1.
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2.
Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5.
And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9.
And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10.
For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11.
And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12.
And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
14.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15.
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
18, 19. To have fixed on any
passage announcing His sufferings (as ), would have been unsuitable at that early stage of His
ministry. But He selects a passage announcing the sublime object of
His whole mission, its divine character, and His special endowments
for it; expressed in the first person, and so singularly adapted to
the first opening of the mouth in His prophetic capacity, that
it seems as if made expressly for this occasion. It is from the
well-known section of Isaiah's prophecies whose burden is that
mysterious "SERVANT OF THE
LORD," despised of
man, abhorred of the nation, but before whom kings on seeing Him are
to arise, and princes to worship; in visage more marred than any man
and His form than the sons of men, yet sprinkling many nations;
laboring seemingly in vain, and spending His strength for naught and
in vain, yet Jehovah's Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and be
His Salvation to the ends of the earth (, &c.). The quotation is chiefly from the Septuagint
version, used in the synagogues.
19.
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
19. acceptable year—an
allusion to the jubilee year (), a year of universal release for person and
property. (See also Isaiah 49:8;
2 Corinthians 6:2.) As the maladies under
which humanity groans are here set forth under the names of poverty,
broken-heartedness, bondage, blindness, bruisedness (or
crushedness), so, as the glorious HEALER
of all these maladies, Christ announces Himself in the act of reading
it, stopping the quotation just before it comes to "the day of
vengeance," which was only to come on the rejecters of His
message (John 3:17). The first
words, "THE SPIRIT
of the LORD is upon ME,"
have been noted since the days of the Church Fathers, as an
illustrious example of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being
exhibited as in distinct yet harmonious action in the scheme of
salvation.
20.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
20. the minister—the chazan,
or synagogue-officer.
all eyes . . . fastened on
Him—astounded at His putting in such claims.
21.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
21. began to say, &c.—His
whole address was just a detailed application to Himself of this and
perhaps other like prophecies.
22.
And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
22. gracious words—"the
words of grace," referring both to the richness of His matter
and the sweetness of His manner ().
Is not this, &c.—(See
on ). They knew He had
received no rabbinical education, and anything supernatural
they seemed incapable of conceiving.
23.
And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
23. this proverb—like our
"Charity begins at home."
whatsoever, c.—"Strange
rumors have reached our ears of Thy doings at Capernaum but if such
power resides in Thee to cure the ills of humanity, why has none of
it yet come nearer home, and why is all this alleged power reserved
for strangers?" His choice of Capernaum as a place of residence
since entering on public life was, it seems, already well known at
Nazareth; and when He did come thither, to give no displays of His
power when distant places were ringing with His fame, wounded their
pride. He had indeed "laid his hands on a few sick folk and
healed them" (Mark 6:5); but
this seems to have been done quite privately the general unbelief
precluding anything more open.
24.
And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
24. And he said, &c.—He
replies to the one proverb by another, equally familiar, which we
express in a rougher form—"Too much familiarity breeds
contempt." Our Lord's long residence in Nazareth merely as a
townsman had made Him too common, incapacitating them for
appreciating Him as others did who were less familiar with His
everyday demeanor in private life. A most important principle, to
which the wise will pay due regard. (See also , on which our Lord Himself ever acted.)
25.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
25-27. But I tell you,
c.—falling back for support on the well-known examples of Elijah
and Elisha (Eliseus), whose miraculous power, passing by those who
were near, expended itself on those at a distance, yea
on heathens, "the two great prophets who stand at the
commencement of prophetic antiquity, and whose miracles strikingly
prefigured those of our Lord. As He intended like them to feed the
poor and cleanse the lepers, He points to these miracles of mercy,
and not to the fire from heaven and the bears that tore
the mockers" [STIER].
three years and six months—So
James 5:17, including perhaps the
six months after the last fall of rain, when there would be
little or none at any rate whereas in James 5:17, which says the rain returned "in the third year,"
that period is probably not reckoned.
26.
But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
26, 27. save . . . saving—"but
only." (Compare Mark 13:32,
Greek.)
Sarepta—"Zarephath"
(1 Kings 17:9), a heathen village
between Tyre and Sidon. (See 1 Kings 17:9.)
27.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28.
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
28, 29. when they heard these
things—these allusions to the heathen, just as
afterwards with Paul (Acts 22:21;
Acts 22:22).
29.
And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
29. rose up—broke up the
service irreverently and rushed forth.
thrust him—with
violence, as a prisoner in their hands.
brow, c.—Nazareth,
though not built on the ridge of a hill, is in part surrounded by one
to the west, having several such precipices. (See 2 Chronicles 25:12
2 Kings 9:33.) It was a mode of
capital punishment not unusual among the Romans and others. This was
the first insult which the Son of God received, and it came from
"them of His own household!" (2 Kings 9:33).
30.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
30. passing through the midst,
&c.—evidently in a miraculous way, though perhaps quite
noiselessly, leading them to wonder afterwards what spell could have
come over them, that they allowed Him to escape. (Similar escapes,
however, in times of persecution, are not unexampled.)
31.
And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
31. down to Capernaum—It lay
on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:13),
whereas Nazareth lay high.
Matthew 4:13. DEMONIAC
HEALED.
32.
And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33.
And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
33. unclean—The frequency with
which this character of impurity is applied to evil spirits is
worthy of notice.
cried out, c.—(See
Matthew 8:29 Mark 3:11).
34.
Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35.
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36.
And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
36. What a word—a word from
the Lord of spirits.
. PETER'S
MOTHER-IN-LAW AND MANY
OTHERS, HEALED.
(See on .)
37.
And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38.
And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39.
And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40.
Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41.
And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
41. suffered them not to speak—The
marginal reading ("to say that they knew him to be Christ")
here is wrong. Our Lord ever refused testimony from devils, for
the very reason why they were eager to give it, because He and
they would thus seem to be one interest, as His enemies actually
alleged. (See on , c. see
also Acts 16:16-18.)
Acts 16:16-44. JESUS SOUGHT
OUT AT MORNING
PRAYER, AND ENTREATED
TO STAY, DECLINES
FROM THE URGENCY OF
HIS WORK.
See on Acts 16:16-44, where we learn how early He retired, and how He was
engaged in solitude when they came seeking Him.
42.
And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
42. stayed him—"were
staying Him," or sought to do it. What a contrast to the
Gadarenes! The nature of His mission required Him to keep moving,
that all might hear the glad tidings ().
43.
And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
43. I must, &c.—but duty
only could move Him to deny entreaties so grateful to His spirit.
44.
And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.