Matthew 10:30

Mat_10:30

But the very hairs of your head.

Hairs of your head are all numbered

1. This is spoken in relation to the body. Fear not them which kill the body.

2. Our Lord is giving His disciples arguments against fear.

(1) He is their avenger.

(2) Be sure that you are never afraid to pray about the smallest thing.

(3) Do not shrink from feeling yourself a centre about which God is making all manner of kind things to circulate. Love never hurts any one.

(4) Go without anxiety, for it not only hurts you, but grieves God.

3. That man may be said to have the most of the mind of God who attaches the greatest importance to the trifles of life. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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Jewels catalogued

God does not expose His jewels till He has catalogued them. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The exquisite mechanism of the hair

A hair is a very little thing; but its structure is made up of a world of parts. There is a root and there is a stem, and there is a vein, and there is a fluid, and there is a membrane: and every part is arranged, fitted, guarded, and fed; and a thousand functions are going on to sustain that little thread-like thing. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Providence

I. The minuteness of providence. Providence over little circumstances; over minutes of time; in the use of little things. The minuteness of providence seen in the fact that even the thoughts of men are under Gods hand.

II. The kind consideration of God in taking care of his people.

1. In keeping them alive before they were converted.

2. In keeping them out of temptation.

3. In arranging their places.

4. In providing their daily bread.

III. What should be the spirit and temper, of the men who believe this truth.

1. We ought to he a bold race of people.

2. In bereavement, not excessive grief.

3. A calm which renders life happy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The difference between fate and providence

Fate is blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but hath no target. Not so, providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working together, and working together for good. They are not done because they must he done, but they are done because there is some reason for it. It is not only that the thing is, because it must be; but the thing is, because it is right it should be. God hath not arbitrarily marked out the worlds history; He had an eye to the great architecture of perfection, when He marked all the aisles of history, and placed all the pillars of events in the building of time. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Taken by the Master

You have taken great care with a certain number of roses; you have trained them up, and there they are, blooming in their beauty. You pride yourself upon them. You come one morning into the garden, and you find that the best rose has been taken away. You are angry: you go to your fellow-servants, and charge them with hexing taken the rose. They will declare that they had nothing at all to do with it: and one says. I saw the master walking here this morning; I think he took it. Is the gardener angry then? No, at once he says. I am happy that my rose should have been so fair as to attract the attention of the master. It is his own: he hath taken it; let him do what seemeth him good. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The numbered hairs

I. Fore-ordination.

1. Its extent.

2. Its source.

3. Its lessons.

4. Its influence.

II. Knowledge.

1. Its character

(1) Minute;

(2) Pre-eminent;

(3) Tender;

(4) Constant.

III. Valuation.

IV. Preservation-from loss, accident, persecution, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Heads more than hairs

If God numbers their hairs, much more does He number their heads, and take care of their lives, their comforts, their souls. (M. Henry.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 10:30. Ὑμῶν, your) used antithetically.—αἱ τρίχες, the hairs) which you yourselves care little about. Who cares about the hairs once pulled out by the comb? A proverbial saying concerning a very small matter.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_10:30. Ὑμῶν δέ] Put first by way of emphasis. Euth. Zigabenus aptly observes: ὑμεῖς δὲ τοσοῦτόν ἐστε τίμιοι, ὥστε καὶ πάσας ὑμῶν τρίχας ἠριθμημένας εἶναι παρὰ θεοῦ … καὶ λεπτομερῶς οἶδε πάντα τὰ καθʼ ὑμᾶς. Poetical expression for the providentia specialissima. Comp. Luk_21:18; Act_27:34; 1Sa_14:45; 2Sa_14:11; 1Ki_1:52; Plato, Legg. x. p. 900 C.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 10:30 . ὑμῶν , emphatic position: your hairs. τρίχες : of little value all together, can be lost without detriment to life or health. πᾶσαι , all, every one without exception. ἠριθμημέναι , counted. Men count only valuable things, gold pieces, sheep, etc. Note the perfect participle. They have been counted once for all, and their number noted; one hair cannot go amissing unobserved.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered--See Luk 21:18 (and compare for the language Sa1 14:45; Act 27:34).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.] Nothing is more astonishing than the care and concern of God for his followers. The least circumstances of their life are regulated, not merely by that general providence which extends to all things, but by a particular providence, which fits and directs all things to the design of their salvation, causing them all to co-operate for their present and eternal good. Ro 5:1-5.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(30) The very hairs of your head.—The apparent hyperbole of the figure is but the natural expression of the thought that even the incidents of life that seem most trivial are in very deed working together for good to those that love God. They are not at any moment of their lives to think that they are uncared for by their Father.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fear ye not therefore,.... Neither be afraid of men, nor distrust the providence of God; for if that reaches to the meanest of creatures, sparrows, and to that which is of the least account with men, the single hair of a man's head; much more must it regard the lives of men, and still more such useful lives as those of the disciples were, who were called to, and employed in preaching the everlasting Gospel; a work which so much concerned the glory of God, the interest of Christ, and the good of immortal souls:

ye are of more value than many sparrows. Two of them were worth no more than a farthing; there must be a great multitude of them to be mentioned with any man: and indeed there is no comparison between the whole species of them and the life of a single man, and much less between them and the apostles of the Lamb. Any man is more valuable, as a man, than many sparrows, and much more a Christian man, and still more an apostle: the argument then is, that if God takes care of sparrows and is concerned for their lives, much more will he take care of his faithful ministers, and not suffer their lives to be taken away, till they have done the will and work of their Lord.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Ver. 30. But the very hairs of your head, &c.] As things of price, and such as God sets great store by. Hence he enjoined his Nazarites, when they had accomplished their vow, to shave their heads, and put the hair in the fire, under their peace offering, for a sacrifice to the Lord, Num 6:18. The Ammonites paid dearly for the hair they shaved off the heads and beards of David’s messengers. So hath Bonner, I believe, ere this, for the martyr’s beard he pulled off part of it, causing the other part thereof to be shaved, lest his manly act should be seen to the world. The three worthies were taken out of the fiery furnace with their hairs in full number, not one of them singed, Dan 3:27.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The very hairs, &c. God numbers not the hairs of our heads after the manner of men: but by this our Saviour shews the infinite knowledge the Almighty has of all things, and the goodness of his Providence, watching over every, even the most minute part of the creation. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. xxxv.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But the very hairs of your head. "Your" emphatic, in contrast to the care bestowed on sparrows. (For the thought, compare not only the parallel passage, Luk_12:7, but also Luk_21:18 Act_27:34) Are all numbered. Perhaps long since (hriymhmenai eisin). When Job complained the Lord answered him, "Many hairs have! made on man, and for every single hair its own pit, that not two hairs should draw their sustenance from one pit... shall I make no mistake about this, and vet make a mistake in thy name and spell it not Ijob (Job, bwya), but Ojeb (enemy, bywa)?" (Talm. Bab., "Baba Bathra," 16a).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30, 31. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. An assurance of the most special providence over all Christ's disciples. The next verse shows to whom the blessed assurance applies.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

30.] See 1Sa 14:45: Luk 21:18: Act 27:34. The ὑμῶν is emphatic, corresponding to the ὑμεῖς at the end of ver. 31. But the emphatic ὑμεῖς, spoken directly to the Apostles, is generalized immediately by the πᾶς οὖν in ver. 32.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(L) 30. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.] So Lk. with ἀλλὰ καὶ—ὑμῶν for ὑμῶν δὲ καί. The emphasis here is rather upon αἱ τρίχες than upon ὑμῶν.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.