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The reason for this invitation rests in reconciliation: "that he may make peace with Me." God's offer reveals His unselfishness—He seeks not His own benefit but the sinner's restoration.
His brother said, "I go, sir," but went not.
Exell identifies five particulars demanding our song: First, redemption's Author: "The Lord hath done it." Yahweh alone conceived and executed this work without counsel or co-laborer.
Exell's Victorian commentary identifies three dynamics at work.
Just as Isaac's birth defied natural law—Sarah was barren, Abraham aged—so Christian conversion transcends fleshly effort.
The prophet does not merely inform; he interrogates, drawing forth dormant faith that has withered through neglect or fear.
First, he framed obedience as *easy*—merely "say the word." Second, he presented *opportunity*: stones lay ready at hand.
The people of Israel, mowed down and removed from their native soil, lay upon the threshing floor of captivity under tyrannical rule.
Exell observed in 1887, this earthly life proved too shallow a vessel to hold peace, righteousness, worship, and divine love.
This declaration yields us a threefold warrant for Christmas observance.
Yet even this secure fastening remains subject to removal by the Lord of hosts who placed it there.
Matthew 24:27 compares our Lord's return to lightning flashing across the sky. Joseph S. Exell's Victorian exposition unpacks two essential truths. First, Christ's advent shall be sudden. The masses will be unprepared, as unsuspecting as a city when lightning leaps...
First, God is Father by relation to Christ as the eternal Son, the fountain of Deity itself.
First, David's afflictions reveal that even the righteous face enemies and dangers.
God's method of punishment is not arbitrary cruelty but divine permission—He lets us punish ourselves.
Joseph Exell's 1887 *Biblical Illustrator* frames this eschatological promise through three movements.
And when thou prayest—nine things pertain to the knowledge of true prayer: I. To know what prayer is. II. How many sorts of prayer there be. III. The necessity of prayer. Four things provoke us to pray: 1. God's commandment....
This man holds his candle at the door to inspect his neighbors while leaving his own room dark.
Exell, in *The Biblical Illustrator* (1887), distinguishes three dimensions of this sacred duty.
This command reveals three principles about Yahweh's covenant with humanity.
First, the Lord would return—not in spatial movement, for He fills heaven and earth, but in manifestation of favor.
Justification means being brought into right relation with Elohim and all law-keeping beings.
Instead, He borrowed a small ship from a fisherman and preached from that humble vessel.
Paul, writing to the Hebrews, calls this inner barrier "the second veil," describing it as the threshold beyond which lay the most sacred articles of Jewish worship.