UNBELIEVING AND PREVERTED

WORD OF WISDOM

Sovereignty ~ Of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure (Dan. 4:25, 35; Romans 9:15-23; 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 4:11).

Source: Easton's Bible Dictionary


Matthew 17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him (the child) hither to me.

Intended especially for the disciples who had failed in the cure from weakness of faith. The emphasis is upon ME. This act of mercy could have been done by his disciples had they been devout, prayerful and believing. It is good for us to distrust ourselves and our own strength; but it is displeasing to Christ when we distrust any power derived from Him, or granted by Him.

It is certain that the reproof is directed, not against ignorant and weak persons, but against those who, through firmly established by long habitual malice, obstinately resist God. This is the reason why Christ declares that they are no longer worthy to be endured, and threatens that before long He will separate from them. But nothing worse could happen to them than that Christ should leave them. We must also observe here, that we ought to treat men in various ways, each according to his natural disposition. For, while our Lord attracts to Him the teachable by the utmost mildness, supports the weak, and gently arouses even the sluggish, He does not spare those crooked serpents, on whom He perceives that no remedies can effect a cure.

Christ gave His disciples power to cast out devils (Matt 10:1,And he called unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease and all manner of sickness. 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give), and therein they were successful (Luke 10: 17And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name); yet at this time they failed in the operation, though there were nine of them together, and before a great multitude. Christ permitted this, (1.) To keep them humble, and to show their dependence upon Him, that without Him they could do nothing. (2.) To glorify Himself and His own power. It is for the honour of Christ to come in with help at a dead-lift, when other helpers cannot help.

It was here owing to the faithlessness of this generation, that they could not obtain those blessings from God, which otherwise they might have had; as it was owing to the weakness of the disciples' faith, that they could not do those works for God, which otherwise they might have done. They were faithless and perverse. Those that are faithless will be perverse; and perverseness is sin in its worst colours. Faith is compliance with God, unbelief is opposition and contradiction to God.

Though the people were perverse, and Christ was provoked, yet care was taken of the child. Though Christ may be angry, He is never unkind, nor does He, in the greatest of His displeasure, shut up the bowels of His compassion from the miserable. The longer Christ has borne with a perverse and faithless people, the more He is displeased with their perverseness and unbelief; and He is God, and not man, else He would not suffer so long, nor bear so much, as He does.

Sometimes He keeps the cistern empty; that He may bring us to Himself, the Fountain.

God's Blessings to each of you,
LJG/rECj