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The public work of Christ followed upon his temptation. "No man can be prepared for any deep vital work in the world who has not come through the devil's school" (Dr. Parker). Let no truth-seeker be dispirited by the severity of his temptations. Consider here -

I. THE MELANCHOLY CONDITION OF THE CHRISTLESS.

1. They sit in darkness.

(1) What a miserable picture! The felon in his dismal dungeon. The traveller benighted in a craggy wild.

(2) Such morally is the condition of the "Gentiles." Shrouded with the triple night of ignorance, superstition, vice. "Galilee of the Gentiles." Twenty cities of Galilee were given by Solomon to Hiram (1 Kings 9:11). Though these were twenty years later restored to Solomon, the Phoenicians would still largely mingle with the Jews there (2 Chronicles 8:2). The Cuthaeans with whom Shalmaneser replaced the Israelites taken into captivity stocked Galilee as well as Samaria proper (2 Kings 17:24). Though under the Maccabees the Jews subdued the Cuthaeans, they did not expel them. "The way of the sea" was a high-road from Syria into Egypt, and Strabo had reason to say that this country was inhabited by Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians.

(3) The Jews in general, and those of Galileo in particular, were woefully degenerate at the time of Christ's coming (John 1:5). There is no deeper darkness than that of apostasy.

2. Their darkness is the "shadow of death.

(1) The death of perdition is called outer darkness." Those involved in it are shut out permanently from the holy universe.

(2) The "shadow" of death is the dominion or influence of the infernal world. It is a synonym for the "power of Satan" (Acts 26:18). The expression is used for the grave, and for the obscure abodes of the departed spirits of the wicked. The state of sin is the very gloom of hell upon earth (comp. Psalm 91:1 with Psalms 107:14).

II. THE SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST AS A SAVIOUR.

1. life is the Messiah of prophecy.

(1) His appearance in Galilee was ignorantly used to discredit this (see John 7:41, 52).

(2) Yet the appearance of Messiah in Galilee was the very thing the prophets required. Matthew cites Isaiah to this effect. Mode refers the first four or five words of the ninth chapter of Isaiah to the last verse of the chapter preceding. In this he is in agreement with the Chaldee Paraphrast and Jerome. He translates the prophet thus: "According as the first time he made vile (or debased) the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; so in the latter times he shall make it glorious." Then follow the words quoted by Matthew, "The way of the sea by Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles," etc. No prophecy of Christ is clearer than this of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:1-7), and it requires that "Galilee" should be the place of his ministry.

(3) Jesus accordingly was brought up at Nazareth, and afterwards resided principally at Capernaum. In Galilee the principal events of his ministry occurred. His birth, indeed, was at Bethlehem of Judah, and his death at Jerusalem, which also agreed to the requirements of prophecy.

2. The Messiah of prophecy is the Saviour of men.

(1) His presence brings light. "The heathen writers," says Eisner, "represented the arrival of some great public benefactor in a place, as a new light sprung up in the midst of darkness." John was a "burning and shining light," but he burned and shined in the fire and light of Christ. Herod imprisoned John, but he could not imprison John's light. No tyrant can imprison sunbeams. He may shut them out; he cannot shut them in.

(2) His light brings life. He shows the way of life. His teaching brings with it the energy of life (John 1:4). His illumination is salvation (Acts 13:47);

(3) He is the Saviour of the whole world. His light is not limited to the Jew, though his mission was first to the Jew (Matthew 15:24). He went to Capernaum "that it might be fulfilled," etc. This is one of those passages which Lord Bacon says, "have a germinant accomplishment." An instalment was fulfilled when Jesus exercised his ministry in Galilee. That ministry there was also a presage of what will yet occur when the "whole earth shall be filled with his glory."

III. THE TERMS OF HIS SALVATION.

1. The first thing is repentance.

(1) The source of true repentance is conviction of sin. This comes to us through the shining of the light of Divine truth. "That which maketh manifest is light." The conscience is rendered sensitive by the quickening beams of Divine truth.

(2) The evidences of a true conviction of sin are

(a) sorrow for sin,

(b) confession of sin,

(c) forsaking of sin.

(3) If we refuse the light it will leave us. Jesus left Nazareth because the people there rejected him. After his temptation Jesus went from Judaea into Galilee (John 1:43; John 2:1). Thence he returned to Judea to celebrate the Passover (John 2:13). Then he baptized in Judaea, while John baptized at AEnon (John 3:22, 23). After the imprisonment of John, Jesus returned to Nazareth. Here the people rejected his testimony and sought to kill him. So he left them (Luke 4:16, 29-31). Beware how you trifle with the Light of life.

(4) Let Capernaum know the day of her visitation. Else, "exalted to heaven" by the presence of Christ, she may be "thrust down to hell" by his absence. Privileges bring responsibilities. The brightest blessings, by misimprovement, are converted into the blackest curses.

2. This repentance is in prospect of the kingdom.

(1) The kingdom of heaven here is the gospel dispensation as opposed to the Mosaic.

(2) It is, moreover, the faithful acceptance of the gospel as opposed to the preparatory repentance (cf. Mark 1:15). Otherwise it is the perfecting of repentance in faith. Faith is here preached, though the term is not used.

(3) Furthermore, the kingdom of heaven here is hearty submission to the rule of Christ;

(a) in the heart (Luke 17:21);

(b) in the life;

(c) at any cost. Jesus took up the preaching of John when John was cast into prison.

It is Christ-like to be baptized for the dead.

(4) Jesus adopted the dispensation of John as "the beginning of his gospel" (see Mark 1:1). There is no true Christian faith without repentance and reformation. - J.A.M.

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KJV: Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

WEB: Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee.