4 But he made answer and said, It is in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need, but every word which comes out of the mouth of God.
And he made low your pride and let you be without food and gave you manna for your food, a thing new to you, which your fathers never saw; so that he might make it clear to you that bread is not man's only need, but his life is in every word which comes out of the mouth of the Lord.
And Jesus made answer to him, It has been said in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need.
Our fathers had the manna in the waste land, as the Writings say, He gave them bread from heaven. Jesus then said to them, Truly I say to you, What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is the bread which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Ah, Lord, they said, give us that bread for ever! And this was the answer of Jesus: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be in need of food, and he who has faith in me will never be in need of drink. But it is as I said to you: you have seen me, and still you have no faith. Whatever the Father gives to me will come to me; and I will not send away anyone who comes to me. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my pleasure, but the pleasure of him who sent me. And this is the pleasure of him who sent me, that I am not to let out of my hands anything which he has given me, but I am to give it new life on the last day. This, I say, is my Father's pleasure, that everyone who sees the Son and has faith in him may have eternal life: and I will take him up on the last day. Now the Jews said bitter things about Jesus because of his words, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we have seen? How is it then that he now says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus made answer and said, Do not say things against me, one to another. No man is able to come to me if the Father who sent me does not give him the desire to come: and I will take him up from the dead on the last day. The writings of the prophets say, And they will all have teaching from God. Everyone whose ears have been open to the teaching of the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only he who is from God, he has seen the Father. Truly I say to you, He who has faith in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers took the manna in the waste land--and they are dead. The bread which comes from heaven is such bread that a man may take it for food and never see death. I am the living bread which has come from heaven: if any man takes this bread for food he will have life for ever: and more than this, the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews had an angry discussion among themselves, saying, How is it possible for this man to give us his flesh for food? Then Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you do not take the flesh of the Son of man for food, and if you do not take his blood for drink, you have no life in you. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day. My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink is in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I have life because of the Father, even so he who takes me for his food will have life because of me. This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever. Jesus said these things in the Synagogue while he was teaching at Capernaum.
Now those things which were put down in writing before our time were for our learning, so that through quiet waiting and through the comfort of the holy Writings we might have hope.
The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value: the words which I have said to you are spirit and they are life.
Lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw a great number of people coming to where he was, and he said to Philip, Where may we get bread for all these people? This he said, testing him: for he had no doubt what he himself would do. Philip made answer, Bread to the value of two hundred pence would not be enough even to give everyone a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus, There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number? Jesus said, Let the people be seated. Now there was much grass in that place. And those seated on the grass were about five thousand. Then Jesus took the cakes and having given praise to God, he gave them to the people who were seated, and the fishes in the same way, as much as they had need of. And when they had had enough, Jesus said to his disciples, Take up the broken bits which are over, so that nothing may be wasted. So they took them up: twelve baskets full of broken bits of the five cakes which were over after the people had had enough. And when the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world. Now when Jesus saw that the people were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he went away again up the mountain by himself.
And the children of Israel had manna for their food for forty years, till they came to a land with people in it, till they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.
Jesus said to him, Again it is in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test.
And take salvation for your head-dress and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Then said Jesus to him, Away, Satan: for it is in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God and be his servant only.
And his disciples said in answer, How will it be possible to get enough bread for these men here in a waste place? And he put the question, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes. And he made the people be seated on the earth: and he took the seven cakes and, having given praise, he gave the broken bread to his disciples to put before them; and they put it before the people. And they had some small fishes; and blessing them he had them put before the people in the same way. And they took the food, and had enough; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken bits. And there were about four thousand people: and he sent them away.
And Moses said, The Lord will give you meat for your food at evening, and in the morning bread in full measure; for your outcry against the Lord has come to his ears: for what are we? your outcry is not against us but against the Lord.
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? for they had no idea what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given you for your food.
But Jesus said to them, There is no need for them to go away; give them food yourselves. And they say to him, We have here but five cakes of bread and two fishes. And he said, Give them to me. And he gave orders for the people to be seated on the grass; and he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing, and made division of the food, and gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people. And they all took of the food and had enough: and they took up twelve baskets full of broken bits which were not used. And those who had food were about five thousand men, in addition to women and children.
And Jesus in answer said to him, It has been said in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God, and be his servant only.
Then she said, By the life of the Lord your God, I have nothing but a little meal in my store, and a drop of oil in the bottle; and now I am getting two sticks together so that I may go in and make it ready for me and my son, so that we may have a meal before our death. And Elijah said to her, Have no fear; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and come and give it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: The store of meal will not come to an end, and the bottle will never be without oil, till the day when the Lord sends rain on the earth. So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and her family had food for a long time. The store of meal did not come to an end, and the bottle was never without oil, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elijah.
Now a man came from Baal-shalishah with an offering of first-fruits for the man of God, twenty barley cakes and garden fruit in his bag. And he said, Give these to the people for food. But his servant said, How am I to put this before a hundred men? But he said, Give it to the people for food; for the Lord says, There will be food for them and some over. So he put it before them, and they had a meal and there was more than enough, as the Lord had said.
Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the Lord says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good meal will be offered for the price of a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the market-place of Samaria. Then the captain whose arm was supporting the king said to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he said, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a taste of the food.
How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures, there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to get fifty vessels full, there were only twenty. And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned to me, says the Lord. And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give thought to it. Is the seed still in the store-house? have the vine and the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive-tree, still not given their fruit? from this day I will send my blessing on you.
And he said to them, How much bread have you? go and see. And when they had seen, they said, Five cakes of bread and two fishes. And he made them all be seated in groups on the green grass. And they were placed in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing over them; and when the cakes were broken, he gave them to the disciples to put before the people; and he made division of the two fishes among them all. And they all took of the food and had enough. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken bits and of the fishes. And those who took of the bread were five thousand men.
You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation. Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so, says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that there is no room for it. And on your account I will keep back the locusts from wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of armies
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Matthew 4
Commentary on Matthew 4 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 4
John Baptist said concerning Christ, He must increase, but I must decrease; and so it proved. For, after John had baptized Christ, and borne his testimony to him, we hear little more of his ministry; he had done what he came to do, and thenceforward there is as much talk of Jesus as ever there had been of John. As the rising Sun advances, the morning star disappears. Concerning Jesus Christ we have in this chapter,
Mat 4:1-11
We have here the story of a famous duel, fought hand to hand, between Michael and the dragon, the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, nay, the serpent himself; in which the seed of the woman suffers, being tempted, and so has his heel bruised; but the serpent is quite baffled in his temptations, and so has his head broken; and our Lord Jesus comes off a Conqueror, and so secures not only comfort, but conquest at last, to all his faithful followers. Concerning Christ's temptation, observe,
Christ was led to be tempted of the Devil, and of him only. Others are tempted, when they are drawn aside of their own lust and enticed (Jam. 1:14); the Devil takes hold of that handle, and ploughs with that heifer; but our Lord Jesus had no corrupt nature, and therefore he was led securely, without any fear or trembling, as a champion into the field, to be tempted purely by the Devil.
Now Christ's temptation is,
Observe the subtlety of the tempter, in joining this first temptation with what went before to make it the stronger.
This answer, as all the rest, is taken out of the book of Deuteronomy, which signifies the second law, and in which there is very little ceremonial; the Levitical sacrifices and purifications could not drive away Satan, though of divine institution, much less holy water and the sign of the cross, which are of human invention; but moral precepts and evangelical promises, mixed with faith, these are mighty, through God, for the vanquishing of Satan. This is here quoted from Deu. 8:3, where the reason given why God fed the Israelites with manna is, because he would teach them that man shall not live by bread alone. This Christ applies to his own case. Israel was God's son, whom he called out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1), so was Christ (ch. 2:15); Israel was then in a wilderness, Christ was so now, perhaps the same wilderness. Now,
Now in this second attempt we may observe,
Now in this temptation we may observe,
Observe,
If Christ should cast himself down, it would be the tempting of God,
In this temptation, we may observe,
Now the issue was glorious, and much to Christ's honour: for,
Christ was thus succoured after the temptation,
Mat 4:12-17
We have here an account of Christ's preaching in the synagogues of Galilee, for he came into the world to be a Preacher; the great salvation which he wrought out, he himself began to publish (Heb. 2:3) to show how much his heart was upon it, and ours should be.
Several passages in the other gospels, especially in that of St. John, are supposed, in the order of the story of Christ's life, to intervene between his temptation and his preaching in Galilee. His first appearance after his temptation, was when John Baptist pointed to him, saying, Behold the Lamb of God, Jhn. 1:29. After that, he went up to Jerusalem, to the passover (John 2), discoursed with Nicodemus (John 3), with the woman of Samaria (John 4), and then returned into Galilee, and preached there. But Matthew, having had his residence in Galilee, begins his story of Christ's public ministry with his preaching there, which here we have an account of. Observe,
But he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which was a city of Galilee, but many miles distant from Nazareth, a great city and of much resort. It is said here to be on the sea coast, not the great sea, but the sea of Tiberias, an inland water, called also the lake of Gennesaret. Close by the falling of Jordan into the sea stood Capernaum, in the tribe of Naphtali, but bordering upon Zebulun; hither Christ came, and here he dwelt. Some think that his father Joseph had a habitation here, others that he took a house or lodgings at least; and some think it more than probable, that he dwelt in the house of Simon Peter; however, here he fixed not constantly, for he went about doing good; but this was for some time his head quarters: what little rest he had, was here; here he had a place, though not a place of his own, to lay his head on. And at Capernaum, it should seem, he was welcome, and met with better entertainment than he had at Nazareth. Note, If some reject Christ, yet others will receive him, and bid him welcome. Capernaum is glad of Nazareth's leavings. If Christ's own countrymen be not gathered, yet he will be glorious. "And thou, Capernaum, has now a day of it; thou art now lifted up to heaven; be wise for thyself, and know the time of thy visitation.'
The places are spoken of, v. 15. The land of Zebulun is rightly said to be by the sea coast, for Zebulun was a haven of ships, and rejoiced in her going out, Gen. 49:13; Deu. 33:18. Of Naphtali, it had been said, that he should give goodly words (Gen. 49:21), and should be satisfied with favour (Deu. 33:23), for from him began the gospel; goodly words indeed, and such as bring to a soul God's satisfying favour. The country beyond Jordan is mentioned likewise, for there we sometimes find Christ preaching, and Galilee of the Gentiles, the upper Galilee to which the Gentiles resorted for traffic, and where they were mingled with the Jews; which intimates a kindness in reserve for the poor Gentiles. When Christ came to Capernaum, the gospel came to all those places round about; such diffusive influences did the Sun of righteousness cast.
Now, concerning the inhabitants of these places, observe,
Observe, the light sprang up to them; they did not go to seek it, but were prevented with the blessings of this goodness. It came upon them ere they were aware, at the time appointed, by the disposal of him who commandeth the morning, and causes the day-spring to know its place, that it may take hold of the ends of the earth, Job 38:12, 13.
The subject which Christ dwelt upon now in his preaching (and it was indeed the sum and substance of all his preaching), was the very same John has preached upon (ch. 3:2); Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; for the gospel is the same for substance under various dispensations; the commands the same, and the reasons to enforce them the same; an angel from heaven dares not preach any other gospel (Gal. 1:8), and will preach this, for it is the everlasting gospel. Fear God, and, by repentance, give honour to him, Rev. 14:6, 7. Christ put a great respect upon John's ministry, when he preached to the same purport that John had preached before him. By this he showed that John was his messenger and ambassador; for when he brought the errand himself, it was the same that he had sent by him. Thus did God confirm the word of his messenger, Isa. 44:26. The Son came on the same errand that the servants came on (ch. 21:37), to seek fruit, fruits meet for repentance. Christ had lain in the bosom of the Father, and could have preached sublime notions of divine and heavenly things, that should have alarmed and amused the learned world, but he pitches upon this old, plain text, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 4:18-22
When Christ began to preach, he began to gather disciples, who should now be the hearers, and hereafter the preachers, of his doctrine, who should now be witnesses of his miracles, and hereafter concerning them. Now, in these verses, we have an account of the first disciples that he called into fellowship with himself.
And this was an instance,
Now we may observe here,
Mat 4:23-25
See here,
Three general words are here used to intimate this; he healed every sickness, noson, as blindness, lameness, fever, dropsy; every disease, or languishing, malakian, as fluxes and consumptions; and all torments, basanous, as gout, stone, convulsions, and such like torturing distempers; whether the disease was acute or chronical; whether it was a racking or a wasting disease; none was too bad, none too hard, for Christ to heal with a word's speaking.
Three particular diseases are specified; the palsy, which is the greatest weakness of the body; lunacy, which is the greatest malady of the mind, and possession of the Devil, which is the greatest misery and calamity of both, yet Christ healed all: for he is the sovereign Physician both of soul and body, and has command of all diseases.
Now concerning the cures which Christ wrought, let us, once for all, observe the miracle, the mercy, and the mystery, of them.