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2: Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would thrust
forth labourers - For God alone can do this: he alone can qualify
and commission men for this work.(Mt 9:37).
3: (Mt 10:16).
4: Salute no man by the way - The salutations usual among the Jews
took up much time. But these had so much work to do in so short
a space, that they had not a moment to spare.
6: A son of peace - That is, one worthy of it.
7: (Mt 10:11).
11: The kingdom of God is at hand - Though ye will not receive it.
13: Wo to thee, Chorazin - The same declaration Christ had made
some time before. By repeating it now, he warns the seventy
not to lose time by going to those cities.(Mt 11:21).
16: (Mt 10:40,Joh 13:20).
18: I beheld Satan - That is, when ye went forth, I saw the
kingdom of Satan, which was highly exalted, swiftly and
suddenly cast down.
19: I give you power - That is, I continue it to you: and nothing
shall hurt you - Neither the power, nor the subtilty of Satan.
20: Rejoice not so much that the devils are subject to you, as
that your names are written in heaven - Reader, so is thine, if
thou art a true, believer. God grant it may never be blotted out!
21: Lord of heaven and earth - In both of which thy kingdom stands,
and that of Satan is destroyed. That thou hast hid these things
- He rejoiced not in the destruction of the wise and prudent, but
in the display of the riches of God's grace to others, in such a
manner as reserves to Him the entire glory of our salvation, and
hides pride from man. (Mt 11:25).
22: Who the Son is - Essentially one with the Father: who the
Father is - How great, how wise, how good!
23: (Mt 13:16).
25: (Mt 22:35,Mr 12:28).
27: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God - That is, thou shalt unite
all the faculties of thy soul to render him the most intelligent
and sincere, the most affectionate and resolute service. We may
safely rest in this general sense of these important words, if
we are not able to fix the particular meaning of every single
word. If we desire to do this, perhaps the heart, which is a
general expression, may be explained by the three following,
With all thy soul, with the warmest affection, with all thy
strength, the most vigorous efforts of thy will, and with all
thy mind or understanding, in the most wise and reasonable
manner thou canst; thy understanding guiding thy will and
affections.(De 6:5,Le 19:18).
28: Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live - Here
is no irony, but a deep and weighty truth. He, and he alone,
shall live for ever, who thus loves God and his neighbour in
the present life.
29: To justify himself - That is, to show he had done this.(Le 18:5).
30: From Jerusalem to Jericho - The road from Jerusalem to Jericho
(about eighteen miles from it) lay through desert and rocky
places: so many robberies and murders were committed therein,
that it was called the bloody way. Jericho was situated in the
valley: hence the phrase of going down to it. About twelve
thousand priests and Levites dwelt there, who all attended the
service of the temple.
31: The common translation is, by chance - Which is full of gross
improprieties. For if we speak strictly, there is no such thing
in the universe as either chance or fortune. A certain priest
came down that way, and passed by on the other side - And both he
and the Levite no doubt could find an excuse for passing over on
the other side, and might perhaps gravely thank God for their own
deliverance, while they left their brother bleeding to death. Is
it not an emblem of many living characters, perhaps of some who
bear the sacred office? O house of Levi and of Aaron, is not the
day coming, when the virtues of heathens and Samaritans will rise
up in judgment against you?
33: But a certain Samaritan came where he was - It was admirably
well judged to represent the distress on the side of the Jew,
and the mercy on that of the Samaritan. For the case being thus
proposed, self interest would make the very scribe sensible, how
amiable such a conduct was, and would lay him open to our Lord's
inference. Had it been put the other way, prejudice might more
easily have interposed, before the heart could have been affected.
34: Pouring in oil and wine - Which when well beaten together are
one of the best balsams that can be applied to a fresh wound.
36: Which of these was the neighbour to him that fell among the
robbers - Which acted the part of a neighbour?
37: And he said, He that showed mercy on him - He could not for
shame say otherwise, though he thereby condemned himself and
overthrew his own false notion of the neighbour to whom our love
is due. Go and do thou in like manner - Let us go and do likewise,
regarding every man as our neighbour who needs our assistance.
Let us renounce that bigotry and party zeal which would contract
our hearts into an insensibility for all the human race, but a
small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own,
that our love to them is but self love reflected. With an honest
openness of mind let us always remember that kindred between
man and man, and cultivate that happy instinct whereby, in the
original constitution of our nature, God has strongly bound us
to each other.
40: Martha was encumbered - The Greek word properly signifies to be
drawn different ways at the same time, and admirably expresses the
situation of a mind, surrounded (as Martha's then was) with so many
objects of care, that it hardly knows which to attend to first.
41: Martha, Martha - There is a peculiar spirit and tenderness
in the repetition of the word: thou art careful, inwardly, and
hurried, outwardly.
42: Mary hath chosen the good part - To save her soul.
Reader, hast thou?
