In the Fulness of Time/Part 57
| By: Dr. Thomas O. Figart; ©2007 |
| This month, from Matthew 10, Dr. Figart delves into the consequences of a positive or negative reaction to the apostles’ ministry. |
In our previous article, we discussed the Limitation, Proclamation and Provision of the ministry of the Apostles as they were sent out by the Lord Jesus. Next, we want to discuss the Positive and Negative Reactions to their Ministry, Matthew 10:11-15.
Positive Reaction and Pronouncement of Peace. Matthew 10:11-13a.
- Matthew 10:11-13a “And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till ye go from there. And when ye come into an house, greet it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it.”
From the previous verses, (7-10) the sequence of events would begin with each pair of the Apostles (‘two and two” Mark 6:7) entering a town and preaching on the streets, in the synagogues or even in a house, as they had seen Jesus do. Their message concerning the kingdom of heaven would be authenticated by the performance of miracles (cf. Mark 6:12,13). Some of those who heard the message and witnessed the miracles would respond favorably toward the apostles, and from these people they would find one who was “worthy” in the sense of “receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet” (Matthew 10:41). There, in that home the two apostles would remain until their ministry in that place was completed. Upon entering that home, the apostles would pronounce the greeting of “Peace be to this house” (cf. Luke 10:5) indicative of God’s blessing.
Negative Reaction and promise of judgment. Matthew 10:13b-15.
- Matthew 10:13b-15 “But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”
Conversely, if there was no welcome to the men and their message, “not receive you, nor hear your words” this would constitute the house or city as “not worthy.” Such a reaction would be similar to the attitude of the Gadarenes toward Jesus in 8:34. Even though they had witnessed the changes in the two maniacs, and had seen what happened to the swine, they reacted negatively toward Jesus and asked Him to leave! The apostles would then be free to “shake of the dust” of their feet “for a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11). Edersheim relates the origin of this custom to Deuteronomy 13:17:
- The expression, no doubt, indicted that the ban of the Lord was resting on it, and the symbolic act would, as it were, be the solemn pronouncing that “nought of the cursed thing” clave to them. In this sense, anything That clave to a person was metaphorically called “the dust,” as for example, “the dust ofan evil tongue,” “the dust of usury,” as,on the other hand, “the dust of idolatry” meant to cleave to it (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, I, 644).
This is then connected to the final “day of judgment” when punishment for refusing to hear the gospel will be worse than that for the awful immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah! After their actual destruction in Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah are mentioned a number of times in Scripture. In Isaiah 1:2-10 the people of Israel who were designated as a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity . . .from the sole of the foot to the head… with putrefying sores” are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah! In Isaiah 3:9 Israel’s sin shows upon their faces as it did in Sodom; “they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” In Jeremiah 23:14, “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies, they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
These passages and others in the New Testament graphically reveal that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were immorality of the worst kind. Just one example will suffice. Peter calls Sodom and Gomorrah “ungodly, filthy manner of life of the wicked, unlawful deeds” (2 Peter 2:6- 8). Therefore, anyone who attempts to relegate the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah to mere inhospitality, need to consider all the accounts in Scripture, and observe the sexual and immoral degradation which existed there, and which prompted such complete destruction of these cities.
Yet, having said all this, we are assured that it will be “more tolerable” for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than it will be for those who refuse God’s messengers with God’s message! In Matthew 11:20-24 Jesus will return to this same subject from the standpoint of His own ministry and miracles in specific cities. These pronouncements of judgment confirm the deity of Christ, in that He has been given authority to judge (cf. John 5:25-27), and the fact that there are to be degrees of punishment in hell for unbelievers, just as there are differences of reward in heaven for believers. Both of these prophecies will be realized “in the fulness of time!”
