1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4:1-11 KJV)
Thomas Haweis’ Commentary
Verses 1-11: Jesus being now prepared for the battle, enters the lists against the great enemy of souls, whose kingdom he came to destroy. We have,
1. The time of this conflict. Then, immediately after he had received the attestation of God to his Sonship, and the fullness of the Spirit for the exercise of his office as Mediator. Note, (1.) Before God calls us into temptation, he will furnish us with spiritual strength. (2.) Great manifestations are often the prelude to our severest conflicts. (3.) The confidence of our adoption of God, will be the most effectual shield to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
2. The place. In the wilderness; far from the abode of men, amidst lonely wastes, where only the savages of the forest roamed, to give the enemy every advantage against him, and therein more gloriously to display his own power and all-sufficiency. The first man fell in a paradise of delights: the second man stood unmoved against every blast of temptation, firm as the rocks of the wilderness, his present dreary dwelling.
3. The preparatives to the combat. He was led up of the Spirit, by a divine impulse on his mind, into the higher, more mountainous, and uninhabited part of the country; and this with design to meet the tempter and defeat all his wiles. And hereunto he condescended, (1.) That feeling what sore temptations mean, he might be a compassionate high priest, having been tempted in all points as we are, only without sin. (2.) To encourage us to trust him in every time of need. He who defeated that enemy once himself, can by the same strength make us more than conquerors. Forty days, like Moses on the mount, he continued there alone, and without sustenance; at last he felt all those acute cravings of hunger, which, as man, he was subject to, in common with us, and which gave the enemy another advantage against him, and rendered the Redeemer’s triumphs more illustrious. The first representative of mankind, when wallowing in plenty, was tempted by one forbidden tree; the last Covenant-head of his people, though famishing for want, is deaf to every solicitation of the wicked one.
4. The temptations themselves; a three-fold cord, and yet broken with ease. The design of them was to shake Christ’s confidence in God, and lead him to some dishonorable step; which, had it been possible, must have utterly unqualified him for the work of redemption.
(1.) In the first temptation, the devil sought to lead him to a distrust of God’s providential care and goodness; and in order thereto, the tempter came to him. He had by his secret suggestions, during the forty days before, sought to disturb the mind of Jesus, but in vain; now therefore he assumes a visible form: not such a fearful figure as our early misguided apprehensions suggest, and our delusive prints hold him forth, but some pleasing human shape, or perhaps transformed into an angel of light. The tempter well knew the circumstances of our Lord, and directed his assaults where the weakest side appeared: he hoped the cravings of hunger might lead him to some undue means of relief. Thus vigilant and crafty is the wily adversary to suit his temptation to our situation and condition; and particularly in want and distress, to suggest some sinful expedient to extricate ourselves from our troubles, without waiting God’s leisure, or consulting his will. He often says, Better steal than starve; though God says, It is better to die than sin. He prefaces his temptation with a sly insinuation: If thou be the son of God; as if he doubted the fact, though so lately the voice from heaven had affirmed it: and he desired to shake the faith of Jesus, suggesting that if this really were the case, it was inconceivable that God would leave such a one to starve in the wilderness. Or, seeing thou art the son of God, he admits the fact and wishes to see a present exertion of his divine power in a miracle so necessary for his own support: command that these stones be made bread. Note, (1.) The great battery of the devil is raised against our faith; for if the foundation of our confidence be shaken, the superstructure must needs totter. He is ever striking at this, to make the children of God doubt their adoption; and in order thereto, he urges against them sometimes their outward distresses, sometimes their inward weaknesses and infirmities, as if both the one and the other were inconsistent with the relation they claim. (2.) If once the enemy can engage us to entertain hard thoughts of God, then he is sure to prevail.
Christ repels the assaults of the wicked one with the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and therein teaches us how to ward off the like temptations. He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The Lord hath other ways of supporting men’s bodies than by bread merely; and therefore it was not so absolutely necessary for his sustenance, but that he could be supported without it; nor would he, at Satan’s instigation, do that which might look like distrust of his Father’s care, doubt of his word, or suspicion of his relation to him. Note, (1.) The written word is the only rule of our faith and practice: if Christ himself adhered to that alone, let no pretences of the Spirit’s superior teaching, lead us off from this sure guide. (2.) God’s time is the best time: and he that believeth will not make haste, will take no rash step for his own relief under his trials, but patiently expect the salvation of God.
(2.) The first attack being repelled, a second is prepared; since he cannot lead the Saviour to distrust or despair, he will try to puff him up with presumption. So unwearied is the tempter, and often changing his wiles, according to our circumstances, from one extreme to the other.
He taketh him up, by divine permission, with the consent of Jesus, who suffered the devil to have such power over his body, and to carry him into the holy city, (Jerusalem), so called from the peculiar privileges it enjoyed of God’s worship and ordinances, and set him upon a pinnacle or wing of the temple; one of the battlements probably, which were of an immense height. And since Jesus had expressed such confidence in his Father, and unshaken dependence on his word, he grounds thereon his temptation, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, and give an incontestable proof of it to the priests and people worshipping below; who will no doubt receive thee as the Messiah, when thus coming as if immediately from heaven into the temple; nor will there be any danger in the experiment, since it is written, and therein thou art fully satisfied, he shall give his angels, &c. The application of which words to Christ was right; but a part of the text is artfully suppressed, in all thy ways; for out of the way of duty we may never hope for protection. And it is misapplied, being designed not to tempt men to rush into temptation, presuming upon the divine care, but to engage the faithful to trust God in time of trial, assured of divine support. From all which we may observe, (1.) That one grand engine of the tempter is, to make our heads giddy by setting us up on high. The pinnacle of the temple is a dangerous exaltation. Those who are eminent in station, fortune, or reputation, advance to dignities in church or state, or distinguished with abilities, gifts, graces, or even success in their ministry, need to tremble for themselves; and the higher they stand, to cleave the faster to Jesus their temple, lest their exaltation prove their destruction. (2.) Though the devil can tempt, he cannot compel. Sin is our own act: and without our consent, the most dire temptations fasten not the least evil on our consciences. Should we be tempted to the greatest crimes, to self-murder, or blasphemy, the Son of God was himself thus tempted, yet without sin. (3.) Scriptures may be suggested by the enemy to the minds of God’s people, much to their distress and discouragement on the one hand; or, on the other, to lull their consciences in a fatal security: therefore we must search the Scriptures diligently, that we may know what is God’s mind therein, and be kept from those dangerous errors and delusions which often the Scriptures are vouched to patronize. (4.) We must never separate the means from the end; nor expect, out of God’s way, the protection of his providence and grace. Though Jesus is a Saviour to the uttermost, we may not sin that grace may abound; and predestination to life eternal necessarily includes the diligent improvement of all the means needful to make our election sure.
The same word of truth supplies our Lord with a full confutation of Satan’s sophistry; for in the Scriptures there is an answer ready for every case; and we can be in no circumstance or temptation, but that word will afford us direction, strength, and comfort. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. The tempter hath said, it is written; but the Scripture cannot contradict itself, and therefore to know the mind of God, we must compare spiritual things with spiritual, and not mutilate the word of truth, nor apply it contrary to the intention of the Spirit. To trust God is duty; to tempt him is sinful. Christ needed no confirmation of what he was already assured; nor was he called unnecessarily to make an experiment of God’s power in such a miraculous preservation.
(3.) Once more, though baffled, the enemy returns to the charge, and summoning up all his force in one blow, by the most glaring display of this world’s glory, tempts our Lord to the horrid crime of idolatry. The sorest of our temptations is sometimes reserved for the last, that God’s power and grace may be more gloriously displayed, and the devil’s malice most bitterly disappointed.
Again the devil taketh him up; probably transported him through the air, into an exceeding high mountain, that the fictitious scene he was about to display might appear real; and there he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. Whatever grandeur, wealth, pleasure, reigned in them, were set before him in the most enlivened colors, to catch his fancy, and engage his admiration; and all these he offers to bestow on him on one condition which thousands, without any such reward, were daily doing; If thou wilt fall down and worship me. A proposal so horrid would not bear a thought, and is rejected with detestation: Get thee hence, Satan; such insolence provoked the Saviour’s righteous indignation, and he drives the tempter from his presence, unable to endure such a daring attempt upon the majesty of Jehovah, the only object of worship; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Note, (1.) The minds of God’s greatest saints may be sometimes harassed with the most blasphemous suggestions, and they should not count this as if some strange thing happened unto them. (2.) The glory of the world is the grand snare the enemy lays for men’s souls; and it looks very desirable to the eye of sense; but faith sees through the delusion, beholds vanity stamped on every thing beneath the sun, and scorns all this which Satan offers, as dung and loss compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, and the glories of his grace. (3.) Some temptations come under the guise of plausibility and harmlessness, and require recollection before we can discover the craft of the devil; others bring the brand of hell in their forehead, and would bear men down merely with the weight of the present advantage thence accruing: these must not be parlied with a moment, but rejected with abhorrence. (4.) God is alone the object of worship; and whatever else be made the idol of our adoration, whether the horrid forms of monsters in a pagoda, or the images of saints, and virgins, and crucifixes, in a popish chapel, it is no better than falling down to the devil.
5. Satan, now vanquished, and unable to resist the commanding word of Jesus, quits the field. He found him more than man, invulnerable in every part, and feels himself a vanquished foe. Thus shall the sons of God, through this great Captain of their salvation, tread Satan under their feet; enabled to wrestle with spiritual wickedness, and to prevail against the powers of darkness. Though hard the conflict, the victory is sure to all who stand fast, strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
6. The angels, the attendant servants of Jesus, now visibly appeared, and ministered unto him. They had beheld, as spectators, the conflict and triumphs of the Lord, and now congratulate his victory for us; his own arm hath brought salvation unto him. (2.) Angels minister to the heirs of salvation; we need not fear, therefore, what devils can do against us. (3.) Though our relief be for a while delayed, it shall assuredly come at last. Trust in the Lord, therefore, and verily thou shalt be fed. (4.) Our Master was himself tempted, that he might feel for us, and supply us with all needful supports, when we are in like manner sore thrust at that we should fall.