From Decapolis— A country of Palestine, so called because it contained ten cities; concerning the names of which the learned are not agreed. It bordered upon Syria, a province near Galilee, and extended on both sides of Jordan and the lake of Tiberias. It formerly belonged to the half tribe of Manasseh. See Joseph. Jewish War, b. iii. c. 16. and Pliny's Nat. Hist. l. v. c. 18. Instead of beyond, Campbell reads; from the banks of the Jordan.
Inferences.—To have just ideas of Christ's temptations, we must consider them in two lights. First, as they were permitted by God. Secondly, as they were executed by the tempter.
The reasons for which God permitted his Son to be tempted of the devil were such as these: 1. That he might become a faithful and merciful high-priest, one who can succour his people in time of need, and pity them when they happen to fall by temptation. The apostle assigns this reason expressly, Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 4:15. Hebrews 4:2. That his example might be a complete pattern of all purity, virtue, and excellence: Jesus, like a wise and valiant general, underwent himself all the hardships attending his service, that we his soldiers might be animated to sustain them together with him. He has gone before us, not only in poverty and reproach, and contempt of sensual pleasure, but was given up to be tempted of the devil, that his people might not be dismayed by such dispensations of Providence, but be taught to expect them, especially after having had proofs of the divine love and manifestations of his presence: also that we might know both what sort of an enemy we have to encounter, and the kind of temptations that he will assault us with; particularly that there is no impiety or wickedness so gross, but he will tempt even the best of men to commit it.
Farther, it was designed to shew us, that the devil, though a strong enemy, may be overcome, and by what means; and to stir us up to constant watchfulness. Hence this conflict, though managed in the sight of God and the angels only, was in due time made public for the instruction of mankind. 3. That our Lord might with the greatest advantage begin and carry on his ministry, in the course of which he was to accomplish the salvation of men, it was necessary that he should first vanquish the strongest temptations of the old serpent, who had formerly brought ruin on mankind. His sustaining the temptations of the devil, therefore, when he entered on his ministry, teaches us, that no man is so rightly qualified to preach the Gospel, as he who by temptation has been fortified against luxury, ambition, pride, lust, covetousness, and such like passions, with which the devil overthrows the minds of the unstable.
On the other hand, the motives which induced the devil to undertake this temptation, might be, 1. His general desire of seducing men to sin: 2. Some particular end which he proposed to accomplish thereby. It is reasonable to believe, that God's gracious intention to save the world by his Son, was not intirely concealed from the evil spirits. If so, they might be led by the prophesies to conjecture, that this was the period fixed in the will of heaven for the advent of God's Son. That the devils are acquainted with the Scripture is evident from the citation which we find the tempter making out of the Psalms on this occasion. Besides, they might be confirmed in their opinion, by the general expectation of the Messiah, with which the east was now filled. If therefore they had any how received intelligence of the wonderful things which accompanied the birth of Christ; or, having been witnesses to the descent of the Spirit upon him at his baptism, some of them had heard the voice from heaven declaring him the Son of God; they could not but have a great curiosity to know whether he was really the grand personage so long expected by men.
The resolution of this point was undoubtedly of the greatest moment to them; because the part they were afterwards to act, in carrying on their own projects for destroying the human race, depended in a great measure upon it. Wherefore, all the time Jesus was in the wilderness, the chief of the evil spirits, as being best qualified for the undertaking, beset him with a multitude of temptations, in order, if possible, to discover who he was: the form in which two of his temptations run, seems to favour this conjecture. If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.—If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. Besides, unless the tempter had been in doubt as to the character of Jesus, it is not to be imagined that he should have attempted to seduce him at all.
Satan's conduct in the present instance is a lively example of what St. Peter has told us, 1 Peter 5:8. Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: the malice, the cruelty, and the fury with which the evil spirit attacks mankind, is but faintly represented by the fierceness of the most ravenous wild beasts. The devil, on this occasion, seems to have assaulted our Lord in some visible form, and with an audible voice. He could hardly do it otherwise, the human nature of Jesus being incapable of sinful thoughts. Commonly, however, his strongest temptations are those wherein he least appears; for example, when he suggests evil imaginations, in order to raise evil desires. A man, therefore, in such cases, should enter into himself, and, with the help of the Spirit of God, should courageously expel those detestable sentiments, the devil's auxiliaries, by which he takes and keeps possession of the soul. And as for the assaults which he makes upon us by means of things without us, they must be sustained and repelled by a firm resolution through Almighty grace, as waves by a rock. The Christian has good encouragement thus to exert himself with vigour; for his Master has shewed him, that there is in the word of God applied by the divine Spirit sufficient armour to preserve him invulnerable against all the fiery darts of the adversary. Farther, as Christ, after having vanquished the devil, was ministered unto by angels; his followers, who endeavour to do their duty, shall have such assistance as is necessary to their continuing im-moveable amidst the rudest shocks of temptation. They may be amid legions of devils; but their integrity shall be happily preserved. See Macknight.
We observed on Matthew 4:23 that the Gospel is glad tidings, a joyful message: and could we effectually represent the full purport of this JOYFUL MESSAGE, so as to make you sensible what a solid and superlative happiness it imports, your hopes must presently be raised, and all your desires engaged in dependence on the grace of God in pursuit of the promised good: but though all men incessantly seek after happiness, yet they are too commonly so mistaken in their notions of it, that these heavenly tidings make no impressions on them.
Consider we then, that happiness of every kind requires a proper disposition for its enjoyment. Without bodily health we cannot relish the pleasures of sense; and, for the same reason, without holiness, which is the soul's health, we cannot participate of spiritual joys. To judge, therefore, what interest we have in the Gospel, or glad tidings of the kingdom of God, consider the holy angels, who are its native inhabitants: they, doubtless, are happy in the supreme degree; but their happiness is the result of a more intrinsic part of their character, viz. holiness. And this brings to my mind a fine saying of a modern writer:
Then, to be good, is to be happy; angels Are happier than men, because they're better.
They are perfectly happy, because they are perfectly holy. Now holiness consists in having only pure desires: that is to say, just desires: they cannot desire any thing but what is just, fit, and proper for them: and thence, although their desires may be various, yet they can never be (as in the human race) inconsistent; but, being excited with due subordination and harmony among themselves, they are all fully gratified. In a word, duty and pleasure are the same in heaven. The angels have all they can wish, because they can wish only for what they ought to have. And the more intense their desires are, the higher are their graces and virtues, and the greater their beatitude.
Things are quite contrary in the present state of the human nature; for holiness is so distinct a thing from the gratification of our natural desires, that it principally consists in denying them. Our natural desires, viz. our appetites and passions, are often unjust; and so exorbitant, that, for the sake of our own ease, and the little happiness which can be found here, we are bound to resist and subdue them. And herein (quite opposite to the angelical nature) consists the human excellence. To refrain from what we wish; to choose what we are averse to; to reject the poisonous sweet, and prefer the wholesome bitter; to strive against sloth and voluptuousness, with other numberless vices and follies, to which we are prone; and climb the arduous rugged paths of duty; these are our first task, in which we shall often miscarry. But this will not always be the case: we shall not always be left to our own mismanagement; for, if we persist in using the grace bestowed upon us, God will at length take us under his more immediate and peculiar government; and, by a faithful service in a constant, simple and entire dependence on divine grace alone, we shall enter into his kingdom.
This momentous truth, grounded on the great sacrifice and intercession of Jesus, is the genuine Gospel of Christ: such are the glad tidings which he publishes; assuring us, that God's kingdom is accessible, is near; so that all may enter it, who will in true repentance lay hold of Jesus Christ in all his offices, and in simple faith cast themselves on his alone power to save.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Jesus, being now prepared for the battle, enters the lists against the great enemy of souls, whose kingdom he came to destroy. We have,
1. The time of this conflict.—Then, immediately after he had received the attestation of God to his Sonship, and the fulness of the Spirit for the exercise of his office as Mediator. Note; (1.) Before God calls us into temptation, he will furnish us with spiritual strength, with which we may conquer, if we be faithful. (2.) Great manifestations are often the prelude to our severest conflict. (3.) The confidence of our adoption of God will be the most effectual shield to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
2. The place.—In the wilderness, far from the abode of men, amid lonely wastes, where only the savages of the forest roamed, to give the enemy every advantage against him, and therein more gloriously to display his own power and all-sufficiency. The first man fell in a paradise of delights; the second man stood unmoved against every blast of temptation, firm as the rocks of the wilderness, his present dreary dwelling.
3. The preparatives to the combat. He was led up of the Spirit, by a divine impulse on his mind, into the higher, more mountainous, and uninhabited part of the country; and this with design to meet the tempter, and defeat all his wiles. And hereunto he condescended. (1.) That, feeling what sore temptations mean, he might be a compassionate high-priest, having been tempted in all points as we are, only without sin. (2.) To encourage us to trust him in every time of need. He who defeated that enemy once himself, can by the same strength make the faithful soul more than conqueror. Forty days, like Moses in the mount, he continued there alone, and without sustenance: at last he felt all those acute cravings of hunger which, as man, he was subject to in common with us, and which gave the enemy another advantage against him, and rendered the Redeemer's triumphs more illustrious. The first representative of mankind, when enjoying the utmost plenty, was tempted by one forbidden tree; the last, though famishing for want, is deaf to every solicitation of the wicked one.
4. The temptations themselves; a threefold cord, and yet broken with ease. The design of them was, to shake Christ's confidence in God, and lead him to some dishonourable step, which, had it been possible, must have utterly unqualified him for the work of redemption.
[1.] In the first temptation the devil sought to lead him to a distrust of God's providential care and goodness; and, in order thereto, the tempter came to him. He had possibly by his secret suggestions, during the forty days before, sought to disturb the mind of Jesus, but in vain; (see the Inferences;) now therefore he assumes a visible form; not such a fearful figure as our early misguided apprehensions suggest, and our delusive prints hold him forth, but some pleasing human shape, or perhaps transformed into an angel of light. The tempter well knew the circumstances of our Lord, and directs his assault where the weakest side appeared: he hoped that the cravings of hunger might lead him to some undue means of relief. Thus vigilant and crafty is the wily adversary to suit his temptation to our situation and condition; and particularly, in want and distress, to suggest some sinful expedient to extricate ourselves from our troubles, without waiting God's leisure, or consulting his will. He often says, Better steal than starve; though God says, 'Tis better die than sin. He prefaces his temptation with a sly insinuation; If thou be the Son of God, as if he doubted the fact, though so lately the voice from heaven had affirmed it; and he desired to shake the faith of Jesus, suggesting, that if this really were the case, it was inconceivable that God would leave such a one to starve in the wilderness. Or, seeing thou art the Son of God; he perhaps admits the fact, and wishes to see a present exertion of his divine power in a miracle so necessary for his own support; command that these stones be made bread. (See the Annotations.) Note; (1.) The great battery of the devil is raised against our faith; for if the foundation of our confidence be removed, the superstructure must needs fall. He is ever striking at this to make the children of God doubt their adoption; and, in order thereto, he urges against them sometimes their outward distresses, sometimes their inward weakness and infirmities, as if both the one and the other were inconsistent with the relation that they claim. (2.) If once the enemy can engage us to entertain hard thoughts of God, then he is sure to prevail.
Christ repels the assaults of the wicked one with the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and therein teaches us how to ward off the like temptations. He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The Lord has other ways of supporting men's bodies than by bread merely; and therefore it was not so absolutely necessary for his sustenance, but that he could be supported without it; nor would he at Satan's instigation do that which might look like distrust of his Father's care, doubt of his word, or suspicion of his relation to him. Note; (1.) The written word is the only rule of our faith and practice: if Christ himself adhered to that alone, let no pretences of the Spirit's superior teaching lead us off from this sure guide. (2.) God's time is the best time, and he that believeth will not make haste; will take no rash step for his own relief under his trials, but patiently expect the salvation of God.
[2.] The first attack being repelled, a second is prepared: since he cannot lead the Saviour to distrust or despair, he will try to puff him up with presumption. So unwearied is the tempter, and often changing his wiles, according to our circumstances, from one extreme to the other.
He taketh him up by divine permission, with the consent of Jesus, or leadeth him into the holy city, Jerusalem, so called from the peculiar privileges that it enjoyed of God's worship and ordinances; and set him upon a pinnacle or wing the temple; one of the battlements probably, which was of an immense height. And since Jesus had expressed such confidence in his Father, and unshaken dependence on his word, he grounds thereon his temptation: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, and give an incontestable proof of it to the priests and people worshipping below, who will, no doubt, receive thee as the Messiah, when thus coming as if immediately from heaven into the temple: nor will there be any danger in the experiment, since, it is written, and therein thou art fully satisfied, He shall give his angels, &c. The application of which words to Christ was right; but a part of the text is artfully suppressed, in all thy ways; for out of the way of duty we may never hope for protection. And it is misapplied, being designed not to tempt men to rush into temptation, presuming upon the divine care; but to engage the believer to trust God in time of trial, assured of divine support. From all which we may observe, (1.) That one grand engine of the tempter is, to make our heads giddy by setting us up on high. The pinnacle of the temple is a dangerous exaltation. Those who are eminent in station, fortune, or reputation; advanced to dignities in church or state; or distinguished with abilities, gifts, graces, or even success in their ministry; need to tremble for themselves, and, the higher they stand, to cleave the faster to Jesus their temple, lest their exaltation prove their destruction. (2.) Though the devil can tempt, he cannot compel. Sin is our own act; and without our consent the most dire temptations fasten not the least evil on our consciences. Should we be tempted to the greatest crimes, to self-murder, or blasphemy, the Son of God was himself thus tempted, yet without sin. (3.) Scriptures may be suggested by the enemy to the minds of God's people, much to their distress and discouragement on the one hand, or, on the other, to lull their consciences in fatal security; therefore we must search the Scriptures diligently, that we may know what is God's mind therein, and be kept from those dangerous errors and delusions, which often the Scriptures are vouchsafed to patronize. (4.) We must never separate the means from the end, nor expect out of God's way the protection of his providence and grace. Though Jesus is a Saviour to the uttermost, we may not sin that grace may abound.
The same word of truth supplies our Lord with a full confutation of Satan's sophistry; for in the Scriptures there is an answer ready for every case; and we can be in no circumstance or temptation, but that word will afford us direction, strength, and comfort. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The tempter had said, It is written: but the Scripture cannot contradict itself; and therefore to know the mind of God, we must compare spiritual things with spiritual, and not mutilate the word of truth, nor apply it contrary to the intention of the Spirit. To trust God is duty; to tempt him is sinful. Christ needed no confirmation of what he was already assured; nor was he called unnecessarily to make an experiment of God's power in such a miraculous preservation.
[3.] Once more, though baffled, the enemy returns to the charge; and, summoning up all his force in one blow, by the most glaring display of this world's glory tempts our Lord to the horrid crime of idolatry. The severest of our temptations is sometimes reserved for the last, that God's power and grace may be more gloriously displayed, and the devil's malice most bitterly disappointed.
Again the devil taketh him up, perhaps transported him through the air, into an exceeding high mountain, that the fictitious scene he was about to display might appear real; and there he shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. (See the critical notes.) Whatever grandeur, wealth, pleasure, reigned in them, were set before him in the most enlivened colours, to catch his fancy, and engage his admiration: and all these he proffers to bestow on him, on one condition, which thousands, without any such reward, were daily complying with; if thou wilt fall down and worship me;—a proposal so horrid as would not bear a thought, and is rejected with detestation: Get thee hence, Satan; such insolence provoked the Saviour's righteous indignation, and he drives the tempter from his presence, unable to endure such a daring attempt upon the majesty of Jehovah, the only object of worship; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Note; (1.) The minds of God's greatest saints may be sometimes harassed with the most blasphemous suggestions, and they should not count this as if some strange thing happened unto them. (2.) The glory of the world is the grand snare that the enemy lays for men's souls; and it looks very desirable to the eye of sense; but true and effective faith sees through the delusion, beholds vanity stamped on every thing beneath the sun, and scorns all this which Satan offers as dung and loss, compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and the glories of his grace. (3.) Some temptations come under the guise of plausibility and harmlessness, and require recollection before we can discover the craft of the devil; others bring the brand of hell in their forehead, and would bear men down merely with the weight of the present advantage thence accruing: these must not be parleyed with a moment, but rejected with abhorrence. (4.) God is alone the object of worship; and whatever else be made the idol of our adoration, whether the horrid forms of monsters in a pagod, or the images of saints and virgins, and crucifixes in a popish chapel, it is no better than falling down to the devil.
5. Satan, now vanquished and unable to resist the commanding word of Jesus, quits the field. He found him more than man, invulnerable in every part, and feels himself a vanquished foe. Thus shall the faithful sons of God, through this great Captain of their salvation, tread Satan under their feet; enabled to wrestle with spiritual wickedness, and to prevail against the powers of darkness, Though hard the conflict, the victory is sure to all who stand fast, strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
6. The angels, the attendant servants of Jesus, now visibly appeared, and ministered unto him. They had beheld, as spectators, the conflict and triumphs of the Lord, and now congratulate his victory, and supply him with those needful refreshments which his exhausted body wanted. Note; (1.) Christ alone obtained the victory for us; his own arm hath brought salvation unto him. (2.) Though our relief be for awhile delayed, it shall assuredly come at last, if we continue to cleave to Jesus: Trust in the Lord therefore, and verily thou shalt be fed. (3.) Our Master was himself tempted, that he might feel for us, and supply us with all needful supports, when we are in like manner sore thrust at that we should fall.
2nd, Christ now having entered upon his ministry, began to publish the glad tidings of that salvation he came to procure. Many events are recorded which intervened between his temptations and his abode at Capernaum: these we shall meet with in the other evangelists. Matthew hastens forward to the time when John was cast into prison; on which occasion Jesus departed from Nazareth to Galilee, and fixed his abode at Capernaum, a city in the tribe of Nephthali, bordering on Zebulon, situate on the sea of Tiberias, called elsewhere the lake of Gennesareth. The men of Nazareth had rejected him, Luke 4:29 and therefore God justly leaves them to themselves, and sends his Son and his Gospel to a place which will more cheerfully welcome them.
1. Especial notice is taken of the fulfilment of the Scripture in this removal of our Lord; as Isaias had before of old prophesied,—that the people in these regions of Zebulon and Nephthali, called Galilee of the Gentiles from the intermixture of a multitude of strangers of other nations among the Jews; which sat in darkness, in spiritual darkness and ignorance; saw a great light, Christ the sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings, and bringing life and light and liberty to those which sat in the region and shadow of death, dead in trespasses and sins, till quickened by the power of the Saviour's grace, and enlightened by the glorious Gospel that he preached. Note; (1.) They who are destitute of the knowledge of Christ are in darkness respecting all the things which make for their everlasting peace, and near the borders of eternal death. (2.) Christ is to the soul what the sun is to the world; yea, more; for he is not only the author of light, but gives, in the different stages of grace from initial salvation, the faculty of vision also, without which the light would shine in darkness, and the darkness never comprehend it. (3.) The way in which spiritual light is chiefly diffused is by the preaching of the Gospel.
2. We are told what was the subject of his ministry from the time he began to open his commission; Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; the same words and the same subject on which John his harbinger had preached before; for in the great essential doctrines all faithful ministers of the Gospel perfectly agree.
3rdly, Christ being now about to erect his kingdom in the world, he is pleased to make choice of certain persons to be the constant attendants of his ministry and spectators of his miracles, that they might afterwards go forth to tell of the things they had heard and seen, and spread the Gospel of their Master to the ends of the earth.
1. The persons he made choice of were such as to human view were very unfit instruments for the work; but the more evident would it be that the power was of God, and not of them, when afterwards they appeared so mighty in word and deed. They were by occupation fishermen, whom Jesus, as he walked by the sea-shore, saw employed in their honest and laborious vocation: the first two were casting a net into the sea, brethren by blood as well as business, their names Simon and Andrew, men unlettered, unknown, and unnoticed; the next two were of the like employment, and with their father Zebedee mending their nets. Note; (1.) Not only to the poor was the Gospel preached by our Lord, but from them the great pillars of the church were taken: let them therefore never be despised. (2.) It is happy in a family when brethren in blood are brethren in the Lord, and heirs together of the grace of life. (3.) Industry is highly commendable, and Jesus wills that all his servants should be found well employed: idleness is the sure characteristic of Satan's service.
2. They had, it seems, before (see John 1:37.) become acquainted with Christ; but now they are called to constant attendance upon him, Follow me; and, by an image taken from their present employment, he lets them know the more honourable service for which he designed them, I will make you fishers of men, the instruments of gathering souls by the Gospel into his church. And what he calls them to, he will qualify them for: in following him they shall learn a wisdom which the schools can never teach them. Note; (1.) Unless ministers have a divine call, they will run without being sent, and can expect no blessing in their work. (2.) None can truly preach Christ who have not first faithfully followed him. (3.) If, in our ordinary vocations diligence is necessary, how much more needful is it that fishers of men should be indefatigable and laborious, when the gain of immortal souls will so amply repay their toil.
3. These disciples immediately obeyed the call, quitting their employment, and leaving their dearest relatives to devote and attach themselves intirely to their divine Lord and Master. Note; (1.) There are seasons when, for the sake of Christ, we must be ready to part with all. (2.) Those who are employed in the ministry have especial need to detach themselves from worldly concerns, that they may give themselves wholly up to their awful trust and charge.
4thly, We have,
1. Christ's labours as a preacher. All Galilee heard his teaching; he appeared publicly in their synagogues, and published the Gospel of the kingdom, the glad tidings of salvation, exhorting his hearers to that repentance and newness of life which became those who had received the grace of God in truth.
2. His cures as a physician, wrought in confirmation of his doctrine. He did good to men's bodies as well as souls, and by a word healed all manner of sickness and diseases among the people, however violent, inveterate, or of long standing: the incurables of other physicians went from him restored to perfect health and soundness. Nor did he merely relieve the most tormenting disorders of the body, but the more deplorable ones of the mind: the lunatic recovered the perfect exercise of his reason; and the possessed, whose bodies by divine permission Satan's legions had seized and miserably harassed, were set free, and the foul fiends ejected. No painful operations, no tedious course of medicine almost as bad as the malady, were employed: a word, a touch, completed the cure; and all was freely done, without money and without price. The most wretched, the poorest, never applied in vain. No wonder that his fame spread through the adjacent coasts of Syria, and that multitudes of patients sought this great Physician's help. His cures bespoke his character, and vouched for his mission; they were innumerable, public, immediate, perfect, such as none could dispute or gainsay, his very enemies being judges. And they represent the more noble cures of men's souls by divine grace from all the diseases of sin, wherein we see the Saviour's power still displayed.
3. His popularity arising from both. An immense auditory, from all parts, near and distant, assembled, curious to hear, or desirous to be healed, or convinced by his preaching and miracles, or enviously waiting for an opportunity to destroy him. Note; (1.) The preachers of the Gospel will generally be popular; their message engages the attention of an auditory. (2.) Multitudes hear the Gospel; but too many refuse to receive it in the love of it to the salvation of their souls.