Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
After a forty-day fast in the wilderness Jesus won the conflict, commanded Satan to depart, and the defeated tempter left him while angels came to feed, strengthen and comfort him with his Father's approval. The battle was a threefold test on appetite, presumption, and love of the world from which all other temptations grow, endured alone in hunger, weakness and anguish without human help. He met every assault as a man with the written Word alone, refusing controversy, miraculous self-relief, or consent to sin even in thought. He passed over the ground where Adam fell and overcame where Adam failed, winning the victory as man's representative, substitute and head so that humanity is placed on vantage ground and Satan's power is broken. His overcoming is the safe pattern for believers, for those who resist steadfastly with It is written will likewise see Satan leave and angels minister to them in every emergency.
Wilderness Setting and Suffering
Matthew 4:11 closes a forty-day conflict in the wilderness that followed the baptism at Jordan, where Jesus full of the Holy Spirit was led and driven by the Spirit, not inviting temptation, to be alone to contemplate His mission and brace Himself by fasting and prayer for the blood-stained path. Through those forty days and forty nights He ate and drank nothing, being with the wild beasts while Satan attacked Him as the best time to strike. The conflict staked mighty issues for the world between the Prince of Light and the leader of the kingdom of darkness over Satan's claim as prince of this world through man's fall, with Christ as Son of man standing loyal to God to disprove the claim, show Satan had not gained complete control of the human race, set free all desiring deliverance, and recover the dominion Adam lost through sin. He came to earth in person at that time because Satan's authority had become almost supreme and had to be disputed face to face, and He overcame Satan in the wilderness of temptation after battling the wily foe without food or drink. It was a scene of unexampled suffering under the fiercest temptations through nearly six weeks of fasting, showing the love of God in not withholding His divine Son from taking the humiliation of humanity and giving His dearly beloved to shame and agony to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Through nearly six weeks without food He endured real hunger, thirst, physical weakness, mental anguish, exhaustion and emaciation. The conflict was so severe and costly that He was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle, lying faint and collapsing as if dying or dead, seeming to be dying under the pressure of temptation. After His long fast and severe conflict He was left exhausted, lying as if He had died on a battlefield and as one dying, yet He fainted from weakness but did not die. After Jesus ordered Satan to depart and refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the world for worship, the devil left Him baffled, and angels then came to His aid to strengthen Him in His faint and exhausted condition, and by that ministry He was sustained in the sufferings He endured.
He endured that threefold conflict and threefold test alone, without human help or comfort, single-handed in behalf of those He came to redeem, remaining steadfast in carrying out God's plan. It was a trial on the three great leading temptations that assail man — appetite, presumption, and love of the world including love of honor, display and ambition — from which all Satan's manifold temptations grow. Indulgence of appetite through gratification of taste excites the nervous system, enfeebles brain power so calm rational thought becomes impossible, unbalances the mind, perverts its higher nobler faculties to serve animal lust, and causes sacred eternal interests to be disregarded, and when this is gained Satan finds ready access with the other two. Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains victory nine times out of ten, found when professed followers plunge without thought into temptations requiring a miracle to escape unsullied, when meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous position where they gave Satan advantage; rashly claiming God's promises while recklessly rushing into danger, violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence and God-given judgment is the most flagrant presumption.
The verse belongs especially to the pinnacle temptation in which the devil takes Jesus into the holy city and sets Him on a pinnacle of the temple and says, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, claiming the written promise that angels will bear Him up lest He dash His foot against a stone. With Jesus refusing to accept the doubt in If Thou be the Son of God and refusing to imperil His life to give evidence to Satan, the temptation ends and the devil leaves Him after failing to move Him to presumption. Satan could only solicit, not compel to sin; he could not cast Jesus down himself, for God would interpose to deliver Him, nor could he force Jesus to cast Himself down, and unless Jesus consented to temptation He could not be overcome, and not all the power of earth or hell could force Him in the slightest degree to depart from the will of His Father. The lesson is that God does not want people to imperil their lives while expecting Him to protect them, for they are the Lord's property and should not deliberately put themselves in peril, and Christ rejected Satan's false claim that God would spare Him the suffering and remained steadfast in carrying out the plan of redemption.
After enduring the forty-day temptation and winning the victory He returned from the wilderness to the Jordan and mingled with John's disciples without outwardly announcing His special work or seeking attention or calling attention to Himself. The close was followed by His hearing that John was cast into prison, His departure into Galilee, and His leaving Nazareth to dwell in Capernaum upon the sea coast in the borders of Zebulon and Naphtali. That was that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah that the land of Zebulon and Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness and in the region and shadow of death, saw great light and light is sprung up to them. That same light springs up wherever the truths of the Bible are clearly presented, to be received with joy, for those who have received Christ as Saviour gain life, eternal life in the kingdom of glory, and should be the most happy people in the world.
Satan's Identity and Tactics
The tempter in the wilderness was Satan himself, the angel who had once stood next to Christ in majesty and glory in heaven. He had wanted Christ's place with the infinite God, and jealousy over Christ's oneness with God led him to originate sin, seek to change God's government and seal its rules, work in secrecy with deceit and falsehood, induce a third of the heavenly angels to unite with him against God and His Son, until war commenced and he was expelled from heaven. He came to earth in person at that time because his authority had become almost supreme and had to be disputed face to face, and the future of his power, dominion, punishment and claim to be prince of the world depended on overcoming Christ and drawing Him away from allegiance to God. He was the first great rebel who had deceived thousands, and now with pretentious claims attempted in the most determined contact to deceive the Son of God, undermine His principles in a deceptive way, and secure by victory in the first temptation all the rest. The assaults were prepared for the exalted character he had to deal with, never had he aimed his darts at so strong a mark, bringing Christ mental anguish, grief and torture of mind, whose depth and force can be only partly comprehended unless the Lord opens the scenes by revelation.
He did not meet Christ as a hideous monster with bat's wings and cloven feet, but enshrouded in light in attractive kingly appearance and heavenly-seeming brightness as a beautiful angel apparently just from God's presence. He claimed to be sent on an errand of mercy to sympathize with suffering and relieve it, even claiming to be the angel that stayed Abraham's hand, concealing his purposes under the appearance of goodness, friendship and man's benefactor while showing the kingdoms of the earth and their glory to make temptation attractive. He surrounded Christ, who was alone with no human voice, with demons in deceptive pretension as angels from heaven with most seducing attractions. That disguise under an appearance of light shows how the enemy can present temptation as goodness and as humanity's friend.
He exploited suffering human nature weakened by forty days and forty nights of fasting, attacking fiercest when Jesus was weakest in hunger and infirmity of flesh under the most fearful assaults of the prince of darkness ever made, with fiery darts surely aimed and strain and mental suffering. He pressed Satan's wily insinuations against God as upon Adam and Eve, seeking to read unspoken thoughts and draw Him into controversy as with Eve. He tried to make Him question God's plans and law, take an independent position, believe God did not require self-denial and suffering, and accept the offer of the world's dominion and glory in exchange for worship. His self-denial and submission to His Father in resisting that offer exposed the deception and showed the contrast between an obedient and a disloyal son in the work to free humanity from evil.
He quoted Scripture to overthrow Christ, speaking some truth in an effort to deceive, with misconstrued, misleading and misapplied use of God's Word disguised as goodness. He claimed to be sanctified, a pure angel from the heavenly courts, continuing the same self-exaltation above God and deceptive power by which he corrupted a large number of angels in heaven. He tried by reasoning to distort judgment and confuse minds that seek to understand God's Word, as he likewise tempts people. His method was to shake confidence in God and to urge risking life to prove sonship and give evidence to Satan.
He could only solicit, not compel to sin, for he cannot force anyone to sin or control the will, though he can distress and tempt. He could not cast Jesus down himself, for God would interpose to deliver Him, nor could he force Jesus to cast Himself down or in the slightest degree to depart from the will of His Father. Unless Jesus consented to temptation He could not be overcome, and with Jesus refusing to accept the doubt in If Thou be the Son of God and refusing to imperil His life to give evidence to Satan, the temptation ends. Christ rejected the false claim that God would spare Him the suffering and remained steadfast in carrying out in every particular the plan of redemption.
The devil's power to take Jesus to the temple pinnacle and to a high mountain demonstrates the reality and reach of Satan's power. Even after taking human nature, Christ was far greater in strength and wisdom than the people Satan deceives, and He is the mighty conqueror who can deliver people from him after Satan had tempted Him and left Him. Satan's attempt to deceive Christ shows Christ was the target of his effort to turn humanity from God.
Christ's Resistance and Victory
He met every temptation with the written Word, answering It is written and standing on Thus saith the Lord. Scripture was his weapon against Satan, his sure foundation, defense, sure guide, and sword of the Spirit, and what he spoke was only quotation of his own words inspired through holy men of old. He gained power from above in answer to prayer and used no miraculous power or divine power for himself to satisfy hunger, escape danger, or prove sonship. Satan approached in attractive kingly appearance and used Scripture, while Christ answered him with Scripture in suffering human nature weakened by fasting. His victory by God's Word opened the way for every person to gain victory over the enemy in his name, showing that divine power is available to help people overcome.
He held to the affirmative instead of meeting opposition with argument or controversy. He did not repeat what his opponent said, gave Satan not one word to lead on or misrepresent, and spoke only words of pure truth and righteousness, and thereby the fiery darts found no lodgment. Keeping always to the affirmative secured all he desired to gain, for repeating an opponent's words strengthens their arguments, while affirmative words of truth can go home with the very man opposing and convert his understanding. Tempted people likewise must not enter into controversy with Satan or his agencies but meet him only on Bible ground, repeating sentiments of Satan's forming as seldom as possible and keeping to principles wholly from above.
He resisted and overcame as a man in assumed genuinely human nature, fallen but not corrupted and without sinful corrupt propensities. Tempted on all points as human beings are yet without sin, he stood before God as man's representative, substitute and surety and was tempted as a man. He rendered the obedience required of man without placing obedience apart as fitted to his divine nature or using special power men cannot have, for Satan would have made capital of that and it would destroy the completeness of his humanity. He came not to reveal what God in his own divine person could do but what he could do through humanity, taking from Satan his control of man in a straightforward way, and man cannot overcome except as divine power works through humanity.
His victory was complete on every point. There was nothing in him responding to sophistry, he did not consent to sin even by thought, did not fail on a single point, and was not moved by threat, peril, hardship or allurement. He met and resisted every assault of the enemy till the end of his test and trial, stood firm in resistance, refused to swerve from allegiance to God, took his stand on the foundation of truth, and refused to move even for Satan's offer of the whole world and its glory. He remained steadfast to carry out in every particular in spirit and letter the plan of redemption, after forty days and forty nights without food or drink battling the wily foe, and joy attended the conquered foe's departure.
In the wilderness trial he gained victory over appetite through self-denial, restraint and temperance while suffering keenest pangs of hunger. His divine power united with his humanity to win an infinite victory on humanity's behalf, raising humanity's moral value before God, and his life is the standard Christians compare themselves with and copy in order to overcome. He broke the power of perverted appetite and passion where ruin began through human effort cooperating with divine help, and victory on appetite gives man a chance to overcome and moral power to break chains of indulgence. The long fast and victory convict men of the sinfulness of the very indulgences in which they take pleasure, for the salvation of man was in the balance and was decided by this trial.
His humanity united with divinity and fitted by the indwelling Holy Spirit was capable of yielding, which made the test real and greater than Adam and Eve's. His human nature was fallen but not corrupted, he did not have the same sinful, corrupt propensities as fallen people, yet his divine nature united with the human made him capable of yielding. Otherwise his experience would offer no instruction, help or succor, but because he took humanity with all liabilities and possibility of yielding his steadfast allegiance makes his experience an example and help for humanity. Having passed through temptation without sin, he knows Satan's strength and how to deliver those tempted, setting a defense against the enemy when they sincerely call on him and repent of disobedience.
Devil's Defeat and Departure
Jesus closed the contest by commanding Satan to depart, exercising authority even while faint and exhausted, and with divinity flashing through suffering humanity the baffled tempter was compelled to obey and left. He had refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in exchange for worship, answering that the Lord God alone is to be worshiped and served, and his refusal was Satan's failure to obtain his worship and to turn the Son from his purpose, on which the plan of salvation depended. The devil left him fainting under the pressure of temptation, seeming to be dying on the field of battle, and then angels came to his aid to strengthen and sustain him in the sufferings he endured. The command teaches that the God who made the world is the only object to whom human beings should bow, that finite man is not to be placed where God should be, honored as a god or bowed down to, for God has given no human being or human power the right to claim homage or to become an object of worship.
Satan was repulsed in every conflict and driven from the field of battle, leaving conquered after his strongest efforts and most powerful temptations failed to overcome Christ, to win victory over the human race, or to establish his kingdom. The conflict was so severe and costly that after forty days and forty nights without food or drink, battling the wily foe amid severe physical suffering and enticing offers of honor, riches and glory, Christ was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle when angels from the world of light came to the royal Sufferer and ministered to him with food. He who was mighty and stronger than Satan had interposed to help the human family, measuring weapons with the prince of darkness in a battle in this world between two great generals of armies, and came off conqueror. Joy filled heaven as the conquered foe left, and that victory is foundational to the plan of salvation, giving fallen people through his name the example and strength to overcome.
The departure was not final defeat, for the devil left him only for a time and for a season. Though defeated, he planned to tempt Jesus again at different times during his ministry and to turn the Jews against him, opposing through human religious leaders and blinding them with envy and unbelief. He spent the three years of the ministry preparing to return for the last fearful conflict in Gethsemane, where everything was at stake for him and where if he failed his hope of mastery was lost, the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's, and Christ would bind the strong man and cast him out. The same foe later tempted him to abandon his appointed course and save himself, but he did not yield and remained committed to the Father's will toward Jerusalem and his death.
The defeat broke Satan's power over many who had been under his control and left his rage great, so the One whom he could not entice to sin he would cause to suffer. He turned to bring sorrow upon Christ by striking John the Baptist, and still hoped to prevail by stirring up those who would not receive Jesus to hate and seek to destroy him. He held special counsel with his disappointed and enraged angels, who had prevailed nothing against the Son of God, deciding to be more cunning and to use their power to the utmost to inspire unbelief in his own nation that he was the Saviour of the world in order to discourage Jesus in his mission, keeping their eyes blinded to the prophecies and making them believe a mighty worldly king was to fulfill them.
The verse marks Satan's first manifest defeat in the warfare between Christ and Satan foretold in Genesis 3:15, fulfilling that enmity in every conflict between good and evil where Christ as Prince of life gained victory in behalf of the human race, at which all heaven rejoiced. Enduring that wilderness test proves Jesus is truly the coming One, the Son of God foretold by the sure word of prophecy, and answers unbelief about his identity. His demand for worship and his attempts to make Jesus fall exposed the deceiver's blasphemy and malice. That failure to accomplish his purpose through tempting Christ stands contrasted with the deceitful temptations he now sets before people.
Angels' Ministry to Christ
After the long fast and severe conflict the devil left and angels came and ministered to him, lifting his fainting head, supplying nourishing food, strengthening him and reviving him with supernatural restoration, so that with the Holy Spirit upon him he went from that battlefield a Conqueror. He lay as one dying and appearing near death from prolonged fasting and the strain of the final temptation, and their care followed his victory over temptation and confirmed the heavenly triumph over Satan. Their ministry was accepted because they came unbidden by him, sent directly by the Father at the Father's command after he had endured the test and honored him.
They comforted him with his Father's love, approval, commendation, blessing and messages of divine consolation, assuring him that all heaven rejoiced and triumphed in his victory gained for man. That comfort warmed his heart to life again and strengthened him to go on with compassion for humanity to finish his work of defeating the enemy and redeeming the fallen race. Joy filled heaven as the conquered foe left, and his victory in the wilderness is foundational to the plan of salvation.
They came unbidden by Jesus, sent directly by the Father at the Father's command after Jesus had endured the test and honored him. Angels who had bowed before him in the royal courts had watched the contest and the trial of their Commander with intense interest, stood on guard ready to act in his behalf should Satan pass his prescribed limit, and kept Satan from overpowering his human nature. When divinity flashed through humanity they could no longer restrain their love and sympathy, and then they came and ministered unto him, encircling him with their arms with his head resting upon the breast of the highest angel in heaven. Food was provided and divine consolation flowed into his soul, placing the human race on vantage ground so that man can resist satanic agencies by becoming partaker of the divine nature, keep the law, and become victor over darkness.
He only appeared to be alone, for angels were round him through the conflict and guarded him, just as angels are commissioned to minister to all who are under fearful assaults of the enemy. Although they watched the contest they could not relieve him before it was over, and their help did not spare him from severe conflict and fierce temptation, for he endured temptation in every respect as humans do yet remained without sin. He could have called twelve legions of angels at any time, but he would not use divine power to escape the trial or leave the path appointed by God.
After resisting he did not avoid suffering but endured it for humanity, giving his life so people might share in his divine nature. When his human nature was deeply shaken almost to death, heavenly angels ministered to him in his suffering with heavenly aid and sustained him after gaining victory over the tempter, his humanity being capable of yielding but remaining loyal to God. God would provide angelic help if no other way could sustain him through the trial, and Christ trusted his Father to provide this help if no other way remained, patiently enduring the test as humanity's representative without choosing to put himself in danger.
Beyond the wilderness victory itself, the verse's mention of angels ministering is left without further explanation of that detail. It belongs to the threefold test endured on behalf of those he came to redeem, to the victory over appetite as example of victory over perverted appetite and passion through human effort cooperating with divine help, and to Christ driving Satan away greatly weakened and coming off conqueror. It marks Christ resisting the tempter at every point and putting him to flight, conquering the powers of darkness on humanity's behalf, facing Satan's fiercest attacks when weakest and overcoming by trusting God to prepare the way for people to overcome.
Angels were assigned to bring him strengthening comfort from heaven in his sufferings and to attend him. They were also assigned to guard those who receive grace from evil angels and the darkness Satan casts around them.
Adam Contrast and Representation
The departure marks the close of a contest in which Christ passed over the very ground where Adam fell and overcame where Adam failed, meeting every test Adam failed under temptations a hundredfold stronger and far more severe than Adam's or than any person will ever bear, redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall and beginning the work of redemption where ruin began. The wilderness temptations were the decisive contest over whether Satan's power would be broken and his claim to rule the world sustained, and Satan pressed every device to turn Christ from allegiance, yet Christ's success broke that power and brought his empire toward its end. In that victory He overcame on appetite, ambition, presumption and the attractions of the world, undoing Adam's failure and winning victory for humanity, so that in His strength people can successfully resist every assault and overcome through the union of divine strength with human effort.
Adam was assailed without any effects of sin upon him, in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body, surrounded by the glories of Eden and in daily communion with heavenly beings, with every want supplied. Jesus entered the conflict after four thousand years of decreasing physical strength, mental power and moral worth, taking degenerate humanity with its infirmities, physical, mental and moral degeneracy, weakness and sins of the race as they existed at His coming. He stood alone in the desolate, gloomy wilderness, single-handed against Satan and seemingly separated from God's presence, bearing the burden of Adam's guilt and the terrible weight of the sins of the world, humbling Himself to the lowest depths of human woe and becoming sin in order to reach fallen man where he was and lift him from the degradation sin had plunged him into. The enticements He resisted were appetite, love of the world, and love of display leading to presumption, pressed upon Him in far greater degree because His character is superior, presented by the deceiver as an angel of light under circumstances in every way more trying, and withstood by Him to redeem Adam's fall, save the world, and give hope to all who receive Him as personal Saviour.
It was possible for Him to be overcome by temptation, for His humanity united with divinity was capable of yielding, and otherwise He could not stand in Adam's place, gain the victory Adam failed to gain, or succor those who are tempted. His human nature was fallen but not corrupted, without the same sinful, corrupt propensities as fallen people, yet He took humanity with all its liabilities and the possibility of yielding and endured everything humans have to bear. His temptation was therefore a greater and more real test than Adam and Eve's, and His steadfast allegiance to right principles, by which Satan was repulsed, makes His experience an example and help that strengthens weak human purposes and resolves against temptation. Human nature united with the divine nature by faith can thus withstand Satan's temptations.
His victories were won in humanity's behalf as man's representative, substitute, surety, head of the fallen race and Captain of salvation, conquering in human nature as a man rather than by a reliance on divine power that would make His temptation unlike ours. He endured the severe test on appetite, becoming emaciated by long abstinence on account of humanity, and overcame the tests of appetite, love of the world, and love of honor and display, fighting and conquering Satan to gain vantage ground for man and working out a righteous character for people who could not do so by themselves. That conquest places the human race on vantage ground with God, raises man's moral value with Him, brings divine strength to conquer appetite and every unholy passion, and makes it possible for followers to conquer, resist satanic agencies by becoming partakers of the divine nature, keep the law of God, return to loyalty, be rescued, and become victors over the powers of darkness. Human righteousness alone is not sufficient, but men must put on the robe of Christ's righteousness and be like Christ, gaining strength from Him as they seek it and following His example after close communion with God, even when great blessing is followed by severe trial.
That victory is the foundation of the plan of salvation laid by the Son with the Father before the fall, when divinity would be communicated to humanity through a divine-human Saviour laying aside royal robe and crown because sinners could not stand in full divine glory. It decided that the world would not pass forever under the wicked one, broke Satan's power, brought his empire toward its end, gave humanity a second trial, paid the price of redemption, and gives fallen people the key and way to overcome temptation in Christ's name. Christ provides divine grace and strength and unites divine strength with human effort to give moral power to those who could not overcome by themselves, but the victory does not benefit a person unless that person also overcomes personally by resisting individually. Heaven rejoiced in the victory won despite severe physical suffering and enticing offers of honor, riches and glory, while angels watched the trial of their Commander with intense interest.
The refusal that forced the departure also establishes that the God who made the world is the only object to whom human beings should bow, whom alone they should worship and serve. After Jesus refused Satan's offer of the kingdoms of the world and their glory for worship and commanded that the Lord God alone be worshiped and served, the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him. Finite man is therefore not to be placed where God should be, honored as a god, or bowed down to, for God has given to no human being the power to claim homage or to become an object of worship.
Pattern and Help for Believers
Christ's overcoming is the safe pattern believers must copy, overcoming as He overcame by relying on God's grace and keeping power through faith and by grasping divinity through Christ and persevering in conflict and self-denial to receive the eternal reward, with each temptation resisted helping them become partakers of the divine nature and escape the world's corruption through lust. He met temptation by the Word of God alone, living by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, with nothing in Him responding to sophistry and not consenting to sin even by thought, His humanity united with divinity and fitted by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and He came to make believers partakers of the divine nature so that while united to Him by faith sin has no dominion and perfection of character may be attained. His victory over appetite was won through human effort cooperating with divine help over perverted appetite and passion, meeting the three leading temptations of appetite, love of the world including love of honor and display, and presumption by which people are often overcome, and that resistance strengthens weak purposes to resist.
Temptation is overcome as Christ overcame by having the treasure of the Word abiding in the soul, meeting Satan with a ready It is written and with sharp perception to discern his wiles, living by every word hid in the heart to keep from sin and from the paths of the destroyer, looking not to circumstances or self-weakness but to the power of the Word whose strength is all theirs. His only dependence was God and His Word, working no miracle and giving no sign in that contest, and that Word repulses the enemy who has no power over those depending on its testimony and will have more power than the working of miracles. The same contest will be met again when Satan comes with great power by signs and wonders, bringing down fire from heaven to prove authority to those who left the Word and seeking to deceive even the elect, but those standing firm on the everlasting God will conquer through the Holy Spirit which is stronger than miracles, with power obtained from the Word. Great spiritual blessing may be followed by severe trial, yet God provides strength for the trial so that through Christ believers can overcome by relying on God and answering with Scripture.
When followers resist by relying wholly on God's word and remain steadfast without varying from the right course, Satan will leave and angels will minister to them as to Jesus, and in every emergency the powers of heaven are ready to help those facing temptation. Christ as Conqueror gives angels to every tempted one who looks to Him, just as angels ministered to Him as Substitute and Surety by pressing back the powerful foe, for angels are appointed to minister to heirs of salvation, and the resistance and help given are registered in heaven against his name when Satan seeks to overthrow one of the redeemed who looks to Christ. Heavenly intelligences come to minister when a person feels weakness and depends on Christ not self, lifting the standard against the enemy and saying to satanic agencies Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, even though the tempted often does not realize unseen agencies are working in his behalf. This promise belongs especially to those working to rescue people from Satan who may face similar assaults, assuring that angels stronger than adversaries will be with them in conflict if they remain faithful and resist in Jesus' name and strength.
Severe temptation after blessing or when exhausted does not mean God has abandoned them, and those enduring it should not be belittled but strengthened in understanding, for those tempted when exhausted may likewise overcome by relying on Christ who drove the foe from the field and came off conqueror. After Satan had buffeted Jesus through forty days he left for a season and angels ministered to Him, and those who resist Satan can likewise receive grace and strength from God through His angels after seasons of temptation.
His wilderness suffering shows the way of overcoming and the need for divine help with earnest prayer bringing light and strength, for man must take hold of divine power with determination, working with human power aided by Christ's divine power, and each must personally overcome as co-worker with Christ since God cannot save against the will and Christ's victory does not benefit unless the person also overcomes. That victory is foundational to the plan of salvation and gives fallen people the key and example to overcome in Christ's name, providing divine grace and strength while each resists individually despite severe suffering and offers of honor, riches and glory, with heaven rejoicing as the conquered foe left. He overcame on appetite, ambition, presumption and worldly attractions on the ground where Adam fell, undoing Adam's failure and winning victory for humanity to unite divine strength with human effort and give moral power to those who could not overcome alone, so that in His strength people can resist every assault.
The close on appetite leaves an example of self-denial convicting the very indulgences in which men take pleasure, for the salvation of man was in the balance and decided by this trial, and victory on appetite gives man a chance to overcome and moral power to break chains of indulgence, while defeat would have left man bound with no moral power. His steadfastness under keenest pangs of hunger while emaciated with fasting, resisting Satan upon appetite in behalf of the race to rescue men from degradation, points the way to overcome intemperate appetite creating unnatural desires ending in ruin and finally to sit with Him on His throne as the overcomer sits with Christ as He overcame and sat with His Father. That priceless victory over appetite and manifold temptations, vanquishing the foe on every point as an example of obedience and self-denial, will not benefit unless man gains victory on his own account and is without excuse if he falls, though man now has advantage over Adam having Adam's fall to warn him to shun his example and Christ's life as pattern to copy. The battle is now personal and must be fought in the Conqueror's name through self-denial against enslaving, sense-perverting, health-destroying, soul-polluting indulgence such as tobacco, stimulants, gluttony, dissipation and sensual indulgence that excite the nervous system, enfeeble brain power so calm rational thought becomes impossible, unbalance the mind, pervert higher faculties to animal lust, destroy mental and moral powers, blot God's likeness and disregard eternal interests, and no one can fight it for another though others pray. By relying on divine power as Christ did believers can overcome appetite and live the Christian life, but failing to connect with God for wisdom and grace to refine life brings failure, carries others down by influence, and incurs judgment for good undone, since victory requires not varying to gratify inclinations, minister to depraved appetites, gain flattering prospects and approbation, or sacrifice integrity and honor.
Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains victory nine times out of ten, found when professed followers plunge without thought into temptations requiring a miracle to escape unsullied, when meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous position where they gave Satan advantage. Rashly claiming God's promises while recklessly rushing into danger, violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence and God-given judgment, is the most flagrant presumption, and trusting God and refusing to parley with the tempter enables escape from defeat when attacked at weakest and confidence is shaken. Christ met single-handed the wily foe and overcame the three great temptations from which all manifold temptations grow, first appetite, second presumption, third love of the world including love of honor and display, enduring and overcoming them on humanity's behalf to work out righteousness for those who could not and to provide help by example.
Satan comes to believers as to Christ, placing the worst view before the mind and attacking weak points when clouds encompass, circumstances work against them, and poverty and distress afflict, seeking to shake confidence in God who suffers such conditions and to cause distrust of His love and care. He works through every divided heart, unchristlike trait and tendency to wrong to confuse judgment and weaken faith by misconstruing Scripture for his purposes, tempting to keep from submissive waiting for the Lord's time, to take themselves in their own hands, to put personal interest, ambition and a great name first, to place themselves in temptation's way by profitable enterprises, and to swerve from integrity to make bargains, and unless kept by God's power they will fall. Human wisdom cannot discern his falsehoods and resisting in human strength brings defeat, but through faith in Christ his temptations can be overcome and he leaves the overcomer, while those yielding faith become traitors and rebels, mediums communicating doubt and infidelity to other minds, unlike those who like Christ will not be led into false paths nor deny the faith delivered to prophets and holy men.
The same deceptive temptations with Satan clad in angel robes quoting Scripture as he did to Christ will come to souls in the most trying times ahead, and a supernatural angelic form does not prove it comes from God, for he may approach as an angel of light and even claim to be sanctified, a pure angel from the courts, continuing the self-exaltation by which he corrupted many angels. Only those whose life is hid with Christ in God and who live by every word from God's mouth will stand and not be deceived by false claims to sanctification or by professed reformers with new light and supernatural appearance, while all others he will bind in unbelief, for God will not accept willful imperfect obedience from those turning ears from the law as children of disobedience. Christ's example teaches those representing Him to meet temptation without railing, answering each with God's word as defense, relying on God rather than self-confidence and trusting the Lord rather than binding to the world.
His victory placed humanity on vantage ground, proving a living connection with God when angels encircled Him as one dead from strain and He rested against the highest angel as divine consolation flowed into His soul, giving hope that everyone may overcome through strength provided in Jesus. He stood as man's representative, substitute and surety, tempted as a man rendering the obedience required of man without placing obedience apart as fitted to divinity or using special power man cannot have, lest Satan make capital and destroy completeness of His humanity, showing what God can do through humanity and taking control of man from Satan straightforwardly. Through faith man partakes of the divine nature and overcomes every besetting temptation, for He trod the winepress alone with no human hand beneath His head, redeeming Adam's failure by enduring a hundredfold stronger temptation and testifying that man can keep God's commandments through heaven's power, with positive assurance that none shall be tempted above what they are able for with the temptation a way of escape will be made.
Ministry Connections and Applications
The wilderness conquest proved power over the prince of darkness and led directly to later face-to-face conflict with the same evil spirit in the possessed man in the synagogue at Capernaum, where the tempter confronted Jesus in another form with different appearances and tactics yet was again conquered. That wilderness victory is why the writhing captive could be wrested from Satan's grasp, the cruel tyranny broken, the captive freed, and authority over demons and power to deliver those bound demonstrated. The offer of earthly kingship on the mount in the wilderness of temptation brought a real conflict to the mind, and that same suggestion was repeated when the people tried to take Him by force and make Him king after feeding the five thousand. He promptly and decidedly refused the proffered honor by constraining His disciples to take the vessel, dismissing the multitude, and going alone into the mountain to pray, which was virtually saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan.
Remembering His own fainting from hunger after the long fast and the angels' ministry made Him mindful of the needs of others when hungry Himself. After overcoming Satan's temptations Satan left and an angel of God came to minister to Him, giving Him food and supporting His head when He was faint from the struggle, a care that followed victory in human weakness and remains available to people in emergencies. That compassion moved Him not to send the multitude away fasting after three days without food lest they faint in the way, but to work a miracle to feed them. The temptations show the choice between obedience to God and concession to the powers of darkness, and His rejecting Satan's suggestions and bribes at once teaches they should be rejected at once. Living without God is a fatal and hopeless deception, disobedience brings dishonor and disaster, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom with great reward in keeping His commandments, no honor or favor of the world compensates for one hour or one act of disobedience, yet many still accept the same temptations offered to Christ and are drawn by delusions toward temporal concerns away from spiritual and eternal things.
The history of the conflict in the wilderness teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Suffering and victory gained for humanity is the true standard for Christian life, and understanding the mystery of godliness with a high and sacred sense of the atonement turns in disgust from church gatherings for pleasure and indulgence of appetite, from scenes of revelry, socials, festivals, picnics tempting appetite to overindulgence, and amusements leading to levity and forgetfulness of God, which find no sanction in His example. Earnestly and frequently comparing life with His life greatly strengthens Christians, for the world's Redeemer is the only safe pattern to copy in order to overcome as He overcame. Nearly six weeks of fasting amid unexampled suffering under fiercest temptations shows the love of God in not withholding His divine Son from taking humanity's humiliation and giving His dearly beloved to shame and agony to bring many sons and daughters to glory and lift man from the fallen condition. Overcoming as He overcame is infinite gain, understood when sinful people discern the inexpressible love of God in giving His Son to die on the cross, while gaining the whole world with all its pleasure and glory yet losing the soul is eternal loss, and heaven is cheap enough at any cost.
Ministering angels came and attended Him even while He lived as a common laborer in Nazareth, walking side by side with peasants and laborers unrecognized and unhonored on the way to and from humble daily toil, and this attendance with His footprints on the hard and wearisome path honors toil and makes safe the way for followers, showing industrious labor is man's duty, honorable and dignified. Angels who watched over and ministered to Him after Satan tempted Him also watch over and minister to people God loves as they face opposing influences and struggle to remain faithful to truth, and to those God sustains through accident and fever in answer to prayer, standing by the endangered person and sparing him for another trial. His victory after enduring the three great temptations assures He has conquered and opened the way for people to overcome through His merits. Angelic ministry did not spare Him severe conflict and fierce temptation, for He endured temptation in every respect as humans do yet remained without sin, and His life remained a struggle against the powers of darkness.
He only appeared to be alone, for angels were round Him through the conflict, commissioned to minister to all under fearful assaults of the enemy, bringing strength from heaven to soothe Him in suffering and guarding those receiving grace from evil angels and the darkness Satan casts around them. Standing firm against wrong can bring severe trials, so ministers facing trials and perplexities should not be discouraged but stand firm through dependence on God. The battle in this little world between two great generals measured weapons between the One mighty and stronger than Satan who interposed to help the human family and the prince of darkness claiming authority through man's fall, fought after forty days and nights without food or drink until He was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle when angels from the world of light came to the royal Sufferer and ministered and strengthened Him with food. It was witnessed with painful interest, awe and amazement by the heavenly universe, heavenly intelligences and unfallen worlds, who watched Christ and took cognizance of the battle between the Prince of Life in human flesh and the prince of darkness after baptism, passing over the ground where Adam fell and meeting every test and deceptive influence without yielding in the slightest, so that by steadfastness Satan was shown to be the enemy of God and man and had He yielded the family would have remained under Satan's control.
From the time He was a babe in Bethlehem Satan's council determined He should be overcome and set evil forces on His track, with Satan himself personally conducting warfare with all energies of apostasy rallied, following Christ at every step to overthrow Him by temptation and weary the patience of God for the family so as to ruin all. In every possible way Satan sought to prevent a perfect childhood, faultless manhood, holy ministry and unblemished sacrifice, and from desert to Calvary the storm of wrath beat upon Him to discourage Him and drive Him from the work He came to do. He was not discouraged nor turned from His work but clung to His Father's hand and pressed on in the bloodstained path, and the more mercilessly the storm fell the more firmly He clung, so every effort to oppress Him only brought out His spotless character in purer light, proving He could not be led into sin.
After a forty-day fast in the wilderness Jesus won the conflict, commanded Satan to depart, and the defeated tempter left him while angels came to feed, strengthen and comfort him with his Father's approval. The battle was a threefold test on appetite, presumption, and love of the world from which all other temptations grow, endured alone in hunger, weakness and anguish without human help. He met every assault as a man with the written Word alone, refusing controversy, miraculous self-relief, or consent to sin even in thought. He passed over the ground where Adam fell and overcame where Adam failed, winning the victory as man's representative, substitute and head so that humanity is placed on vantage ground and Satan's power is broken. His overcoming is the safe pattern for believers, for those who resist steadfastly with It is written will likewise see Satan leave and angels minister to them in every emergency.
Wilderness Setting and Suffering
Matthew 4:11 closes a forty-day conflict in the wilderness that followed the baptism at Jordan, where Jesus full of the Holy Spirit was led and driven by the Spirit, not inviting temptation, to be alone to contemplate His mission and brace Himself by fasting and prayer for the blood-stained path. Through those forty days and forty nights He ate and drank nothing, being with the wild beasts while Satan attacked Him as the best time to strike. The conflict staked mighty issues for the world between the Prince of Light and the leader of the kingdom of darkness over Satan's claim as prince of this world through man's fall, with Christ as Son of man standing loyal to God to disprove the claim, show Satan had not gained complete control of the human race, set free all desiring deliverance, and recover the dominion Adam lost through sin. He came to earth in person at that time because Satan's authority had become almost supreme and had to be disputed face to face, and He overcame Satan in the wilderness of temptation after battling the wily foe without food or drink. It was a scene of unexampled suffering under the fiercest temptations through nearly six weeks of fasting, showing the love of God in not withholding His divine Son from taking the humiliation of humanity and giving His dearly beloved to shame and agony to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Through nearly six weeks without food He endured real hunger, thirst, physical weakness, mental anguish, exhaustion and emaciation. The conflict was so severe and costly that He was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle, lying faint and collapsing as if dying or dead, seeming to be dying under the pressure of temptation. After His long fast and severe conflict He was left exhausted, lying as if He had died on a battlefield and as one dying, yet He fainted from weakness but did not die. After Jesus ordered Satan to depart and refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the world for worship, the devil left Him baffled, and angels then came to His aid to strengthen Him in His faint and exhausted condition, and by that ministry He was sustained in the sufferings He endured.
He endured that threefold conflict and threefold test alone, without human help or comfort, single-handed in behalf of those He came to redeem, remaining steadfast in carrying out God's plan. It was a trial on the three great leading temptations that assail man — appetite, presumption, and love of the world including love of honor, display and ambition — from which all Satan's manifold temptations grow. Indulgence of appetite through gratification of taste excites the nervous system, enfeebles brain power so calm rational thought becomes impossible, unbalances the mind, perverts its higher nobler faculties to serve animal lust, and causes sacred eternal interests to be disregarded, and when this is gained Satan finds ready access with the other two. Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains victory nine times out of ten, found when professed followers plunge without thought into temptations requiring a miracle to escape unsullied, when meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous position where they gave Satan advantage; rashly claiming God's promises while recklessly rushing into danger, violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence and God-given judgment is the most flagrant presumption.
The verse belongs especially to the pinnacle temptation in which the devil takes Jesus into the holy city and sets Him on a pinnacle of the temple and says, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, claiming the written promise that angels will bear Him up lest He dash His foot against a stone. With Jesus refusing to accept the doubt in If Thou be the Son of God and refusing to imperil His life to give evidence to Satan, the temptation ends and the devil leaves Him after failing to move Him to presumption. Satan could only solicit, not compel to sin; he could not cast Jesus down himself, for God would interpose to deliver Him, nor could he force Jesus to cast Himself down, and unless Jesus consented to temptation He could not be overcome, and not all the power of earth or hell could force Him in the slightest degree to depart from the will of His Father. The lesson is that God does not want people to imperil their lives while expecting Him to protect them, for they are the Lord's property and should not deliberately put themselves in peril, and Christ rejected Satan's false claim that God would spare Him the suffering and remained steadfast in carrying out the plan of redemption.
After enduring the forty-day temptation and winning the victory He returned from the wilderness to the Jordan and mingled with John's disciples without outwardly announcing His special work or seeking attention or calling attention to Himself. The close was followed by His hearing that John was cast into prison, His departure into Galilee, and His leaving Nazareth to dwell in Capernaum upon the sea coast in the borders of Zebulon and Naphtali. That was that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah that the land of Zebulon and Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness and in the region and shadow of death, saw great light and light is sprung up to them. That same light springs up wherever the truths of the Bible are clearly presented, to be received with joy, for those who have received Christ as Saviour gain life, eternal life in the kingdom of glory, and should be the most happy people in the world.
Satan's Identity and Tactics
The tempter in the wilderness was Satan himself, the angel who had once stood next to Christ in majesty and glory in heaven. He had wanted Christ's place with the infinite God, and jealousy over Christ's oneness with God led him to originate sin, seek to change God's government and seal its rules, work in secrecy with deceit and falsehood, induce a third of the heavenly angels to unite with him against God and His Son, until war commenced and he was expelled from heaven. He came to earth in person at that time because his authority had become almost supreme and had to be disputed face to face, and the future of his power, dominion, punishment and claim to be prince of the world depended on overcoming Christ and drawing Him away from allegiance to God. He was the first great rebel who had deceived thousands, and now with pretentious claims attempted in the most determined contact to deceive the Son of God, undermine His principles in a deceptive way, and secure by victory in the first temptation all the rest. The assaults were prepared for the exalted character he had to deal with, never had he aimed his darts at so strong a mark, bringing Christ mental anguish, grief and torture of mind, whose depth and force can be only partly comprehended unless the Lord opens the scenes by revelation.
He did not meet Christ as a hideous monster with bat's wings and cloven feet, but enshrouded in light in attractive kingly appearance and heavenly-seeming brightness as a beautiful angel apparently just from God's presence. He claimed to be sent on an errand of mercy to sympathize with suffering and relieve it, even claiming to be the angel that stayed Abraham's hand, concealing his purposes under the appearance of goodness, friendship and man's benefactor while showing the kingdoms of the earth and their glory to make temptation attractive. He surrounded Christ, who was alone with no human voice, with demons in deceptive pretension as angels from heaven with most seducing attractions. That disguise under an appearance of light shows how the enemy can present temptation as goodness and as humanity's friend.
He exploited suffering human nature weakened by forty days and forty nights of fasting, attacking fiercest when Jesus was weakest in hunger and infirmity of flesh under the most fearful assaults of the prince of darkness ever made, with fiery darts surely aimed and strain and mental suffering. He pressed Satan's wily insinuations against God as upon Adam and Eve, seeking to read unspoken thoughts and draw Him into controversy as with Eve. He tried to make Him question God's plans and law, take an independent position, believe God did not require self-denial and suffering, and accept the offer of the world's dominion and glory in exchange for worship. His self-denial and submission to His Father in resisting that offer exposed the deception and showed the contrast between an obedient and a disloyal son in the work to free humanity from evil.
He quoted Scripture to overthrow Christ, speaking some truth in an effort to deceive, with misconstrued, misleading and misapplied use of God's Word disguised as goodness. He claimed to be sanctified, a pure angel from the heavenly courts, continuing the same self-exaltation above God and deceptive power by which he corrupted a large number of angels in heaven. He tried by reasoning to distort judgment and confuse minds that seek to understand God's Word, as he likewise tempts people. His method was to shake confidence in God and to urge risking life to prove sonship and give evidence to Satan.
He could only solicit, not compel to sin, for he cannot force anyone to sin or control the will, though he can distress and tempt. He could not cast Jesus down himself, for God would interpose to deliver Him, nor could he force Jesus to cast Himself down or in the slightest degree to depart from the will of His Father. Unless Jesus consented to temptation He could not be overcome, and with Jesus refusing to accept the doubt in If Thou be the Son of God and refusing to imperil His life to give evidence to Satan, the temptation ends. Christ rejected the false claim that God would spare Him the suffering and remained steadfast in carrying out in every particular the plan of redemption.
The devil's power to take Jesus to the temple pinnacle and to a high mountain demonstrates the reality and reach of Satan's power. Even after taking human nature, Christ was far greater in strength and wisdom than the people Satan deceives, and He is the mighty conqueror who can deliver people from him after Satan had tempted Him and left Him. Satan's attempt to deceive Christ shows Christ was the target of his effort to turn humanity from God.
Christ's Resistance and Victory
He met every temptation with the written Word, answering It is written and standing on Thus saith the Lord. Scripture was his weapon against Satan, his sure foundation, defense, sure guide, and sword of the Spirit, and what he spoke was only quotation of his own words inspired through holy men of old. He gained power from above in answer to prayer and used no miraculous power or divine power for himself to satisfy hunger, escape danger, or prove sonship. Satan approached in attractive kingly appearance and used Scripture, while Christ answered him with Scripture in suffering human nature weakened by fasting. His victory by God's Word opened the way for every person to gain victory over the enemy in his name, showing that divine power is available to help people overcome.
He held to the affirmative instead of meeting opposition with argument or controversy. He did not repeat what his opponent said, gave Satan not one word to lead on or misrepresent, and spoke only words of pure truth and righteousness, and thereby the fiery darts found no lodgment. Keeping always to the affirmative secured all he desired to gain, for repeating an opponent's words strengthens their arguments, while affirmative words of truth can go home with the very man opposing and convert his understanding. Tempted people likewise must not enter into controversy with Satan or his agencies but meet him only on Bible ground, repeating sentiments of Satan's forming as seldom as possible and keeping to principles wholly from above.
He resisted and overcame as a man in assumed genuinely human nature, fallen but not corrupted and without sinful corrupt propensities. Tempted on all points as human beings are yet without sin, he stood before God as man's representative, substitute and surety and was tempted as a man. He rendered the obedience required of man without placing obedience apart as fitted to his divine nature or using special power men cannot have, for Satan would have made capital of that and it would destroy the completeness of his humanity. He came not to reveal what God in his own divine person could do but what he could do through humanity, taking from Satan his control of man in a straightforward way, and man cannot overcome except as divine power works through humanity.
His victory was complete on every point. There was nothing in him responding to sophistry, he did not consent to sin even by thought, did not fail on a single point, and was not moved by threat, peril, hardship or allurement. He met and resisted every assault of the enemy till the end of his test and trial, stood firm in resistance, refused to swerve from allegiance to God, took his stand on the foundation of truth, and refused to move even for Satan's offer of the whole world and its glory. He remained steadfast to carry out in every particular in spirit and letter the plan of redemption, after forty days and forty nights without food or drink battling the wily foe, and joy attended the conquered foe's departure.
In the wilderness trial he gained victory over appetite through self-denial, restraint and temperance while suffering keenest pangs of hunger. His divine power united with his humanity to win an infinite victory on humanity's behalf, raising humanity's moral value before God, and his life is the standard Christians compare themselves with and copy in order to overcome. He broke the power of perverted appetite and passion where ruin began through human effort cooperating with divine help, and victory on appetite gives man a chance to overcome and moral power to break chains of indulgence. The long fast and victory convict men of the sinfulness of the very indulgences in which they take pleasure, for the salvation of man was in the balance and was decided by this trial.
His humanity united with divinity and fitted by the indwelling Holy Spirit was capable of yielding, which made the test real and greater than Adam and Eve's. His human nature was fallen but not corrupted, he did not have the same sinful, corrupt propensities as fallen people, yet his divine nature united with the human made him capable of yielding. Otherwise his experience would offer no instruction, help or succor, but because he took humanity with all liabilities and possibility of yielding his steadfast allegiance makes his experience an example and help for humanity. Having passed through temptation without sin, he knows Satan's strength and how to deliver those tempted, setting a defense against the enemy when they sincerely call on him and repent of disobedience.
Devil's Defeat and Departure
Jesus closed the contest by commanding Satan to depart, exercising authority even while faint and exhausted, and with divinity flashing through suffering humanity the baffled tempter was compelled to obey and left. He had refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in exchange for worship, answering that the Lord God alone is to be worshiped and served, and his refusal was Satan's failure to obtain his worship and to turn the Son from his purpose, on which the plan of salvation depended. The devil left him fainting under the pressure of temptation, seeming to be dying on the field of battle, and then angels came to his aid to strengthen and sustain him in the sufferings he endured. The command teaches that the God who made the world is the only object to whom human beings should bow, that finite man is not to be placed where God should be, honored as a god or bowed down to, for God has given no human being or human power the right to claim homage or to become an object of worship.
Satan was repulsed in every conflict and driven from the field of battle, leaving conquered after his strongest efforts and most powerful temptations failed to overcome Christ, to win victory over the human race, or to establish his kingdom. The conflict was so severe and costly that after forty days and forty nights without food or drink, battling the wily foe amid severe physical suffering and enticing offers of honor, riches and glory, Christ was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle when angels from the world of light came to the royal Sufferer and ministered to him with food. He who was mighty and stronger than Satan had interposed to help the human family, measuring weapons with the prince of darkness in a battle in this world between two great generals of armies, and came off conqueror. Joy filled heaven as the conquered foe left, and that victory is foundational to the plan of salvation, giving fallen people through his name the example and strength to overcome.
The departure was not final defeat, for the devil left him only for a time and for a season. Though defeated, he planned to tempt Jesus again at different times during his ministry and to turn the Jews against him, opposing through human religious leaders and blinding them with envy and unbelief. He spent the three years of the ministry preparing to return for the last fearful conflict in Gethsemane, where everything was at stake for him and where if he failed his hope of mastery was lost, the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's, and Christ would bind the strong man and cast him out. The same foe later tempted him to abandon his appointed course and save himself, but he did not yield and remained committed to the Father's will toward Jerusalem and his death.
The defeat broke Satan's power over many who had been under his control and left his rage great, so the One whom he could not entice to sin he would cause to suffer. He turned to bring sorrow upon Christ by striking John the Baptist, and still hoped to prevail by stirring up those who would not receive Jesus to hate and seek to destroy him. He held special counsel with his disappointed and enraged angels, who had prevailed nothing against the Son of God, deciding to be more cunning and to use their power to the utmost to inspire unbelief in his own nation that he was the Saviour of the world in order to discourage Jesus in his mission, keeping their eyes blinded to the prophecies and making them believe a mighty worldly king was to fulfill them.
The verse marks Satan's first manifest defeat in the warfare between Christ and Satan foretold in Genesis 3:15, fulfilling that enmity in every conflict between good and evil where Christ as Prince of life gained victory in behalf of the human race, at which all heaven rejoiced. Enduring that wilderness test proves Jesus is truly the coming One, the Son of God foretold by the sure word of prophecy, and answers unbelief about his identity. His demand for worship and his attempts to make Jesus fall exposed the deceiver's blasphemy and malice. That failure to accomplish his purpose through tempting Christ stands contrasted with the deceitful temptations he now sets before people.
Angels' Ministry to Christ
After the long fast and severe conflict the devil left and angels came and ministered to him, lifting his fainting head, supplying nourishing food, strengthening him and reviving him with supernatural restoration, so that with the Holy Spirit upon him he went from that battlefield a Conqueror. He lay as one dying and appearing near death from prolonged fasting and the strain of the final temptation, and their care followed his victory over temptation and confirmed the heavenly triumph over Satan. Their ministry was accepted because they came unbidden by him, sent directly by the Father at the Father's command after he had endured the test and honored him.
They comforted him with his Father's love, approval, commendation, blessing and messages of divine consolation, assuring him that all heaven rejoiced and triumphed in his victory gained for man. That comfort warmed his heart to life again and strengthened him to go on with compassion for humanity to finish his work of defeating the enemy and redeeming the fallen race. Joy filled heaven as the conquered foe left, and his victory in the wilderness is foundational to the plan of salvation.
They came unbidden by Jesus, sent directly by the Father at the Father's command after Jesus had endured the test and honored him. Angels who had bowed before him in the royal courts had watched the contest and the trial of their Commander with intense interest, stood on guard ready to act in his behalf should Satan pass his prescribed limit, and kept Satan from overpowering his human nature. When divinity flashed through humanity they could no longer restrain their love and sympathy, and then they came and ministered unto him, encircling him with their arms with his head resting upon the breast of the highest angel in heaven. Food was provided and divine consolation flowed into his soul, placing the human race on vantage ground so that man can resist satanic agencies by becoming partaker of the divine nature, keep the law, and become victor over darkness.
He only appeared to be alone, for angels were round him through the conflict and guarded him, just as angels are commissioned to minister to all who are under fearful assaults of the enemy. Although they watched the contest they could not relieve him before it was over, and their help did not spare him from severe conflict and fierce temptation, for he endured temptation in every respect as humans do yet remained without sin. He could have called twelve legions of angels at any time, but he would not use divine power to escape the trial or leave the path appointed by God.
After resisting he did not avoid suffering but endured it for humanity, giving his life so people might share in his divine nature. When his human nature was deeply shaken almost to death, heavenly angels ministered to him in his suffering with heavenly aid and sustained him after gaining victory over the tempter, his humanity being capable of yielding but remaining loyal to God. God would provide angelic help if no other way could sustain him through the trial, and Christ trusted his Father to provide this help if no other way remained, patiently enduring the test as humanity's representative without choosing to put himself in danger.
Beyond the wilderness victory itself, the verse's mention of angels ministering is left without further explanation of that detail. It belongs to the threefold test endured on behalf of those he came to redeem, to the victory over appetite as example of victory over perverted appetite and passion through human effort cooperating with divine help, and to Christ driving Satan away greatly weakened and coming off conqueror. It marks Christ resisting the tempter at every point and putting him to flight, conquering the powers of darkness on humanity's behalf, facing Satan's fiercest attacks when weakest and overcoming by trusting God to prepare the way for people to overcome.
Angels were assigned to bring him strengthening comfort from heaven in his sufferings and to attend him. They were also assigned to guard those who receive grace from evil angels and the darkness Satan casts around them.
Adam Contrast and Representation
The departure marks the close of a contest in which Christ passed over the very ground where Adam fell and overcame where Adam failed, meeting every test Adam failed under temptations a hundredfold stronger and far more severe than Adam's or than any person will ever bear, redeeming Adam's disgraceful failure and fall and beginning the work of redemption where ruin began. The wilderness temptations were the decisive contest over whether Satan's power would be broken and his claim to rule the world sustained, and Satan pressed every device to turn Christ from allegiance, yet Christ's success broke that power and brought his empire toward its end. In that victory He overcame on appetite, ambition, presumption and the attractions of the world, undoing Adam's failure and winning victory for humanity, so that in His strength people can successfully resist every assault and overcome through the union of divine strength with human effort.
Adam was assailed without any effects of sin upon him, in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body, surrounded by the glories of Eden and in daily communion with heavenly beings, with every want supplied. Jesus entered the conflict after four thousand years of decreasing physical strength, mental power and moral worth, taking degenerate humanity with its infirmities, physical, mental and moral degeneracy, weakness and sins of the race as they existed at His coming. He stood alone in the desolate, gloomy wilderness, single-handed against Satan and seemingly separated from God's presence, bearing the burden of Adam's guilt and the terrible weight of the sins of the world, humbling Himself to the lowest depths of human woe and becoming sin in order to reach fallen man where he was and lift him from the degradation sin had plunged him into. The enticements He resisted were appetite, love of the world, and love of display leading to presumption, pressed upon Him in far greater degree because His character is superior, presented by the deceiver as an angel of light under circumstances in every way more trying, and withstood by Him to redeem Adam's fall, save the world, and give hope to all who receive Him as personal Saviour.
It was possible for Him to be overcome by temptation, for His humanity united with divinity was capable of yielding, and otherwise He could not stand in Adam's place, gain the victory Adam failed to gain, or succor those who are tempted. His human nature was fallen but not corrupted, without the same sinful, corrupt propensities as fallen people, yet He took humanity with all its liabilities and the possibility of yielding and endured everything humans have to bear. His temptation was therefore a greater and more real test than Adam and Eve's, and His steadfast allegiance to right principles, by which Satan was repulsed, makes His experience an example and help that strengthens weak human purposes and resolves against temptation. Human nature united with the divine nature by faith can thus withstand Satan's temptations.
His victories were won in humanity's behalf as man's representative, substitute, surety, head of the fallen race and Captain of salvation, conquering in human nature as a man rather than by a reliance on divine power that would make His temptation unlike ours. He endured the severe test on appetite, becoming emaciated by long abstinence on account of humanity, and overcame the tests of appetite, love of the world, and love of honor and display, fighting and conquering Satan to gain vantage ground for man and working out a righteous character for people who could not do so by themselves. That conquest places the human race on vantage ground with God, raises man's moral value with Him, brings divine strength to conquer appetite and every unholy passion, and makes it possible for followers to conquer, resist satanic agencies by becoming partakers of the divine nature, keep the law of God, return to loyalty, be rescued, and become victors over the powers of darkness. Human righteousness alone is not sufficient, but men must put on the robe of Christ's righteousness and be like Christ, gaining strength from Him as they seek it and following His example after close communion with God, even when great blessing is followed by severe trial.
That victory is the foundation of the plan of salvation laid by the Son with the Father before the fall, when divinity would be communicated to humanity through a divine-human Saviour laying aside royal robe and crown because sinners could not stand in full divine glory. It decided that the world would not pass forever under the wicked one, broke Satan's power, brought his empire toward its end, gave humanity a second trial, paid the price of redemption, and gives fallen people the key and way to overcome temptation in Christ's name. Christ provides divine grace and strength and unites divine strength with human effort to give moral power to those who could not overcome by themselves, but the victory does not benefit a person unless that person also overcomes personally by resisting individually. Heaven rejoiced in the victory won despite severe physical suffering and enticing offers of honor, riches and glory, while angels watched the trial of their Commander with intense interest.
The refusal that forced the departure also establishes that the God who made the world is the only object to whom human beings should bow, whom alone they should worship and serve. After Jesus refused Satan's offer of the kingdoms of the world and their glory for worship and commanded that the Lord God alone be worshiped and served, the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him. Finite man is therefore not to be placed where God should be, honored as a god, or bowed down to, for God has given to no human being the power to claim homage or to become an object of worship.
Pattern and Help for Believers
Christ's overcoming is the safe pattern believers must copy, overcoming as He overcame by relying on God's grace and keeping power through faith and by grasping divinity through Christ and persevering in conflict and self-denial to receive the eternal reward, with each temptation resisted helping them become partakers of the divine nature and escape the world's corruption through lust. He met temptation by the Word of God alone, living by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, with nothing in Him responding to sophistry and not consenting to sin even by thought, His humanity united with divinity and fitted by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and He came to make believers partakers of the divine nature so that while united to Him by faith sin has no dominion and perfection of character may be attained. His victory over appetite was won through human effort cooperating with divine help over perverted appetite and passion, meeting the three leading temptations of appetite, love of the world including love of honor and display, and presumption by which people are often overcome, and that resistance strengthens weak purposes to resist.
Temptation is overcome as Christ overcame by having the treasure of the Word abiding in the soul, meeting Satan with a ready It is written and with sharp perception to discern his wiles, living by every word hid in the heart to keep from sin and from the paths of the destroyer, looking not to circumstances or self-weakness but to the power of the Word whose strength is all theirs. His only dependence was God and His Word, working no miracle and giving no sign in that contest, and that Word repulses the enemy who has no power over those depending on its testimony and will have more power than the working of miracles. The same contest will be met again when Satan comes with great power by signs and wonders, bringing down fire from heaven to prove authority to those who left the Word and seeking to deceive even the elect, but those standing firm on the everlasting God will conquer through the Holy Spirit which is stronger than miracles, with power obtained from the Word. Great spiritual blessing may be followed by severe trial, yet God provides strength for the trial so that through Christ believers can overcome by relying on God and answering with Scripture.
When followers resist by relying wholly on God's word and remain steadfast without varying from the right course, Satan will leave and angels will minister to them as to Jesus, and in every emergency the powers of heaven are ready to help those facing temptation. Christ as Conqueror gives angels to every tempted one who looks to Him, just as angels ministered to Him as Substitute and Surety by pressing back the powerful foe, for angels are appointed to minister to heirs of salvation, and the resistance and help given are registered in heaven against his name when Satan seeks to overthrow one of the redeemed who looks to Christ. Heavenly intelligences come to minister when a person feels weakness and depends on Christ not self, lifting the standard against the enemy and saying to satanic agencies Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, even though the tempted often does not realize unseen agencies are working in his behalf. This promise belongs especially to those working to rescue people from Satan who may face similar assaults, assuring that angels stronger than adversaries will be with them in conflict if they remain faithful and resist in Jesus' name and strength.
Severe temptation after blessing or when exhausted does not mean God has abandoned them, and those enduring it should not be belittled but strengthened in understanding, for those tempted when exhausted may likewise overcome by relying on Christ who drove the foe from the field and came off conqueror. After Satan had buffeted Jesus through forty days he left for a season and angels ministered to Him, and those who resist Satan can likewise receive grace and strength from God through His angels after seasons of temptation.
His wilderness suffering shows the way of overcoming and the need for divine help with earnest prayer bringing light and strength, for man must take hold of divine power with determination, working with human power aided by Christ's divine power, and each must personally overcome as co-worker with Christ since God cannot save against the will and Christ's victory does not benefit unless the person also overcomes. That victory is foundational to the plan of salvation and gives fallen people the key and example to overcome in Christ's name, providing divine grace and strength while each resists individually despite severe suffering and offers of honor, riches and glory, with heaven rejoicing as the conquered foe left. He overcame on appetite, ambition, presumption and worldly attractions on the ground where Adam fell, undoing Adam's failure and winning victory for humanity to unite divine strength with human effort and give moral power to those who could not overcome alone, so that in His strength people can resist every assault.
The close on appetite leaves an example of self-denial convicting the very indulgences in which men take pleasure, for the salvation of man was in the balance and decided by this trial, and victory on appetite gives man a chance to overcome and moral power to break chains of indulgence, while defeat would have left man bound with no moral power. His steadfastness under keenest pangs of hunger while emaciated with fasting, resisting Satan upon appetite in behalf of the race to rescue men from degradation, points the way to overcome intemperate appetite creating unnatural desires ending in ruin and finally to sit with Him on His throne as the overcomer sits with Christ as He overcame and sat with His Father. That priceless victory over appetite and manifold temptations, vanquishing the foe on every point as an example of obedience and self-denial, will not benefit unless man gains victory on his own account and is without excuse if he falls, though man now has advantage over Adam having Adam's fall to warn him to shun his example and Christ's life as pattern to copy. The battle is now personal and must be fought in the Conqueror's name through self-denial against enslaving, sense-perverting, health-destroying, soul-polluting indulgence such as tobacco, stimulants, gluttony, dissipation and sensual indulgence that excite the nervous system, enfeeble brain power so calm rational thought becomes impossible, unbalance the mind, pervert higher faculties to animal lust, destroy mental and moral powers, blot God's likeness and disregard eternal interests, and no one can fight it for another though others pray. By relying on divine power as Christ did believers can overcome appetite and live the Christian life, but failing to connect with God for wisdom and grace to refine life brings failure, carries others down by influence, and incurs judgment for good undone, since victory requires not varying to gratify inclinations, minister to depraved appetites, gain flattering prospects and approbation, or sacrifice integrity and honor.
Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains victory nine times out of ten, found when professed followers plunge without thought into temptations requiring a miracle to escape unsullied, when meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous position where they gave Satan advantage. Rashly claiming God's promises while recklessly rushing into danger, violating nature's laws and disregarding prudence and God-given judgment, is the most flagrant presumption, and trusting God and refusing to parley with the tempter enables escape from defeat when attacked at weakest and confidence is shaken. Christ met single-handed the wily foe and overcame the three great temptations from which all manifold temptations grow, first appetite, second presumption, third love of the world including love of honor and display, enduring and overcoming them on humanity's behalf to work out righteousness for those who could not and to provide help by example.
Satan comes to believers as to Christ, placing the worst view before the mind and attacking weak points when clouds encompass, circumstances work against them, and poverty and distress afflict, seeking to shake confidence in God who suffers such conditions and to cause distrust of His love and care. He works through every divided heart, unchristlike trait and tendency to wrong to confuse judgment and weaken faith by misconstruing Scripture for his purposes, tempting to keep from submissive waiting for the Lord's time, to take themselves in their own hands, to put personal interest, ambition and a great name first, to place themselves in temptation's way by profitable enterprises, and to swerve from integrity to make bargains, and unless kept by God's power they will fall. Human wisdom cannot discern his falsehoods and resisting in human strength brings defeat, but through faith in Christ his temptations can be overcome and he leaves the overcomer, while those yielding faith become traitors and rebels, mediums communicating doubt and infidelity to other minds, unlike those who like Christ will not be led into false paths nor deny the faith delivered to prophets and holy men.
The same deceptive temptations with Satan clad in angel robes quoting Scripture as he did to Christ will come to souls in the most trying times ahead, and a supernatural angelic form does not prove it comes from God, for he may approach as an angel of light and even claim to be sanctified, a pure angel from the courts, continuing the self-exaltation by which he corrupted many angels. Only those whose life is hid with Christ in God and who live by every word from God's mouth will stand and not be deceived by false claims to sanctification or by professed reformers with new light and supernatural appearance, while all others he will bind in unbelief, for God will not accept willful imperfect obedience from those turning ears from the law as children of disobedience. Christ's example teaches those representing Him to meet temptation without railing, answering each with God's word as defense, relying on God rather than self-confidence and trusting the Lord rather than binding to the world.
His victory placed humanity on vantage ground, proving a living connection with God when angels encircled Him as one dead from strain and He rested against the highest angel as divine consolation flowed into His soul, giving hope that everyone may overcome through strength provided in Jesus. He stood as man's representative, substitute and surety, tempted as a man rendering the obedience required of man without placing obedience apart as fitted to divinity or using special power man cannot have, lest Satan make capital and destroy completeness of His humanity, showing what God can do through humanity and taking control of man from Satan straightforwardly. Through faith man partakes of the divine nature and overcomes every besetting temptation, for He trod the winepress alone with no human hand beneath His head, redeeming Adam's failure by enduring a hundredfold stronger temptation and testifying that man can keep God's commandments through heaven's power, with positive assurance that none shall be tempted above what they are able for with the temptation a way of escape will be made.
Ministry Connections and Applications
The wilderness conquest proved power over the prince of darkness and led directly to later face-to-face conflict with the same evil spirit in the possessed man in the synagogue at Capernaum, where the tempter confronted Jesus in another form with different appearances and tactics yet was again conquered. That wilderness victory is why the writhing captive could be wrested from Satan's grasp, the cruel tyranny broken, the captive freed, and authority over demons and power to deliver those bound demonstrated. The offer of earthly kingship on the mount in the wilderness of temptation brought a real conflict to the mind, and that same suggestion was repeated when the people tried to take Him by force and make Him king after feeding the five thousand. He promptly and decidedly refused the proffered honor by constraining His disciples to take the vessel, dismissing the multitude, and going alone into the mountain to pray, which was virtually saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan.
Remembering His own fainting from hunger after the long fast and the angels' ministry made Him mindful of the needs of others when hungry Himself. After overcoming Satan's temptations Satan left and an angel of God came to minister to Him, giving Him food and supporting His head when He was faint from the struggle, a care that followed victory in human weakness and remains available to people in emergencies. That compassion moved Him not to send the multitude away fasting after three days without food lest they faint in the way, but to work a miracle to feed them. The temptations show the choice between obedience to God and concession to the powers of darkness, and His rejecting Satan's suggestions and bribes at once teaches they should be rejected at once. Living without God is a fatal and hopeless deception, disobedience brings dishonor and disaster, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom with great reward in keeping His commandments, no honor or favor of the world compensates for one hour or one act of disobedience, yet many still accept the same temptations offered to Christ and are drawn by delusions toward temporal concerns away from spiritual and eternal things.
The history of the conflict in the wilderness teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. Suffering and victory gained for humanity is the true standard for Christian life, and understanding the mystery of godliness with a high and sacred sense of the atonement turns in disgust from church gatherings for pleasure and indulgence of appetite, from scenes of revelry, socials, festivals, picnics tempting appetite to overindulgence, and amusements leading to levity and forgetfulness of God, which find no sanction in His example. Earnestly and frequently comparing life with His life greatly strengthens Christians, for the world's Redeemer is the only safe pattern to copy in order to overcome as He overcame. Nearly six weeks of fasting amid unexampled suffering under fiercest temptations shows the love of God in not withholding His divine Son from taking humanity's humiliation and giving His dearly beloved to shame and agony to bring many sons and daughters to glory and lift man from the fallen condition. Overcoming as He overcame is infinite gain, understood when sinful people discern the inexpressible love of God in giving His Son to die on the cross, while gaining the whole world with all its pleasure and glory yet losing the soul is eternal loss, and heaven is cheap enough at any cost.
Ministering angels came and attended Him even while He lived as a common laborer in Nazareth, walking side by side with peasants and laborers unrecognized and unhonored on the way to and from humble daily toil, and this attendance with His footprints on the hard and wearisome path honors toil and makes safe the way for followers, showing industrious labor is man's duty, honorable and dignified. Angels who watched over and ministered to Him after Satan tempted Him also watch over and minister to people God loves as they face opposing influences and struggle to remain faithful to truth, and to those God sustains through accident and fever in answer to prayer, standing by the endangered person and sparing him for another trial. His victory after enduring the three great temptations assures He has conquered and opened the way for people to overcome through His merits. Angelic ministry did not spare Him severe conflict and fierce temptation, for He endured temptation in every respect as humans do yet remained without sin, and His life remained a struggle against the powers of darkness.
He only appeared to be alone, for angels were round Him through the conflict, commissioned to minister to all under fearful assaults of the enemy, bringing strength from heaven to soothe Him in suffering and guarding those receiving grace from evil angels and the darkness Satan casts around them. Standing firm against wrong can bring severe trials, so ministers facing trials and perplexities should not be discouraged but stand firm through dependence on God. The battle in this little world between two great generals measured weapons between the One mighty and stronger than Satan who interposed to help the human family and the prince of darkness claiming authority through man's fall, fought after forty days and nights without food or drink until He was fainting and apparently dying on the field of battle when angels from the world of light came to the royal Sufferer and ministered and strengthened Him with food. It was witnessed with painful interest, awe and amazement by the heavenly universe, heavenly intelligences and unfallen worlds, who watched Christ and took cognizance of the battle between the Prince of Life in human flesh and the prince of darkness after baptism, passing over the ground where Adam fell and meeting every test and deceptive influence without yielding in the slightest, so that by steadfastness Satan was shown to be the enemy of God and man and had He yielded the family would have remained under Satan's control.
From the time He was a babe in Bethlehem Satan's council determined He should be overcome and set evil forces on His track, with Satan himself personally conducting warfare with all energies of apostasy rallied, following Christ at every step to overthrow Him by temptation and weary the patience of God for the family so as to ruin all. In every possible way Satan sought to prevent a perfect childhood, faultless manhood, holy ministry and unblemished sacrifice, and from desert to Calvary the storm of wrath beat upon Him to discourage Him and drive Him from the work He came to do. He was not discouraged nor turned from His work but clung to His Father's hand and pressed on in the bloodstained path, and the more mercilessly the storm fell the more firmly He clung, so every effort to oppress Him only brought out His spotless character in purer light, proving He could not be led into sin.