The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 150

a pR.rt. Hence the people from Decapolia, that portion of Syria north of Galilee, eo called because it contained a group of ten cities, the metropolis and most ancient of which was Damascus. (2) Great multitudes from all parts followed him. He deserves the attention of universal man. He deserves the universal attention of the faculties of every man. (3) Those who came for healing bad spiritual instruction. They were like the Syrian of earlier times (2 Kings v. 15, 17). They were like Saul, who, seek- ing the asses, found a kingdom. The kingdom they found was heavenly. Faith gains assurance in the preaching of the King.--,J", A. M. Ver. 1.-The leadings of thA Spirit. Whether we are to understand an impulse Crom Christ's own spirit, or a direction of the Divine indwelling Spirit, need not be disputed, because the two may be regarded as included, and the relation of the one to the other may be shown. The analogy of such verses as Ezek. viii. 3; Acts viii. 39; Rev. i. 10 suggests a state of ecstasy. As Bushnell expresses it," The fact is signified that the Spirit, coming here upon him in the full revelation of his call, raises such a ferment in his bosom of great thoughts and strangely contesting emotfons, that he is hurried away to the wilderness, and the state of privacy before God, for relief and settlement." I. Tm: IMl'ULSB AS A NATURAL BtrGGEBTION. If we place ourselves in our Lord's circumstances, we shall realize that we should have felt and acted precisely as our Lord did. Compare his action when the news came of John Daptist's death. At once he said to his disciples, "Come ye into a desert place, and rest awhile." There is no more natural feeling than the desire for seclusion when the heart is oppressed with groat and anxious thoughts. Illustrate by the impulsive flight of Elijah into the desert of the Tib, by St. Paul's flight into the desert of Arabia, and by our Lord's seek- ing seclusion in Gethsemane. That there was a certain intensity in our Lord's impulse after his ordina.tioii is sufficiently explained by tbe unusual character of the descent of the Spirit on him. We need not hesitate to say that he was moved by his own desires. IL THE IMPULSE AS A DIVINE OVERRULING, God may be in our impulses. Ha often is. He works through them, They are in the Divine sanctifying. This truth is even explicitly stated: "The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit." This, indeed, is the higher truth apprehended by the devout soul, who can see, and is always glad to see, thA Divine in things, God working in what seems, to casual view, merely human work. The difficulty may be suggested, that we may easily be subject to delusions if we follow our impulses. In reply it may be said: 1. There is no danger, if we are open- 10uled, sincere, a.s Jesus was, 2. If we are trustfully seeking Divine guidance, as Jesus was. 3. If we are prepared to use the divinely provided tests, which will reveal any mere self-seeking in our impulses.-R. T. Ver. 1.-The model temptation. All the beet writers bold that, whatever may have been the outward machinery of the temptation, the temptation was really a spiritual struggle. It was no model of our human temptations if it was not. Some have thought that the devil appeared as an old man, and talked with Jesus. But evidently all the things were suggestions to his mind ; the first from the feeling of hunger and the sight of the stones; the others from his anxious thoughts about the modes of executing hie mission. The suggestions themselves were not evil; the sin could only have come by our Lord's yielding to them when l,e knew that they opposed the will of God. It would help us greatly if we could see that suggestion to thCl mind is not sin; our dealing with the suggestion makes the sin. It is, perhaps, better to conceive of the devil here as a personification of the enticing force-of evil suggestion, Suggestion is suggestion of the devil when.soever it is an enticement to WTong, Olehausen says, "The temptation of Jesus took place in the depths of his inward life," in the sphere of bis soul By way of introduction, the probable scene of the temptation may be described, with a view to bringing out the effects of nature on sensitive, poetical minds. lllustrate the influence of the awful silence, and towering mounte.in-forms, of Sinai on Elijah. The Apostle John gives the great world-forces of temptation as "the lust of the flesh, the lust. of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John ii. 16), Read our Lord's temptation hi the light of St. John's terms. L THE LUST OF THI!: FLESH; OB1 THE TEMPTATION THAT OOMEB THROUGH IIAN'B OH. 1v. 1-25.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 141