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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Hindrance
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HINDRANCE.—The life of communion with God and of obedience to His revealed will is regarded as the normal state and right relationship of man made in God’s image and for His glory. All defect and deflection from this standard are the result of external and internal hindrances. The world is an environment of hindrances and causes of stumbling (Mat_18:7). Such is the pressure of opposing influences that the entrance into life has to be by a narrow gate (Mat_7:13). Instances of these outward and inward difficulties are given in the parable of the Sower (Mat_13:18-23), and in that of the Tares their final elimination is predicted (Mat_13:41).
1. The following hindrances are specially emphasized: (1) prosperity and power (Mat_4:8; Mat_19:24, Luk_16:31; Luk_18:23); (2) self-righteousness and the arresting effect of an inferior standard (Mat_5:20; Mat_6:2; Mat_6:5; Mat_6:16; Mat_23:5-7, Luk_18:14); (3) family claims and their displacing power (Mat_8:21; Mat_10:37); (4) want of faith (Mat_14:31; Mat_17:20; Mat_25:25, Luk_22:32); (5) blindness of heart in its progressive stages of (a) ignorance (Mat_13:15, Luk_18:18; Luk_23:34, Joh_17:25, repeated in Act_3:17, 1Co_2:8), (b) indifference (Luk_7:32),—being the interval of apathy and discouragement that succeeds when ideals once regarded as final cease to fill the imagination and satisfy the heart, and institutions once held to be sacred fail to yield the expected results,—(c) inability to discern and feel (Mat_16:3; Mat_23:37), and lastly (d) conscious malignity towards the Kingdom of God (Mat_23:13; Mat_27:18, Mar_7:8, Luk_11:15; Luk_11:52, cf. Rom_1:32).
2. Comparative moral values are attached to these hindrances (Mat_8:10; Mat_11:21-24; Mat_12:41-42, Mar_12:41-44, Luk_7:47; Luk_17:16). Prayer may be offered for their removal (Mat_26:39, similarly 2Co_12:8).
3. Christ’s relationship to the world-spirit is one of complete opposition (Joh_16:33; Joh_18:36). The victory that can be obtained over all hindrances makes a sanctified cross the emblem of the Christian life (Mat_16:24, Mar_8:34, Luk_9:23). This power to overcome, promised to those who abide in Christ (Joh_15:7), is referred to in the Epistles as already a verified fact in Christian experience (Rom_8:35-39, Php_4:13).
Stumbling-block, stumbling-stone ( ðñὀóêïììá , ðñïóêïðÞ , also óêÜíäáëïí , ‘trap’ or ‘snare’ [Rom_11:9], and frequently translation ‘offence,’ ‘offend’ [Mat_16:23; Mat_18:6-9; Mat_26:31, Luk_17:1]). The root-idea is that of encountering an obstacle where such ought not to be, as on a public road. In its fig. sense the offence is most blameworthy where the trust is most implicit and unreserved, as in the confidence of children (Mat_18:6).
In the East the bridle-path is seldom repaired. Stones may be cast out upon it in clearing the neighbouring fields; squared stones for building, collected at the road-side for transport, are often scattered over the path; if a bed of sand suitable for mixing with lime be found near it, the path may be dug into and the cavity left unfilled. No harm can arise from it, men say, except to those for whom it is decreed. The people of the village soon come to know of it, and they are under no obligation to strangers. The better prepared roads have generally been constructed for Government purposes and by forced labour, so that the people of the locality take little civic interest in their condition and preservation. Hence stumbling-blocks are frequently met with, and cause little surprise or comment.
In modern Palestine criminals and men of depraved life are called muʽ aththãrîn , ‘those who have been made to stumble’; and the same epithet is applied to such as are in trouble through misfortune.
The Cross that made God the sacrificer and suppliant, and called for faith in a Saviour who could not save Himself, was a stumbling-block or offence to the wisdom of the world, and to all its religious traditions (Rom_9:33, 1Co_1:23; 1Pe_2:8).
G. M. Mackie.