Interpret → Preach
For the service
John Wesley’s own Explanatory Notes Upon the Old and New Testament on the day’s readings — his verse-by-verse commentary, not a summary of it. Read the full edition ↗
first Micah 3:5-12
- v.5That bite — When they are furnished with gifts, and well fed. Prepare war - They do them all the mischief they can.
- v.6Night — Heavy calamities. A vision - You shall no more pretend to have a vision, or dare to foretell any thing. And the sun - The hand of God shall be against them, making their sorrows the more dreadful, as darkness by the sun going down at noon.
- v.7The seers — So called by the deceived people. Cover their lips - Mourners did thus, Ezek xxiv, 17, 22. So these shall mourn and pine in their shame. No answer - Because the answer they had formerly, pretended to be from God, now appears not to have been from him.
- v.8Power — Courage, and vivacity. Of judgment - To discern times and seasons, right from wrong. Might - Resolution.
- v.10They — The heads and great ones enlarge, beautify, and fortify, the house in Zion, particularly the temple and the royal palace. Blood - With wealth, which they made themselves masters of by violence, taking away the life of the owners.
- v.11Lean — Pretend to trust in him. Among us - As our God and our shield.
- v.12For your sake — Because of your sins. The mountain - The mountain, on which the temple stood. This is that passage, which is quoted, Jer. xxvi, 18, which Hezekiah and his princes took well: yea, they repented and so the execution of it did not come in their days. The prosperity of the church, ver. 1-10. Her enemies shall be destroyed, ver. 11-13.
psalm Psalm 43
- v.1Nation — So he calls the company of his enemies for their great numbers. Man - Probably Achitophel or Absalom.
- v.3Send out — That is, actually discover them. Truth - Thy favour, or the light of thy countenance, and the truth of thy promises made to me; or the true-light, the illumination of thy spirit, and the direction of thy gracious providence, whereby I may be led in the right way, to thy holy hill. Hill - Of Zion, the place of God's presence and worship. The church commemorates past mercies, ver. 1-8. Complains of present troubles, ver. 9-16. Professes her integrity, ver. 17-22. Prays for succor, ver. 23-26. To the chief musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
second 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
- v.10Holily — In the things of God. Justly - With regard to men. Unblamable - In respect of ourselves. Among you that believe - Who were the constant observers of our behaviour.
- v.11By exhorting, we are moved to do a thing willingly; by comforting, to do it joyfully; by charging, to do it carefully.
- v.12To his kingdom here, and glory hereafter.
gospel Matthew 23:1-12
- v.1Then — Leaving all converse with his adversaries, whom he now left to the hardness of their hearts.
- v.2The scribes sit in the chair of Moses — That is, read and expound the law of Moses, and are their appointed teachers.
- v.3All things therefore — Which they read out of the law, and enforce therefrom.
- v.4Luke xi, 46.
- v.5Their phylacteries — The Jews, understanding those words literally, It shall be as a token upon thy hand, and as frontlets between thine eyes, Exod. xiii, 16. And thou shalt bind these words for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, Deut. vi, 8; used to wear little scrolls of paper or parchment, bound on their wrist and foreheads, on which several texts of Scripture were writ. These they supposed, as a kind of charm, would preserve them from danger. And hence they seem to have been called phylacteries, or preservatives. The fringes of their garments - Which God had enjoined them to wear, to remind them of doing all the commandments, Num. xv, 38. These, as well as their phylacteries, the Pharisees affected to wear broader and larger than other men. Mark xii, 38. 8, 9, 10. The Jewish rabbis were also called father and master, by their several disciples, whom they required, 1. To believe implicitly what they affirmed, without asking any further reason; 2. To obey implicitly what they enjoined, without seeking further authority. Our Lord, therefore, by forbidding us either to give or receive the title of rabbi, master, or father, forbids us either to receive any such reverence, or to pay any such to any but God. 11. Matt. xx, 26. 12. Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted - It is observable that no one sentence of our Lord's is so often repeated as this: it occurs, with scarce any variation, at least ten times in the evangelists. Luke xiv, 11; xviii, 14.