He looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.
Parallel Translations
-
He looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.
-
As he behelde he sawe the ryche men how they cast in their offeringes into the treasury.
-
And as he behelde, he sawe the rich men, which cast their giftes into the treasurie.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Luke 21:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Mark 12:41-44 Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and saw how the multitude cast money into the treasury. Many who were rich cast in much. A poor widow came, and she cast in two small brass coins, which equal a quadrans coin. He called his disciples to himself, and said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving into the treasury, for they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.”
- John 8:20 Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. Yet no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
- 2 Chronicles 36:18 All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
- Matthew 27:6 The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.”
- Nehemiah 13:13 I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were counted faithful, and their business was to distribute to their brothers.
- Joshua 6:19 But all the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh. They shall come into Yahweh’s treasury.”
- 2 Kings 24:13 He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in Yahweh’s temple, as Yahweh had said.
- Mark 7:11-13 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban,” ’ ” that is to say, given to God, “then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The poor may exceed in bounty and liberality even…
The poor may exceed in bounty and liberality even the richest, according to God’s judgment.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 And he looked up, and saw the rich…
1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Ver. 1. {See Trapp on "Mar 12:41"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We met with this piece of history, Mar 12:41-44.…
We met with this piece of history, Mar 12:41-44. Mark telleth us, that Christ was sitting right over against the treasury. For other things necessary to be known to understand this piece of history, See Poole on "Mar 12:41", and following verses to Mar 12:44.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain At the door of the temple, through which all…
At the door of the temple, through which all the people passed in and out, who came up three times a year at the solemn feasts, to worship Almighty God in his own house, there was a chest set, (like the poor man’s box in some of our churches,) into which all persons cast their free-will offerings and oblations, which were employed either for the use of the poor, or for the service of the temple; and what was thus given, our Saviour calls an offering to God, verse 4. These of their abundance have cast in unto the offerings of God.
Thence learn, that what we rightly give to the relief of the poor, or for the service and towards the support of God’s public worship, is consecrated to God, and as such is accepted of him, and ought to be esteemed by us.
Read full note →
Observe, 2. With what pleasure and satisfaction our Saviour sets himself to view those offerings, He beheld the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Thence note, that our Saviour sets himself to view those offerings, He beheld the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Thence note, that our Saviour sees with pleasure, and beholds with delight, whatever we have hearts to give unto him; whether for the relief of his members, or for the support of his service. Oh blessed Saviour, while now thou sits at thy Father’s right hand in glory, thou sees every hand that is stretched forth to the relief of thy poor members here on earth.
Verse 2, But a certain poor widow cast in two mites. Several circumstances relating both to the person and the action are here observable: as 1. The person that offered was a widow: the married woman is under the careful provision of her husband; if she spends, he earns; but the widow has no hands but her own to work for her.
Observe, 2. She was a poor widow; poverty added to the sorrow of her widowhood, she had no rich jointure to live upon; it is some alleviation of the sorrow that attends widowhood, when the hand is left full, though the bed be left empty: this widow was needy and desolate, but yet gives; some in her circumstances would have looked upon themselves as having a right to receive what was given by others, rather than give anything themselves.
Observe, 3. Her bounty and munificence in giving; her two mites are proclaimed by Christ to be more than all the rich men’s talents: more in respect to the mind and affection of the giver: more with respect to the proportion of the gift; a mite to her being more than pounds to others. Pounds were little to them; two mites were all to her, she leaves herself nothing; so that the poor woman gave not only more than any of them all, but more than they all. Christ’s eye looked at once into the bottom of her purse, and into the bottom of her heart, and judged of the offering, rather by the mind of the giver than by the value of the gift.
From this instance we learn,
1. That the poorer, yea the poorest sort of people, are not exempted from good works; but even they must and ought to exercise charity according to their ability. This poor widow, that had not a pound, no, not a penny, presents God with a farthing.
2. That in all works of pious charity which we perform, God looks at the heart, the will, and the affection of the giver, more than at the largeness and liberality of the gift. It is not said, the Lord loves a liberal giver, but a cheerful giver; He accepteth the gift according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.
Oh, our God! The poorest of us thy servants have our two mites also, a soul and a body; persuade and enable us to offer them both unto thee: though they are thine already, yet thou wilt graciously accept them: and oh how happy shall we be in thy acceptation!
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain This short passage of story we had before in…
This short passage of story we had before in Mark. It is thus recorded twice, to teach us, 1. That charity to the poor is a main matter in religion. Our Lord Jesus took all occasions to commend it and recommend it. He had just mentioned the barbarity of the scribes, who devoured poor widows (ch. 20); and perhaps this is designed as an aggravation of it, that the poor widows were the best benefactors to the public funds, of which the scribes had the disposal. 2. That Jesus Christ has his eye upon us, to observe what we give to the poor, and what we contribute to works of piety and charity. Christ, though intent upon his preaching, looked up, to see what gifts were cast into the treasury, Luk 21:1. He observes whether we give largely and liberally, in proportion to what we have, or whether we be sneaking and paltry in it; nay, his eye goes further, he observes whether we give charitably and with a willing mind, or grudgingly and with reluctance. This should make us afraid of coming short of our duty in this matter; men may be deceived with excuses which Christ knows to be frivolous. And this should encourage us to be abundant in it, without desiring that men should know it; it is enough that Christ does; he sees in secret, and will reward openly. 3. That Christ observes and accepts the charity of the poor in a particular manner. Those that have nothing to give may yet do a great deal in charity by ministering to the poor, and helping them, and begging for them, that cannot help themselves, or beg for themselves. But here was one that was herself poor and yet gave what little she had to the treasury. It was but two mites, which make a farthing; but Christ magnified it as a piece of charity exceeding all the rest: She has cast in more than they all. Christ does not blame her for indiscretion, in giving what she wanted herself, nor for vanity in giving among the rich to the treasury; but commended her liberality, and her willingness to part with what little she had for the glory of God, which proceeded from a belief of and dependence upon God's providence to take care of her. Jehovah-jireh - the Lord will provide. 4. That, whatever may be called the offerings of God, we ought to have a respect for, and to our power, yea, and beyond our power, to contribute cheerfully to. These have cast in unto the offerings of God. What is given to the support of the ministry and the gospel, to the spreading and propagating of religion, the education of youth, the release of prisoners, the relief of widows and strangers, and the maintenance of poor families, is given to the offerings of God, and it shall be so accepted and recompensed.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain He looked up - From those on whom his…
He looked up - From those on whom his eyes were fixed before. Mark xii, 41.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain The poor widow casting two mites into the treasury,…
CHAPTER XXI.
The poor widow casting two mites into the treasury, 1-4.
Read full note →
the destruction of the temple foretold, 5, 6.
The signs of this desolation, 7.
False Christs, 8.
Wars, 9, 10.
Earthquakes and fearful sights, 11.
Persecutions against the godly, 12-19.
Directions how to escape, 20-22.
The tribulation of those times, 23-28.
The parable of the fig tree, illustrative of the time when they
may expect these calamities, 29-33.
The necessity of sobriety and watchfulness, 34-36.
He teaches by day in the temple, and lodges by night in the
mount of Olives, and the people come early to hear him, 37, 38.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI.
Verse 1. The rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.] See all this, from Lu 21:1-4, explained on Mr 12:41-44.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Luk 21:1-4. And he looked up — From those…
Luk 21:1-4. And he looked up — From those on whom his eyes were fixed before; and saw the rich men casting their gifts, &c. — See on Mar 12:41.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain See this explained in the notes at Mar 12:41-44.
See this explained in the notes at Mar 12:41-44.
Luk 21:4
Read full note →
Penury - Poverty. See this explained in the notes at Mar 12:41-44.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Luke Chapter 21
Luke Chapter 21
The Lord’s discourse in chapter 21 displays the character of the Gospel in a peculiar manner. The spirit of grace, in contrast with the Judaic spirit, is seen in the account of the poor widow’s offering. But the Lord’s prophecy requires more detailed notice. Luk 21:6, as we saw at the end of chapter 19, speaks only of the destruction of Jerusalem as she then stood. This is true also of the disciples’ question. They say nothing of the end of the age. The Lord afterwards enters upon the duties and the circumstances of His disciples previous to that hour. In Luk 21:8 it is said, “The time draweth near,” which is not found in Matthew. He goes much more into detail with regard to their ministry during that period, encourages them, promises them necessary help. Persecution should turn to them for a testimony. From the middle of verse 11 to the end of verse 19 (Luk 21:11-19) we have details relative to His disciples, that are not found in the corresponding passage of Matthew. They present the general state of things in the same sense, adding the condition of the Jews, of those especially who, more or less, professedly received the word. The whole stream of testimony, as rendered in connection with Israel, but extending to the nations, is found in Matthew to the end of Luk 21:14. In Luke it is the coming service of the disciples, until the moment when the judgment of God should put an end to that which was virtually terminated by the rejection of Christ. Consequently the Lord says nothing in Luk 21:20 of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, but gives the fact of the siege of Jerusalem, and its then approaching desolation-not the end of the age, as in Matthew. These were the days of vengeance on the Jews, who had crowned their rebellion by rejecting the Lord. Therefore Jerusalem should be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled, that is, the times destined to the sovereignty of the Gentile empires according to the counsel of God revealed in the prophecies of Daniel. This is the period in which we now live. There is a break here in the discourse. Its principal subject is ended; but there are still some events of the last scene to be revealed, which close the history of this Gentile supremacy.
Read full note →
We shall see also that, although it is the commencement of the judgment, from which Jerusalem will not arise until all is accomplished and the song of Isa 40:1-31 is addressed to her, nevertheless, the great tribulation is not mentioned here. There is great distress, and wrath upon the people, as was indeed the case in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus; and the Jews were also led away captive. Neither is it said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days.” Nevertheless, without designating the epoch, but after having spoken of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the age comes. There are signs in heaven, distress on earth, a mighty movement in the waves of human population. The heart of man, moved by a prophetic alarm, foresees the calamities which, still unknown, are threatening him; for all the influences that govern men are shaken. Then shall they see the Son of man, once rejected from the earth, coming from heaven with the ensigns of Jehovah, with power and great glory-the Son of man, of whom this Gospel has always spoken. There the prophecy ends. We have not here the gathering together of the elect Israelites, who had been dispersed, of which Matthew speaks.
That which follows consists of exhortations, in order that the day of distress may be a token of deliverance to the faith of those who, trusting in the Lord, obey the voice of His servant. The “generation” (a word already explained when considering Matthew) should not pass away till all was fulfilled. The length of the time that has elapsed since then, and that must elapse until the end, is left in darkness. Heavenly things are not measured by dates. Moreover that moment is hidden in the knowledge of the Father. Still heaven and earth should pass away, but not the words of Jesus. He then tells them that, as dwelling on earth, they must be watchful, lest their own hearts should be overcharged with things that would sink them into this world, in the midst of which they were to be witnesses. For that day would come as a snare upon all those who had their dwelling here, who were rooted here. They were to watch and pray, in order to escape all those things, and to stand in the presence of the Son of man. This is still the great subject of our Gospel. To be with Him, as those who have escaped from the earth, to be among the 144,000 on Mount Zion, will be an accomplishment of this blessing, but the place is not named; so that, supposing the faithfulness of those whom He was personally addressing, the hope awakened by His words would be fulfilled in a more excellent manner in His heavenly presence in the day of glory.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain C. Revelations concerning the Parusia, and Leave-takings in the…
C. Revelations concerning the Parusia, and Leave-takings in the midst of His Friends
Luk_21:1 to Luk_22:36
Read full note →
The Leaving of the Temple. Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Fulness of the Time
1. The Widow’s Mite (Luk_21:1-4)
(Parallel to Mar_12:41-44.)
1And he looked up, and [Looking up, he], saw the [om., the] rich men casting theirgifts into the treasury. 2And he saw also a certain [some one and that a, τινα καίforκαὶ τινα1] poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3And he said, Of a truth I say untoyou, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God:2but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_21:1. And looking up, ἀναβλέψας.—Here also we must unite the accounts of Mark and Luke, in order to be able to form to ourselves a correct conception of the true course of this miniature but lovely narrative. Even this deserves to be noted, that we see our Lord sitting so tranquilly in the temple (καθίσας, Mark) shortly after His terrific “Woe to you!” had resounded. He will avoid even the slightest appearance of having gone away in any excitement, or from any sort of fear of further attacks. The place where we have to seek Him, over against God’s chest, is known to us also from Joh_8:20. We may understand the thirteen offering chests (Shofaroth) which were marked with letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and stood open there in order to receive gifts for different sacred and benevolent purposes, about whose destination and arrangement we find much that is interesting gathered in Lightfoot, Decas Chorograph. in Marcum, Luke 3. Perhaps, however, a particular treasure-chest is meant, of which also Josephus speaks, Ant. Jud. xix. 6, 1. Comp. 2Ki_12:9. In view of the uncertainty of the matter, it is at least precipitate to be so ready with the imputation that the Evangelists have been inexact in their statement, like, for instance, De Wette.
Luk_21:2. Some one, and that a poor widow, τινα καὶ χήραν.—See notes on the text. Perhaps one of those whose unhappy fate Jesus had just portrayed, Luk_20:47. We need not, however, assert on this account that He designedly made such honorable mention of this particular widow in order to make the contrast yet stronger with the haughty and unloving Pharisees. He is now through with them. The contrast was not made, but born of the reality of life.—Two mites, δύο λεπτά.—As to the pecuniary value, see on the parallel in Mark. It is a question of little account whether the Rabbinic rule, nemo ponat λεπτόν in cistam eleëmosynarum, is really applicable here, which Meyer disputes, and whether, therefore, it was true that in no case could less than two mites be cast into the γαζοφυλάκιον. It certainly cannot be proved that this rule was applicable also to the δῶρα τοῦ Θεοῦ. At all events, necessity knows no law, and Bengel’s remark, quorum unum vidua retinere poterat, remains therefore true.
Luk_21:3. Πλεῖον πάντων.—It deserves to be noted that our Lord does not at all censure or lightly esteem the gifts of the rich. Not once again does there resound a “Woe to you, ye hypocrites!” in rebuke He will, after what has just been said in the temple, not again open His mouth. Only He extols far above the beneficence of these, the gift of the poor widow. For the rich have of their abundance cast in εὶς τὰ δῶρα, that is, not ad monumenta preciosa, ibi in perpetuum dedicata (Bengel), but ad dona, in thesauro asservata. The woman, on the other hand, gave of her poverty, ά̓παντα τὸν βίον ὀ̔ν εῖ̓χε, comp. Luk_8:43; Luk_15:12 (yet more strongly and briefly, Mark: πάντα ὅσα εῖχεν). The value of her gift is, therefore, reckoned not according to the pecuniary amount, but according to the sacrifice connected therewith. How our Lord became acquainted with the widow’s necessity we do not know; perhaps she belonged to those known as poor; nothing hinders us, however, to refer it to the Divine knowledge which penetrated the life of Nathanael and the Samaritan woman. Enough, He shows that He has attentively observed the work of love, and praises it because He knows out of what source it flowed. He does not, it is true, directly compare the disposition, but only the ability, of the different givers with each other; but certainly He would not have so highly valued the material worth of the little gift, if He had not at the same time calculated also the moral worth. In no case would He have praised the widow if she had brought her offering, like most of the Pharisees, from ignoble impulses. Now, He will not withhold from her His approbation, since her heart in His eyes passes for richer than her gift. He does not ask whether this gift will be a vain one; whether it is well to support with such offerings the temple-chest and its misuse; whether a worship ought to be yet supported by widows, which a few years afterwards is to fall before the sword of the enemy. He looks alone at the ground, the character and purpose of her act, and the poor woman who has given up all in good faith, but has kept her faith, gains now with her two pieces of copper an income of imperishable honor.
How the judgment of our Lord respecting this widow finds at the same time an echo in every human heart, appears to us if we direct our look to particular parallel expressions from profane literature. According to the Jewish legend (see Wetstein on Mar_12:43), a high-priest who had despised a handful of meal which a poor woman brought to a sacrifice, is said to have received a revelation not to contemn this small gift, because she had therewith, as it were, given her whole soul. According to Seneca, De Benef, i. Luk_1:58, the poor Æschines, who, instead of an offering of money, dedicated himself to Socrates, brought a greater offering than Alcibiades and others with their rich gifts. An act similar to that of the poor widow we find stated in Hofmann, Missionsstunden, i. 5. Vorlesung.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The narrative of the Widow’s Mite makes in this connection a similar impression to that of a friendly sunbeam on a dark tempestuous heaven, or a single rose upon a heath full of thistles and thorns. Just in this appears the Divine in our Lord, that He, in a moment when the fate of Jerusalem, and with this the coming of the kingdom of God into the whole world, so completely fills His mind, has yet eyes and heart for the most insignificant individual, and is disposed to adorn even so lowly a head with the crown of honor. We need no other proof for the celestially pure temper in which He left the accursed temple after such words of wrath. It is as if He cannot so part, as if at least His last word must be a word of blessing and of peace, so that we scarcely know in what character in this hour of sundering we shall most admire the King of the kingdom of God, whether more as Punisher of hidden evil, or as Rewarder of hidden good.
2. In the judgment also which He passes, the Son is the image of the invisible Father. Comp. 1Sa_16:1-13. Men judge the heart according to the deeds; the Lord judges the deed according to the heart. Therewith is connected, moreover, the phenomenon that the sacred history relates very much which profane history gives over to oblivion, and the reverse. Heroic deeds and great events of the world are passed over here in silence, but not the cup of cold water, the widow’s mite, the ointment of Mary, and the like.
3. The history of the two mites is a new proof of the power of little things, and of the gracious favor with which the Lord looks upon the least offering which only bears the stamp of a sancta simplicitas. With right, therefore, has this text been regarded as an admirable mission-text, since the mission-chest receives no insignificant increment from widows’ mites, over which an “Increase and multiply” has been uttered. By the example of this woman the penny clubs for the mission cause, the Ketten-vereine of the Gustavus Adolphus Society, [the weekly penny offerings of our Sunday scholars,] &c., are sanctioned. Even in a material respect the word 2Co_12:10, becomes true for the church of our Lord.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The last look of the Lord at those surrounding Him in the temple.—The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all, Pro_20:2.—The beneficence of the rich and of the poor compared with one another.—How one can be beneficent even without giving much, Act_3:6.—The true art of reckoning: 1. For love no offering is too great; 2. in God’s eyes no offering of love is too little.—The judgment of the Lord: 1. Other than the judgment of man; 2. better than the judgment of man.—How little really a rich man does when he does nothing but give.—The heart is the standard of the deeds.—The need of bringing something as a sacrifice, inseparable from the inwardly religious life, 2Sa_24:24.—How the history of the poor widow teaches us: 1. Carefulness in our judgment upon others; 2. strictness in our judgment upon ourselves; 3. watchfulness in respect to the approaching judgment of the Lord.
Starke:—The eyes of the Lord are directed upon God’s chest; keepers of it, look well to what ye do!—Canstein:—It is something comforting and refreshing to the poor, that they can give more than the rich.—Cramer:—As God does not regard the person, so does He not regard the gifts and offerings, but the heart and the simplicity of faith.—Let no one despise true widows; there are heroines of faith among them, 1Ti_5:3.—Heubner:—All gifts should be a sacrifice.—What once was done too much, now is done too little.—Even small gifts are of importance for the general cause; the Lord can add His blessing thereto.—Religion raises the value of all gifts.—Liberality, honor and love to the temple, contempt of earthly things, trust in God, are the main traits in the portrait of the widow.—Carl Beck:—The measure of the Heavenly Judge for our good works: 1. A staff to support the lowly; 2. a staff to beat down the lofty.—W. Hofacker:—Jesus’ look of pleasure and acknowledgment which rested upon the gift of the widow: 1. A look full of strengthening, comforting favor; 2. a look full of the earnestness of lofty and holy inquiry upon us all.—Knapp:—The standard with which the Lord our Saviour determines the worth or unworthiness of our benevolent gifts and works.—Kapff:—The practice of beneficent compassion.—N. Beets:—The work of love and its Witness.
Footnotes:
[1]Luk_21:2.—Καί must not be expunged, nor with Lachmann bracketed, but with Tischendorf be placed after τινα, as a more particular description of the woman.
[2]Luk_21:4.—Τοῦ Θεοῦ, suspicious, as an explicative addition, which is wanting in B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., Cursives, Coptic version, &c.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 114.—JESUS DISCOURSES WITH CHIEF PRIESTS AND OTHERS, Luk_21:1-19.
§ 114.—JESUS DISCOURSES WITH CHIEF PRIESTS AND OTHERS, Luk_21:1-19.
See notes on Mat_21:23—Luk_22:14; Mar_11:27 to Mar_12:12.
Read full note →
§ 117.—JESUS PREFERS THE WIDOW’S OFFERING TO THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RICH, Luk_21:1-4.
See notes on Mar_12:41-44.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Luk_21:1-4. The Widow’s Mite.
Luk_21:1-4. The Widow’s Mite.
1. he looked up] The expression seems to shew that He was sitting with downcast eyes, saddened, perhaps, in His human spirit and agitated by the great Denunciation; but this last little incident is ‘like a rose amid a field of thistles,’—an act genuinely beautiful in the desert of ‘official devotion.’
Read full note →
the rich men] More literally, “He saw those who were casting their gifts into the treasury—rich men.” St Mark tells us that the gifts were large (Mar_12:41).
into the treasury] See Joh_8:20. This was in the Court of the Women. The High Priest Jehoiada had put a chest for this purpose at the entrance of the House, 2Ki_12:9; see Neh_10:38; Jos. B. J. vi. 5; Antt. xix. 6, § 1, and 2Ma_3:6-12. It contained the Corban, Mat_27:6. But in our Lord’s day there were thirteen chests called Shopheroth, from their trumpet-shaped openings, adorned with various inscriptions. These rich men do not seem to have been observing the injunctions both sacred and Talmudic to give secretly, Mat_6:4; Mat_6:18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1-4) And saw the rich men casting their gifts.—See…
XXI.
(1-4) And saw the rich men casting their gifts.—See Notes on Mar_12:41-44. This may, perhaps, be thought of as one of the incidents which St. Luke derived from verbal communication with his brother-evangelist. (See Introduction.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-4. The widow"s mite. We find this little…
Vers. 1-4. The widow"s mite. We find this little sketch only here and in St. Mark. (Mar_12:41-44) The Master was sitting resting, probably, after the effort of the great denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees in the covered colonnade of that part of the temple which was open to the Jewish women. Here was the treasury, with its thirteen boxes in the wall, for the reception of the alms of the people. These boxes were called shopheroth, or trumpets, because they were shaped like trumpets, swelling out beneath, and tapering upward into a narrow mouth, or opening, into which the alms were dropped. Some of these "trumpets" were marked with special inscriptions, denoting the destination of the offerings.
And he looked up, and saw the rich men outing their gifts into the treasury. It is not improbable that a special stream of almsgivers were just then passing through the temple court, many being specially impressed by the solemn words they had just been listening to.
Read full note →
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-4. Worth in the estimate of wisdom.
What is the real worth of a human action? Surely, to us who are acting every wakeful hour of life, a very serious question. How shall we decide that an action of ours is worthy or unworthy, and what is the standard by which we shall estimate the comparative excellence of worthy deeds? Our text gives us one principle by which to judge. There are, however, two others which are essentially Christian, that should be placed in the foreground. Acts are worthy
I As THEY ARE USEFUL; as they tend to promote well-being. And here we should note that their usefulness is greater:
1. As they affect character rather than circumstance.
2. As they are free from drawback; for the usefulness of many a course of action is the difference between the intentional good and the incidental evil that is wrought.
3. As they are permanently influential and therefore reproductive. Many a deed, being done, is done with; it has no appreciable results; but many another is as seed in the soil there is a fruitful harvest to be reaped from it in the after-time.
II ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THEY ARE DONE. If useful things are done in the spirit of rivalry, or for the purpose of display, or in the hope of social or material remuneration, their worth in God"s sight is nothing or next to nothing. If they are done to honor and to please Jesus Christ, or prompted by pure benevolence, or in the spirit of filial obedience, they have a real worth and are the objects of Divine approval. But the teaching of our text is that actions are worthy
III MEASURED BY THEIR UNSELFISHNESS. If at heart they are selfish, then in the judgment of God they are without virtue; in proportion to their generosity, and that is to say, to their costliness, they are beautiful, and even noble.
1. The gift of money. The widow"s mite was more in the sight of God than the rich men"s gold; and it was so because they gave of their abundance a sum the loss of which they would not feel a sum that entailed no reduction of their comfort and constituted no sacrifice at all; but she gave all that she had a sum she would miss much, a truly generous sacrifice. How often we applaud the donation of some hundreds of pounds, when the ten shillings contributed by some struggling worker has a higher place in the heavenly ledger!
2. The gift of time. The man whose easy circumstances allow him to give much time to religion or philanthropy may be less worthy and may be making a really smaller contribution than he who, pressed hard by pecuniary obligations and having a heavy burden of family responsibility to carry, yet squeezes a few hours from toilful days to]end a helping hand to the cause of Christ and of man. The horae subscecivae are of more account than many leisure days.
3. Active service in the field of Christian labor. Some men are so constituted that they can render service in the pulpit, on the platform, in the class-room, almost without cost; they can speak without previous preparation and without subsequent exhaustion. But others can only serve at much cost to themselves; their strength is taxed to be ready for the hour of opportunity, they expend themselves freely in the act of utterance or in the outpouring of sympathy and they know what the miseries of prostration mean. A slight service, as reckoned by the time-table or the census, on the part of these latter may be more than equal to very prominent and much-appreciated work rendered by the former.
4. The sacrifice of life. It might seem that those who gave their life for their Lord or for their kind were all offering a gift of the same value. But not so. Life has very different values at different stages. It is comparatively little for the man who has spent his days and his powers to surrender the short and uninteresting remainder; it is much for the young man who has all the pleasures and prizes of life within his reach to part with the bright, inviting future in order to serve his fellows; the deed is nobler, for the sacrifice is greater.
(1) Let us take care that we do not judge by the appearance only, or we shall be unjust.
(2) Let us be sure that every true act of worthy service is appreciated and will be owned of Christ. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain This poor Widow hath cast in more than they…
Luk_21:1-4
This poor Widow hath cast in more than they all
Read full note →
The widows mites
Our Lord wished to see how the multitude cast money into the collection-chest--not only how much--anybody could have discovered that--but in what manner and spirit it was being done: reverently or irreverently--as unto God or as unto man--so as to display or so as to conceal the offering--with a conscientious aim to give all that was due, or a self-convicted sense that a part thereof was being withheld.
The searching eye of the Master struck through the outward demeanour of each passing worshipper, right down to the motive that swayed the hand. He was reading the heart of each giver. He was marking whether the gift was the mere fruit of a devotionless habit--a sheer affectation of religious liberality--or, as it ought to be, a humble and sincere token of gratitude and consecration to God. These were the inquiries that were engaging the mind of our Lord on this memorable occasion. We are not informed how long He had sat or what discoveries He had made before the arrival of the poor widow, but He noticed that she gave but two mites; and knowing that this was all she had, He discerned the unselfishness and love that prompted an offering which would perhaps be her last oblation on the altar of the Lord. This act of unfeigned devotion touched Him at once, insomuch that He immediately called His disciples, and drew their attention to so striking and instructive a case. It was her gift, rather than any other, that attracted the greatest interest in the courts of heaven. It was her offering, rather than any other, that was alone worthy of a permanent record in the Gospel History and the books of eternal remembrance. And why? Not only because she gave all her living, but because she gave it unto the Lord with all her heart. Not at all in a spirit of petulance or desperation, as might have been the case; not at all because she saw want staring her in the face, and thought it no longer worth her while to retain the paltry coins she possessed. On the contrary, it was the fineness of the womans spirit, the richness of her gratitude and love, the wealth of her self-forgetfulness and trust under the severity of her trials, that gave her little gift the exceeding rareness of its value. She was neither despairing nor repining, but walking by faith and in contentment, reflecting that, not withstanding her indigence, there was none to whom she was so great a debtor as unto the Lord her God, who in His providence had given her all she had, or ever had had, or ever would have, temporal and spiritual. And out of the depths of her adoration and thankfulness she says unto herself, I will go, in my poverty and sincerity, and pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people, cast my slender and only offering into the sacred treasury, and await the goodness of His hand in the land of the living. The other worshippers were giving variously, but all of their abundance; or, as the Revised Version has it, of their superfluity. They never missed what they gave. They were sacrificing nothing to enable them to give. They could have given more, some of them far more, and never have felt the slightest pressure in consequence. But the poor widow had not an iota more to offer. She gave her uttermost farthing, and she gave it gladly. (J. W.Pringle, M. A.)
The duty of almsgiving
1. It is necessary and scriptural that there be public voluntary contributions for pious and charitable purposes.
2. Both the rich and the poor should contribute to pious and charitable purposes, and that according to their respective ability.
3. It concerns us all to see that our contributions be such, in respect of the principles and motives from which they flow, as will meet with the Divine approbation.
4. Be exhorted to cast liberally into the offerings of God, by the encouraging considerations which are placed before you in His Word.
(1) Remember that the eye of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon you.
(2) Remember, again, the considerations connected with the amazing kindness of your God and Saviour to you.
(3) Be exhorted, once more, to give liberally, by the consideration of the promise of an abundant recompense, both in this world and in the world to come. (James Foote, M. A.)
The anonymous widow
It is related of Father Taylor, the sailor missionary of Boston, that on one occasion, when a minister was urging that the names of the subscribers to an institution (it was tile missionary cause) should be published, in order to increase the funds, and quoted the account of the poor widow and her two mites, to justify this trumpet-sounding, he settled the question by rising from his seat, and asking in his clear, shrill voice, Will the speaker please give us the name of that poor widow? (Christian Age.)
The widows mite
When it is said that this mite was all this womans living, it must, of course, mean all her living for that day. She threw herself upon the providence of God to supply her with her evening meal or nights lodging. From what she gave, which the Lord brought to light and commended, the expression I give my mite has passed into a proverb, which in the mouths of many who use it is ridiculous, if not profane. What ought to be the mite of one in a good business which yields him several hundreds a year clear profit? What ought to be the mite of a professional man in good practice, after all reasonable family claims are provided for? A man with an income of at least two or three hundred a year once said to me, when I called upon him for assistance in keeping up a national school, I will think about it, sir, and I will give you my mite. He did think, and his mite was two shillings. Contrast this with the following. Two aged paupers, having only the usual parish pay, became communicants. They determined that they would not neglect the offertory; but how was this to be done, as they were on starvation allowance? Well, during the week before the celebration, they did without light, sat up for two or three hours in the dark, and then went to bed, and gave the few pence which they saved in oil or rushlights to be laid on the altar of God. (M. F. Sadler.)
Giving his all
A gentleman was walking late one night along a street in London, in which stands the hospital where some of our little friends support a bed (The May Fair Cot, in Ormond Street Hospital) for a sick child. There were three acrobats passing along there, plodding wearily home to their miserable lodgings after their days work; two of them were men, and they were carrying the ladders and poles with which they gave their performance in the streets whenever they could collect a crowd to look on. The third was a little boy in a clowns dress. He trotted wearily behind, very tired, and looking pale and sick. Just as they were passing the hospital the little lads sad face brightened for a moment. He ran up the steps and dropped into the box attached to the door a little bit of paper. It was found next morning there. It contained a sixpence, and on the paper was written, For a sick child. The one who saw it afterwards ascertained, as he tells us, that the poor little waif, almost destitute, had been sick, and in his weary pilgrimage was a year before brought to the hospital, which had been a House Beautiful to him, and he was there cured of his bodily disease. Hands of kindness had ministered to him, words of kindness had been spoken to him, and he had left it cured in body and whole in heart. Some one on that day in a crowd had slipped a sixpence into his hand, and that same night as he passed by, his grateful little heart gave up for other child-sufferers all the living that he had. It was all done so quietly, so noiselessly; but oh I believe me, the sound of that little coin falling into Gods treasury that night rose above the roar and din of this mighty city, and was heard with joy in the very presence of God Himself
The giving out of abundance and out of penury
Mamma, I thought a mite was a very little thing. What did the Lord mean when He said the widows mite was more than all the money the rich men gave? It was Sunday afternoon, and the question was asked by a little child of eight, who had large, dark, inquiring eyes, that were always trying to look into things. Mamma had just been reading to her the story from the Bible, and now she wanted it explained. Mamma thought for a few minutes, and then said, Well, Lulu, I will tell you a little story, and then I think you will understand why the widows mite was more valuable than ordinary mites. There was once a little girl, whose name was Kitty, and this little girl had ever so many dolls, almost more than she could count. Some were made of china, and others were made of wax, with real hair and beautiful eyes that would open and shut; but Kitty was tired of them all, except the newest one, which her auntie had given her at Christmas. One day a poor little girl came to the door begging, and Kittys mother told her to go and get one of her old dolls and give it away. She did so, and her old doll was like what the rich men put into the treasury. She could give it away just as well as not, and it didnt cost her anything. But the poor little beggar girl was delighted with her doll. She had never had but one before, and that was a rag doll; but this one had such lovely curly hair, and she had never seen any lady with such an elegant pink silk dress on. She was almost afraid to hold it against her dirty shawl, for fear of soiling it; so she hurried home as fast as she could, to hide it away with her few small treasures. Just as she was going upstairs to their poor rooms, she saw through the crack of the door in the basement her little friend Sally, who had been sick in bed all summer, and who was all alone all day, while her mother went out washing, to try and earn money enough to keep them from starving. As our little girl looked through the crack she thought to herself, I must show Sally my new dolly. So she rushed into the room and on to the bed, crying, O Sally! see! Sally tried to reach out her arms to take it, but she was too sick; so her little friend held up the dolly, and as she did so, she thought, How sick Sally looks to-day! and she hasnt any dolly. Then, with one generous impulse, she said, Here, Sally, you may have her. Now, Lulu, do you see? The little girls dolly was like the widows mite--she gave her all.
The largest giver
The late Bishop Selwyn was a man of ready wit as well as of devout Christian feeling. In his New Zealand diocese it was proposed to allot the seats of a new church, when the Bishop asked on what principle the allotment was to be made, to which it was replied that the largest donors should have the best seats, and so on in proportion. To this arrangement, to the surprise of every one, the Bishop assented, and presently the question arose who had given the most. This, it was answered, should be decided by the subscription list. And now, said the Bishop, who has given the most? The poor widow in the temple, in casting into the treasury her two mites, had cast in more than they all; for they of their abundance had cast into the treasury, but she had cast in all the living that she had. (W. Baxendale.)
A Welsh boys offering
It is related of a little Welsh boy who attended a missionary meeting that when he had given in his collecting card and what he had obtained from his friends, he was greatly distressed because he had not a halfpenny of his own to put in the plate at the meeting. His heart was so thrilled with interest in the work that he ran home and told his mother that he wanted to be a missionary, and asked her to give him something for the collection, but she was too poor to give him any money. He was disappointed and cried; but a thought struck him. He collected all his marbles, went out, and sold them for a penny, and then went to the meeting again and put it on the plate, feeling glad that he was able to do something to promote the cause of missions.
What one halfpenny can do
A son of one of the chiefs of Burdwan was converted by a single tract. He could not read, but he went to Rangoon, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles; a missionarys wife taught him to read, and in forty-eight hours he could read the tract through. He then took a basket full of tracts; with much difficulty preached the gospel at his own home, and was the means of converting hundreds to God. He was a man of influence; the people flocked to hear him; and in one year one thousand five hundred natives were baptized in Arracan as members of the Church. And all this through one little tract I That tract cost one halfpenny! Oh! whose halfpenny was it? God only knows. Perhaps it was the mite of some little girl; perhaps the well-earned offering of some little boy. But what a blessing it was! (Bowes.)
The gifts of the poor
Sarah Hosmer, while a factory girl, gave fifty guineas to support native pastors. When more than sixty years old she longed so to furnish Nestoria with one more preacher that, living in an attic, she took in sewing until she had accomplished her cherished purpose. Dr. Gordon has well said, In the hands of this consecrated woman, money transformed the factory girl and the seamstress into a missionary of the Cross and then multiplied her sixfold. But might we not give a thousand times as much money as Sarah Hosmer gave, and yet not earn her reward?
The true worth of money
After all, objects take their colour from the eyes that look at them. And let us be assured that there is an infinite difference in the sight of an eye which is the window of a sordid soul and an eye from which looks a soul that has been ennobled by the royal touch of Christ. There are some eyes that read upon a piece of gold nothing but the figures that tell its denomination. There are others, thank God, that see upon it truths that thrill and gladden and uplift. If the lust of gold has blinded your eyes to all else but its conventional value, go to the feet of Christ, and to His question, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? answer, Lord, that mine eyes might be opened. And when you have learned to look through money into that infinite reach that lies beyond it, you will have learned the lesson of the gospel. You may then be a rich Christian, making earth brighter and better, and building for yourself in heaven everlasting habitations.
Liberal giving
In a sequestered glen in Burmah lived a woman, who was known as Naughapo (Daughter of Goodness). Sire was the Dorcas of the glen--clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, soothing the afflicted, and often making her little dwelling the home of the poor, that they might enjoy the privilege of the neighbouring school. Mrs. Mason, the missionary, visiting her, was struck with the beauty of her peaceful home--evidently a spot which the Lord had blessed … The day before she left, apedlar had called with his tempting fabrics for sale; but though this poor woman was in poor garments, she had but one rupee for purchases, while on the following morning she and her family put thirteen rupees into Mrs. Masons hand, to be deposited in the mission treasury. (Mrs. Wylies Life of Mrs. Mason.)
Noble giving
General Gordon had a great number of medals, for which he cared nothing. There was a gold one, however, given to him by the Empress of China, with a special inscription engraved upon it, for which he had a great liking. But it suddenly disappeared, no one knew when or how. Years afterwards it was found out by a curious accident that he had erased the inscription, sold the medal for ten pounds, and sent the sum anonymously to Canon Millar, for the relief of the sufferers from the cotton famine at Manchester. (E. Hake.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1–4. Saw the rich men that were casting their…
1–4. Saw the rich men that were casting their gifts. For notes on the Widow's Mites, see Mark 12:41–44.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Luk_21:1. Looked up.—From the parallel passage in Mar_12:41 we…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_21:1. Looked up.—From the parallel passage in Mar_12:41 we learn that our Lord had taken his seat in the court of the women, where were the chests for containing gifts and offerings to the Temple. These chests were thirteen in number, and had trumpet-shaped mouths for receiving the money. On the chests were labels specifying the purposes to which the money was to be applied.
Read full note →
Luk_21:2. Saw also.—Omit “also”; omitted in R.V. Poor widow.—The word “poor” is emphatic; almost equivalent to “beggar.” Two mites.—The mite was the smallest Jewish coin, about equal to a tenth of an English penny.
Luk_21:3. More than they all.—The estimate being formed, not on the amount given, but on the amount remaining after the gift; or, in other words, on the quality of the gift and not on its quantity.
Luk_21:4. Of their abundance.—Rather, “of their superfluity” (R.V.). A sharp antithesis to the destitution of the widow. All the living.—Lit. “life”—i.e., means of subsistence. “Yet the word seems chosen expressly to indicate entire devotion of herself, her life, as well as livelihood, to God’s service” (Speaker’s Commentary).
Luk_21:5. Gifts.—Rather, sacred “offerings” (R.V.). “Such as the golden chain of Agrippa; gifts of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Augustus, Helen of Adiabene, and crowns, shields, goblets, etc.; the golden vine, with its vast clusters, given by Herod” (Farrar).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_21:1-6
Self-sacrifice.—This little incident occupies a striking place in the Gospel records. Jesus has just uttered woe after woe upon His hypocritical and malignant foes, and is about to impart to His disciples a revelation of dread events yet to come—the overthrow of the Jewish people, the destruction of the Temple, and startling phenomena that would usher in His Second Coming. Between His burning words of denunciation and the awe-inspiring disclosures He makes to His disciples, comes this genial appreciation of a deed of self-sacrifice and love, done by a poor and obscure worshipper as she passed out of the house of God. As if to show that no feelings of personal anger mingled with His righteous anger, and that, though his heart was sad, His mind was unruffled, He sat down as an unoccupied spectator in the court of the Temple, and, with gentle voice and mien, commented upon the good deed which had come under His observation. We may note His approval of the principle that self-sacrifice is an essential part of true worship, and the commendation He bestowed upon the action of this poor widow.
I. Self-sacrifice an essential part of true worship.—The fact that provision was made in the Temple for gifts and offerings to be presented by worshippers as they retired, is very significant. It teaches that all worship of God should tend towards and end in self-sacrifice. We come to church to worship God—to join with the saints upon earth, and with the angels and the redeemed in heaven, in adoring the Divine majesty and holiness. This is our reasonable service, and by it our lives are sanctified. We humble ourselves before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold evil; in His presence we disclose our thoughts, we acknowledge our transgressions and secret faults, and seek to exhibit that contrition that will justify forgiveness. We contemplate the mercy God has revealed, adore the Saviour whom He has sent, rejoice in the thought of the Divine compassion, and give expression to our gratitude in hymns of praise. This is the worship which God seeks; it is the holy incense which is acceptable to Him: but this worship should issue in self-sacrifice. Sacrifice is the one main idea in every form of religion known to man. Horrible as many of the forms of sacrifice have been, and are, among heathen races, yet in all cases they proclaim the same great truth, that man owes himself and all he has to God. And Christianity, above all other religions, sets forth this truth. What is the cross but the symbol of the greatest of all deeds of self-sacrifice—the complete surrender of a life for the glory of God and the good of mankind? What does it teach but that we belong altogether to God, and should yield ourselves to Him? This is how the holy apostles conceive of religion. In all their writings they remind us that we are not our own, but His, and that we should offer ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.
II. The commendation bestowed upon the poor widow.—Why were the two mites of greater value than all the gold and silver which others cast in lavishly? Because, trifling though they were in intrinsic value, they were the sign of a complete and unreserved sacrifice of the whole being to God. She gave herself; the tiny bits of copper were but the symbol of this higher, nobler offering. This it was that threw into insignificance all the treasures that enriched the coffers of the Temple, and even the gifts with which wealthy devotees had adorned the building and made it the pride of the nation. Others gave something they could afford to spare—gave of their superfluity—and in this way gave less than she did. So that it is not a question of giving much or little of our property to a good cause, but of discovering by the light of this passage of Scripture whether we are offering to God a complete sacrifice of ourselves, or are substituting for it something which we can afford to part with, but which in comparison with ourselves has no value. Anything short of the gift of our all to God is unacceptable to Him. Take the case of those who would fain dedicate only part of the life, of the affections, of the interests, to His service. The young man, let us say, plans out the sort of life he would like to lead; he forms schemes of self-advancement, happiness, and self-gratification, from which thoughts of God are excluded. Religion is kept, as it were, in reserve, to be a resource and a consolation, when all the pleasures of life are exhausted, and the time of old age, weakness, and disappointment, has come. When the fortune is made, and success is won, there will be leisure for heavenly things. Is not this professing to give the superfluity and to retain the essential part? And yet we cannot be sure of retaining it, for at any moment death may seize the whole. We have the word of Christ to assure us that we do not lose what we give to God, but lay up for ourselves a treasure in heaven, which will never know diminution, but be an abiding possession. The life which is consecrated to God is not robbed of its delights—nay, it alone is the happy life; it multiplies present enjoyments a hundredfold, and secures for us the crown of eternal blessedness. But if we choose to keep all for ourselves, we are sure of losing it. “She cast in all the living that she had.” “How foolish of her!” some will say. Yes; it has been by folly like this, by lavish and unselfish love, that the world has been redeemed. Her action remains as a cutting rebuke of the selfish, worldly spirit, and of that mean and calculating prudence which even the world despises. For if there are few in the present age who have imitated her literal impoverishment of herself for the sake of religion, there are many who have followed a like course for the sake of country. There are many who have, from patriotic motives, forfeited property, happiness, and even reputation, and are willing to give up their lives for their country’s sake. And what is admirable in the lower sphere is surely not ridiculous in the higher. It is, then, with something like a reproachful pang of conscience that we should listen to the commendation bestowed on this poor widow: “She of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had; she hath cast in more than they all.” (See an interesting sermon on this text by Bernier: “La veuve, ou le don sans réserve.”)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_21:1-6
Luk_21:1-6. The Widow’s Offering and the Stones of the Temple.—While the disciples were wondering at the majestic towers and carved stone-work as a great offering dedicated by man to God, Christ had seen in the gift of the poor widow an offering equally great in the eye of Heaven. The contrast suggests—
I. The true measure of sacrifice.—Not the greatness of the outward act, but the perfectness of the inward motive.
II. The true idea of a temple.—The disciples saw God’s dwelling-place in the house of stone with its Holy of Holies and altars of sacrifice. Christ saw it in the broken heart of the widow.
Three practical lessons we may learn:
1. A lesson of duty—to live to God in small things; to dedicate our lives to Him, even if we have no great opportunities of service, and are vexed by cares.
2. A lesson of encouragement. Live to God in all things; consider no sacrifice too great or too small; do your best in everything, as in His sight;—and you will find Him everywhere.
3. A lesson of warning. The Jews had come to see God only in the Temple at Jerusalem. As a consequence they became formalists—the surrender of their souls was forgotten. And the splendid Temple fell! So now and ever. Forget the Divinity of all life, and the temple of your soul will become desolate.—Hull.
Luk_21:1-4. The Eye of Christ.—“He beheld.” This text is full of instruction; it encourages the very humblest to give; it thus makes giving a universal duty and privilege; it proclaims a searching paradox as to more and less; and it requires us to feel that our givings are scrutinised by Him before whose judgment-seat we are to stand.
I. The circumstances are instructive.
II. The scrutiny of the Saviour was very searching.
III. This poor widow gave all she had.—Relatively, it was a great gift.
IV. The Lord does not receive any offering unless it is large enough to prove self-denial on the part of the giver.—The money in itself is valueless to God, but is of value as representing thankfulness, self-denial, prayer, and trust.—Symington.
Hypocrisy and Piety.
I. Some pretended to love God.—They did their good works, their “righteousness,” to be seen of men. They loved themselves, their reputation—not God.
II. One really loved God.—She gave all she had. She had nothing left. There was no ostentation. There would have been condemnation had others known that all she gave was “two mites.” Really, however, others only gave a little, this worshipper gave all, out of grateful love to God.
III. What pleases God.—Not outside show, not display of goodness, not ostentatious giving of much. But love, gratitude, humility, self-sacrifice—these are pleasing in God’s sight. We can please God in little, if that little is our all.—“Sunday School Chronicle.”
Heartiness in Action.—Giving is one form of action for God. What is the aspect which many of the Lord’s people present to the world in this particular? Where is their heartiness in it? How much is there of form, and how little of decided action! Many who are steeped in poverty are rich indeed in action. The poor widow is a case in point.
I. She was of no account in the world’s estimation.
II. She was of no account, so far as man was concerned, in the Temple of the Lord.
III. Yet she alone receives the commendation of the Lord.—To Him who seeth not as man seeth she was immeasurably above all others.
IV. Learn that when we think we are unobserved we are doing all under the immediate eye of God.—We too often forget that we are the servants of One whose eye is ever on us, taking note of what we think, and speak, and do. In all our givings we should so perform these acts that we do not desire them to be hidden from the eyes of God. He who is like this poor widow will delight in the thought that his Lord knows all. Act, then, on all occasions as though you wished Jesus to look on.—Power.
“Two mites.”—Just between the woes and predictions of doom there befel an exquisite little incident, full of the tenderest and loveliest beauty. Jesus was sitting over against the treasury, watching the givers.
I. He sees who give, what they give, why they give.
II. He is arrested by the liberal giving of a poor widow.—He had pleasure in what she did. He commends her with an overflow of joy. He says nothing to herself—nothing in her hearing even; but He teaches the disciples a lesson in the political economy of the kingdom of heaven.
III. The money value of the offering was very small.—Probably it was the smallest of any presented there that day. But the relative value was very great. She had nothing left after giving her two mites. So this was the greatest offering of all contributed that day.
IV. The offering had also spiritual value, because of what it represented.—Men may value money for itself; the Lord does not. It is the heart He cares for. Jesus would not have spoken as He did unless her offering had expressed grateful love to God, and trust in Him for time to come, whatever may betide. Were the principles which appear in this little incident to pervade all Christian giving, the Lord’s treasury would contain exactly the right sum.—Culross.
The Widow’s Mites.
I. It is good to have our Lord’s estimate of the earth’s gifts.
II. In the eyes of Christ, this offering was of great price.
III. This value arose from the motive and spirit of the giver.—Miller.
Human and Divine Estimates.—The widow’s offering was, in the eyes of men—
I. Less than all.—Only a farthing. Not worth giving.
II. More than all.—In Christ’s estimate. She had given all, and left nothing. The others had retained much. What is Christ’s estimate of your givings?—W. Taylor.
I. The lively interest which Christ takes in the smaller details of our life.
II. The special interest He takes in the free-will offerings of His servants.
III. The mode in which He measures our offerings of money or service.—Ibid.
Luk_21:1. “Looked up.”—I.e., turned His attention from those who had been listening to Him, and took note of what was going on near at hand, where the boxes for receiving offerings stood.
Luk_21:2. “Two mites.”—She might have kept one of them.—Bengel.
Luk_21:3. “More.”—Jesus draws attention to the moral quality of the action, and bestows on it the praise which vulgar minds usually reserve for liberality that bulks largely in quantity. With the two mites she gave her heart also.
Luk_21:4-5.
I. The action of the poor widow appeals to Christ as worthy of admiration.—As having great moral and spiritual value.
II. The disciples admire the magnificence of the Temple building.—They are impressed with the splendour that appeals to the senses and delights the æsthetic taste.
Luk_21:4. “Of her penury.”—
I. The loving heart counts no sacrifice too great.
II. The gracious Redeemer despises no gift, however small, when the motive of the giver is pure.
A Flower in The Desert.—What a contrast to the greed with which the scribes and Pharisees are charged in the preceding verses! This incident, which meets His notice just at this moment, is like a flower which He sees suddenly springing up in the desert of official devotion, the beauty and fragrance of which fills His heart with joy.—Godet.
Luk_21:5. “Adorned.”—
1. Beauty of outward semblance.
2. Yet perishable for lack of the indwelling spirit of religion.
“Gifts.”—The disciples take pleasure in looking upon the splendid gifts, made for the most part by heathen princes; they delight in them
(1) because of their beauty and value, and
(2) doubtless because they saw in them the fulfilment of such prophetical passages of Scripture as Psalms 72, Isaiah 60. They can scarcely fail to infer, from Christ’s words, that a doom rests upon the sanctuary; yet they can scarcely realise the fact, and almost intercede for its preservation.
Luk_21:6. “Not be left one stone.”—
1. The beauty of these things will not persuade the enemy to spare them.
2. The strength of the buildings will not be able to resist the power of the enemy.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Luk 21:1-4; Mar 12:41-44. “Jesus, sitting in front of…
CHAPTER 19
THE WIDOW’S MITE
Read full note →
Luk 21:1-4; Mar 12:41-44. “Jesus, sitting in front of the treasury, was seeing how the multitude cast their money into the treasury. And one poor widow, having come, cast in two mites, which is a farthing. And calling His disciples, He says to them, Truly I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all those casting into the treasury. For all, out of that which abounded to them, were casting in; but she, from her scarcity, cast in all things so many as she had, her entire living.” Jesus knew that this was all she had, and it only amounted to three-eighths of a cent. Here is a matter of fact: These two mites — i. e., three-eighths of a cent — were all she possessed beneath the skies. With a grateful heart, making no reserve, she casts it all into the treasury of the Lord. N. B. — God is not poor, and does not need anything that we can give Him. He looks upon the heart and knows precisely what we are doing. This widow gave more than any of the balance, because she was the only one who gave all she possessed. We should all take courage. God will feed us as He feeds the birds. Let us realize it a great privilege, like this poor widow, just to give all. In that case we are utterly disencumbered of all worldly care, depending on God alone, who will certainly take care of us.
CHAPTER 20
COMING OF THE LORD
Matthew 24; Matthew 25; Mark 13; Luke 21. It is now in the afternoon, on Wednesday, preceding the arrest of our Savior about midnight the ensuing day, and His crucifixion the Friday following. He had spent the morning preaching to the multitudes on the Temple Campus, bidding a final adieu to the temple and its holy environments, prophesying the desolation of the temple, city, and land, and assuring them that they will see Him no more until they shall say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord;” i.e., till He comes in His glory, and the elect remnant, gathered from the ends of the earth, will thus salute their Savior, Brother, King. Having preached to the Greeks at the gate as He came out, now He goes away to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. We are gratified to have. this wonderful sermon, which, at this time and place, He preached to His disciples about His return to the earth, recorded by three of His faithful amanuenses. As we proceed we will endeavor, aided by the Spirit, to give you the full benefit of this triple record. Mat 24:1 : “Jesus having gone out, departed from the temple; and His disciples came to Him to show Him the buildings of the temple.” From Mount Olivet we enjoy, not only a conspicuous view of Jerusalem, but especially of the entire Temple Campus, containing thirty-five acres, occupied by many great and valuable buildings now, and more at that time.
Luk 21:5. “Certain ones speaking concerning the temple that it was ornamented with beautiful stones and offerings, He said, The days shall come in which not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down.” In that day they had no banks, gold and silver and other valuables being frequently hidden away for safe-keeping. When the city was destroyed, the Roman soldiers tore up the very foundations of the temple, searching for hidden treasures, thus verifying this prophecy of Jesus.
Mar 13:3. “He, sitting on the Mount of Olives in front of the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately” ( Mat 24:3), “Tell us when these things shall be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and the end of the age.” E. V. says “the end of the world.” Our Lord did not say kosmos, “world,” but aion, “age.” The same word means time. The E. V. translation, “end of the world,” has given currency to the popularidea that this world is going to have an end and be consumed — i.e., annihilated, blotted out of existence — which is contradictory of Scripture, which plainly teaches another age following this (Mat 12:32, and Heb 6:4), the glorious Millennial Theocracy succeeding the present age, which will also be followed by the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21), when this lost planet (Luke 15) shall take its place with Other celestial worlds, the especial reward of the meek (Mat 5:5), to possess, shine, and shout with the unfallen angels forever.
“And Jesus, responding, said to them, Beware lest any one may deceive you. For many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and will deceive many.” I am a personal witness to the fulfillment of this prophecy, several persons in the last score of years having actually claimed to be Christ. Soon after His ascension, many made their appearance in Palestine, and other Oriental countries, claiming to be Christ e.g., Theudas; Simon Magus, Marchocab, and others. As the times of our Lord’s second coming draws nigh, doubtless many false Christs will arise.
“And you will be about to hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not shaken: for it behooveth all these things to take place, but the end is not, yet.” Pretty soon it was rumored that the Emperor Tiberius, and after him Caligula and Nero, were going to make war on the Jews, as they threatened them because of the commotions prevalent among them. Here you see that Jesus puts them on their guard against the idea that those terrible Jewish wars, commotions, and revolutions, which put an end to the Jewish state and Church at the expiration of forty years should be mistaken by them as ominous of the end of the age, which will not come till Jesus in person returns.
“For nation shall rise up against nation and kingdom; there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. But all these are the beginning of birth-pangs.” Odinon (“sorrows,” E. V.) literally means “birth- pangs” — i.e., the pains and acute sufferings characteristic of parturition — and has a deep significance as here used by the Savior. The awful death- agonies of the drowning antediluvians proved the birth-pangs of the new- born postdiluvian world. The terrible death-shock when the destroying angel winged his flight into every Egyptian home, slaying the first-born, was the birth-pangs of a great nation, as Israel that very hour issued from the dark womb of. Egyptian slavery, and took her place among the nations of the earth. So the awful death-roll of a million Jews, when the Romans destroyed the city, was the birth-pangs of the glorious Gospel Dispensation, unfurling the banner of Redeeming Grace to the whole Gentile world. In a similar manner, the death-agonies of the human powers, when the Ancient of Days shall descend and execute righteous judgments against all the usurpers of His royal throne, shaking down the false claimants and clearing the way for the coronation of His Son, King of Kings and Lord of lords (Dan 7:9), deluging the world with blood and heaping it with mountains of the dead (Revelation 16-19), will prove the birth-pangs of the glorious millennium, restoring Eden back to earth, and imprisoning Satan in the dungeons of the pandemonium.
Mar 13:9. “But you, take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up into the Sanhedrins, and you shall be beaten in the synagogues.” You see, those are Jewish punishments. “And you shall stand before governors and kings for My name’s sake, for a testimony unto them.” These are Gentile punishments. Paul, in Cyprus, testified before Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, and was instrumental in his conversion. He also testified before Felix, at Caesarea, who rejected his testimony. The martyrdom of Stephen, soon after Pentecost, lifted the flood-gate, and poured in on them rivers of blood, the Jews making every possible effort to exterminate them. This world is no friend to grace. The apostles all suffered martyrdom among the Gentiles except the two Jameses.
Mar 13:11. “And when they may lead you forth, delivering you up, do not be solicitous what you shall say, nor premeditate; but whatsoever may be given unto you in that hour, speak this: for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Ghost.”
Luk 21:15. “For I will give unto you a. mouth and wisdom, which all those who are opposed shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” This has been literally verified by the martyrs in all ages, pagan Roman historians certifying that the executioners, in the bloody work; of martyrdom, were frequently so convicted by the testimony of the dying saints that they confessed Christ on the spot, becoming willing and heroic subjects of the martyr’s fate.
Luk 21:16-17 . “And you shall be delivered up by your parents, brothers, kindred, and. friends; and they will put some of you to death.
And you shall be hated by all for my name’s sake.” During the martyr ages; most shocking scenes, as above described, were common, the nearest relatives of consanguinity testifying against one another as the only way of escape from bloody death, since the persecutors would take the whole family if they did not thus deliver up the confessors of Christianity.
Mat 24:10. “And then many will be offended;” i.e., backslide, and repudiate Christ, in order to save their lives. This was always the case during the martyr ages, many thus recanting to save their lives, and resuming their places in the Church after the persecutionary wave rolled by. “And they will deliver one another and hate one another. Many false prophets shall rise and deceive many.” A false prophet is a counterfeit preacher, who preaches a religion that lets Adam the First not only live, but have a very good time; while the true Christianity always slays Agag. Carnal, anti-holiness religion is never persecuted, from the simple fact that Satan has no objection to it. “Because iniquity doth abound, the Divine love of many doth wax cold.” While this has had its fulfillment in all ages, its verification has been overwhelming in the last quarter of a century. I can remember well when no man could preach Holy Ghost religion too straight, strong, and hot to suit Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. O what a change! You will now generally find them, not only in a North Pole atmosphere, but in many instances actually so opposed to fire:: that they can not stand a red-hot testimony. You all see this confirmation of the near approach of the end, Jesus being the Witness. “But he that continueth to the end, the same shall be saved.” Lord, help us to be true, as the promise is only to the finally faithful! “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a testimony to all nations; and then the end shall come.” This is very plain and explicit. He has fortified His disciples against the idea that the end of all things will take place with the destruction of Jerusalem. N. B. — Jesus had in His mind, and at that time saw in panorama, not only the wonderful events coming on so quickly — not only destroying Jerusalem, but annihilating the Jewish polity — but also the end of the age; i.e., the winding up of the gospel dispensation, though the time of the latter, being then a long way off, had not been revealed to Him. Again, you must remember that a few centuries in the Divine mind are but fleeting moments. Consequently the events connected with the destruction of the Jewish State and Church insensibly blend with those transpiring at the end of the Gentile times. Here you see the clear and unequivocal affirmation that the end of the age will come so soon as the gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached to all nations. Two years ago there were regions in Africa and Asia — i.. e., Thibet and Rangoon in the latter, and the Soudan in the former — where no missionary had ever been, so far as we know. Since that time the missionaries have reached all of these countries. So we do not know that there is any nation on the earth now which has never received the gospel, as so many great countries in Asia and Africa, where once the gospel flourished, are now missionary grounds, wrapped in the darkness of idolatry and the False Prophet. You see, as God is the Judge of the witness, we can not ascertain to what extent the gospel must be preached in any nation in order to develop the required testimony. When Jesus returns, in glory to reign over the whole earth, He must have the charter members for His kingdom in every nation, as the different nations of the earth will be perpetuated in their integrity, in the diversified countries which they now occupy, through the millennium. Of course, the saints of bygone ages, who represent these nations that once had the gospel, but have it not now, are not dead, but living in heaven, and ready to return with Jesus, and receive their glorified bodies in the first resurrection, at the beginning of the millennium. (Rev 20:6) For ought we know, they are sufficient : for the Divine testimony in behalf of the nations which they represent. The exceedingly rapid spread of the gospel among the heathen at the present time is certainly a most cheering omen of the Lord’s near coming. While it may seem strange, yet it is true, that the phenomenal apostasy of the Protestant Churches in the last few years is an equally striking fulfillment of the latter-day prophecies (2 Thessalonians 2), and convincing manifestation that the Lord is nigh.
Luk 21:18-19 . “Not a hair of your head can perish. In your patience gain your souls.” What thrilling inspirations to the perseverance of the saints! We actually gain our souls by patiently suffering and toiling to the end, with the blessed assurance that if we will be true, no spiritual detriment whatever shall overtake us.
DOOM OF JERUSALEM AND ESCAPE OF THE DISCIPLES
Mat 24:15-18. “Therefore when you may see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet [Dan 9:27], standing in the holy place, let the one reading take notice then; let those who are in Judea go. to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take things out of his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his garments.” A. D. 66, Gallus, the Roman general, laid siege to Jerusalem, succeeded, A. D. 68, by Vespasian, the emperor, who was succeeded by his son Titus, A. D. 71, who prosecuted the war to its awful end, as the Jews were divided into bloody factions, and were killing one another, and would not surrender to the Romans. Read Josephus, and you will find the horrors of the siege beggared all description — famine raging, people dying in piles; pestilence, arising from the putrefying corpses, sweeping the city with the besom of destruction far more terrific than the sword, which was also devouring them on all sides, till a solid million perished, and a million more were sold into slavery, the city utterly destroyed and left without an inhabitant. After fifty years a Roman colony was founded on the memorable site where Jerusalem once stood, even the name being dropped, and the new Roman city was called Elia Capitolina the ensuing two centuries, till the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, who came thither, revived the city, and restored the sacred name, Jerusalem. When the Roman armies effected all entrance through the walls, they at once set up their battle-flags on the Holy Campus, on the summit of. Moriah, taking possession of the temple and all the holy places. This was the “abomination of desolation” — “abomination,” because the Roman gods were pictured on it, and the soldiers worshipped them as they looked on the flags; and “desolation,” because those battle-flags meant the destruction of Jerusalem. Jesus notified His disciples that the moment they saw these Roman battle-flags floating from the pinnacles of the temple, they should all recognize it as the signal for, them to make their escape. Their flight was to be so sudden that, if on the housetop, they were not. to come down. N. B. — You can now run all over Jerusalem on the flat roofs of the houses, as the narrow streets are overarched, the buildings being continuous, jam up to the wall, which is a part of the contiguous edifice. Consequently they could run to the wall on the roofs of the houses and pass down, thus making their escape, which must be sudden and expeditious, or they would be intercepted and detained. This is a vivid symbolism of the rapture of. the saints at the end of the age.
Luk 21:22. “Because these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all things which have been written.” Josephus says that a sword, suspended from the pinnacle of the firmament, was visible in the blue sky, hanging over the city a whole year before this awful siege. He also says that a strange man walked upon the walls of the city some time before the siege, crying aloud, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” continuing. there to walk and utter this awful sentence of coming doom till a stone struck him and he fell dead.
Mat 24:19-22. “Woe to those who are in gestation and nursing in those days!” The pure, tender heart of His unfallen humanity thus gives expression to the deepest sympathy in behalf of all thus encumbered in those terrible perils. “Pray that your flight may not be in a storm, nor on the Sabbath.” Jerusalem is only forty miles from the great sea, two thousand miles long and continuous from: the ocean of five thousand miles, thus giving the western storms a tremendous sweep, and the city is five thousand feet above the sea-level. Consequently storms at Jerusalem are terrible. I was in one which, as they all do, had come from the sea. Though they have but little effect on the stone houses, I found it difficult to stand and move about. Besides, these storms are not only wind, but rain, carried from the sea which is so nigh. Again, they were not protected with clothing as we are, there being no factories in that day. As to the Sabbath, so punctiliously was it kept in Jerusalem that the gates of the city were closed. Hence the probability of their being shut in. “For then there shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world until now, neither may be.” We do not understand this statement to antagonize the probability of the great Gentile tribulation, as the Jewish was preliminary to it, and really will culminate in it. “Unless those days were shortened, no flesh were saved.”
Mar 13:20. “But on account of the elect, whom He hath elected, He shortened those days.” You must remember, not only some of the elect of grace were there, who doubtless afterward got saved, but a special reference is here made to the elect of Israel, the recipients of the infallible promises of the Abrahamic Covenant, who in due time will be restored, and eventually saved and sanctified, and become the honored recipients of their Brother King, coming in His glory in the last day. They were there in that awful siege and must be saved.
Luk 21:24. “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captives into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles may be fulfilled.” Much of this wonderful prophetical verse has been fulfilled, while things of profoundest moment are yet in the future. Jerusalem is still trodden down by the Gentiles, but, as you see here, destined to be relieved when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. When our Lord returns on the throne of His glory, the elect of Israel will have possession of Jerusalem, and come again to the front of the world, there to remain. Now, what about these Gentile times?
When did they begin, and when will they end? God’s plan was to rule the world. Man was dissatisfied with Divine rule, rejected the government of God, preferring human administration. When Nebuchadnezzar conquered the world, he captured Jerusalem, and carried away the Jews, B. C. 587. So at that date the last vestige of the Theocracy disappeared, the whole world falling into the hands of a heathen monarch. I doubt not but Nebuchadnezzar was the most competent man in the world to rule it, and consequently God gave it to him when He saw that the people would have human government and reject the Divine. You remember (Daniel 4) how Nebuchadnezzar became so utterly crazy that he vacated his throne, followed the predilections of his boyhood, dwelt among the herds and flocks seven years, so utterly insane that he all this time played king among them, thus illustrating the utter incompetency of any man to rule a nation, a responsibility to which none but God is equal. (Simultaneously symbolizing the Divine interregnum in the world’s government on the part of the Eden Theocracy.) This insanity lasted seven years, which, according to the year-day system of prophetical interpretation thoroughly established in the Bible, — this period, according to lunar time, which is measured by the revolutions of the moon and 354 days in the year, the seven years equal 2748; the planetary chronology, 360 days in the year = 2520;, and the solar time, 365 days in the. year, equal 2555. Now, lot us see how much time has elapsed since the beginning of the Gentile times: B. C. 587+1900=2487. Now, you see, 2487-2478=9. Hence you see, according to lunar time, the times of the Gentiles are just about to run out, only lacking nine years.
Now, if you count the tribulation as Daniel gives it (Dan 12:11-12), 1335-1290=45, the years of the tribulation (which, as you see from the above, are very likely to be shortened, for the sake of the elect of grace as well as that of Israel), 45-9=36. Hence you see, according to lunar time, the tribulation is even now overdue thirty-six years. Planetary time, 2520- 2487=33. Now, 45-33=12. Hence you see, the calendar time makes the tribulation overdue twelve years. Now, the solar time, 2555-2487=68- 45=23. Hence you see that the solar chronology makes the rapture due in 23 years, the calendar chronology makes it overdue 12 years, and the lunar makes the rapture of the saints overdue 36 years. Of course, no man knows the exact chronology, and consequently no human being can ascertain the day of His coming.
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and from, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Dan 12:4)
When Daniel saw these wonderful visions of the latter days and the end of all things, he was so wrought upon and thrilled with solicitude to understand his own vision that he fainted. You see in this verse that he is commanded to shut up the words and seal the book till the time of the end, when the mystery will be revealed, and “many shall run to and fro,” publishing it to all nations. I gather from the above chronologies, and other Scriptural sources, that we are living now in the “time of the end,” when the Holy Spirit is opening these latter-day prophecies to His saints, who are running to the ends of the earth proclaiming the good news. I have traveled twenty thousand miles within the last year, through Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and of course much of the time on the seas, and with many different nations. I find the saints in all my travels on the outlook for the Lord’s appearing, and publishing the glad news in every land. I am abundantly satisfied, for a thousand good reasons, that we are nearing the close of the “Gentile times” and the wonderful fulfillment of these thrillingly interesting latter-day prophecies. Of course, we appoint no time for our Lord to appear. But it is right and proper, and His positive mandate, for us to be incessantly on the lookout. As our Lord here quotes largely from Daniel, it is impossible to restrict these prophecies to the destruction of Jerusalem, as Daniel’s grand theme is the “end of all things.” While the former is preliminary, the latter is the grand moment of our Lord’s discourse.
Mat 24:23-29. “Then if any one may say, Behold, here is Christ, or there; believe them not. For false Christs and false prophets shall arise, and give forth great signs and wonders, so if possible to deceive even the elect. Behold, I have told you.” Christ did not come in His glorified person at the destruction of Jerusalem. Here He warns His disciples not to be deceived by the bold claimants who arose in those times, or may arise in any other age. Here you see plainly the possibility of deceiving even the elect. Consequently Jesus gives the elect this timely warning to watch and pray, and diligently heed His plain words, which will prove an ample fortification against delusion. “Therefore if they may say to you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not out. Behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe them not.” As many false Christs arose in the Jewish times, so they will in the Gentile times.
“For as the lightning comes from the east, and shines even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” This is a perfect fortification against all the delusions of impostors, which would prove our ruin. Now, you see plainly that you need not heed anybody who says, “He has come; He is in New York, or London, or in the wilderness of Judea.” I have met persons who actually told me thus, certifying that He has come in His glory. You see from His own unmistakable statement, that when He comes, we will all know it, because a great light, like sheet lightning, will suddenly sweep athwart the firmament, lighting up every sky with the splendor of His glory, and flashing into every human eye. “Every eye shall behold Him.” (Rev 1:7)
“For where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” The vulture belongs to the eagle species, and is evidently here referred to as always voraciously feeding upon carrion. At that time the Jewish State- Church had reached such a culmination of political and ecclesiastical corruption that she was already odorizing the elements, and attracting the vultures from afar. Within forty years those revolutionary fires, then rankling in the deep interior of her putrefying vitals, burst forth into a terrific volcano, disgorging the fiery venom of internal corruption, and transforming into an awful whirlpool, swallowing up her time-honored institutions into the oblivion of an eternal night, and actually annihilating the Jewish polity forever. This awful catastrophe, which overtook and obliterated the Jewish politico-ecclesiasticism, is but the brilliant scintillation of the oncoming conflagration destined to over take the Gentile world.
These eagles emblematize the destroying angels, who shall accompany the Ancient of Days when He shall descend from heaven on the throne of righteous, retributive judgment, sweeping from the earth every rival of His Son. (Dan 7:9-14.)
“Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.” (Dan 7:10)
It does not take a philosopher to see the patent and indisputable fact that Church and State are rapidly deteriorating. This means something tremendously significant. The accumulation of diseases in a physical body can only end in dissolution. Why should men cry, “Peace, peace,”, when there is no peace? You see political and ecclesiastical corruption increasing on all sides. This is one of the most indubitable omens of the rapidly- approaching end of the Gentile age. We see it in America, to our unutterable sorrow; while in the Old World it is actually inconceivably worse. Every tendency has a culmination, when Divine intervention will produce a reaction. The antediluvians became more and more corruption the flood overtook them. This deterioration continued to develop more and more among the Jews, till the old carcass became so stenchy as to attract the Roman eagles to the carrion banquet. All Scripture points to a similar culmination of the present age. Christian men are everywhere becoming heart-sick of the political and ecclesiastical corruption we see everywhere rampant. Olfactories must be very obtuse not to detect the putrefaction already so alarmingly developed in the body, both political and ecclesiastical. Methinks the vultures of the great tribulation are already flapping their pinions, eager to light down upon the carcass and voraciously devour the prey. Even here, in America, the best country in the world, candid men are everywhere bewailing the political corruption, and recognizing the distressing fact that office and emolument are sought, pre- eminently and recklessly, at the sacrifice of truth, honor, and right.
“Immediately after the desolation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the firmament, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” (Isa 13:9-10, and Joe 3:15)
These allusions to the heavenly bodies are very common among the prophets, the sun symbolizing the kings, the moon the queens, and the stars the subordinate rulers. Heaven frequently means the firmament enveloping the globe. The powers of the heavens — i.e., firmaments — indicate the secular powers, ruling the nations of. the earth. Our Savior here prominently quotes Daniel, who says, “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit.” (Dan 7:9)
Luk 21:25-26 . “There shall be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; commotion of the nations upon the earth in their bewilderment; the sea and the wave roaring; the souls of men failing them, on account of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the world.” In connection with the universal commotions and disturbances of the nations, kings tottering upon their thrones, princes falling from the dizzy heights to which political ambition has climbed, and ecclesiastical rulers appalled with revolution and dismay, Luke here also speaks of strange and extraordinary phenomena of the sea, operating to the augmentation of the universal discomfiture and dissolution, evidently involving the conclusion that oceanic inundations, rolling waves of tremendous and unprecedented altitude over the maritime cities, will doubtless destroy millions. You must remember that these prophecies are parallel with John’s Armageddon. (Revelation 16-19)
Mat 24:30-31. “Then shall the sign of the Son of man appear in the sky.” We must not confound this sign with the Lord Himself, as it is entirely different and distinct. What it is, is not revealed. When He came the first time, He was preceded by the star in the East, seen by the wise men. Analogy certainly favors the conclusion that this sign will be something after the order of that star. As His second coming will be infinitely more demonstrative than the first, doubtless this sign, though of the stellar type, will be like a great comet, sweeping through the sky and leaving its train girdling the globe; lighting up the world, and attracting the gaze of earth’s panic-stricken millions. This sign is evidently identical with the “lightning coming from the east, and shining even unto the west.” (Mat 24:27.) While the sign will precede the personal appearance of our Lord, we know there will be no interval between them, the premonitory sign lingering in the firmament till the glorious King, descending on a white cloud, shall actually again enter the realm of vision, where “every eye shall behold Him.” (Rev 1:7) “Then shall all the tribes of the earth wail, and see the Son of man coming in the clouds of the firmament, with power and great glory.” Having waited through all the long, rolling ages for the “tribes of the earth” to get ready to meet Him with a joyous shout, riding; down on a snowy-white cloud as He went up (Act 1:11), now the centuries have flown, and the appointment of the Father has arrived. The Son in His glory returns, and all the tribes of the earth weep and wail when they see Him. Does this look like the millennium is coming before our Lord comes and brings it? If the millennium were girdling the globe with the glory of God, all the tribes of the earth would run to meet Him with a shout. This is positive proof that the world will get worse to the end, as you see here there will not be so much as a righteous tribe in all the earth, because they shall all see Him, and “wail at Him.”
“And He will send forth His angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from the extremities of the firmaments unto the extremities of the same.” Here you all see the rapture of the saints. Rapture means taking up. The word is here clear and specific — the angels will gather up the elect from every land and clime, from Abel down to the living generation. You. see here all the tribes of the earth will be awfully disappointed, affrighted, and panic-stricken when the Lord appears. But not so with the elect. O what an exultant hour that will be, when the resurrection angels meet the elect, and embrace them in their pinions of light and arms of love! Reader, be sure that you settle this matter without further delay. If a light should flash round the world, and our glorified Savior descend into view, what would you do? Would you join the wailing of all the tribes of the earth, or join the shout of God’s elect? How can I know that I am one of the elect? There is only one way; of election, and that is through “sanctification of the Spirit.” (1Pe 1:2) The Holy Spirit always witnesses to His work in the heart. If sin is dead in you, rest assured, you have already found it out. A dead man never kicks nor strikes back. Plug him full of bullets; and he does not feel them. Entire sanctification is the most knowable of all experiences. It always tells its own story. I tremble for the preacher who opposes our preaching on the coming of the Lord. I am afraid he is not ready, and consequently disquieted by such preaching. To melt is the most inspiring theme. I am looking for Him constantly. “Then are you not disappointed while He tarrieth?” That could not be, since my will is lost in His will. Consequently there is no disappointment.
Luk 21:28. “These things beginning to take placer straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draweth nigh.” Here our Savior represents the widowed Church bowed clown with sorrow during her bereavement, and terribly persecuted by the devil, and all of this time longing, waiting, and watching for the return of her Heavenly Consort. Now: that He actually comes, He rings the shout round the world, “Straighten up your curved back, and lift high your head, for I am here!” Now lie assures us that our redemption is nigh. Do you not know that redemption means the transfiguration of soul and body, even our translation to heaven? O what a glory! What an inconceivable sunburst upon the saints of all ages will the return of our glorified Savior bring to earth l This redemption includes, not only the transfiguration and translation of the living saints, but the glorious resurrection of the dead. Thus the whole body of the Lord’s elect who have trodden the globe from the days of Eden — soul and body — are glorified, the dead raised, and the living translated, and all gloriously transfigured into the similitude of His own glorious body. (Php 3:20) Be sure you take the safe side, and get to where, instead of weeping and wailing, you will meet the Lord with a shout.
Mat 24:32-35. “Learn the parable from the fig-tree: When her branch may be tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. Thus when you may see all these things, know that it is even at the door.” While no one knows the day of His coming, we must all be very stupid if we do not recognize the “time of the end.” Daniel Says that at the “time of the end,” the book of this latter-day prophecy shall be opened, and “many will run to and fro,” telling its wonderful contents and shouting to the people, “The Lord is nigh!” You see from the parable of the fig-tree that we can know, beyond the possibility of doubt, the time of the end, as every one call tell by the fig-tree that the summer is nigh. Satan’s reign of six thousand years has been a long, dreary night. Praise the Lord, the millennial day is breaking! The morning-star now hails the approaching Sun of righteousness. Uniformly in the Scriptures the Jewish people are represented by a fig-tree, as. in the parable here alluded to. The awful blight came on them when they rejected their Christ, and O how they withered from the face of the earth! Fifteen years ago there were not more than ten thousand Jews in all Palestine. When. I was there last November and December, I was informed by the most knowing people of that country that there are now two hundred thousand-fifty-five thousand in Jerusalem alone, more than all who returned under Nehemiah out of, Babylonian captivity. O how they are making that land to flourish, and the delicious fruits of Canaan to abound wherever they get, it into hand!
“Truly I say unto you, that. This race can not pass away until all things may be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words can not pass away.” The E. V. translation, “This generation shall not, pass,” has puzzled many. Genea, means “race” as well as “generation,” while the verb is in the subjective mode. So you see, with the above translation, the difficulties all get away. As to the firmament and the earth passings away, of course they will in their present form, this being no conflict with the prophetic revelation of the new, heaven (firmament) and new earth. (Revelation 21) The Roman armies did their best to exterminate the Jews. All nations have conspired in the persecution of Abraham’s children. They have endured all conceivable outlawry, disfranchisement, and oppression, scathed and peeled by all the nations of Europe. Yet they are a separate and distinct race of people, numbering seventy millions while all their contemporaries of bygone ages have faded from the face of the earth, and the mighty nations of olden times, who used to meet them on the battle-field, long ago sunk into oblivion. The Jews in every age have been the most industrious, enterprising, and aggressive people in all the world. Robbed of their country, no land beneath the skies on which to rest their weary feet, practical tramps in the earth, they have outstripped all nations in the accumulation of wealth, becoming the richest people in the world, holding the purse of the nations, and ruling their kings by their money power; standing at the front of the learned professions, climbing to the acme of the world’s learning, and leading all the greatest universities of the globe. The Hand of the Almighty is on them. The elect of Israel is among them, and O how wonderfully they are now getting ready for the metropolitanship of the globe during the glorious Millennial Theocracy, When they shall again, as in bygone ages, stand at the front Of the world l How wonderful are the signs of His coming among His own consanguinity! Surely the fig-tree has again begun to revive, and the summer is nigh. Not only among the Jews, but among Moslems, Romanists, and Protestants, the signs of His coming are exceedingly rife.
Mar 13:32. “But concerning that day or hour no one knows; neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, except the Father.” “The periods and epochs hath the Father retained in His own authority.” (Act 1:7) While Jesus saw the entire panorama of the world moving before Him, the time of His coming had not then been revealed to Him by the Father, as it was not necessary, being then a long way off. There is no doubt but Jesus has long known the very time of His glorious coming, it having been revealed to Him since His ascension. You see from this Scripture that all appointments of the time are fanaticism, because neither man nor angel knows it. Yet we should not run into fanaticism on the other horn of the dilemma, and lose our appreciation of the wonderful and glorious latter-day prophecies, which are so helpful to our experiences and so conducive to a tiptoe anticipation of His coming, which is so eminently qualified to make us unworldly, spiritual, heavenly-minded, faithful, and obedient, looking well to our attitude before God, and every moment solving the problem, “Am I ready to meet King Jesus, coming in a cloud?”
Mat 24:37-41. “But as the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man. For as they were in the days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came and took them all; so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” Only one family was taken up from the earth, fortunate to escape the devouring deluge. Does this look like the world is getting better? You see from this that comparatively few of the world’s population at the time of the Lord’s coming will go up in the cloud, along with the glorious Antitype of Noah’s Ark. The Church (not the sects) is getting better; but the world is like a diseased man, who gets worse till he dies, thus becoming a carcass for the vultures to eat. We are called pessimists by the progressionists, who call themselves optimists. They misrepresent us. A pessimist is one who believes things are getting worse, while the optimist claims that they are getting better. I am both — an optimist on grace, believing that the true saints are getting better and multiplying in the earth; but that the world, like the devil, its god (2Co 4:4), is getting worse, as all finitudes are progressive. While the World is fast moving down to hell, the saints, with joyful expedition; are going up to heaven. Never in all the ages did the people of God enjoy so much light on the Bible, and study it so generally and exhaustively as now. While Noah, a hundred and twenty years, pleaded with the antediluvians to get ready for the coming flood, they treated him with contempt. O what a striking verification do we see in the heedless disregard of this wicked world, with its anti-holiness Churches, and the contempt east upon the Lord’s coming and upon that “holiness without which no man shall see Him,” except to weep and wail!
“Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left. Two women grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left.” Here we have specifications of the rapture again. In this wonderful sermon, which our Savior preached to His disciples on Mount Olivet in the afternoon of the day preceding His arrest by His enemies, we have three distinct judgments: That of the Jews, from which, pursuant to His instructions, the disciples were taken, flying away to the mountains, making their escape to Pella, beyond the Jordan, and surviving to preach the gospel to the world. Then we have the pre-millennial judgment, from which, as you here see, the Lord will take away the elect. (V. 31.) How natural and simple our Savior’s description of the rapture when He comes! Two men, working out on the farm, a saint and a sinner — the former is translated, like Enoch and Elijah; and the latter is left to take chances in the tribulation. Two women are grinding with the little hand-mill in the house, so common in that country
— one is suddenly invested with the transfiguration body and translated, flying up to join the mighty host of saints and angels descending with Him in that majestic cloud, broad as the firmament, and bright as the pure, white light. You will see before we wind up this sermon that the final judgment takes all, leaving none on the earth.
Mar 13:33. “Behold, watch and pray; for you know not when the time is. As a man going away, leaving his house, and giving authority to his servants, and to each one his work, commanded the porter that he must watch.” The porter is the doorkeeper of the Church; i.e., the pastor, evangelist, and Christian worker, who gathers the lost souls from Satan’s kingdom and leads them to Jesus, who is the Door, and thus escorts them into the kingdom of God. Jesus commands this porter to be on the constant outlook for His return.
“Watch therefore: for you know not when the lord of the house cometh, late [i.e., during the large hours; nine to twelve], or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning.” Here our Lord specifies all the time we are likely to sleep, putting us on our guard to be on the constant outlook. David says, “I sleep, but my heart waketh.” So, while the body is wrapped in ambrosial slumber, the soul should be on perpetual outlook for the Lord to come.
“Lest having come suddenly, He may find you: sleeping. But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch,” How dares any one speak or write a word calculated to make people unwatchful for the Lord’s sudden coming? The post-millennialist believes that a thousand years’ millennium has to come in before the appearing of the Lord. Consequently he can not be on the: lookout for Him to come now. Any doctrine or theory which is out of harmony with God’s plain Word is false., He believed: that the millennium had to come and abide a thousand years before the coming of the Lord, I could not look for Him now. I am glad I do not believe that, nor anything else which disqualifies me to obey the positive commandments of Jesus, as I know that everything antagonistical to His plain Word is untrue. I am glad I have no creed to sustain. If the creeds are true, they do not need my poor help; if untrue, they do not deserve it. I have no theory to sustain; and if I had any, I would throw it away, being more than satisfied with the simple Word of the Lord. If you can not get up and preach in such a way as to encourage the people, and exhort them to be on the constant outlook for Jesus to come in His glory with the mighty angels, and take away the elect, you are out of harmony with His plain and unmistakable. Word. Your poor little theories, notions, and creeds will not be mentioned at the judgment- bar, unless to condemn you; but you will be judged by this Word just as it is. It is bad enough for the worldly Churches to preach human creeds and antagonize the Word of God; but holiness people forfeit their shibboleth if they do not take the Bible, all of it, and believe and preach it, fearless of men and devils. If the holiness movement is not on this line, she has forfeited her birthright, and is ready for a decent interment. I am glad that God has a grand army, now girdling the globe, who believe and preach everything written in the blessed Book, and are not going to be intimidated by ecclesiastical autocrats and critics.
Luk 21:34-36. “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be burdened with gluttony, and drunkenness, and worldly cares, and that day may come upon you unexpected.” O what valuable and timely admonition! While we have about a hundred thousand drunkards. every year going down to the drunkard’s hell, do you know that we Americans are a nation of gluttons, bringing on a thousand diseases by sheer gormandizing, even holiness preachers paying fifty cents a meal instead of one dime, which would get them all a king could want, while the people of India are starving to death in piles? Will not the holiness people wake up, and give the world an example of temperance, appertaining to eating as well as drinking, teaching them that hygienic living, so indispensable to health and temporal prosperity, and at the same time so conducive to intellectual culture, is harmonious with spiritual illumination and well pleasing in the sight of God? Gluttony, like drunkenness, stupefies the mind, and degrades and brutalizes the body. Do you not know we would be much brighter intellectualists and more efficient preachers if we would live hygienically, and take fasting along with prayer? These brutalizing habits are awfully antagonistic to spirituality; and O, how incompatible with the translation for which we should all be living when the Lord comes I Can we not go along and do our work unencumbered. with. worldly cares, content with food and raiment and constantly looking for the Lord? To say that this is not our appropriate attitude is to reject the plain word of Jesus.
“For as a lasso it will come upon all those sitting down on the face of the whole earth.” Just as the robber, from his hidden retreat, throws the lasso high in the air, dropping it round the body of the unsuspecting traveler, the other end attached to a fleet horse, dashing away and dragging him into the bushes, where, now dead and unconscious, he is robbed, so Jesus says the day of His coming will light on “all the people who are sitting down upon the face of the earth;” not as E. V., conveying the idea that there are no exceptions. Jesus says it will so come on all those who are “sitting down,” thus indicating the attitude of carelessness and unexpectancy; while the elect are watching, not “sitting down,” but Standing on tiptoe, stretching their eyes to catch the first glimpse of the coming glory.
“Watch therefore, praying all the time, in order that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things about to take place, and to stand before the Son of man.” He has already spoken of the terrible troubles, such as the world never saw, even more terrific than Noah’s flood. You see how the angels will gather up the elect. So the matter is lucid and clear. We are to be constantly watching and praying all the time, that we may be found worthy to be translated, like the man taken from the field and the woman from the mill, to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:17)
Mat 24:42-51. “Watch therefore, because you know. not at what hour your Lord cometh.” This is the climacteric commandment, repeated over and over and more frequently than any other. Good reason! If you are watching every moment for your Lord to appear, you will obey all the other commandments, as this is the grandest of all restraints against sin in thought, word, or deed; and at the same time the most potent inspiration to an unworldly, spiritual, holy life. Beware how you tinker with anything calculated to render you unwatchful for the Lord’s immediate appearing! How sadly has this great and prominent doctrine dropped out of the pulpits long ages ago, thus fearfully expediting the alarming worldliness that has been in the Church since the Constantinean apostasy fifteen hundred years ago l It is the glory of the present holiness movement to revive this precious truth, so thrillingly emphasized by the Savior and every New Testament writer, and again bring it to the front, where it stood the first three hundred years of the Christian era. Let no one say that we depreciate entire sanctification. By preaching the coming of the Lord we magnify holiness, which is the only qualification to meet Him.
“Know this, that if the landlord had known at what watch the thief cometh, he would have watched, and not suffered his house to be broken into.”
Here you see our Savior pronounces an awful woe on the unwatchful man. He is the Thief, coming to this wicked world to steal away His bride. The thief comes at midnight, while all are asleep. The bride, who knows her, Lover is coming for her, does not sleep, but keeps awake, watching for Him. I want to be stolen away from this lost world when the Thief cometh.
“Therefore be ye ready, because ye know not the hour the Son of man cometh.” The qualification is entire sanctification, election “through the sanctification of the Spirit,” clearly and abundantly attested by the Holy Ghost. Grace is free, and there is no reason why we should not all be ready. O the awful peril of unreadiness!
“Who then is that faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord placed over His household, to give them their food in season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, having come, shall find so doing. Truly I say unto you, that He will appoint him over all his possessions.” This servant is the preacher, leader, worker, to whom the Lord has committed souls. Now, what is the food which this servant is to give the members of the Lord’s house? It is all the Word of God, faithfully preached, lived, and exemplified. The grand sum and substance are a holy experience, life, and character — constant readiness to meet the Lord; and auxiliary to this, constant outlook for His appearing. Terrible will be the responsibility of the delinquent leader. On the contrary, whom the Lord finds faithful at his post, his people well sanctified, robed, and ready, and looking for the Lord: to come, He is going to confer on him incalculable: honor and glory in the coming kingdom; but not to be viewed from a carnal standpoint, as in the Lord’s kingdom the more you have, the more is left for all the balance; e.g., the loaves and fishes.
“But if the wicked servant may say in his heart, My Lord delayeth coming, and may begin to smite his fellow-servants, and; eat and drink with the drunken.” Here is a pastor in charge who rigidly enforces ecclesiastical law, laying heavy burdens on his people — as Peter says, “Domineering over the heritages;” living luxuriantly; his family moving in the flirtations of worldly dress-parade; persecuting the holiness people; his doors closed against every man who preaches holiness and the Lord’s coming. “The Lord of that servant will come in a day in which he does not expect, and in an hour in which he does not know, and will cut him off, and will appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This man holds his pastoral charge, recognized by his Church and the world as a godly minister of file gospel, till the Lord comes, lifts the mask, and reveals his true character. Then He cuts him off — i. e., takes him out of his position — and appoints him his destiny with. the hypocrites, where he belongs. “Hypocrite” is a Greek word, meaning the actor in a drama, performing his part on the theatrical stage. So this man has been playing preacher all his life, pursuing the ministerial calling as a worldly man would prosecute a laudable employment, for a living. If you do not think we have multitudes of preachers on this line, get on your knees and ask God about it.! tell you their name is legion, who would not preach if their salary was taken away, thus in this simple way revealing their real character. You see this man is cast into the bottomless pit, amid “weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” Good Lord, help us all to wake up to these momentous realities! I trow, the preacher’s hell is most horrific of all. I have been preaching in my humble way forty and six years. I would certainly rather risk the hell of the gambler or the robber than that of the preacher. How awful for the people, deluded and eternally ruined by his ministry, to meet him in the regions of the damned, gnash on him with their teeth, and help the devils to lash him with firebrands forever! God have mercy on the preacher who fights holiness and the Lord’s coming! O how he needs a mourners-bench!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain The Testimony of Life.
Luk 21:13
The Testimony of Life.
Read full note →
The power and the will to sacrifice self is, after all, the grandest assurance of immortality. The things most essential to the being are those which we set about proving after, and not before, we believe. No man’s belief in God rests on a demonstration. No man builds a scheme of life on the proof of the doctrine of immortality. A Divine something within moves him to live a life of which immortality is the only possible explanation.
I. The question has been often discussed, why belief in immortality plays so slight a part in the doctrinal system of the Jewish Church. It seems at first sight incredible that a legislator, so far-sighted and profound as Moses, should have overlooked so tremendous a means of influence as the idea of eternal rewards and punishments would afford. The true explanation is, I believe, a very simple one, and lies close at hand. It was because of the entire healthiness of their belief in it that they said so little about it, and made so little of it as an instrument of influence on men. This separation of the two worlds, as if they had different interests, which may possibly oppose or balance each other, is the sign of a by no means healthy spiritual state.
II. But when we are asked to believe that the horizon of sense and of time bounded the vision of these grand old heroes of the faith, we remind ourselves how they lived, and what they wrought, and ask ourselves how much such deeds, such lives involve. It is sheer idleness to ask us to believe that eternity meant less to these men than it means to us in our easy, luxurious, self-glorifying days. We know there is but one explanation of such lives, such deaths. They "endured as seeing Him who is invisible."
III. "But it shall turn to them for a testimony." The light of their lives shall shine through their forms, and reveal the inner glory in eternity. This is the eternal recompense, revelation—the revelation of the Christlike spirit in a world where to be Christlike is to be glorious and blessed; where the scars of battle are marks of honour, and the martyr’s brow is anointed like Christ’s with the oil of joy and gladness through eternity.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 124.
Reference: Luk 21:13.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 458.
Luk 21:19
Or, as it may rather be termed, "By your endurance ye shall gain possession of your lives, ye shall secure yourselves from perils of bodily harm and death." It is also, "Ye shall save your souls," and bring your spiritual life safely through the coming troubles; though the physical salvation is more prominent in the passage.
I. There was always in the converts of Jerusalem, a strong temptation to relapse into Judaism; and in those disturbed times which preceded the fall, any man with the Jewish blood in his veins, with the traditional Jewish temper, the ancestral beliefs, the intense love for his nation and people, must have been hard beset. Why should he, too, not choose the heroic part; and cast in his lot with the defenders of the sacred walls? Why not with his dying body make a rampart against the on-pressing Romans, rather than slip away in cowardly desertion, like a traitor, leaving the glorious city to perish as it might. All patriotic instincts, all that the Jew most cherished, must have drawn the convert in that direction; it was a sore trial to have to make this choice between the Old Testament and the New. It was by endurance and self-denial that these Jewish Christians succeeded in overcoming the danger besetting them at every turn. They endured to the end; they learnt by patience to get a broader and wiser view of the true position and relation of the faith of their adoption. The sneers of the unconverted Jews, the sense that they had lost their patriotic standing-ground, the oppression and sword of their Roman masters—these were the bitter draughts which refreshed their souls, and nerved them for independence in a larger sphere of life. By these, they not only saved their souls, but ennobled their views and aims, till they were able to enter fully into the new conditions of the Faith of Christ; and thereby take an active part in the outward movements of a Missionary Church.
II. Age after age have the conditions of the world’s advance called men to display something of the same firmness, endurance, and patience. Each change of time has seemed to bring with it the end, and at each successive crisis have been heard the same appeals to heaven, the same despair of earth, the same assurances that the world’s end was come. And yet to those who had patience, and could endure, the evil time has always passed away, leaving the face of Heaven once more serene; and men have found themselves living in a fresh air of hope, with expanded vision, and larger powers for good. The true Christian calling, as the Apostle has it, is to "try all things," to "hold fast that which is good," to criticise, to select, to know the evil from the good, and choose aright. That is the real business for which God has sent us into the world and set us in this place, and a system of organised protection for our opinions, be they never so holy, or never so true, is but a mean way of fitting out a young man for the difficulties and dangers of his coming life, when he must take up his staff and make his way through the world. For this our faith must be robust, as well as pure; manly and fearless, as of those who endure as seeing Him that is invisible. It is not enough, to say, "Let us live the devoted, self-denying life, which befits the humble followers of Christ, and leave aside all that distresses or distracts." We have a higher duty than this. The nobler our idea of the Divine nature, the higher we rate our Christian privileges—the better our lives, the more we shall desire to testify of those things before the world of unbelief. If to our souls the revelation of Jesus Christ provides solutions for admitted ills; if it can comfort our aching hearts in sorrow, and stir us to noble acts in danger; if it weds the ideal to the commonplace, and draws man ever from himself, then, surely, we need not be afraid to be left face to face with the materialist or the sceptic. There is in the Gospel a spiritual power which bears the pilgrims safely through the waterfloods; we may tremble and be perplexed, yet we will not fail nor fall. "If God be with me, I will not fear what man can do unto me." So to us, as to the Jewish Christians to whom the Lord spoke of patience, the darkest crisis will not be fatal, frightful though it may be; but from the wrecks of the past we, too, shall emerge, strong in endurance, possessing our souls, ready for a larger future of faithful works.
G. W. Kitchin, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, March 1st, 1877.
Luk 21:19 (R.V.)
Making for Ourselves Souls.
The Revised Translation restores this word of Jesus to it original force. The Lord did not bid His disciples simply to possess their souls in patience. He told them that through endurance they were to win their souls. Souls, then, are for us to win. Literally, the word used by Jesus means, "Procure for yourselves souls." Life is to be to us, in some sense, an acquisition of soul. We usually think of human souls as so many ready-made products of nature bestowed on us at birth, so many receptacles for life of different sizes; and we are to fill them up with experience and education as best we can, as bees fill their hives. But Jesus used of the souls of His disciples a word of purchase and acquisition. In some real sense a true life will be an acquisition of soul. Its daily ambition may be—more soul and better. In what ways are we to set about procuring for ourselves souls?
I. The first thing for us to do is the thing which these men had already done to whom Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. They counted not the cost; they obeyed when they found themselves commanded by God in Christ. The promise, "Ye shall win your souls," was addressed to men who had surrendered themselves wholly to that which they had seen and knew of God. It was a pledge of soul made to men who had the wills of disciples. The first step in the way of acquiring our souls is the decision of discipleship.
II. We are to acquire soul by living now with all the soul we do have. If we are to win souls from life, we must put our whole souls into life, but the trouble with us is, that we often do not: we live half-hearted, and with a certain reserve, often of ourselves from our everyday life in the world. But you remember how Jesus insisted that His disciples should serve God and love man with all their souls and with all their strength. The way to gain more soul and better is to live freely and heartily with all the soul we do have. "In your patience ye shall win your souls." God gives to common people this opportunity of winning on earth souls large enough—good enough to appreciate by and by what heaven is. Patience may be the making of a soul. That regiment of men is held all the morning waiting under fire. They broke camp with enthusiasm enough—to sweep them up to any line of flame. But they are held still through long hours. They might show splendid courage in action, but the orders are to stand. Only to stand still under fire! But that day of endurance is enough to make a veteran of the recruit of yesterday. The discipline of waiting under life’s fire makes veteran souls. Through the habit of endurance God trains often His best souls. If you keep up heart in your life of trial, by that patience what a soul for God’s kingdom may be won!
N. Smyth, The Reality of Faith, p. 135.
References: Luk 21:23.—S. Greg, A Layman’s Legacy, p. 168. Luk 21:24.—E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. ii., p. 127. Luk 21:25-33.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 472; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 290. Luk 21:27.—Ibid., vol. v., p. 31. Luk 21:28.—J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 300; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vi., p. 479. Luke 21—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 312; C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 109; E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 149.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Widow's Mite. Prophecy of the Fall of Jerusalem…
The Widow's Mite. Prophecy of the Fall of Jerusalem and the Second Advent
1-4. The widow's mite (Mar_12:41). See on Mk.
Read full note →
5-36. Great prophecy of the Fall of Jerusalem and the Second Advent (Mat_24:1; Mar_13:1). See on Mt. St. Luke distinguishes these two events more clearly than the other evangelists (Luk_21:24). He also describes Jerusalem as being 'surrounded by armies.' This greater definiteness is held by some to indicate that St. Luke wrote after the fall of Jerusalem, and added certain interpretative notes to our Lord's utterances. But there is no real reason why Christ should not have spoken exactly as St. Luke records. See on Mt.
9. Not by and by] i.e. not at once. 13. Testimony] It shall be an opportunity for you to bear witness to Me.
15. Mouth] i.e. eloquence.
18, 19. Peculiar to Luke 19. By patient continuance in well-doing and in suffering ye shall possess (i.e. keep safe the inward life of) your souls.
24. The times of the Gentiles] i.e. the time of the rejection of Israel, and of Gentile predominance both in the affairs of the world and in the Kingdom of God. The times of the Gentiles will come to an end, when Israel is converted (Rom_11:25).
37, 38. Christ's daily teaching. He lodges at the Mount of Olives (Mat_21:17; Mar_11:19). See on Mt.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXI. The Widow's…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXI. The Widow's Mites].
CXI. OBSERVING THE OFFERINGS AND WIDOW'S MITES. (In the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30.) bMARK XII. 41-44; cLUKE XXI. 1-4.
Read full note →
b41 And he sat down over against the treasury [It is said that in the court of the women there were cloisters or porticos, and under the shelter of these were placed thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped mouths into which offerings might be dropped. The money cast in was for the benefit of the Temple. An inscription on each chest showed to which one of the thirteen special items of cost or expenditure the contents would be devoted; as, for the purchase of wood, or gold, or frankincense, etc.], and beheld how the multitude cast money into the treasury [We should remember this calm inspection of our Lord when we are about [611] to make an offering to his work. He is by no means indifferent as to our actions]: and many that were rich cast in much. c1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. b42 And there came c2 And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither band she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. [The lepton or mite was worth one-fifth of a cent. It was a Greek coin, and the kodrantes or farthing was a Roman coin. It is suggested that she might have retained one of the coins, since she had two.] 43 And he called unto him his disciples [he had found an object-lesson which he wished them to see], and said unto them, Verily cOf a truth I say unto you, bThis poor widow cast in more than all they that are casting into the treasury: 44 for they cthese ball did cast in of their superfluity; cunto the gifts; bbut she of her want did cast in all that she had, even call the living that she had. ball her living. [We are disposed to measure the value of actions quantitatively rather than qualitatively. Moreover, we are better judges of actions than of motives, and can see the outward conduct much clearer than the inward character. God, therefore, in his word, constantly teaches us that he looks rather upon the inward than the outward. In this case, the value of the woman's gift was measured, not by quantity, but its quality; in quantity it was two mites, in quality it was the gift of all she had. From considering the corrupt character of the Pharisees, Jesus must have turned with pleasure to look upon the beautiful heart of this devout widow.] [612]
[FFG 611-612]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. The Widow’s Mite. (Luk 21:1-4)
CHAPTER 21
1. The Widow’s Mite. (Luk 21:1-4)
Read full note →
2. The Destruction of the Temple Predicted. (Luk 21:5-6)
3. The Disciple’s Question Concerning the Future. (Luk 21:7)
4. Things to Come. (Luk 21:8-19)
5. The Destruction of Jerusalem and the World-wide Dispersion of Israel. (Luk 21:20-24)
6. The Return of the Lord with Power and Great Glory. (Luk 21:25-28)
7. The Fig Tree and Warnings. (Luk 21:29-38.)
This entire chapter with the exception of the incident of the widow’s mite is prophetic. Luke’s account however differs in many ways from the account given of the prophetic Olivet discourse in Matthew and also that in Mark. Matthew gives the Olivet discourse in its completest form. (See Mat 24:1-51; Mat 25:1-46.) He reports what the Lord had to say concerning the end of the age, the great tribulation, which concerns the Jewish believers living at that time; then in three parables He revealed the moral conditions existing in Christendom and how He will deal with them and finally He revealed, as reported by Matthew, the judgment of the Gentile nations.
The characteristic feature of Luke’s report is that he has little to say about the details of the end of the age, such as the great tribulation and what will take place during that period of time (Mat 24:4-42). Instead of this he was led by the Spirit of God to record in the fullest way what our Lord had said concerning the fall of Jerusalem, the fate of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the nation and the duration of all this. The Lord announced that Jerusalem would be compassed by armies and that days of vengeance would come. (Luk 21:20-23.) There would then be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
This great prophecy was fulfilled in the year 70 A.D., when the Romans besieged Jerusalem and a million perished, besides 100,000 who were made slaves. It is one of the most awful pages in human history. So has Luk 21:24 been fulfilled. The Jewish nation has been scattered among all the nations; Jerusalem has been trodden down by the Gentiles and is still in that state. But the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled in the future and when that comes, deliverance and restoration for Jerusalem and the nation are promised. Luke significantly tells us about the fig tree, “and all the trees.” (Luk 21:29.) They are to shoot forth and that would be a sign of His Return. The fig tree is Israel. Who are the other trees? Other nations, who are to see a revival before the Lord comes, such as the centers of the Roman empire, Italy, Greece and Egypt. Israel and these other nations indeed “shoot forth”; from this we are to learn that great events in connection with the Kingdom of God are at hand. May we also heed the warnings with which this chapter closes.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Widow’s Gift.
The Widow’s Gift.
v. 1 And He looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Read full note →
v. 2. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
v. 3. And He said, Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all;
v. 4. for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in an the living that she had.
Jesus had probably delivered His last discourse in the Court of Women, where there were situated the thirteen trumpet-shaped treasure-chests, or collection boxes, of the Temple. Looking up now, He saw something which not only did not insult His holy eyes, but filled Him with joy. His looking was not a casual, momentary glance, but He scrutinized the people intently for some time, deliberately taking note of their coming and the size of their gifts. The rich people put in large gifts, which was an easy matter for them to do. Gifts of a comparatively large size represented no sacrifice for them. But then the Lord’s attention was drawn to a widow, a miserably poor and needy woman. Going up to one of the chests, this woman deposited therein two mites. "Another coin, translated mite, is in Greek lepton, ’the small one,’ or the ’bit. ’ It was two of these that the widow cast into the treasury. Two of them equaled a quadrans. The mite was, then, of the value of 1/8 of a cent. It was doubtless the smallest coin in circulation. " This act of real love and sacrifice made a deep impression upon Christ. With warm feeling He told His disciples: Truly I say to you that this poor widow cast in more than all the others. The actual amount was, of course, much smaller than the gifts of the rich. But in proportion to the ability of the others her simple gift stood so far ahead of the rest that there was no comparison possible. The others had given of their superfluity: they did not even feel the giving of the amount they cast into the chest. But this widow might have been expected to beg rather than to be giving to the Temple treasury. And yet out of her want, when she was deprived of practically all her living, she had given her last quarter of a cent to the Lord, all that she had to sustain life. True love and real sacrifice are here exemplified, and this is the attitude in which all work for the Lord and all gifts for His "kingdom should be given. See Mar 12:41-44.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
This is the next event in the story. Jesus begins teaching his disciples, either on the same day that the Sadducees question Jesus (Luke 20:27) or on a different day. (See: Background Information)
Read full note →
gifts
You may need to make explicit what the gifts were. AT: "gifts of money"
treasury
one of the boxes in the temple courtyard where people put money as a gift to God
a certain poor widow
This is a way of introducing a new character to the story. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)
two mites
"two small coins" or "two tiny copper coins." These were the least valuable of the coins people used then. AT: "two pennies" or "two small coins of little value" (See: Biblical Money)
Truly I say to you
This means that what Jesus was about to say was very important.
I say to you
Jesus was talking to his disciples. The word "you" is plural. (See: Forms of You)
this poor widow put in more than all of them
God considers her gift, a small amount of money, more significant than the large amounts of money the men gave. AT: "the small gift of this widow is more valuable than the larger gifts of the rich men" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
gave gifts out of their abundance
"have a lot of money but only gave a small portion of it"
out of her poverty
"who has very little money"
translationWords
Jesus
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:1-4 Jesus set the sacrificial offering of the poor…
21:1-4 Jesus set the sacrificial offering of the poor widow in contrast to the greed and hypocrisy of the rich people, including the teachers of religious law (20:45-47).
21:1 The Greek term translated collection box probably refers to the chests with trumpet-shaped openings used to collect offerings.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.