Matthew 4:2, commentary and pictures

After fasting forty days and forty nights He was afterward truly hungry with real and intense human hunger. Through all that time He ate nothing in total abstinence, and the fast left Him weakened, emaciated and marred almost beyond human likeness. He endured it in real human nature, tempted as men are yet without sin, refusing to use divine power for Himself to relieve His own hunger. He stood as humanity's representative and second Adam, denying appetite where Adam indulged it and overcoming on behalf of the fallen race to break Satan's power. He met every assault with It is written alone, leaving an example that victory comes by the Word of God and making it possible for all who join their weakness to His strength to overcome appetite and every temptation.

Fasting Hunger and Suffering

After forty days and forty nights of fasting He was afterward genuinely hungry with real, severe and intense human hunger. That bodily need came in a weakened state as the setting for the temptation to prove sonship by turning stones to bread, and He refused to yield and remained firm in the affirmative. Through the whole time He ate nothing and went without food and drink in total abstinence and severe self-denial in perfect submission to the Father's will. His will stayed submitted and He did not yield, battling the wily foe for forty days and nights and overcoming him to pass over the ground where Adam fell on appetite. The forty days and forty nights are nearly six weeks of agonizing fasting. It was a scene of unexampled suffering under fiercest assault, endured to overcome appetite, vanity, display, love of the world, love of honor and pride on behalf of humanity.

The fast left Him weakened, faint, pale, emaciated, worn and haggard, with appearance marred beyond human likeness, at last lying like a dying soldier, fainting and apparently dying. The lonely desolate place, fasting and suffering with wild beasts taxed His human nature until it fainted after the conflict, yet He continued the work He had come to do. His suffering was not hunger alone but mental agony, unutterable sorrow and torture of mind under the weight and guilt of the world's sins, sorrow, indulged appetite and passion, with visage changed to anguish never realized by fallen man. The glory seen at Jordan disappeared under the sins of the world upon Him, and His face showed sorrow and anguish for sinners such as man had never felt, making the ordeal especially severe with fasting weakening Him together with mental suffering under Satan's assaults.

During the fast He was absorbed in earnest prayer and communion, fed by truth and strength from God, so He did not feel hunger until the fast was over, foreseeing His ministry of healing, comfort and gospel preaching. His soul was fed by the truth He would give to others while He sought strength and grace for His work, and only when the forty days ended did real hunger come. After Satan left conquered, angels encircled Him, rested His head, brought nourishing food, strengthened Him and filled Him with divine consolation while all heaven watched, as a pattern that resisted attack is followed by grace and strength. Although He appeared alone, angels surrounded and ministered to Him during the assault and afterward, lifting Him, giving food and care, with the Father's blessing resting on Him, showing that seasons of Satan's attack when resisted are followed by grace and strength from God. He endured hardship, hunger, fatigue and poverty in God's service as part of the infinite sacrifice and agony of the cross to save humanity, kept by God's power through faith though faint and weak but not dying. His path was made rough and obstructed with difficulties and obstacles, and that saving endurance of the long fast and the agony of the cross calls for response under the special influence and power of the Spirit.

Wilderness Setting and Timing

After His baptism at Jordan, with the heavens opened and the voice proclaiming Him the Son and the Spirit resting upon Him, He was led and driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He did not invite temptation but withdrew from ordinary life to be alone to contemplate His mission and work, and by fasting and prayer to brace Himself for the blood-stained path He must travel. He went without food for forty days and forty nights, and afterward became hungry, and in that weakened hungry state the tempter sought to get Him to prove He was the Christ by working a miracle. He had taken humanity under a covenant made in heaven not to work miracles in His own behalf but to stand as a man among men, so He would not use His power to relieve His own hunger. He met the challenge to command stones to be made bread by giving no answer of His own except to quote the words of God that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God.

At first He was shut in by the Father's glory and absorbed in communion with God, lifted above human weakness, with the whole plan of His work as man's Deliverer laid out before Him. Then the glory departed and He was left to battle temptation pressing upon Him every moment while His human nature shrank from the coming conflict. For forty days He fasted and prayed until weak and emaciated from hunger and worn and haggard with mental agony, and that weakened condition was Satan's supposed opportunity to overcome Him. His experience shows that even after rich blessings, with the voice from heaven proclaiming Him the Son of the Eternal, a severe trial may come.

The setting was a lonely, desolate, barren, untrodden, melancholy wilderness with no companions, no food and no human witnesses, with wild beasts and the devil, in uncongenial, repulsive surroundings seared by the powers of darkness. He was there not in beautiful Eden as Adam was but at the head of humanity with divinity and humanity combined, without violating one precept and without stain of character. His fainting body cried for food and pangs of hunger consumed Him after the long fast that physically debilitated Him and left Him pale and emaciated. The Holy Spirit had prepared Him for this trial, and He continued toward the work He had come to do.

He endured the temptations alone in hunger, humiliation, loneliness and agony, with no human eye to behold it and no human sympathy to relieve it, becoming emaciated and bearing marks of great physical and mental distress from fierce conflict. When the disciple John found Him in that condition He gently yet firmly dismissed him to remain alone. The marks of that suffering remained visible on His changed countenance when He met His mother at Cana after about two months separation, showing the severity of what He had faced.

His real bodily need and hunger after fasting forty days and nights preceded Satan's temptation to turn stones into bread, marking His real physical weakness at the beginning of the temptation. The hunger and weakness at the end of forty days of battle was the setting and chosen opportunity for Satan's fiercest assault, when strength was low and faith most likely to let go. Satan came then as a beautiful angel from heaven rather than as a hideous monster, disguised in light to sympathize and relieve suffering. Those who hold one account place his coming as the fast commenced, urging that God did not require self-denial and anticipated suffering but only designed to prove willingness as with Abraham, so that Christ need only set His feet in the blood-stained path without traveling it and might save His life and escape suffering.

After the fast ended with victory He returned to the Jordan and mingled again with John's disciples without outwardly announcing His special work or seeking notice or display. His fast of forty days and nights in the wilderness while being tempted by the devil had ended in victory won before that return.

The account belongs to changing temptations showing that Jesus in human nature needed prayer and fresh light, strength and divine power to meet each new trial while remaining without sin. That conflict in the wilderness of temptation teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, solemn consecration to God, and preparation for holy work. The verse belongs to the wilderness temptation at the beginning of His ministry and to His contest with Satan during His earthly ministry as part of Satan's effort to oppose Christ and reveal his own character. It places Him in the wilderness of temptation where He faced severe trials and shows what He overcame as an example of the conflicts endured by those who stand for what is right.

Tempter Tactics and Temptations

The tempter in the forty days and nights in the wilderness was the one who had once been an angel next to Christ in majesty and glory in the heavenly courts, exalted for beauty, who wanted Christ's place as one with the infinite God, became jealous when it was not given, originated sin, wished to change God's government and fix his own seal to its rules, worked secretly as a deceiving character telling falsehood for truth, made war in heaven, and was expelled as the first great rebel. Christ appeared to be alone with him in the wilderness of temptation, but He was not alone, for angels were round Him and on guard ready to act if Satan passed his prescribed limit, just as angels are commissioned to minister to those under fearful assaults of the enemy. He was there in the wilderness with the one with whom there was war in heaven and whom He had overcome, and Satan was defeated.

In that weakness after fasting forty days and forty nights when Jesus was hungry, Satan appeared to tempt Him, coming not as a hideous monster but disguised in brightness as a beautiful angel of light from the throne, clothed with the livery of heaven. He came as a heavenly friend on an errand of mercy to sympathize with suffering, relieve it and save life, claiming God had ended the fast and required no further self-denial and anticipated suffering. He claimed to be the angel who stayed Abraham's hand from slaying Isaac, come now to help bear part of the work in the plan of salvation and to prove willingness without traveling the blood-stained path. He pressed with manifold temptations and flattering inducements of honor, riches, glory and earthly advantage to bribe acknowledgment of his claims, seeking to overcome Christ in weakness, but Christ turned from the artful temptations, resisted and refused to yield on a single point of integrity, remaining loyal to God and leaving Satan a conquered foe.

The wilderness temptations encompass the three great leading temptations that assail man to the close of time, from which manifold temptations grow, namely appetite, presumption, and love of the world including love of display, vanity, ambition and worldly honor. The first great temptation was upon appetite, the second presumption, the third love of the world. Indulgence of appetite overcomes millions through gratification of taste, which excites the nervous system and 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 object is gained Satan finds ready access with his two other leading temptations. Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains the victory nine times out of ten, when those professing to follow Christ plunge without thought into temptations from which it would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied, where meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the critical dangerous position giving Satan advantage, for God's promises are not to be rashly claimed while recklessly rushing into danger, violating the laws of nature and disregarding prudence and judgment, which is the most flagrant presumption. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness after baptism to face this threefold temptation before beginning His mission and to endure it on behalf of those He came to redeem, meeting it single-handed against the wily subtle foe. His hunger after forty days was the ground of the first great test upon appetite, urged upon Him in far greater degree as His character is superior and with the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him, the same that overcame Adam and Eve and so readily overcomes us.

Weakened, emaciated, fainting and hungry in a lonely desolate untrodden place with no companions and no food, His body crying for food, He was pressed to prove He was God's Son by using miraculous power to turn stone to bread. Satan feigned doubt of His divinity because of His weakened condition and deplorable uncongenial surroundings, using His hunger and suffering as argument against His sonship. He tempted Him to doubt the voice at baptism, to doubt His Father's love in permitting such suffering, to distrust the Father who permitted it, and to step out of the Father's hands by working a miracle for Himself. Though He had power to satisfy His own hunger by miracle, as proved when He fed five thousand at once with five loaves and two small fishes, He refused in steadfast purpose to carry out in every particular the divine plan, because no part of His mission was to exercise divine power for His own benefit, which He never did, His miracles being all for the good of others, and the plan of salvation required Him to leave Himself in His heavenly Father's hands without cherishing the temptation for a moment or doubting for a single moment. That weakened hungry condition was the setting Satan chose for his first temptation upon appetite, adapting it to make it almost overpowering, just as he had overcome Adam upon appetite and controlled his descendants through indulgence until iniquity brought destruction by the flood, and just as he had led Israel to let appetite control reason into grievous sin until they fell in the wilderness.

He was offered honor, riches, earthly kingship and the glory of the whole world in great external grandeur if He would fall down, acknowledge Satan's claims and worship him and bow to his authority. The temptation was real and there was real conflict in His mind as He saw those kingdoms as earthly dominions under a tyrant and saw humanity full of woe suffering under oppressive power, the earth defiled by hatred, revenge, malice, lust and murder, with fiends possessing bodies and souls, dominions and principalities subject to Satan through his success. That sight had brought Him from heaven to fight the battle with the apostate, to dispute his right to rule, to dispute his sovereignty and wrench his spoil from him. He promptly and decidedly refused the honor proffered, met every attack, stood firm in resistance to the end, took His stand on the foundation of truth with "It is written" as His only weapon, and would not swerve from allegiance to God even for the whole world and its glory. The same suggestion was repeated when the multitude fed from five loaves and two fishes wanted to take Him by force and make Him king, which He met by constraining His disciples to take the vessel, dismissing the multitude, and going alone into the mountain to pray.

Satan can speak some truth while weaving it together with falsehood to deceive, quote Scripture and misconstrue it to serve his own deceptive purposes, to make his appeal appear good, to confuse minds and judgment, weaken faith, and divert from understanding God's Word. Christ's wilderness experience warns that Satan can approach people with temptations while quoting Scripture and presenting Scripture while seeking to deceive. His temptations are overcome through faith in Christ, while attempting to meet them in human strength leaves a person to fall a prey to his devices.

The conflict was planned through four thousand years over the claim to the earth and lost dominion, fought with great power, subtlety and falsehood to exploit need, shake trust and compel His mind to yield so the world would pass under Satan's control. It was more intense and subtle than those assailing fallen humanity, even a hundredfold stronger than any temptation ever brought or ever to be brought upon the human race, with unexampled physical suffering after a fast of nearly six weeks and mental anguish. Physically weakened by fasting and hungry, He was attacked with the fiercest temptations at the time when strength was low, illustrating how Satan takes advantage of human weakness and seeks to undermine trust in God. Yet He resisted as a man in the same manner every tempted soul may resist, by relying solely upon the word of God and answering It is written, passing over the ground where Adam fell, standing in man's place to reveal that men through divine power can keep God's law and to prove false Satan's claim that no man can keep it.

Satan dared to tempt Jesus, stood beside Him reasoning and trying to gain control of His mind and to overcome Him, taking Him to the temple pinnacle and a high mountain. He tried to entice Jesus to sin without success, found no lodgment, and left a conquered foe. Had Christ been as morally weak as man there would be no salvation for the race.

His steadfastness mattered because had He failed at any point the battle would have been lost, but He held His ground against Satan's temptations and remained firm and steadfast in the work He had come to do. His suffering and temptation did not break His loyalty to His Father, no threat could intimidate Him and no peril awaken His fears, and hunger afterward with temptation could not allure Him from duty nor exhaust His endurance. The attacks only brought out His spotless character in purer light.

Satan's failure in the wilderness led him to oppose the later ministry through strategy and human agents, working through another form. The same evil spirit that tempted Him there later confronted Him through the demoniac, possessed the man in Capernaum and in the synagogue, and controlled the unbelieving Jews seeking to keep them from recognizing their need of the Saviour, which explains why He stood calmly before demons whom He later recognized. The desert was one point in unbroken assault from Bethlehem to Calvary, and the storm continued to Gethsemane and the cross in fierce conflict faced throughout His life.

Human Nature and Divine Restraint

In this fast He took real human nature with all its liabilities, sharing genuine infirmities of flesh, weakness, suffering and mental strain without angelic powers, tempted on all points as human beings are from childhood to manhood, seeing Satan's wiles, with real possibility of yielding yet without sin. After fasting forty days and nights He was afterward truly, severely and intensely hungry, pale and emaciated from eating nothing, and that hunger belonged to His weak suffering human condition in which He entered the ground where Adam failed to endure a greater test as humanity's Redeemer. He did not use divine power to relieve His own need or shorten the trial, but made God His dependence, showing that trust in God and obedience to His word matter more than satisfying hunger. There is nothing to endure that He has not endured, and in every emergency the powers of heaven are ready to help as they were ready for Him.

He took fallen but uncorrupted human nature without sinful corrupt propensities or evil propensity, and by union of the divine with the human became truly liable and capable of yielding, to be corrupted only by receiving Satan's words in place of God's. His test was greater than Adam and Eve's, and His pure and holy nature was assailed by the fallen foe who was corrupted and ejected from heaven, a humiliation He felt deeply and keenly. To deny that liability turns the history into fable and destroys its force as instruction, example and help, robs Him of His greatest glory of allegiance to God that enshrouded Him as a garment on the battlefield, and leaves Him not reckoned with the transgressor; to think His liability degraded His humanity is earthly and perverted. Though He could have sinned He had no evil propensity and gave Satan no response or foothold, but held fast to God and His word under trial as the second Adam assailed as Adam was in Eden.

He humbled Himself to take man's nature after the race had wandered four thousand years from Eden and from original purity, wisdom and knowledge, when physical, mental and moral degeneracy prevailed and the race had decreased in size, physical strength, mental power, moral power and moral worth. He bore the sins, infirmities, weaknesses and degeneracy of the race as they existed when He came to help man, He who knew no sin becoming sin for men and humiliating Himself to the lowest depths of human woe to cope single-handed in the sinner's behalf, to stand Satan's temptations upon all points wherewith man would be assailed, that He might reach fallen man where he was and bring him up from the degradation in which sin had plunged him. Unlike Adam and Eve who fell in Eden in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body, with none of the effects of sin upon them, amid Eden's glories with every want supplied and daily communion with heavenly beings, yet believed the lie without reaching above humanity for divine power, He bore the test in a barren wilderness seared by the powers of darkness with wild beasts after four thousand years of Satan's practice, when men were separated, corrupted and enfeebled. Only by meeting temptation in that weakened, fallen condition, with all the power Satan possessed trying to lead Him to swerve a hair's breadth from allegiance to God, and refusing to become the enemy's bondslave, could He rescue man from the lowest depths of degradation. So His test was far more severe, urged upon Him in far greater degree as His character is superior and with the terrible weight of the sins of the world upon Him, one of three enticements upon appetite, upon love of the world, and upon love of display that leads to presumption, the same that overcame Adam and Eve and so readily overcome us. He began the work of redemption where humanity's ruin began, for Adam fell through appetite and lost Eden, while Christ denied appetite and overcame where Adam failed, and His victory broke appetite's power for those who accept the divine help on which He relied.

Though He had power to relieve His hunger by miracle, He refused to use divine power for His own benefit, to shorten the trial or save Himself from danger, standing under a covenant made in heaven not to work miracles in His own behalf but to stand as a man among men. In that weakened hungry state Satan tried to get Him to prove He was the Christ by making bread for Himself and turning stone to bread, but Jesus refused and answered from Scripture rather than act for His own benefit or depart from the plan of salvation and the trial He had accepted as humanity's substitute. He did not doubt His Father's love or act independently of Him, but accepted human weakness and hardship, trusting His Father and using His power to benefit suffering humanity rather than Himself, showing that temptation can come when people are weak or distressed especially through appetite and other physical desires. Unlike Moses, who on special occasions went without food forty days but was sustained and enshrouded by God's glory, elevated above the human and felt no pangs of hunger nor was tempted and harassed by a vile and powerful foe, Christ in human nature felt the pangs while facing a powerful foe. His prolonged fast placed appetite itself at the center of the trial, giving Satan hope of overcoming Him by appetite as he had overcome Adam and Eve in Eden, the old world and the Israelites, yet Christ overcame hunger through self-denial and firmness of principle on behalf of humanity. The forty days recall the forty years Israel wandered in the wilderness during which nearly all who left Egypt died.

It was not God who was tempted but heaven's Majesty humbled to complete humanity, with divinity and humanity combined without violating one precept and without stain of character, the Holy Spirit upon Him. He stands there at the head of humanity in a place seared by the powers of darkness with Satan pressing Him clothed as an angel of light, growing faint on the field of battle, and He will not work a miracle in His own behalf to deliver Himself from hunger or any emergency. His obedience to the Father was the same obedience required of man in keeping God's holy law as a man, not the obedience of a lesser God to a greater, coming not to reveal what God could do but what man can do through faith in God's power to help in every emergency. As man He could lay hold of divine power, and man cannot overcome Satan's temptations without divine power joined to human effort; through faith man is to be a partaker of the divine nature and overcome every temptation. In this way He bridged the gulf sin made between earth and heaven and finite man and the infinite God, kept the commandments in the same way humanity can keep them, left the battlefield a Conqueror with angels taking oversight of Him and bringing Him food and strengthening and comforting Him, demonstrating what God will be to mankind if they resist temptation and proving every person can choose salvation and have divine help and strength to overcome. His humanity alone could not have endured the test, but divine power joined with His humanity won an infinite victory, proving victory in human strength is impossible and cannot be gained without suffering or by feeble efforts. By that long fast and victory over appetite He gave an example of self-denial, showed the sinfulness of indulgence, raised humanity's moral standing and value before God, and as humanity's representative opened the way and made it possible for people to overcome the power of appetite through the victory gained on their behalf.

Representative Victory for Humanity

He endured the fast and temptation as humanity's representative, head, second Adam and sinless substitute, standing in Adam's place and bearing Adam's guilt with that of his descendants, overcoming on behalf of the fallen race to redeem its disgrace, break Satan's power and bondage, and place the race on vantage ground. His anguish was not chiefly the pangs of hunger but awareness that indulging appetite and passion would enslave people, turn appetite into an idol, lead them to forget God and obstruct salvation, and the length of the fast reveals the power of appetite over humanity and the seriousness of its corruption. If he had failed, people would have remained bound by appetite, but his divine power joined with his humanity to secure an infinite victory and raise humanity's moral standing before God.

He passed over the ground where Adam failed, for Adam fell through indulging appetite and lost Eden, while Christ denied appetite and overcame where Adam failed, beginning redemption where ruin began and making a second trial possible. His hunger made the temptation on appetite a severe test, yet he did not yield, and his triumph over Satan redeemed Adam's failure. Humanity's salvation was at stake in that contest, and Christ passed over the ground where Adam fell and endured the test Adam failed.

The wilderness testing was a decisive conflict whose outcome would decide whether Satan's power, rule, claimed dominion and princeship over the world was broken and contested. The struggle tested whether Satan or the Redeemer would conquer, and the salvation, destiny and welfare of humanity was at stake, with angels watching with intense concern. All heaven rejoiced in the first manifest defeat fulfilling the enmity foretold between Christ and Satan, and his victory as humanity's substitute and surety makes it possible for people to overcome and return to allegiance to God.

The conflict decided the destiny of the race, Christ conquered and the tempter left him for a season to return for the last fearful conflict in Gethsemane. Satan spent the three years of Christ's ministry preparing for that final trial, with everything at stake for himself, for if he failed there his hope of mastery was lost, the kingdoms of the earth would finally become Christ's, and Christ would bind Satan the strong man and cast him out. Because he did not yield in the wilderness when physically hungry and weakened, the plan of salvation could be carried out and the price of human redemption was paid.

His victory is the foundation of the plan of salvation and part of the atonement and infinite sacrifice, giving fallen people the key and way to overcome in his name through strength and grace he imparts. Bearing humanity's nature and the guilt brought into the world through appetite, he faced and overcame this leading temptation, gaining victory for humanity and showing that through the strength he imparts people can overcome. People are not hopeless in their struggle with appetite but can conquer through strength from Christ, who is ready and willing to help.

Passing over Adam's ground as a man he proved false Satan's claim that God's law is unjust and cannot be obeyed. His victory testifies to unfallen worlds and to fallen humanity that man can keep the commandments of God through divine power granted from heaven, with assurance that none will be tempted above what they are able because with the temptation God will make a way of escape. He met the test not as Adam did in perfect manhood with full vigor of mind and body amid the glories of Eden and daily communion with heavenly beings, but after four thousand years of decreasing physical strength, mental power and moral worth, taking upon him the infirmities of degenerate humanity to rescue man from the lowest depths and redeem Adam's failure, resisting as a man in the same manner every tempted soul may resist by relying solely upon the word of God. Abundant grace in Christ is the only hope for overcoming, and it is possible for people to overcome by following his example.

His victory raised humanity's moral value, and he is presented as sinners' only hope. He endured the pressure of Adam's guilt and that of his descendants and did not fail, overcoming the powers of evil and therefore standing as a tested, dependable foundation for those who trust in him. His experience was not a pretense, for his human strength was taxed by temptation and angels ministered to him and brought him food, and the conflict put the welfare of the human family at stake.

He overcame the tests of appetite, love of the world, love of honor and pride of display on humanity's behalf, forming a righteous character for people who could not do so for themselves, while the guilt of the world's sins weighed heavily on him through nearly six weeks of agonizing fasting. His fast broke appetite's power and won a victory for humanity, enabling people with divine help to resist enslavement to perverted appetite and passion and to restore God's moral image in themselves. Through his merits people receive another trial and can break the slavery of habit and indulgence, becoming victorious before God. He is the Sin-bearer who stands before God bearing human condemnation though undeserving, so that those who receive him as personal Saviour stand before God justified from sin by his imputed righteousness though unworthy and undeserving.

By experiencing in himself the strength of Satan's temptation and of human sufferings and infirmities he was qualified to reach to the very depths of human woe, for he would know how to succor those who put forth efforts to help themselves. Because he endured what people bear he is able to succor all who leave the ranks of evil for the service of God, and because he endured hunger he knows how to sympathize and help those tempted on appetite. By resisting appetite he won a victory on humanity's behalf that bears on later struggles with the powers of darkness, exercising self-control stronger than hunger or death when weak and emaciated after the Father's glory departed. Following him toward eternal life therefore calls for conflict, self-denial and sacrifice, bringing the divine help needed to overcome.

His real hunger prepared him to sympathize with the hungry and those suffering want, while he refused to use his power to satisfy his own need when tempted. Having himself endured hunger, he would not suffer the multitude who had listened all day and were hungry and faint far from home to return without food, and his fasting proves his tender care for common human need in feeding the five thousand men besides women and children in the wilderness. Though the multitude had come to hear him and lacked food, he would not send them home hungry but depended on his Father to provide for their need. Remembering his own hunger and faintness made him tenderly mindful of physical needs, so when the multitude had been with him three days with nothing to eat he would not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way, and his own experience of bodily need helped him recognize and care for their hunger.

His bearing the test proves his veritable coming as the Son of God and the coming One foretold in the sure word of prophecy. He took the form and nature of fallen humanity so he could understand human trials and know how to help those who are tempted, though his recognition as Messiah was to rest on his character and the evidence of prophecy, not on an impressive appearance.

In deepest humiliation the spotless Son of God and Commander of heaven was brought into contact with the prince of darkness in behalf of fallen humanity, with his dignity questioned, his authority disputed and his allegiance assailed. All heaven watched the conflict, with angels standing on guard ready to act if Satan passed his prescribed limit, until at the last temptation offering all the world divinity flashed through humanity. After Satan left the field a conquered foe Christ lay as one dead, and then angels ministered unto him, their arms encircling him and his head resting upon the breast of the highest angel while providing food and divine consolation flowed into his soul. In his human nature Christ conquered in behalf of the fallen race, placing the human race on vantage ground with God so that for time and eternity man can resist satanic agencies, keep the law of God and become victor by becoming partaker of the divine nature, for every advantage Christ had he has made possible for man to have.

He met in human nature a world disloyal to God and seared and marred by the curse of rebellion, where men were corrupted by Satan's inventions. Satan had claimed for himself mercy, goodness and truth while attributing his own attributes to God, misrepresenting God's character, and those misrepresentations had to be met and demonstrated as false by Christ in human nature. He came to dispute Satan's sovereignty, to remove false impressions of God, to come close to the fallen race and through divine power to break Satan's hold, seeing earthly dominions under a tyrant and humanity full of woe suffering under oppressive power, defiled by hatred, revenge, malice, lust and murder. That sight had brought him from heaven to fight the battle with the apostate, to dispute his right to rule and to wrench his spoil from him, holding before him the kingdoms of the world in great external grandeur with promise they would be his if he would bow.

He came in person at that time because it was necessary to dispute Satan face to face when Satan's authority had become almost supreme. He conquered Satan after his fast of forty days and forty nights by never trusting human words against temptation but always answering with Scripture, and that personal victory is the ground for his later authority in casting out demons.

Answering With Written Word

He overcame only by presenting the Bible, answering three times with It is written so the enemy could have no power over Him. That victory showed the power of God's Word and proved He has power for the fulfillment of His commission to preach the gospel to all nations and is fully able to do the work laid upon Him. Believers are to overcome as He overcame by taking the same hold of divine power, presenting the same It is written when the devil comes with his story, and thereby becoming partakers of the divine nature until changed into His likeness.

He held to the affirmative and refused to repeat what His opponent said, taking His stand upon the written Word and meeting and repulsing the enemy with It is written without holding controversy with His foe. He never met opposition with argument, never repeated the opponent's statements, never attacked Satan's theories, never became excited or allowed evil feeling to arise, but answered with affirmative truth. That way is best because repeating an opponent's words strengthens his arguments and opens the way to twisting and misrepresentation, whereas keeping always to assertions of living truth puts sensible truth before the understanding so the very man who opposes may carry those words home and be converted, with angels opening the way. If He had not held to the affirmative He would have lost all He desired to gain. On the point of appetite He thus obtained the victory in behalf of the whole world, so that every soul has His example before them.

In the wilderness He was tempted in all points as human beings are tempted. Satan watched for a chance to gain control of His mind and to stir human passions to draw out words that would make Him lose standing with God and stand on the enemy's ground to be overcome. He did not argue but instantly rejected every suggestion, gave no place to Satan, stayed awake to discern his wiles, and spoke only such words as It is written, quoting His Father's words. This gives the safe pattern to look to Jesus and to keep the tongue from all other speech, uttering not one word even in answer to a provoking question when feelings are stirred.

He did not answer with angry or railing words or accusation but relied on the words of the Lord, overcoming by meekness, humility and reliance wholly on God's power. He clung to His Father, continued His work, remained exact in principle and upright in conduct, and Satan's efforts could not turn Him from allegiance or make Him sin. His example teaches that when provoked or tempted, victory is gained by restraining the natural impulse to speak harshly. He did not act in self-sufficiency and did not meet Satan with Satan's own kind of weapons, but spoke only words of pure truth and righteousness. Losing sight of His example and failing to copy His manner makes men self-sufficient and leads them to go out against Satan with Satan's own weapons, which the enemy knows how to turn back upon those who use them.

His answer, It is written, turned the tempter back, showing that safety and victory come through knowing and relying on Scripture and its promises. Scripture is thereby the sure, unerring guide holding disciples as true as steel to principle, exposing every doctrine and human opinion without It is written for its foundation as mere human supposition to be rejected. When Satan came He said It is written, meeting temptation with the Bible alone without answering back with His own words, using God's Word as the sword of the Spirit. Believers are to do the same, not framing up words for themselves but taking the Bible, and by it they will know how to meet temptations.

Way to Overcome Temptation

Christ's overcoming in hunger after forty days and forty nights is the example showing how human beings may overcome, to be followed by resisting as He resisted, and His endurance teaches followers how to resist and shows the way through hardship toward eternal life, leaving without excuse those who refuse to follow. His victory strengthens weak purposes and resolve to stand, and is to be followed in patient determined effort and dependence on God. He faced the temptations that beset humanity and did not fail at any point, defeating Satan and giving an example that leaves no excuse.

His victory as substitute and surety makes it possible to overcome, return to allegiance and receive moral power, grace, strength and help, for because He endured what people bear, followers can conquer in His name by faith, joining weakness to His strength and resisting in His name as He overcame. He brought the test of appetite where ruin began and resisted on humanity's behalf, defeating Satan there after four thousand years of Satan's practice against God's government while fallen men had less wisdom and power to resist through appetite and passion, love of the world and presumptuous sins, so that man in all future time in Christ's name may overcome appetite for himself. He fought the battle on appetite and came off victorious and is ready to aid the tempted, and His resistance proves people are not hopeless but can resist through effort united with divine help.

It benefits each person only when that person also gains personal victory, cooperates with Christ and works with human effort aided by divine power, since God cannot save against the will, and through the same divine source by which He overcame without yielding people may stand firmly, partake of the divine nature and become pure and holy. He took genuinely human nature and stood where Adam fell and came off conqueror to keep human beings from following Adam's example, assuring that effort joined with divine power can overcome. Obtaining eternal life through that victory requires long persevering effort, sore discipline, stern conflict, self-denial and perseverance proportionate to the infinite value of eternal life. The battle against appetite is personal to each one which no one can fight for another though others can pray, and the work must be wholly his own, fighting the good fight of faith day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute with no release, standing with firm hold on Christ, discerning temptations, holding the spiritual weapons and constantly watching unto prayer so as not to be overcome again on weakest points.

When God brings a person into trial He has a purpose to accomplish for good, so trial gives no reason to doubt His leading or lose courage, to presume by going unbidden into temptation, or to despond when it comes, but the tempted should trust His faithfulness to bear temptation and call on Him for deliverance as Jesus did when led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Being severely tempted does not mean abandonment by God, for He identifies with the tempted and suffering and is able to help them remain steadfast by relying wholly on God's word and grace, and He knows how to deliver the tempted so they can trust Him rather than despair. Satan may distress and cause agony but cannot control the will, force anyone to sin or defile the soul without consent, and Christ gives strength to seekers and strengthens weak purposes to stand, so Satan cannot move the steadfast from integrity and His victories won on behalf of followers make it possible for them to conquer sin and Satan.

At greatest weakness Satan presses fiercest temptations, for hunger, failing strength and weakened willpower mark when faith most likely lets go of God. He deliberately attacks weakest points, arrays weakness and infirmity before the soul, and seeks to shake confidence and question God's love when perplexed, afflicted, in distress, in affliction, poverty and clouds, taking advantage of human weakness and undermining trust, and he comes the same way to every soul. If met as Jesus met him, without parleying, defeat is escaped, while by parleying the enemy gains advantage, and those physically reduced and tempted when strength is low may likewise drive him away and conquer by relying on Christ. Believers must have the treasure of the Word ever abiding in the soul to discern wiles with sharp perception and meet him as Christ met him with It is written, and when weakness is felt and dependence placed on Christ and not on self, heavenly intelligences lift the standard against the enemy and limit Satanic agencies even when unrealized, with angels ministering as they did to Him when the tempted remain steadfast.

Enmity against Satan comes only as people place themselves on God's side, yield obedience to Jehovah's law, accept Christ as personal Saviour and accept heaven's principles and let Him bring heart and mind into obedience, and this enmity and power from God is their efficiency. Tempted souls must not enter controversy except on Bible ground, have as little as possible to do with opponents' arguments, repeat Satan's sentiments as seldom as possible, and keep looking at principles wholly from above, meeting the tempter without being overcome by artifice while standing firm on truth and refusing to swerve even for the offer of the whole world. His contest in fasting and hunger, in which He worked no miracle and gave no sign but depended only on God and His Word, was recorded for help and encouragement today, teaching how to meet a future coming with great power by signs and wonders including fire from heaven to deceive if possible the very elect, by standing on the everlasting Word whose power through the Holy Spirit is stronger than miracles.

The tempter's offers of advantage in exchange for submission must be resisted rather than accepted at the cost of departing from God's word, for no honor or favor of the world compensates for one act or one hour of disobedience, since disobedience is dishonor and disaster and accepting those offers concedes to the powers of darkness. Satan besets with various forms and presents the same temptations to people as well, drawing them into delusions when they focus on temporal things and lose sight of the spiritual and eternal. The same temptations come to followers who are in danger of falling if minds and hearts are not filled with Christ's pure unselfish sanctified love, and unless kept by God's power with heart pure and holy and free from selfishness they will fall when Satan watches his chance and comes in human form with entrancing words.

The account is where Satan assailed Christ with the same temptations he had used against Adam and Eve, with deceptive temptations and severe trials and the pressure of Adam's guilt, yet without failing, overcoming evil powers and proving able to bear every test as part of rescuing a perishing world. He withstood temptations hindering God's given work by relying on God's word, and the same word and divine strength enable believers to overcome. Resisting by Scripture, putting on the whole armor of God, standing bravely at post in detraction and falsehood, and fighting the good fight of faith with It is written against every device to fight his way to pre-eminence is what those proclaiming the third angel's message on great and sacred truths must also use.

He resisted as the pattern believers must copy by following all light, laying aside story magazines, studying the Word more and meeting its requirements more fully to be ready when every case is decided, bringing angels to strengthen understanding, bringing God into families for children's salvation, and giving schools their work of escaping corruption through lust. As the Pattern, walking and working as He worked makes all dealings strict and the heart tender, charitable, meek and lowly, and His life under severest temptations makes His path plain despite powerful delusions, sweeping away errors, keeping truth clear from Satan's enshrouding, and presenting heaven-born principles so clearly the way is plain and he who misses has no excuse. He laid aside His royal position and came as a poor man enduring temptation so no one could say He did not understand poverty or being tempted.

Satan tempted Christ claiming to be sanctified, a pure heavenly angel, continuing his heavenly self-exaltation by which he corrupted angels, but Jesus was not deceived, and those living by every word will not be deceived, for God will not accept willful imperfect obedience and those claiming sanctification while turning from the law prove disobedient with carnal hearts not subject to God's law. Satan came urging Christ to look sharply after His own interest, withhold liberality, follow Satan's way and seek a great name, and comes to believers the same way to lead to selfish use of means, display and pride, with victory by looking to Jesus as author and finisher and becoming strong in His strength. The encounter shows Satan can approach under appearance of righteousness and uses deception against people as he did against Christ, appearing as an angel of light to draw from the right path, including through high-professing reformers who gain influence over sincere dissatisfied souls to draw them farther from right.

Temperance and Daily Application

The nearly six weeks of fasting reveals how powerful and how sinful degraded appetite has become over the human family, and how serious it is to yield to it. Its anguish reveals the strength of temptation to indulge perverted appetite, which had increased until men were debased, diseased, enfeebled in moral power and unable of themselves to overcome. Christ bore humanity's nature and the guilt brought into the world through appetite, and with the weight of the world's sins pressing upon Him His countenance showed profound sorrow. He faced this leading temptation where Adam failed, gaining victory for humanity and showing that through the strength He imparts people can overcome.

The fast teaches self-denial and temperance beginning at the table and extending to every part of life, keeping appetite under the control of reason to preserve intellect and give mental and moral vigor so men can discern between right and wrong, the sacred and the common. Indulgence of appetite overcomes millions through gratification of taste, which 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. Self-indulgent tobacco, liquor, narcotics, stimulants, beer, wine and strong drink are condemned because they destroy God-given faculties so people cannot reason from cause to effect, create ruinous desires, weaken the body, dull perception of sacred things and pervert moral powers. As Adam and Eve fell through intemperate appetite and lost Eden, humanity may through Christ practise temperance and regain Eden.

His denial of appetite and self-control is an example and pattern of temperance, self-denial and resistance for followers to imitate, teaching that appetite can be controlled rather than allowed to rule and weaken moral strength and resistance to temptation. It rebukes gluttony, dissipation and indulgence, and presents control of appetite as a high attainment in the Christian life and a condition of reigning with Christ and having hope of heaven. He left an example of resisting appetite, vanity, display and worldly honor even when doing so brings conflict, reproach and shame. He firmly denied appetite and passion to show men by His own life how to resist temptation, providing the only hope of regaining the Eden the first parents lost through indulgence. A true sense of His sacrifice in leaving His home in heaven leads men to cheerfully deny self and choose to be partakers with Christ of His sufferings, welcoming trial, toil and conflict and willingly enduring them, for only those who so overcome will be exalted to sit with Him on His throne.

His long fast had a definite object teaching temperance, giving an example that supports temperance reform and condemns indulgence such as tobacco, giving light and new ideas on temperance. It began His work of reforming physical habits, restoring obedience to God's law and regaining Eden. His victory over appetite makes it possible for people enslaved by perverted appetite and passion to overcome and live a Christian life and keep the law through divine help rather than own strength. His suffering was more than physical hunger, for the guilt of the world's sins weighed heavily on Him as He faced temptation, and He overcame the tests of appetite, love of the world, love of honor and pride of display on humanity's behalf, forming a righteous character for people who could not do so for themselves.

His fasting and suffering was a victory gained for man where Adam lost all through transgression, to overcome the temptations of appetite and gain the victory upon that point. His anguish was not so much from enduring the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race, knowing appetite would become man's idol, lead him to forget God, and stand directly in the way of his salvation. As example and pattern in all things, His nearly six weeks of fasting teaches the necessity of holding appetite under the control of reason and condemns self-gratifying indulgence that enervates mind and heart and weakens moral power. His suffering to break appetite's power over humanity included the evils of the free use of intoxicating liquor. So at the wedding He provided not fermented or adulterated intoxicating wine but pure clarified juice of the grape whose effect brings the taste into harmony with healthful appetite, and He would never place before anyone a fermented drink that would tempt to evil.

His experience shows that appetite and bodily weakness can be involved in temptation, while intemperance can impair the mental and moral faculties needed to serve God and others and to discern eternal things. Presumption is a common temptation by which Satan gains the victory nine times out of ten, when those professing to follow Christ plunge without thought into temptations from which it would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied, where meditation and prayer would have preserved them; God's promises are not to be rashly claimed while recklessly rushing into danger, violating the laws of nature and disregarding prudence and judgment. Satan tempted Christ on appetite after weakening the body, adapting his temptation to Christ's hunger to make it almost overpowering when He was truly hungry, emaciated, distressed in appearance and surrounded by desolate circumstances. He tempts all people the same way to bring them into physical and moral weakness by tempting indulgence of appetite regardless of result, because intemperance benumbs the perceptive faculties centered in the brain, subjects the higher powers to animal appetites and passions, and makes eternal things undiscerning.

Those who keep physical appetites under control of reason and conscience and keep animal propensities in subjection to the moral powers by enlightened intellect have clear minds to discern Satan's devices and leave him little power, while those benumbed by intemperance become easy prey and playthings for the enemy. Just as he had overcome Adam upon appetite and controlled his descendants through indulgence until iniquity brought destruction by the flood, and just as he had led Israel to let appetite control reason into grievous sin until they fell in the wilderness, so he gave Satan hope of overcoming Christ by appetite in humiliation. Unlike Moses, who on special occasions was that long without food but felt not the pangs of hunger, was not tempted and harassed by a vile and powerful foe, was elevated above the human and was especially sustained by the glory of God enshrouding him, the Son of God felt the pangs while facing the foe. Jesus enduring hunger after fasting is part of His victory offering victory to those struggling with appetite and showing He has borne what they can bear. Appetite and passion must be brought under conscience and the will of God because indulgence weakens resistance to temptation and obstructs consecration, guards the mind and moral character from corruption, and Christ's example points to this as essential to eternal life.

He bore in the wilderness the temptation on the power of appetite for the human family as an expression of matchless love. His victory leaves the work in human hands to wrestle with God in supplication day and night for unseen power, to endure seeing Him who is invisible, to come off more than conquerors through Him who loved, and to labor with more than human energy as temperance workers rescuing souls whose reason is destroyed by liquid poison. His controlling appetite through self-denial is an example of denying rather than indulging, meaning followers stand like a rock firm to principle in diet, controlling appetite and encouraging denial by precept and example so influence helps others in the right direction. This self-denial belongs to health reform in diet and dress and brings best health and power to resist fevers, acute diseases and affliction, while indulgence brings disease and backsliding from light, repeating the history of Israel in gratification of appetite at a time too near the close of time to become careless.

His self-denying life is the true standard for measuring Christian life, and earnestly and frequently comparing their lives with His greatly strengthens Christians. His example gives no sanction to church gatherings for pleasure and indulgence of appetite, to socials, festivals and picnics that tempt the appetite to overindulgence, or to amusements that lead to levity and forgetfulness of God. As the world's Redeemer He is the only safe pattern for man to copy in order to overcome as He overcame, and His fasting and suffering was part of the atonement. His victory encourages workers who face temptation when exhausted, while showing the need to preserve health and strength so they can meet special demands and rely on Christ who has conquered the enemy. Those professing to be His representatives, above all ministers, must follow His example by forming habits of strictest temperance and keeping His life of self-denial, self-sacrifice and active benevolence before the people, and the account applies also to the physician's exposure to fierce temptations.

Bodily desire must not rule a person, and every wrong desire must be overcome. Overcoming can require self-denial and bearing the discomfort of restraint, through meditation and prayer and by avoiding situations that give Satan advantage. Temperance is essential, keeping the body under as runners for a prize did, and much more for those running for a heavenly crown, putting forth every effort to overcome evil and fighting valiantly for the promise to overcomers. Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness and experienced hunger as self-denial to break appetite's power and as an example of temperance. His long fast is a call to sacrifice in working to get souls to the truth to bear the test in the last days, so that missing dinner in a morning meeting to labor together with God will not hurt.

Christ's forty-day wilderness fast was a burden He bore on behalf of others; they are not called to repeat it, and such a fast has no virtue in itself. The virtue and power that purify and refine come through Christ's blood and sacrifice, and through His grace which gives power to work together with God. He fasted on our account, not because He was sinful or needed to subdue self, and though exalted by God and able to use circumstances for His own advantage He humbled Himself and did not do so. His fast was joined with communion with heaven, and it shows that He understands the trials of those who must fast and can help them in temptation.

Jesus fasting in the wilderness endured the trial of appetite and passed over the ground human beings must travel, preparing the way for them to overcome temptation through trust in God. His victory gives hope to those struggling against appetite, so that people could overcome Satan's temptations concerning appetite through His name and may share in His divine nature. The fast of nearly six weeks was a scene of unexampled suffering while He was assailed with the fiercest temptations, revealing God's love in not withholding His divine Son from taking humanity's humiliation, giving His dearly beloved to shame and agony to bring many sons and daughters to glory, pointing to giving His Son to die on the cross. It is infinite gain to overcome as He overcame and eternal loss to gain the whole world with all its pleasure and glory yet lose the soul, so heaven is cheap at any cost and worth any cost.

Jesus fasting in the wilderness of temptation was part of His self-giving work for redemption of the lost, where true devotion is shown not by bodily hardship alone but by surrendering oneself in willing service to God and others. Beholding and studying ambitious worldly plans and projects makes a person more favorable to worldly methods and willing to listen to the enemy and take his bribes, and anxiety to unite with the world blinds like the worldling so the beauty of truth cannot be seen. The lesson from Jesus when tempted is to refuse union with the world and instantly reject Satan's suggestions and bribes. Soon after that temptation and those victories He presented Himself in His true character at Nazareth, where He was known as an unpretending mechanic.

Satan's approach to tempt people to love the world follows the pattern of his temptation of Christ, presenting worldly advantages to draw people away from truth. The verse places Jesus in a weak suffering condition where His human nature made Him physically vulnerable and connects bodily weakness with fierce temptation, showing temptation may come when strength is low. Yet He met Satan's temptations with Scripture, overcame every temptation Satan brought against Him, and lived a stainless life on humanity's behalf. He steadfastly resisted and continued His mission to save the lost.

He humbled Himself taking human nature and a body like ours, so He is acquainted with human necessities, and in that nature bore the heaviest temptations men must bear and conquered the enemy by resisting his suggestions, in order that men may learn from Him how to conquer. In every respect He suffered what men will suffer and very much more, for the sins not of one but of the whole world were laid upon Him; men in their own strength cannot succeed and dare not yield for a moment, but must follow His example of enduring humiliation, reproach, suffering and death, that they may gain everything and inherit all things. The nearly six-week battle with the powers of darkness was overcome not for His own sake but for humanity, making it possible for every descendant of Adam to overcome through the merit of His sinlessness. His victory was gained in behalf of the race to redeem Adam's sin and fall and to manifest God's love to save man from sin and ruin, so that by making Christ his trust, in His name and through His merits even the vilest sinner may have pardon and gain heaven through a life of obedience.

Christ in the wilderness armed with It is written met and overcame the strongest temptations, giving the world an example of resisting temptation through the written Word and showing the power of God's Word. In His assumed human nature He endured Satan's tests and resisted his deceptive seductive wiles, making it possible for human beings to overcome through Him. The verse belongs to the wilderness temptation in which Satan's temptations failed to accomplish their purpose and Christ overcame, resisted the adversary and conquered the mighty foe. Christ suffering the gnawing pangs of hunger and overcoming on the point of appetite on man's behalf by self-denial and self-control rebukes dissipation and gluttony in the Christian world, where far more money is spent to gratify appetite and indulge hurtful lusts than is given to advance the gospel. It teaches that Christians must individually control appetite, because indulgence counteracts the force of truth and weakens moral power to resist, while eating and drinking from principle to the glory of God exalts virtue and godliness and frees thousands of dollars sacrificed on hurtful lust to flow into the Lord's treasury for publications and missions so followers will be the light of the world.

He overcame every temptation even when the world was presented in its most attractive light, showing that His followers can also resist Satan's appeals. His severe conflict with Satan shows the greatness of the work of overcoming, and He fought the battle concerning appetite and came off victorious and is ready to aid those who face temptation. His temptation took place in real conflict with Satan, who sought to exhaust and overthrow Him, and He stood against Satan's authority in the world at a time of greatest weakness after fasting when vulnerable to fierce temptation, as part of what He suffered for humanity.