THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE - Chapter 14 - Verse 23

Verse 23. Go out into the highways. Since enough had not been found in the lanes and streets, he commands the servant to go into the roads—the public highways out of the city, as well as to the streets in it—and invite them also.

Hedges. A hedge is the inclosure around a field or vineyard. It was commonly made of thorns, which were planted thick, and which kept the cattle out of the vineyard.

"A common plant for this purpose is the prickly pear,

a species of cactus, which grows several feet high,

and as thick as a man's body, armed with sharp thorns,

and thus forming an almost impervious defence"

(Professor Hackett, Scripture Illustrations, p. 174). Those in the hedges were poor labourers employed in planting them or trimming them— men of the lowest class and of great poverty. By his directing them to go first into the streets of the city and then into the highways, we are not to understand our Saviour as referring to different classes of men, but only as denoting the earnestness with which God offers salvation to men, and his willingness that the most despised should come and live. Some parts of parables are thrown in for the sake of keeping, and they should not be pressed or forced to obtain any obscure or fanciful signification. The great point in this parable was, that God would call in the Gentiles after the Jews had rejected the gospel. This should be kept always in view in interpreting all the parts of the parable.

Compel them. That is, urge them, press them earnestly, one and all. Do not hear their excuses on account of their poverty and low rank of life, but urge them so as to overcome their objections and lead them to the feast. This expresses the earnestness of the man; his anxiety that his table should be filled, and his purpose not to reject any on account of their poverty, or ignorance, or want of apparel. So God is earnest in regard to the most polluted and vile. He commands his servants, his ministers, to urge them to come, to press on them the salvation of the gospel, and to use ALL the means in their power to bring into heaven poor and needy sinners.

{t} "compel" Ps 110:3