Memory Text: Matthew 9:36 KJV “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Apparently the people as a whole were so thoroughly downcast and dejected that they no longer were putting forth any effort to improve their religious condition. Things looked hopeless to them.

Sunday – For the Woman Caught in Adultery
John 8:2-11 CEV “2 Then early the next morning he went to the temple. The people came to him, and he sat down and started teaching them. 3 The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law of Moses brought in a woman who had been caught in bed with a man who wasn’t her husband. They made her stand in the middle of the crowd. 4 Then they said, "Teacher, this woman was caught sleeping with a man who isn’t her husband. 5 The Law of Moses teaches that a woman like this should be stoned to death! What do you say?" 6 They asked Jesus this question, because they wanted to test him and bring some charge against him. But Jesus simply bent over and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, "If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!" 8 Once again he bent over and began writing on the ground. 9 The people left one by one, beginning with the oldest. Finally, Jesus and the woman were there alone. 10 Jesus stood up and asked her, "Where is everyone? Isn’t there anyone left to accuse you?" 11 "No sir," the woman answered. Then Jesus told her, "I am not going to accuse you either. You may go now, but don’t sin anymore."”
Ellen White, Desire of Ages, p. 461 – “These would-be guardians of justice had themselves led their victim into sin, that they might lay a snare for Jesus. Giving no sign that He had heard their question, He stooped, and fixing His eyes upon the ground, began to write in the dust.”
John 8:3 COMMENTARY BY WILLIAM BURKITT The wisdom and caution of our Lord's answer: he doth not excuse her crime, but bids her accusers look at home, and examine their own consciences, whether they were not guilty of the like, or as great a sin…he so answers, that both his justice and his mercy are entire; she dismissed, and they ashamed. It is a false zeal that is eagle-eyed abroad, and blind at home. Such as are most wicked themselves, are oft-times most ready and skillful to spy out the faults and failings of others: we stand too near ourselves to discern our own miscarriages. The eye that sees every thing, sees not itself.
John 8:7 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The procedure of stoning is described in the Mishnah as follows: “The place of stoning was twice a man’s height. One of the witnesses pushed him by the hips, [so that] he was overturned on his heart. He was then turned on his back. If that caused his death, he had fulfilled [his duty]; but if not, the second witness took the stone and threw it on his chest. If he died thereby he had done [his duty]; but if not, he [the criminal] was stoned by all Israel, for it is written: The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people [Deut. 17:7]”

Monday – For the Children
Matthew 18:2-6 God’s Word to the Nations “2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 Then he said to them, "I can guarantee this truth: Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 "These little ones believe in me. It would be best for the person who causes one of them to lose faith to be drowned in the sea with a large stone hung around his neck.”
Matthew 18:2 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES Children are, to a great extent, destitute of ambition, pride, and haughtiness. They are characteristically humble and teachable. By requiring his disciples to be like them, he did not intend to express any opinion about the native moral character of children, but simply that in these respects they should become like them. They should lay aside their ambitious views, and pride, and be willing to occupy their proper station--a very lowly one.
Matthew 19:13-15 God’s Word to the Nations “13 ¶ Then some people brought little children to Jesus to have him bless them and pray for them. But the disciples told the people not to do that. 14 Jesus said, "Don’t stop children from coming to me! Children like these are part of the kingdom of God." 15 After Jesus blessed them, he went away from there.”
Matthew 19:13 PEOPLE’S NT COMMENTARY It was the Jewish custom to bring children to the synagogue on their first birthday for the Rabbi to bless them. So these persons came to one whom they regarded the greatest of all Rabbins.

Tuesday – For the Lazarus Family
Luke 10:38-42 Holman “38 ¶ While they were traveling, He entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what He said. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.” 41 The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.””
Luke 10:42 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES There are times when it is proper to suspend worldly employments, and to attend to the affairs of the soul. It was proper for Mary to do it. It would have been proper for Martha to have done it. It is proper for all--on the Sabbath and at other occasional seasons --seasons of prayer and for searching the word of God--to suspend worldly concerns and to attend to religion.

Wednesday – For His Enemies
Matthew 5:44-48 NRSV “44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 5:44 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The word for “love,” agapan, denotes the love of respect in contrast with philein, which describes the love of emotion (filial love), such as exists between members of the family (see on Matt. 5:43). The command would be impossible if it enjoined men to philein their enemies, for they could not feel toward their enemies the same emotional warmth of affection that they feel toward the immediate members of their families, nor is that expected. Philein is spontaneous, emotional, and is nowhere commanded in the NT. Agapan, on the other hand, can be and is commanded, for it is under the control of the will. To agapan our bitterest enemies is to treat them with respect and courtesy and to regard them as God regards them.

Thursday – For Israel
Matthew 23:37 20th Century NT “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! She who slays the Prophets and stones the messengers sent to her—Oh, how often have I wished to gather your children round me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not came!”
Matthew 23:37 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE The metaphor which our Lord uses here is a very beautiful one. When the hen sees a beast of prey coming, she makes a noise to assemble her chickens, that she may cover them with her wings from the danger. The Roman eagle is about to fall upon the Jewish state-nothing can prevent this but their conversion to God through Christ-Jesus cries throughout the land, publishing the Gospel of reconciliation-they would not assemble, and the Roman eagle came and destroyed them. The hen's affection to her brood is so very strong as to become proverbial.
Matthew 23:25-35 20th Century NT “25 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may become clean as well. 27 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed look fair outside, while inside they are filled with dead men’s bones and all kinds of filth. 28 It is the same with you. Outwardly, and to others, you have the look of religious men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and sin. 29 Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You build the tombs of the Prophets, and decorate the monuments of religious men, 30 and say ‘Had we been living in the days of our ancestors, we should have taken part in their murder of the Prophets! 31 By doing this you are furnishing evidence against yourselves that you are true children of the men who murdered the Prophets. 32 Fill up the measure of your ancestor’s guilt. 33 You serpents and brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to the Pit? 34 ¶ That is why I send you Prophets, wise men, and Teachers of the Law, some of whom you will crucify and kill, and some of whom you will scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute from town to town; 35 in order that upon your heads may fall every drop of innocent ‘blood split on earth,’ from the blood of innocent Abel down to that of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar.”
Matthew 23:27 COMMENTARY ROBINSON’S NT WORD PICTURES Whitened with powdered lime dust, the sepulchres of the poor in the fields or the roadside. Not the rock-hewn tombs of the well-to-do. These were whitewashed a month before the passover that travellers might see them and so avoid being defiled by touching them.
Matthew 23:35 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY Ordinarily only a priest had access to the inner court of the Temple, where the altar of sacrifice was, and the fact that Zechariah was “between the temple and the altar” suggests that he was on duty as a priest at the time of his martyrdom. If the courts of Solomon’s Temple were the same as those of Herod’s Temple, the assassins of Zechariah—unless they were priests or Levites—probably had no right to enter this court.
Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 619 – “The scribes and Pharisees who listened to Jesus knew that His words were true. They knew how the prophet Zacharias had been slain. While the words of warning from God were upon his lips, a satanic fury seized the apostate king, and at his command the prophet was put to death. His blood had imprinted itself upon the very stones of the temple court, and could not be erased; it remained to bear testimony against apostate Israel. As long as the temple should stand, there would be the stain of that righteous blood, crying to God to be avenged. As Jesus referred to these fearful sins, a thrill of horror ran through the multitude.”