Mark 1:13, commentary and pictures

Immediately after His baptism the Spirit led Jesus into a desolate wilderness to be alone in fasting and prayer and to endure temptation on behalf of those He came to redeem. He remained there forty days eating nothing, with the wild beasts and without human help, until He was pale, emaciated and weighed down with hunger and the burden of the world's sin. Through all those days Satan pressed Him with every device, yet He yielded not even in thought but overcame by submission to the Father and by answering with Scripture. Standing where Adam fell, He overcame appetite and every assault in human nature, breaking Satan's power, recovering Adam's lost dominion, and winning moral power for humanity to overcome. When the conflict ended He lay exhausted as if dying, and angels came and ministered nourishing food with messages of the Father's love and joy in His victory, leaving an example that calls every person to self-denial, temperance and individual overcoming in His name.

After Baptism Into Wilderness

Immediately after baptism and the heavenly declaration of approval, the Spirit led and drove Jesus into the wilderness, and this movement completes the opening of the gospel account. There He remained forty days, tempted by Satan, among the wild beasts, eating nothing through those days. The opening of heaven and the Father's declaration affirmed His divine character and close relation to God before the conflict began.

He did not seek or invite temptation, but went to be alone to contemplate His mission and work and to brace Himself by fasting and prayer for the suffering, blood-stained path ahead. The Spirit led Him there for solitude and preparation, and Satan chose that moment of withdrawal to attack. His time in the wilderness in fasting and prayer strengthened Him for the suffering ahead.

The stay was an essential part of the plan of salvation, not an accidental encounter. During the long fast the whole plan of His work to free captives held by the destroyer was laid out before Him as God's medical missionary, and He went for the express purpose of enduring temptation on behalf of those He came to redeem, even facing a threefold test. His fasting and temptation prepared Him to resist satisfying hunger by a miracle.

The Spirit fitted and prepared Him for that special scene of fierce trial, with divine power combined with humanity, for humanity alone could never have endured the test. At first He was shut in by the Father's glory and lifted above human weakness in communion with God, then the glory departed and He was left to battle temptation pressing upon Him every moment in His human nature, while His human nature shrank from the coming conflict. Weakened by hunger and mental anguish, pale and emaciated from eating nothing, He continued on the course marked out for Him and must fulfill the work He came to do.

Wilderness Fasting and Suffering

He remained there forty days, nearly six weeks, fasting day and night through the whole time. He ate nothing during those days, and drank nothing, but continued fasting and praying throughout the forty days. The Spirit had led and fitted Him for this fierce trial, and at first He was lifted above human weakness in communion with God, yet He suffered the pangs of hunger under a vile and powerful foe. Unlike Moses, who was sustained by God's glory and did not feel hunger, He felt keen hunger in His weakened human condition.

The setting was a desolate, lonely wilderness, barren and repulsive, unpleasant in every surrounding. He was there with the wild beasts and with the devil, in harsh surroundings from which human nature would shrink. He trod that path of temptation alone, with none to help, comfort, or uphold Him, and without human comfort or help.

Fasting and suffering left Him pale, weak and emaciated, worn and haggard with mental agony. His visage and form were marred more than any man's, even more than the sons of men, emaciated through long fasting. He felt keenest hunger, enduring nearly six weeks of the agonies of hunger and suffering more than any man will ever be called to endure. He bore intense anguish under the weight and guilt of the world's sins pressing upon His soul, with unutterable sorrow and a depth of anguish fallen man never realized, feeling the overwhelming tide of woe deluging the world and the guilt that appetite-indulgence brought into the world.

Satan's Assault and Resistance

For the forty days He was tempted of Satan, the devil, with assaults pressing upon Him every moment and with every force, artifice and device brought to bear to turn Him from allegiance to God. The conflict took the form of a threefold test endured on behalf of those He came to redeem, with appetite as its central test. He did not seek the encounter, yet He went into the wilderness for the express purpose of enduring it, praying beforehand for strength to meet it. His suffering was real through forty days and nights of abstinence, and Satan began tempting Him as soon as that suffering commenced, gaining no advantage and leaving defeated.

The tempter is the destroyer, the prince of darkness and wily foe, once an honored angel in heaven. He is Lucifer, expelled from heaven after the war in heaven where Christ had overcome him, and Christ had overcome him there and would defeat him again in the wilderness. Satan feared Christ would overthrow his power, for his own power and rule depended on overcoming Him. He believed that if he succeeded in tempting Christ he would win a victory over the whole human race and thereby secure his own life, kingdom and rule over humanity.

Satan chose the moment of near-exhaustion as his supposed opportunity, coming when the long fast was nearly over and human nature shrank and was worn from hunger. He came disguised as a beautiful being with the appearance of an angel from heaven, as a beautiful young man more like a monarch than a fallen angel. In that guise he used Scripture in tempting Him.

Jesus resisted without yielding even in thought, with His will fully submitted to the Father and never yielded to the enemy. Nothing in Him responded to Satan, and He did not consent to sin nor could He be compelled to sin except by consent. He would not accept the tempter's insinuation of doubt nor presume to endanger His life to prove His faith. He overcame by relying on God's word, answering Satan with Scripture, and Satan failed in his design to draw Him away from God. His assaults may come in seasons, and those who resist as He did receive grace and strength from God through His angels.

Unlike Moses, who was sustained by God's glory and did not feel hunger or face such a powerful tempter, Christ suffered the pangs of hunger and endured a vile and powerful foe. Those passages that stress His divine upholding teach that He was sustained by God's glory, which elevated Him above the human, even while He felt the trial of hunger and Satan's attack. The weight of the passages holds that in the wilderness trial itself He was sustained only by faith while meeting that foe.

The same evil spirit that tempted Him in the wilderness later possessed the man in the synagogue, though appearing in a different form, for Satan uses different devices to achieve his ends. That spirit recognized Jesus and cried out against Him, and the same spirit worked in those who rejected Jesus, disguising their motives with an appearance of piety and learning. Having failed to overcome Christ, Satan withdrew for a time and devised further ways to oppose Him during His ministry. The conflict continued by strategy through human religious leaders, turning them against Christ to frustrate His mission and discourage Him.

Victory Won for Humanity

He won a decisive, complete and infinite victory in the wilderness, above all over appetite. His humanity alone could never have endured such a test, but divine power combined with humanity prevailed on behalf of man. In that long fast He showed self-denial, perseverance and firmness of principle, with self-control stronger than gnawing hunger and even than death.

Standing in Adam's place He passed over the very ground where Adam fell and overcame where Adam yielded. Adam stood in beautiful Eden amid the light and love of God and yielded to appetite, so that all was lost; Christ stood in a barren, desolate and repulsive wilderness among wild beasts, emaciated by forty days and nights without food and feeling keenest hunger. There He endured the closest possible test on appetite in human nature, bearing the guilt of the transgressor and the woe that appetite-indulgence brought into the world. Redemption therefore begins by denial of appetite just where ruin began by indulgence of appetite.

His loyalty proved that Satan had not gained complete control of humanity and that Satan's claim to rule the world was false. Through successful conflict He broke Satan's power as Satan's destroyer and the Redeemer of captives bound by Satan. By that victory the dominion Adam lost through sin could be recovered, and deliverance was opened to those seeking freedom from Satan's power.

The forty days were a great trial on the point of appetite on which the salvation of man hung in the balance and was to be decided. It is the foundation of the plan of salvation and the key by which fallen people can overcome Satan in Christ's name. If Christ was victor on appetite then there was a chance for man to overcome, but if Satan had gained the victory man would have remained bound by appetite in chains of indulgence he had no moral power to break. As man's Representative in this victory He raised humanity in the scale of moral value with God.

His victories were won on humanity's behalf to make a way of escape for the fallen race and to recover what was lost. That victory breaks the controlling power of depraved appetite and imparts strength and moral power by which man can overcome. Those united to Him by faith can therefore resist sin and Satan through the power of God's word, overcoming temptation and evil in His name and by divine power. Withstanding this leading temptation that imperils souls opens victory on every other point, since intemperance lies at the foundation of all moral evils.

Yet that decisive victory benefits no one unless each person also overcomes individually. Everyone still faces the temptations Christ overcame, with Satan remaining humanity's adversary, and strength to resist is provided in Christ's name. After the long fast He had won the victory and returned to the Jordan without drawing attention to Himself or publicly beginning His work.

Angels Ministered to Him

When the temptations ended Satan left Him for a time, and Jesus lay exhausted and fainting from the long, severe conflict and nearly six weeks without food or drink, fallen to the ground as though dead and dying on the field of battle. The conflict had cost Him so much that after forty days and forty nights of battle with the wily foe He was apparently dying, emaciated and near death from prolonged fasting while resisting without yielding. It was a battle between two great generals carried on in this world, with One stronger than Satan interposing to help the human family and measuring weapons with the prince of darkness.

Then the angels who had watched the contest came and ministered to Him, lifting Him and preparing food to strengthen Him with nourishing food when He was near death. They who had watched the trial with intense interest cared for Him in the wilderness, and His Father's blessing rested upon Him. They brought messages of love and comfort from the Father and assured Him that all Heaven rejoiced in the complete victory He had won for humanity. They comforted Him with His Father's love, and that comfort strengthened His resolve to complete the work of redeeming the fallen race and made a way of escape for humanity.

He only appeared to be alone, for angels were round Him even in the wilderness of temptation. Angels are commissioned to minister to those under the fearful assaults of the enemy, and they watched their Commander with intense interest through the trial. Those who resist Satan in seasons of assault likewise receive grace and strength from God through His angels, and may remain faithful through earnest prayer and dependence on God even in temptation, privation, suffering, and spiritual darkness.

Example and Call to Overcome

The nearly six weeks of fasting and the victory won in the wilderness stand as an example of self-denial and temperance for humanity to follow. That example convicts professed Christians of the sinfulness of the things they indulge and exposes the sinfulness of the very pleasures in which men take delight. The length of the fast is the strongest evidence of how sinful appetite had become and how powerfully debased appetite ruled the human family. Appetite had increased and strengthened with every generation since Adam's transgression until the race was feeble in moral power and unable to overcome in its own strength.

Indulgence weakens the body, dulls perception of sacred and eternal things, perverts the moral powers, damages the mental and moral powers God gave humanity, and erases the soul's likeness to God. Temptations aimed at physical desire are especially effective in corrupting and degrading people, making eternal things harder to value. The trial in the wilderness revealed the power of appetite over human nature, with humanity's salvation at stake between Satan and the Redeemer.

The experience teaches the need for self-denial and temperance beginning at the table and extending to eating and to every part of life. Control of appetite and passion is a high attainment in the Christian life, and without this victory there is no hope of heaven. Intemperance lies at the foundation of all moral evils, so withstanding this leading temptation that imperils souls opens victory on every other point. Redemption begins by denial of appetite just where ruin began by indulgence, treading suffering with spotless merit to show how to walk and how to become reconciled to God.

Christ came to help people in their weakness so that through the power and grace He brings they can overcome appetite, passion and temptation and be victorious. His victories were won on humanity's behalf to break the controlling power of depraved appetite and to impart strength and moral power by which man can overcome. His wilderness conflict teaches followers how to resist Satan and assures complete victory in His name for those who seek strength. He imputes His righteousness so that their efforts to keep the law are acceptable to God, not as permission to break the law but to lead to repentance and obedience.

Understanding His temptations and victories gives a clearer sense of the greatness of the work of overcoming. The conflict carried stakes for the whole human race, for Satan believed success in tempting Christ would secure victory over humanity and establish his own life and kingdom. His followers may likewise face temptation, privation, suffering and spiritual darkness, yet can remain faithful through earnest prayer and dependence on God. The victory must also be personally gained by each person through Christ's grace and strength, overcoming as He overcame.