Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.
Ver. 64. Command therefore] How fain would the devil by his agents have kept Christ still in the grave, when there they had him. But all in vain; for his resurrection was to be the demonstration of his deity, Romans 1:4, and the ground work of our safety, 1 Corinthians 15:14. He turned therefore their counsel into foolishness, and in the sight of so many armed witnesses, rose the third day, in despite of them, breaking the bonds of death as easily as Samson did the green cords, Judges 16:7 .
Lest his disciples come by night] A most vain and yet a most vexing fear, such as was that of Herod after he had beheaded John Baptist: he thought he heard that holy head ever shouting and crying out against him, for his cruelty. "This is John Baptist," said he (when he heard the fame of Jesus), "whom I have beheaded." "I will send the hornet," saith God, "before thee," Exodus 23:28. What was that hornet, but the misgiving fear of the Canaanites' self-condemning consciences, that haunted them perpetually? So here.