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reason seems inadequate and none too serious, but stated with understanding it yields
precious truth.
Why was it necessary that Christ should go down into Egypt? Why necessary that He
should be called out of Egypt? The answer is in the name Emmanuel "God with us". He
came in the likeness of sinful flesh into this world of sin and shame, and in the course of
His sinless pilgrimage from cradle to cross, He traversed all the roads that the weary feet
of His people have walked. Tempted as we are tempted, hated, despised, misunderstood,
forsaken, He knows by living sympathy and experience every step of the pathway.
When we read Matt. 2: 15 with anointed eyes, it is seen to be one facet of the
glorious jewel exhibited in Heb. 4: 15, "we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points* tempted as we are, yet
without sin".
[* - See series of articles "Tempted in all points" in The Berean Expositor, Volume 33:]
No.4.
"With us" in temptations.
pp. 231 - 233
A series of articles will be found in Volume XXXIII of The Berean Expositor
devoted to the exposition of the words of Heb. 4: 15, "Tempted in all points like as we
are". The whole series can be considered as a discussion of one aspect of the glorious
purpose enshrined in the title Emmanuel, God with us. It is not our intention to repeat
what we have already published, but to draw the attention of the reader to the aspect of
the lesson which comes before us in the fourth chapter of Matthew. Christ in sympathy
with His people was "called out of Egypt", Christ in fellowship with His people is
tempted in the wilderness.
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.
And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered."
There is a closer relationship in the typical teaching of the wilderness as set over
against Egypt than at first seems apparent. He Who called His Son out of Egypt, called
him into the wilderness.
"The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us; and now let us go, we beseech thee,
three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God"
(Exod. 3: 18).
Many who read the word "wilderness" in the Scriptures conjure up a sandy waterless
desert, but this is not the chief meaning of the word wilderness, although of course some
wilderness or parts of them, may be sandy waterless wastes.