And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
And he charged them straitly (or strictly), that no man should know it. The only reason we can assign for this is His desire not to let the public feeling regarding Him come too precipitately to a crisis.
And commanded that something should be given her to eat - in token of perfect restoration.
Remarks:
(1) Burdened soul, wearied and wasted with an inward malady which has baffled every human specific, and forced thee to say from bitter experience of those who have recommended change of air and scene, business, pleasure, travel, and the like-`Miserable comforters are ye all, forgers of lies, physicians of no value!' hast thou not "heard of Jesus" - what miracles of healing, what wonders of transformation He has performed in some of the most obstinate and hopeless cases; opening blind eyes, casting out devils, cleansing lepers, making the lame man to leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing? Bring thy case to Him at last, and doubt not His power to bring thee a perfect cure who said to such as Thou, "They that be whole need not a physician: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." But thou art afraid to show thyself, test they who knew thy reckless life should say of thee jeeringly, Is Saul also among the prophets? Come then, in the press behind, and do but touch Him, and thou shalt instantly feel the virtue that has gone out of Him. It needeth not a close embrace, or vehement handling, or much ado. It is living contact, the simple touch of faith, that fetches out the healing virtue. And it will tell its own tale. Thou shalt know the difference between Christ and all other healers; and when Jesus calls for thy testimony to His power and grace, thou shalt have something to say, thou shalt have a tale to tell, which will glorify His name and be His desired reward; thou shalt be fain to say, "Come all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul."
(2) Mute debtors to healing mercy, be rebuked by the narrative of the Lord's procedure toward this healed woman. He suffered her not, as doubtless she would have preferred, to depart in silence, to pour out her secret thanksgivings, or at some private meeting to testify her love to Jesus. He would have her, in spite of her shrinking modesty to come forward before all and declare what she had done and how she had sped. Thus, in her own way, was she a preacher of Christ. And such witness will He have from all His saved ones. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
(3) Amidst the multitudes who crowds-with no spiritual desires and to no saving purpose-around the Saviour, in the services of His house and the profession of His name, He discerns the timid, tremulous touch of faith in even one believing soul, and is conscious of the healing virtue which that touch has drawn resistlessly forth from Him. What encouragement this to such as fear that their worthless feelings and poor exercises will have no interest for Him; and what a warning to those who, without wanting anything from Him, suffer themselves to be sucked into the current of those who follow Him and crowd about Him-not to set any store by this, as if it would draw more of Christ's regard toward them at the great day than if they had never heard of His name. (See the notes at Luke 13:26-27.) For see how, taking no notice of all that thronged Him and pressed upon Him on this occasion, He exclaimed of this humble believing woman, "Some one hath touched Me."
(4) If the Lord Jesus was so tender and considerate of human feelings as to anticipate this believing ruler's regret that by being so slow of coming to him his darling child had been allowed to die-bidding him, "Fear not, only believe" - just as He had before quelled the storm before He rebuked the unbelief of His disciples in the view of it (see the note at Mark 5:24) - we may rest well assured that on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens "we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and that still, as in the days of His flesh, "He will not break the bruised reed."
(5) Of the three resuscitations to life, recorded in the Gospel History it is worthy of notice that one was newly dead-Jairus' daughter; another, on his way to the grave-the widow of Nain's son; and the third-Lazarus-was dead four days, was in his grave, insomuch that his sister said, "By this time he stinketh:" as if to teach us that it matters not how long we have lain in the state of death-whether three or four score years in spiritual death, or thousands of years in death temporal-the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is as able to quicken us at one stage as at another. "Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
(6) Though when the classical writers (euphemistically) liken death to a sleep, we my please ourselves with the hope that the gleams of a future state were never quite extinguished in the pagan mind, it is only in the light of this incomparable Gospel History, interpreted by the teaching of the Pentecostal Gift, that faith hears Jesus saying of every dead believer of the one sex, "The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth," and of the other, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."