shall understand it all hereafter. Good's sovereignty and man's responsibility shall appear perfectly harmonious one day. In the meantime, whatever we doubt, let us never doubt Christ's infinite willingness to save.
Notes. Luke XTTT. 31—35.
31. — [Then came certain... Herod tciU hill thee.] It is thought hy some that this message was an invention of the Pharisees, intended to alarm our Lord, and stop His preaching, and that Herod never really intended to kill our Lord. Yet it seems impossible to reconcile this theory with the message that our Lord in reply sends to Herod in the next verse. It is more probable that Herod wished to make away with One whose ministnr reminded him of John the Baptist, and who publicly testified that Jolm the Baptist, whom Herod had murdered, was a prophet. He had probably expressed this wish publicly to his courtiers, and the Pharisees came to r^ieat it to our Lord, hoping that the report would silence him.
[Depart hence: or Herod will kill thee.] This expression shows that our Lord was in Galilee at this time. We are ex- pressly told (Luke xxiii. 7) that Galilee bebnged to Herod's jurisdiction.
Let it be noted that the literal translation of the Greek here would be, " Herod is willing, — has a will, — ^wishes, — ^means, — to kill thee." It is not a future tense merely. It is like " Ye voiU not come to me." (John v. 40.)
32. — [That fox-l This remarkable expression is variously inter- preted. Some think that our Lord did not apply it to Herod at all, but to the Pharisee who brought the message. This, however seems a very unnatural and forced application of the word. The most common opinion is, that our Lord applied it to Herod himself, in virtue of His office as a prophet. Whitby remarks, " To impose this ignominious name on Herod is not contrary to the command * not to speak ill of the ruler of thy people.* It is the office of prophets not to spare kings when they expose their offences. (Jer. i. 10.) Christ, therefore, uses His prophet- ical power in giving this tyrant a name suitable to his actions." (Compare Zephan. iii. 3 ; Ezek. xxii. 27.)
Maldonatus thinks that our Lord purposely called Herod " that fox," in order to show the Pharisees how little He feared him.
One word of caution is needful. The use of this expression by our Lord is no warrant to Christians to employ violent and contemptuous epithets in speaking of the wicked, and especially