For the reasons for our LORD's baptism, see the note on S. Matt. iii. 17, and on S. Mark i. 11.

It was of course on the human nature of our Redeemer, which yet was perfectly one with His Divine nature, that the HOLY GHOST descended, and the object of the Blessed Spirit's descent seems to have been to anoint Him for His work, to make Him, and, to declare Him THE CHRIST, the name which had not as yet been given to Him.

MESSIAH, now by Heaven confess'd

To Israel is manifest:

Therefore rejoice and sing :

Behold Him by the FATHER own'd,
And by the anointing Spirit crown'd,
Our Prophet, Priest, and King.

23 And JESUS Himself began to be about thirty years of age,

This was the age of Joseph when he stood before Pharaoh, and of David when he began to reign,-these were two great types of their GOD and SAVIOUR.

being (as was supposed)

These words," as was supposed," may be understood in two ways: first, as expressing the general, but utterly erroneous, belief, that the LORD JESUS was the Son of Joseph; and secondly, as expressing the fact that our holy Redeemer was by law accounted the Son of S. Joseph, because He was the Son, as He most surely was, of S. Joseph's espoused wife.

the Son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

It may be observed that in S. Matthew's Gospel, (i. 16,) S. Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob: it has generally been thought that Jacob and Heli were brothers, and that one dying without seed, his brother took his wife: the offspring of this marriage, (S. Joseph,) would therefore be the actual son of one, and the legal son of the other.

24 Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,

25 Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the

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son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,

26 Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Judah,

27 Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,

28 Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er,

29 Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi,

30 Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,

31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,

32 Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,

33 Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Judah,

34 Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,

35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,

36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son

of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,

37 Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,

38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of GOD.

These last words, "the son of GOD," are used of course only in the wide sense in which anything might be called the offspring of GOD, inasmuch as He is the Creator of all things.

If we compare this genealogy with that recorded by S. Matthew, we observe that the former traces S. Joseph only to Abraham, perhaps because he was writing in the first instance for the Jews, while S. Luke writing for the Gentiles, traces his descent from Adam. We may also observe that S. Matthew gives us his descent from David through the royal line in Solomon: S. Luke through the Priestly line, in Nathan.

It has sometimes been asked why the Evangelists should have recorded the ancestry of S. Joseph at all, seeing that he was not the father of the MESSIAH. To this, it is a sufficient reply for the humble Christian to say, that we never can give certain reasons for GOD's doings: all we can say is, "He doeth all things well," and blessed be His Name: but we may remark, that these genealogies are an additional proof, of what we are expressly told in many parts of Scripture, that the Virgin Mother of the CHRIST was of the family of David, and therefore that her Son was "the Son of David ;" for we may be well assured that Joseph "being a just man" (so GOD Himself calls him, S. Matt. i. 19) would have sought a wife of his own tribe and family as was ordered by the law of Moses.

CHAPTER IV.

1 And JESUS being full of the HOLY GHOST returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

"Full of the HOLY GHOST:" this may mean visibly and manifestly full, even as He had ever been invisibly and inwardly full, yea, one with the Eternal Spirit.

Consider here the difference between leading into trial on GOD's part and on Satan's. Our FATHER wills His children to be tried, in order that, through Him, they may have victory and triumph; but the object of the enemy of GOD and man, when he tempts men is, that GOD's purpose of love and mercy may be defeated and His creatures ruined.

2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered.

"He hungered," and by hungering He gave the tempter the opportunity which he sought.

During forty days the human nature of the Blessed JESUS was divinely sustained: at the end of those days He permitted the sustaining power to hide itself, as it were, and so the sinless humanity in which He hungered, though in truth never separated from the Divine Nature, was left, as we may say, to its own strength; for, as Man, He was to gain this victory, and not as GOD.

3 And the devil said unto Him, If Thou be the SON of GOD, command this stone that it be made bread.

Satan here, by pretended kindness tried to find out the real nature of our blessed SAVIOUR: he knew that One was to come Who would bruise his own head; he had heard a little while before the Voice of the FATHER proclaiming His well-beloved SON; he had seen the Spirit descending like a dove and abiding on Him; but he could not understand how the Son of GOD could

be an hungered: while then he sought to find out whether man's great Deliverer had really come, he combined with this object, the endeavour to lead one, who might prove, as he thought, only a good man, such as Moses, (Ex. xxiv. 18,) or it might be a prophet, such as Elijah, (1 Kings xix. 8,) into sin, into the sin of distrusting God's love and providence.

4 And JESUS answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of GOD.

Our LORD's answer may be taken to mean, "The true life of man is in his soul, that life is sustained not by mere bread, but by trusting obedience to GOD's every word; on Him therefore I will rest."

5 And the devil, taking Him up into an high mountain, showed 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.

The tempter having failed to lead the Holy One into sin by means of bodily appetite, now tried by worldly ambition.

Observe in these verses, how Satan, unwittingly, perhaps, owns that there is One greater and mightier than himself, that One Who, as he said, had delivered the world to him. But the question arises, in what sense did the kingdoms of this world belong to Satan, seeing that, in the fullest sense, "the earth is the LORD's, and all that therein is ?" And the answer appears to be, earthly things belong to Satan so far as GOD's curse is resting upon them; and, as temptations, he is allowed to use them: hence he is called "the Prince," and "God" of this world. S. John xii. 31; xiv. 30; 2 Cor. iv. 4.

But it may be also that the evil one, being still ignorant of our LORD's true nature, and desirous to find it out, is trying, by using such language, to make himself appear to be God.

"If Thou wilt worship me" means, "if Thou wilt kneel down,