Jesus answers John by deeds more than words. There is no record in the gospels of the work that Jesus did, and of the wonders he performed in these places, and yet they must have been amongst his greatest. Study This × Bible Gateway Plus. Commentary on Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 View Bible Text “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” John’s disciples ask Jesus at the beginning of chapter 11. Our Price: $29.99 Save: $20.00 (40%) Matthew 12:1-14. his kingdom; nay, he rises to the very height of his mysterious oneness with the Father; and from that height he finally descends to call the sons of men to accept his service as divine emancipator of their souls from bondage. It will be of the greatest interest to look one by one at the six accents in the voice of Jesus. Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light." Bible Gateway Recommends. When we remember the love of God, when we know that our burden is to love God and to love men, then the burden becomes a song. We cannot condemn a man who never had the chance to know any better; but if a man who has had every chance to know the right does the wrong, then he does stand condemned. It was because he broke the Law, as they saw it, that the orthodox Jews hated Jesus; but, if they had only had eyes to see it, both the Law and the prophets pointed to him. The practice of the world is to praise others to their faces, or in the presence of those who will be sure to inform them of it, and to speak evil of them when absent. John put this in a different way, when he tells us that Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). It continues the narrative about Jesus' ministry in Galilee Text. Many who went before him glimpsed the glory, often laboured for it, and sometimes died for it. The axe was at the root of the tree; the winnowing process had begun; the divine fire of cleansing judgment had begun to burn. 11 1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. Our Saviour had before {Matthew 7:13,14} told us that the way to heaven is a strait way, how doth he now tell us his yoke is easy and his burden light? They found much fault with the Saviour for doing the very same thing which they blamed John for not doing. What is impossible to nature, is easy to grace. For my yoke is easy. What the world owes to Jesus and to Paul is immense; things can never be, and men can never think, the same as things were, and as men thought, before these two great men lived." 3. Commentary. Christ's preaching. 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. V. Christ's yoke is easy, and His burden light, because we are sustained under it by a good hope. The word עול aval, among the Jews, which we properly enough translate yoke, signified not only that sort of neck-harness by which bullocks drew in wagons, carts, or in the plough; but also any kind of bond, or obligation, to do some particular thing, or to do some particular work. (i) Some people think that the question was asked, not for John's sake at all, but for the sake of his disciples. Easy, as it is an assisted service; considering that we work not in our own strength, but in God's. Reader! I. Christians are under the yoke. 11:25-30 It becomes children to be grateful. Verse 6. When "the love of Christ constrains us to live not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us, and rose again;" when we enter into His meekness and lowliness of heart who "made Himself of no reputation," and "pleased not Himself" in anything, but His Father in everything-then, and only then, shall we find rest unto our souls. When she began to plough, Moses (i.e. It would not be too much to say that the ‘burden’ of every ‘burden’ is the ‘burden’ of the sin that is in it! Here Jesus is speaking out of experience, the experience that the Rabbis and the wise men rejected him, and the simple people accepted him. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”. (b) A shaken reed can mean a weak vacillator, one who could no more stand foursquare to the winds of danger than a reed by the river's bank could stand straight when the wind blew. More resources, better tools and easier navigation Test drive it and tell us about your experience. . There is no greater slavery than a subjection to our lusts, that if a drunkard saith "Come," we must come, if an harlot saith "Go," we must go. But I tell you--it will be easier for the land of the men of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.". But wisdom is shown to be right by her deeds.". He came home again, dismissed his own wife, and married the sister-in-law whom he had lured away from her husband. Test drive it and tell us about your experience. Matthew 11:30 What Does Matthew 11:30 Mean? But … Because there is a pure satisfaction imparted to their mind even in the very exercise of self-denial and self-abasement which He enjoins. For my yoke is easy (wholesome) and my burden is light. (6) As the source of all unrest is estrangement from God, so the secret of true and abiding repose is that of the prodigal, who, when at length he came to say, "I will arise and go to my Father," straightway "arose and went." ), Is Christ’s yoke not easy then? Other men may be sons of God; he is The Son. Jesus says, "My burden is light." He says, "My yoke is easy." Ὁ μὴ ὢν, κ. τ. λ., he that is not, etc.) Indeed it was, I tell you, and something beyond a prophet. Enrich … Even in ancient prophecy we find Him exclaiming, "I have laboured in vain, I have spent My strength for nought and in vain;" and falling back upon this affecting consolation, that there was One that knew Him, and was the Judge of His doings: "Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God" (Isaiah 49:4). 4. Of course it will require being meek and lowly in heart, it will mean walking alongside Him without chafing, it will involve putting in full effort, but it will make whatever burden we have to bear a light one. They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17 “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a … The greater our privileges have been, the greater is our condemnation if we fail to shoulder the responsibilities and accept the obligations which these privileges bring with them. A passage like this shows us how little we know of Jesus; it shows us--and we must always remember it--that in the gospels we have only the barest selection of Jesus' works. Finally, it is much more easy and light than the service of our lusts is. ", (7) Although the Fathers of the Church were not wrong in calling the Fourth Gospel, 'the spiritual Gospel [ to (Greek #3588) pneumatikon (Greek #4152)], in contradistinction to the First Three Gospels, which they called 'the corporeal' ones [ ta (Greek #3588) soomatika (Greek #4984)] - striving thus to express the immensely higher platform of vision to which the Fourth Gospels lifts us-yet is it the same glorious Object who is held in all the Four; and while the Fourth Gospel enshrines some of its most divine and spiritual teachings in a framework of exquisitely concrete historical fact, the First Three Gospels rise at times-as Matthew here, and Luke in the corresponding passage (Luke 10:21-22) - into a region of pure Johanine thought; insomuch that on reading the last six verses of this section, we seem to be reading out of the 'spiritual' Gospel. Jesus' condemnation of sin is holy anger, but the anger comes, not from outraged pride, but from a broken heart. Verse 1 Our Divine Redeemer never was weary of his labour of love; and we should not be weary of well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'The man is mad.' ", "COME UNTO ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Click the Bible to visit the new StudyLight.org being developed!! Because having come to Christ they have received the willing mind to bear it. Matthew 11:29 The Aramaic is “tranquil” or “peaceful.” Matthew 11:29 As translated from the Hebrew Matthew. God needed John; God needs his signposts who can point men on the way, although they themselves cannot ever reach the goal. If any man will be My disciple, so says our Lord, let him deny himself. "These days are past-Bethsaida, where? Because of the prospect before him in heaven. Our Price: $47.49 Save: $27.50 (37%) Buy Now . Cooper.). Christ's preaching. 11:1-4 Lord, teach us to pray, is a good prayer, and a very needful one, for Jesus Christ only can teach us, by his word and Spirit, how to pray. My yoke is easy … - That is, the services that I shall require are easily rendered. They called John's asceticism madness; and they called Jesus' sociability laxness of morals. Commentary for Matthew 11 . He who put it on walks at his side. Matthew 11:20-30 New International Version (NIV) Woe on Unrepentant Towns. Taste, and know, by experience, how good the Lord is, and how worthy his yoke is to be taken, borne, and loved. Is not He the Burden-bearer, and the Care-bearer, no less than the Sin-bearer of all His people? It was never safe to rebuke an eastern despot and Herod took his revenge; John was thrown into the dungeons of the fortress of Machaerus in the mountains near the Dead Sea. This is what Jesus wants me to help Him to carry’. 11 * e Give us today our daily bread; 12 and forgive us our debts, * as we forgive our debtors; f. 13 and do not subject us to the final test, * but deliver us from the evil one. Outburst of feeling suggested to the mind of Jesus by the result of his labors in Galilee. It is not cleverness which shuts out; it is pride. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible. For a man like John, who had perhaps never lived in a house, this must have been agony. Christ's yoke is easy, and His burden light, because it is borne with the help of the Spirit of God. That christ has his yoke, his discipline, and that we are never to forget that it is so substantially and really. They believed that before the Messiah came, Elijah would return to herald his coming. Marg Mowczko Exploring the biblical theology of Christian egalitarianism . Then does he first draw that mingled portraiture of John, which exhibits the greatness of John as the testifier, but his littleness as the questioner. It may well be that this saying of Jesus was originally at one and the same time a warning of violence to come and a challenge to produce a devotion which would be even stronger than the violence. At night I place my bed between the men and the women so that no wrong will be committed." The point is that the yoke fits well and makes life easy so as to enable the task to be done quicker and better. "We are merry-makers," they said. Our eternal all demands it; and while this is delayed, we are endangering our everlasting felicity. Remarks On Matthew 11:2-3. So it was with Capernaum. The rest of faith, and the labour of love! Christ's preaching. They risk their own characters, to prove that others are hypocrites or sinners. The rejected King now turns from the rejecting nation and offers, not the kingdom, but rest and service to such in the nation as are conscious of the need. The yoke which is borne by a good conscience is always light; the burden which does not consist of sin is never heavy. It is easy, as it is a rational service: consonant to right reason, though contradictory to depraved nature. This yoke is easy because it is borne in love. Even the Rabbis saw this. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The answer is simple and fundamental. He knows how much I ought to carry,” replied the boy. In thee, my soul would rest from sin, and rest to God. They were clever men but they had no concept of ice). For my yoke is easy — Or rather gracious, sweet, benign, delightful: and my burden - Contrary to those of men, is ease, liberty, and honour. And after thus seeming to wrap Himself and His Father up from all human penetration, except of some favoured class, what ineffable joy must it have been to His heart to disabuse the anxious of such a thought, by giving forth that most wonderful of all invitations, "Come unto Me!" The object is not truth, but calumny and opposition to religion; and hitherto no means have been too base or too wicked to pour contempt on the followers of Christ. 12 r From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence , 4 and the violent take it by force . This passage has in it some far-reaching things, which do not strike us on a mere cursory reading. All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal his knowledge.". 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! As Plummer has it, "The heart, not the head, is the home of the gospel." Lifted to heaven, has it sunk to hell, "Ah! Intro: What does Proof mean when it refers to Whiskey? It is easy for the bird to soar into the atmosphere, and for the fish to make its way through the waters; their natures are suited to their respective elements; but it were impossible for man to do either. John sends his query to our Saviour in regard to his kingly Messiahship. I am cheerful [refreshing] and humble in heart, and you will find cheer [refreshing] for your soul.” Matthew 11:30 Or “kind” (or “delightful”). Guzik Bible Commentary © 2013 David Guzik - No distribution beyond personal use without permission - For more information and resources visit EnduringWord.com John Gill's Exposition of the Bible Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. His tent the wild Arab pitches there. (2-6) Christ's testimony to John the Baptist. But the discipline of Christ has its restraints as well as its conditions. One condition is the entire submission of the judgment of the disciples to the Great Teacher. An invitation to the weary and burdened . The Greeks had said, "It is very difficult to find God, and, when you have found him, it is impossible to tell anyone else about him." When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, John came, living in the desert, fasting and despising food, isolated from the society of men; and they said of him, "The man is mad to cut himself off from human society and human pleasures like that." Then Aaron said, 'In that case they belong entirely to me' (Numbers 18:14). The purest characters may expect the shaft of calumny and malice, and often in proportion to their purity, Matthew 11:19. Easy, as it is a spiritual service: delightful to a spiritual mind. III. (& other distilled alcoholic beverages) In the very old days, whiskey was proved to be good whiskey (that is it had enough alcohol in it, and had not been watered down), by pouring some whiskey on a … I. The perverseness of the Jews. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,[ d] and violent people have been raiding it. That is why Jesus ends with the appeal that he who has ears should use them to hear. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.] John sends his query to our Saviour in regard to his kingly Messiahship. He is the rest of the soul. Christ's yoke is wholesome, serviceable, kindly. 2. Christ's yoke means, the obligation to receive him as the Messiah, to believe his doctrine, and to be in all things conformed to his Word and to his Spirit. Starting from John, the Lord then upbraids that childish generation who caviled at both him and John; he peals forth a strain of woes upon the impenitent cities who rejected him; soars into a lofty thanksgiving to his Father, who had yet revealed to the docile. Rabbi Berokah asked them what they did. But I tell you, it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you! Christ indeed demands a righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees, and teaches us that there is a depth of meaning in the law, which our consciences did not perceive; yet. Once again Jesus tells the people that John is the herald and the forerunner whom they have awaited so long--if they are willing to accept the fact. IV. Easy as it is a spiritual service; delightful to a spiritual mind. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Acts 15:10. Chapter 11. It may be that when John and his disciples talked in prison, the disciples questioned whether Jesus was really he who was to come, and John's answer was: "If you have any doubts, go and see what Jesus is doing and your doubts will be at an end." It is not a recipe for idleness. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. So the Christian always finds them. View more titles. My yoke; my burden. The voice of upbraiding, Matthew 11:20-24. Love lightens labour, lessens adversity, sweetens care, and is unconscious of a yoke which otherwise would be heavy. That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from John 6:44-46 Hebrews 11:6. Read full chapter. Matthew 11:1-30 is a chapter in which Jesus is speaking all the time; and, as he speaks to different people and about different things, we hear the accent of his voice vary and change. W. B. Yeats, the great Irish poet and mystic, wrote: "Can one reach God by toil? II. (E. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. There is a kind of rueful parable put into the mouth of Korah, which shows just how binding and constricting and burdensome and impossible the demands of the Law could be. John preached the gospel of divine holiness with divine destruction; Jesus preached the gospel of divine holiness with divine love. 28-30. 5. It has rested far more heavily under Pagan than Christian auspices. In the hostile treatment which the Christian experiences from the world. III. Even the Saviour of the world was accused of being intemperate and a glutton. The old proverb has it that you can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink. If his miracles did not prove that he came from God, nothing can prove it. With what earnestness, therefore, should the old and the young inquire into his character. (Rodriguez, On Mortification. for grace to learn of thee, thou meek and lovely Savior! Even with all His warnings His disciples still thought in terms of an earthly … 8. His yoke is very easy and light, compared to the penalty which sin imposes. the demands of the priesthood) came and said, 'Give me the first-born.' Matthew 10. It is clear that at some time Jesus said something in which violence and the kingdom were connected, something which was a dark and a difficult saying, which no one at the time fully understood. The wicked take much pains, and are often fickle and inconsistent, for the sake of abusing and calumniating religious people, Matthew 11:18-19. To this day, when the Jews celebrate the Passover Feast, a vacant chair is left for Elijah. Acts 11 In this chapter we have, I. Peter's necessary vindication of what he did in receiving Cornelius and his friends into the church, from the censure he lay under for it among the brethren, and their acquiescence in it, Acts 11:1-18. (1) Christ's answer to John's disciples. An author writes a book; it is sent out for review; some reviewers may praise it, others may damn it; it does not matter so long as it is noticed; the one thing which will kill a book stone dead is if it is never noticed at all for either praise or blame. Easy is from a word that means it is not harsh nor galling because it is made correctly. Through Christ it is made such as we can carry with joy and gratitude. Yoke is easy — The yoke of Christ is freedom. The heavy-laden invited. In those days, as now, shops had their signs above the door; and it has been suggested that the sign above the door of the carpenter's shop in Nazareth may well have been: "My yokes fit well." Jesus said of the Scribes and Pharisees: "They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders" (Matthew 23:4). 13 r For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John , 14 and if you are … It is no more burden than the wings are to the bird, wherewith it flies aloft where it listeth. If that is the case, it was a good answer. The ‘yoke’ answers to those ‘laboring;’ the ‘burden’ to those ‘heavy laden.’ Christ does not promise freedom from labor and burdens, but promises that we shall be so changed as to find them ‘wholesome’ and light. The opposition to Jesus Christ increased over the years, but the imprisonment of John the Baptist seemed to be a turning point in His ministry. It is likely that we will get the full meaning of this difficult saying by putting together the recollection of Luke and Matthew. He must listen for ever to a voice which said, "Thou shalt not.". They were what the Scots call contrary. Haste, haste my soul, to thy rest, thy Jesus for the Lord hath dealt bountifully by thee! See Matthew 11:18, with which comp. These cities did not attack Jesus Christ; they did not drive him from their gates; they did not seek to crucify him; they simply disregarded him. If it was not that, what did you go out to see? The laws of God are the laws of our highest nature; and he who comes under those laws does but do what is fittest, rightest, most happy, and most highly natural for him. The way to know God is not by mental search, but by giving attention to Jesus Christ, for in him we see what God is like. Matthew 11:28-30. There are few men to whom Jesus paid so tremendous a tribute as he did to John the Baptizer. Our Lord also by this precept lets us know there can be no true faith without obedience to the commands of Christ. Ver. Matthew 11:12. Home > Study Desk. 3. We do not condemn a child for that for which we would condemn an adult; we would not condemn a savage for conduct which we would condemn in a civilized man; we do not expect the person brought up in the handicaps of a city slum to live the life of a person brought up in a good and comfortable home. Christ’s service is easy to a spiritual mind. His message had been a message of doom (Matthew 3:7-12). What is it that the Christian has that John could never have? One who goes to Christ to find rest for his soul, obtains from Him peace of conscience and power to obey. 2. So she accepted the decision, and gave them to him. Then the first group said, "All right; come on and let's play at funerals," and the others said, "We don't feel like being sad today." A dying man cannot afford to have doubts; he must be sure; and so John sent his disciples to Jesus with the question: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Matthew 11. Christ graciously invites all to come to him. These cities did not crucify Him, but they had been deaf to His warnings and indifferent to His mighty works. John was the ambassador of God, not the courtier of Herod. Don't tell John what I am claiming; tell him what is happening." (2) Let those who, under the richest ministrations of the word of life, "repent not," but live on unrenewed in the spirit of their minds, remember the doom of the cities of Galilee-executed in part, but in its most dread elements yet to come-and rest assured that at the judgment-day the degree of guilt will be estimated, not by the flagrancy of outward transgression, but by the degree of violence habitually offered to the voice of conscience-the extent to which light is quenched and conviction stifled. It is not that the burden is easy to carry; but it is laid on us in love; it is meant to be carried in love; and love makes even the heaviest burden light. And blessed is the man who does not take offence at me.". The yoke of Christ is easy, and His burden light, because we bear it with the approbation of conscience. - such a love as is inspired by God, and in which the soul rests supremely satisfied and infinitely happy? would my flock from thee might learn How days of grace will flee; How all an offered Christ who spurn Shall mourn at last like thee." Bible Gateway Recommends. It does not behead it; it slowly suffocates the life out of it. Jesus was saddened by the sheer perversity of human nature. There are sins of action, sins of deed; but there is also a sin of inaction, and of absence of deeds. We go to Him as a teacher meek and lowly in heart; the first lesson learned is, to humbly and penitently take from Him what we need. The story is a parable of the continuous demands that the Law made upon men in every action and activity of life. Matthew 11:30 • Matthew 11:30 NIV • Matthew 11:30 NLT • Matthew 11:30 ESV • Matthew 11:30 NASB • Matthew 11:30 KJV • Matthew 11:30 Commentaries • Matthew 11:30 Bible Apps • Matthew 11:30 Biblia Paralela • Matthew 11:30 Chinese Bible • Matthew 11:30 French Bible • Matthew 11:30 German Bible Interlinear Bible Bible Hub (iii) And so we are face to face with one great threatening truth--it is also a sin to do nothing. More resources, better tools and easier navigation Test drive it and tell us about your experience. Please modify your queries and try again. Matthew 11:20-30. Sometimes we think He is putting more on us than we can carry, and we become fretful. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.] The man who waits for savage wrath will always be disappointed in Jesus, but the man who looks for love will never find his hopes defeated. They were clever men but they had no concept of ice). Click the Bible for the all new StudyLight.org!! g. Pulpit Commentary. On the ledge of the window there are two depressions worn away in the stone. There is no hostility to Christianity; there is no desire to destroy it; there is blank indifference. It is the Christian conviction that in Jesus Christ alone we see what God is like; and it is also the Christian conviction that Jesus can give that knowledge to anyone who is humble enough and trustful enough to receive it. Woe to you, Bethsaida! WOE OR WELCOME . "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:30 in all English translations. 2. he gives a heart and a pleasure to keep that law, so that he who obeys it does as he pleases. The Greek word for woe which we have translated "alas" is ouai (Greek #3759); and ouai expresses sorrowful pity at least as much as it does anger. The yoke that sin imposes is heavy, and bearing it brings no rest. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox. Alas for you Bethsaida! ESV Student Study Bible, TruTone, Sky Blue with Ivy Design. 4. It must have been very serious for again and again Tyre and Sidon are denounced for their wickedness (Isaiah 23:1-18 ; Jeremiah 25:22; Jeremiah 47:4; Ezekiel 26:3-7; Ezekiel 28:12-22), and Sodom and Gomorrah were and are a byword for iniquity. O how should we, in this sinful and miserable world, borne down with sin, and exposed each moment to death - how should we come and find the peace which he has promised to all, and take the yoke which all have found to be light! Consider especially the words of the text. If he could open the eyes of the blind, then he can enlighten the sinner; if he could unstop the ears of the deaf, then he can cause us to hear and live; if he could heal the sick, and make the lame walk, then he can heal our spiritual maladies, and make us walk in the way of life; if he could raise the dead, then he can raise those dead in sin, and breathe into us the breath of eternal life. Bhagvat Geeta, p. 84. Cancel at any time. Matthew 11:30 Context. In the daily conflict which the Christian maintains with the sin that dwelleth in him. NKJV American Woman's Bible, hardcover. Macfarlane.). If anyone begins to argue with us about Jesus, and to question his supremacy, the best of all answers is not to counter argument with argument, but to say, "Give your life to him; and see what he can do with it." 11:1-6 And when Jesus had completed his instructions to the twelve disciples, he left there to go on teaching and to go on making his proclamation in their towns. he said. The light burden.—Let us look at the great reason why God’s ‘burden is light.’ The ‘burden’ of sin is taken out of it! Home; Blog; Categories. Matthew 11:13. he thought here is hinted rather than fully expressed. Luke has this saying in another form (Luke 16:16): "Since then the good news of the Kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently." Study This × Bible Gateway Plus. The prophet is two things--he is the man with a message from God, and he is the man with the courage to deliver that message. He knew nothing of the courtier's art of the flattery of kings; he followed the dangerous occupation of telling the truth to kings. Matthew 10:38.— χρηστὸς, easy) for I am meek.— ἐλαφρὸν, light) for I am lowly. Matthew 11:12 Or has been coming violently; Matthew 11:15 Other ancient authorities omit to hear; Matthew 11:19 Other ancient authorities read children (Lk 7.35) Matthew 11:26 Or so it was well-pleasing before thee; 11.27 This shows a profound relationship between the Son and the Father, far superior to adoptive sonship. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of a righteousness wherein to stand before God.