Luke 4:2-4 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungry.… 1. Fasting leads to uninterrupted communion with God. I believe that herein lies the great secret of the often-recurring retirement of our Lord, and of many of His holiest followers. It is a good thing to spend a whole day or days alone with God. It tests a man's spirituality. 2. Fasting breaks in upon our matter-of-course reception of every-day "mercies." 3. Fasting is literally necessary to not a few of God's people.But now turning from fasting in itself to the fasting of the Lord, I ask your attention to six things in it. 1. The fasting was watched. All through the "days forty and nights forty" the tempter's eye was upon Jesus. 2. The fasting was supernatural. This lies on the surface of the record. 3. The fasting was preparative. You remember that the Spirit "led up" the Lord "immediately " (Mark 1:12). The threefold temptation came not until the "forty days" were ended. Clearly that He might be prepared for what awaited Him. 4. The fasting was antitypical. The most cursory reader of Scripture must be struck with the recurrence of certain numbers. I cannot now tarry to dwell upon this. But with reference to "forty," it surely is noticeable that "forty" days was the Old Testament period allotted for repentance. 5. The fasting was for our learning. 6. The fasting of the "nights" suggests imitation in measure. It is noticeable how much of night, even midnight prayer and praise, "with fasting," there is in the Psalms and by Jesus. Thus quaintly and racily does John Downame speak, in his "Guide to Godliness," of the benefit of devotion at bedtime: "Ovens that have been baked in over night are easily heated the next morning. The cask that was well seasoned in the evening will swell the next day. The fire that was well raked up when we went to bed, will be the sooner kindled when we rise. Thus, if in the evening we spend ourselves in the examination of our hearts, how we have spent the time past, and commit ourselves unto the good guidance of God for the time to come, we shall soon find the spiritual warmth thereof making us able and active for all good duties in the morning; and by adding some new fuel to this holy fire, we shall with much facility and comfort cause it to burn and blaze in all Christian and religious duties." (A. B. Grosart, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. |
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