![]() It seems that Christ not only suggests, that faith was greatly wanting in his disciples for which reason they could not cast out the devil, and heal the lunatic but they had been wanting in prayer to God, to assist them in the exercise of their miraculous gifts and that whilst Christ, and the other three disciples were on the mount, they had been feasting and indulging themselves with the people, and so were in a very undue disposition of mind, for such extraordinary service, for which our Lord tacitly rebukes them. So they pertinently set forth the dispossession of devils, who do not go out voluntarily, but by force and this sort could not be ejected,īut by fasting and prayer: that is, in the exercise of a miraculous faith, expressed in solemn prayer to God, joined with fasting. Moreover, the above versions, as they fitly express the word here used see Mark 9:17 compared with Matthew 15:17. The Vulgate Latin renders it, "is not cast out" and so do the Arabic version, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel and which confirm the more commonly received sense of these words, that they are to be understood of that kind of devils, one of which was cast out of the lunatic, and was of the worst sort, of a fierce and obstinate kind and having had long possession, was not easily ejected: and that there is a difference in devils, some are worse and more wicked than others, is clear from Matthew 12:45 and not of that kind of miracles, or kind of faith to the working of such miracles. Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleHowbeit, this kind goeth not out. Paul, besides the “hunger and thirst” that came upon him as the incidents of his mission-work, speaks of himself as “in fastings often” ( 2Corinthians 11:27). Peter’s vision ( Acts 10:9-10), and the appointment of Paul and Barnabas by the direct guidance of the Spirit ( Acts 13:2), are both connected with fasting. The words are noticeable as testifying to the real ground and motive for “fasting,” and to the gain for the higher life to be obtained, when it was accompanied by true prayer, by this act of conquest over the lower nature. ![]() The disciples, we know, did not as yet fast ( Matthew 9:14-15), and the facts imply that they had been weak and remiss in prayer. The circumstances of the case render it probable that our Lord himself had vouchsafed to fulfil both the conditions. Some, like that which comes before us here, required a greater intensity of the spiritual life, to be gained by the “prayer and fasting” of which our Lord speaks. Some might yield before the energy of a human will, and the power of the divine Name, and the prayers even of a weak faith. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.-The words imply degrees in the intensity of the forms of evil ascribed to demons amounting to a generic difference.
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