18 For a period of about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain. At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice. You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.
So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes, and shown them my ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they didn't walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them. But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out. Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; because they rejected my ordinances, and didn't walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn't destroy them, neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness.
For who, when they heard, rebelled? No, didn't all those who came out of Egypt by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn't it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn't enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.
Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear his voice, Don't harden your hearts, as in the provocation, Like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested me by proving me, And saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, And said, 'They always err in their heart, But they didn't know my ways;'
Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Neither let us test the Lord, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Neither grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.
to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.' They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch, The star of your god Rephan, The figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'
"Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel? Yes, you have borne the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
They soon forgot his works. They didn't wait for his counsel, But gave in to craving in the desert, And tested God in the wasteland. He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul. They envied Moses also in the camp, And Aaron, Yahweh's saint. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the company of Abiram. A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory For an image of a bull that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt, Wondrous works in the land of Ham, And awesome things by the Red Sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn't destroy them. Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn't believe his word, But murmured in their tents, And didn't listen to Yahweh's voice. Therefore he swore to them That he would overthrow them in the wilderness, That he would overthrow their seed among the nations, And scatter them in the lands. They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, When your fathers tempted me, Tested me, and saw my work. Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, And said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways." Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They won't enter into my rest."
Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire. Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?" Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel, Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation. Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven. He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky. Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full. He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind. He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas. He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations. So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire. They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths, When the anger of God went up against them, Killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel. For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works. Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror. When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue. For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant. But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert! They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel. They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, and didn't listen to your commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn't forsake them. Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed awful blasphemies; yet you in your manifold mercies didn't forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn't depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go. You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn't withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst. Yes, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes didn't grow old, and their feet didn't swell.
Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 13
Commentary on Acts 13 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 13
We have not yet met with any things concerning the spreading of the gospel to the Gentiles which bears any proportion to the largeness of that commission, "Go, and disciple all nations.' The door was opened in the baptizing of Cornelius and his friends; but since then we had the gospel preached to the Jews only, ch. 11:19. It should seem as if the light which began to shine upon the Gentile world had withdrawn itself. But here in this chapter that work, that great good work, is revived in the midst of the years; and though the Jews shall still have the first offer of the gospel made to them, yet, upon their refusal, the Gentiles shall have their share of the offer of it. Here is,
Act 13:1-3
We have here a divine warrant and commission to Barnabas and Saul to go and preach the gospel among the Gentiles, and their ordination to that service by the imposition of hands, with fasting and prayer.
Act 13:4-13
In these verses we have,
Act 13:14-41
Perga in Pamphylia was a noted place, especially for a temple there erected to the goddess Diana, yet nothing at all is related of what Paul and Barnabas did there, only that thither they came (v. 13), and thence they departed, v. 14. But the history of the apostles' travels, as that of Christ's, passes by many things worthy to have been recorded, because, if all had been written, the world could not have contained the books. But the next place we find them in is another Antioch, said to be in Pisidia, to distinguish it from that Antioch in Syria from which they were sent out. Pisidia was a province of the Lesser Asia, bordering upon Pamphylia; this Antioch, it is likely, was the metropolis of it. Abundance of Jews lived there, and to them the gospel was to be first preached; and Paul's sermon to them is what we have in these verses, which, it is likely, is the substance of what was preached by the apostles generally to the Jews in all places; for in dealing with them the proper way was to show them how the New Testament, which they would have them to receive, exactly agreed with the Old Testament, which they not only received, but were zealous for. We have here,
Act 13:42-52
The design of this story being to vindicate the apostles, especially Paul (as he doth himself at large, Rom. 11), from the reflections of the Jews upon him for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, it is here observed that he proceeded therein with all the caution imaginable, and upon due consideration, of which we have here an instance.