Luke 21:34-36 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Take heed, &c. Here our Lord cautions them against the security and sensuality, to which, if they should yield, they would unfit themselves for the trying times that were approaching, and would render those times a great surprise and terror to them; nay, and involve themselves in the ruin about to come on others of their countrymen. By this we learn, 1st, That Christ's promises of deliverance to his disciples and the first Christians were conditional, and only to be fulfilled, provided that, through divine grace, they made it their care to guard against those sins which would have exposed them to God's judgments: and, 2d, That there is a close connection between our duty and safety; between our obedience to God and the divine aid and providence, for our preservation, whether temporal or spiritual: and that we are not to expect preservation immediately from his hand, without the use of those means which he has put it into our power to use in order to it. Lest at any time your hearts be overcharged, &c. The original word βαρυνθωσιν, here rendered overcharged, properly signifies burdened, or, pressed down, and so very elegantly and strongly expresses the hateful consequences of intemperance; and the load which it brings on those rational faculties, which are the glory of the human nature. Thus Horace, corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis animum quoque prægravat unà, Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ. SAT. 2. lib. 2. lin. 77.The immoderate use of meat and drink not only burdens the mind with the guilt thereby contracted, but it renders it dull, stupid, and lifeless in duty, and indeed unfit for prayer and praise, for the exercise of any grace, and the practice of any virtue: nay, it stupifies the conscience, and renders the heart unaffected with those things that are most affecting. And cares of this life Anxious cares about visible and temporal things, and the inordinate pursuit of them. The former is the snare of those that are given to their pleasures; this is the snare of the men of business that will be rich. Observe, reader, we have need to guard against both, also against all other temptations, lest at any time our hearts should be thus overcharged. Our caution against sin, and our care of our own souls, must be constant. But was there need to warn the apostles themselves against such sins as these? Then surely there is need to warn even strong Christians against the very grossest sins. Neither are we wise if we think ourselves out of the reach of any sin. And so that day That awful and important time, of which he had been speaking, when these dreadful calamities should come upon that nation; and overwhelm the unwary and carnally secure. For as a snare, &c. For the character of the generality of people in the Jewish nation, at that time, would be such that this ruin would come on all Or on the greatest part of all; that dwelt on the face of the whole earth Or, of the whole land, as a snare upon a thoughtless bird, which, in the midst of its security, finds itself inextricably taken. Thus should we take heed, lest either the hour of death or day of judgment should come upon us, when we neither expect nor are prepared for such awful events. Watch ye, therefore This is the general conclusion of all that precedes. Watch against every temptation to negligence and sin, and against every thing which might lull you into a dangerous security; and pray always With the most fervent importunity; that ye may be accounted worthy Through pardoning mercy, and the renewing, assisting grace of God; to escape all these things Those calamitous and destructive events; that shall assuredly come to pass In the very manner I have described them. And stand before the Son of man With courage and acceptance, acquitted and approved as his servants, and may not fall before him as his enemies in that day of awful visitation. In Romans 14:4, standing and falling are terms used to signify the being approved or condemned. Those of our Lord's disciples who followed his directions, and were faithful to the grace they had received, not only escaped the destruction coming on the great body of the Jewish nation, but were acknowledged as his servants, and appointed to be the ministers of his word, and the heralds of his grace and mercy to the Gentile nations. The expression, καταξιωθητε, here rendered accounted worthy, sometimes implies an honour conferred on a person, as when the apostles are said to be counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ, Acts 5:41; some times the being meet or fit for any thing, or suitable thereto, as when John the Baptist exhorts to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, Luke 3:8. And so to be accounted worthy to escape, is, to have the honour of it, and to be fitted, or prepared for it. “The reader will observe that Luke's account of this discourse is very short, in comparison with that of Matthew and Mark, for this obvious reason, that he had given the chief heads of it before, partly in a discourse of our Lord's last coming, which was delivered to a very numerous assembly in Galilee, (Luke 12:35-48,) and partly in another discourse, relating only to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was delivered in his journey thither, at the feast of dedication, Luke 17:20, &c. Here, therefore, he chooses to omit what had been inserted on either of those occasions; as John, who probably wrote after the accomplishment of this prophecy, entirely omits it, as already so largely recorded by the former three, from whom, considering the circumstances of time, it came with infinitely better grace, than it could afterward have done from him.” Doddridge. See notes on Matthew 24:42-51; and Mark 13:33-37.