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If we would pray well, we must pray early.
First, Yahweh operates through dual instruments: the judgments of God's mouth and the judgments of God's hand—the word and the work of God.
First, it demands a *specific pursuit* (*zēteō* – to seek diligently).
This command demands reading with utmost attention, diligence, and devotion—weeping as John did until the sealed book was opened, digging deep in the mine of Scripture for the mind of God, and holding it fast lest it slip away.
The passage introduces this promise immediately after condemning eight species of diviners—those who read lots, murmur incantations, interpret omens from liquids in cups, work with charms like African medicine men, bind with magic knots, raise ghosts, consult familiar spirits, and...
The messianic hope, which had embraced all humanity as 'the seed of the woman,' then narrowed to Abraham's seed, then Judah's tribe, now contracted further—to the house of David alone.
First, the MODEL of prayer demands wholehearted engagement.
The prophet identifies a moral catastrophe: men and women who possess eyes yet refuse to see Yahweh's *providentia* (providence) ordering all things in heaven and earth.
First, he remembers the medicine—the Word of Elohim that he has treasured, now becoming his sustenance in affliction.
King Josiah had fallen in an ill-advised battle; Assyria's power waned while Babylon's ascended.
John Owen, in his profound reflections on the church's preservation, identified three distinct dimensions within this declaration.
When David declares, 'The Lord looketh down from heaven; he beholdeth all the children of men,' we grasp a truth that should steady our trembling hearts.
The psalmist declares, "Thou didst deliver them"—referring to the faithful fathers who cried unto the Lord and were rescued.
The inmost essence of the law is revealed in a single, lofty conception: 'to love Jehovah thy God.' This is the sovereign commandment, to which even the minute regulations of Leviticus are subordinate.
The Lord does not merely turn away; He *releases Himself* (*aphistemi*), detaches Himself, shakes off an encumbrance without righteousness.
Yet beneath such plausible disguises lie spiritual impostures that demand our careful discernment.
Not yet are all things in subjection to humanity, yet this sovereignty shall come.
Some have even become atheists in practice, though they claimed faith in theory.
Our Lord entrusted His gospel to merely twelve apostles—destitute of human learning, worldly influence, and secular power.
Yet Exell's Victorian commentary redirects this judgment toward the Church's calling, extracting three marks of the Christian standard-bearer.
It is a leading feature of this age to reduce the gospel to phrases.
Bishop Ryle offers a piercing parallel: the bankrupt cannot finance another's recovery; the imprisoned cannot liberate a fellow prisoner; the shipwrecked sailor cannot rescue his drowning comrade.
To those imprisoned both in darkness and in chains, the Lord Jesus speaks: "Show yourselves; rise, and come out of the darkness; hide away no longer, come forth into the light, and enjoy it." Consider the characters mentioned in this...
This is not peculiar to Christianity—the ancient Greeks inscribed "Know thyself" on their noblest public buildings.