Matthew 4 1 11 commentary

MATTHEW 4 1-11 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to
be tempted by the devil.
BAR ES, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - Led up by the Spirit. Luke says
Luk_4:1 that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit;” and it was by his influence, therefore,
that he went into the desert to be tempted. It was not done by presumption on the part
of Jesus, nor was it for a mere display of his power in resisting temptation; but it was
evidently that it might be seen that his holiness was such that he could not be seduced
from allegiance to God. When the first Adam was created he was subjected to the
temptation of the devil, and he fell and involved the race in ruin: it was not improper
that the second Adam - the Redeemer of the race - should be subjected to temptation, in
order that it might be seen that there was no power that could alienate him from God;
that there was a kind and a degree of holiness which no art or power could estrange from
allegiance. Mark Mar_1:12 says that this occurred “immediately” after his baptism; that
is, in his case, as not unfrequently happens, the great temptation followed immediately
the remarkable manifestation of the divine approbation and favor. In the clearest
manifestations of the divine favor to us we may not be far from most powerful
temptations, and then may be the time when it is necessary to be most carefully on our
guard.
Into the wilderness - See the notes at Mat_3:1.
To be tempted - The word “tempt,” in the original, means to try, to endeavor, to
attempt to do a thing; then, to try the nature of a thing, as metals by fire; then, to test
moral qualities by trying them, to see how they will endure; then, to endeavor to draw
people away from virtue by suggesting motives to evil. This is the meaning here, and this
is now the established sense of the word in the English language.
The devil - This word originally means an adversary, or an accuser; then, any one
opposed to us; then, an enemy of any kind. It is given in the Scriptures, by way of
eminence, to the leader of evil angels - a being characterized as full of subtlety, envy, art,
and hatred of mankind. He is known, also, by the name Satan, Job_1:6-12; Mat_12:26;
Beelzebub, Mat_12:24; the old Serpent, Rev_12:9; and the Prince of the power of the air,
Eph_2:2. The name is once given to women 1Ti_3:11; “Even so must their wives be
grave, not slanderers;” in the original, devils.
CLARKE, "

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - This transaction appears to have taken
place immediately after Christ’s baptism; and this bringing up of Christ was through the
influence of the Spirit of God; that Spirit which had rested upon him in his baptism.
To be tempted - The first act of the ministry of Jesus Christ was a combat with
Satan. Does not this receive light from Gen_3:17. I will put enmity between the woman’s
seed and thy seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
GILL, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit,.... The Evangelist having finished his
account of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ; of his ministry and baptism; and
particularly of the baptism of Christ; when the Holy Ghost came down upon him in a
visible and eminent manner; whereby he was anointed for his public work, according to
Isa_61:1 proceeds to give a narration of his temptations by Satan, which immediately
followed his baptism; and of those conflicts he had with the enemy of mankind before he
entered on his public ministry. The occasion, nature, and success of these temptations
are here related. The occasion of them, or the opportunity given to the tempter, is
spoken of in this and the following verse. In this may be observed the action of the Spirit
in and upon Christ; he
was led of the Spirit: by "the Spirit" is meant the same spirit of God, which had
descended and lighted on him in a bodily shape, with the gifts and graces of which he
was anointed, in an extraordinary manner, for public service; of which he was "full",
Luk_4:1 not but that he was endowed with the Holy Ghost before which he received
without measure from his Father; but now this more eminently and manifestly appeared
and by this Spirit was he led; both the Syriac and the Persic versions read, "by the holy
Spirit". Being "led" by him, denotes an internal impulse of the Spirit in him, stirring him
up, and putting him upon going into the wilderness: and this impulse being very strong
and vehement, another Evangelist thus expresses it; "the Spirit driveth him, εκβαλλει
thrusts him forth into the wilderness", Mar_1:12 though not against his will; to which
was added an external impulse, or outward rapture, somewhat like that action of the
Spirit on Philip. Act_8:39. When he is said to be led up, the meaning is, that he was led
up from the low parts of the wilderness, where he was, to the higher and mountainous
parts thereof, which were desolate and uninhabited. The place where he was led was
"into the wilderness", i.e. of Judea, into the more remote parts of it; for he was before in
this wilderness, where John was preaching and baptizing; but in that part of it which
was inhabited. There was another part which was uninhabited, but by "wild beasts" and
here Christ was led, and with these he was, Mar_1:13 all alone, retired from the company
of men; could have no assistance from any, and wholly destitute of any supply: so that
Satan had a fair opportunity of trying his whole strength upon him; having all
advantages on his side he could wish for. The end of his being led there, was
to be tempted of the devil: by "the devil" is meant "Satan" the prince of devils, the
enemy of mankind, the old serpent, who has his name here from accusing and
calumniating; so the Syriac calls him ‫קרצא‬ ‫,אכל‬ the accuser, or publisher of accusations.
He was the accuser of God to men, and is the accuser of men to God; his principal
business is to tempt, and Christ was brought here to be tempted by him, that he might
be tried before he entered on his public work; that he might be in all things like unto his
brethren; that he might have a heart as man, as well as power, as God, to succour them
that are tempted; and that Satan, whose works he came to destroy, might have a

specimen of his power, and expect, in a short time, the ruin of his kingdom by him. The
time when this was done was "then"; when Jesus had been baptized by John; when the
Holy Ghost descended on him, and he was full of it; when he had such a testimony from
his Father of his relation to him, affection for him, and delight in him; "then" was he led,
"immediately", as Mark says, Mar_1:12. As soon as all this was done, directly upon this,
he was had into the wilderness to be tempted by and to combat with Satan; and so it
often is, that after sweet communion with God in his ordinances, after large discoveries
of his love and interest in him follow sore temptations, trials, and exercises. There is a
very great resemblance and conformity between Christ and his people in these things.
HE RY, "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,
I. The time when it happened: Then; there is an emphasis laid upon that. Immediately
after the heavens were opened to him, and the Spirit descended on him, and he was
declared to be the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, the next news we hear of
him is, he is tempted; for then he is best able to grapple with the temptation. Note, 1.
Great privileges, and special tokens of divine favour, will not secure us from being
tempted. Nay, 2. After great honours put upon us, we must expect something that is
humbling; as Paul has a messenger of Satan sent to buffer him, after he had been in the
third heavens. 3. God usually prepares his people for temptation before he calls them to
it; he gives strength according to the day, and, before a sharp trial, gives more than
ordinary comfort. 4. The assurance of our sonship is the best preparative for temptation.
If the good Spirit witness to our adoption, that will furnish us with an answer to all the
suggestions of the evil spirit, designed either to debauch or disquiet us.
Then, when he was newly come from a solemn ordinance, when he was baptized, then
he was tempted. Note, After we have been admitted into the communion of God, we
must expect to be set upon by Satan. The enriched soul must double its guard. When
thou has eaten and art full, then beware. Then, when he began to show himself publicly
to Israel, then he was tempted, so as he never had been while he lived in privacy. Note,
The Devil has a particular spite at useful persons, who are not only good, but given to do
good, especially at their first setting out. It is the advice of the Son of Sirach
(Ecclesiasticus 2:1), My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for
temptation. Let young ministers know what to expect, and arm accordingly.
II. The place where it was; in the wilderness; probably in the great wilderness of Sinai,
where Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, for no part of the wilderness of Judea was so
abandoned to wild beasts as this is said to have been, Mar_1:13. When Christ was
baptized, he did not go to Jerusalem, there to publish the glories that had been put upon
him, but retired into a wilderness. After communion with God, it is good to be private
awhile, lest we lose what we have received, in the crowd and hurry of worldly business.
Christ withdrew into the wilderness, 1. To gain advantage to himself. Retirement gives
an opportunity for meditation an communion with God; even they who are called to the
most active life must yet have their contemplative hours, and must first find time to be
alone with God. Those are not fit to speak of the things of God in public to others, who
have not first conversed with those things in secret by themselves. When Christ would
appear as a Teacher come from God, it shall not be said of him, “He is newly come from
travelling, he has been abroad, and has seen the world;” but, “He is newly come out of

the desert, he has been alone conversing with God and his own heart.” 2. To give
advantage to the tempter, that he might have a readier access to him than he could have
had in company. Note, Though solitude is a friend to a good heart, yet Satan knows how
to improve it against us. Woe to him that is alone. Those who, under pretence of sanctity
and devotion, retire into dens and deserts, find that they are not out of reach of their
spiritual enemies, and that there they want the benefit of the communion with saints.
Christ retired, (1.) To make his victory the more illustrious, he gave the enemy sun and
wind on his side, and yet baffled him. He might give the Devil advantage, for the prince
of this world had nothing in him; but he has in us, and therefore we must pray not to be
led into temptation, and must keep out of harm's way. (2.) That he might have an
opportunity to do his best himself, that he might be exalted in his own strength; for so it
was written, I have trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me.
Christ entered the lists without a second.
III. The preparatives for it, which were two.
1. He was directed to the combat; he did not wilfully thrust himself upon it, but he was
led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the Devil. The Spirit that descended upon him like a
dove made him meek, and yet made him bold. Note, Our care must be, not to enter into
temptation; but if God, by his providence, order us into circumstances of temptation for
our trial, we must not think it strange, but double our guard. Be strong in the Lord,
resist stedfast in the faith, and all shall be well. If we presume upon our own strength,
and tempt the devil to tempt us, we provoke God to leave us to ourselves; but,
whithersoever God leads us, we may hope he will go along with us, and bring us off more
than conquerors.
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, (1.) An instance of his own condescension and
humiliation. Temptations are fiery darts, thorns in the flesh, buffetings, siftings,
wrestlings, combats, all which denote hardship and suffering; therefore Christ
submitted to them, because he would humble himself, in all things to be made like unto
his brethren; thus he gave his back to the smiters. (2.) An occasion of Satan's confusion.
There is no conquest without a combat. Christ was tempted, that he might overcome the
tempter. Satan tempted the first Adam, and triumphed over him; but he shall not always
triumph, the second Adam shall overcome him and lead captivity captive. (3.) Matter of
comfort to all the saints. In the temptation of Christ it appears, that our enemy is subtle,
spiteful, and very daring in his temptations; but it appears withal, that he is not
invincible. Though he is a strong man armed, yet the Captain of our salvation is
stronger than he. It is some comfort to us to think that Christ suffered, being tempted;
for thus it appears that temptations, if not yielded to, are not sins, they are afflictions
only, and such as may be pleased. And we have a High Priest who knows, by experience,
what it is to be tempted, and who therefore is the more tenderly touch with the feelings
of our infirmities in an hour of temptation, Heb_2:18; Heb_4:15. But it is much more a
comfort to think that Christ conquered, being tempted, and conquered for us; not only
that the enemy we grapple with is a conquered, baffled, disarmed enemy, but that we are
interested in Christ's victory over him, and through him are more than conquerors.
2. He was dieted for the combat, as wrestlers, who are temperate in all things (1Co_
9:25); but Christ beyond any other, for he fasted forty days and forty nights, in
compliance with the type and example of Moses the great lawgiver, and of Elias, the

great reformer, of the Old Testament. John Baptist came as Elias, in those things that
were moral, but not in such things as were miraculous (Joh_10:41); that honour was
reserved for Christ. Christ needed not to fast for mortification (he had no corrupt desires
to be subdued); yet he fasted, (1.) That herein he might humble himself, and might seem
as one abandoned, whom no man seeketh after. (2.) That he might give Satan both
occasion and advantage against him; and so make his victory over him the more
illustrious. (3.) That he might sanctify and recommend fasting to us, when God in his
providence calls to it, or when we are reduced to straits, and are destitute of daily food,
or when it is requisite for the keeping under of the body, or the quickening of prayer,
those excellent preparatives for temptation. If good people are brought low, if they want
friends and succours, this may comfort them, that their Master himself was in like
manner exercised. A man may want bread, and yet be a favourite of heaven, and under
the conduct of the Spirit. The reference which the Papists make of their lent-fast to this
fasting of Christ forty days, is a piece of foppery and superstition which the law of our
land witnesses against, Stat. 5 Eliz. chap. 5 sect. 39, 40. When he fasted forty days he
was never hungry; converse with heaven was instead of meat and drink to him, but he
was afterwards an hungred, to show that he was really and truly Man; and he took
upon him our natural infirmities, that he might atone for us. Man fell by eating, and that
way we often sin, and therefore Christ was an hungred.
IV. The temptations themselves. That which Satan aimed at, in all his temptations, was,
to bring him to sin against God, and so to render him for ever incapable of being a
Sacrifice for the sins of others. Now, whatever the colours were, that which he aimed at
was, to bring him, 1. To despair of his Father's goodness. 2. To presume upon his
Father's power. 3. To alienate his Father's honour, by giving it to Satan. In the two
former, that which he tempted him to, seemed innocent, and therein appeared the
subtlety of the tempter; in the last, that which he tempted him with, seemed desirable.
The two former are artful temptations, which there was need of great wisdom to
discern; the last was a strong temptation, which there was need of great resolution to
resist; yet he was baffled in them all.
JAMISO , "Mat_4:1-11. Temptation of Christ. ( = Mar_1:12, Mar_1:13; Luk_4:1-13).
Then — an indefinite note of sequence. But Mark’s word (Mar_1:12) fixes what we
should have presumed was meant, that it was “immediately” after His baptism; and with
this agrees the statement of Luke (Luk_4:1).
was Jesus led up — that is, from the low Jordan valley to some more elevated spot.
of the Spirit — that blessed Spirit immediately before spoken of as descending upon
Him at His baptism, and abiding upon Him. Luke, connecting these two scenes, as if the
one were but the sequel of the other, says, “Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned
from Jordan, and was led,” etc. Mark’s expression has a startling sharpness about it -
“Immediately the Spirit driveth Him” (Mar_1:12), “putteth,” or “hurrieth Him forth,” or
“impelleth Him.” (See the same word in Mar_1:43; Mar_5:40; Mat_9:25; Mat_13:52;
Joh_10:4). The thought thus strongly expressed is the mighty constraining impulse of
the Spirit under which He went; while Matthew’s more gentle expression, “was led up,”
intimates how purely voluntary on His own part this action was.
into the wilderness — probably the wild Judean desert. The particular spot which
tradition has fixed upon has hence got the name of Quarantana or Quarantaria, from
the forty days - “an almost perpendicular wall of rock twelve or fifteen hundred feet
above the plain” [Robinson, Palestine]. The supposition of those who incline to place the
temptation amongst the mountains of Moab is, we think, very improbable.

to be tempted — The Greek word (peirazein) means simply to try or make proof of;
and when ascribed to God in His dealings with men, it means, and can mean no more
than this. Thus, Gen_22:1, “It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham,” or put his
faith to a severe proof. (See Deu_8:2). But for the most part in Scripture the word is
used in a bad sense, and means to entice, solicit, or provoke to sin. Hence the name here
given to the wicked one - “the tempter” (Mat_4:3). Accordingly “to be tempted” here is
to be understood both ways. The Spirit conducted Him into the wilderness simply to
have His faith tried; but as the agent in this trial was to be the wicked one, whose whole
object would be to seduce Him from His allegiance to God, it was a temptation in the
bad sense of the term. The unworthy inference which some would draw from this is
energetically repelled by an apostle (Jam_1:13-17).
of the devil — The word signifies a slanderer - one who casts imputations upon
another. Hence that other name given him (Rev_12:10), “The accuser of the brethren,
who accuseth them before our God day and night.” Mark (Mar_1:13) says, “He was forty
days tempted of Satan,” a word signifying an adversary, one who lies in wait for, or sets
himself in opposition to another. These and other names of the same fallen spirit point
to different features in his character or operations. What was the high design of this?
First, as we judge, to give our Lord a taste of what lay before Him in the work He had
undertaken; next, to make trial of the glorious equipment for it which He had just
received; further, to give Him encouragement, by the victory now to be won, to go
forward spoiling principalities and powers, until at length He should make a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in His cross: that the tempter, too, might get a taste,
at the very outset, of the new kind of material in man which he would find he had here to
deal with; finally, that He might acquire experimental ability “to succor them that are
tempted” (Heb_2:18). The temptation evidently embraced two stages: the one
continuing throughout the forty days’ fast; the other, at the conclusion of that period.
TRAPP, "Ver. 1. Then was Jesus led up] Lest haply the people, hearing that
testimony from heaven, should come and take him by force to make him a king, as
John 6:15; to try their love also to him, who was thus overclouded as the sun in his
first rising.
Led up of the Spirit] The better to fit him thereby for the ministry. Luther
observed of himself, that when God was about to set him upon any SPECIAL
service, he either laid some fit of sickness upon him beforehand, or turned Satan
loose upon him; who so buffeted him (again) by his temptations, ut nec calor, nec
sanguis, nec sensus, nec vex superesset, that neither heat, nor blood, nor sense, nor
voice remained: the very venom of the temptations drank up his spirit, and his
body seemed dead, as Justus Jonas, that was by and saw it, reported of him in his
epistle to Melancthon. {a} Hence also it was that in his sermons God gave him such
a grace, saith Mr. Foxe, that when he preached, they that heard him thought, every
one, his own temptation to be severally touched and noted. Whereof when
signification was given unto him by his friends, and he demanded how that could
be? "Mine own manifold temptations," saith he, "and experiences are the cause
thereof:" for from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with
spiritual conflicts, as Melancthon in his Life testifieth. Also Hieronymus Wellerus,
scholar to the said Mr. Luther, recordeth, that he oftentimes heard Luther his
master REPORT of himself, that he had been assaulted and vexed with all kinds of

temptations (saving only with that of covetousness), and was thereby fitted for the
work of the Lord. Whence also he was wont to say that three things made a
preacher, -meditation, prayer, and temptation.
Into the wilderness] Likely the wilderness of Sinai, where Moses and Elias had
fasted before. These three great fasters met afterwards in Mount Tabor, Matthew
17:3. God promiseth to turn his people’s fasting into feasting, Zechariah 8:19. The
devil took advantage of the place here, to assault our Saviour in the desert, but was
beaten on his own dunghill, that we might overcome through him that loved us,
Romans 8:37, the fiend being ALREADY foiled by Christ.
To be tempted of the devil] o sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism than
in the fire of temptation. So David, after his anointing, was hunted as a partridge
upon the mountains. Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues them.
Hezekiah no sooner had kept that solemn passover, than Sennacherib comes up
against him. St Paul is assaulted with vile temptations after the abundance of his
revelations, 2 Corinthians 12:7. And Christ teacheth us, after forgiveness of sins
obtained, to look for temptations and to pray against them, Matthew 6:13. While
Jacob would be Laban’s drudge and pack horse, all was well; but when once he
began to flee, he makes after him with all his might. All was jolly quiet at Ephesus
before St Paul came thither; but then "there arose no small stir about that way,"
Acts 19:23. All the while our Saviour lay in his father’s shop, and meddled only
with carpenter’s chips, the devil troubled him not. But now that he is to E TER
more publicly upon his office of mediatorship, the tempter pierceth his tender soul
with many sorrows, by solicitation to sin. ( πειραζω from πειρω, to pierce through.)
And dealt he so with the green tree? what will he do with the dry? Temptations
(besides those that come from God, which are only probationis, approval, not
perditionis, damnation as the other) are of two sorts: for either they are of
seducement, James 1:14, or of buffeting and grievance, 2 Corinthians 12:7; either
of allurement or frightment. ( Irritamenta, vel terriculamenta.) In the former we
are pressed with some darling corruption, whereto our appetites by nature have the
most propensity; in the latter we are dogged with foulest lusts of atheism, idolatry,
blasphemy, murder, &c., that nature startles at: in these the devil tempts alone, and
that so grossly, that the very flesh is ashamed of it. But in the former, that come
more immediately from the flesh, the devil only interposeth himself, and speaks his
good word for them; whence they are called messengers of Satan, 2 Corinthians
12:7; Ephesians 4:27, we are said in anger to "give place to the devil;" and in
resisting of lusts, we "resist the devil," James 4:7.
PULPIT, "THE TEMPTATIO . The Father's acceptance of the Lord's
consecration of himself for the work of the kingdom does not exclude temptation,
but rather necessitates it. Psychologically, the reaction from the ecstasy of joy in
hearing the announcement of Matthew 3:17 was certain; ethically, such testing as
would accompany the reaction was desirable. Even the Baptist was, as it seems, not
without a SPECIAL temptation during this period (cf. John 1:19; and Bishop
Westcott's note). At the very commencement of his official life the Lord is led
consciously to realize that he has E TEREDon a path of complete trust (even as his

brethren in the flesh, Hebrews 2:13) for all personal needs, a path which required
great calmness and common sense, and along which he must take his orders for
final victory, not from worldly principles, but direct from God. In Luke the order
of the second and third temptations is reversed. Against the supposition of Godet
and Ellicott, that St. Luke is historically CORRECT, the "Get thee hence Satan!"
(verse 10) seems conclusive. At any rate, for St. Matthew's aim in this Gospel the
temptation that he places third is the crucial one; the true King will not take an
irregular method of acquiring sovereignty.
Matthew 4:1
Then; temporal. Mark, "and straightway." Immediately after the descent of the
Holy Ghost upon him. Was led up . into the wilderness. Up (Matthew only); from
the Jordan valley into the higher country round (cf. Joshua 16:1), in this case into
the desert (Matthew 3:1). There is nothing told us by which we may identify the
place, but as the scene of the temptation must have been near the scene of the
baptism, namely, on the west side of Jordan (Matthew 3:1, note), it may be
presumed that the temptation was on the west side also. The sharp limestone peak
(Godet) known since the Crusades as Quarantana, "from the quarantain, or forty
days of fasting", may, perhaps, have been the actual spot. The only important
objection to this is that directly after the temptation (as seems most probable) he
comes to John in "Bethany beyond Jordan," John 1:28 (not necessarily to be
identified with "Bethabara" of the Received Text; its locality is quite unknown). If
he went east of Jordan after the temptation, he would still be on one of the great
roads to Galilee (Luke 9:52, etc.). The conjecture that the fasting and temptation
took place on Sinai is suggested by the analogy of Moses and Elijah, but by
absolutely nothing in the Gospels. Led up of the Spirit into the wilderness; Mark,
"the Spirit driveth him forth;" Luke, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from
the Jordan, and was led in the Spirit in the wilderness" (with a leading that lasted
throughout the temptation, ἤγετο … ἐν... ἐν … πειραζόµενος). He was no doubt
himself inclined to go apart into the desert that he might meditate uninterruptedly
upon the assurance just given, and the momentous issues involved in his baptism;
but the Holy Spirit had also his own purposes with him. The Holy Spirit cannot,
I DEED, tempt, but he can and does lead us into circumstances where temptation
is permitted, that we may thereby be proved and disciplined for future work. In
Christ's case the temptation was an important part of that moral suffering by
which he learned full obedience (Hebrews 5:8). otice that even if the expression in
Matthew 3:16, "the Spirit of God descending," does not in itself go beyond the
expressions of Jewish teachers who DE Y his Personality, it would be hard to find
so personal an action as is implied by the words, "Jesus was led up of the Spirit,"
attributed to the Spirit in non-Christian writings. For Isaiah 63:10, Isaiah 63:11,
Isaiah 63:14 is much less definite, and passages, e.g. in Ezekiel 3:12-14, interpret
themselves by Ezekiel 1:21. To St. Matthew himself the Personality of the Holy
Ghost must, in the light of Matthew 28:19, have been an assured fact. To be
tempted of the devil. So Luke; i.e. the great calumniator, him whose characteristic
is false accusation; e.g. against men (Revelation 12:10-12); against God (Genesis
3:1-5). Here chiefly in the latter aspect. Each of the three temptations, and they are

typical of all temptations; is primarily a calumniation of God and his methods.
Mark has "of Satan," a Hebrew word equivalent to "adversary," which the LXX.
nearly always renders by διαβάλλω, (compare also UMBERS22:22, umbers
22:32). Probably by the time of the LXX. the idea of the evil spirit accusing as in a
law-court, was more prominent than the earlier thought of him as an adversary.
Spiritual resistance by the evil spirit to all good is a less-developed thought than his
traducing God to man, and, after some success obtained, traducing man to God.
Evil may resist good; it may also accuse both God and those made after the likeness
of God.
ELLICOTT, "(1) The narrative of the Temptation is confessedly one of the most
mysterious in the Gospel records. In one respect it stands almost, if not altogether,
alone. It could not have come, directly or indirectly, from an eye-witness. We are
compelled to look on it either as a mythical after-growth; as a supernatural
revelation of facts that could not otherwise be known; or, lastly, as having had its
source in our Lord’s own report of what He had passed through. The first of these
views is natural enough with those who apply the same theory to all that is
marvellous and supernatural in our Lord’s life. As a theory generally
APPLICABLE, however, to the interpretation of the Gospels, that view has not
been adopted in this Commentary, and there are certainly no reasons why,
rejecting it elsewhere, we should accept it here. Had it been based upon the
narrative of the temptation of the first Adam, in Genesis 3, we should have
expected the recurrence of the same symbolism, of the serpent and the trees.
othing else in the Old Testament, nothing in the popular expectations of the
Christ, could have suggested anything of the kind. The ideal Christ of those
expectations would have been a great and mighty king, showing forth his wisdom
and glory, as did the historical son of David; not a sufferer tried and tempted. The
forms of the Temptation, still more the answers to them, have, it will be seen, a
distinct individuality about them, just conceivable in the work of some consummate
artist, but utterly unlike the imagery, beautiful or grand, which enters into most
myths. Here, therefore, the narrative will be dealt with as the record of an actual
experience. To assume that this record was miraculously revealed to St. Matthew
and St. Luke is, however, to introduce an hypothesis which cannot be proved, and
which is, at least, not in harmony with their general character as writers. They are,
one by his own statement, the other by inference from the structure and contents of
his Gospel, distinctly compilers from many different sources, with all the incidental
variations to which such a process is liable. There is no reason to look on this
narrative as an exception to the general rule. The very difference in the order of the
temptations is, as far as it goes, against the idea of a supernatural revelation. There
remains, then, the conclusion that we have here that which originated in some
communication from our Lord’s own lips to one of His disciples, His own record of
the experience of those forty days. So taken, it will be seen that all is coherent, and
in some sense (marvellous as the whole is), natural, throwing light on our Lord’s
past life, explaining much that followed in His teaching.
Led up of the spirit.—Each narrator expresses the same fact in slightly different
language. St. Luke (Luke 4:1) “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led in the

wilderness.” St. Mark (Mark 1:12), more vividly, “Immediately the Spirit driveth
Him into the wilderness.” What is meant by such language? The answer is found in
the analogous instances of seers and prophets. St. John was “in the Spirit on the
Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). The Spirit “lifted up” Ezekiel that from his exile by
the BA KS of Chebar he might see the secret sins of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8:3). The
“Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip” (Acts 8:39). Those who spake with tongues
spake “by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 14:2). The result of this induction leads us to
think of the state so described as one more or less of the nature of ecstasy, in which
the ordinary phenomena of consciousness and animal life were in great measure
suspended. That gift of the Spirit had on the human nature of the Son of Man
something of the same overpowering mastery that it has had over others of the sons
of men. A power mightier than His own human will was urging Him on, it might
almost be said He knew not whither, bringing Him into conflict “not with flesh and
blood,” but with PRI CIPALITIES and powers in heavenly places.”
To be tempted of the devil.—We are brought, at the outset of the narrative, face to
face with the problem of the EXISTE CE and personality of the power of evil.
Here that existence and personality are placed before us in the most distinct
language. Whatever difficulties such a view may be thought to present, whatever
objections may be brought against it, are altogether outside the range of the
interpreter of Scripture. It may be urged that the writers of what we call the
Scriptures have inherited a mistaken creed on this point (though to this all deeper
experience is opposed), or that they have accommodated themselves to the thoughts
of a creed which they did not hold (though of such an hypothesis there is not a
particle of evidence), but it would be the boldest of all paradoxes to assert that they
do not teach the existence of an evil power whom they call the Enemy, the Accuser,
the Devil. Whence the name came, and how the belief sprang up, are, on the other
hand, questions which the interpreter is bound to answer. The name, then, of devil
(diabolos, accuser or slanderer) appears in the LXX. version of 1 Chronicles 21:1,
JOB1:6; JOB2:1, as the equivalent for the Hebrew, Satan (the adversary). He
appears there as a spiritual being of superhuman but limited power, tempting men
to evil, and accusing them before the Throne of God when they have yielded to the
temptation. In Zechariah 3:1-2, the same name appears in the Hebrew and the
LXX. CO ECTED with a like character, as the accuser of Joshua the son of
Jozedek. In Wisdom of Solomon 2:24, the name is identified with the Tempter of
Genesis 3, and as that book belongs to the half-century before, or, more probably,
the half-century after, our Lord’s birth, it may fairly be taken as representing the
received belief of the Jews in His time.
Into conflict with such a Being our Lord was now brought. The temptations which
come to other men from their bodily desires, or from the evils of the world around
them, had had no power over Him, had not brought even the sense of effort or pain
in overcoming them. But if life had passed on thus to the end, the holiness which
was inseparable from it would have been imperfect at least in one respect: it would
not have earned the power to understand and sympathise with sinners. There was,
as the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches, a divine fitness that He too should suffer and
be tempted even as we are, that so He might “be able to succour them that are

tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).
The scene of the Temptation was probably not far from that of the Baptism,
probably, too, as it implies solitude, on the eastern rather than the western side of
the Jordan. The traditional Desert of Quarantania (the name referring to the forty
days’ fast) is in the neighbourhood of Jericho. The histories of Moses and Elijah
might suggest the Wilderness of Sinai, but in that case it would have probably been
mentioned by the Evangelists.
CALVI , "Matthew 4:1.Then Jesus was led. There were two reasons why Christ
withdrew into the wilderness. The first was, that, after a fast of forty days, he might
come forth as a new man, or rather a heavenly man, to the discharge of his office.
The next was, that he might be tried by temptation and undergo an apprenticeship,
before he undertook an office so arduous, and so elevated. Let us therefore learn
that, by the guidance of the Spirit, Christ withdrew from the crowd of men, in
ORDER that he might come forth as the highest teacher of the church, as the
ambassador of God, — rather as sent from heaven, than as taken from some town,
and from among the common people.
In the same way Moses, when God was about to EMPLOY him as his agent in
publishing his law, was carried into Mount Sinai, withdrawn from the view of the
people, and admitted, as it were, into a heavenly sanctuary, (Exodus 24:12.) It was
proper that Christ should be surrounded by marks of divine grace and power — at
least equally illustrious with those which were bestowed on Moses, that the majesty
of the Gospel might not be inferior to that of the Law. If God bestowed singular
honor on a doctrine which was “the ministration of death,” (2 Corinthians 3:7,) how
much more honor is due to the doctrine of life? And if a shadowy portrait of God
had so much brightness, ought not his face, which appears in the Gospel, to shine
with full splendor?
Such also was the design of the fasting: for Christ abstained from eating and
drinking, not to give an example of temperance, but to acquire greater authority, by
being separated from the ordinary condition of men, and coming forth, as an angel
from heaven, not as a man from the earth. For what, pray, would have been that
virtue of abstinence, in not tasting food, for which he had no more appetite than if
he had not been clothed with flesh? (304) It is mere folly, therefore, to appoint a
forty days’ fast, (as it is called,) in imitation of Christ. There is no more reason why
we should follow the example of Christ in this matter, than there formerly was for
the holy Prophets, and other Fathers under the law, to imitate the fast of Moses. But
we are aware, that none of them thought of doing so; with the single exception of
Elijah, who was EMPLOYED by God in restoring the law, and who, for nearly the
same reason with Moses, was kept in the mount fasting.
Those who fast daily, during all the forty days, pretend that they are imitators of
Christ. But how? They stuff their belly so completely at dinner, that, when the hour
of supper arrives, they have no difficulty in abstaining from food. What
resemblance do they bear to the Son of God? The ancients practiced greater

moderation: but even they had nothing that approached to Christ’s fasting, any
more, in fact, than the abstinence of men approaches to the condition of angels, who
do not eat at all. Besides, neither Christ nor Moses observed a solemn fast every
year; but both of them observed it only once during their whole life. I wish we could
say that they had only amused themselves, like apes, by such fooleries. It was a
wicked and abominable mockery of Christ, to attempt, by this contrivance of
fasting, to conform themselves to him as their model. (305) To believe that such
fasting is a meritorious work, and that it is a part of godliness and of the worship of
God, is a very base superstition.
But above all, it is an intolerable outrage on God, whose extraordinary miracle they
throw into the shade; secondly, on Christ, whose distinctive badge they steal from
him, that they may clothe themselves with his spoils; thirdly, on the Gospel, which
loses not a little of its authority, if this fasting of Christ is not acknowledged to be his
seal. God exhibited a singular miracle, when he relieved his Son from the necessity
of eating and when they attempt the same thing by their own power, what is it but a
mad and daring ambition to be equal with God? Christ’s fasting was a distinctive
badge of the divine glory: and is it not to defraud him of his glory, and to reduce
him to the ordinary rank of men, when mortals freely mix themselves with him as
his companions? God appointed Christ’s fasting to seal the Gospel: and do those
who APPLY it to a different purpose abate nothing from the dignity of the Gospel?
Away, then, with that ridiculous imitation, (306) which overturns the purpose of
God, and the whole ORDER of his works. Let it be observed, that I do not speak of
fastings in general, the practice of which I could wish were more general among us,
provided it were pure.
But I must explain what was the object of Christ’s fasting. Satan AVAILED himself
of our Lord’s hunger as an occasion for tempting him, as will shortly be more fully
stated. For the present, we must inquire generally, why was it the will of God that
his Son should be tempted? That he was brought into this contest by a fixed purpose
of God, is evident from the words of Matthew and Mark, who say, that for this
reason he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. God intended, I have no doubt,
to exhibit in the person of his Son, as in a very bright mirror, how obstinately and
perseveringly Satan opposes the salvation of men. For how comes it, that he attacks
Christ more furiously, and directs all his power and forces against him, at the
particular time mentioned by the Evangelists, but because he sees him preparing, at
the command of the Father, to undertake the redemption of men? Our salvation,
therefore, was attacked in the person of Christ, just as the ministers, whom Christ
has authorized to proclaim his redemption, are the objects of Satan’s daily warfare.
It ought to be observed, at the same time, that the Son of God voluntarily endured
the temptations, which we are now considering, and fought, as it were, in single
combat with the devil, that, by his victory, he might obtain a triumph for us.
Whenever we are called to encounter Satan, let us remember, that his attacks can, in
no other way, be sustained and repelled, than by holding out this shield: for the Son
of God undoubtedly allowed himself to be tempted, that he may be constantly before
our minds, when Satan excites within us any contest of temptations. When he was

leading a private life at home, we do not read that he was tempted; but when he was
about to discharge the office of Redeemer, he then E TEREDthe field in the name
of his whole church. But if Christ was tempted as the public representative of all
believers, let us learn, that the temptations which befall us are not accidental, or
regulated by the will of Satan, without God’s permission; but that the Spirit of God
presides over our contests as an exercise of our faith. This will aid us in cherishing
the assured hope, that God, who is the supreme judge and disposer of the combat,
(307) will not be unmindful of us, but will fortify us against those distresses, which
he sees that we are unable to meet.
There is a slight apparent difference in the words of Luke, that Jesus, full of the
Holy Ghost, withdrew from Jordan They imply, that he was then more abundantly
endued with the grace and power of the Spirit, in ORDER that he might be more
fortified for the battles which he had to fight: for it was not without a good reason
that the Holy Spirit descended upon him in a visible shape. It has been ALREADY
stated, that the grace of God shone in him the more brightly, as the necessity arising
out of our salvation became greater. (308) But, at first sight, it appears strange, that
Christ was liable to the temptations of the devil: for, when temptation falls on men,
it must always be owing to sin and weakness. I reply: First, Christ took upon him
our infirmity, but without sin, (Hebrews 4:15.) Secondly, it detracts no more from
his glory, that he was exposed to temptations, than that he was clothed with our
flesh: for he was made man on the condition that, along with our flesh, he should
take upon him our feelings. But the whole difficulty lies in the first point. How was
Christ surrounded by our weakness, so as to be capable of being tempted by Satan,
and yet to be pure and free from all sin? The solution will not be difficult, if we
recollect, that the nature of Adam, while it was still innocent, and reflected the
brightness of the divine image, — was liable to temptations. All the bodily
affections, that exist in man, are so many OPPORTU ITIES which Satan seizes to
tempt him.
It is justly reckoned a weakness of human nature, that our senses are affected by
external objects. But this weakness would not be sinful, were it not for the presence
of corruption; in consequence of which Satan never attacks us, without doing some
injury, or, at least, without inflicting a slight wound. Christ was separated from us,
in this respect, by the perfection of his nature; though we must not imagine him to
have EXISTED in that intermediate condition, which belonged to Adam, to whom it
was only granted, that it was possible for him not to sin. We know, that Christ was
fortified by the Spirit with such power, that the darts of Satan could not pierce him.
(309)
COKE, "Matthew 4:1. Then was Jesus led up, &c.— Then, that is to say,
immediately after his baptism, was Jesus led, or borne by a strong impulse of the
Spirit on his mind, (see Luke 4:14.) into the wilderness: which Mr. Maundrel is of
opinion was the wilderness near Jordan; a miserable and horrid place, according to
his ACCOU T, consisting of high barren mountains; so that it looks as if nature
had suffered some violent convulsions there. Our Lord probably was assaulted in
the northern part of it, near the sea of Galilee; because he is said, Luke 4:1 to be

returning, or GOI G BACK to azareth, whence he came to be baptized. See Mark
1:9. Hither Christ RETIRED to prepare himself for the discharge of his great office;
and hence obtained so much the greater glory, that he conquered the devil in a
wilderness, who subdued our first parents in paradise, where with joint strength
they ought to have resisted him, and might easily have overcome him. Christ, the
second Adam, was to remedy all the evils of the fall. The original word διαβολου
signifies properly a slanderer, or a false accuser, and answers to the Hebrew Satan:
it is found in the Scripture only in the singular UMBER, and signifies that evil
spirit who tempted our first parents; and who is represented in the sacred writings
as the head of the rebellious angels, and the adversary of all good men. See 1
Thessalonians 3:5. 1 Peter 5:8. The EXISTE CEof good and bad spirits, is the plain
doctrine of Scripture; and we must be perfect Sadducees, to doubt or deny the being
of either, upon the faith and CREDIT of the divine word. It may be proper just to
observe, than an ingenious writer has endeavoured to shew that this very
remarkable transaction was not real, but visionary; grounding his arguments upon
the many difficulties which occur to our understandings in the literal account of it. I
conceive that by the same arguments it would be easy to prove almost any part of
the sacred history to be visionary. There is no intimation of any thing of this sort in
the sacred historians; the detail of facts is plain, and in their usual manner: it is
positively said, that Jesus was led up, that he fasted, that he hungered, &c. &c. or
does there appear any thing in the letter whereupon to ground the idea, that what is
here related was not real. That the whole event was most wonderful and
extraordinary, we readily allow; and may as readily allow, that from the very short
narration we have of it, it is not possible for us to E TER completely into the whole
meaning and purport of it. But this should be no objection against our receiving and
acknowledging the truth of the fact; which, the more miraculous it is, the more it
requires the submission of our faith, and the humble adoration of our minds. See
more on Matthew 4:8 and Farmer's Inquiry into the Temptation of Christ.
COFFMA , "Led up of the Spirit ... does not mean that the Spirit provided the
temptation, because God does not tempt any man (James 1:13). However, the Holy
Spirit did desire that Jesus' temptation should take place at this particular time.
Jesus' two great temptations were this one in the wilderness and that in the Garden
of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:39); but he was tempted at other times
(Luke 4:13), and perhaps at ALL times (Hebrews 2:18).
Into the wilderness ... Dummelow saw in this wilderness temptation a contrast to the
temptation of the first Adam. "The temptation of the first Adam took place in a
garden ... the temptation of the second Adam took place in a wilderness."[1] The
fruits and flowers of Eden contrast with the wild beasts and the disorder of the
howling wilderness. Thus, the victory of Christ was made more wonderful.
To be tempted of the devil ... The identity and person of Satan have long afforded
fruitful fields for conjecture; although, in the present generation, there is a
widespread tendency to reduce Satan to the STATUS of a mere influence, or
personification of evil.[2] However, it is plainly declared in the Holy Scriptures that
Satan is actually a person, a being higher in the ORDER of creation than man, but

fallen from his first estate (Jude 1:1:6). Satan is held in awe even by angels and
appears to have been cast out of his domain because of conceit and ambition (1
Timothy 3:6). Satan is the enemy that sows tares (Matthew 13:28); snatches the
word out of men's hearts (Matthew 13:19); and, by means of countless snares and
devices, takes men captive to do the devil's will (2 Timothy 2:26). evertheless,
Satan is restricted and limited. He does not share control of the U IVERSE with
God and may not even tempt one little child of God more than the child is able to
bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Temptation is in itself no sin. This is implicit in the fact that Christ was tempted.
The oft-repeated lie of Satan that it is as wrong to desire to do evil as it is actually to
do evil is frustrated by this passage. It is not temptation to do wrong that constitutes
sin, but YIELDI G to that temptation.
[1] J. R. Dummelow, One Volume Commentary ( ew York: The Macmillan
Company, 1937), p. 632.
[2] H. Leo Boles, Commentary on Matthew ( ashville, Tennessee: The Gospel
Advocate Company, 1961), p. 96.
PETT, "‘Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil.’
Jesus was ‘led up of the Spirit’ into the wilderness. The Spirit knew how important
it was that He understood how to approach His future, and guided Him to find a
quiet place. ‘Led up’ SUGGESTS that leaving the Jordan valley He climbed up onto
the slopes of the wilderness of Judaea. And there He was to be tempted by the Devil.
It was not that temptation was the prime purpose of the Spirit Who led Jesus into
the wilderness, but rather that it was the inevitable consequence of His doing so. For
He could not possibly face up to His life work without facing up to the Tempter,
who would CO TI UALLY be one of His main opponents. He would ever be
lurking in the background ready to pounce when he felt that he could trip Jesus up,
and ever fearful that this One Whom God had raised up and anointed, Who had a
unique relationship with God that he did not fully understand, would one day prove
his downfall, and would meanwhile be carrying out assaults on his own cosy
position. But Jesus was being led by the Spirit. And He knew that if He walked step
by step by the Spirit He would be led into all truth.
But who were the main players in this drama? We should now perhaps pause to
consider each of them.
1). The first is Jesus Himself. Born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, truly human, and
yet ‘God with us’ (Immanuel), descended from Abraham and aware of the promises
made to Abraham which He Himself must bring to fulfilment; a son of David, and
of the royal line, and thus destined to be the everlasting King Who would deliver His
people; yet also the Son of the living God and His beloved; the One named Jesus

Who was to save His people from their sins; and the One Who as a man among men
represented His people in Himself, as God sought through Him to bring all His
purposes to completion. On their behalf He had been taken into Egypt, and on their
behalf had ‘returned from exile’. On their behalf He had been baptised. ow He
was needing to lead them out of the spiritual exile which still gripped their hearts.
2). The second is the Spirit of God, through Whose activity Jesus had been born,
and Who had set Jesus apart for His God-appointed task (had anointed Him) and
would be CO TI UALLY with Him in it.
It was He Who had hovered over creation when all things began. It was He Who
had given wisdom, first to Moses, and then to the elders in the wilderness ( umbers
11:17), as the people were led through towards their triumphal entry into Canaan.
It was He Who when they were in dire straits from their enemies had empowered
charismatic leaders to deliver them from bondage (regularly in Judges). It was He
Who had empowered their first kings, and especially David, the man of God’s
choosing (1 Samuel 16:13), and whom God had appreciated. And when the kings
had ceased to enjoy His empowering, beginning with the failure of Solomon, He had
inspired prophets to bring the word of God to the people, and the Psalmists to
inspire the people to worship. Always working invisibly He had been revealed by
His actions. And He had CO TI UALLY maintained in Israel a minority of
faithful, believing people, who had remained true to God. And now He was
commencing the final surge which would bring all God’s purposes to fulfilment.
Working in and through Jesus, the Spirit anointed King (Isaiah 11:1-4), Servant
(Isaiah 42:1-6) and Prophet (Isaiah 61:1-2) of Isaiah, and later through His Apostles
and His new community of people, He would reach out into the world with the word
of God, bringing to God those who were His chosen, a multitude which no man can
UMBER, until one day the full number will have been gathered in.
3). The third is the Devil, or Satan (‘adversary’) revealed in Scripture as a
powerful fallen spirit, by no means omniscient or omnipresent, but long lasting and
devious, and ruler of a host of fallen spirits like himself, with whose ASSISTA CE
he was struggling to prevent the success of the purposes of God which he knew
would lead to his eventual downfall.
It was he who in the shadows of the Plain of Eden had used the snake to lure the
Man and the Woman into their failed rebellion against God (Genesis 3). It was he,
through his minions, who had infiltrated the world of humans by ‘possession’ so
that God had had to destroy the large part of mankind in the Flood (Genesis 6:1-4).
It was he with his princes whose shadowy figure lay behind much of the turbulent
history of mankind (Daniel 10). It was he who at times received authority to test the
faith of those who were faithful to God JOB 1-2). It was he who sought to oppose
and prevent the deliverance of God’s people from sin (Zechariah 3). And now he
was engaged in his greatest struggle, the prevention of the success of this One Who
had been raised up by God, Whoever He might be, (for he was not quite sure). But
one thing he did know and that was that He had been declared to be God’s own
beloved Son, whatever that might mean. And it was necessary somehow to prevent
His success.
And now here they were together in the wilderness, as the final purposes of God, to
which the prophets had looked, began to unfold. And only God knew how long these
‘last days’ were going to last.

LIGHTFOOT, "[He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, &c.]
The war, proclaimed of old in Eden between the serpent, and the seed of the
serpent, and the seed of the woman, Genesis 3:15, now takes place; when that
promised seed of the woman comes forth into the field (being initiated by baptism,
and anointed by the Holy Ghost, unto the public office of his ministry) to fight with
that old serpent, and at last to bruise his head. And, since the devil was always a
most impudent spirit, now he takes upon him a more hardened boldness than ever,
even of waging war with him whom he knew to be the Son of God, because from
that ancient proclamation of this war he knew well enough that he should bruise his
heel.
The first scene or field of the combat was the 'desert of Judea,' which Luke
intimates, when he saith, that "Jesus returned from Jordan, and that he was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness"; that is, from the same coast or region of Jordan in
which he had been baptized.
The time of his temptations was from the middle of the month Tisri to the end of
forty days; that is, from the beginning of our month of October to the middle of
ovember, or thereabouts: so that he conflicted with cold, as well as want and
Satan.
The manner of his temptations was twofold. First, invisibly, as the devil is wont to
tempt sinners; and this for forty days: while the tempter endeavoured with all his
industry to throw in his suggestions, if possible, into the mind of Christ, as he does
to mortal men. Which when he could not compass, because he found 'nothing in
him' in which such a temptation might fix itself, John 14:30, he attempted another
way, namely, by appearing to him in a visible shape, and conversing with him, and
that in the form of an angel of light. Let the evangelists be compared. Mark saith,
"he was tempted forty days": so also doth Luke: but Matthew, that "the tempter
came to him after forty days"; that is, in a visible form.
The matter of his temptations was very like the temptations of Eve. She fell by the
"lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life": which are the heads of all
sins, 1 John 2:16.
By "the lust of the eyes": for "she saw the fruit, that it was pleasant to the sight."
By "the lust of the flesh": she lusted for it, because "it was desirable to be eaten."
By "the pride of life"; not contented with the state of perfection wherein she was
created, she affected a higher; and she "took of the fruit, and did eat," that she
might become wiser by it.
The same tempter set upon our Saviour with the same stratagems.
I. As Eve was deceived by mistaking his person, supposing a good angel discoursed

with her when it was a bad, so the devil in like manner puts on the good angel here,
clothed with light and feigned glory.
II. He endeavours to ensnare Christ by "the lust of the flesh"; "Command that
these stones be made bread": by "the lust of the eye"; "All these things will I give
thee, and the glory of them": by "the pride of life"; "'Throw thyself down,' and fly
in the air, and be held up by angels."
BE SO , "Matthew 4:1. Then — After the afore-mentioned glorious manifestation
of his Father’s love, by which he was armed for the combat. Was Jesus led by the
Spirit — By a strong impulse of the Spirit of God, of which he was full; into the
wilderness — Probably, the wilderness near Jordan, which, as Mr. Maundrell, who
travelled through it, assures us, is a miserable and horrid place, consisting of high,
barren mountains, so that it looks as if nature had suffered some violent
CO VULSIO S there. Our Lord, probably, was assaulted in the northern part of
it, near the sea of Galilee, because he is said by Luke to be returning to azareth,
from whence he came to be baptized. To be tempted of the devil — That is, the chief
of the devils, Satan, the everlasting enemy of God and man. The proper meaning of
the original word here, and in other places of the Old and ew Testaments,
TRA SLATED to tempt, is to try. Hence we sometimes, as Genesis 22:1, read of
God’s tempting men, as well as of the devil’s tempting them. But there is this
difference between the temptations, or trials, that are immediately from God, and
those that are from Satan, by God’s permission. We are tempted, or tried, by God,
that our righteousness, our faith, love, patience, and every grace and virtue, may be
manifested, approved, and further increased: and therefore, as James says, Blessed
is the man who, in this sense, endureth temptation. But the devil tempts, or tries us,
in expectation of finding us insincere, or unstable, and with a view to lead us into sin
by his subtlety and power; in which sense God, who cannot be tempted with evil, or
see any thing desirable in it, tempteth no man. Doubtless, it must have been for some
very great and good ends that the Holy Spirit thus moved our Lord to repair into
the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. For though, by his REPAIRI G thither,
he might partly intend to enjoy a devout retirement, that as man he might give vent
to those sacred passions which the late grand occurrences of the descent of the Spirit
upon him, and the miraculous attestation of a voice from heaven, had such a
tendency to inspire; yet no doubt he foresaw that this season of intercourse with
heaven would be followed by a violent assault from hell, and he went into the
wilderness with a view also to meet and combat with the grand adversary of
mankind. Probably, as Theophylact observes, one grand end might be to teach us
that when we have consecrated ourselves to God’s service, and have been favoured
with peculiar marks of divine acceptance, and the consolations of his Spirit, we must
expect temptations; and to teach us, by our Lord’s example, how we may best and
most effectually resist them, even by an unshaken faith, 1 Peter 5:9; and by the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Ephesians 6:17. 2d, Our Lord was
tempted thus, that his perfect holiness might be tried and approved. 3d, That Satan
might be conquered, which he never had perfectly been by any man before. 4th,
That Christ might become a merciful and faithful high priest, one who can succour
his people in time of need, and pity them when they happen to fall by temptation.

The apostle assigns this reason expressly, Hebrews 2:17-18. And, 5th, That
assurance might be given to his people of an everlasting victory over, and
deliverance from, the power of Satan.
ROBERT BROW, “As he describes the temptations of Satan, Matthew wants us to
see how Jesus was tempted to turn aside from his Messianic ministry to obtain
quicker results by economic, religious, or political means. As the Gospel continues,
Matthew will describe the Messiah's way of teaching and living out God's way of
sacrificial love.
4:1-2 Matthew has already noted that the Messiah was conceived by the Holy Spirit
(1:18; as in Luke 1:35), and the Spirit descended on him at his baptism (1:16; Luke
3:22). ow the Spirit leads him out, probably into the wilderness of Judea (as in
Luke 4:1). It was common in the ancient world to prepare for a new kind of work by
a long period of fasting to clarify one's mind.
We tend to be confused by picturing a devil with a red suit, horns, and a pitchfork
to toss us into the fires of hell. A better description is that "he speaks according to
his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). And it is easy to
recognize the old gramophone record of lies about God (Genesis 3:4), lies about
other people, and lies about ourselves (Revelation 12:9-10). Matthew will later
include the fact that Satan can even speak through the Apostle Peter (16:23).
HOLE, "JESUS WAS OT only taking man’s place, He was more particularly
taking Israel’s place. Israel was called out of Egypt, then they were baptized to
Moses in THE CLOUD and sea, then they entered the wilderness. We have just seen
Jesus called as God’s Son out of Egypt, and now He is baptized; then as we open
chapter 4 we find the Spirit, who had come upon Him, leads Him straight into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Here we find a contrast, for in the wilderness
Israel tempted God and failed in everything. Jesus was Himself tempted and
triumphed in everything.
Yet the temptations, wherewith the devil assailed Him, were similar to Israel’s
testings in the wilderness, for there is nothing new in the tactics of the adversary.
Israel was tested by hunger, and by being lifted up in connection with the things of
God—seen more particularly in connection with Korah, Dathan and Abiram—and
by attractions that might lead them to worship and serve another beside Jehovah,
and they fell, worshipping the golden calf. Jesus met each temptation with the Word
of God. On each occasion He QUOTED from a small section of the book of
Deuteronomy, wherein Israel is reminded of their responsibilities. In those
responsibilities they failed, and Jesus fulfilled them perfectly in every particular.
The devil always sows doubts of the Divine Word. Contrast Matthew 3:17 with
Matthew 4:3; Matthew 4:6, and OTE how strikingly this comes out. o sooner has
God said, “This is My beloved Son,” than the devil says twice over, “If Thou be the
Son of God.” The little word “if” is a great favourite with the devil! Jesus

appropriately met him with the Word of God. That Word is indispensable to Man’s
spiritual life just as bread is to his natural life. And man needs every word that God
has spoken, and not just a few SPECIALpassages only.
Are we all finding our spiritual life in “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God”?
The temptation of Jesus by the devil makes it plain beyond all dispute that a
personal devil EXISTS. From the days of Genesis 3:1-24, he had been accustomed to
seduce men by appealing to their lusts and pride. In Jesus he met One who had
neither lust nor pride, and who met his every onslaught by the Word of God;
defeated consequently, he had to leave Him. His conqueror was a true Man, who
had fasted forty days and forty nights, and to Him angels ministered. They had
never before served their God after this wonderful sort.
ISBET, "Our Lord before He E TERED upon His public ministry was tempted.
He faced the great enemy of souls that He might be our example. Lent is for:
I. Self-examination.—Every year we set aside the forty days of Lent that we may
examine ourselves and see where our temptations are assailing us. It is not merely
our deeds we have to look at, but our thoughts and feelings. Picture St. Paul’s
struggles on coming to Christ. It was hard for him to kick against the pricks of
conscience.
II. Battling with besetting sin.—We find on self-examination there is much that is
inconsistent with Divine command—e.g. great faults of temper, selfishness, faults
belonging to our fleshly character. These things must be fought, and as we fight we
learn the power of sin and the weakness of human nature, and this should draw us
nearer to God.
III. Prayer.—Prayer goes along with the struggle and must never cease. Christians
at such a time as this must add somewhat every day to their ordinary prayers—
frequent prayer to God to help us in our preparation to come nearer than before to
His great and wonderful love.
IV. Self-discipline.—The Church calls upon us to practise self-restraint; to restrain
ourselves from anything which makes our self-examination, or our battle, or OUR
PRAYERS, less effective than they would otherwise be. The purpose of the
Christian fast is to discipline the body and the mind. It is a time when whatever
hampers the body or soul should be given up altogether. The purpose of fasting is to
bring us nearer to the Lord. To be like Christ is the consummation of the Christian

life.
Archbishop Temple.
Illustration
‘You may say, “But, after all, interesting as this narrative of Christ’s temptation
may be in itself, of what practical value is it to me? What lesson does it teach; what
encouragement does it give to such as I? Jesus Christ and I stand on a totally
different platform—I am mere man, He is the God-man. And as such, He had all the
resources of the Deity to fall back upon, and was therefore too strong to be
overcome by any temptation. It is not so with me; and I do not understand that I am
any better for having the example of His steadfastness before me.” That is the
question. The answer is this—the one thing Christ did not do was to draw upon the
resources of his Godhead. He was there in the wilderness as a servant, not as the
equal of the Father; and the success of His enterprise hung upon His maintaining
that POSITIO of subordination, of dependence, of submission, to the Divine Will.
To induce Him to shift that position and to assert independence was, throughout,
the aim of the tempter. The plan had succeeded with the first Adam—it might
succeed with the second and last Adam. But it did not. And Christ stood in a circle
of safety, which could not possibly be broken into, by simply maintaining a constant
attitude of filial dependence upon His heavenly Father. And it is just so with the
people of Christ.’
(SECO D OUTLI E)
THE CO FLICT A D THE VICTORY
I. The greatness of the conflict.—The reality of the struggle is the first point which
must arrest our attention. It is a single combat upon which everything depends. But
into it there E TERS, in concentrated form, almost every kind of temptation to
which we throughout our lives are subjected. Alone does our Divine Master go into
the wilderness. It is alone we shall gain our greatest spiritual experiences. It is alone
we shall have our severest battles with ourselves. It is when alone we shall best
measure our true relation to God, and discover what are the hindrances that keep us
back from God and from the fulfilment of His purposes for us. Alone, on our knees,
with all worldly considerations and interests excluded must we learn of God how to
bring ourselves into true harmony with the will of God: for alone we shall often
have to stand for God’s cause and alone shall we stand before his judgment-seat. As
the Captain of our salvation, and to indicate how we may share in His virtues, our
blessed Lord there stands alone to meet the attacks of the great enemy of souls.
II. The victory.—With a recognition made in subtilty of His Divine STATUS and
authority, the devil spreads before Him three grave temptations to win to Himself in
some other way the world He had come to redeem and save by His great humility

and self-sacrifice.
(a) The first approach is through the body of humanity with which He had clothed
Himself. When ‘an hungered’ through His long fast, the devil bids Him exempt
Himself from the ordinary suffering of mankind. In the reproof of the temptation by
the assertion of an eternal principle which is never, never to be disobeyed, our Lord
reveals to us how we may overcome those pressures of our temporal necessities or of
our bodily passions, which for the time seem to us so irresistible. QUOTI G those
sacred words which are to be the guide of our lives, Christ replies, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’
Are we never similarly tempted? Are there no times at which we are tempted to
follow in a wrong way the inclinations of our bodily appetites? If such times come to
us, then let the vision of the Lord in His endurance of temptation rise in our minds.
(b) ot less insidious and enticing is the next temptation to win adherence by
wonder working, and the claim for Divine interposition, even when the path taken
was not that ORDERED of Divine purpose. Bidding the Lord cast Himself down
from a pinnacle, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God’ is the utterance again of a
divine principle, by which the Lord Christ, as much as His humblest followers, must
ever be influenced. ever could that principle be departed from by Him. Are we
never tempted in our degree in a similar way? Do we never try to get influence over
others by unworthy means? Are we never inclined to take some line of action which
seems likely to bring us some speedy if specious result, though it be not in the strict
and plain way of God’s Commandments? Or again, are we never found to be
tempting God by voluntarily placing ourselves within reach of any form of evil
which we know to be a dangerous snare to us? And are we not, then, just infringing
upon the principle here laid down by Christ and tempting God? The thought of this
temptation of our Lord should surely make us endeavour to walk humbly with our
God. And (as some one has observed) there is both a warning and an
encouragement in the expression ‘Cast thyself down.’ It must be our own doing,
therefore beware. It can only be our own doing, therefore never despair.
(c) In the last of the three great temptations the evil one is making his boldest
STROKE. He is appealing to the great soul of the true King of men.
And His answer here, ‘Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,’ is the clearest indication to us of
the only course we can follow whenever the devil tries to put similar false issues
before ourselves.
—Bishop G. W. Kennion.
Illustration

‘ o sooner is Christ out of the water of baptism, than He is thrust into the fire of
temptation. So David, after his anointing, was hunted as a partridge upon the
mountains. Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues them. Hezekiah
had no sooner left that solemn pass-over than Sennacherib comes up against him.
St. Paul is assaulted with vile temptations after the abundance of his revelations;
and Christ teaches us, after forgiveness of sins, to look for temptations, and to pray
against them. While Jacob would be Laban’s drudge and pack-horse, all was well:
but when once he begins to flee, he makes after him with all his might. All the while
our Saviour lay in His father’s shop, and meddled only with carpenter’s chips, the
devil troubled Him not; but now that He is to E TER more publicly upon His office
and mediatorship, the tempter pierceth His tender soul with many sorrows by
solicitation to sin.’
(THIRD OUTLI E)
‘AS CHRIST OVERCAME’
The temptation in the wilderness! There have been those who have seen in the
narrative no more than a striking legend without any real historical basis. The
SUGGESTIO has a prima facie likelihood, which DISAPPEARS on further
investigation. In the first place, we can hardly doubt the temptations to misuse His
powers. In the second place, although the subject-matter was one round which
legendary creations would be likely to gather, yet they would be wanting in that
depth and dignity which characterise the Gospel record.
Let us glance—no more—at each of the three temptations.
I. Temptation to misuse His powers.—The first was a suggestion to misuse His
miraculous endowments—endowments of which He was aware—for the purpose of
satisfying His own bodily needs. In other words, He was tempted to a violation of
trust. His peculiar powers were not assigned to Him that He might make His own
path easy, that He might spare Himself the completeness of Self-denial, that he
might avert from Himself some physical suffering. And never, from first to last,
were His powers used by Him for His own advantage. Whatever others gained from
them He Himself gained nothing. ever does He take the edge from any of His own
trials or blunt the sharpness of any Personal anguish. Always does He show the
strict Self-control, the rigid Self-limitation which underlay His first reply to the
Tempter, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’
II. Temptation to abuse the consciousness of privilege.—The second temptation was
somewhat similar in character. Like the first, it was a temptation to abuse the
consciousness of privilege. But it was directed not so much to bring about a misuse
of power, as to inflate the assurance of special protection into overweening

presumption. Christ stood in imagination on one of the pinnacles of the Temple—
perhaps on the point from which the priests used to watch for the first rays of the
dawn that they might signal to those below to commence the morning sacrifice. He
pictured the sacred courts filled with worshippers. Did He cast Himself headlong
down and descend unhurt into the midst of the throng, it would be a proof of His
supernatural mission which none would gainsay. He would then be the accepted and
trusted leader of His people. What had he to fear from such an enterprise? Was not
angelic protection promised to Him? ot by any such means as those SUGGESTED
to Him was His victory over the hearts and consciences of men to be won. He could
I DEED command the obedience of an innumerable multitude of angels; but the
proposal made to Him was outside the bounds set by true religious sentiment, and
was therefore an incentive to provoke the Divine anger. ‘Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God.’
III. Temptation to apostacy.—The third temptation was perhaps less subtle in its
nature; but it was one of immense force. There spread itself before the mind of the
Lord a vision of the kingdoms of this world. His thoughts went out not merely to
Israel but to the nations which lay beyond. There was Rome with its vast power, but
vast infamy. There was Greece with its noble political and philosophical traditions.
There were the realms of the great Parthian monarch. There were the inhabitants of
the Arabian and Scythian deserts. All these—and more than these—formed
themselves into a vast vista which stretched before His eyes. There suggested itself to
Him the possibility of an easy victory, of a rapid attainment to widespread
dominion, at the price of moral and spiritual apostacy. ‘All these things will I give
Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.’ But our Lord meets the pressure of
the temptation, as He had met that of the others, with a few words of Scripture,
‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.’ Thus the
victory was won. Thus He proved Himself ‘without sin.’ Thus was He led through
temptation to the peace of a complete triumph.
IV. Tempted like as we are.—He walked in our path and not in some wholly isolated
one. He realised our pitfalls and was not guided by by-paths which spared Him the
ordinary perils of mankind. His reliance upon His Father was perfect, yet He was
not spared. So is He able to help us in our hours of grievous trial. So can He uplift
and uphold us. So can He sympathise with each and all. So can He ever be the
perfect human Friend, to Whom none upon earth can possibly compare. So is He
the CO TI UOUSsustenance of our souls in their many and severe struggles. Let
us find help and strength in the memory of, and in communion with, the tempted
but victorious Redeemer. If we are to be led up into some wilderness we need not be
overwhelmed by the perils contained in it. Across the ages come His words of
reassurance, ‘Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’
The Rev. the Hon. W. E. Bowen.
Illustration

‘An incident of the Battle of Creci may be QUOTED: From the Black Prince’s
division, where the fight was raging fierce and doubtful, there came to the English
king an urgent request for a reinforcement, Edward, who from a windmill watched
the chances of the battle, and the movements of the armies, inquired if his son were
killed or wounded. The messenger replied “ o.” “Then,” said he, “tell Warwick
that he shall have no assistance; let the boy win his spurs. He and those who have
him in charge shall earn the whole glory of the day.” The king had led his son into
temptation. He had brought him into the battle to try what metal he was of, to give
him the chance fairly and honourably to win his spurs. The ordeal was a severe one
for the young soldier. He felt himself failing under it. The desire to be relieved at the
critical moment was natural enough. The refusal of such a request might well seem
hard. But the king looked at things as an old soldier looks at them.… All this is
obvious enough. Why, then, is it less obvious that the dealings of the Heavenly
Father with His children may oftentimes be even of this sort?’
(FOURTH OUTLI E)
CHRIST’S EXAMPLE
The record of our Lord’s temptation must needs be momentous—first in its import,
for the comprehension of the spirit of His ministry; and secondly, in its example to
mankind. The narrative would seem to possess the unique character of being
autobiographical. There were none but heavenly witnesses of the mysterious
experiences of those forty days; by whom, then, could the narrative have been
communicated to the evangelists except by our Lord Himself? Our Lord knew, as
none else could possibly have done, what were the essential elements in the
temptation to which He was subjected.
I. The evil of the suggestion.—The first temptation was addressed to our Lord’s
sense of physical necessity and sufferings, combined with His consciousness of the
possession of miraculous power by which He might have relieved them. And in what
did the evil of the suggestion consist? There were other times in our Lord’s life and
ministry in which he did not hesitate to have recourse to His miraculous powers, but
our Lord’s answer points to the fact that the use of His miraculous power on this
occasion would have been inconsistent with the express will and word of His Father.
It is to be explained by the fact that He was ‘driven into the wilderness by the spirit
to be tempted of the devil.’ This endurance, for reasons beyond our full
comprehension, had been imposed on Him by the Spirit of God. Alike in the
simplest wants of human nature and in its intensest trials He exhibited the power of
absolutely submitting His human will to His Father’s will and to His own higher
will.
II. In what life consists.—It would seem obvious that this is an example of the
earliest and simplest, and yet in some respects the most persistent, temptation by
which ordinary human beings are beset. Men’s only safety consists in grasping the

principle which our Lord here asserted in answer to the tempter, that man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. A
man’s life does not consist in the mere gratification of his bodily craving, or even the
natural desires of his mind and heart, or even in his life here. The essential life of his
nature consists in his living and acting in harmony with the will of God. So far as it
is necessary for him to live here all natural provision that is essential for him will be
made by His Father in heaven. It is unnecessary for him to take thought. o man or
woman can expect to have our Saviour’s promises fulfilled to themselves in a higher
degree than that in which they were fulfilled in Himself.
III. Man destined for eternity.—The life of man is not to be measured by the wants
and cravings of his present experience; it has an eternal character and is destined
for an everlasting sphere. There, whatever it may have forgone here, in obedience to
the word of God and God’s will, will be abundantly made up to it, and it will be seen
that man’s true life consists eternally in every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.
Dean Wace.
Illustration
‘Bishop Ellicott remarks, (1) that the temptation was no vision or trance; (2) that it
was an assault from without by the personal agency of the personal prince of
darkness; and (3) that it was addressed to the three parts of our nature—to the
body, “of satisfying its wants by a display of power which would have abjured its
dependence on the Father”; to the soul, of Messianic dominion, “accomplishing in a
moment all for which the incense of the One Sacrifice on Golgotha is still rising up
on the altar of God”; to the spirit, “of using that power which belonged to Him as
God to display by one dazzling miracle the true relation in which Jesus of azareth
stood to men, and to angels, and to God.”’
(FIFTH OUTLI E)
BEI G TEMPTED
‘Led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil.’ It is the history of mankind. It was
the challenge of the Spirit of God to the spirit of evil; it was the struggle which was
bound to take place for the supremacy of the world. It is vain to speculate upon the
form or character of the spirit of evil, for whatever theory we may have as to its
origin or form, whether it be a permeating essence or a person, nothing alters the
universal result of all experience—that it is a fact. And it is just as vain for man to
speculate upon its nature, as to mistake what that nature is. Poverty, obscurity,
disappointment, care—these things are often deemed evil by the world, and yet they
are not evils in themselves. Many of them have proved the greatest of blessings with
which God has endowed the human family; but it is the material which goes into the
crucible that shows in the result. If mean spirits go in, it is mean spirits that come

out; if nobility goes in, it is nobility refined and purified that comes forth.
I. The struggle.—The Lord Jesus Christ, Who looked into the very eyes of the
tempter, never made light of evil, and it is well for us to remember that men who
succeed in this great battle, only succeed after a struggle—a struggle with a really
terrible enemy. The trouble is that men are so often their own tempters. Bad as he
is, the devil is often falsely charged and falsely accused; when men are to be blamed
alone they cast on him the sins that are their own. The pitiful thing is that so many
of us go through the world, and see its evil, and forget that, sooner or later, evil
comes home to them that give it an abiding place within them.
II. Lenten discipline.—It is well that we should withdraw ourselves from the world,
that we should gather together, and see the evil within us, that we should face the
penalties that go with the evil and cry aloud for penitence and for pardon. Those
who have known the struggle will welcome this season as a means of grace, and for
those who have been amongst the fallen, there will be the pleasing remembrance
that Lent is not only the recruiting ground for the good, but it is a fresh starting-
place for those who have done wrong. It may mean to them that God will use it as a
means of instruction; that He will help them to reckon rightly, to estimate accurately
the blessings and the evils that are around them; and when men do that there is little
doubt that, however busy they may be with their work, however engrossed with
their pleasures, they will at least find some time in which to remember the petition
of the Litany—‘That it may please Thee to give us true repentance, to forgive us all
our sins, negligences and ignorances, and to endue us with the grace of Thy Holy
Spirit, to amend our lives according to Thy Holy Word.’
III. The victory.—Victory is possible; that goodness after all is not a dream. The
threefold temptations of our Lord show us that body, soul, and spirit of man—each
the abiding temple of the Holy Ghost—may be assaulted in its turn. So Jesus Christ
has given us, as He gave to His disciples, that short pattern prayer on which men
have moulded their petition to God from that time to this: ‘Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.’
The Rev. James Hughes, LL.D.
Illustration
‘During these forty days let us do something that will bring us some definite, direct
result. Let us each one make a new rule of life and keep it through Lent, and let the
result of that rule be that we may be a little better at the end than at the beginning;
our wills a little more in the direction of God than they were before. Our task is to
bring under our body, and to keep it in subjection. How may we do it? We are often
told that we must withdraw from the world. May I suggest that that is wrong? We
must be alone with God sometimes, but take care when you are alone with God you

are not alone with self, because in the end you will fall again and be no better at the
end of Lent than at the beginning. Do not shut out the world altogether, because
God is there. God has put us into it, and we are to fight against the temptations that
the world suggests, calling to our aid in resistance the strength of God. Why was the
temptation of Jesus Christ undergone? To show us that there is a greater power
than Satan. He is very powerful; but there is a Greater, and when we are very near
to the clutches of Satan, that Power will come and resist for us, and put us on our
feet again. Jesus Christ went through His temptation to show us how to live; He
went through it in order that He might leave us that great example.’
(SIXTH OUTLI E)
CHRIST’S SYMPATHY WITH THE TEMPTED
This must be regarded as one of the most marvellous pages in the Saviour’s history,
and to a large portion of the Church of God, not less precious and soothing. Christ
was tempted of the Devil. Our temptations from Satan often flow from indirect
sources, from sin within or incentives to sin without; our Lord’s were direct from
Satan. He had come to destroy the works of the Devil, but He must first confront,
bind, and virtually destroy the Devil himself. What were His temptations?
I. Tempted to distrust Providence.—What was Satan’s first assault upon our Lord?
It was the temptation to distrust the providence of God. The temptation was timely,
plausible, and strong. It had been as easy for Christ to have established the fact—
not DE IED by His adversary—of His Divine Sonship by turning the stones into
bread, as subsequently He did by turning the water into wine. But He would not!
How Godlike and sublime is His reply! And is there not a page in our experience
corresponding to this? How often by the same Adversary we are assailed with the
same temptation! Are we in affliction and sorrow?—he tempts us to question God’s
goodness and love. Are we prostrate on a sick and suffering couch?—he tempts us to
doubt the wisdom and kindness of our Father. Are the providences of our God
trying, painful, and mysterious?—he tempts us to carnal reasoning. Are our
temporal resources straitened, our wants pressing, our position trying and
critical?—he tempts us to unbelief, distrust, and despondency.
II. Tempted to self-destruction.—The second temptation of our Lord was to self-
destruction. ‘Cast Thyself down—destroy Thyself! Presume upon the providence
and power of God to preserve Thee. Commit the act, and leave Him to shield Thee
from its consequences.’ With what holy horror must the Son of God have recoiled
from the temptation to this rash, sinful, appalling crime! And yet with what dignity
and power He repels and silences it! There are few temptations by which our race is
assailed more common, and none more dire, than this.
III. Tempted to idolatry.—The third temptation of our Lord was—idolatry, with the
promise of temporal territory, glory, and power. This would seem to have been the

climax of horror, the sin of sins, to the holy Son of God. o sin has Jehovah so
emphatically forbidden, or has marked with such signal and overwhelming
indications of His hatred, displeasure, and wrath. And are the saints of God entirely
exempt from temptation akin to this? We believe not. Assailing us through our
senses, easy and accessible avenues are OPE to this arch-foe of Christ and of the
Church.
IV. We learn (a) that our great adversary and accuser is—a defeated foe. From this
onslaught upon Christ he RETIRED foiled, vanquished, and abashed. The seed of
the woman had bruised the serpent’s head. Learn thus the paralysed power of your
tempter, that you be not disheartened and dismayed.
(b) That Satan’s suggestions can be met by the ‘sword of the Spirit, which is the
Word of God.’ But he too can QUOTE and apply Scripture, only to misquote and
misapply it. The moment, then, that a text of God’s Word is suggested to your
thoughts in favour of sin, of distrust of God, of disbelief of Christ, of self-injury,
repel it with holy indignation. God’s Word will fortify, strengthen, and succour you
in temptation. It is the Book of the tempted.
(c) That prayer is a girding of the soul in the temptations of Satan. Take your
temptation, drag the tempter to the throne of grace, and you are safe. The shadow of
that spot is too divine, too pure and holy, for a temptation to live a single moment.
There the Wicked One will cease to trouble you, there your weary soul will sweetly
rest.
—The Rev. Octavius Winslow, d.d.
Illustration
‘The texts QUOTED by our Lord were all from the section of the book of
Deuteronomy which was especially taught to all Jewish children, and which,
therefore, He had Himself learned as a boy. Stier beautifully says: “The Living
Eternal Word vested Himself in the written Word.” Satan obviously quoted
Scripture because Jesus evidently held it in such reverence. From this we learn that
the Devil can use texts when they suit his purpose; and from the omission of the
words “in all thy ways,” that he can cunningly misquote them too. Plumptre
observes that the words might well appear likely to lead astray one who had
ALREADY moved unhurt among the “lion and adder,” the “young lion and the
dragon” (see Psalms 91),’
SCOFIELD, “The temptation of Christ, the "last Adam" 1 Corinthians 15:45 is best
understood when contrasted with that of the "first man Adam." Adam was tempted
in his place of lord of creation, a lordship with but one reservation, the knowledge of

good and evil ; Genesis 1:26; 2:16,17. Through the woman he was tempted to add
that also to his dominion. Falling, he lost all. But Christ had taken the place of a
lowly Servant, acting only from and in obedience to the Father. ; Philippians 2:5-8;
John 5:19; 6:57; 8:28,54 (See Scofield "Isaiah 41:8") that He might redeem a fallen
race and a creation under the curse ; Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:19-23. Satan's one
object in the threefold temptation was to induce Christ to act from Himself, in
independency of His Father. The first two temptations were a challenge to Christ
from the god of this world to prove Himself indeed the Son of God (Matthew 4:3,6).
The third was the offer of the usurping prince of this world to divest himself of that
which rightfully belonged to Christ as Son of man and Son of David, on the
condition that He accept the sceptre on Satan's world-principles (cf. John 18:36).
See Scofield "Revelation 13:8". Christ defeated Satan by a means open to His
humblest follower, the intelligent use of the word of God (Matthew 4:4,7). In his
second temptation Satan also used Scripture, but a promise available only to one in
the path of obedience. The scene give emphasis to the vital importance of "rightly
dividing the word of truth" 2 Timothy 2:15.
PG MATHEW, “After his baptism, "Jesus was led by the Spirit," we read in
Matthew 4:1 "into the desert to be tempted by the devil." In his gospel Luke says,
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the
Spirit"--the Spirit of God that came upon him in baptism-- "in the desert, where for
forty days he was tempted by the devil" (Luke 4:1,2). This idea of being led by the
Spirit tells us of the complete submission of Jesus Christ to the will of his Father.
And what was God's will for Jesus at that time? To experience temptation at the
hands of the devil.
The word tempt means to be solicited by the devil to do evil, but it also means to be
tested by God so that we may prove faithful to him. Temptation is always testing
and testing is always temptation, just as God tested Abraham in the matter of the
sacrificing his son (Gen. 22).
Although Jesus was the sinless Son of God, he was not beyond temptation. In
Hebrews 2:18 we read, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is
able to help those who are being tempted." Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was
tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. However, the temptation
of Jesus was unique. Satan tempted Jesus in terms of the mission which God gave
him. Satan tempted Christ to act independently of and contrary to the will of his
Father. Satan tempted Jesus to avoid the path of the cross--the path of suffering and
humiliation.
2. Of course, there is mystery in the idea of the temptation of Jesus. How could the
sinless Jesus could ever be tempted? We can talk about whether Jesus was able not
to sin--posse non peccare --or whether he was unable to sin--non posse peccare . But
there is mystery here just like there is mystery in all of Scripture. Haven't you ever
wondered how sin originated from the heart of sinless Adam and how Adam's guilt

Matthew 4 1 11 commentary

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Matthew 4 1 11 commentary