READING ON LUKE 4
[p. 388] READING ON LUKE 4
Rem I suppose there is some connection between the tracing of the genealogy of the Lord to Adam and the temptation. We see Him coming out in perfection as Man.
JT The temptation brought out His perfection, you mean. The character of the vessel is set before us in the earlier chapters, before His anointing, showing that a heavenly Man was there before the coming of the Spirit. It was not formative work in Christ, the vessel was divine in itself. Whereas, I suppose, in us the work is all by the Spirit. In order to be formed for God, or for service, all takes place after we get the Spirit; but the earlier chapters show that perfection was there in Christ before the anointing. But on entering His path in respect to service it is all by the Spirit, that is, He carried out the divine will in the same power that is given to believers.
Rem He carried it out in the same way, as an obedient Man, not by miraculous power.
Ques Would you not say the first verse gives the thought? He “returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit”.
JT What was your thought in that?
Rem Baptism, accepting death and the ability to withstand the temptation.
JT As has been said, things are not carried out in a miraculous way. He is in the position of obedience, and He does not act in virtue of what He was in His own divine Person, so the path He marks out in this gospel is open to believers. It is the path of a man taking the ground of obedience, led by the Spirit.
Rem So in the end of the gospel the disciples are exhorted, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high”. Luke 24:49.
JT So there was to be a continuation of this heavenly Personage in them, for it is the same power.
Rem I suppose the thought comes out here that it is connected with one’s pathway, whether we move in obedience, dependent on God in respect of the need of temporal things; but that brings in the question, what kind of food a man feeds upon. I suppose it is a man that daily feeds upon manna.
JT That raises a very important consideration, as to what food is for us in this position.
Rem I suppose we get the thought, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me”. John 4:34.
JT That was an entirely new kind of meat for man.
Ques Are believers tempted on the principles of these temptations here with which the Lord was tempted?
JT There would be no doubt about that, each believer is tempted just in this way.
Rem Adam was tempted on the same principles, exactly. Those principles are “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. 1 John 2:16.
Rem I suppose the forty days represent the forty years of the children of Israel travelling through the wilderness.
JT Yes, only as you have undoubtedly noticed, the people were in the wilderness, as has often been pointed out, with God. Whereas here the Lord is in the wilderness with the devil.
Rem And the wild beasts.
Rem He is in it as a Man.
JT The circumstances are calculated to test Him in every way. He has nothing to aid Him from without. He has to act entirely according as to what He is Himself, a perfect Man led by the Spirit. Of [p. 390] course, no ordinary man could ever stand in those circumstances.
Ques You would hardly say the believer goes from Jordan into the wilderness, would you?
JT Not Jordan viewed in the typical way in which the Old Testament presents it. Here it is rather the Red Sea baptism — it is a question of baptism. In the Old Testament Jordan was more than that; the Red Sea was that. Jordan was rather the application of it in the soul in the outward figure. No doubt both appear in the Lord’s case. But in the Old Testament the people pass into the wilderness through the Red Sea.
Rem The Lord was led in the power of the Spirit into the wilderness and He came back in the power of the Spirit. There was no effect upon Him, was there? Nothing had any effect.
JT I think the point in that connection would be that the Lord took up the place of man in obedience, and in the wilderness He acted entirely by the Spirit, so it sets forth a Man in dependence on God, not acting as a divine Person, as John presents Him, but as a Man in dependence and by the Spirit, so the path is opened up to us.
Rem Do you not think we get in all that has gone before in the history of man the same point of attack and the same overthrow? We get it in respect of Adam, with man after the flood, and with Israel in the wilderness, the same order of temptations. And then it comes to Christ who overcomes the one who had the power of evil and overthrows him.
JT In looking at it in that way you see a wonderful testimony as to what Man in Christ really is, what this order of Man really is, without any outward support, everything around Him against Him, and yet He returns in complete triumph as Man.
Ques What is the significance of the temptations coming in before His path of service?
JT [p. 391] To demonstrate publicly what the Man was. The previous chapters show what He was before He was anointed with the Spirit, a Man out of heaven, in His birth He was that; but here it is Man in responsibility, and He describes our path therefore; it is not Christ acting as a divine Person, but acting by the Spirit in man’s place, so it is perfection in a Man, having the Holy Spirit, that we get here.
Rem “A strong man armed keepeth his palace”, but here we have “a stronger than he”. Luke 11:21,22.
JT Yes, “a stronger than he”.
Rem He defeats the strong man in the wilderness, and spoils his goods when He went into the synagogue and cast out the unclean devil.
JT Having bound Satan the Lord is now free to spoil his goods. So the whole gospel in a sense sets forth the Lord spoiling the goods of the enemy.
Rem That would lend great beauty to His service on behalf of men.
Rem He comes out in contrast to the four thousand years that had gone before. There had never been one who could stand for God, and Satan had been able to hold man in opposition against God; but here is One who for the first time could say, “I delight to do thy will” and takes that place in obedience, and full of the Holy Spirit, and here is complete overthrow of the power of evil.
JT Instead of it being irksome to the Lord it was His food.
Rem You said that the path was opened to the believer now. Well, that, of course, involves resurrection, for the believer could not have any power apart from that.
JT Quite so. It involves resurrection, the ascension and the Spirit. He was acting by the Spirit. It says He “was led by the Spirit into the wilderness”. We are endued with the same power.
[p. 392] Rem The believer has the advantage that the strong man has been bound and his power spoiled.
JT You could go further. The strong man has been annulled.
Rem So the believer would not have to meet exactly what the Lord did.
JT It would be impossible for any finite person to face it. Still, the path is set before us, the path of dependence and obedience and the power of the Spirit.
Rem When you speak of the strong man being annulled, yet there is a warfare for the believer, there is fighting.
JT Yes, but he is under the command of a Captain. We are under the Lord’s command. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers”, etc. Ephesians 6:12 — but we are not alone. The position, I think, is unique, but still a pattern position.
Ques Is not that proved by the quotations of the Lord? I think each one is from the book of Deuteronomy, and is not that a book particularly for guidance in the wilderness journey?
JT It is rather a book of preparation for the land. It is written after the wilderness journey is over, on the plains of Moab, that is, it is in that respect a review of the wilderness; but it recalls the law which had been given to them for the wilderness, so in that sense it is a wilderness book; but the teaching of the book is rather to prepare them for the land, because the wilderness journey was over; but I think it only enhances the position here because the Lord quotes from it. Rather than the precepts given for the wilderness, Deuteronomy is really on a higher plane than the previous books for it is a book written for the people after they had the Spirit, not before — that is after the brazen serpent and the springing well, therefore it is on a higher plane. It [p. 393] contemplates life in the christian, so it enhances the position of the Lord.
Rem The brazen serpent, the springing well, evil in high places with Balaam — all that had been gone through. What we come to in Deuteronomy is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27. It is the spirit of the law and, as you say, it is very significant that it is from Deuteronomy all the quotations are made, except by Satan.
JT He cites from Psalm 91.
Rem I have a slight difficulty regarding the strong man having been bound. I suppose the reason you say he is bound is because he does not tempt the Lord again.
JT Yes. He is unable to attack Him on that line again.
Ques If he is bound here, how is it that he succeeds afterwards in putting the Lord out of the world? I thought he was bound at the cross.
JT I think he is not annulled here, he is simply bound. The Lord was able to limit the enemy so he should not interfere with Him in His service. It says “he departed from him for a season”. The enemy was limited, but as the divine way ran its course he is permitted to attack the Lord again in Gethsemane, but with another weapon entirely. It is not a question of attacking the Lord with something outside, but bringing to bear upon Him the power of death.
Rem His kingdom was invaded by the Lord, He undid the works of the devil, He entered his domain and cast out devils, etc. He had no power to interfere with Him, but when the appointed time came he came back to the point at Gethsemane.
JT It is beautiful that the Lord alludes to the food, He delighted to do the will of God. It was more a food of choice than a provided food. God had [p. 394] provided food for man in every position in which man was found. This is a unique kind of food which the Lord seems to take up by way of choice.
Rem I rather thought that what we get here is primarily for God, that is for the pleasure and satisfaction of the heart of God, that He should for the first time have a dependent and obedient Man here who delighted to do His will. He found His food in delighting to do His will, so it introduced a new order of things here upon earth which had never been here before. Here was one perfectly competent to withstand all the power of Satan on the ground of obedience and delighting in the will of God.
Ques Do you think our side comes in in the epistle of James when he writes, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”? James 4:7. We are apt to put it the other way round.
JT I suppose the enemy has no way he can attack us if we are dependent, if we submit ourselves to God. We expose ourselves when we do our own will.
Rem So, as you have said, the Spirit in the believer is really a continuation of the power with which Satan was confronted here in Christ.
JT The early believers were marked by dependence. What could the enemy do against us if we are obedient and dependent?
Rem If one is led by the Spirit, one desires the things of God and will not be tempted.
JT Think of the moral elevation that is set forth here. The Lord deliberately chooses this food, it was not irksome to Him, it was delightful.
Rem “For I do always those things that please him”. John 8:29.
JT In the wilderness God provided a most extraordinary kind of food for [p. 395] the people.
Rem You refer to the manna.
JT It is most remarkable that God should open up heaven to man in order to provide food. It says, “Man did eat angels’ food”, Psalm 48:25 and “God ... had given them of the corn of heaven”. Psalm 78:24. That is, it is a food wholly unknown in the world. In truth, it was a food that only heavenly beings knew about. The Lord said, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”. Matthew 6:10. It is the kind of food that is known there. The Lord introduced that kind of an appetite upon earth. As we feed upon the heavenly manna it produces obedience. If you eat the food of angels you become like them in that respect; they are marked by doing the will of God. No matter what they are sent to do, they do it. So the Lord says, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”. Matthew 6:10. It seems to me that this kind of appetite (I speak reverently) which you see in Christ is an appetite which originated in heaven and it is going to obtain on earth, but it obtains on earth by our feeding upon it. God opened up heaven to the people in the wilderness. The gospels present us with the food of angels — this gospel particularly because it opens with angels and they are occupied with the food, they are occupied with the Lord as become Man. The delight you see in the second chapter shows how interested they were in Christ, they are feeding on Christ.
Remark as to the bread of life.
JT It is the bread of life come down from heaven in order that men should have life. It is a question of appropriating Christ.
Remark as to John 6.
JT I think John 6 is universal; it is food for the life of the world and in a sense it corresponds with the manna. It corresponds in this sense that it is universal. In the wilderness the food was spread around, they could gather it up anywhere.
[p. 396] Ques Have we been given an appetite for this food, or does it have to be cultivated?
JT With us it has to be cultivated, but with the Lord it originated with Him.
Rem We could never have the desire apart from the Spirit. The children of Israel did not like the food, they said, ‘What is this?’ but angels would not have questioned it.
Ques Was the manna and the corn the same?
JT It is the same thing, only in a different character. In each case it is what is in heaven. The manna is simply Christ as you see Him in the gospels, Christ moving about here doing God’s will.
Rem The appetite for manna all comes from feeding upon manna. We could not know what manna is until we feed upon it, and as we feed upon Christ — the obedient, dependent and lowly Man, who perfectly delighted in the will of God, which is all set forth in the gospels — our minds are formed in the Spirit’s power and we get a taste and appreciation of what suits God, and we feed upon the bread of God.
JT It is not in the assembly that we have this food. There is food which is peculiarly in the assembly, but the manna is found in every circumstance of life.
Remark as to Christ in resurrection.
JT Both corn and manna have reference really to the position which we occupy as risen with Christ, but when you think of manna it is not Christ in resurrection, it is Christ here as a Man in the flesh and it is given to us as being in the same position. The Lord has been a Man in our position and He has filled every position which you could fill, in a way.
Rem The old corn of the land is what Christ is in His own sphere..
Rem So to get very far into the eating of manna one has to be greatly taken up with Christ as He is presented in the gospels. And if we go back to the [p. 397] type we find the manna was needful for the welfare of everyone in the camp; it was that with which they began the day, the foundation of their vitality and their walk. If other things came in first — “when the sun waxed hot, it melted” Exodus 16:21 — the manna was gone.
(A number of various remarks followed — not by J.T.)
Ques After the springing well there is no murmuring. What does that mean?
Rem I suppose it is a question of walking in the Spirit.
JT The wilderness journey had done its work. There they had walked with God and God had walked with them, so they were enabled to judge and own what was in their hearts — they had spoken against Moses and against God. When it is all out, when the circumstances of the wilderness have done their work, when everything has been exposed and judged — for it is God walking with you that enables you to judge yourself — then you see in the death of Christ God has judged it for you, so you now recognise the Holy Spirit and disregard the flesh; therefore there is no more murmuring, for murmuring comes from the flesh.
Ques Would that correspond with Romans 7?
JT Then you get the position of the Holy Spirit as indwelling the believer and He is everything to the believer, and the exhortations which are based upon that are in chapter 12 — “... to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. Romans 12:1. So you are not complaining any more, indeed, the will of God is your food.
While the old corn of the land is distinct, yet the Spirit of God uses the word ‘corn’ in regard to the manna. It is called in Psalm 78:24 “corn of heaven”. The corn of heaven was rained from heaven, so evidently it alludes to Christ, only in another position.
[p. 398] Rem In connection with what the Lord quotes here, in Deuteronomy it reads, “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee 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”. Deuteronomy 8:3. The Lord does not quote the first part of this verse.
JT Does that not confirm what we were saying? The whole wilderness journey up to the brazen serpent was for that end, that the people should learn what they were in themselves so they would abandon themselves. When you find out that your heart is really opposed to God, you feel what more can you expect from it, you condemn it and abandon yourself, and now your food is changed.
Rem It was in keeping here that the Lord should not quote anything about humbling, for there was nothing in Him to humble. They were brought to that point.
JT We see the suitability of the Lord quoting from Deuteronomy. He did not have to begin in Exodus 15. He begins where they left off. But before we can arrive at this verse we have to go first through the forty years in the wilderness, so to say.
Rem We find at twelve years of age the same character marks Him.
JT In the Psalms He says, “I was cast upon thee from the womb”. Psalm 22:10. From His birth He was cast upon God..
Ques Would the forty years in the wilderness be the same as the principle of Romans 7?
JT It is analogous to it. It is the period in which you learn what the flesh is. Only Romans 7 deals simply with the law, what the law has done, not the wilderness journey. It is the same effect produced; but there is one beautiful thought in [p. 399] regard to the journey in the wilderness — God was with them and in virtue of that they were able to judge the flesh and abandon it.
Ques What do you make of the second temptation?
JT Would it not be the world and its glory?
Ques Were the fifth and ninth verses actual?
JT We cannot say much about a thing like that; it states it here as an actual fact, as a thing that happened actually.. “The devil, leading him up into a high mountain, shewed him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time”. Literally you could not see all the kingdoms of the world from any high mountain; undoubtedly it has a spiritual nature.
Rem It is wonderful how all this answers to what was put before Adam.
JT The devil is here as one who had gained control in the world and so assumes to have the right to present the kingdoms of the world to the Lord.
Rem He claims a right to give it to whomsoever he would.
Rem I suppose man had given Satan the things of the world.
JT I suppose he had acquired it, the Lord does not dispute his right. While he had acquired it through subtlety still He does not dispute the fact. It had not as yet come out that Satan controlled the kingdoms of the world; it remained for the death of Christ to bring that out fully.
Rem It will be still more evident in antichrist.
Ques How would you say Satan had acquired this right?
JT Through the lusts of men who held the power outwardly. We know if it were a question of right that the things belong to God; but God had not built up the kingdoms of this world.
Rem It is very important for us to understand that, for we are in touch with this very thing every day.
JT [p. 400] God had given dominion to Israel, to David and Solomon, and to Nebuchadnezzar, so the right of the disposal of the created world remains with God, but the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were built up by men and I do not suppose God would lay any claim to them. It was not that God had given them deliberately into Satan’s hands; but Satan had wielded his power and influenced them.
Ques Is it a moral or a literal kingdom?
JT I think what Satan is presenting to the Lord is the kingdoms of this world literally and the glories which attached to them — that which would be enticing to a man of this world, an Alexander or a Napoleon. It is exactly what they were after. It is a new kind of Man here, and His delight was in another direction, His glory was not in that. It was Satan, as it were, playing his best card. There was something great on hand and he would sacrifice everything to bring to pass his object.
Rem To no other one would he have done that.
JT This is only set forth here to show the perfection of Christ as Man, that with all the wonderful temptation that Satan had in his power there was a Man who deliberately refused it.
Rem It is a sorrowful fact that what the Lord refused is what the apostate church in each instance has fallen under.
JT The Lord would not deviate one iota from man’s true position. He says, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”. We are apt to think that the position of man in dependence on God is irksome, but it is full of pleasure when you really understand it.
Rem “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord”. Revelation 11:15.
JT The Lord would not touch the kingdoms of this world. That translation is not correct (A.V. Revelation 11:15.)
[p. 401] God has a world. Satan is dealing with man’s world and he controls; but God has a world.
Ques Why would you say the Lord refused them at this time?
JT I do not think He would take them under any consideration; but in Satan’s eye they were of great value, whereas the Lord’s point is, be they what they may — He does not dispute their value, but He says, ‘I can only worship the Lord My God’. That is man’s place.
Rem He brings in a new order. It is in a sphere where the old order is, but what He brings in is new. When before Pilate He says, “My kingdom is not of this world”. John 18:36.
JT It does not amount to much, the world, but that is not the point; had it been infinitely valuable the Lord would not accept it because He was in man’s place, and in man’s place He would keep. He was Heir to everything that belonged to God, but the kingdoms of this world do not belong to God as they stand, they are built up by man.
Rem The real title is vested in Him, He is the Heir; but He comes meek and lowly, and that sort of a king would never take up the kingdoms of this world. He could not hold them in that character.
Rem So all this order of things came under the judgment of God. There is no question of setting them up. “Now is the judgment of this world”. John 12:31.
Ques What would you say about the first temptation?
JT I think the first is simply our circumstances, our temporal needs; the second, the attractions of the world; the third, the attraction there is for us — for nature — in the assembly. We would naturally alter our circumstances if we could, but the dependent man would say, ‘God has made them’. The Lord here had the power to change, but He refused to [p. 402] choose. The wilderness is an absolute necessity if we are to prove what is in our hearts. There can be no doubt the endeavour to alter our circumstances takes the most of our time.
Rem We would like to reach the purposes of God apart from going through the wilderness.
JT God arranges our circumstances. They are divinely arranged and therefore the great loss here spiritually if we leave them.
Rem Paul went up and up and up from being a great man among the Pharisees until he landed in a prison, and then he said, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content”. Philippians 4:11.
JT When you come to the second temptation it is a question of the world in some form. You may have enough and to spare in regard to your daily needs; therefore you are ready for the world, and if that fails Satan has something in the church for you.
Rem Every principle of evil, every temptation that has ever come before man is summed up in John’s epistle, “The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”. 1 John 2:16. Evil has never been in any form but that it comes under these heads.