For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
The verse promises that God gives His angels charge to guard and keep a person, bearing him up lest he fall into harm. Satan quoted it in the wilderness after Christ's forty days of fasting to dare Him to cast Himself from the temple pinnacle to prove He was the Son of God and force the Father to rescue Him. In doing so he left out the limiting words in all thy ways, turning trust in divine keeping into presumption by seeking protection outside God's appointed way. The promise does not cover needless danger or a self-chosen trial of God, but holds only in the path of faith and obedience without demanding a miracle. Christ refused to put God to trial and overcame by answering with Scripture alone, winning for humanity the victory Adam failed to gain.
Wording and Historical Setting
The promise is that God places His angels in charge to guard, keep and protect a person, lifting and bearing that person up so as to prevent a fall or injury.
The setting is Christ's temptation in the wilderness, which concerns redemption and was fought as the foundation of the plan of salvation. It came at the beginning of His public ministry, an unceasing battle with Satan through forty days and nights of fasting. That victory was won for humanity, with divine power joined to His humanity to secure victory on humanity's behalf and to show that people can overcome. His overcoming by denial of appetite in that fast shows that divine power can withstand Satan's fiercest temptations and help people overcome evil. There He was alone with no human voice, weakened by fasting, surrounded by demons under deceptive pretensions, and enduring severe mental suffering under constant strain. Satan pressed Him there with many temptations, yet strength is provided in Christ's name even though each person must gain the victory individually.
In that scene Satan exercised real power to take Christ in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple and up into an exceedingly high mountain. From the dizzy height of the pinnacle he urged Christ to cast Himself down, quoting God's promise to give angels charge to keep Him. That urging placed Christ in extreme difficulty and peril in the hands of the enemy, an act of presumptuous boldness that betrayed malicious intent and formed part of cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer. The scene also included showing Christ the world and offering it as a bribe for worship. That bold exercise of power against the Lord, who was far superior in wisdom, proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation to a wonderful degree, since they are far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength.
Throughout he concealed his real character, disguising himself as an angel of light and a Heaven-sent friend. He came as an angel from God claiming to have come to relieve Christ, misleadingly suggesting that God did not require the suffering ahead. At one time he appeared in the form of a beautiful young man, more like a monarch than a fallen angel, with Scripture in his mouth, seeking to take advantage of Christ's weak, suffering condition in human nature. He pressed artful, deceiving sophistry and wily insinuations against God to undermine confidence, destroy faith and trust, and allure Christ into controversy as if reading unspoken thoughts. By every means he could devise he sought to overcome the Redeemer by offering an easier way to gain His object than the path of trial and suffering He had entered, exercising a bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the human heart while believing God is leading them.
The promise is that God places His angels in charge to guard, keep and protect a person, lifting and bearing that person up so as to prevent a fall or injury.
The setting is Christ's temptation in the wilderness, which concerns redemption and was fought as the foundation of the plan of salvation. It came at the beginning of His public ministry, an unceasing battle with Satan through forty days and nights of fasting. That victory was won for humanity, with divine power joined to His humanity to secure victory on humanity's behalf and to show that people can overcome. His overcoming by denial of appetite in that fast shows that divine power can withstand Satan's fiercest temptations and help people overcome evil. There He was alone with no human voice, weakened by fasting, surrounded by demons under deceptive pretensions, and enduring severe mental suffering under constant strain. Satan pressed Him there with many temptations, yet strength is provided in Christ's name even though each person must gain the victory individually.
In that scene Satan exercised real power to take Christ in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple and up into an exceedingly high mountain. From the dizzy height of the pinnacle he urged Christ to cast Himself down, quoting God's promise to give angels charge to keep Him. That urging placed Christ in extreme difficulty and peril in the hands of the enemy, an act of presumptuous boldness that betrayed malicious intent and formed part of cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer. The scene also included showing Christ the world and offering it as a bribe for worship. That bold exercise of power against the Lord, who was far superior in wisdom, proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation to a wonderful degree, since they are far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength.
Throughout he concealed his real character, disguising himself as an angel of light and a Heaven-sent friend. He came as an angel from God claiming to have come to relieve Christ, misleadingly suggesting that God did not require the suffering ahead. At one time he appeared in the form of a beautiful young man, more like a monarch than a fallen angel, with Scripture in his mouth, seeking to take advantage of Christ's weak, suffering condition in human nature. He pressed artful, deceiving sophistry and wily insinuations against God to undermine confidence, destroy faith and trust, and allure Christ into controversy as if reading unspoken thoughts. By every means he could devise he sought to overcome the Redeemer by offering an easier way to gain His object than the path of trial and suffering He had entered, exercising a bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the human heart while believing God is leading them.
Satan's Misuse of Scripture
Satan came with Scripture in his mouth, quoting the promise of angelic charge to keep Christ as a dare to throw himself down from a height and rely on angelic protection. He pressed that challenge upon Christ in His weak and suffering condition, taunting Him to prove entire dependence, faith and confidence in the Father's preserving care. The dare was to prove that He was the Son of God, to show trust, and to demand a sign of authority by a display of divine power. Set on the pinnacle of the temple in extreme difficulty and peril in the enemy's hands, Christ was urged to cast Himself down unbidden as a needless experiment upon the Father's faithfulness, love, mercy and protecting care. To have yielded at Satan's dare would not have shown strength of faith but weakness of human nature, forcing providence to display power to save from self-chosen peril.
In quoting the promise Satan omitted the qualifying words in all thy ways found in Psalm 91:11. He applied angelic care as a reason to use a miracle for His own relief and to seek protection on His own terms rather than in God's appointed way and work and plan. That plan required Christ to share humanity's necessities and to remain submitted to the Father's will rather than to challenge God or display divine power. Satan knew God could indeed bear Christ up and would intervene to deliver Him if He were thrown down. Yet his aim was to turn trust in God into presumption and to shake Christ's trust, though he could tempt Jesus but could not force Him to sin, so that Jesus could be overcome only if He consented to depart from His Father's will.
The use of the promise in this scene shows that Scripture can be misused to justify temptation. Its words can be made to appear to support a temptation and to disguise evil as goodness. A deceptive temptation is thus made to appear good, trustworthy and helpful in order to gain confidence and lead astray. This misuse of the Word matches Satan's manner of presenting himself as an angel of light and a friend of humanity.
Faith Versus Presumption
The promise that angels are charged to guard and keep does not license presumption, deliberately creating needless danger, stepping out of the appointed way and work, demanding a miraculous rescue, putting faithfulness, love, mercy, providence and protecting care to a needless trial, or forcing providence to display power to save from self-chosen peril in a test devised to display power to the enemy. To cast down unbidden at a dare in order to prove dependence, faith, confidence and sonship would be to experiment upon that care and to tempt God rather than to honor Him, since such a display would glorify neither the Father nor His purpose. The promise was never meant to authorize departing from the divine plan to share human necessity, to seek protection on self-chosen terms, or to use a miracle for self-relief. Satan knew rescue could indeed be given if a fall were forced, yet the appeal sought to turn trust into presumption and to shake trust by consent to depart from the Father's will, though temptation alone could not compel sin.
Protection is promised on conditions of faith and obedience and holds in all the appointed ways and as God chooses, not on a course outside obedience. It gives no guarantee of safety to one who knowingly, needlessly and presumptuously puts himself in peril, disregards prudence, sound judgment and reason, violates the laws of nature, and still expects angels to preserve him there. Nor does it require God to work a miracle to escape the consequences of rash action or to rescue from difficulty on demand. To trust without deliberately placing oneself in danger or demanding miraculous rescue is to avoid forcing providence and to model true submission.
Perfect, intelligent faith holds firm trust and unwavering confidence without manufacturing a peril to demand proof, without requiring a display of divine power on demand, and without experimenting upon protecting care even in extreme difficulty and peril in the enemy's hands. Presumption lies close beside perfect faith but crosses its boundary, so that to throw oneself down unbidden to claim care would show not strength of faith but weakness of human nature and daring presumption. Such refusal to put faithfulness and love to trial leaves the only safety in all trials and perils, a perfect pattern of trusting promised care without putting it to trial. The aim of pressing the promise in this way was to draw out human weakness, spoil the perfect example, and by causing failure leave the race without redemption under complete hostile power.
To have used miraculous power to escape danger or difficulty for display, sensation, proof of identity, or victory over the enemy would have broken the agreement to live as a probationer on behalf of humanity. It would have yielded to the very enemy come to be conquered, lowered the tempted one to that enemy, and failed to honor the Father and to give the people a true example of trust. Since only Satan and God's angels would have witnessed the act, it would have served pride of display and no special purpose honoring God. For that reason the right course is patiently to endure temptation and disputed rights rather than presume upon divine power.
Perfect faith, confidence and trust were instead held without putting promised care to trial, with assurance that temptation would not be allowed beyond given strength and that an angel would deliver from the tempter if necessary. Life was therefore refused to be imperiled in answer to challenge, and the answer given was that God must not be tempted. In that refusal, trust without demand for proof overcame, preserving integrity without wavering.
Christ's Victory for Humanity
Christ met this temptation with victory by the written Word, answering from point to point with only It is written and speaking only the words God had inspired holy men of old to write. He resisted by Scripture rather than by arguments, reasons or circumstances, for arguments and reasons are of no use against Satan and It is written alone repulses him and puts the tempted one upon solid, immovable rock. He gave Satan no word to lead him on, refused his suggestions at once, remained submitted to the Father's will and obedient, and did not yield even in thought. He commanded Satan to leave, and though the prince of darkness aimed his fiery darts surely in the most fearful assaults, they found no lodgment.
He repulsed every temptation and conquered Satan in his fiercest and most subtle assault, so that Satan prevailed nothing, failed completely and left disappointed, enraged and conquered for a season. Christ was then faint and near death after forty days and nights without food or drink, and angels came from the world of light, lifted Him, brought food, ministered to Him and strengthened Him, and His Father's blessing rested on Him. The same pattern holds for His followers who are buffeted for a season: if they resist, the season will be followed by grace and strength imparted by His angels. Those victories make it possible for followers to conquer sin and Satan, and Christ will give strength to all who seek it.
That wilderness victory was fought and won on behalf of humanity, succeeding where Adam failed and bearing the test Adam failed to endure. His divine power joined with His humanity secured that infinite victory on humanity's behalf, raised humanity's moral value before God, and showed that people can overcome appetite and the power of evil. That victory gives fallen people in Christ's name the example, strength and means to overcome, showing that those bound by appetite can gain victory through strength from Him and their cases are not beyond hope, for they cannot win by their own strength alone. It benefits each person only as he or she also gains the victory personally, through divine intelligence cooperating with human action, and strength is provided in Christ's name but each must gain it individually. It should inspire courage because no person can be overcome without his own consent, for the tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin, and though he may distress and cause agony he cannot contaminate or defile without consent.
The conflict carried decisive stakes for the plan of salvation and the destiny of the human race, for everything concerning Satan's prosperity, his claimed empire and rule over the world, his life and kingdom, and whether his power would be broken depended on overcoming Christ. If Satan failed his case was hopeless and his power and glory would cease with retribution for the sins he introduced and the misery he brought, while if he succeeded he would gain victory over the entire race and establish his life and kingdom. Comprehending those temptations and victories gives a more correct idea of the greatness of the work of overcoming. The wilderness conflict decided whether the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's or the earth would become Satan's kingdom and the human race forever in his power.
After failing in the wilderness Satan did not give up hope but turned to strategy through human agents, blinding the Jews and filling them with unbelief, envy, jealousy and hatred to reject Christ, hunting Him from place to place and making His life bitter. He prepared during the three years of ministry for a last fearful conflict in the garden and on the cross over whether the kingdoms of the earth would become Christ's. Because He had conquered in the wilderness He later stood calmly before demoniacs at Capernaum and by the tombs, knowing the tempter's identity under another form as the same evil spirit, and wrested the captives from his grasp.
Overcoming Temptation Today
The promise belongs to the written Word with which Jesus met treacherous advances and commanded the tempter to leave, and that Word is the guide and safeguard against temptation. It supplies strength to resist, so believers are to rely on its promises rather than on circumstances or their own weakness. Arguments and reasons are of no use against Satan; “It is written” alone repulses him, baffles him, and puts the tempted one upon solid, immovable rock. Believers are therefore to become acquainted with the Scriptures, learn its lessons, hang them in memory’s hall, and use spare time to commit the Word to memory, so that when beset they can meet Satan with that weapon alone, speak Scripture in season, be strengthened thereby, and perfect character for immortal life where no tempting devil can overcome. That victory showed the power of God’s Word, and where it fails to have its proper effect the cause is human choice to disobey, not any lack of power in the Word itself.
Christ was not truly alone in the wilderness, for God’s angels were around Him and commissioned to minister to those facing the enemy’s assaults. Their presence did not prevent the temptation, yet Christ overcame and Satan was defeated. He was buffeted more strongly than any disciple ever is, His will remaining submitted to His Father’s will without yielding for a moment, until Satan left Him for a season and angels ministered to Him. The same pattern holds for His followers: they will be buffeted for a season, and if they resist, the season will be followed by grace and strength from God imparted by His angels.
The use of the promise of angelic protection to urge casting down turns a promise into a false guarantee for needless danger, and God’s promises give no support to such presumption or reckless choice. Deliberately rushing into danger while disregarding prudence and sound judgment and then claiming divine protection is presumption. Presumption is one of the three leading temptations by which people are often overcome, alongside appetite and love of the world, and Christ’s resistance strengthens people to resist. Christians are therefore to depend humbly on providence, avoid dangerous situations, patiently endure temptation and disputed rights, and reject attempts to use Scripture to justify disobedience or a presumptuous course. Christ’s wilderness experience after forty days and nights of fasting redeemed the disgrace of Adam’s failure and fall, teaching self-denial and temperance and giving power to overcome appetite and passion beginning at the table and extending to every part of life, since intemperance damages mental and moral powers.
Satan’s daring to face, tempt and taunt Christ with God’s written promise, even taking Him in his arms to carry Him to the pinnacle of the temple and to an exceedingly high mountain, shows bold exercise of real power against One far superior in wisdom. That boldness proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation, far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength, to a wonderful degree. At the beginning of public ministry during forty days and nights of fasting he concealed his real character as an angel of light and Heaven-sent friend, seeking by every device to overcome the Redeemer with an easier way than trial and suffering, and exercising a specious bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the heart while believing God is leading them and serve the enemy of righteousness instead of God. His constant design is to draw minds from Jesus to man and destroy individual accountability, succeeding better afterward with fallen man than with Christ by corrupting Christian doctrine so that popes and priests take an exalted position and people look to them for pardon instead of looking to Christ for themselves, while the Bible is withheld to conceal condemning truths. The same adversary throws a religious garment over delusive pleasures and unholy revelings to give them the appearance of sanctity and quiet conscience, especially when means for church expenses are raised by them, and comprehending those temptations and victories gives a more correct idea of the greatness of the work of overcoming, for the conflict was decisive: had he failed his case was hopeless, had he succeeded he would have gained victory over the entire race and established his life and kingdom.
Because Christ has conquered, temptation is to be met by relying on God rather than yielding or parleying with the enemy. God could have intervened to deliver Jesus if thrown down, but the promise did not require Him to risk His life to prove faith or give Satan evidence, for to turn trust into presumption would be overcome only by consenting to temptation, and Satan could tempt but could not compel to sin. Christ repulsed Satan in every conflict of that fiercest and most subtle assault, and those battles fought on behalf of humanity make it possible for people to conquer, His success or failure being tied to whether Satan’s power would be broken. The only hope of victory is continual resistance, uniting human weakness to His enduring might, so that the strongest temptation may be resisted and overcome in His all-powerful name as He overcame, since humanity could not conquer in its own behalf. No person can be overcome without his own consent, for the tempter has no power to control the will or force the soul to sin; he may distress but cannot contaminate, he can cause agony but not defilement without consent. That conquest should inspire followers with courage to fight manfully against sin and Satan, knowing Christ will give strength to all who seek it, and knowing that the more nearly the Christian imitates the divine Pattern the more surely he will become a mark for Satan’s attacks.
The verse promises that God gives His angels charge to guard and keep a person, bearing him up lest he fall into harm. Satan quoted it in the wilderness after Christ's forty days of fasting to dare Him to cast Himself from the temple pinnacle to prove He was the Son of God and force the Father to rescue Him. In doing so he left out the limiting words in all thy ways, turning trust in divine keeping into presumption by seeking protection outside God's appointed way. The promise does not cover needless danger or a self-chosen trial of God, but holds only in the path of faith and obedience without demanding a miracle. Christ refused to put God to trial and overcame by answering with Scripture alone, winning for humanity the victory Adam failed to gain.
Wording and Historical Setting
The promise is that God places His angels in charge to guard, keep and protect a person, lifting and bearing that person up so as to prevent a fall or injury.
The setting is Christ's temptation in the wilderness, which concerns redemption and was fought as the foundation of the plan of salvation. It came at the beginning of His public ministry, an unceasing battle with Satan through forty days and nights of fasting. That victory was won for humanity, with divine power joined to His humanity to secure victory on humanity's behalf and to show that people can overcome. His overcoming by denial of appetite in that fast shows that divine power can withstand Satan's fiercest temptations and help people overcome evil. There He was alone with no human voice, weakened by fasting, surrounded by demons under deceptive pretensions, and enduring severe mental suffering under constant strain. Satan pressed Him there with many temptations, yet strength is provided in Christ's name even though each person must gain the victory individually.
In that scene Satan exercised real power to take Christ in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple and up into an exceedingly high mountain. From the dizzy height of the pinnacle he urged Christ to cast Himself down, quoting God's promise to give angels charge to keep Him. That urging placed Christ in extreme difficulty and peril in the hands of the enemy, an act of presumptuous boldness that betrayed malicious intent and formed part of cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer. The scene also included showing Christ the world and offering it as a bribe for worship. That bold exercise of power against the Lord, who was far superior in wisdom, proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation to a wonderful degree, since they are far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength.
Throughout he concealed his real character, disguising himself as an angel of light and a Heaven-sent friend. He came as an angel from God claiming to have come to relieve Christ, misleadingly suggesting that God did not require the suffering ahead. At one time he appeared in the form of a beautiful young man, more like a monarch than a fallen angel, with Scripture in his mouth, seeking to take advantage of Christ's weak, suffering condition in human nature. He pressed artful, deceiving sophistry and wily insinuations against God to undermine confidence, destroy faith and trust, and allure Christ into controversy as if reading unspoken thoughts. By every means he could devise he sought to overcome the Redeemer by offering an easier way to gain His object than the path of trial and suffering He had entered, exercising a bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the human heart while believing God is leading them.
The promise is that God places His angels in charge to guard, keep and protect a person, lifting and bearing that person up so as to prevent a fall or injury.
The setting is Christ's temptation in the wilderness, which concerns redemption and was fought as the foundation of the plan of salvation. It came at the beginning of His public ministry, an unceasing battle with Satan through forty days and nights of fasting. That victory was won for humanity, with divine power joined to His humanity to secure victory on humanity's behalf and to show that people can overcome. His overcoming by denial of appetite in that fast shows that divine power can withstand Satan's fiercest temptations and help people overcome evil. There He was alone with no human voice, weakened by fasting, surrounded by demons under deceptive pretensions, and enduring severe mental suffering under constant strain. Satan pressed Him there with many temptations, yet strength is provided in Christ's name even though each person must gain the victory individually.
In that scene Satan exercised real power to take Christ in his arms and carry Him to a pinnacle of the temple and up into an exceedingly high mountain. From the dizzy height of the pinnacle he urged Christ to cast Himself down, quoting God's promise to give angels charge to keep Him. That urging placed Christ in extreme difficulty and peril in the hands of the enemy, an act of presumptuous boldness that betrayed malicious intent and formed part of cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer. The scene also included showing Christ the world and offering it as a bribe for worship. That bold exercise of power against the Lord, who was far superior in wisdom, proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation to a wonderful degree, since they are far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength.
Throughout he concealed his real character, disguising himself as an angel of light and a Heaven-sent friend. He came as an angel from God claiming to have come to relieve Christ, misleadingly suggesting that God did not require the suffering ahead. At one time he appeared in the form of a beautiful young man, more like a monarch than a fallen angel, with Scripture in his mouth, seeking to take advantage of Christ's weak, suffering condition in human nature. He pressed artful, deceiving sophistry and wily insinuations against God to undermine confidence, destroy faith and trust, and allure Christ into controversy as if reading unspoken thoughts. By every means he could devise he sought to overcome the Redeemer by offering an easier way to gain His object than the path of trial and suffering He had entered, exercising a bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the human heart while believing God is leading them.
Satan's Misuse of Scripture
Satan came with Scripture in his mouth, quoting the promise of angelic charge to keep Christ as a dare to throw himself down from a height and rely on angelic protection. He pressed that challenge upon Christ in His weak and suffering condition, taunting Him to prove entire dependence, faith and confidence in the Father's preserving care. The dare was to prove that He was the Son of God, to show trust, and to demand a sign of authority by a display of divine power. Set on the pinnacle of the temple in extreme difficulty and peril in the enemy's hands, Christ was urged to cast Himself down unbidden as a needless experiment upon the Father's faithfulness, love, mercy and protecting care. To have yielded at Satan's dare would not have shown strength of faith but weakness of human nature, forcing providence to display power to save from self-chosen peril.
In quoting the promise Satan omitted the qualifying words in all thy ways found in Psalm 91:11. He applied angelic care as a reason to use a miracle for His own relief and to seek protection on His own terms rather than in God's appointed way and work and plan. That plan required Christ to share humanity's necessities and to remain submitted to the Father's will rather than to challenge God or display divine power. Satan knew God could indeed bear Christ up and would intervene to deliver Him if He were thrown down. Yet his aim was to turn trust in God into presumption and to shake Christ's trust, though he could tempt Jesus but could not force Him to sin, so that Jesus could be overcome only if He consented to depart from His Father's will.
The use of the promise in this scene shows that Scripture can be misused to justify temptation. Its words can be made to appear to support a temptation and to disguise evil as goodness. A deceptive temptation is thus made to appear good, trustworthy and helpful in order to gain confidence and lead astray. This misuse of the Word matches Satan's manner of presenting himself as an angel of light and a friend of humanity.
Faith Versus Presumption
The promise that angels are charged to guard and keep does not license presumption, deliberately creating needless danger, stepping out of the appointed way and work, demanding a miraculous rescue, putting faithfulness, love, mercy, providence and protecting care to a needless trial, or forcing providence to display power to save from self-chosen peril in a test devised to display power to the enemy. To cast down unbidden at a dare in order to prove dependence, faith, confidence and sonship would be to experiment upon that care and to tempt God rather than to honor Him, since such a display would glorify neither the Father nor His purpose. The promise was never meant to authorize departing from the divine plan to share human necessity, to seek protection on self-chosen terms, or to use a miracle for self-relief. Satan knew rescue could indeed be given if a fall were forced, yet the appeal sought to turn trust into presumption and to shake trust by consent to depart from the Father's will, though temptation alone could not compel sin.
Protection is promised on conditions of faith and obedience and holds in all the appointed ways and as God chooses, not on a course outside obedience. It gives no guarantee of safety to one who knowingly, needlessly and presumptuously puts himself in peril, disregards prudence, sound judgment and reason, violates the laws of nature, and still expects angels to preserve him there. Nor does it require God to work a miracle to escape the consequences of rash action or to rescue from difficulty on demand. To trust without deliberately placing oneself in danger or demanding miraculous rescue is to avoid forcing providence and to model true submission.
Perfect, intelligent faith holds firm trust and unwavering confidence without manufacturing a peril to demand proof, without requiring a display of divine power on demand, and without experimenting upon protecting care even in extreme difficulty and peril in the enemy's hands. Presumption lies close beside perfect faith but crosses its boundary, so that to throw oneself down unbidden to claim care would show not strength of faith but weakness of human nature and daring presumption. Such refusal to put faithfulness and love to trial leaves the only safety in all trials and perils, a perfect pattern of trusting promised care without putting it to trial. The aim of pressing the promise in this way was to draw out human weakness, spoil the perfect example, and by causing failure leave the race without redemption under complete hostile power.
To have used miraculous power to escape danger or difficulty for display, sensation, proof of identity, or victory over the enemy would have broken the agreement to live as a probationer on behalf of humanity. It would have yielded to the very enemy come to be conquered, lowered the tempted one to that enemy, and failed to honor the Father and to give the people a true example of trust. Since only Satan and God's angels would have witnessed the act, it would have served pride of display and no special purpose honoring God. For that reason the right course is patiently to endure temptation and disputed rights rather than presume upon divine power.
Perfect faith, confidence and trust were instead held without putting promised care to trial, with assurance that temptation would not be allowed beyond given strength and that an angel would deliver from the tempter if necessary. Life was therefore refused to be imperiled in answer to challenge, and the answer given was that God must not be tempted. In that refusal, trust without demand for proof overcame, preserving integrity without wavering.
Christ's Victory for Humanity
Christ met this temptation with victory by the written Word, answering from point to point with only It is written and speaking only the words God had inspired holy men of old to write. He resisted by Scripture rather than by arguments, reasons or circumstances, for arguments and reasons are of no use against Satan and It is written alone repulses him and puts the tempted one upon solid, immovable rock. He gave Satan no word to lead him on, refused his suggestions at once, remained submitted to the Father's will and obedient, and did not yield even in thought. He commanded Satan to leave, and though the prince of darkness aimed his fiery darts surely in the most fearful assaults, they found no lodgment.
He repulsed every temptation and conquered Satan in his fiercest and most subtle assault, so that Satan prevailed nothing, failed completely and left disappointed, enraged and conquered for a season. Christ was then faint and near death after forty days and nights without food or drink, and angels came from the world of light, lifted Him, brought food, ministered to Him and strengthened Him, and His Father's blessing rested on Him. The same pattern holds for His followers who are buffeted for a season: if they resist, the season will be followed by grace and strength imparted by His angels. Those victories make it possible for followers to conquer sin and Satan, and Christ will give strength to all who seek it.
That wilderness victory was fought and won on behalf of humanity, succeeding where Adam failed and bearing the test Adam failed to endure. His divine power joined with His humanity secured that infinite victory on humanity's behalf, raised humanity's moral value before God, and showed that people can overcome appetite and the power of evil. That victory gives fallen people in Christ's name the example, strength and means to overcome, showing that those bound by appetite can gain victory through strength from Him and their cases are not beyond hope, for they cannot win by their own strength alone. It benefits each person only as he or she also gains the victory personally, through divine intelligence cooperating with human action, and strength is provided in Christ's name but each must gain it individually. It should inspire courage because no person can be overcome without his own consent, for the tempter has no power to control the will or to force the soul to sin, and though he may distress and cause agony he cannot contaminate or defile without consent.
The conflict carried decisive stakes for the plan of salvation and the destiny of the human race, for everything concerning Satan's prosperity, his claimed empire and rule over the world, his life and kingdom, and whether his power would be broken depended on overcoming Christ. If Satan failed his case was hopeless and his power and glory would cease with retribution for the sins he introduced and the misery he brought, while if he succeeded he would gain victory over the entire race and establish his life and kingdom. Comprehending those temptations and victories gives a more correct idea of the greatness of the work of overcoming. The wilderness conflict decided whether the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's or the earth would become Satan's kingdom and the human race forever in his power.
After failing in the wilderness Satan did not give up hope but turned to strategy through human agents, blinding the Jews and filling them with unbelief, envy, jealousy and hatred to reject Christ, hunting Him from place to place and making His life bitter. He prepared during the three years of ministry for a last fearful conflict in the garden and on the cross over whether the kingdoms of the earth would become Christ's. Because He had conquered in the wilderness He later stood calmly before demoniacs at Capernaum and by the tombs, knowing the tempter's identity under another form as the same evil spirit, and wrested the captives from his grasp.
Overcoming Temptation Today
The promise belongs to the written Word with which Jesus met treacherous advances and commanded the tempter to leave, and that Word is the guide and safeguard against temptation. It supplies strength to resist, so believers are to rely on its promises rather than on circumstances or their own weakness. Arguments and reasons are of no use against Satan; “It is written” alone repulses him, baffles him, and puts the tempted one upon solid, immovable rock. Believers are therefore to become acquainted with the Scriptures, learn its lessons, hang them in memory’s hall, and use spare time to commit the Word to memory, so that when beset they can meet Satan with that weapon alone, speak Scripture in season, be strengthened thereby, and perfect character for immortal life where no tempting devil can overcome. That victory showed the power of God’s Word, and where it fails to have its proper effect the cause is human choice to disobey, not any lack of power in the Word itself.
Christ was not truly alone in the wilderness, for God’s angels were around Him and commissioned to minister to those facing the enemy’s assaults. Their presence did not prevent the temptation, yet Christ overcame and Satan was defeated. He was buffeted more strongly than any disciple ever is, His will remaining submitted to His Father’s will without yielding for a moment, until Satan left Him for a season and angels ministered to Him. The same pattern holds for His followers: they will be buffeted for a season, and if they resist, the season will be followed by grace and strength from God imparted by His angels.
The use of the promise of angelic protection to urge casting down turns a promise into a false guarantee for needless danger, and God’s promises give no support to such presumption or reckless choice. Deliberately rushing into danger while disregarding prudence and sound judgment and then claiming divine protection is presumption. Presumption is one of the three leading temptations by which people are often overcome, alongside appetite and love of the world, and Christ’s resistance strengthens people to resist. Christians are therefore to depend humbly on providence, avoid dangerous situations, patiently endure temptation and disputed rights, and reject attempts to use Scripture to justify disobedience or a presumptuous course. Christ’s wilderness experience after forty days and nights of fasting redeemed the disgrace of Adam’s failure and fall, teaching self-denial and temperance and giving power to overcome appetite and passion beginning at the table and extending to every part of life, since intemperance damages mental and moral powers.
Satan’s daring to face, tempt and taunt Christ with God’s written promise, even taking Him in his arms to carry Him to the pinnacle of the temple and to an exceedingly high mountain, shows bold exercise of real power against One far superior in wisdom. That boldness proves he will harass, tempt and mislead the present generation, far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength, to a wonderful degree. At the beginning of public ministry during forty days and nights of fasting he concealed his real character as an angel of light and Heaven-sent friend, seeking by every device to overcome the Redeemer with an easier way than trial and suffering, and exercising a specious bewitching influence under which people obey the worst impulses of the heart while believing God is leading them and serve the enemy of righteousness instead of God. His constant design is to draw minds from Jesus to man and destroy individual accountability, succeeding better afterward with fallen man than with Christ by corrupting Christian doctrine so that popes and priests take an exalted position and people look to them for pardon instead of looking to Christ for themselves, while the Bible is withheld to conceal condemning truths. The same adversary throws a religious garment over delusive pleasures and unholy revelings to give them the appearance of sanctity and quiet conscience, especially when means for church expenses are raised by them, and comprehending those temptations and victories gives a more correct idea of the greatness of the work of overcoming, for the conflict was decisive: had he failed his case was hopeless, had he succeeded he would have gained victory over the entire race and established his life and kingdom.
Because Christ has conquered, temptation is to be met by relying on God rather than yielding or parleying with the enemy. God could have intervened to deliver Jesus if thrown down, but the promise did not require Him to risk His life to prove faith or give Satan evidence, for to turn trust into presumption would be overcome only by consenting to temptation, and Satan could tempt but could not compel to sin. Christ repulsed Satan in every conflict of that fiercest and most subtle assault, and those battles fought on behalf of humanity make it possible for people to conquer, His success or failure being tied to whether Satan’s power would be broken. The only hope of victory is continual resistance, uniting human weakness to His enduring might, so that the strongest temptation may be resisted and overcome in His all-powerful name as He overcame, since humanity could not conquer in its own behalf. No person can be overcome without his own consent, for the tempter has no power to control the will or force the soul to sin; he may distress but cannot contaminate, he can cause agony but not defilement without consent. That conquest should inspire followers with courage to fight manfully against sin and Satan, knowing Christ will give strength to all who seek it, and knowing that the more nearly the Christian imitates the divine Pattern the more surely he will become a mark for Satan’s attacks.