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Aaron
Aaron’s light is dimmed by the brighter light of Moses, his brother, to such an extent that many fail to catch the full stature of the man and of his ministry. The lesser lights fare badly in the presence of the greater—the moon before the sun.
A. T. Robertson, Passing On the Torch, p. 52
[Exodus 17:8–16] Moses did the praying and Joshua did the fighting. Aaron and Hur performed the humble task of holding up the hands of Moses in prayer.
A. T. Robertson, Passing On the Torch, p. 54
[Exodus 32:1ff] Here was Aaron’s great opportunity such as comes to many a man once. If eloquence was ever needed, it was now. But, like many a preacher or politician since that day, Aaron temporized with the people and encouraged their restless doubt. He became a follower of the rabble, instead of becoming the leader of the multitude. He put his ear to the ground to hear the rumblings of the groundling instead of lifting up his voice to sound a bugle note of loyalty to God.
A. T. Robertson, Passing On the Torch, p. 56
[Exodus 32:1–6] “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us.…” They were abandoning Jehovah, and placing themselves under the conduct of manufactured gods—gods of man’s making…. Alas! alas! it has ever been thus in man’s history. The human heart loves something that can be seen; it loves that which meets and gratifies the senses. It is only faith that can “endure as seeing him who is invisible.” Hence, in every age, men have been forward to set up and lean upon human imitations of divine realities.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Book of Exodus, p. 356
[Exodus 32:24] Like all timid men, [Aaron] trembled before the storm which he had raised. And so he tried to persuade Moses, and perhaps in some degree even to persuade himself, that it was not he that had done this thing. He lays the blame upon the furnace…. We are all ready to lay the blame upon the furnaces. “The fire did it,” we are all of us ready enough to say.
Phillips Brooks, “The Fire and the Calf,”
in Sermons Preached in English Churches, pp. 44–45
[On Aaron’s excuse:] Everywhere there is this cowardly casting off of responsibilities upon the dead circumstances around us.
Brooks, “The Fire and the Calf,” p. 49
All went well with Aaron as long as he had Moses beside him to inspire him, and to support him, and to be to him instead of God…. But always when Moses was for any length of time out of sight, Aaron was a reed shaken with the wind; he was as weak and as evil as any other man. Those forty days that Moses was away on the Mount brought out, among other things, both Moses’ strength and greatness and Aaron’s littleness and weakness in a way that nothing else could have done.
AW-BC, p. 127
Put enough gold trinkets together and you have an idol!
An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.
I have always regarded him [Aaron] as the Simon Peter of the Old Testament.
GM-RMB, 2:92
Moses is shy; Aaron is bold. Moses is reticent; Aaron is outspoken. Moses halts in utterance; Aaron is a man of eloquence. Moses is meek and prone to wait the tide of events; Aaron is an impetuous spirit and tends to rush into action. Moses meditates forty years in the desert of Midian; Aaron in that same desert seems to have been doing powerful service in winning the favor of the neighboring chiefs. And yet the fact remains that Moses was the chosen man, the man selected to be the leader of the rising age. Why is this? … It lies in the fact that the Bible has a different estimate of strength from that made by the secular eye.
GM-RMB, 2:88–89
Aaron and Hur (Exodus 17:8–16)
I wish that some of our pastors were sustained as they should be by their Aarons and their Hurs. Alas, I know many a fainting brother whose hands are hanging down, who finds an Aaron to pull them lower still, and a Hur to depress his spirits more.
CHS, 12:538
Abel
New Testament references: Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51; Hebrews 11:4; 12:24; 1 John 3:12.
When the heart believes, the mouth follows suit and makes confession. Faith made Noah a preacher, and it caused it to be said of Abel, “He being dead yet speaketh.”
CHS, 26:618
Abraham
See Matthew 1:1; Luke 13:16; 19:9; John 8:37–40; 8:56; Romans 4; Galatians 3:7–9, 29; James 2:21.
There are men who are before their time. They stand upon a hill and see the other side. They narrowly miss being heralds of the future. They only miss that destiny because their age is not ripe for them. Like Paul, they are “born out of due time”—born too soon. They have an Easter vision while it is yet winter…. They are in advance of their age, and therefore they are the victims of their age. They are ever the men of sacrifice. Such a man is Abraham.
GM-RMB, 1:111
Queen Victoria was out for a drive with Lady Errol, one of her ladies in waiting. Wanting to cheer her up—she still mourned the loss of Albert—Lady Errol said, “Oh, Your Majesty, think of when we shall see our dear ones again in heaven!” The Queen simply said, “Yes.” Lady Errol said, “We will all meet in Abraham’s bosom.” The Queen replied, “I will not meet Abraham.”
Adapted from The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, p. 400
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.
Acts 7:2
God will not force you into acquiescence; there must be faith to answer when He calls. To hear Him amid our trials, that is faith; to hear Him amid our questionings is faith; to hear His voice in such an age as this is possible to faith and faith alone.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 147
Abraham was not elected for his own sake merely. He was elected for the sake of others.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 142
[Hebrews 11:8] It is always a travesty of true religion when it withdraws a man from duty. The pilgrim spirit means a loose hold of much, but it never means a light and heedless heart.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 153
Let a man aim at anything less than God, and he is always liable to disappointment…. It is not by aiming too high that men are baffled. They are baffled when they aim too low.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 155
God does not let us see where we are going. The all-important thing is the direction. If moment by moment we are true to Him, the Land of Promise may be left in His hands.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 158
Life is not raised above the stormy waters like some new island by the shock of an earthquake. Life is built as is the coral island, by infinitesimal toiling in the deeps, till it is raised into a thing of beauty where beyond the breakers there is peace.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 208
Faith is not believing in spite of evidence. Faith is obeying in spite of consequence.
G. A. Studdart-Kennedy
[Hebrews 11:8–19] By faith, Abraham obeyed when he did not know where he was going (vv. 8–10), how the son would be born (vv. 11–12), when the son would be born (vv. 13–16) and why he had to sacrifice the son whom God gave him (vv. 17–19). He did not know where, how, when or why—but he did know Who. The important questions of life are answered, not by explanations, but by promises, and those promises come from God.
[Genesis 20] There are no surprises of sin in holy lives…. Abraham erred whenever he began to ask himself the question, “What is now the safe and expedient course for me? What is politic in the circumstances? What will make for my present advantage?” He never erred when he asked himself, “What is God’s will?”
James Strahan, Hebrew Ideals in Genesis, pp. 139–40
A bad man’s example has little influence over good men. But the bad example of a good man, eminent in station and established in reputation, has an enormous power for evil.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 141
[Genesis 22] The bitterest struggles in this life are not always the struggles between right and wrong. Sometimes the bitterest struggles of the soul are the conflicts between right and right.
GHM, Morning Sermons, p. 232
To obey God then, as now, meant often, if not always, to disobey men. To please God meant then, as now, to displease yourself and your neighbors and the devil, and to make things very unpleasant all round in a general sort of way…. There are not two standards of service—one a painful one for Abraham and the other an easy one for you.
General William Booth, Salvation Soldiery, pp. 98–99
You admire Abraham’s giving up his son to God. Much more admire Jehovah’s giving up His Son for sinners.
CHS, 29:437
God was a great deal more tender with Abraham than He was with Himself. When His own Son was dying upon a cross on that very same mountain, He didn’t send a victim to take His place, but left Him there to die, the just for the unjust, that He might redeem us and bring us back to God.
D. L. Moody, in Moody: His Words, Work, and Workers, p. 152
[Genesis 25:8] Abraham was “full of years,” or “satisfied with life.” He had seen, felt, labored, loved, suffered enough; he knew all the contents of time; earth had no more to offer him—and so the years brought him a sense of completeness. Ripened by divine grace, satisfied but not sated, enjoying life to the last, yet willing to let it go—that is how we picture an aged servant of God.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 197
[The Hebrews] believed that righteousness lengthened life and glorified it at the end. See Proverbs 16:31; Psalms 34:12–14; 92:14; Job 11:17; Isaiah 46:4; Zechariah 14:7.
Strahan, Hebrew Ideals, p. 198
Achan
The Valley of Achor (“trouble, disaster”) is referred to in Joshua 7:24–26; 15:7; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15.
But war is war, and the best of commanders cannot make war a silken work, nor can he hold down the devil in the hearts of his men.
AW-BC, p. 172
The beginning of all temptations is inconstancy of mind and small confidence in God…. For first there comes to the mind a bare thought of evil, then a strong imagination thereof, afterwards delight, and an evil motion [a small concession], and then consent.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 1.13.5
Adam
O merciful God, grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised in him.
“Baptism of Infants,” from The Book of Common Prayer
Saints are so righteous in Jesus Christ that they are more righteous than Adam was before he fell, for he had but a creature righteousness and they have the righteousness of the Creator.
CHS, 28:536
There was nothing in the whole Garden of Eden that could give Adam a moment’s delight, because he was under a sense of sin. And so will it be with you. If you could be put in paradise, you would not be happier.
CHS, 6:216
This venture of God in which he bound himself to man—and exposed himself to the possibility of being reviled, despised, denied, and ignored by man—this venture was the first flash of his love. God ventured, as it were, his own self…. This line reaches its end in Jesus Christ.
Helmut Thielicke, How the World Began, pp. 60–61
There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up Adam’s profession.
Shakespeare, Hamlet, 5.1.44
Agrippa (Acts 26:28)
Almost persuaded to be a Christian is like the man who was almost pardoned, but he was hanged; like the man who was almost rescued, but he was burned in the house. A man who is almost saved is damned.
CHS, 14:427
Ahab
There is a familiar saying, “Every man has his price.” Ahab had his price, and he sold himself for a garden!
Ananias (Acts 9:10–19)
We hear of him this once and we know nothing more about him. He comes forward at a critical point in Paul’s life, executes for him a very useful office, and then disappears. The good soldier was sent upon a special service by his Captain, and when he had fulfilled his commission he returned to his ordinary place in the ranks.
CHS, 31:242
He did not ask, “What for?” but said “Here am I,” ready for anything.
CHS, 31:245
The Lord knows the street and he knows the house where the sinner lives who is to be blessed by you.
CHS, 31:246
Go ye, then, my brethren and sisters, wherever God sends you; for you know not what may be within a man, a woman, or a child whom you shall bring to Jesus. Everybody is not a Paul, but yet you may find a Paul among your converts.
CHS, 31:252
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5)
There have been successors to Ananias and Sapphira as well as to the apostles.
GCM, 5:31
Andrew
Andrew is found three times in the Gospel of John, and each reference shows him bringing people to Jesus (1:35–42; 6:1–14; 12:20–26).
Charles Spurgeon refers to Andrew as “the missionary disciple.”
CHS, 15:86
Bringing Peter to Christ
Andrew was earnest for the souls of others, though he was but a young convert. So far as I can gather, he appeared to have beheld Jesus as the Lamb of God one day, and to have found out his brother Peter the next.
CHS, 15:87
Andrew was … a man of average capacity. He was not at all the brilliant character that Simon Peter his brother turned out to be.
CHS, 15:88
Andrew proved his wisdom in that he set great store by a single soul.… What a task for the arithmetician, to value one soul! One soul sets all heaven’s bells ringing by its repentance. One sinner that repenteth maketh angels rejoice.
CHS, 15:94
Andrew is regularly described and identified as Simon Peter’s brother (Matt. 10:2; Luke 6:14; John 6:8). The inference is that people might not know who Andrew was, but everyone knew who Peter was, and the best way to identify Andrew was to call him the brother of the famous and outstanding Peter. There are very few people in Andrew’s position who could have borne that situation with graciousness and without resentment…. But Andrew was one of those people who did not care who received the first place. All he wanted was to be near to Jesus.
William Barclay, The Master’s Men, p. 41
The crying need is for Andrews, men of conviction, men of faith, men who believe enough about Jesus Christ to make it worthwhile to tell others, and men who do tell others, who do bring others, who do seek to act for Christ.
CEM, He Chose Twelve, p. 18
The “Inner Circle”
Jesus had His “inner circle” composed of Peter, James, and John. They went with Him to the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–13), into the home of Jairus (Luke 8:49–56), and into the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32–42). These three events parallel Philippians 3:10.
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It never troubled Andrew that he was not among the first three. It never distressed him that men talked more of Peter and James and John than they did of him. All Andrew thought of was the work.
J. D. Jones, The Glorious Company of Apostles, p. 96
[Note: J. D. Jones compared Andrew to the Old Testament soldier Benaiah, one of David’s “mighty men,” who did not attain to the status of the first three warriors (1 Chron. 11:22–25).]
Every country is renewed out of the unknown ranks and not out of the ranks of those already famous and powerful and in control.
President Woodrow Wilson, October 28, 1912
We may often know much about a man if we know his friends. We look at the friends of Andrew. John the Baptist was one, and John the apostle was another.
His name Andrew, Andreas, means “manly.”
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 19
Christ’s first disciple was not Peter, but Andrew, and the first need of the Lord is still the strong, quiet soul who is content to remain largely out of sight.
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 24
No man can become a living follower of the Lord without immediately finding His compassion moving him, and driving him out after someone else.
GCM, The Great Physician, p. 23
[T]he last place in which the name of Andrew is revealed is on one of the foundation stones of the city of God (Rev. 21:14).… I am constrained to say that as you look at that city, you will find that Simon had no greater or more conspicuous stone than had Andrew … the building of the city of God will not be accomplished because of the notoriety of its builders, but because of their fidelity.
GCM, The Great Physician, pp. 23–24
In the calendar of the Anglican Church, St. Andrew’s Day is November 30th. This is also the birthdate of Mark Twain (1835) and Sir Winston Churchill (1874). On November 30, 1864, missionaries John Clough and his wife sailed for India where he preached the Gospel and many were converted. He and two Indian preachers baptized 2,222 converts in one day, and the baptisms continued for two more days. Andrew would have been overjoyed.
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The Last We Hear of Andrew in the Gospels, He Is Listening to the Word
Andrew appears only once more by name in the Gospels. It is on the Mount of Olives after Jesus had … foretold the destruction of the wonderful building of whose beauty they had spoken to Jesus (Mark 13:3ff).
A. T. Robertson, Some Minor Characters in the New Testament,
pp. 22–23
In Acts 1, we find Andrew praying. In Acts 2, he is listening to his brother preach! He is still in second place and enjoying it.
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