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Events of that Sabbath-evening:
v. 16. When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick,
v. 17. that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
All Galilee was filled with the report concerning Christ, and a steady stream of sick people with their relatives was usually pouring in from every direction. It was after the close of the Sabbath-day, Lev_23:32; they need hesitate no longer for fear of transgressing the Law. The fame of the Lord's having cured a demoniac in the morning had spread like wild-fire. The majority of those brought to Him were afflicted with the same terrible disease, that of being possessed of evil spirits. With a word He cast out the demons who, like the entire spirit world, are subject to Him; with tender kindness He healed all the other sicknesses; there was none that could withstand His almighty mercy. The reference of Matthew to the prophecy, Isa_53:4, is very appropriate. The prophet's reference is to griefs and sorrows, to diseases and pains of the soul, due to sin and its curse. But the evangelist rightly argues: He that bears the greater is master of the smaller. The diseases of man are connected with sin, on the one hand, and with death, on the other. And so our High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, had sympathy with the results and consequences of sin, knowing its curse, its destructive influence, upon body and soul, Heb_4:15; Heb_5:2. He bare, He took away, our sins and infirmities; they are no longer a curse for the believers.