I. Nobles And Governors Will Reign Under David In The Millennium.
1. In the millennial age Yeshua, Christ, will be “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). As such He is sovereign over a number of subordinate rulers. Under David the land of Israel will be ruled through these individuals.
a. And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them [Jer. 30:21].
b. Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment [Isa. 32:1]
c. My princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. Thus saith the Lord God; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, said the Lord God [Ezek. 45:8-9].
2. In the New Testament it is revealed that authority over the twelve tribes of Israel will be vested in the hands of the twelve disciples. “you which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel [Matt. 19:28]. This would indicate that under David there will be many subordinate rulers, who exercise theocratic power and administer the government of the millennium.
II. Matthew Chapter 11. Overview.
A. This picture of John is very full of pathos (emotion of sympathetic pity), from the high triumph of inspired preaching to the solitude and loneliness of a prison. John made as direct application to Jesus as his circumstances permitted. Surely the wisest course possible, Yeshua answered him not by verbal assurance, but by the deeds of the Kingdom. The credentials of Christ are ever to be found in His actual works.
B. The fickleness and worthlessness of public opinion has striking exemplification here. In the ordinary manner of life, Yeshua and John were contrasts. The one was a stem ascetic (practicing strict self denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline), living in the simplest fashion; the Other was a Man of the people, living in the ordinary way. The first they said had a devil; the Master they charged with gluttony and drunkenness. There is but one thing for any who are called to public service, that is, to go straight on, undeviating in loyalty to God, and deaf to the voices around, knowing that at last “wisdom is justified by her works.”
C. Christ upbraiding the cities! It seems so contrary to His spirit of love and gentleness, but it is not so. Why does He reproach them? “Because they repented not.” They persisted in rebellion, and that in spite of the manifestations of His power. There is, then, a condition more deeply degraded, more hopeless, than that of Sodom. The sin against light is far more terrible in itself, and more awful in its results, than sins committed in darkness. Capernaum’s rejection of the Son of God is infinitely worse than Sodom’s bestiality.
D. From reproach of cities, the Master turned to prayer. The use of the word “answered” is suggestive, revealing the perpetual fact of communion existing between Christ and God. The note of praise was the response of Christ’s heart to the secret of Yahweh.
E. From prayer, He turned back to the crowd with words full of sweetest pity and most divine power. He claims knowledge of the Father, which can be gained only by those to whom He willed to reveal the Father. And while we pause and wonder whom the favored ones will be, there breaks on our listening ears the sweetest of all music. He calls all who labor and are heavy laden, and promises to give them rest by so revealing the Father that to do His will will be the delight of life, the light burden, the easy yoke.
III. The Growing Opposition To Yeshua.
A. The Discourse On John The Baptist. 11:1-15.
1. Having sent forth the twelve, with instructions to preach the kingdom of heaven and having given them authority to perform miracles (Mt 10:7-8), Yeshua departed alone to teach and preach in the cities of Galilee. During His tour, John the Baptist, earlier announced as being in prison (Mt 4:12), sent two of his disciples to Yeshua with the question, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (11:3), (i.e., “he that should come,”) which signifies the Messiah and is used in that specific sense especially also by the Baptist, 3:11; Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27. This designation was derived from Ps. 118:26 and Ps. 40:7.”
2. John had been imprisoned in the fortress of Machaerus, the royal house of Herod, facing the Dead Sea, because of his fearless attack upon the immorality of Herod, who was living in adultery with Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife (Mt 14:3-4). Significantly, the Jewish leaders had been silent concerning this public scandal.
3. The question that the disciples of John communicated to Jesus has been interpreted by some as indicating a wavering faith in Christ on the part of John the Baptist, and others, who have come to John’s defense, regard John as asking a natural question. Undoubtedly, John had anticipated that Jesus would not only be “the Lamb of God, [who] taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), but would be one who also would judge sin. John had declared, according to Matthew 3:10, “The axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” He had also predicted that Christ would baptize with fire (v. 11) and that He would “gather his wheat into the garner,” but would “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (v. 12). John, languishing in prison, did not sense any divine deliverance from a wicked world. Instead of God triumphing, it seemed that Herod, in spite of his wickedness, was still in power.
a. John 1:29, (the sin of the world, which is the individual sin of unbelief in Christ; which results in a person’s new birth: John 3:3, 3:16), relates to individual salvation through belief in Christ. Unbelief is the only unforgiveable sin, which can easily be remedied, “through belief in Christ.”
b. Other sins are not unforgiveable, e.g., theft, lying, etc., and will not result in such a sinner’s spending eternity in hell, unless a lifetime of unrepentant sin is the model of that person’s life, which would indicate that such a person had not actually come to belief in Christ. (i.e., 1 Cor 6:9-11).
c. Isaiah 51-54 (712 B.C.) relates to the sins of the nation of Israel against Yahweh, being cleansed through the suffering of Christ. Isa 53:4-5 does not relate to physical healing in the world in which we live, but to the spiritual healing of Israel, which will come through belief, and which has yet to come (Mt 24:29-30; Zech 12:10), when Israel receives Yeshua as Yahweh’s appointed King (Deu 17:15, 1451 B.C.). Note: all too often in today’s world we hear the statement of someone who says, “by his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5) Such a statement is wrong, by being taken out of context.
4. Accordingly, John needed reassurance and clarification. In the background was the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies, which offered the puzzle of a suffering Messiah who would also be a glorious ruler (cf. 1 Pe 1:10-12). While John should not be represented as questioning the validity of the revelation that came to him, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah who would save Israel from their sins (see 3.a.b.c above), the question had been raised in his mind whether he should look for still another to bring the judgment of God upon a wicked world, and fulfill the predictions of the glorious reign of the Messiah.
5. The same questions of the ultimate triumph of God undoubtedly face everyone in suffering for Christ’s sake. If our God is omnipotent, why does He permit the righteous to suffer? The answer, of course, is that the time of God’s judgment has not yet come but that the final triumph is certain. The genuineness of John’s perplexity should not be questioned, as he attempted to reconcile his concept of a triumphing Messiah with his own situation in prison and the reports that came to him of the works of Christ, which were acts of mercy rather than acts of divine judgment. Understandably, John needed reassurance and further information.
6. In answer, Yeshua told the disciples of John to tell him what they heard and saw. As stated in Matthew 11:5, His works were many: “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” It is most significant that Jesus did not attempt to answer the real question of John, of why judgment on the wicked was not being inflicted and why the people of Israel had not yet been delivered. Instead, Yeshua pronounced a blessing on those who would not be offended by the apparent delay in fulfilling predictions of divine judgment. Interestingly, later in this chapter He delivered a message of judgment on the cities of Galilee, but first Yeshua called attention to the unique role of John as the prophesied messenger which would come before the Messiah.
7. Lest there should be any inference from His remarks that John was weak or vacillating, He appealed to the fearless witness of John which had led to his imprisonment. Those who had gone out in the wilderness to hear John had not gone because he was a weak reed, shaken by every wind. Instead, they found a man who thundered demands for repentance. They did not find a man clothed in soft raiment. John, in prison in Herod’s house, was undoubtedly still clad in the rough garments of the wilderness. Was John a prophet? Jesus answered yes. John was not only a prophet but the prophesied messenger of the Messiah. In verse 10, Jesus quoted Malachi 3:1, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.” The quotation in Matthew, similar to the quotation in Luke 7:27, changes the phrase “before me” in Malachi to “before thee,” and therefore interprets the Malachi prophecy as referring, first, to John the Baptist as the messenger, and second, to the Lord as “messenger of the covenant.” There is allusion also to Isaiah 40:3, a specific reference to John the Baptist, “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Mark combines the two Old Testament references in describing the ministry of John (Mk 1:2-3). Among the prophets before Jesus, there were none greater than John the Baptist, but Yeshua declared that in the future kingdom of “heaven on earth,” the least of God’s servants would have even a greater privilege.
8. How can we explain this contrast? The key may be found in that John is described as one “born of women,” probably referring to the sinful descent of men from Eve (cf. Job 14:1; 15:14; 25:4; Ps 51:5). Because of his great mission in preparing the way for Christ, John is declared to be greater than the prophets who had predicted Christ. The privilege of God’s servants who will live in the presence of Christ in the millennial kingdom, however, is even greater, as this will be the complete fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. The question of John why God permits the wicked to triumph in their violence was recognized by Jesus when He stated, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Mt 11:12 pointed out that Christ, until now, the prophets prophesied the future triumph but did not realize it (v. 13). Both John the Baptist and Jesus were to suffer at the hands of wicked men and die; this is the main import of what Yeshua said. The interpretation that He called here for resolute courage on the part of the disciples is not the main point. In closing His comment on John the Baptist, Jesus added, “And if [you] will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come” (v. 14). This must be interpreted in the light of Matthew 17:10-13, where John the Baptist is again related to fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6, that Elijah the prophet would come before the day of the Lord. Some expositors find complete fulfillment of the prophecy about the coming of Elijah in John the Baptist. Others identify one of the two witnesses in Revelation 22 as Elijah sent back to earth. Jesus closed His commendation of John the Baptist with the exhortation, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (11:15). The test of faith that comes as we await God’s future triumph is common to all believers.
9. Mt 11:12. “The arrest, imprisonment, and eventual execution of John, and the Jewish leaders’ violent opposition to Jesus were attempts to seize and control the unfolding kingdom. The words “until now” hint that the kingdom will someday break from from the grip of those who seek to restrain it. John The Baptist, Mt 3:2, said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The book of Matthew was written only to Jews, who expected a kingdom where Messiah would remove the oppressive Roman rule from them. John was preaching repentance, as was Jesus, saying that ” if Israel wanted the Kingdom, they would have to live like kingdom people. The kingdom is a promise of God to Israel that is literal, earthly, eternal and unfulfilled (2 Sam 7:8-16). As opposed to the desired kingdom that was the view of Israel, Yeshua stressed honesty, ethics, and a change in the lives of first century Jews. The kingdom will not come until after Christ returns from heaven to earth, with His saints and angels in Heaven (Zech 14:1-5, 9; Mt 24:29-31; Mk 13:24-27; Lk 21:25-28; Rev 19:11-16; 17-21). The kingdom will last 1,000 years (Rev 20:1-6), and will have the righteousness that the Matt 11 Jews had not desired. It is important to know that these events are not accidents waiting to occur, but are fulfillments of prophecy of Yahweh that go back to Gen 3:15, and that were spoken by Yahweh to Jewish prophets to be made known to Israel.
B. Unreasonableness Of Unbelief. 11:16-19.
1. In contrast to His commendation of John for his resolute faith and courage, Yeshua commented on the Jews’ vacillating and unreasonable attitude of unbelief. There are four classes of unbelief in this chapter: (1) John’s perplexity (11:1-15); (2) the unreasonable unbelief of Christ’s generation (11:16-19); (3) the impenitent unbelief of the cities of Galilee (11:20-24); (4) the unbelief of the wise as compared to the faith of babes (11:25-30).
2. Christ likened the generation who heard His message to children playing in the marketplace, acting out a make-believe wedding. When they were unable to attract other children to join them, they changed to a make-believe funeral with no better result. They then complained, “We have piped unto you, and you have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and you have not lamented” (v. 17). In like manner, Yeshua said, John came as a prophet of the judgment of Yahweh, neither feasting with them nor drinking. The reaction of the multitude was, “He has a devil” (v. 18). By contrast Christ came and freely ate with them at their dinners, and they objected to this, saying, “Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” (v. 19). Unbelief can always find excuses and can justify criticism of servants of Yahweh.
C. Judgment On The Unepentant Cities Of Galilee. 11:20-24.
1. In anticipation of God’s ultimate judgment upon wicked unbelief, Christ declared a solemn judgment on the cities of Galilee in which He had done so many mighty works. He pronounced a woe on Chorazin and Bethsaida, cities which eventually went into ruin. He declared that if the mighty miracles done in Galilee had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have been brought to repentance in sackcloth and ashes. Accordingly, although Tyre and Sidon would be judged by Yahweh in the day of judgment, the judgment on the cities of Galilee would be more severe.
2. His most biting words were for Capernaum, which He described as “exalted unto heaven,” but which “shalt be brought down to hell” (v. 23). He declared, in connection with Capernaum, that if the miracles He had performed there had been done in Sodom, it would have been brought to repentance and would have been preserved instead of destroyed. Anyone who visits the ruins of Capernaum today and sees the pitiful remains of what was once a beautiful city, can realize the literalness with which this prophecy has been fulfilled. Significantly, Tiberias, not far away, was not condemned and is not in ruins.
D. Invitation To Personal Discipleship. 11:25-30.
1. In commenting on the unreasonableness of unbelief, Christ thanked Yahweh that those who come in childlike faith are also recipients of divine revelation concerning the Son. This is not to support the concept that the Christian faith is unreasonable, but rather that unbelief is not intelligent in the light of revelation concerning God and His Son.
2. It is a profound truth that God has revealed His divine wisdom to those who have trusted Him and has hidden His divine wisdom from those who are wise in the knowledge of this world. It is part of God’s gracious provision for those willing to trust Him and receive His Son as Savior.
3. This great truth, however, is eclipsed by the profound statement of verse 27, sometimes referred to as a great Christological passage. Here, Christ declared that all things had been committed unto Him by God the Father. In keeping with this truth and the infinity of divine wisdom, no one really knows the Son as does the Father, and no one knows the Father in the way that the Son knows Him. But to some extent, this can be revealed by the Son to man in spite of his limitations. The infinity of the knowledge of God and the infinity of the authority of Christ over all things, whether in heaven or hell, whether angels, devils, or men, time, or eternity, is a comprehensive statement of the deity of Christ and the background of His gracious invitation that follows in verse 28.
4. In the verses which follow, Jesus, having turned from the general unbelief which characterized the cities of Galilee, extended a personal invitation to the individuals among them who would find in Christ rest of heart and soul.
a. In verse 28, He invited all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him, and to those who do, He promised to give rest. Whether their load is the burden of guilt of sin or the sorrows that are natural to life but which are too great for human strength to bear, Yeshua urged needy souls to come to Himself.
b. In verses 29-30, Jesus extended the invitation, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(1) In exhorting them to take His “yoke,” Christ was inviting them to discipleship. A pupil enrolling for instruction under a teacher is considered as coming under a “yoke.”
(2) Instead of exchanging one burden for another, however, it is exchanging one which is onerous and crushing for one which is light and rewarding.
(3) There is an inner satisfaction and rest of soul in being a disciple of Christ which is unknown by the child of the world, who attempts to bear his own burden.
Eternity 