Matthew 8
WesleyMatthew 8:2
Not every one - That is, no one that saith, Lord, Lord - That makes a mere profession of me and my religion, shall enter - Whatever their false teachers may assure them to the contrary: He that doth the will of my Father - as I have now declared it. Observe: every thing short of this is only saying, Lord, Lord. Luke 6:46.
Matthew 8:3
We have prophesied - We have declared the mysteries of thy kingdom, wrote books; preached excellent sermons: In thy name done many wonderful works - So that even the working of miracles is no proof that a man has saving faith.
Matthew 8:4
I never knew you - There never was a time that I approved of you: so that as many souls as they had saved, they were themselves never saved from their sins. Lord, is it my case? Luke 13:27.
Matthew 8:5
Matthew 8:10
He taught them - The multitudes, as one having authority - With a dignity and majesty peculiar to himself as the great Lawgiver, and with the demonstration and power of the Spirit: and not as the scribes - Who only expounded the law of another; and that in a lifeless, ineffectual manner.
Matthew 8:12
He taught them - The multitudes, as one having authority - With a dignity and majesty peculiar to himself as the great Lawgiver, and with the demonstration and power of the Spirit: and not as the scribes - Who only expounded the law of another; and that in a lifeless, ineffectual manner.
Matthew 8:13
A leper came - Leprosies in those countries were seldom curable by natural means, any more than palsies or lunacy. Probably this leper, though he might not mix with the people, had heard our Lord at a distance. Mark 1:40; Luke 5:12.
Matthew 8:15
See thou tell no man - Perhaps our Lord only meant here, Not till thou hast showed thyself to the priest - who was appointed to inquire into the case of leprosy. But many others he commanded, absolutely, to tell none of tho miracles he had wrought upon them. And this he seems to have done, chiefly for one or more of these reasons: To prevent the multitude from thronging him, in the manner related Mark 1:45. To fulfil the prophecy, Isaiah 42:1, that he would not be vain or ostentatious. This reason St. Matthew assigns, Matthew 12:17, &c. To avoid the being taken by force and made a king, John 6:15. And, That he might not enrage the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, who were the most bitter against him, any more than was unavoidable, Matthew 16:20,21. For a testimony - That I am the Messiah; to them - The priests, who otherwise might have pleaded want of evidence. Leviticus 14:2.
Matthew 8:16
There came to him a centurion - A captain of a hundred Roman soldiers. Probably he came a little way toward him, and then went back. He thought himself not worthy to come in person, and therefore spoke the words that follow by his messengers. As it is not unusual in all languages, so in the Hebrew it is peculiarly frequent, to ascribe to a person himself the thing which is done, and the words which are spoken by his order. And accordingly St. Matthew relates as said by the centurion himself, what others said by order from him.
An instance of the same kind we have in the case of Zebedee’s children. From St. Matthew, Matthew 20:20, we learn it was their mother that spoke those words, which, Mark 10:35,37, themselves are said to speak; because she was only their mouth. Yet from ver. 13, Matthew 8:13, Go thy way home, it appears he at length came in person, probably on hearing that Jesus was nearer to his house than he apprehended when he sent the second message by his friends. Luke 7:1.
Matthew 8:19
The centurion answered - By his second messengers.
Matthew 8:20
For I am a man under authority - I am only an inferior officer: and what I command, is done even in my absence: how much more what thou commandest, who art Lord of all!
Matthew 8:21
I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel - For the centurion was not an Israelite.
Matthew 8:22
Many from the farthest parts of the earth shall embrace the terms and enjoy the rewards of the Gospel covenant established with Abraham. But the Jews, who have the first title to them, shall be shut out from the feast; from grace here, and hereafter from glory. Luke 13:29.
Matthew 8:23
The outer darkness - Our Lord here alludes to the custom the ancients had of making their feast in the night time. Probably while he was speaking this, the centurion came in person. Matthew 13:42,50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30.
Matthew 8:25
Peter’s wife’s mother - St. Peter was then a young man, as were all the apostles. Mark 1:29; Luke 4:38.
Matthew 8:27
Matthew 8:28
Whereby was fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah - He spoke it in a more exalted sense. The evangelist here only alludes to those words, as being capable of this lower meaning also. Such instances are frequent in the sacred writings, and are elegancies rather than imperfections. He fulfilled these words in the highest sense, by bearing our sins in his own body on the tree: in a lower sense, by sympathizing with us in our sorrows, and healing us of the diseases which were the fruit of sin. Isaiah 53:4.
Matthew 8:29
He commanded to go to the other side - That both himself and the people might have a little rest.
Matthew 8:30
Matthew 8:31
The Son of man - The expression is borrowed from Daniel 7:13, and is the appellation which Christ generally gives himself: which he seems to do out of humility, as having some relation to his mean appearance in this world. Hath not where to lay his head - Therefore do not follow me from any view of temporal advantage.
Matthew 8:32
Another said - I will follow thee without any such view; but I must mind my business first. It is not certain that his father was already dead. Perhaps his son desired to stay with him, being very old, till his death.
Matthew 8:33
But Jesus said - When God calls, leave the business of the world to them who are dead to God.