112. The New Matthew Henry Commentary

Matthew Henry's Commentary on The Whole Bible Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Matthew Henry. Updated by Martin H. Manser. 1710 for the original. 2010? for the update. 4200 pages.  [Source: Bought]

First sentence: Here before us is the Holy Bible, or book, for this is what the word bible means. We call it the Book, for it is incomparably the best book that has ever been written: it is the book of books. We call it the Holy Book, because it was written by holy prophets, moved by the Holy Spirit. The great things of God’s Law and Gospel are here written for us, that they might be transmitted to distant lands and ages in a purer and more complete way than they could possibly be by word of mouth or tradition.

I am reading the Bible in 2020 using the daily M'Cheyne (Robert Murray M'Cheyne) plan. I thought it would add a layer of substance to in addition to the four chapters a day, to also read commentaries for those chapters. For that I am using Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. (Since the plan went through Psalms and the New Testament twice, I did not repeat reading those commentary chapters. Instead I chose to pick up J. Vernon McGee's Thru the Bible commentary to cover this year's second reading Psalms and New Testament.)

I would suggest for anyone that is intimidated by bible commentaries--especially one volume commentaries that cover Genesis through Revelation--to come up with a plan. I'd owned this one for several years. In fact, I'd started it several times--never truly making it past the first few books of the Bible. I know I read Genesis at least twice! By having the BIBLE PLAN I was using be my guide for tackling this CHUNKSTER commentary, I always knew just what to read and how much to read. I would read the Scripture chapters for the day and then pick up the commentary. The Scriptures were fresh on my mind. The commentary was easier to follow since I'd literally just read the Scripture.

I shared quotes each day as I read on Facebook. There are literally 1,573 highlights saved on my kindle book. (I didn't share *that* many on Facebook). There are way too many highlight to meaningfully go through and make a best of list for this post.

Just scanning some of the Genesis quotes, I'm amazed at how timeless this one is. 

• Our duty as Christians is always to keep heaven in our sight and the earth under our feet.
• What God requires of us he himself works in us, or it is not done. He that commands faith, holiness, and love creates them in us by the power of his grace alongside his word.
• The One who made the soul is alone able to make it new.
• He that made us is alone able to make us happy.
• It adds much to the comfort of any situation if we have clearly seen God going before us and putting us into it.
• In our best state in this world we still need one another’s help.
• Our first parents, who knew so much, did not know this—that they knew enough.
• The way of sin is downhill; we cannot stop ourselves when we want to.
• Sin brought sorrow into the world; if we had known no guilt, we would have known no grief.
• We mock God in saying that we are sorry for our sin, and that it grieves us to the heart, if we then continue to indulge in it.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible