Читать книгу "Granny's Chapters" (on scriptural subjects) - Lady Mary Ross - Страница 13

Table of Contents

Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great, was governor of Galilee: Philip, another of them, was governor or tetrarch of Itruria. The word "tetrarch" means the governor of a certain portion of a kingdom. The land of Palestine being subject to the Romans, they had divided it into portions; and the governors of each portion were styled tetrarchs. Philip had a wife called Herodias, a bad woman, who behaved ill to her husband, and at length left him, and became the wife of his brother Herod. Now this was a great sin on the part of Herod, as well as that of Herodias, and John the Baptist reproved them for it: this holy man was not afraid to speak the truth, though doing so was sure to bring trouble upon himself, for Herod was a proud man, who would not like to be told of his faults, and Herodias would be much more angry.

But John had been sent by God the Father to prepare the way of the Lord, by teaching His Will to men, and exhorting them to repentance and amendment of life: this John was determined to do, undismayed by any fear of what man might do to him; and therefore he told Herod, that it was not lawful, not allowed by the Law of God, that he should thus take his brother's wife to be his wife.

The consequence was, that John was immediately put into prison. Herodias, who hated him for reproving her, would gladly have had him put to death; but she could not yet prevail on Herod to consent to so wicked an act.

There seems to have been two reasons which made Herod unwilling to put his prisoner to death. In the first place, many of the Jews looked upon John as a prophet and a teacher sent by God; and Herod feared that there might be some riot amongst the people, in which case the Romans might accuse him of having misgoverned the country, and suffer him to be no longer governor. The other reason was, that although Herod was angry with John, he could not help seeing that he was a good and holy man; so much so, that he listened to his advice on many points, though he would not act according to it, in the matter of Herodias. Even after John was cast into prison, Herod often "sent for him, and heard him gladly, and did many things."

Well would it have been for Herod, if he had done all things according to John's advice.

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God": preaching, that is, the good tidings of how sinful man might enter into the kingdom of God, from which the Fall of Adam had shut him out. "Repent ye and believe the Gospel," was the sum of his preaching: true repentance would make men leave off sinning; and belief in the Gospel would lead them to strive to be holy, out of love for the Saviour, who was come upon earth to deliver them from eternal misery.

He preached the Gospel of the kingdom of God to all who would hear him; they naturally told others; so that "there went out a fame of him through all the region round about." Besides this, "Jesus taught in their synagogues." Synagogues were buildings in which the Jews assembled to pray to God, and to hear the holy Scriptures read and explained. The use of synagogues began after the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon; and in our Saviour's time there were great numbers of them, not only in towns and villages, but all over the country: some writers tell us, that wherever there were ten grown-up men, able to form a congregation, the Jews thought it right to build a synagogue.

It would be well if Christians had in this matter followed the example of the Jews; for unhappily there are not now nearly enough Churches in our land, so that there are great numbers of men, women, and children in England, who could not go to Church if they wished to do so, because there is not room enough for them. This is very sad, and we should always be ready to give our money to help in building Churches, which are so much wanted all over the country.

The Synagogues were generally built close to rivers and brooks, so as to have water at hand for all the ceremonies of purification: it was right in the Jews to observe these outward ceremonies, but it would have been better for them if they had remembered, that they were only ordered, to show the necessity of purifying the heart and life from sin. Let us remember this, and pray to God, "Make me a clean heart, O God."

The daily service in the Synagogue, consisted of prayers and the reading of a portion from the books of Moses, which was afterwards expounded or explained: on the Sabbath days, a second portion of Scripture, from the writings of the Prophets, was read in addition. A certain number of wise and serious men, were chosen to be Rulers of each Synagogue; that is, to settle all matters concerning it, and to arrange the services, and appoint the readers. The readers were usually some of the Scribes; but strangers were often allowed to read and expound the Scriptures in their place, and any one who was looked upon as a prophet, would be eagerly listened to. To show their reverence for the Scriptures, the Jewish doctors stood up whilst they read the daily portions, and then sat down, whilst they explained the meaning to their congregation. Whenever any person among the Jews set himself up as the founder or leader of a party, by teaching any peculiar doctrines, he was allowed by the Rulers to explain these doctrines publicly in the Synagogues; so that all men might have an opportunity of hearing his opinions, and judging whether such a teacher spoke according to the Scriptures, and ought to be listened to, and followed. In consequence of this custom, Jesus Christ, and in after times His Apostles also, were allowed to read and expound in the Synagogues.

Every considerable synagogue, that is, every one so situated as to have a large congregation, had attached to it an academy, or school for elder children, who here studied the Scriptures under the guidance of the Rabbis. But unfortunately, with the Scriptures, which are the Word of God, these Rabbis instructed the Jewish youth in the traditions of man. "Traditions" were sayings and doctrines which had never been written down, but had merely been told by word of mouth from father to son, and had thus been handed down through many generations. Many of these traditions, which had some truth in them at first, had become sadly altered by thus being told by one to another; so that some of them were, in our Saviour's time, quite contrary to the commandments and precepts of God.

Other traditions again had been entirely invented by men, and were not deserving of any attention; but the Jews received them all, and looked upon them as equal in authority, or rather as superior, to the Holy Scriptures themselves.

The Rabbis who taught in the academies attached to the synagogues, sat in the midst of their scholars, who all stood round them.

We have said, that "When Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee," preaching and teaching throughout the country. "And leaving Nazareth," which had been the home of His childhood, "he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast (of the lake of Tiberias), in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim." Thus was fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Esaias, that is Isaiah, "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." In the holy Scriptures, the word "darkness" constantly means ignorance and sin; whilst "light" is used to express the contrary, as knowledge and goodness. The people of Galilee were ignorant and sinful, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ was as a light to drive away this darkness, by teaching men to believe in their Saviour, and obey the Will of God. This blessing was now brought, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold, to the country round about Capernaum.

From this time, Capernaum seems to have been the home of Jesus Christ; as far, at least, as he could be said to have a home, when His whole life was spent in moving about the country from one place to another, "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people."

In the Four Gospels you must look for the full account of the miracles, parables, and conversations of our blessed Saviour; here many of them will be only briefly mentioned.

In passing on one occasion from Judæa into Galilee, "He must needs go through Samaria." His disciples being gone into the town to buy food, Jesus asked a woman of Samaria who came to draw water from the well, to give Him to drink; and He took this occasion to tell her, that it signified little in what place men worshipped God, if they worshipped Him properly "in spirit and in truth," that is, truly and sincerely, in faith; and he ended by telling her plainly that He was the Messiah, expected by Samaritans as well as by Jews. In consequence of what passed between our Lord and this woman, many of the Samaritans believed in Him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Jesus appears to have remained at Samaria for two days; and we may be quite sure that during that time He preached "the Gospel of the Kingdom" to all who would hear His words.

Next we hear of another miracle worked at Cana, where He had changed the water into wine. A certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum, came to Him to implore His help: this nobleman believed that Jesus could heal his son, and his faith was rewarded by having his child restored to health. After this, Jesus "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him," eagerly expecting the explanation of this passage of holy writ. Jesus told them, that this prophecy was now fulfilled in Him; and when they hesitated to believe in "Joseph's son," and seemed to wonder why He did not work miracles there, He reminded them that miracles were worked, and always had been worked, just according to the pleasure of God, who often chose the most unlikely persons to work his miracles upon. His words made all who were in the synagogue very wrath; "and they rose and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow (or edge) of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong," and so put an end to his life and his preaching; but not yet, and not so, was the Son of man to die. He therefore worked a miracle to save himself, and "passing through the midst of them, went His way."