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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 8:4 - 8:4
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And Jesus - “straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away” (Mar 1:43), and
saith unto him, See thou tell no man - A hard condition this would seem to a grateful heart, whose natural language, in such a case, is “Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul” (Psa 66:16). We shall presently see the reason for it.
but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded - (Lev 14:1-57).
for a testimony unto them - a palpable witness that the Great Healer had indeed come, and that “God had visited His people.” What the sequel was, our Evangelist Matthew does not say; but Mark thus gives it (Mar 1:45): “But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to Him from every quarter.” Thus - by an over-zealous, though most natural and not very culpable, infringement of the injunction to keep the matter quiet - was our Lord, to some extent, thwarted in His movements. As His whole course was sublimely noiseless (Mat 12:19), so we find Him repeatedly taking steps to prevent matters prematurely coming to a crisis with Him. (But see on Mar 5:19, Mar 5:20). “And He withdrew Himself,” adds Luke (Luk 5:16), “into the wilderness, and prayed”; retreating from the popular excitement into the secret place of the Most High, and thus coming forth as dew upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth (Psa 72:6). And this is the secret both of strength and of sweetness in the servants and followers of Christ in every age.