While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
Ver. 18. Behold, there came a certain ruler] Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue. Few such came to Christ; but this man was driven out of doors by the cross, as the wolf is out of the wood by hard hunger. It was his only daughter, of a dozen years old, that was now at point of death. This makes him seek out Christ the best Physician. Men must be fatherless (childless) ere they find mercy,Hosea 14:3, and a poor afflicted people ere they will be brought to trust in the name of the Lord, Zephaniah 3:12. The αιμορροουσα came not to Christ while she had a half-penny to help herself,Luke 8:43 .
But come and lay thine hands upon her] He thought Christ could not otherwise cure her. This was weakness of faith, far short of that of the centurion, who yet was a Roman soldier; whereas Jairus was a learned Jew. Knowledge therefore is one thing, faith another; and the greatest scholars are not always the holiest men. Neither have all God's people a like measure of true fiath. This should humble and excite the weak, but not discourage them in their course; since the tallest oak was once an acorn, and the deepest doctor was once in his horn-book. a
a A leaf of paper containing the alphabet (often with the addition of the ten digits, some elements of spelling, and the Lord's Prayer) protected by a thin plate of translucent horn, and mounted on a tablet of wood with a projecting piece for a handle. A simpler and later form of this, consisting of the tablet without the horn covering, or a piece of stiff cardboard varnished, was also called a battledore. ŒD