The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 400

Vers. 32--34.-Two devils. We have just seen two blind men in agreement. We are now introduced to two devils in diversity. Here is the dumb devil. Here also ie the devil muttering blasphemy. I. HERE_ rs ~ COMPARISON OF TWO SAD OASES. 1. The dumb demoniac. (1) Here is a man bodily m the hands of a demon. So completely is he in the power of the evil spirit that his self-control is lost. What an emblem of the helplessness of those who are moral!y "carried captive by the devil at his will" I (2) He is "dumb." (a) He has no v01ce for prayer. (b) He has no voice for praise. (c) He has no voice for testi- mony. (3) God had not opened bis mouth. No other power was competent. 2. The bmpheming Pharisee. (1) He had a voice to impeach the Holy One as a sinner. (a) Because he did the best works on the best of days. (b) Because he condescended to eat with publicans and sinners. (c) Because he did not fast in deference to rabbinical tradit\on. (d) Because he proved that he bas power on earth to forgive sins. (2) In a.11 this the devil was concealed. For wherein does this voice essentially differ from that of the Gadarene demoniacs who cried, "What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God?" (eh. viii. 29). Malignity is no less devilish because masked as piety. (3) The blasphemy of the Pharisee advanced to refer the miracles of Christ to diabolical agency. (a) The miracles as facts could not be disputed. It is too late in the day for the modern sceptic t-0 dispute them. (b) The Pharisee had no other way in which to evade their evidence but to trace them to the worst possible authorship. (c) The malignity of Beelzebub is in the libel. And how much better is the sceptic who traces the miracles of Christ to natural causes? Is not the influence of Satan still hidden under what arc called natural disorders? II. THE MORE SUBTLE PROVES THE BADDER. 1. The dumb devil is driven out.. (1) The demoniac is bronght to Jesus. He cannot come of himself. (2) He is brought in the arms of compassionate faith. The devil cannot resist the power _of faith, though exercised by third parties. Let not the righteous relax the effectual fervent prayer. (3) In response to prayer the demon is expelled. Behold, the dumb has found his voice. Saul of Tarsns in conversion found his voice in pmyer (see Acts ix. 11). Praise is the companion of prayer (Ps. Ii. 15). 2. The multitudes marvel. (1) No wonder they should, for here were four stupendous miracles wrought in one afternoon. (a) The healing of the profl.uvious woman. (b) The restoring of Jairus's daughte, t-0 life. (c) The imparting of vision to two blind men. (d) .And now the expulsion of the dumb devil from the demoniac. (e) To these he immediately added many more (ver. 35). (2) They express their admiration in the exclamation, "It wns never so seen in Israel" And if not in Israel, where, then? For the Hebrews, themselves a miraculous people, were of all peoples the most favoured by the working of miracles amongst them. 3. The blasphemi11g devil holds his ovm. (1) '!'he Pharisees never came to Christ. 'l'hey were wilfully, therefore hopelessly, wicked. (2) By their wickedness they prevented the astonished multitude from accepting their Messiah. (3) The ba<l influence of the PhariseeR is seen in the apostasy of the Hebrew nation to this day.--J. .A. M. Vers. 35-38 and eh. L 1.-The compassion of Jesus. '!'his comes remarkably before us in this paragraph. We have it in both its aspects, viz. the human and the Divine. Note, then- I. THE HUMANITY OF THE COMPASSION OF JESUS. 1. His compassion was moved by the multitudes he saw. (1) God, who is compassion itself, cannot be subject to emotion. DivitJe emotion in Scripture teaching is the human emotion which has a Divine source, as when we are sensible of the working in us of a Divine compassion. Buch was tbe human compassion which, in the highest perfection, moved the heart of Jesus. (2) It moved him as he considered the multitudes of men he met with in his itineration of the cities and villages (ver. 35). To him they were more than th, on. rx.1-3B.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 397