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T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
James tells us (Jas. 4 :7 ), “ Resist the devil and he will flee from you” and this tells the story of our Lord’s wonderful victory and points plainly to the path of victorious living for us. (3) THE TEST OF ASSUMPTION, vs. 9-13. “ If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.” Conveyed to a pinnacle of the temple, again the tempter says, “ If thou be the Son of God.” |The appeal now is to His Messiahship. Satan quotes Scripture (Psa. 91:11-12) for he is learned in all the wisdom of the ancients and mod erns : “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up In their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” He omits the words “ to keep thee in all thy ways” wresting the Scripture to his own hurt, as do many others (2 Pet. 3:16). The test is, “ Prove your power as the Messiah. Claim the adherence of the people. Make them marvel at your miracle.” This corresponds to the appeal to Eve, “ pleasant to the eyes” , the pride of life. (1 John 2:16) “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” It was a challenge to God to deliver Him from a peril into which He had brought Himself, not in the service of men, but for His own display; to put Himself into Satan’s hands in the field of “ lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9) “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders.” To trust God is to abide in His will. To tempt God is to have your own way, yet claim God’s protection. Jesus im mediately met Satan with another thrust of the sword (Deut. 6:16) “ Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God.” QUESTIONS. (1) Are men apt to doubt God in connection with the bread and butter
the first attack upon Eve. The appeal is to the lust of the flesh,’ “ Assert your self; use your power.” He was hungry. The power was His. Jesus answers him with the Word of God. He could have answered for Him self, but He answers as a man— the rep resentative Man— using the Sword of the Spirit and a message pregnant with meaning (Deut. 8:3) “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, whieh thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” How marvellously the Word was ap plied! Humbled, hungry, He waited upon God for food. He is the servant of Jehovah and the servant does not command but obeys. He will not take Himself out of the will of God. He has power but He will not use it. He mul tiplies loaves and fishes, but will work no selfish miracle. He has conquered with the unanswerable Word of God; (2) THE TEST OF AMBITION, vs. 5-8. “ If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” From a high mountain Satan gives Him a vision of the kingdoms of the earth and proffers them for His worship. This was an appeal to the kingship of Jesus. The world kingdoms do belong to Satan, else there is no test here. Jesus so recognizes them. This corresponds with Eve’s last temptation— the lust of ■the eye. This is the most searching of all. All is Satan’s. All may belong to Jesus, if He wills to bow to Satan. If He refuses, He must set Himself against all the powers of these kingdoms and against their head; begin a line of war fare and die an ignominious death. But the Lord Jesus proves His real kingship by spurning the offer, and gives the final thrust from the Scripture (Deut. 10 : 20 ) “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him Shalt thou serve, and to him Shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.“
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