Matthew chapter 4:1-11
In this first of two articles we will consider the scene, circumstances and first temptation of the Lord. Note carefully, the Lord’s use of the Old Testament in this passage (‘It is written’, verses 4, 6 and 10).
Verses 1,2 The Scene and the Circumstances
Verse 1
“Then” – when? Immediately after the Lord Jesus had come out of the waters of baptism. Indeed, Mark records, “And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness” (Mark 1.12). It was just when heaven had been opened and the Father had proclaimed His delight in His Son and when the Holy Spirit had descended in holy complacency upon Him.
Matthew says, “Then was Jesus led up (carried – JND) of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil”. Thus, it was the Holy Spirit who took Him to meet the enemy, the Holy Spirit took the initiative. Note the words, “to be tempted of the devil”; the devil is the slanderer; he slanders God to men and he slanders men to God. In v.3 he is spoken of as the tempter, whilst in v.10, the Lord Jesus addresses him as Satan. This is his name as the adversary, one who is in positive opposition to God at every point.
Verse 2
“When he had fasted forty days and forty nights”; the number forty in the Scriptures indicates a period of probation or trial. Thus, for example, the children of Israel were forty years in the wilderness. There is clear evidence in the opening chapters of this gospel that the Lord Jesus was retracing the pathway of the children of Israel.
Matthew continues, “he was afterward an hungred“ – this demonstrates His real humanity. At the time of his testing, the first Adam had plenty and was not hungry; he was in a garden, not a wilderness; the whole creation was at his feet and there were no wild beasts. Yet he fell when tempted. Thus, everything was favourable for the first Adam. On the other hand, everything was unfavourable for the last Adam, the Lord Jesus. He was hungry and in the wilderness, and Mark tells us, He “was with the wild beasts” (Mark 1.13) and He fell not.
Verses 3,4 The First Temptation
The record in Matthew’s gospel presents to us only three specific temptations, but it is evident from the account in Luke chapter 4 that the Lord Jesus was tempted throughout the period of forty days, “being forty days tempted of the devil” (Luke 4.2). This is confirmed by the statement, “when the devil had ended all (i.e. every) the temptation” (Luke 4.13). But the great temptations, the details of which the Holy Spirit has been pleased to put on record are those that took place at the end of the forty days.
Luke presents these temptations in a moral order. If we take the temptations as recorded by Luke, we find that the threefold principle defined in 1 John 2.16 is clearly illustrated, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. The first temptation relates to “the lust of the flesh”, the second to “the lust of the eyes” and the third to “the pride of life”.
However, Matthew presents the three temptations in the actual order in which they took place. He alone uses notes of sequence, thus: “then” (4.5) and “again” (4.8). Indeed Matthew, in principle, records them as they happened to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness: i) in the matter of bread, (Exodus chapter 16); ii) in the matter of temptation concerning water (Exodus chapter 17); iii) in the matter of worship (Exodus chapter 32). Here is the Lord Jesus retracing Israel’s wilderness history, showing Himself perfect, in contrast to their sad imperfections, for i) they murmured because they had no bread; ii) they tempted the Lord and limited the most High when they had no water; iii) in the absence of Moses, they persuaded Aaron to make a golden calf to which they bowed down and worshipped.
Verse 3
“And when the tempter came to him” – He is as truly a person as God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. How terrible it is that in the very midst of Christendom, the personality of Satan is denied. The denial of the existence of a personal devil is the masterpiece of all the dreadful work that Satan has done. The awful chain in denying the personality of the devil is: no devil, no sin, no judgment, no wrath, no sacrifice, no saviour, no God.
The word “tempt” has two different meanings in the New Testament:
- a) Inciting or enticing to evil, to seduce; this always presupposes evil present in some form, that in the person there is something which may respond to the evil placed before the soul. This could never be the case with the Lord Jesus; there is no sin in Him. He is absolutely holy.
- b) To put to the test, to bring to trial and examination. In this sense only can it refer to the Lord Jesus. The testing was to bring out that He is the pure gold, the sinless one.
Verse 3 continues, “he (the tempter) said, If thou be the Son of God”. The devil is not expressing doubt, the idea is “since thou art the Son of God”, let there be a miraculous demonstration of this fact, “command that these stones be made bread”. The first temptation is one in which He is assailed as the Son of man. Here the Lord Jesus was tested as to His dependence. Is He hungry? Why should He not now, a hungry man, turn stones into bread for Himself? However, had He not voluntarily assumed dependent manhood? It would not be in keeping that He should act independently to meet His own need of the hour. He would continue to trust Him whom He had ever trusted.
Verse 4
“But he answered and said, It is written”. The tense employed indicates a past act with its effects lasting to the present. The Lord meant that this written word still has its same power, authority and value. By His example, the Lord Jesus shows us the weapon to use against the tempter. The word of God was hidden in His heart – He quotes from Deuteronomy, the book of the common people. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”. These words were spoken by Moses at the end of the forty years, just as they were spoken by the Lord at the end of the forty days.
The Lord Jesus refers to the chapter in Deuteronomy that alludes to the provision of the manna, the daily food of the children of Israel, which involved dependence upon God and showed that Israel did not need the resources of the world to sustain them and nor do we!
David E West.