Resultados para: "SARCASM"

<p>MICHAL&#039;S BARRENNESS. (Sa2 6:20-23)

Michal . . . came out to meet David, &amp;c.--Proud of her royal extraction, she upbraided her husband for lowering the dignity of the crown and acting more like a buffoon than a king. But her taunting sarcasm was repelled in a manner that could not be agreeable to her feelings while it indicated the warm piety and gratitude of David.




Next: 2 Samuel Chapter 7</p>

<p>Here is, I. David&#039;s fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the Lord put I my trust, Psa 11:1. Those that truly fear God and serve him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by.
II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: &quot;How say you to my soul, which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler?&quot; This may be taken either,
1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, (1.) Because he could not be safe where he was, Psa 11:2. &quot;Observe,&quot; say they, &quot;how the wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security.&quot; See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it. (2.) Because he could be no longer useful where he was. &quot;For,&quot; say they, &quot;if the foundations be destroyed&quot; (as they were by Saul&#039;s mal-administration), &quot;if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course&quot; (Psa 75:3, Psa 82:5), &quot;what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing.&quot; Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine - Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success.
2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. &quot;You say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be.&quot; Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, Psa 14:6; Psa 3:2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David&#039;s answer to this sarcasm, in which, (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him (Psa 11:2): They bend their bow and make ready their arrows; and we are told (Psa 64:3) what their arrows are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. (2.) He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, Psa 11:3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon: &quot;If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable.&quot; The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.</p>

<p>We have here the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus.
I. The place where he was crucified; it was called Golgotha - the place of a scull: some think, because of the heads of malefactors that were there cut off: it was the common place of execution, as Tyburn, for he was in all respects numbered with the transgressors. I know not how to give any credit to it, but divers of the ancients mention it as a current tradition, that in this place our first father Adam was buried, and they think it highly congruous that there Christ should be crucified; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom, and Epiphanius (great names), take notice of it; nay, Cyprian adds, Creditur piis - Many good people believe that the blood of Christ crucified did trickle down upon the scull of Adam, who was buried in the same place. Something more credible is the tradition, that this mount Calvary was that mountain in the land of Moriah (and in the land of Moriah it certainly was, for so the country about Jerusalem was called), on which Isaac was to be offered; and the ram was offered instead of him; and then Abraham had an eye to this day of Christ, when he called the place Jehovah-jireh - The Lord will provide, expecting that so it would be seen in the mount of the Lord.
II. The time when he was crucified; it was the third hour, Mar 15:25. He was brought before Pilate about the sixth hour (Joh 19:14), according to the Roman way of reckoning, which John uses, with which ours at this day agrees, that is at six o&#039;clock in the morning; and then, at the third hour, according to the Jews&#039; way of reckoning, that is, about nine of the clock in the morning, or soon after, they nailed him to the cross. Dr. Lightfoot thinks the third hour is here mentioned, to intimate an aggravation of the wickedness of the priests, they were here prosecuting Christ to the death, though it was after the third hour, when they ought to have been attending the service of the temple, and offering the peace-offerings; it being the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when there was to be a holy convocation. At that very time, when they should have been, according to the duty of their place, presiding in the public devotions, were they here venting their malice against the Lord Jesus; yet these were the men that seemed so zealous for the temple, and condemned Christ for speaking against it. Note, There are many who pretend to be for the church, who yet care not how seldom they go to church.
III. The indignities that were done him, when he was nailed to the cross; as if that had not been ignominious enough, they added several things to the ignominy of it.
1. It being the custom to give wine to persons that were to be put to death, they mingled his with myrrh, which was bitter, and made it nauseous; he tasted it, but would not drink it; was willing to admit the bitterness of it, but not the benefit of it.
2. The garments of those that were crucified, being, as with us, the executioners&#039; fee, the soldiers cast lots upon his garments (Mar 15:24), threw dice (as our soldiers do upon a drum-head), for them: so making themselves merry with his misery, and sitting at their sport while he was hanging in pain.
3. They set up a superscription over his head, by which they intended to reproach him, but really did him both justice and honour, The king of the Jews, Mar 15:26. Here was no crime alleged, but his sovereignty owned. Perhaps Pilate meant to cast disgrace upon Christ as a baffled king, or upon the Jews, who by their importunity had forced him, against his conscience, to condemn Christ, as a people that deserved no better a king than he seemed to be: however, God intended it to be the proclaiming even of Christ upon the cross, the king of Israel; though Pilate know not what he wrote, any more than Caiaphas what he said, Joh 11:51. Christ crucified is king of his church, his spiritual Israel; and even then when he hung on the cross, he was like a king, conquering his and his people&#039;s enemies, and triumphing over them, Col 2:15. Now he was writing his laws in his own blood, and preparing his favours for his subjects. Whenever we look unto Christ crucified, we must remember the inscription over his head, that he is a king, and we must give up ourselves to be his subjects, as Israelites indeed.
4. They crucified two thieves with him, one on his right hand, the other on his left, and him in the midst as the worst of the three (Mar 15:27); so great a degree of dishonour did they hereby intend him. And, no doubt, it gave him disturbance too. Some that have been imprisoned in the common gaols, for the testimony of Jesus, have complained of the company of cursing, swearing prisoners, more than any other of the grievances of their prison. Now, in the midst of such our Lord Jesus was crucified; while he lived he had, and there was occasion, associated with sinners, to do them good; and now when he died, he was for the same purpose joined with them, for he came into the world, and went out of it, to save sinners, even the chief. But this evangelist takes particular notice of the fulfilling of the scriptures in it, Mar 15:28. In that famous prediction of Christ&#039;s sufferings (Isa 53:12), it was foretold that he should be numbered with the transgressors, because he was made sin for us.
5. The spectators, that is, the generality of them, instead of condoling with him in his misery, added to it by insulting over him. Surely never was such an instance of barbarous inhumanity toward the vilest malefactor: but thus the devil showed the utmost rage against him, and thus he submitted to the greatest dishonours that could be done him.
(1.) Even they that passed by, that were no way concerned, railed on him, Mar 15:29. If their hearts were so hardened, that their compassions were not moved with such a spectacle, yet they should have thought it enough to have their curiosity gratified; but that will not serve: as if they were not only divested of all humanity, but were devils in human shape, they taunted him, and expressed themselves with the utmost detestation of him, and indignation at him, and shot thick at him their arrows, even bitter words. The chief priests, no doubt, put these sarcasms into their mouths, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, now, if thou canst, save thyself, and come down from the cross. They triumph as if now that they had got him to the cross, there were no danger of his destroying the temple; whereas the temple of which he spoke, he was now destroying, and did within three days build it up; and the temple of which they spoke, he did by men, that were his sword and his hand, destroy not many years after. When secure sinners think the danger is over, it is then most ready to seize them: the day of the Lord comes as a thief upon those that deny his coming, and say, Where is the promise of it? much more upon those that defy his coming, and say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work.
(2.) Even the chief priests, who, being taken from among men and ordained for men, should have compassion even on those that are out of the way, should be tender of those that are suffering and dying (Heb 5:1, Heb 5:2), yet they poured vinegar instead of oil into his wounds, they talked to the grief of him whom God had smitten (Psa 69:26), they mocked him, they said, He saved others, healed and helped them, but now it appears that it was not by his own power, for himself he cannot save. They challenged him to come down from the cross, if he could, Mar 15:32. Let them but see that, and they would believe; whereas they would not believe, when he gave them a more convincing sign than that, when he came up from the grave. These chief priests, one would think, might now have found themselves other work to do: if they would not go to do their duty in the temple, yet they might have been employed in an office not foreign to their profession; though they would not offer any counsel or comfort to the Lord Jesus, yet they might have given some help to the thieves in their dying moments (the monks and priests in Popish countries are very officious about criminals broken upon the wheel, a death much like that of the cross); but they do not think that their business.
(3.) Even they that were crucified with him, reviled him (Mar 15:32); one of them did, so wretchedly was his heart hardened even in the depth of misery, and at the door of eternity.</p>

<p>Art thou a king then?--There was no sarcasm or disdain in this question (as THOLUCK, ALFORD, and others, allege), else our Lord&#039;s answer would have been different. Putting emphasis upon &quot;thou,&quot; his question betrays a mixture of surprise and uneasiness, partly at the possibility of there being, after all, something dangerous under the claim, and partly from a certain awe which our Lord&#039;s demeanor probably struck into him.

Thou sayest that I am a king--It is even so.

To this end was I--&quot;have I been.&quot;

born and for this cause came I--am I come.

into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth--His birth expresses His manhood; His coming into the world, His existence before assuming humanity: The truth, then, here affirmed, though Pilate would catch little of it, was that His Incarnation was expressly in order to the assumption of Royalty in our nature. Yet, instead of saying, He came to be a King, which is His meaning, He says He came to testify to the truth. Why this? Because, in such circumstances it required a noble courage not to flinch from His royal claims; and our Lord, conscious that He was putting forth that courage, gives a turn to His confession expressive of it. It is to this that Paul alludes, in those remarkable words to Timothy: &quot;I charge thee before God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who, in the presence of Pontius Pilate, witnessed the good confession&quot; (Ti1 6:13). This one act of our Lord&#039;s life, His courageous witness-bearing before the governor, was selected as an encouraging example of the fidelity which Timothy ought to display. As the Lord (says OLSHAUSEN beautifully) owned Himself the Son of God before the most exalted theocratic council, so He confessed His regal dignity in presence of the representative of the highest political authority on earth.

Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice--Our Lord here not only affirms that His word had in it a self-evidencing, self-recommending power, but gently insinuated the true secret of the growth and grandeur of His kingdom--as A KINGDOM OF TRUTH, in its highest sense, into which all souls who have learned to live and count all things but loss for the truth are, by a most heavenly attraction, drawn as into their proper element; THE KING of whom Jesus is, fetching them in and ruling them by His captivating power over their hearts.</p>

<p>One--Epimenides of PhÃ&amp;brvbrstus, or Gnossus, in Crete, about 600. He was sent for to purify Athens from its pollution occasioned by Cylon. He was regarded as a diviner and prophet. The words here are taken probably from his treatise &quot;concerning oracles.&quot; Paul also quotes from two other heathen writers, ARATUS (Act 17:28) and MENANDER (Co1 15:33), but he does not honor them so far as even to mention their names.

of themselves . . . their own--which enhances his authority as a witness. &quot;To Cretanize&quot; was proverbial for to lie: as &quot;to Corinthianize&quot; was for to be dissolute.

alway liars--not merely at times, as every natural man is. Contrast Tit 1:2, &quot;God that cannot lie.&quot; They love &quot;fables&quot; (Tit 1:14); even the heathen poets laughed at their lying assertion that they had in their country the sepulchre of Jupiter.

evil beasts--rude, savage, cunning, greedy. Crete was a country without wild beasts. Epimenides&#039; sarcasm was that its human inhabitants supplied the place of wild beasts.

slow bellies--indolent through pampering their bellies. They themselves are called &quot;bellies,&quot; for that is the member for which they live (Rom 16:18; Phi 3:19).</p>