It has been awhile since I have introduced a new person to our forum. Today we will here from Dr John Brown of Edinburgh (1784-1858), a Scottish professor of theology. I know little about him but I heard said once that when in battle that if there is a perfectly good sword on the ground why would you leave it and not use it to defeat the enemy. May it please God to cut with this sword and show us His light.
Extra Credit: Have we not leaned upon a thousand things. There is truth that anything we can see we should not trust. This is similar to what Joseph Philpot touches on in this short devotion.
Jhn 12:36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
Jhn 12:37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
- Why did Jesus now hide Himself from them?
The paragraph itself (John 12:37-50) is of a peculiar, I had almost said unique, structure and character. The history of our Lords public ministry is closed. It terminates in the verse immediately preceding. The account of His private interview with His friends, previous to His passion, is about to commence. It begins with the first verse of the following chapter. One scene in the eventful history is closed; another is about to open. The curtain is, as it were, falling upon the theater in which the public acts of Jesus were performed, and the Evangelist is about to conduct us into the sacred circle of His disciples, and communicate to us the sublime and consoling conversations which the Redeemer, full of love, had with them before His final departure. But before He does this he makes a pause in the narrative, and, as it were, looks back and around; and, in the paragraph before us, presents us in a few sentences with a brief but comprehensive view of all the Lord had taught and done during the course of His public ministry, and of the effects which His discourses and miracles had produced on the great body of His countrymen. Commentary by Dr. John Brown
Luke 16:27-31
