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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Matthew 28:11
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(Synoptics: Matthew 28:11-15)Again the chief priests are confronted with the supernatural. The soldiers, in order to defend themselves from being charged with failure to keep their watch, must have reported accurately what happened. The priests would have heard of the angel appearing, of the stone rolled away, of the guards being terrified (Matthew 28:2-4), and of the body gone and the grave clothes left behind. Matthew tells us that the guards told the chief priests all that was done. They were no doubt still deeply shaken by what had happened, and the priests would have detected in their manner a fear that proved that what they were saying was not a fabrication, but was what had truly happened. What would they do with this knowledge? They must suppress it. This was more of the same as what they had tried to bury along with Jesus himself. They knew of his miracles; they had seen them up close. They were deeply inconvenient, for they had no adequate way of explaining them, so they tried to just forget about them and blot them out of their minds. Did it not trouble them greatly that they were fighting against one who could do such wonders? Was this not an indication that he possessed vastly more power than they did? How could they succeed? But, they told themselves, we have succeeded in putting him to death; he cannot be as powerful as we feared.
Application
So God allows his enemies to gain false confidence and to continue in their evil schemes, even while he uses them as tools to bring about his purposes. We see that evil men are helpless in the hands of God, and are made to serve him at the very time when they imagine they are doing their best to oppose him and harm his cause. Let not those who prosper in an evil way congratulate themselves that they have gained an advantage over the living God. He waits until his time, and gives them a long lead to follow their chosen paths. He is content to let them think they have defeated him for a time. What harm does that falsehood which they tell themselves do to him? It is a fearful thing to do battle with the Lord.
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