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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July 1924
of Christ takes on great significance when we realize that as the second Adam, He took the place of the first. What we lost in the first, we, who believe, have restored to us in the second. (Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:20-22, 45-49).-— Gray. Satan’s one object in the threefold temptation was to induce Christ to act from Himself, in independency of His Father. Christ defeated Satan by a means open to His humblest follower, the intelligent use of the word of God.— Scofield. Let us think of the temptation of Jesus under these three captions: When? What? Why? 1. When did it take place? The opening word in Mat thew’s account is “ then.” The two preceding verses show when— ^immediately” (Mk. 1:12) fol- DEVOTIONAL lowing His anointing with the Spirit, COMMENT the 'Divine attestation of His Sonship, John A. Hubbard and the Divine approval of His charac ter and conduct. Let us take to heart the lesson that the time of greatest blessing is the time of greatest peril and testing. And let us not be deceived by thinking that any spiritual experience, however great and blessed, will make us immune to the attacks of Satan. 2. What was the temptation? The devil’s great ob jective in this three-fold attack was to get Jesus out of the will of God-Hto get Him to deny His great objective, formed, as we saw in a recent lesson, in His boyhood, to be “ in the things” of' His Father, doing the Father’s will. “ Make these stones bread”S-take yourself out of God’s hands; use your divine power to supply a legitimate need in a wrong way. “ Cast thyself down"— presume upon God; see if God can or will do as He says; act without regard to His will. ' ‘‘Fall down and worship me”— turn your back on God; come into possession of the Kingdom by means of a short cut, and thus avoid the sufferings and death of the cross, God’s appointed way. “ And still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe” by turning us aside from “ that good, acceptable, perfect will of God.” 3. Why the temptation? As to Jesus Himself, the temp tation may be considered the last stage in the preparation for the service upon which He was about to enter. In this, the supreme test, He is not found wanting. Henceforth the devil is a conquered foe. Where the first Adam miserably failed, the last Adam gloriously triumphed. “ The devil ruined the first Adam. The last Adam spoiled the devil. The first Adam involved the race in his defeat. The last Adam included the race in His victory. The first Adam stood as the head of the race, and falling, dragged the race down with him. The last Adam stood as the Head of the new race, and being victorious, lifted that race with Him” (Morgan, in “ The Crises of the Christ” ). This suggests the reason for the temptation as it concerns us. He became Victor that we might share in His victory. As the Scriptures put it, “ For in that he himself hath suf fered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). And again, “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in firmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15, 16). m . Jesus Refuses To Do Wrong Matt. 4:1-11 Memory Verse.— “ Lead us not into temptation, but de liver us from evil.” Matt. 6:13. Approach.—Here is something on the table that all have seen, and every one of you know it is a- clock. Charles,
iour’s attitude and reveals the consummation. “ The king doms of this 'world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and forever.”
V. 1. The uncultivated eastern frontier of Judah. The term “ wilderness” includes the cliffs and western shore of the Dead Sea. In this wild and nearly treeless district there were formerly a few cities, and there are still some luxur iant spots.— Cambridge Bible. The COMMENTS word “ tempt” has different meanings. PROM THE One of them is inciting or enticing to COMMENTARIES evil, to seduce. This always pre- V. V. Morgan supposes evil present in some form, the possibility that the person can be en ticed and incited to evil, that in the person there is some thing which responds or may respond to the evil placed be fore the soul. This could never be the case with our Lord. There was no sin, no evil in Him. He is absolutely holy. Therefore the word tempt in this form can never apply to Him. But the word tempt means also, put to test. To test means to bring to trial, and examination; compare with a standard; in this sense only it can refer to our Lord. He was tempted means, He was tested as to His ability to do that for which He had come. The test or tempting is to bring out that He is the pure gold, the Holy One, the spot- less One, the One who alone can do the work for which He appeared, to put away sin by sacrificing Himself.—Gaebe- lein. V. 3. It was a subtle temptation to transform these stones into bread. And he could have done it. Ere many days elapsed, he changed water into wine, and twice in the course of his ministry he multiplied a handful of bread into a meal for thousands. Yet of all the miracles which He wrought not one was wrought on his own behalf.—David Smith. The suggestion was that he could at the same time appease His hunger and show His divinity. Both acts would have been right under proper circumstances, but to follow Satan’s suggestion would be wrong.—Bract. Com. V. 5. “ Pinnacle” means “ a little wing.” It was some well known prominence of the temple roof, which towered above the deep valley of the Kidron.—Prof. W. F. Slater. V. 6. The people expected the Messiah to come from the skies, and this would be a quick way to establish himself as Messiah in popular favor.W-Prof. A. T. Robertson. The passage quoted from is Psa. 91:11, 13. Satan, in appealing to the word of God, was attempting to meet Christ upon His own ground.—Pract. Com. In the Psalm are the words, "to keep thee in all thy ways,” showing that the angels are not promised us when we go out of our way to test God presumptuously in needless dangers. But Satan knew too much to quote those words. Garbled quotations are a specialty of his.—Peloubet. V. 11. Thus the great victory is won over the devil by the use of Scripture and the help of the Holy Spirit, two weapons ready for us all.*—Prof. A. T. Robertson. Our Lord took refuge, so to speak, behind the written Wor,d of God, quoting each time from the book of Deuteronomy, as if foreseeing the contempt with which this precious book is treated by modern higher criticism, and defending it against the attacks of the enemy. It is perilously near blasphemy to assert that He quoted from a Book which this insolent criticism declares to be a forgery. For if He did not know the date of its composition He is not divine. And if He did not know the date of its composition He is not divine. And if He did not know but chose to humor a popular error, He connived a falsehood. Genesis tells us of election; Exodus of redemption, Leviticus of worship; Numbers of warfare in the wilderness; Deuteronomy of obedience; and hence the appropriateness of quoting from this book, which the Lord knew as divinely inspired. “ It is written,” was enough for Him in the conflict with the devil, and “ It is written,” enough for us amid all the temptations we may encounter on our way to meet Him in the air.—-J. H. Brookes. The temptation was three-fold, the appeal being di rected to “ the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16) which is all the devil has to offer. The Father had just testified to His Sonship, but He is tempted to doubt it because He is hungry (3). He has just declared His confidence in the Word of God (4) and He is tempted to presume upon it (5-7). He had been promised the Kingdom through the Cross, and He is tempted to obtain it in another way (8-10). This Victory
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