1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. (Luke 4:1-13 KJV)
Thomas Haweis
Verses 1-13: As the great enemy of souls had foiled the first man in the midst of a paradise of delights, the second man, the Lord from heaven, who came to destroy the works of the devil, that he might render his victory more illustrious, gives the tempter every advantage. Though deep retired in a dreary desert, without human converse, without food, during forty days, to satisfy his hunger, he stood like a rock in the midst of the sea, defying the impotent attacks of the raging field of darkness. Being full of the Holy Ghost, and just then anointed for his mediatorial office, and furnished with the fullness of divine grace, Satan, to his bitter shame and vexation, found him immovable, and every attack he made only signified his own defeat.
1. He tempted him to distrust his Father’s care, and insinuated his suspicions of the character he assumed as the Son of God; seeking to shake the faith of the Redeemer, and challenging him to give a proof of it by working so needful a miracle for his own supply. But Jesus refused to gratify him; and by the sword of the Spirit, the work of God, foiled his assault, testifying his confidence in his Father’s provision for him; refusing to take the matter out of his hands, and persuaded that he could by other means than by bread alone preserve his life and satisfy his hunger, hereby teaching us, (1.) Under every temptation to have recourse to the word and promises of God. (2.) Not to give place to the devil, by harboring for a moment his suggestions. (3.) Never to desire to be our own carvers, or think by our own contrivance and wisdom, exclusive of God, to extricate ourselves from our own difficulties, or gain our own ends, but quietly to resign ourselves to him, submissive to his providences, and constantly depending upon his blessing and support. (4.) That we should not estimate God’s favour by his outward dispensations, nor call in question our adoption of him, though never so severely exercised. Many of God’s dearest children have known the pinchings of hunger, to prove their faith and try their patience.
2. He tempted him with the enticing offers of temporal grandeur. This St. Matthew places the last, and such it seems to have been; though Luke inverts the order. Taking him up into a mountain, the devil in a moment caused all the kingdoms of the world in their greatest glory, to pass in review before our Lord, as if to dazzle and charm him with their united splendor: then boldly challenging them as his own, as if delivered to him, either by the most High, which was false; or by the willing subjection of these nations and their kings, who yielded themselves up to the devil’s power; and, as Lord of all, he pretends therefore a right to dispose of them at his pleasure; on one condition he proffers to lay them all at the feet of Jesus, and constitute him the universal sovereign, If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine. With indignation and abhorrence at such insolence and impiety, he rejects the tempter’s offer; and, still drawing his weapons from the sacred magazine of Scripture, condemns the daring attempt of this hateful spirit thus to invade the divine prerogative, and confounds him with producing that eternal and invariable rule of worship, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Note, All adoration of saints, angels, and the Virgin, is in fact but the worship of Satan, and as much a sacrifice to devils, 1Co 10:20, as the religious services of Paganism.
3. Once more the devil returns to the charge, and, since Christ is unmoved with grandeur, and unshaken with distrust, he tries to fill him with unwarrantable presumption; and, setting him on a pinnacle of the temple, bids him cast himself down into the court of worshippers below; and, if he was really the Son of God, to prove it by such a sign from heaven as the Jews sought, which, he suggests, would not fail of engaging them to receive him as the Messiah; nor could there be danger in the experiment, since God hath given him an express promise of protection, and he was under angelic care, Ps 91:11-12. Christ seemed to lay such stress upon the Scripture, therefore Satan quotes it too to support his cause. The word of God in the hands of wicked men, is thus often perverted and wrested to serve the vilest purposes. But Jesus detects Satan’s fallacy. God is to be trusted, not to be tempted, as it is written, De 5:16. In the way of duty he will hold us up; if, without any warrant from him, we expose ourselves to needless danger, we have not the least ground to hope for preservation.
Utterly defeated now, the devil quits the field, covered with shame; in malice still inveterate. Waiting therefore for a more favourable season, he departed, resolving to seize the first occasion of returning with sharpened malignity; see Lu 22:53.