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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Col. 2:14-16), and “the Lord’s Day,” the first day of the week, substituted, because of His resurrection on that day (cf. Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10). On the seventh day He could always be found in the; synagogues (v. 16; cf. Luke 2:49; Acts 17'\2). The serv ices of the synagogue were dull and me chanical, but .i t ;stood for the. presence of God and the teaching of His word among the people. Moreover, it was where the people were to be found and helped (John 18:20. In the 'synagogue He “stood tip to read.” He had found wondrous things' in the Word and He explained them to His friends and neighbors. He had not done it in: the earlier days for He had not yet re ceived the all-necessary qualification of the anointing with the Holy Spirit. Sunday, October 17. Luke 4:17-21. The roll of the prophet Isaiah was put into- His hands, If Luke had been one of our modern Higher Critics, he would have said, “the book of the Deutero-Isaiah.” As he was not he called the writer of Isaiah chapter 61 by. his right name, and not by the fictitious .name of a person of whose ex istence history knows nothing whatsoever, and who never existed except in the fevered imagination of a would-be scholar intoxi cated by the baseless assumptions of Ger man “Kultur.” Jesus was familiar with the roll of the prophet Isaiah from end, to end, and knew j ust where to turn. «Isaiah had had a wonderful vision of the Coming One more than seven hundred years before. It was about our “anointed” one (or, Christ— Greek; or, Messiah—Hebrew). By' apply ing this prophecy to Himself, Jesus pro claimed Himself to be the Christ (Mes siah), but it is to be doubted if His hearers understood Him, His hearers,' however, must have been startled to hear the well known carpenter boy, who had been brought up .in their midst, proclaiming Himself as the fulfillment of one of their sacred prophet cies. It was with the Holy Spirit that He was “anointed” (Acts 10:38; Ps. 45:7; Isa. 11:2-5; 42:1-4; 59:21). It waS as aft all-
rightly His in another way than by the cross. The Devil is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30), and it was not al together a. lie when he said that all this au thority and glory had 'been delivered to him, and to whomsoever he would he gave it. After having been met twice with the Scriptures, Satan himself quotes them in the last temptation. But he misquoted them ; he left out an important clause’ (see Ps. 91:11, 12). One needs to watch the Devil’s quotations of Scripture (e. g. in “Pastor,. Russell’s” writings and Mrs. Eddy’s) very closely'. He is likely to quote nearly as it reads, but not just as it reads, and to omit important context. • For Jesus to have ac cepted this challenge would have been (1) to have doubted God’s word by making, an experiment to seé if it would come out as God had said; i. e., tempting God. (2) An act of spiritual pride, a mère display Of trust’in God with no other end to accom plish by it. In the second temptation the Devil appears in his true colors, he seeks Worship for himself. That is the very es sence of devilism. He would have the Son of God render to him that worship which belongs to’ God alone. In the second and third temptations, as in the first, Jesus meets Satan with the word of God. Every one of our Lord’s citations was from the same book, Deuteronomy. No wonder the Devil hates that book and has stirred up the critics to assault it as almost no other book in the Bible. Happy is the man who knows, and believes and uses Deuteronomy as our Lord knew it and believed it and used it, and not as. the critics use it. Saturday, October 16. Luke, 4:14-16. Jesus ioved thé home of His childhood, youth and young manhood. He longed to make known the way of life to His own townspeople. He had ' gained a refutation away from home, perhaps His townsmen would now listen to Him. He observed the Sabbath of His people, the seventh day Mosaic Sabbath, that had not yet been done away with by His death on thé cross (cf.
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