THE KING’ S BUSINESS
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by force and make Him king. The king who could feed them without labor was a king after their own heart. There-was no real appreciation o f Him. This was the second time that the temptation had come to Jesus to take the throne by another way than the way o f the cross (cf. Matt. 4:8, 9). It is far beyond any o f us to understand all the workings o f the heart o f Jesus, but we can at least see that there must have been in this a very -real temptation to Him, not that He for a moment in thought or cherished desire yielded to the temptation, but He was a real man and He had a real shrinking from the immeasurable agony and shame o f the cross, and also had a real and rightful desire to be king, and so the temptation was real. But He conquered the temptation in the very way He has bid den us to conquer temptation, by prayer (Luke 22:40). He was a long time in prayer as we learn from the other accounts. How often we have wished that we might know what Jesus said to the. Father during the long hours o f that night o f prayer. While He prays the disciples are left to bat tle alone with the frightful storm. But it is love that thus leaves them to their own resources, to be tried and made strong. He is watching and praying while they make a good fight against wind and wave, and He comes to them just when their need and danger is most extreme. Jesus is always watching us and praying for us while we fear the storms o f the night o f this present evil age, and just before the day-break He will Come to us and say, “It is- I, be not afraid,” and immediately the waves will cease and we will be at that fair land whither we are going. Friday, May ig. John 6 : 22 - 27 . The multitude came “ seeking' Jesus.” That sounds well, but it was a wrong sort o f seeking and did not bring salvation. It was not really Jesus Himself that they were seeking, but the loaves and fishes. There is much o f that sort o f seeking still. It was not the “ sign” as indicating the Divine character that drew them, but simply
the wonder as indicating that there would be a constant supply o f bread. They did not see “ in the bread the sign,” but only “in the sign the bread.”' Their eyes and desire were entirely fixed upon “the food which perisheth.” There is food “ which abideth unto- eternal life.” The man who seeks only “the food which perisheth” when he can have “ food which abideth unto eter nal life” is a fool. It is the Son o f Man who gives this more precious food. "It is a gift and cannot be earned (c £ Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2 :8 ). The reason why it is Jesus, the Son o f Man, and He only that gives this food which abideth unto eternal life is because He is the one and only one whom “the Father, even God, hath sealed” (cf. Acts 2:22; John 1:33, 34; 5:36, 37; 10:37, 38; Matt. 3:17)! Saturday, May 20 . John 6 : 28 - 34 . While “the food which abideth unto eternal life” is a gift, still we are to work for it. How to work for it we are told in verse 29. There is just one work that God requires as the condition o f receiving this bread, viz., believe on Him whom He hath sent (cf. John 3:16-18, 36; Eph. 2 :8 ), “this is the work o f God.” This is the one" work that God requires o f men ; all other things count for nothing if this is lacking. This work does not merit the bread, but simply accepts it. Jesus’ hearers demanded a sign as a condition o f believing on Him (v. 30). The unreasonableness o f this demand is apparent when one remembers the recent miracle o f the loaves and fishes (vs. 10-14). The dematjd o f modern skep tics, are just as unreasonable. Jesus Him self was the "greatest o f all signs (.v. 36). They sought to enforce their demand for a sign by a reference to Moses and the manna, but Jesus showed them that the manna was but a type o f Himself “ (the true) bread'of God.” The two characteris tics o f this bread are (1) it “cometh down out o f heaven,” (2) it “giveth life unto the world.” Jesus’ hearers did not under stand what He meant so they exclaimed, “ evermore give us this bread.”
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