The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 346

ordinance.~" he separat.ed hie people from the idolatrous nations surrounding. (b) His pi:ondenc~ was as a wall of fire f?r their defence (see Zech. ii. 5). (2) "He digged a 1nnel?ress;' or vat for the reception of the wine. To conserve the purposes of their plantmg he gave them the services of the sanctuary-daily offc1-in"S, sabbaths, new moons, annual festivals. (3) "He built a tower» whence to watch the approach of robbers. Jerusalem with its temple wa11 the watch-tower of the vineyard. II. THE HETURN HE BEOEIVED FOR HIS GOODNESS. 1. The husbandmen keptfrom him thefmits. (1) The rent is paid iu produce. The fruits are those of righteous- ness and love. When the people entered upon the inheritance they gave verbal and intellectual aclrnowledgment of their obligations. The practical ackuowledgment is the test of principlo. (2) God does not require rent paid in advance. He is not unreasonable. There is a time in which he looks on in silence. In this interval he looks for preparatory labour. (3) He does expect the fruit in its season, in "the time for gathering the fruit." God claims the firstfruits of all our increase. (4) 'l'he husbandmen were here radically at fault. The righteousness of the priests and elders -was selfishness and pride. Their goodness was hypocrisy. 2. They maltreated. his messenyers. (1) After they demanded a king, and the Lord their God withdrew his Shechiua.h, he sent them his earlier prophets, down to the time of the Assyrian cap- tivity which ended the kingdom of Israel. (2) To the remaining two tribes "he sent other servants, more than the 1irst." The later prophets were more in number and greater in the clearness of their predictions. These ended with John the Baptist, (3) But these they beat, as Jeremiah, and killed, as Isaiah and John, and stoned, as Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (see 2 Chron. mvi. 16; Neh. ix. 26; Jer. xxv. 3-7; Heh. xi. 36, 37). (4) The priests and rulers were the descendants of the race that had killed the prophets (see eh. v. 12; xxiii. 34-37; Acts vii. 52; 1 These. ii. 15), 3. They murdered the heir. (1) "They will reverence my Son," armed with Divine cre- dentials, and fully representing the Householder. The Son of David, and Heir to the kingdom. The Son of God, and "Heir of all things" (see eh. iii, 17.; xvii. 5; John iii. 35; Heh. L 1, 2). (2) "They -0ast him forth out of the vineyard." Christ was cast out of the synagogue as a profane person, and delivered to the Romans to be executed, and relegated to Calvary for that purpose, "outside the gate" of the city. (3) There they "killed him." So they filled up the measure of their iniquity. IIL THE SEVERITY OF HIS BETBIBUTION. 1. God dooms the sinner to the fudgment of his sin. (1) The priests little suspected whither Jesus was leading them when he led them to say, "He will bring these wretches to a wretched deBth." The truth, unpractised, which we carry with us into the other world, will judge us to perdition. Jesus expressed this in those words, "I judge no man: the word that I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day." So the clearer our light the darker our condemnation. (2) The priests first pronounced their condemn!'tion in the words cited; Jesus seems to have aft.erwards pronounced it in the same .. terms (see Luke XL 16). " Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee." 2. He brings con,- fusion -up<m hia scheme,. (1) He excludes him from the inheritance. The inheritance was the very thing the priests sought to retain (ver. 38). Sin ie the direct way to frustrate the sinner's designs. (2) He puts another in his place. Nothing so angered the inveterate Jew as the proposal to carry the gospel to the Gentile. Little did the priests estimate the significance of their sentence, "And he will let out the vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." Perse- cution may destroy the ministers, but.cannot destroy the Church. (3) They will exalt the stone which the builders rejected. The disciples fetched their hosannas from the context of the passage quoted from Ps. cxviii. 22, 23, which carries conviction and terror to the enemies of Christ. (4) The words of the psalm were :first spoken of David, who, after suffering persecution from Saul and rejection from the chiefs of Israel, at length triumphed over his enemies, and rose to unexampled prosperity. David, tha\ rejected stone which became the head of the corner (cf. 1 Sam.·xiv. 38), was therein a type of Christ. In his resurrection, a~cension, nod exaltation aa the Head of his Church, the t.emple of the living stoues, the cope-stc,ne was brought up with the sbout- ings of angelP. What a confusion to the murderel's of the Heir was his triumphant resurrection I 3. He brings judgment upon them to destruction. (1) Falling upon the stumbling-stone (Jesus in his humiliation), the offender is" broken" (H<!C Isa. viii. on. XXI. 1-46.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'r. MATTHEW. 851