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Mark Chapter
Seven
Mark 7
The ruling power in exercise among the Jews had shewn
itself hostile to the testimony of God, and had put to death the one whom He
had sent in the way of righteousness. The scribes, and those who pretended to
follow righteousness, had corrupted the people by their teaching, and had
broken the law of God.
They washed cups and pots, but not their hearts; and, provided that
the priests-religion-gained by it, set aside the duties of children to their
parents. But God looked at the heart, and from the heart of man proceeded every
kind of impurity, iniquity, and violence. It was that which defiled the man,
not having his hands unwashed. Such is the judgment on religiousness without
conscience and without fear of God, and the true discernment of what the heart
of man is in the sight of God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
But God must also shew His own heart; and if Jesus judged
that of man with the eye of God-if He manifested His ways and His faithfulness
to Israel; He displayed nevertheless through it all, what God was to those who
felt their need of Him and came to Him in faith, owning and resting upon His
pure goodness. From the land of Tyre and Sidon comes a woman of the condemned
race, a Gentile and a Syrophenician. The Lord replies to her, on her request
that He would heal her daughter, that the children (the Jews) must first be
filled; that it was not right to take the children's bread and cast it to the
dogs: an overwhelming answer, if the sense she had of her need and of the
goodness of God had not gone beyond, and set aside, every other thought. These
two things made her humble of heart, and ready to own the sovereign favour of
God towards the people of His choice in this world. Had He not a right to
choose a people? And she was not one of them. But that did not destroy His
goodness and His love. She was but a Gentile dog, yet such was the goodness of
God that He had bread even for dogs. Christ, the perfect expression of God, the
manifestation of God Himself in the flesh, could not deny His goodness and His
grace, could not say that faith had higher thoughts of God than were true, for
He was Himself that love. The sovereignty of God was acknowledged-no pretension
made to any right whatsoever. The poor woman rested only upon grace. Her faith,
with an intelligence given of God, laid hold of the grace which went beyond the
promises made to Israel. She penetrates into the heart of the God of love, as
He is revealed in Jesus, even as He penetrates into ours, and she enjoys the
fruit of it. For this was brought in now: God Himself directly in presence of
and connection with man, and man as he was before God-not a rule or system for
man to prepare himself for God.
In the next miracle, we see the Lord, by the same grace,
bestowing hearing and speech upon a man who was deaf and unable even to express
his thoughts. He could have received no fruit from the word, from God, and
could give no praise to Him. The Lord is returned into the place where He arose
as light on Israel; and here He deals with the remnant alone. He takes the man
apart from the multitude. It is the same grace that takes the place of all
pretensions to righteousness in man, and that manifests itself to the
destitute. Its form, though exercised now in favour of the remnant of Israel,
is suited to the condition of Jew or Gentile-it is grace. But as to these too
it is the same: He takes the man apart from the crowd, that the work of God may
be wrought: the crowd of this world had no real part therein. We see Jesus here,
His heart moved at the condition of man, and more especially at the state of
His ever-loved Israel, of which this poor sufferer was a striking picture. He
causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. So was it individually, and so
will it be with the whole remnant of Israel in the latter days. He acts
Himself, and He does all things well. The power of the enemy is destroyed, the
man's deafness, his inability to use his tongue as God gave it him, are taken
away by His love who acts with the power of God.
The miracle of the loaves bore witness to the presence of
the God of Israel, according to His promises; this, to the grace that went
beyond the limits of these promises, on the part of God, who judged the
condition of those who asserted a claim to them according to righteousness, and
that of man, evil in himself; and who delivered man and blessed him in love,
withdra wing him from the power of Satan, and enabling him to hear the voice of
God, and to praise Him.
There are yet some remarkable features in this part of the history of
Christ, which I desire to point out. They manifest the spirit in which Jesus
laboured at this moment. He departs from the Jews, having shewn the emptiness
and hypocrisy of their worship, and the iniquity of every human heart as a
source of corruption and sin.
The Lord-at this solemn moment, which displayed the
rejection of Israel-goes far away from the people to a place where there was no
opportunity for service among them, to the borders of the stranger and
Canaanite cities of Tyre and Sidon (chap. 7:24), and (His heart oppressed)
would have no one know where He was. But God had been too plainly manifested in
His goodness and His power, to allow Him to be hidden whenever there was need.
The report of what He was had gone abroad, and the quick eye of faith
discovered that which alone could meet its need. It is this that finds Jesus
(when all, that had outwardly a right to the promises, are deceived by this
pretension itself and by their privileges). Faith it is that knows its need,
and knows that only, and that Jesus alone can meet it. That which God is to
faith is manifested to the one that needs it, according to the grace and power
that are in Jesus. Hidden from the Jews, He is grace to the sinner. Thus, also
(chap. 7:33), when He heals the deaf man of his deafness and of the impediment
in his speech, He takes him aside from the multitude, and looks up to heaven
and sighs. Oppressed in His heart by the unbelief of the people, He takes the
object of the exercise of His power aside, looks up to the sovereign Source of
all goodness, of all help for man, and grieves at the thought of the condition
in which man is found. This case then exemplifies more particularly, the
remnant according to the election of grace from among the Jews, who are
separated by divine grace from the mass of the nation, faith, in these few,
being in exercise. The heart of Christ is far from repulsing His (earthly)
people. His soul is overwhelmed by the sense of the unbelief that separates
them from Him and from deliverance; nevertheless He takes away from some the
deaf heart, and looses their tongue, in order that the God of Israel may be
glorified.
Thus also on the death of Lazarus, Christ grieves at the
sorrow which death brings upon the heart of man. There, however, it was a
public testimony.
── John Darby《Synopsis of Mark》
Mark 7
Chapter Contents
The traditions of the elders. (1-13) What defiles the
man. (14-23) The woman of Canaan's daughter cured. (24-30) Christ restores a
man to hearing and speech. (31-37)
Commentary on Mark 7:1-13
(Read Mark 7:1-13)
One great design of Christ's coming was, to set aside the
ceremonial law; and to make way for this, he rejects the ceremonies men added
to the law of God's making. Those clean hands and that pure heart which Christ
bestows on his disciples, and requires of them, are very different from the
outward and superstitious forms of Pharisees of every age. Jesus reproves them
for rejecting the commandment of God. It is clear that it is the duty of
children, if their parents are poor, to relieve them as far as they are able;
and if children deserve to die that curse their parents, much more those that
starve them. But if a man conformed to the traditions of the Pharisees, they
found a device to free him from the claim of this duty.
Commentary on Mark 7:14-23
(Read Mark 7:14-23)
Our wicked thoughts and affections, words and actions,
defile us, and these only. As a corrupt fountain sends forth corrupt streams,
so does a corrupt heart send forth corrupt reasonings, corrupt appetites and
passions, and all the wicked words and actions that come from them. A spiritual
understanding of the law of God, and a sense of the evil of sin, will cause a
man to seek for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to keep down the evil thoughts
and affections that work within.
Commentary on Mark 7:24-30
(Read Mark 7:24-30)
Christ never put any from him that fell at his feet,
which a poor trembling soul may do. As she was a good woman, so a good mother.
This sent her to Christ. His saying, Let the children first be filled, shows
that there was mercy for the Gentiles, and not far off. She spoke, not as
making light of the mercy, but magnifying the abundance of miraculous cures
among the Jews, in comparison with which a single cure was but as a crumb.
Thus, while proud Pharisees are left by the blessed Saviour, he manifests his compassion
to poor humbled sinners, who look to him for children's bread. He still goes
about to seek and save the lost.
Commentary on Mark 7:31-37
(Read Mark 7:31-37)
Here is a cure of one that was deaf and dumb. Those who
brought this poor man to Christ, besought him to observe the case, and put
forth his power. Our Lord used more outward actions in the doing of this cure
than usual. These were only signs of Christ's power to cure the man, to
encourage his faith, and theirs that brought him. Though we find great variety
in the cases and manner of relief of those who applied to Christ, yet all
obtained the relief they sought. Thus it still is in the great concerns of our
souls.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Mark》
Mark 7
Verse 4
[4] And
when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other
things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and
pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
Washing of cups and pots and brazen vessels
and couches — The Greek word (baptisms) means
indifferently either washing or sprinkling. The cups, pots, and vessels were
washed; the couches sprinkled.
Verse 5
[5] Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
The tradition of the elders — The rule delivered down from your forefathers.
Verse 6
[6] He
answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as
it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me.
Verse 10
[10] For
Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or
mother, let him die the death:
Verse 15
[15] There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile
him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
There is nothing entering into a man from
without which can defile him — Though it is very true, a man may bring
guilt, which is moral defilement, upon himself by eating what hurts his health,
or by excess either in meat or drink yet even here the pollution arises from
the wickedness of the heart, and is just proportionable to it. And this is all
that our Lord asserts.
Verse 19
[19]
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into
the draught, purging all meats?
Purging all meats —
Probably the seat was usually placed over running water.
Verse 22
[22]
Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Wickedness —
The word means ill natured, cruelty, inhumanity, and all malevolent affections.
Foolishness —
Directly contrary to sobriety of thought and discourse: all kind of wild
imaginations and extravagant passions.
Verse 24
[24] And
from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered
into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
Verse 26
[26] The
woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he
would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
The woman was a Greek (that is, a Gentile,
not a Jew) a Syrophenician or Canaanite. Canaan was also called Syrophenicia,
as lying between Syria, properly so called, and Phenicia.
Verse 31
[31] And
again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of
Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
Verse 33
[33] And
he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he
spit, and touched his tongue;
He put his fingers into his ears — Perhaps intending to teach us, that we are not to prescribe to him (as
they who brought this man attempted to do) but to expect his blessing by
whatsoever means he pleases: even though there should be no proportion or
resemblance between the means used, and the benefit to be conveyed thereby.
Verse 34
[34] And
looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be
opened.
Ephphatha —
This was a word of SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY, not an address to God for power to
heal: such an address was needless; for Christ had a perpetual fund of power
residing in himself, to work all miracles whenever he pleased, even to the
raising the dead, John 5:21,26.
Verse 36
[36] And
he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so
much the more a great deal they published it;
Them —
The blind man and those that brought him.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Mark》
Chapter 7. Argue about Defilement
Enter a Man
from Outside
Come out of a Man from Inside
I. Cling to
Men's Traditions
II. The Reward
of a Woman's Faith
III. Healing of
a Deaf and Mute Man
── Chih-Hsin Chang《An Outline of The New Testament》