May-June - The Gospel Magazine

The Gospel Magazine 79
says, you will gain influence, save souls. If you do not, you will remain obscure,
die out, the Gospel not gain a hearing. What could be more right?
The second meaning in the words, "Command that these stone be made bread",
is not to depend wholly on God. Since God has not taken care of you, not even
giving you bread all this time, He does not care for you. The temptation is the very
same one as came to Adam and Eve in Eden. It is, do not depend on or trust
entirely in God. It is against submission to His heavenly Father. Thus Christ by
refusing is setting the Fall right, succeeding just where Adam fell.
There is still a third hook of temptation concealed in the devil's bait. You, as
Son of God, cannot be limited. Sweep away every difficulty by exercising your
omnipotence. What he fails to add, is the word "selfishly".
The reply is Deuteronomy 8:3: "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." This is the perfect verse to reply,
as in it Moses, in his final speech to Israel, sums up the wilderness wanderings,
so Christ sets right that sorry failure at Massah on Israel's part. The meaning of
the reply is that man is greater than the body, the life is more than meat, bread is
the external provision of God. So our Lord is saying to Satan, "God is able to
provide". This is the great failure of many of us, a distrust of the Lord's provision.
Our real life is dependent upon God, so we are not to separate daily food from the
daily Word of God - both are the same.
How different Bible miracles are from others. Their purpose is to prove that the
Son of God is come. In considering the force of this temptation, remember that
the Lord was uplifted in Spirit by the words from heaven at His baptism, and as
He went up to meet the tempter, he was considering how best to prove to the Jews
that He was Messiah, for He knew they sought an earthly saviour. Thus as a man
He was tossed between trust and despair, in a conflict of mixed emotions. The
devil saw his golden opportunity.
Matthew's Gospel is often called that of the kingdom, and so far Christ had
shown Himself as King. Now as Prophet in His use of Scripture, and as Priest as
in, "By thy baptism, fasting, and temptation, good Lord, deliver us".
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• FOR YOUNGER READERS •
C. MACKENZIE
JEHOVAH SHALOM - THE LORD IS PEACE
OUR world is full of unrest, and war. Every news bulletin tells of bombs, and
violence and hatred. Neither soldiers nor politicians can bring peace to these
terrible situations.