And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.
What a lovely picture is here drawn of the SON of GOD! Behold him thus going about preaching the kingdom, and healing everywhere. And, Reader! do not fail to connect with this view, that he is still the same, JESUS CHRIST, yesterday, and today, and forever! What diseases of his people doth he not know? And what sicknesses are there, that JESUS cannot cure? Read, I beseech you, what was said of him ages before his birth. Isaiah 63:7-9. Call to mind what is said of him in the days of his flesh. John 13:1. And follow him by faith to glory. Revelation 7:17, and behold him feeding the church, where all tears are wiped away from all faces. And then ask, will he forget you; Oh, ye of little faith! Precious LORD JESUS! wherefore was it that it behoved thee to be made like unto thy brethren? Was it not that thou mightest be both a merciful and a faithful High Priest in things pertaining to GOD? And art thou not all this, and more, that thy redeemed might come at all times boldly unto thy throne of grace, and obtain mercy, and find grace to help in all times of need?
REFLECTIONS
READER! Let you and I pause over the view of CHRIST'S temptations, and ponder well the wonderful subject. And was it needful that CHRIST should be thus exercised? Yes! The HOLY GHOST has said; that in all things it behoveth him to be made like unto his brethren. For as much as the Children are partakers of. flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. The destruction of the devil was folded up in this. And the deliverance of his people from the power of hell was accomplished in the same. Hence therefore, in the victory of CHRIST in his seasons of temptations, the children of CHRIST discover their victory in their seasons and temptations in and by Him. And during the exercise, they know how JESUS, from fellow-feeling can, and will, minister to them every suited relief. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. The issue therefore is never doubtful. The children may be tempted, as Jesus was, to unbelief, to a distrust of GOD, yea, to self-murder. Perhaps there never was a child of GOD but what, more or less, hath been so tempted. Yea, it should seem to be a sweet testimony of our fellowship with Jesus, as members with the Head. Blessed is the man, saith the HOLY GHOST by James, That endureth temptation. But the issue is never doubtful. As CHRIST overcame every assault of Satan, so Christ's redeemed must also in him. Reader let you and I carry all our trials and temptations to Jesus. He knows them all before. But by our taking them to Him, we testify that we are looking wholly for strength from Him, and engaging CHRIST on our behalf. And, oh! the blessedness having JESUS for our strength. The devil will leave us as he did Him, and the LORD of angels himself will come and minister every suited relief to our necessity!
Behold Reader! on the close of this chapter, how He, who in the opening of it, is said to have been assaulted by hell, is here manifesting forth his sovereignty as God. Oh! That that dear LORD, who thus in the days of his flesh, went about preaching his gospel, and healing the bodies of the deceased, would now, in the day of his Almighty power, come forth in a preached gospel, and heal the souls of his redeemed. Precious LORD JESUS! behold the diseased state of thy church, and in compassion to Zion take the glorious cause into thine own Almighty hand. And as then, so now, LORD, cause the multitudes of thy people to come to thy standard, until thou shalt have brought all thy blood-bought children home to thy church, and all the blessed purposes of thy temptations and ministry be abundantly answered in the salvation of thy chosen. Amen.