Acts 11:29 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then the disciples, every man, &c.— It had been a custom for the Jews and proselytes, in their several dispersions, to send presents to Judea, and especially to Jerusalem; and the Jews in Judea seem to have expected it, as in some sort their due; particularly we find that Helena, queen of the Adiabenes, and her son Izates, who had lately become proselytes to the Jewish religion, were very generous to the poor at Jerusalem in this ensuing famine; for the queen went to see the temple, and to offer sacrifices there; and finding Jerusalem oppressed by the famine, and many perishing though want, she sent abroad her officers, some of them to Alexandria, to buy corn; others to Cyprus to purchase dried figs; who returned quickly, and distributed food to the necessitous; by which means she laid a lasting obligation upon the whole nation of theJews; and her son Izates also, having heard of the famine, sent a large sum of money to the chief men at Jerusalem. Thus also the Gentile Christians at Antioch, upon Agabus's prediction of the famine, determined to give (every man in proportion to his own ability and plenty) towards a charitable collection for the relief of the Jewish converts in Judea, and especially in Jerusalem, whence the sound of the gospel first proceeded. See Romans 15:25, &c. &c. For "as they were made partakers of their spiritual things, they thought it their duty to minister unto them in temporal things." Thus remarkably does the wise and over-ruling Providence of God adapt the common course of things so, as to subserve his own great and beneficent designs, as plainly appears in the instance now before us. For the reception of uncircumcised Gentiles into the Christian church, had a little soured the minds of the Jewish converts; but, upon this approach of a famine, an early occasion was given for cementing and uniting the Jewish and Gentile converts into one church and body, under Jesus Christ their common Head and Lord; kindness and charity most of all things tending to sweeten men's minds, and beget a favourable opinion of the persons who are so bounteous and liberal: the helping them in their distress, therefore, was the most effectual way to win over the Jewish converts; and the knowing the famine before-hand gave them an opportunity to provide for it. When the church was in its tender infant state, and many had forsaken all to preach the gospel, the gifts of the Spirit, and among them the gift of prophesying, were highly necessary: for such extraordinary difficulties and discouragements could not have been prevented, or over-ruled, without extraordinary helps and directions.