Nay, more than this, God will not decieve by the appearance of what is not reality. He will even give the greatest gift. The Parabolic relation is now not that of friends, but of father and son. If the son asks for bread, will the father give what seems such, but is only a stone? If he asks for a fish, will he tender him what looks such, but is a serpent? If he seek an egg, will he hand to him what breeds a scorpion? The need, the hunger, of the child will not, in answer to its prayer, receive at the Father's Hands, that which seems, but gives not the reality of satisfaction - rather is poison. Let us draw the inference. Such is our conduct - how much more shall our heavenly Father give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. That gift will not disappoint by the appearance of what is not reality; it will not deceive either by the promise of what it does not give, or by giving what would prove fatal. As we follow Christ's teaching, we ask for the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit, in leading us to Him, leads us into all truth, to all life, and to what satisfies all need. __________________________________________________________________
[4411] As in Rom. v. 14.
[4412] As in 1 Cor. x. 6, 11; Phil. iii. 17; 1 Thess. 1. 7; 2 Thess. iii 9; 1 Tim. iv. 12;Tit. ii. 7; 1 Pet. v.3.
[4413] St. Luke x. 25-37.
[4414] A distinction between different classes of Scribes, of whom some gave themselves to the study of the Law, while others included with it that of the Prophets, such as Dean Plumptre suggests (on St. Matt. xxii. 35), did not exist.
[4415] See generally ch. v. of this Book.
[4416] St. Luke xviii. 18-23.
[4417] St. Matt. xix. 16-22; xxii. 34-40.
[4418] Thus: "With all thy heart" - with both thy impulses, that to good and that to evil; "with all thy soul" - even if it takes away thy soul; "with all thy might" - "with all thy money." Another interpretation: "With all thy might" - in regard to every measure with which He measures to thee art thou bound to praise Him' (there is here a play on the words which cannot be rendered), Ber. 54 a, about the middle.
[4419] Shabb. 31 a, about the middle.
[4420] Yalkut i. 174 a, end; Siphra on the passage, ed. Weiss, p. 89 b; also Ber. R. 24, end.
[4421] St. Matt. vii. 12.
[4422] Hamburger (Real Encykl., Abth. ii. p. 411) makes the remarkable admission that the negative form was chosen to make the command possible' and practical.' It is not so that Christ has accommodated the Divine Law to our sinfulness. See previous remarks on this Law in Book III. ch. xviii.
[4423] Rom. vii.
[4424] Ab Zar. 26 a.
[4425] Babha Mets 32 b.
[4426] Ex. xxiii. 5.
[4427] Babha Mets. 32 b line 3 from bottom.
[4428] As to many of these allegorisations, Calvin rightly observes: Scripturae major habenda est reverentia, quam ut germanum ejus sensum hac licentia transfigurare liceat.' In general, see Goebel, u. s.
[4429] mithan tunchnonta, Germ., wie er eben war,' Grimm, Clavis N.T. p. 438 b.
[4430] I cannot (as some writers do) see any irony in the expression.
[4431] Vol. i. p. 560.
[4432] In the Greek, ver. 33 begins with A Samaritan, however,' to emphasise the contrast to the priest and Levite.
[4433] Jer. Ber. 3 a; Shabb. 134 a.
[4434] St. Matt. xx. 2.
[4435] St. Luke xi. 5-13.
[4436] ver. 1.
[4437] ver. 8.
[4438] di ge, Goebel, ad loc. __________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER XVI. THE THREE PARABLES OF WARNING: TO THE INDIVIDUAL, TO THE NATION, AND TO THE THEOCRACY - THE FOOLISH RICH MAN - THE BARREN FIG-TREE - THE GREAT SUPPER.
(St. Luke xii. 13-21; xiii. 6-9; xiv. 16-24.)
The three Parables, which successively follow in St. Luke's Gospel, may generally be designated as those of warning.' This holds specially true of the last two of them, which refer to the civil and the ecclesiastical polity of Israel. Each of the three Parables is set in an historical frame, having been spoken under circumstances which gave occasion for such illustration.