The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why have ye not brought him?
The chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest Jesus, and the men came back empty-handed. This verse is the demand for an explanation — and the men sent to silence Him end up speaking for Him.
They had run out of ways to answer Him. Only force was left.
The chief priests in Jerusalem had sent officers to arrest this wonderful Speaker and bring Him from the temple. There He had been boldly stating His mission, where He came from, and who He was. But His statement was so strong, so definite, so clear that they could think of no other way to silence Him than force. They envied His fame and feared Him as a rival. So the officers got their orders.
The word translated "officers" here is not the ordinary word for a household servant or a slave. It carries official weight, and John uses it again in chapters 18 and 19.
Another word is hypēretēs, also translated "servant." Two other words, doulos and diakonos, are translated the same way. Doulos is a slave; diakonos is an ordinary servant, at table and so on; but hypēretēs is more official. The first meaning of the word is a "rower," and so it generally means someone who has a distinct service. We could only translate this word as "servant." Here are the places where it occurs: Matthew 5:25; Mark 14:54; Luke 1:2; 4:20; John 7:32, 45, 46; 18:3, 12, 18, 22, 36; 19:6; Acts 5:22, 26; 13:5; 26:16; 1 Corinthians 4:1.
They went meaning to obey. First they stopped to listen.
No wonder the officers were fascinated! They expected a noisy agitator against Rome or some other government. Instead they stood face to face with a speaker so calm, so dignified, so uncompromising and yet so bold. He more than overawed them. They felt powerless to carry out their orders. The superiority of that presence, the majesty of that Person forced them into admiration of Him.
The demand for an explanation backfired. In front of their masters, the officers had to say what His words had done to them.
There were darker traits, however, in the religious leaders than in the crowd, and this is what the Spirit brings before us next. The officers answered, "Never man so spoke as this man." The Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? Did any one of the rulers believe on Him, or of the Pharisees? But this crowd that does not know the law, they are accursed" (verses 46-49). Here conscience answered to the words of the Lord. It answered in such a way that, in front of their masters, they let slip a confession of the power with which He spoke. But the Pharisees, with unbreakable hardness, throw the officers' weakness back at them, challenge them to name one ruler or Pharisee who believed, and show their contempt for ordinary people.
Their confession was not a claim to have understood Him.
They did not understand what He said. But they felt that no mere man ever spoke as He did. His words placed Him in a completely different category. They might be ignorant, but their senses were not entirely deadened.
One refusal sets the rest of the chapter moving. No hand is laid on Jesus, the Pharisees turn their anger on the people, and Nicodemus, one of the rulers, asks for the law to be kept.
In this Gospel the crowd and the Jewish leaders are always kept apart, and the difference is clear here. His time was not yet come. They send officers to take Him, and these return, struck by what He said, without laying a hand on Him. The Pharisees are angry, and show their contempt for the people. Nicodemus risks a word of justice according to the law, and brings their contempt on himself. But each one goes away to his own home.
- Errand. The leaders had no answer left for Him. They envied His fame, so they sent temple police to bring Him in.
- Encounter. The men went meaning to obey. Then they listened, and His presence left them powerless to arrest Him.
- Confession. Asked why they came back empty-handed, they confessed the power in His words.
- Limit. They did not understand what He said, yet they felt His words put Him in a class of His own. Conscience can feel more than the mind grasps.
- Timing. No hand closed on Him. His time had not yet come.
The officers answered, Never man spoke thus, as this man [speaks].
The chief priests' guard went out to seize Jesus and came back with nothing but a sentence about how He talked. The men sent to arrest Him ended up as witnesses for Him.
The officers had a simple job and failed at it. The reason they gave was the effect of what they heard.
Picture the scene. The Pharisees and chief priests had sent their officers to arrest our Lord. The officers came back, but empty-handed. When asked why they had not brought Jesus, their excuse was that never man spoke like this Man. His very words so marked Him out as God's Messenger that they became His protection from arrest.
Their excuse was an admission of defeat. A second reason lay behind it, one they knew nothing about.
They admitted that they had been overcome by His words themselves. Those words were "spirit and life." The power in them could not be resisted, and it held them back from carrying out their mission. His hour had not yet come.
The wording matters. Their sentence puts the weight on how He spoke. (The writers quoted here use an older translation, which reads, "Never man spoke like this man.")
The officers now returned to their masters, the arrest not carried out. The words of Christ had made an impression. "Never man," they said, "so spoke." For that is how we should read it.
These men had heard plenty of religious teaching. They were comparing Jesus with the scribes, the official teachers of the law.
He spoke "not as the scribes." No doubt the scribes were very correct in their talks, and could tell you all about everything. They had literal exactness — that would be most interesting and most intellectual. But while He had that in a way beyond theirs, He had a power that always made the word of God to be the sword of the Spirit. In His hand its connection and its application were perfect. It always suited the occasion. People could resist it, and they did. They rejected both His words and Him. But even so they had to own that "never man spoke like this Man."
The officers could describe the effect. They could not say where such power came from, or what refusing it costs.
His words came warm from the heart of the Father. They lost nothing of their grace beyond words, their freshness, their passion, or their life-giving strength on their journey through the lips of Jesus… To reject His words was to reject everlasting life. It is the same with the gospel, for the gospel is the Word of life.
The scene turns on the gap between the hired men and the men who hired them. The officers let something slip; their superiors would not.
Here conscience answered to the words of the Lord. At the very least, it drew an unintended confession out of them, in front of their masters, about the power with which He spoke. It was not as the scribes. But the Pharisees are hard beyond breaking. They throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name one ruler or one Pharisee who believed. And they show their contempt for the mass of their countrymen.
These words came from His enemies' own men. That gives them a weight no friendly witness could carry.
The officers whom the Pharisees sent to take Him came back overwhelmed by the grace and power of His words. They declared, "Never man spoke like this man" (John 7:46). When Christ was brought into his judgment hall, Pilate said three times over, "I find no fault in him"… The dying thief said, "This man has done nothing wrong."
- Sent — the leaders sent men to arrest Him. His words alone sent them back empty-handed, for His hour had not yet come.
- Struck — what stopped them was the way He spoke. He was as exact as the scribes, but with a power they never had, and His word always fitted the occasion.
- Sourced — His words came warm from the Father's heart, losing nothing on the way through His lips.
- Refused — those same words touched the officers' conscience. In the rulers they met hardness, and the rulers answered with contempt for their own men and for the crowd.
- Verdict — the confession comes from the other side. It stands beside Pilate's "I find no fault in him" and the dying thief's "This man has done nothing wrong."
The Pharisees therefore answered them, Are ye also deceived?
The men sent to arrest Jesus came back without Him, saying that no one had ever spoken like this man. Their employers never ask what He said — they answer with a question meant to shame the men who brought the report.
The officers gave an honest report. The reply shows conscience at work in the servants, and hardness in the masters.
Here conscience answered to the words of the Lord. In front of their masters, the officers confessed without meaning to how powerfully He spoke. He did not speak as the scribes did. But the Pharisees are unbreakably hard. They throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any of the rulers or Pharisees who believed. And they show their contempt for the mass of their countrymen.
The charge treats being moved by Jesus as a failure of judgment. Sensible people, they assume, cannot be fooled.
Frustrated in their purpose, the Pharisees now speak with scorn of the people. An ignorant lot, who did not know the law — who would value their opinion? Then they asked in triumph, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" People of sense and reputation would never be fooled by such a One. The crowd might be led away by His speeches, but not them. Why should their officers be affected by His words?
The leaders' comeback is a head-count, not an argument. But rank and learning did not help these men hear God.
The common people heard Him gladly, but the wise and the mighty turned away their ears. Then came the question, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?" That question shows clearly and forcefully how traditional orthodoxy blinds people. It leaves a mind that is only religious unfit to receive vital truth.
The word "also" lumps the officers in with the crowd. Both, the leaders assume, have been fooled — and the curse they pronounce misuses the law they claim to defend.
They fear the officers have been deceived, just as they consider the people to be. They pronounce the people as under a curse because they did not know the law. But the law had not cursed those who did not know it: it cursed those who did not keep it.
The taunt about rulers and Pharisees was rhetorical. It did not survive the meeting.
They had an immense conceit of themselves. They were sure their own rejection of Jesus was beyond dispute. They thought it so final that everybody ought to accept it. If the crowd, or any of them, did not, it only showed them to be ignorant and accursed. So these false shepherds simply cursed the sheep and left it at that. Yet their own ignorance began to show. Their triumphant question was, had any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? Nicodemus spoiled its effect, for he was both a Pharisee and a ruler.
The leaders and the crowd differ in style, not in substance.
The officers return under the influence of His words: "No one ever spoke like this man!" The Pharisees and rulers did not hesitate. They sought to put Him to death. They scatter, disgusted. This is the picture of the human heart facing the truth. The religious leaders have made up their minds. The masses are confused and unsure. They waver between prejudice and the power of the word of God. Faith was in neither the one nor the other.
- Report. Sent to arrest Jesus, the officers came back with a confession instead of a prisoner. His words did what force could not.
- Retort. The leaders never examined the report. They threw the officers' weakness back at them. To be moved by Christ, in their eyes, only proved you had been fooled.
- Reputation. Their case rested on a head-count of rulers and Pharisees. Traditional orthodoxy had blinded them, leaving a mind that is only religious unable to receive vital truth.
- Contempt. The appeal to rank failed, so they cursed the crowd for not knowing the law. But the law cursed those who broke it, not those who did not know it.
- Refutation. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler, was sitting right there. Their boast collapsed before the meeting ended. Scorn above, confusion below: faith was in neither group.
Has any one of the rulers believed on him, or of the Pharisees?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed.
The Pharisees demand to know whether any ruler or Pharisee has believed in Jesus. Their next words write off the crowd as ignorant and accursed — a verdict that exposes the men who spoke it.
The officers had just admitted the power with which Jesus spoke. Their masters answer them with scorn, not with an argument. The scorn falls on their own countrymen.
There were darker traits in the religious leaders than in the crowd... In the officers, conscience answered to the words of the Lord — at least enough to draw from them, before their masters, an unwilling confession of the power with which He spoke. But the Pharisees, with unbreakable hardness, throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any of the rulers or Pharisees who believed, and they let their contempt for the mass of their own countrymen show. Boasting in law, they were at that very moment dishonouring God by breaking the law, and by far worse.
The leaders make knowledge of the law their test. So what did that word cover for a Jew?
A brief look at the Gospels would have shown what the single word "law" meant. The Jews understood it to mean the first five books, and not just the Ten Commandments.
Their logic runs backwards. They have rejected Jesus, so anyone who has not must be beneath notice.
They had no shortage of conceit. They were sure that their own rejection of Jesus was beyond dispute, and so final that everybody ought to accept it. If the crowd, or any of them, did not, it only showed them to be ignorant and accursed. So these false shepherds just cursed the sheep, and left it at that. Yet their own ignorance began to show. They asked in triumph whether any of the rulers or Pharisees had believed in Him. Nicodemus spoiled the effect of that question, for he was both a Pharisee and a ruler.
Read on to the end of the chapter, and the verdict turns around.
The Pharisees were a group among the Jews who were most zealous for the law. They were the teachers of the law to the people. Yet in the last verses of chapter 7 this group, who did not know the Lord, are themselves shown to be accursed. The Pharisees thought they were the best part of the people. On the outside they were, as their judgment of their fellow Israelites showed. Yet these very people, whom the Lord did not know, were themselves accursed.
One man in the room answers them on their own ground. He does not preach. He asks whether their own law condemns a man before it hears him. Their complaint about the crowd's ignorance falls apart.
Notice, too, how their plans are frustrated. "But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed." But what stops them? "Does our law judge any man before it hears him?" And what is this timidity of Nicodemus? He shelters himself under the plea of their law. That takes their complaint about the people's ignorance of the law out of their mouth. And it throws the breaking of the law on them, if they carry out their purpose. Oh, if only we had faith to trust God! But if we are not willing to suffer in the flesh, we never shall.
Their problem was not a lack of learning. It was what grace did to their standing.
Their pride of heart and mind could not stand the grace that put them in the same class as the people who did not know the law.
The distance the leaders put between themselves and the crowd did not last. At the cross the two joined forces.
All classes fell into line that day, so that each could play its own part in that most sinful of sins. Jews and Gentiles agreed for once. Rival leaders buried their jealousies. Proud religious men joined hands with the crowd they treated at another moment with their deepest contempt (John 7:48-49).
- Contempt — The officers came back moved by Christ's words. Their masters answered with scorn for ordinary people, not with an argument.
- Boast — They boasted in the law, the first five books. At that very moment they were breaking it and dishonouring God.
- Curse — They were sure their rejection of Jesus settled the matter, so these false shepherds cursed the sheep and left it there.
- Rebound — The teachers of the law did not know the Lord, and the curse they spoke rests on them.
- Grace — Their pride could not bear a grace that ranked them with the people they despised. One question from Nicodemus, asked on their own legal ground, undid their boast.
Nicodemus says to them (being one of themselves),
The council has just sneered that not one ruler has believed in Jesus, and at that moment a ruler speaks. The speaker is Nicodemus, the man who had once come to Jesus at night. His words show how far he has moved since then, and how far he still has to go.
The officers had come back confessing the power of Jesus' words. The Pharisees answered with a challenge: name one ruler who believed.
Conscience answered to the words of the Lord. In front of their masters it drew out of the officers a confession they never meant to make — a confession of the power with which He spoke. But the Pharisees, with unbreakable hardness, throw that weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any of the rulers or of the Pharisees who believed, and they show their contempt for the mass of their countrymen. Boasting in law, they were then dishonouring God by breaking the law and far worse. But God brings forward an unexpected, even if feeble, witness from among themselves — not only a Pharisee, but a ruler.
The verse points back to that first night visit. One writer reads his three appearances in this Gospel as a slow sunrise.
You tell me, as a criticism, that he came by night. Well, never mind — he came to Jesus, and that is more than you have done yet. There are three stages in his history. I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight. It was darkest midnight in that man's soul when he came creeping to Jesus, hoping that nobody saw him. He was beginning to get a glimmer of light when he put in a word sideways for the Lord in chapter 7. But the death of Christ produced in Nicodemus what His life had never achieved.
He speaks carefully. He asks the council to keep the law they boast in.
However, from their own ranks a voice speaks out. Nicodemus was both a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews (John 3:1). He appeals to the law they spoke of: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" (v. 51). He himself had taken time to listen to the Lord (John 3:1-21), and all he asks for is a fair hearing, as the law itself demands. He does not here even take sides with the Lord Jesus, but he calls for righteous judgment.
Even that costs him. The answer he gets is scorn, and one writer turns it on the reader.
The moment he does speak a little word, indirectly, on behalf of Jesus, how is he met? With scorn and derision. "Are you from Galilee too?" say the Pharisees. "Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." My friend, do not let the laughter of someone who knows less than you turn you aside. Do not let the sneer or the jeer of a worldly person stop you from coming out boldly for the Saviour.
Commentators weigh this step differently. One reads it as real progress, though incomplete:
Here Nicodemus' advice brings him under suspicion. He is more in the open than when he first went to Jesus by night. Surely here we see an advance, but he is still in the Sanhedrin, sitting among the men who would have arrested our Lord.
Another looks at the same scene and sees a man defending Christ in the wrong room, and notices where he is never found:
But this is slow work, and the slowness is not to his credit. The fear of man was still over him. The affections that drew him to the Lord were not yet in command. Had they been, he would not have been standing up for Him in a council of enemies. He would have joined himself to His disciples. Indeed we never find him in their company; a bad sign. Cords that do not pull a man that way must be weak. Still, the thing is real with him. The man who once stole by night to the Lord now stands up for His rights, as one accused, before His enemies.
His story does not end here. The last time he appears, the crisis that paralysed the bold has made the cautious brave.
Now we find him taking a further step forward. He identified himself with Jesus in His death more definitely than he ever had during His life. The crisis had paralysed the men who had boldly identified themselves with the Lord in His life and ministry. That same crisis steeled these timid and cautious men into boldness and action. Until then they had been in the background, unrecognised. Truly Omnipotence has servants everywhere!
- Night. He first came to Jesus in the dark, hiding the visit; that beginning is not despised — coming at all is more than most do.
- Twilight. Here he moves only a little into the open: he asks for a lawful hearing, without yet taking Christ's side.
- Answer. The council demanded the name of one ruler who believed; God answered from inside the council itself, with a Pharisee and a ruler.
- Cost. Even a plea for common fairness drew mockery; the jeer of those who know less is no reason to stay silent.
- Daylight. At His death the timid man acted while the bold stood paralysed — God has servants everywhere, even in that council.
Does our law judge a man before it have first heard from himself, and know what he does?
The council has just written off the whole crowd as accursed for not knowing the law. It has boasted that no ruler believed in Jesus. Then one of their own rulers speaks up with a question about that very law — and the question exposes them.
The Pharisees had challenged the temple officers to name a single ruler who believed. The answer came from someone sitting with them.
Here conscience answered to the words of the Lord. In front of their masters it drew out an involuntary confession of the power with which He spoke. But the Pharisees are hard past breaking. They throw the officers' weakness back at them. They challenge them to name any ruler or Pharisee who believed. And they show their contempt for the mass of their countrymen. Boasting in law, they were at that very moment dishonouring God by breaking the law, and by far worse. But God brings forward a witness from among themselves. He is unexpected and feeble — yet not only a Pharisee, but a ruler.
The question has two halves: hearing the man, and knowing what he does. Both were legal requirements, not personal favours.
At this time Nicodemus makes no confession of Christ. Still, he ventures to raise a word on behalf of law and order. The law did not allow anyone to condemn a man before hearing evidence of what he had said and done. At once Nicodemus exposes himself to the sneer that he too is one of His followers from Galilee. The implication is that there is no need to hear Him or ask what He has done.
The council had just used the law as a weapon against the ignorant crowd. Nicodemus takes that same weapon out of their hands. Yet one writer sees timidity in the way he does it.
Notice, too, how their thinking is thrown off course. "This people, that does not know the law, are accursed." But what stops them? "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing?" And what is this timidity of Nicodemus? He shelters himself behind the plea of their law. So he takes out of their mouth their complaint that the people are ignorant of the law. And he throws the breaking of it on them if they carried out their purpose. Oh, if only we had faith to trust God! But if we are not willing to suffer in the flesh, we never shall.
Nicodemus does not defend Jesus. He asks for procedure. But this ruler had heard Jesus for himself once before.
He appeals to the law they spoke of: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" He himself had taken time to listen to the Lord. All he asks for is fair consideration, as the law itself calls for. He does not here even take sides with the Lord Jesus, but he calls for righteous judgment.
A fair question should have slowed them down. Instead they attacked the questioner — and got their facts wrong doing it.
He now speaks, Nicodemus by name, and asks a simple, relevant, but most unwelcome question. Such a question might well have made honest people pause. It only irritated the men he had asked. They turned at once on Nicodemus and said, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." As often happens when people support a bad cause, they tried to silence the man whose question was so inconvenient. And, like many others in the same spirit, they did not care whether their words were accurate. There certainly had been one prophet out of Galilee, if no more — Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher.
This verse is the middle of three scenes in one life, and the middle is not the end.
Nicodemus afterwards grew bolder. In the council he urged that they ought to hear the Lord and examine His acts before condemning Him. The last we read of Nicodemus is this: after the crucifixion he brought about a hundred pounds' weight of myrrh and aloes to embalm the Lord's body.
Read together, the three appearances trace a single line.
Is this not a charming biography of a disciple, given in the fewest possible words? The beginning, NIGHT; further on, TWILIGHT; lastly, open confession of a heroic kind — NOONTIDE. No book but the Bible can convey so stimulating a story in a few vivid strokes.
- Night. Nicodemus first came to Jesus after dark. Now he is the one ruler who speaks — an unexpected and feeble witness, from inside the very body that boasted no ruler believed.
- Law. His question states a plain legal rule: judges must hear a man and examine what he has done before they condemn him.
- Irony. The men who cursed the crowd for not knowing the law were breaking it themselves. Nicodemus turns their own charge back on them.
- Twilight. Commentators differ: one calls it timidity, another says he grew bolder. Either way, he shelters behind the law and does not yet take sides.
- Noontide. A fair question got a sneer and a false claim in reply. But the man who asked it came out at last in daylight. He carried spices to the grave of the One he had once visited at night.
They answered and said to him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, that no prophet arises out of Galilee.
Nicodemus asked the leaders to keep their own law and hear a man before condemning him. They answered with a sneer about Galilee, and that sneer raises two questions: was it even true, and what did it show about men who taught Scripture for a living?
The leaders had just asked whether any ruler or Pharisee believed in Jesus. One did, and he was in the room.
Any Pharisee or ruler believe on Him! They thought it impossible. But one man was present at that moment who felt differently. He now speaks, Nicodemus by name. He asks a simple, fitting, but most unwelcome question: "Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" Such a question might well have made honest people pause. It only irritated the men it was aimed at. They turned at once on Nicodemus: "Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee." His question was very inconvenient, so they would try to silence him — as men often do when defending a bad cause.
Their put-down sounded final. It was wrong twice over: about the prophets, and about where Jesus was born.
So here the Pharisees assume that no prophet arises out of Galilee. They were wrong in every possible way. Were they prophets to speak for God at that time? Had they never heard of Jonah or Nahum? … But the truth is that the One their soul hated had come out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah. The poor of the flock waited for Him, and His goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity (Micah 5:2). They knew nothing of Him, though the law and the prophets everywhere testified of Him.
(Kelly follows an older rendering of Micah 5:2; the ESV reads "from ancient days.")
Jonah's home town has been identified as Galilean territory:
Son of Amittai and the prophet of Gath-hepher (in Galilee: compare John 7:52).
They told Nicodemus to search. They had not searched themselves. They had Scripture; what they lacked was the will to read it honestly.
The reproach of the Jews in the time of our Lord (John 7:52) was remarkable, for prophets had arisen out of Galilee. Jonah and Nahum were both Galileans. There is nothing in which men are so likely to be blind as in reading the Bible. Even the facts of Scripture are too often passed over with more carelessness than those of any other book. People readily forget what it does not suit them to remember.
Galilee was no embarrassment to explain away. Scripture had marked it out in advance as the place where light would break.
This prophetic promise (Isaiah 9:1-2) brought comfort to the faithful remnant. It looked to a day when Gentile powers would oppress the land, and the Messiah would be "a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel." The promise was that in such times a bright and glorious light would shine out in the most obscure and despised part of the land. And so it came about. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the kingdom of God, and this gave the Pharisees of Jerusalem a reason to despise Him. Ignoring Jonah, who was of the land of Zebulun, they said, "Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
He said very little, and indirectly at that. It was still enough to draw fire.
The moment he does speak a little word, indirectly, on behalf of Jesus, how is he met? With scorn and derision. "Are you from Galilee too?" say the Pharisees … The speakers begin to think he is almost a convert. My friend, do not let the laughter of someone who knows less than you turn you aside. Do not let the sneer or the jeer of a worldly person keep you from coming out boldly for the Saviour.
That confident dismissal did not die with those leaders. It has only changed its vocabulary.
There is the same triumphant claim for the supreme place of human cleverness and knowledge. The modern phrase is, "All scholars are agreed …" agreed in denying or even ridiculing the Word of God. But now, as then, all scholars are NOT agreed … And like the religious men of old, our modern examples are just as wrong in their basic facts. Christ was not "of Galilee", as they ought to have known. They did not trouble to look beneath surface appearances.
- Sneer. The leaders could not answer a fair question, so they turned on Nicodemus himself — the usual move when defending a bad cause.
- Search. They ordered a search they had never made: prophets had come out of Galilee, Jonah and Nahum both.
- Sight. Men can hold the Bible and still be blind in it, forgetting what it does not suit them to remember.
- Scripture. Isaiah 9:1-2 promised light in the most despised part of the land. Micah 5:2 named Bethlehem. Their "fact" collapsed twice over.
- Stand. One timid word for Christ drew ridicule; the lesson is not to let a sneer decide which side you take.