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This section consists of two verses.
2 Timothy 3:8-9
8 Now as Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth:
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the
faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their
folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also
was.
Let us begin with the Barclay
The Opponents of God
2 Timothy 3:8–9
[paraphrased]
In the same way as Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men
whose minds are corrupt, and whose faith is
counterfeit. But they will not get much further, for
their folly will be as clear to all as that of those
ancient impostors.
In the days between the Old and the New Testaments,
many Jewish books were written which expanded the
Old Testament stories. In certain of these books,
Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
figured largely. These were the names given to the
court magicians of Pharaoh who opposed Moses and
Aaron, when Moses was leading the children of Israel
out of their slavery in Egypt. At first, these
magicians were able to match the wonders which Moses
and Aaron did, but in the end they were defeated and
discredited. In the Old Testament they are not
named, but they are referred to in Exodus 7:11, 8:7
and 9:11.
Quoted verses:
Exodus 7:11
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the
sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did
in like manner with their enchantments.
Exodus 8:7
And the magicians did so with their enchantments,
and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
Exodus 9:11
And the magicians could not stand before Moses
because of the boils; for the boil was upon the
magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
A whole collection of stories gathered round their
names. They were said to be the two servants who
accompanied Balaam when he was disobedient to God
(Numbers 22:22); they were said to have been part of
the great mixed multitude who accompanied the
children of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 12:38); some
said that they perished at the crossing of the Red
Sea; other stories said that it was Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
who were behind the making of the golden calf and
that they perished among those who were killed for
that sin (Exodus 32:28); still other stories said
that in the end they became converts to Judaism.
Amid all the stories, one fact stands out – Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez] became legendary figures typifying all those who
opposed the purposes of God and the work of his true
leaders.
Quoted verses:
Numbers 22:22
…speaking to the possibility that Jannes and Jambres
were the two servants with Balaam
And God's anger was kindled because he went: and
the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an
adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his
ass, and his two servants were with him.
Exodus 12:38
…speaking to the possibility that Jannes and Jambres
getting out with the children of Israel.
And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and
flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
Exodus 32:28
…speaking to the people who died because of the
golden calf.
And the children of Levi did according to the word
of Moses: and there fell of the people that day
about three thousand men.
The Christian leader will never lack opponents.
There will always be those who have their own
twisted ideas of the Christian faith, and who wish
to win others to their mistaken beliefs. But of one
thing Paul was sure – the days of the deceivers were
numbered. Their falsehood and deception would be
demonstrated, and they would receive their
appropriate reward.
The history of the Christian Church teaches us that
false teaching cannot survive. It may flourish for a
time, but when it is exposed to the light of truth
it is bound to shrivel and die. There is only one
test for such misrepresentation – ‘You will know
them by their fruits’ (Matthew 7:16, 7:20). The best
way to overcome and to banish the false is to live
in such a way that the loveliness and the
graciousness of the truth are plain for all to see [immersion
in the Word of God]. The defeat of error
depends not on skill in controversy but in the
demonstration in life of the more excellent way.
~Barclay's commentary
Quoted verses:
Matthew 7:16
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Matthew 7:20
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Note:
Remember our
Bible study on Matthew 7:15-20 and what is meant
by "fruit." Here is an excerpt from that study
Matthew 7:15-20
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves.
Those who enter upon the narrow way must beware of
false prophets, who claim to guide believers but
really practice deception. Sheep's clothing is not
to be regarded as prophets' grab, but is an evident
contrast to vicious wolves. God's people in al ages
have needed to beware of deceptive leaders
(Deuteronomy 13:1; Acts 20:29; 1 John 4:1;
Revelation 13:11-14). By their fruits. The doctrines
produced by these false prophets, rather than the
works they perform, since outward appearances may
not cause suspicion. The
test of the prophet is his conformity to Scripture
(1 Corinthians 14:37; Deuteronomy
13:1-5). Corrupt tree. One that is decayed,
worthless, and unusable. The worthlessness of such a
tree calls for its swift removal from the orchard
lest it infect the others.
~Wycliffe Bible Commentary
[Emphasis
mine]
Quoted verses:
Deuteronomy 13:1
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of
dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Acts 20:29
For I know this, that after my departing shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the
flock.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they are of God: because many false
prophets are gone out into the world.
Revelation 13:11-14
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the
earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he
spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them
which dwell therein to worship the first beast,
whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh
fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight
of men,
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by
the means of those miracles which he had power to do
in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell
on the earth, that they should make an image to the
beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Then the scriptures speaking to the test of the
prophet [minister]:
1 Corinthians 14:37
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or
spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that
I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
...we already read the
first verse above
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer
of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof
he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other
gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve
them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that
prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD
your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.
4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear
him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice,
and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams,
shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to
turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought
you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out
of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the
way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk
in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst
of thee.
~end of excerpt from
the study~
We will now begin with the general commentaries and
move to the specific. We will begin with the Matthew
Henry commentaries:
The Matthew Henry commentary in this area covers
verses 1-9 and what follows is me jumping into the
commentary for verse 8 and going through verse 9.
3. He foretells the certain stop that should be put
to their progress (2 Timothy 3:8, 2 Timothy 3:9),
comparing them to the Egyptian magicians who
withstood Moses, and who are here named, Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez];
though the names are not to be met with in the story
of the Old Testament, yet they are found in some old
Jewish writers. When Moses came with a divine
command to fetch Israel out of Egypt, these
magicians opposed him. Thus those heretics resisted
the truth and like them were men of corrupt minds,
men who had their understandings perverted, biased
and prejudiced against the truth, and reprobate
concerning the faith, or very far from being true
Christians; but they shall proceed no further, or
not much further, as some read it. Observe,
(1.) Seducers seek for corners, and love obscurity;
for they are afraid to appear in public, and
therefore creep into houses. Further, They attack
those who are the least able to defend themselves,
silly and wicked women.
(2.) Seducers in all ages are much alike. Their
characters are the same - namely, Men of corrupt
minds, etc.; their conduct is much the same - they
resist the truth, as Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
withstood Moses; and they will be alike in their
disappointment.
(3.) Those who resist the truth are guilty of
folly, yea, of egregious [ih-gree-juh
s--extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant]
folly; for magna est veritas, et praevalebit - Great
is the truth, and shall prevail.
Note: the
word “folly” means “lack of understanding” and used
to mean wickedness; wantonness. “Wantonness speaks
to deliberate actions without motive or provocation,
without regard for what is right, just and humane.
Therefore, those who resist the truth lack
understanding and begin doing wicked things without
regard for what is right.
(4.) Though the spirit of error may be let loose
for a time, God has it in a chain. Satan can deceive
the nations and the churches no further and no
longer than God will permit him: Their folly shall
be manifest, it shall appear that they are
imposters, and every man shall abandon them.
~Matthew Henry Main
Now to the Matthew Henry Concise. We have read this
before as it covers verses 1-9 and must be a part of
the record for each lesson covering those verses.
Even in gospel times there would be perilous times;
on account of persecution from without, still more
on account of corruptions within. Men love to
gratify their own lusts, more than to please God and
do their duty. When every man is eager for what he
can get, and anxious to keep what he has, this makes
men dangerous to one another. When men do not fear
God, they will not regard man. When children are
disobedient to their parents, that makes the times
perilous. Men are unholy and without the fear of
God, because unthankful for the mercies of God. We
abuse God's gifts, if we make them the food and fuel
of our lusts. Times are perilous also, when parents
are without natural affection to children. And when
men have no rule over their own spirits, but despise
that which is good and to be honored. God is to be
loved above all; but a carnal mind, full of enmity
against him, prefers any thing before him,
especially carnal pleasure. A form of godliness is
very different from the power; from such as are
found to be hypocrites, real Christians must
withdraw. Such persons have been found within the
outward church, in every place, and at all times.
There ever have been artful men, who, by pretenses
and flatteries, creep into the favor and confidence
of those who are too easy of belief, ignorant, and
fanciful. All must be ever learning to know the
Lord; but these follow every new notion, yet never
seek the truth as it is in Jesus.
...and now the part of
this commentary on verses 8 and 9:
Like the Egyptian magicians, these were men of
corrupt minds, prejudiced against the truth, and
found to be quite without faith. Yet though the
spirit of error may be let loose for a time, Satan
can deceive the nations and the churches no further,
and no longer, than God will permit.
~Matthew Henry Concise
Notice now what the Biblical Illustrator says about
Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]:
Jannes and Jambres
I. The nature of the opposition offered by these
men to Moses. You do not find that they tried to
make light of the miracles of Moses, or call in
question their genuineness, or anything of the sort.
No, they simply tried by imitations to depreciate
the value of the real. They so surrounded the true
diamond with cut glass copies that in the eye of an
undiscerning public it was difficult to tell the
difference. This is the kind of resistance the
Church has to struggle against in the present day.
The old, rough, brutal, physical opposition has
passed away. It would be folly on the part of Satan
to try and use such weapons [direct attacks mention in the first sentence] now. Like a
skillful angler he suits the fly on his hook to the
season of the year. Variety, if not pleasing, is
profitable to him in this respect. Having failed to
do away with Christians, he now seeks to make the
whole world Christian after his sort. Stamping out
the genuine having proved an utter failure, he now
seeks to swamp them with imitations of his own
manufacture.
II. The influence of jannes and jambres.
Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez] wield an immense power in the present day, and it
is no use shutting our eyes to the fact. Jannes is
not to be got rid of with a laugh, nor Jambres with
a smile of indifference. Their existence is a source
of constant danger, and their presence in the
professing Church does more to paralyze its
testimony than all the outward opposition and
persecution it has ever met. This form of satanic
resistance is an awful proof of the deep-sightedness
of the great adversary. He knows that nothing can
possibly deaden the power of the Church’s testimony
more than flooding it with a number of cold
formalists, who in the eyes of the world can do as
much as the genuine Christian. And then when the
world detects they are but shams and finds that it
has been deceived, so much the better for him, for
he knows that the whole Church will be judged by the
impostors, and all put down as belonging to the same
family. Counterfeits destroy confidence. This is
true in everything. It is unprincipled rogues that
make it so hard for honest men to get their bread.
It is quackery that keeps the true medicine out of
the field. It is bubble joint-stock companies that
eat out all commercial trust, and make the very name
to many a synonym for fraud. Everywhere the true and
real are suffering through the influence of the
false and base imitations. I have heard an anecdote
somewhere that so exactly sets forth the idea I have
in my mind I cannot but tell it. One gentleman made
a wager with another that if he stood on London
Bridge with a tray full of sovereigns and offered
them to the public for sixpence each, he would not
sell half a dozen of them in the day. All day long
the man cried out, “Real sovereigns for sixpence,”
and declared with all earnestness that he could
guarantee their genuineness. Of course no one
believed him and he sold none. Why? Because the
public had so often seen sham sovereigns for sale
that it never doubted they were the same. The gilt
having come first had destroyed all faith in the
gold. Just so in the spiritual world. The existence
of Jannes and Jambres eats out all faith in the
reality of any Christian life.
III. The end of their resistance. They were
put to shame (see Exodus 8:18). Ah Jannes [JAN-eez],
it must have been a bitter moment when you stood
convicted before all of being an impostor! How
complete the collapse of their pretensions. So shall
it he with their followers of to-day. This Paul most
distinctly states in the verse following our text,
“But they shall proceed no further: for their folly
shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was.”
“Folly”? No other word could better describe their
resistance. The hypocrite is of all fools the
greatest. He is almost certain to be unmasked in
time, and even should he carry on the horrible
deception unto the last, what shall it profit him
when God calleth for his soul? Now just as Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
failed to do all that Moses did, so there are some
things that the mere formalist can never accomplish.
Here is another piece from the Biblical Illustrator.
Men
[and
women]
must guard against error
This must teach us to keep our judgments pure, and
our understandings clear, for it is our guide, and
if that mislead us, we must needs fall into the
ditch. Corruption in judgment (in
some respects) is worse than corruption
in manners, especially when the mind hath been
enlightened with the knowledge of the truth; for
this is the root of those corrupt manners that are
amongst us. In the time of the Law, the leprosy in
the head was of all other leprosies the most
dangerous and destructive; the man that had it in
his hand or feet was unclean, but if it were in his
head then he was to be pronounced utterly unclean
(Leviticus 13:44). Hence the Scripture gives so many
caveats against errors and erroneous ones
(Deuteronomy 13:3; Philippians 3:2; Colossians 2:8;
2 Peter 3:17; Matthew 7:13). Beware of false
prophets; the word implies a diligent study and
singular [extraordinary]
care, lest we be caught by such subtle adversaries.
Keep your judgments pure.
1. There have been false teachers in all ages to
oppose the truth and the professors of it. As
Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
here oppose Moses, a meek, a learned, a faithful
servant in all God’s house.
2. That as the devil hath his Jannes [JAN-eez]
and Jambres [JAM-breez]
to oppose the truth, so God hath His Moses and Aaron
to uphold it. As the devil hath his domestic
chaplains, so God hath His armed champions; and as
the devil raiseth up oppressors, so God sends
saviors [counter to
oppressors—servants of God-rescuers].
3. A corrupt head and a corrupt heart usually go
together; no sooner are men’s minds corrupted, but
presently it follows they are reprobate concerning
the faith; and if once men make shipwreck of faith,
they will soon part with a good conscience too.
Corrupt principles breed corrupt practices; and
corrupt practices teach men to invent corrupt
principles [everything
is process—even evil]. Be sure, then, to
keep your heads free from error, if ever you would
have your hearts and hands pure from sin.
4. That false teachers are very dangerous
persons—they are not such meek, innocent, harmless
persons as some imagine. The apostle here tells
us that they are impudent, fraudulent, resisters of
the truth, men of corrupt heads, hearts, and hands;
and what could he say more unless he should call
them devils? and so he doth (2 Timothy 3:3), in the
last days, men, especially seducing men (for
all these nineteen sins are applicable also to the
false teachers of the last times, as appears by the
context (2 Timothy 3:5-6)). These study
to please men, and therefore they are no servants of
Christ (Galatians 1:10), all their fine speeches are
but like poison given in honey, which destroys more
swiftly. They set a gloss upon their false tenets as
tradesmen do upon their bad stuffs to make them sell
the better. They can cite Scripture to draw you from
Scripture, and tempt you to be irreligious by
religious arguments misapplied. This is the devil’s
great masterpiece which he hath now upon the wheel,
he carries his deadliest poison in a golden cup
(Revelation 17:4).
5. They wrest and abuse the Scriptures for their
own ends. They do violence to the Law (Zephaniah
3:4), they wrest and wring it, they add, they
detract, they change the sense, they set it on the
tenters [stretchers
of fabric] to fit it to their fancies,
they turn it this way and that way as may best serve
their purposes; they set it on the rack, and so make
it speak what it never thought. They compel the
Scriptures to go two miles, which of themselves
would go but one. They deal with them as chemists do
with natural bodies, which they torture to get that
out of them which God and nature never put into them
(2 Peter 3:16).
Quoted verse:
2 Peter 3:16
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
these things; in which are some things hard to be
understood, which they that are unlearned and
unstable wrest [pervert-torture],
as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction.
6. They seek their own glory, not God’s.
They cry up nature, and decry grace, they cry up a
light within them (which
is no better than darkness), and cry down
God’s word without them. Simon Magus sets up himself
instead of God (Acts 8:9-10), they drive at self in
all their actings (Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2:3; 2
Peter 2:14). Impostors are always great
self-seekers. These are contrary to God’s faithful
ministers. ~Biblical
Illustrator
The 2nd Peter
scriptures:
2 Peter 2:3
And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a
long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.
2 Peter 2:14
Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they
have exercised with covetous practices; cursed
children:
Understand that in the perilous times to come [verse1],
that some will withstand God, His Word and His
Church. They will resist the truth. They will have
allowed themselves to be corrupt in their minds and
they will become reprobates concerning the faith and
the entire Salvation Process.
This is the lesson of verse 8. |