It was after the Lord Jesus had been baptized and anointed and publicly owned to be the Son of God, that this temptation came. And with us, after we have been born again and know redemption Satan tempts us, and we know his wiles. By nature we are his captives, but after we have been taken from his kingdom he attacks us. But we meet a defeated foe. The strong man was bound in this temptation. No king that had ever reigned had been a match for Satan. This One was about to show His superiority. In chap. 1 David alone is called the king; in chap. 2. One is born “King of the Jews.” David was no match for Satan; he fell into his snare again and again. Satan stood up against Israel, and tempted him, and he numbered the people to his sorrow. He was not on the watch. Even Joab saw the wrong of it. He was a shrewd man though not a saint of God. In everything David put his hand to, he prospered till the end came.
What a contrast is in this chapter to the first man in Genesis 3. The wilderness speaks of the fall. How great the contrast between the garden of Eden and this wilderness where, according to Mark, the wild beasts were. We have not all the temptation. He was tempted in a way we know nothing of. There hath no temptation taken us but such as is common to man. Forty days signify an adequate time of probation. The three seen on the Mount of Transfiguration had each one passed through forty days to be tested. The Lord here, Moses on the mountain, Elias in the desert. We also get a picture there of the kingdom both in its earthly and heavenly departments. All connected with the heavenly department have part in the first resurrection. The saint who does not die and so is not “raised,” is amongst the all who shall be “changed,” and that is equivalent to the first resurrection. In the temptation here we have instruction for ourselves. Satan would instill doubt. Never give way to any insinuation that throws doubt on God's word. Whenever a saint by grace in any way shines, he is an object of the devil's malice Look at David how he shines when Saul is in the cave! Immediately after, he says in his heart, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. Here the Lord had been singled out as the object of the Father's pleasure. After that life of seclusion, those thirty years on earth in which God had found His delight in the Son, the devil chooses this time to try Him If God gives faith He will always test it. He upholdeth all that fall. As to my salvation, I have not a shadow of a doubt, but if the devil attacks me as to myself and my ways, “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” If you have ground to think a person is a believer never insinuate a doubt as to his standing.
There was nothing in the Lord Jesus to respond to the temptation, for in Him was no sin. We can never be like Him in this. He was apart from sin, there was nothing in Him to answer to it. He alone could say, “I do always the things that please Him.” To have Him before us as our example is right; to say we come up to this standard is wrong.
He was in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, and He hungered. There is no sin in hunger; no sin in sitting weary at the well. The world as an evil system was made by the devil. The beautiful world around us was made by God. Satan wanted Him to take Himself out of God's hands. Whilst Paul could heal Publius' father, we have no record of his healing any of his own companions. Saints should remember God can do everything, but we should have confidence in His wisdom as well as His power. There are preventive mercies. If you get a trial it may not be in chastisement, but because God sees trouble is ahead, and it is sent to keep you from it: as with the apostle, “Lest I should be exalted,” etc.
With our first parents there was the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—the things that make up the world, and the three main weapons of Satan. The greatest lesson we can learn by this, is that the enemy can never touch us if we are obedient and dependent. That made the Lord victorious; He overcame by dependence and obedience. He quotes from Deut. 8.: “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Here was man, perfect man, the only perfect man.
Luke gives things in their moral order. Here in Matthew it is their actual order. In Luke the order corresponds with the temptation in Gen. 3., but here the Lord is tempted first as man, secondly as Messiah, and thirdly as Son of God. “Man shall not live.” He was truly man. His answer ought to tell us we have inestimable treasure in the word of God, all of it; we ought to appreciate every part, and to profit from all. This is our safeguard. “Command these stones” —he knew he was speaking to the Creator who could do so; but would He be tempted from the place of obedience and dependence? He would not exercise His own will. The Lord “suffered, being tempted"; it was painful to Him. Sometimes temptation is not painful to us. If we are suffering from it we are not sinning.
“Then the devil taketh him into the holy city, and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple.” A pinnacle of the temple is a very dangerous place-ecclesiastical pride. Some may wonder why Jerusalem should be called the “holy city.” Even at the time of the crucifixion it is called “the holy city” (chap. 4:5; 27:53) —but the word “holy” has two different meanings. Sometimes it means holy in nature, as God is holy. But it also means “set apart,” or devoted, as the temple, the city, the land—holy because chosen by Him. In the second temptation the Lord will not be led astray.
The idea of testing God is utterly repugnant to a child of God; what was it to Him! This temptation tempted Him as Messiah. Ps. 92 is Messianic. He knew it was true, He did not need to test God; and we ought to trust the word and not put God to the test. “It is written” was sufficient to determine. He would not be forced from it. “It is written again” —we must never use one Scripture to neutralize another. It never contradicts itself. We may not always understand it and may have to wait for light upon it, as we read in Rom. 15:44For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)-"that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” For the present time, and always, we need the word to guide us-we are to be subject to the powers that be. But there are many other Scriptures that should guide my conduct also. To take one, I am to do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. The world cannot be governed on Christian principles. It is vain to tell the world what my prospects are; it is throwing pearls before swine. If people will spread their own precious promises before the world, let them not wonder if the world turns again and rends them.
It is one thing for God to try us; quite another for us to try Him. Wicked Ahaz was invited by God to ask of Him a sign; but said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” The Christian has not to ask Him to “be gracious unto us"; for, redemption being accomplished, God has now met us according to the riches of His grace. The Lord very well knew who it was that was tempting Him, but He does not disclose it until the devil thoroughly manifests himself by saying, “If thou wilt fall down and worship me"; then He calls him, Satan. “Devil” is the accuser, “Satan” the adversary. The Lord in no way refuses the testing.
He allows Satan to take Him up into the exceeding high mountain. As Son of man everything will be put under Jesus' feet. In Luke, Satan shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Another has said, “It did not take Satan long to show all that he possessed!” What will he not say to us, if he dared to say this to the Lord? He will be permitted to confer the throne and great authority on the beast (Revelation 13:22And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. (Revelation 13:2)). How this shows us that the devil for the first time meets a Man stronger than himself. So this King can bind the strong man and spoil his goods. He is superior here, and then casts out demons. The Lord quotes from Deuteronomy 6:1313Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. (Deuteronomy 6:13).
Had the third temptation been before the second you would have the anomaly of Satan staying when the Lord told him to go; but in Luke it is the moral order that is given; and so the words “Get thee behind me, Satan” have no place there, for Satan himself was never bidden to “get behind” the Lord, but to “Go hence.” Satan acknowledges his defeat; he leaveth Him for a season. He had used his utmost form of subtlety, and been overcome. He comes back and tries the Lord by terrors at the end. “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.” Satan is no more successful at the end than at the beginning.
“Angels came and ministered unto Him"; but one only in the garden to strengthen Him. “He was seen of angels” —He will be seen of them in a day to come, “angels, authorities, and powers being made subject unto Him.” Now they all minister to the heirs of salvation, not one exempt. Though we have salvation now, we are also heirs of the salvation which is nearer than when we believed. Here is a fallen angel suggesting to the Lord that He should pay him homage! But God says of Him in Psalm 91, and the devil knew it, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” When? It does not say, when “he brought,” or when “He will bring,” but “When he bringeth.” If as a Babe in the manger He is brought into the world, He is the object of the angels' worship; in those Psalms that begin with Psalm 94 He is being brought in as Messiah, and again the angels worship Him.
The Lord Jesus does not begin His ministry in this Gospel till John was cast into prison. It is presented to us here dispensationally. Zebulun and Naphtali, though a people that jeoparded their lives in the days of Barak, bordered on the Gentiles and had been affected by them; it was a place of darkness, and there the light sprang up. He was among the poor of the flock.