever.
Psalm
40:5 Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done,
and your thoughts which are toward us.
They
can’t be declared back to you.
If I would declare and speak of them, they
are more than can be numbered.
6
Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire.
You have opened my ears.
You have not required burnt offering and
sin offering.
7 Then
I said, “Behold, I have come.
It is written about me in the book in the
scroll.
8 I
delight to do your will, my God.
Yes, your law is within my heart.”
9 I
have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly.
Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh,
you know.
10 I
have not hidden your righteousness within my heart.
I have declared your faithfulness and your
salvation.
I have not concealed your loving kindness
and your truth from the great assembly.
Hebrews
10:4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away
sins. 5 Therefore when he comes into the world, he says,
“Sacrifice
and offering you didn’t desire,
but you prepared a body for me.
6 You
had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the
scroll of the book it is written of me)
to do your will, O God.’”[a]
8
Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those
which are offered according to the law), 9 then he has said, “Behold, I have
come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the
second, 10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Footnotes:
a. Hebrews
10:7 Psalm 40:6-8
Luke 1:26
Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of
Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose
name was Joseph, of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 Having come
in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with
you. Blessed are you among women!”
29 But
when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what
kind of salutation this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Behold, you will conceive in your
womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ 32 He will be
great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father, David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”
34 Mary
said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”
35 The
angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you
will be called the Son of God. 36 Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has
conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was
called barren. 37 For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”[a]
38 Mary
said, “Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your
word.”
The
angel departed from her.
Footnotes:
a. Luke
1:37 or, “For everything spoken by God is possible.”
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John
Wesley’s Notes/Commentary:
Third
Sunday in Lent
Exodus
17:1-7
XVII In
this chapter are recorded,
I. The
watering of the host of Israel. (1.) In the wilderness they wanted water, ver.
1. (2.) In their want they chide with Moses, ver. 2, 3. (3.) Moses cried to
God, ver. 4. (4.) God ordered him to smite the rock, and fetch water out of it;
and he did so, ver. 5, 6. (5.) The place named from it, ver. 7.
II. The
defeating of the host of Amalek. (1.) The victory obtained by the prayer of
Moses, ver. 8-12. (2.) By the sword of Joshua, ver. 13 (3.) A record kept of
it, ver.14-16.
Verse
1. They journeyed according to the commandment of the Lord, led by the pillar
of cloud and fire, and yet they came to a place where there was no water for
them to drink - We may be in the way of our duty, and yet meet with troubles,
which Providence brings us into for the trial of our faith.
Verse
5. Go on before the people - Though they spake of stoning him. He must take his
rod with him, not to summon some plague to chastise them, but to fetch water
for their supply. O the wonderful patience and forbearance of God towards
provoking sinners! He maintains those that are at war with him, and reaches out
the hand of his bounty to those that lift up the heel against him. If God had
only shewed Moses a fountain of water in the wilderness, as he did to Hagar,
not far from hence, Gen. xxi, 19, that had been a great favour; but that he
might shew his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he
gave them water out of a rock. He directed Moses whither to go, appointed him
to take of the elders of Israel with him, to be witnesses of what was done,
ordered him to smite the rock, which he did, and immediately water came out of
it in great abundance, which ran throughout the camp in streams and rivers,
Psalm lxxviii, 15, 16, and followed them wherever they went in that wilderness:
God shewed his care of his people in giving them water when they wanted it; his
own power in fetching it out of a rock, and put an honour upon Moses in
appointing the water to flow out upon his smiting of the rock. This fair water
that came out of the rock is called honey and oil, Deut. xxxii, 13, because the
people's thirst made it doubly pleasant; coming when they were in extreme want.
It is probable that the people digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools
for the reception of it. Let this direct us to live in a dependance,
1. Upon
God's providence even in the greatest straits and difficulties;
2. And
upon Christ's grace; that rock was Christ, 1 Cor. x, 4. The graces and comforts
of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living waters, John vii, 38, 39; iv,
14. These flow from Christ. And nothing will supply the needs and satisfy the
desires of a soul but water out of this rock. A new name was upon this occasion
given to the place, preserving the remembrance of their murmuring, Massah -
Temptation, because they tempted God, Meribah - Strife, because they chide with
Moses.
Psalm
95
PS 95
The author of this psalm was David, as is affirmed, Heb. iv, 7. It has a
special reference to the days of the Messiah; as it is understood by the
apostle, Heb. iii, 7, &c. and Heb. iv, 3-9. Herein we are called upon, to
praise God, as a great and gracious God, ver. 1-7. To hear God's voice, and not
harden our hearts, lest we fall as the Israelites did, ver. 8-11.
Verse
3. God's - Above all that are called God's angels, earthly potentates, and
especially the false gods of the Heathen.
Verse
4. Hand - Under his government. Strength - The strongest or highest mountains.
Verse
7. Pasture - Whom he feeds and keeps in his own pasture, or in the land which
he hath appropriated to himself. The sheep - Which are under his special care.
Today - Forthwith or presently.
Verse
8. Harden not - By obstinate unbelief. Provocation - In that bold and wicked
contest with God in the wilderness. Temptation - In the day in which you
tempted me.
Verse
9. Works - Both of mercy, and of justice.
Verse
10. Do err - Their hearts are insincere and bent to backsliding. Not known -
After all my teaching and discoveries of myself to them; they did not know, nor
consider, those great things which I had wrought for them.
Verse
11. My rest - Into the promised land, which is called the rest, Deut. xii, 9.
Romans
5:1-11
Verse
1. Being justified by faith - This is the sum of the preceding chapters. We
have peace with God - Being enemies to God no longer, ver. 10; neither fearing
his wrath, ver. 9. We have peace, hope, love, and power over sin, the sum of
the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters. These are the fruits of
justifying faith: where these are not, that faith is not.
Verse
2. Into this grace - This state of favour.
Verse
3. We glory in tribulations also - Which we are so far from esteeming a mark of
God's displeasure, that we receive them as tokens of his fatherly love, whereby
we are prepared for a more exalted happiness. The Jews objected to the
persecuted state of the Christians as inconsistent with the people of the
Messiah. It is therefore with great propriety that the apostle so often
mentions the blessings arising from this very thing.
Verse
4. And patience works more experience of the sincerity of our grace, and of
God's power and faithfulness.
Verse
5. Hope shameth us not - That is, gives us the highest glorying. We glory in
this our hope, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts - The divine
conviction of God's love to us, and that love to God which is both the earnest
and the beginning of heaven. By the Holy Ghost - The efficient cause of all
these present blessings, and the earnest of those to come.
Verse
6. How can we now doubt of God's love? For when we were without strength -
Either to think, will, or do anything good. In due time - Neither too soon nor
too late; but in that very point of time which the wisdom of God knew to be
more proper than any other. Christ died for the ungodly - Not only to set them
a pattern, or to procure them power to follow it. It does not appear that this
expression, of dying for any one, has any other signification than that of
rescuing the life of another by laying down our own.
Verse
7. A just man - One who gives to all what is strictly their due The good man -
One who is eminently holy; full of love, of compassion, kindness, mildness, of
every heavenly and amiable temper. Perhaps-one-would-even-dare to die - Every
word increases the strangeness of the thing, and declares even this to be
something great and unusual.
Verse
8. But God recommendeth - A most elegant expression. Those are wont to be
recommended to us, who were before either unknown to, or alienated from, us.
While we were sinners - So far from being good, that we were not even just.
Verse
9. By his blood - By his bloodshedding. We shall be saved from wrath through
him - That is, from all the effects of the wrath of God. But is there then
wrath in God? Is not wrath a human passion? And how can this human passion be
in God? We may answer this by another question: Is not love a human passion?
And how can this human passion be in God? But to answer directly: wrath in man,
and so love in man, is a human passion. But wrath in God is not a human passion;
nor is love, as it is in God. Therefore the inspired writers ascribe both the
one and the other to God only in an analogical sense.
Verse
10. If - As sure as; so the word frequently signifies; particularly in this and
the eighth chapter. We shalt be saved - Sanctified and glorified. Through his
life - Who "ever liveth to make intercession for us."
Verse
11. And not only so, but we also glory - The whole sentence, from the third to
the eleventh verse, may be taken together thus: We not only "rejoice in hope
of the glory of God," but also in the midst of tribulations we glory in
God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the
reconciliation.
John
4:5-42
Verse
5. Sychar - Formerly called Sichem or Shechem. Jacob gave - On his death bed,
Gen. xlviii, 22.
Verse
6. Jesus sat down - Weary as he was. It was the sixth hour - Noon; the heat of
the day.
Verse
7. Give me to drink - In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge
which the apostles were so long in attaining.
Verse 8.
For his disciples were gone - Else he needed not have asked her.
Verse
9. How dost thou - Her open simplicity appears from her very first words. The
Jews have no dealings - None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind
of favour from them.
Verse
10. If thou hadst known the gift - The living water; and who it is - He who
alone is able to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him - On those words the
stress lies. Water - In like manner he draws the allegory from bread, chap. vi,
27, and from light, viii, 12; the first, the most simple, necessary, common,
and salutary things in nature. Living water - The Spirit and its fruits. But
she might the more easily mistake his meaning, because living water was a
common phrase among the Jews for spring water.
Verse
12. Our father Jacob - So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a
mixture of many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of
the Israelites whom he had carried away captive, 2 Kings xvii, 24. Who gave us
the well - In Joseph their supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he
had no better water than this.
Verse
14. Will never thirst - Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be
miserable, dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it
will be the fault of the man, not the water. But the water that I shall give
him - The spirit of faith working by love, shall become in him - An inward
living principle, a fountain - Not barely a well, which is soon exhausted,
springing up into everlasting life - Which is a confluence, or rather an ocean
of streams arising from this fountain.
Verse
15. That I thirst not - She takes him still in a gross sense.
Verse
16. Jesus saith to her - He now clears the way that he might give her a better
kind of water than she asked for. Go, call thy husband - He strikes directly at
her bosom sin.
Verse
17. Thou hast well said - We may observe in all our Lord's discourses the
utmost weightiness, and yet the utmost courtesy.
Verse
18. Thou hast had five husbands - Whether they were all dead or not, her own
conscience now awakened would tell her.
Verse
19. Sir, I perceive - So soon was her heart touched.
Verse
20. The instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most
important of all questions. This mountain - Pointing to Mount Gerizim.
Sanballat, by the permission of Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon
Mount Gerizim, for Manasseh, who for marrying Sanballat's daughter had been
expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Neh. xiii, 28. This was the
place where the Samaritans used to worship in opposition to Jerusalem. And it
was so near Sychar, that a man's voice might be heard from the one to the
other. Our fathers worshipped - This plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob (from
whom the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy) who erected altars in
this place: Gen. xii, 6, 7, and Gen. xxxiii, 18, 20. And possibly to the whole
congregation, who were directed when they came into the land of Canaan to put
the blessing upon Mount Gerizim, Deut. xi, 29. Ye Jews say, In Jerusalem is the
place - Namely, the temple.
Verse
21. Believe me - Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and
that to a Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say
unto you. The hour cometh when ye - Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship
neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem - As preferable to any other place.
True worship shall be no longer confined to any one place or nation.
Verse
22. Ye worship ye know not what - Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the
place, but of the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a
fashion; but at the same time served their own gods, 2 Kings xvii, 33.
Salvation is from the Jews - So spake all the prophets, that the saviour should
arise out of the Jewish nation: and that from thence the knowledge of him
should spread to all nations under heaven.
Verse
23. The true worshippers shall worship the Father - Not here or there only, but
at all times and in all places.
Verse
24. God is a Spirit - Not only remote from the body, and all the properties of
it, but likewise full of all spiritual perfections, power, wisdom, love,
holiness. And our worship should be suitable to his nature. We should worship
him with the truly spiritual worship of faith, love, and holiness, animating
all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions.
Verse
25. The woman saith - With joy for what she had already learned, and desire of
fuller instruction.
Verse
26. Jesus saith - Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came. l am
He - Our Lord did not speak this so plainly to the Jews who were so full of the
Messiah's temporal kingdom. If he had, many would doubtless have taken up arms
in his favour, and others have accused him to the Roman governor. Yet he did in
effect declare the thing, though he denied the particular title. For in a
multitude of places he represented himself, both as the Son of man, and as the
Son of God: both which expressions were generally understood by the Jews as
peculiarly applicable to the Messiah.
Verse
27. His disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman - Which the Jewish
rabbis reckoned scandalous for a man of distinction to do. They marvelled
likewise at his talking with a woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly
hateful to the Jews. Yet none said - To the woman, What seekest thou? - Or to
Christ, Why talkest thou with her?
Verse
28. The woman left her water pot - Forgetting smaller things.
Verse
29. A man who told me all things that ever I did - Our Lord had told her but a
few things. But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the
rest. Is not this the Christ? - She does not doubt of it herself, but incites
them to make the inquiry.
Verse
31. In the meantime - Before the people came.
Verse
34. My meat - That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul.
Verse
35. The fields are white already - As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is
ripe already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round
about them.
Verse
36. He that reapeth - Whoever saves souls, receiveth wages - A peculiar
blessing to himself, and gathereth fruit - Many souls: that he that soweth -
Christ the great sower of the seed, and he that reapeth may rejoice together -
In heaven.
Verse
37. That saying - A common proverb; One soweth - The prophets and Christ;
another reapeth - The apostles and succeeding ministers.
Verse
38. I - he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you - He had employed them
already in baptizing, ver. 2.
Verse
42. We know that this is the saviour of the world - And not of the Jews only.
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Annunciation
of the Lord
Isaiah
7:10-14
Verse
12. I will not - By asking a sign, as if I questioned the truth of his word:
but this was deep hypocrisy.
Verse
13. David - He reproves them all, because they were the king's counsellors. Is
it a small thing - Is it not wickedness enough. My God - To vex God's prophets
and people, with your oppressions and horrid impieties. And by your ingratitude
and unbelief, and disobedience of his commands.
Verse
14. Therefore - Because you despise me, and the sign which I now offer to you,
God of his own free grace will send you a more honourable messenger, and give
you a nobler sign. A sign - Of your deliverance. But how was this birth, which
was not to happen 'till many ages after, a sign of their deliverance from
present danger? This promised birth supposed the preservation of that city, and
nation and tribe, in and of which the Messiah was to be born; and therefore
there was no cause to fear that ruin which their enemies now threatened.
Immanuel - God with us; God dwelling among us, in our nature, John i, 14. God
and man meeting in one person, and being a mediator between God and men. For
the design of these words is not so much to relate the name by which Christ
should commonly he called, as to describe his nature and office.
Psalm
45
PS 45
This psalm is an illustrious prophecy of the Messiah, and points at him only,
as a bridegroom espousing the church to himself, and as a king ruling in it.
And our saviour probably alludes to this, where he compares the kingdom of
heaven to a royal marriage. We have no reason to think, it has any reference to
Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. It is meant purely of Christ, and
no other, and to him it is applied in the New Testament. After the preface, it
speaks of the person and victories of the royal bridegroom, ver. 1-5. The
righteousness of his government, ver. 6, 7. The splendour of his court, ver. 8,
9. Of the royal bride, the church, her consent gained, ver. 10, 11. The
nuptials solemnized, ver. 12-15. The issue of this marriage, ver. 16, 17. To
the chief musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil. A song of
loves. Title of the psalm. Shoshannim - Is supposed to mean, an instrument of
six strings. This is a song of loves, of the holy love which is between Christ
and his church.
Verse
1. Enditing - Hebrew. boileth, or bubbleth up like water over the fire. This
denotes that the workings of his heart, were fervent and vehement, kindled by
God's grace, and the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Made - Have composed. Pen -
He was only the pen or instrument in uttering this song; it was the spirit of
God, by whose hand this pen was guided.
Verse
2. Fairer - Than all other men: which is most true of Christ; but not of
Solomon; whom many have excelled, in holiness and righteousness, which is the
chief part of the beauty celebrated in this psalm. Grace - God hath plentifully
poured into thy mind and tongue the gift of speaking wisely, eloquently, and
acceptably. Therefore - And because God hath so eminently qualified thee for
rule, therefore he hath blessed thee with an everlasting kingdom.
Verse
3. Thy sword - To smite thine enemies. And the sword is here put for all his
arms, as it is in many other places.
Verse
4. And - Being thus magnificently girt and armed. Ride - March on speedily and
successfully against thine enemies. The word - That is, the gospel: which is
called the word of truth, Eph. i, 13, and may no less truly be called the word
of meekness, because it is not delivered with terror, as the law was at Sinai,
but meekly and sweetly; and the word of righteousness, because it brings in
everlasting righteousness, and strongly excites all men to the practice of
righteousness and holiness. And so the gospel is compared, to an horse or
chariot, upon which Christ is said to ride, when the gospel is preached, and
carried about from place to place. Teach thee - Thou shalt do exploits, which
shall be terrible to thine enemies. But the phrase, thy right hand shall teach
thee, is not to be taken properly; the meaning is, his hand should shew him,
discover and work before him.
Verse
5. Arrows - The same with the sword, and this is no other than his word, which
is sharp and powerful, and pierceth the hearts of men. The kings - Of thine
enemies. Fall - Prostrate at thy feet, after the manner of conquered persons.
Verse
6. O God - It is evident, that the speech is still continued to the same person
whom he calls king, ver. 1, 11, and here God, to assure us that he doth not
speak of Solomon, but a far greater king, who is not only a man, but the mighty
God, Isaiah ix, 6. A right scepter - Thou rulest with exact righteousness and
equity.
Verse
7. Therefore - Therefore God hath exalted thee far above all men and angels, to
a state of joy and endless glory at his right hand; which is fitly compared by
the oil of gladness. Thy God - According to thy human nature, John xx, 17,
though in respect of thy Divine nature, thou art his fellow, Zech xiii, 7, and
his equal, Phil ii, 6, and one with him, John x, 30. Oil - So called, because
it was a token of gladness, and used in feasts, and other solemn occasions of
rejoicing. Fellows - Above all them who partake with thee in this unction:
above all that ever were anointed for priests or prophets, or kings.
Verse
8. Myrrh - Wherewith they used to perfume their garments: this may denote those
glorious and sweet smelling virtues, which, as they were treasured up in
Christ's heart, so did they manifest themselves outwardly, and give forth a
grateful smell, in the whole course of his life and actions. Palaces - The king
is here supposed to reside in his ivory palaces, and his garments are so
fragrant, that they not only perfume the whole palace in which he is; but the
sweet favour is perceived by those that pass by them, all which is poetically
said, and with allusion to Solomon's glorious garments and palaces. The
heavenly mansions, may not unfitly be called ivory palaces, as elsewhere in the
same figurative manner they are said to be adorned with gold and precious
stones, from which mansions Christ came into the world, into which Christ went,
and where he settled his abode after he went out of the world, and from whence
he poured forth all the fragrant gifts and graces of his spirit, although there
is no necessity to strain every particular circumstance in such poetical
descriptions; for some expressions may be used, only as ornaments, as they are
in parables; and it may suffice to know, that the excellencies of the king
Christ are described by things which earthly potentates place their glory.
Whereby - By the sweet smell of thy garments out of those ivory palaces, or the
effusion of the gifts and graces of thy spirit from heaven; which as it is a
great blessing to those who receive them, so doth it rejoice the heart of
Christ, both as it is a demonstration of his own power and glory, and as it is
the instrument of bringing souls to God. Made thee - Thou art made glad.
Verse
9. Among - Among them that attend upon thy spouse, as the manner was in nuptial
solemnities. As the queen is the church in general, and so these honourable
women are particular believers, who are daily added to the church, Acts ii, 47.
And although the church is made up of particular believers, yet she is
distinguished from them, for the decency of the parable. And these believers
may be said to be Kings daughters, because among others, many persons of royal
race embraced the faith, and because they are in a spiritual sense, Kings unto
God, Rev. i, 6. Right hand - The most honourable place. Ophir - Clothed in
garments made of the choicest gold. By which he designs the graces wherewith
the church is accomplished.
Verse
10. Hearken - The prophet having hitherto spoken to the bridegroom, now
addresseth his speech to the bride. O daughter - He speaks like an elder
person, and as her spiritual father and counsellor. Incline - He uses several
words, signifying the same thing, to shew his vehement desire of her good.
Forget - Comparatively.
Verse
11. So - So thou shalt be acceptable to thy husband; which will abundantly
recompence thee, for the loss of thy father's house. Thy Lord - As he is thy
husband, and also as he is thy king, and God.
Verse
12. The daughter - The people of Tyre; as the daughter of Zion or Jerusalem,
are put for their inhabitants: he mentions the Tyrians; because they among
others, and before many others, were to be converted to Christ, but they are
here put for all the Gentiles, whom that city fitly represents, as being the
mart of the nations. A gift - To testify their homage. The rich - Of other
nations.
Verse
13. Daughter - The spouse; so called, because she was the daughter of one king,
and the wife of another. Within - In her soul. Her cloathing - She is outwardly
adorned with virtuous and honourable actions.
Verse
14. Brought - He alludes to the custom of conducting the bride to the
bride-groom's house. Companions - Her bride-maidens attending upon her.
Verse
16. Instead - Having directed his speech to the bride, he now returns to the
bridegroom, as may be gathered both from the Hebrew words, which are of the
masculine gender; and from the next verse, which unquestionably belongs unto
him, and therefore this cannot be understood of Solomon, and his marriage with
Pharaoh's daughter, because he had no children by her, and but very few by all
his wives and concubines; and his children were so far from being made Princes
in all the earth, that they enjoyed but a small part of their father's
dominions, but this was fully accomplished in Christ: who instead of his fathers
of the Jewish nation, had a numerous posterity of Christians of all the nations
of the earth, which here and elsewhere are called princes and kings, because of
their great power with God and with men.
Verse
17. Remembered - As he began the psalm with the celebration of the king's
praises, so now he ends with it, and adds this important circumstance, that
this nuptial song should not only serve for the present solemnity, but should
be remembered and sung in all successive generations.
or
Psalm
40:5-10
Verse
5. Many - This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between
that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the
person of the Messiah, in the following verses.
Verse
6. Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong
to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal
sacrifices comparatively. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices,
but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah,
and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction
of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be
done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was
typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of
his father's will, as it here follows, ver. 7, 8. So here is a prediction
concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a
better instead of them. Opened - Hebrew. bored. I have devoted myself to thy
perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much
by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exod.
xxi, 5, 6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb. x,
5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.
Verse
7. Them - These words literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is
this; seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I
offer myself to come, and I will in due time come, into the world, as this
phrase is explained in divers places of scripture, and particularly Heb. x, 5,
where this place is expressly applied to Christ. Volume - These two words,
volume and book are used of any writing, and both express the same thing. Now
this volume of the book is the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically
called the book, and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew
books generally were. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, concerning
whom much is said in the books of Moses.
Verse
8. I delight - This is eminently true, of Christ, and is here observed as an
act of heroic obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in
doing the will of God, or what God had commanded him, which was to die, and
that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death. My heart - I do not only
understand it, but receive it with heartiest love, delighting both to meditate
of it, and to yield obedience to it.
Verse
9. Righteousness - Thy faithfulness. Great congregation - In the most public
and solemn assemblies: not only to the Jews, but also to all nations; to whom
Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed Eph. ii, 17. Not refrained -
From preaching it, even to the face of mine enemies.
Hebrews
10:4-10
4. It
is impossible the blood of goats should take away sins - Either the guilt or
the power of them.
Verse
5. When he cometh into the world - In the fortieth psalm the Messiah's coming
into the world is represented. It is said, into the world, not into the
tabernacle, chap. ix, 1; because all the world is interested in his sacrifice.
A body hast thou prepared for me - That I may offer up myself. Psalm xl, 6,
&c.
Verse
7. In the volume of the book - In this very psalm it is written of me.
Accordingly I come to do thy will - By the sacrifice of myself.
Verse
8. Above when he said, Sacrifice thou hast not chosen - That is, when the
Psalmist pronounced those words in his name.
Verse
9. Then said he - in that very instant he subjoined. Lo, I come to do Thy will
- To offer a more acceptable sacrifice; and by this very act he taketh away the
legal, that he may establish the evangelical, dispensation.
Verse
10. By which will - Of God, done and suffered by Christ. We are sanctified -
Cleansed from guilt, and consecrated to God.
Luke
1:26-38
Verse
26. In the sixth month - After Elisabeth had conceived.
Verse
27. Espoused - It was customary among the Jews, for persons that married to
contract before witnesses some time before. And as Christ was to be born of a
pure virgin, so the wisdom of God ordered it to be of one espoused, that to
prevent reproach he might have a reputed father, according to the flesh.
Verse
28. Hail, thou highly favoured; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among
women - Hail is the salutation used by our Lord to the women after his
resurrection: thou art highly favoured, or hast found favour with God, ver. 30,
is no more than was said of Noah, Moses, and David. The Lord is with thee, was
said to Gideon, Judg. vi, 12; and blessed shall she be above women, of Jael,
Judg. v, 24. This salutation gives no room for any pretense of paying adoration
to the virgin; as having no appearance of a prayer, or of worship offered to
her.
Verse
32. He shall be called the Son of the Highest - In this respect also: and that
in a more eminent sense than any, either man or angel, can be called so. The
Lord shall give him the throne of his father David - That is, the spiritual
kingdom, of which David's was a type.
Verse
33. He shall reign over the house of Jacob - In which all true believers are
included.
Verse
35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee - The power of God was put forth by the Holy Ghost, as the
immediate Divine agent in this work: and so he exerted the power of the Highest
as his own power, who together with the Father and the Son is the most high
God. Therefore also - Not only as he is God from eternity, but on this account
likewise he shall be called the Son of God.
Verse
36. And behold, thy cousin Elisabeth - Though Elisabeth was of the house of
Aaron, and Mary of the house of David, by the fathers side, they might be
related by their mothers. For the law only forbad heiresses marrying into
another tribe. And so other persons continually intermarried; particularly the
families of David and of Levi.
Verse
38. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord - It is not improbable, that
this time of the virgin's humble faith, consent, and expectation, might be the
very time of her conceiving.
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