Matthew 2:12. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
I remember a long disquisition, by a learned man, to show that we may sometimes break our promise, if, upon further consideration, we find we did wrong in making it, saying that these wise men, though they had promised to go and tell Herod all about the young child, did not do so when warned of God by a dream. After reading his very ingenious dissertation, I turned to the text, and there discovered that the wise men never made any promise of the kind; so that it was a sermon on a non-existent text. They never agreed to return; Herod told them to do so, which is one thing; they did not promise to do so, that would have been quite another thing. They broke no promise, and hence needed no excuse. They were in supernatural communication with God, he had guided them by a star, and now he speaks to them in a dream, and bids them go back to their own country another way. May we all be under like unerring guidance!
Amen.
Matthew 2:12. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
I remember a long disquisition, by a learned man, to show that we may sometimes break our promise, if, upon further consideration, we find we did wrong in making it, saying that these wise men, though they had promised to go and tell Herod all about the young child, did not do so when warned of God by a dream. After reading his very ingenious dissertation, I turned to the text, and there discovered that the wise men never made any promise of the kind; so that it was a sermon on a non-existent text. They never agreed to return; Herod told them to do so, which is one thing; they did not promise to do so, that would have been quite another thing. They broke no promise, and hence needed no excuse. They were in supernatural communication with God, he had guided them by a star, and now he speaks to them in a dream, and bids them go back to their own country another way. May we all be under like unerring guidance!
Amen.