Matthew 4:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the story of a famous struggle, face to face, between Michael and the dragon, between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, indeed, with the serpent himself. In that struggle, the Seed of the woman suffers by being tempted, and so his heel is bruised. But the serpent is completely defeated in his temptations, and so his head is crushed. Our Lord Jesus comes out as the conqueror, and in that victory he secures comfort now, and final victory for all his faithful followers.

About Christ’s temptation, notice first the time when it happened. The word “then” matters here. Right after the heavens were opened to him, the Spirit came down on him, and he was declared to be the Son of God and the Savior of the world, the next thing we hear is that he is tempted. That was the very time when he was best prepared to face it.

Great privileges and special signs of God’s favor do not keep us from being tempted. In fact, after great honor, we should expect something that humbles us. Paul had a messenger of Satan sent to torment him after he had been caught up into the third heaven. God usually prepares his people for temptation before he calls them to it. He gives strength for the day, and before a hard trial he often gives more than usual comfort.

The assurance that we are God’s children is the best preparation for temptation. If the Holy Spirit witnesses to our adoption, that gives us an answer to every suggestion the evil spirit brings, whether he wants to corrupt us or trouble us. Then, when Jesus had just come from a solemn ordinance, after his baptism, he was tempted. After we have been brought into fellowship with God, we should expect Satan to attack. A soul that has received much grace must keep a double guard. When you have eaten and are full, beware.

Then, when Jesus began to show himself openly to Israel, he was tempted, which he had not been while he lived in private. The devil has special hatred for useful people, those who are not only good, but who are also doing good, especially when they are just beginning their work. The son of Sirach says, “My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). Young ministers should know what to expect and be ready for it.

Second, notice the place where it happened, in the wilderness. It was probably the great wilderness of Sinai, where Moses and Elijah fasted forty days, since no part of the wilderness of Judea was so deserted by wild beasts as this seems to have been (Mark 1:13). When Christ was baptized, he did not go to Jerusalem to announce the glory that had been given to him. Instead, he withdrew into a wilderness. After communion with God, it is good to be private for a time, so we do not lose what we have received in the noise and rush of worldly business.

Christ went into the wilderness for two reasons. First, to gain advantage for himself. Solitude gives time for meditation and fellowship with God. Even those called to the busiest lives must still have thoughtful hours and must first learn to be alone with God. Those who speak publicly about God’s things are not fit for that work if they have not first talked with those things in secret. When Christ appeared as a teacher sent from God, people would not say, “He has just come from traveling; he has seen the world.” Instead, they would say, “He has just come out of the desert; he has been alone with God and with his own heart.”

Second, he went there to give the tempter an opening, so Satan could approach him more easily than he could in company. Solitude is good for a godly heart, but Satan knows how to use it against us. Woe to the person who is alone. Those who, under the claim of holiness and devotion, retreat into deserts and hidden places find that they are not beyond the reach of their spiritual enemies, and there they also lose the help that comes from fellowship with other believers.

Christ withdrew, first, to make his victory more glorious. He gave the enemy sun and wind on his side, and still defeated him. He could safely give the devil that advantage, because the ruler of this world had nothing in him. But the devil does have something in us, and so we must pray not to be led into temptation and must stay out of danger when we can. Second, Christ withdrew so he could do the battle himself, so that he might be exalted in his own strength. That is why it was written, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me.” Christ entered the contest without a second.

Third, notice the preparations for the temptation, and there were two. He was led into the conflict. He did not foolishly throw himself into it, but the Spirit led him up to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit who descended on him like a dove made him gentle, and also made him brave. Our concern must be not to enter into temptation. But if God, in his providence, puts us into hard places for testing, we must not think it strange. Instead, we should keep a sharper guard. Be strong in the Lord, stand firm in faith, and all will be well.

If we trust our own strength and invite the devil to test us, we are asking God to leave us to ourselves. But wherever God leads us, we may trust that he will go with us and bring us out more than conquerors. Christ was led to be tempted by the devil, and by the devil alone. Other people are tempted when they are drawn away by their own desires and lured into sin (James 1:14). The devil takes hold of that weakness and works with it. But our Lord Jesus had no sinful nature, so he was led safely, without fear or trembling, like a champion going into the field, to be tempted only by the devil.

Christ’s temptation shows his own humility and willingness to lower himself. Temptations are fiery darts, thorns in the flesh, beatings, siftings, wrestlings, and battles, all words that show hardship and pain. Christ submitted to them because he would humble himself and become like his brothers and sisters in every way. In that way, he gave his back to those who struck him.

It also gave Satan his shame. There is no victory without a battle. Christ was tempted so that he might defeat the tempter. Satan tempted the first Adam and triumphed over him. But he will not always triumph. The second Adam will overcome him and lead captivity captive.

This is also a comfort to all believers. In Christ’s temptation, we see that our enemy is crafty, hateful, and bold in his attacks. Yet we also see that he is not unbeatable. Though he is a strong man armed, the Captain of our salvation is stronger than he is. It comforts us to know that Christ suffered by being tempted. That shows that temptations, if we do not yield to them, are not sins, only afflictions, and such as may be endured. We also have a High Priest who knows from experience what temptation is, and so he is more tenderly moved by the feelings of our weakness in the hour of temptation (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15).

It is a much greater comfort to remember that Christ won the victory when he was tempted, and won it for us. The enemy we fight is already defeated, confused, and stripped of his power. More than that, we share in Christ’s victory, and through him we are more than conquerors.

Christ was also prepared for the conflict, like wrestlers who train with self-control in all things (1 Corinthians 9:25). He fasted forty days and forty nights, following the pattern and example of Moses, the great lawgiver, and Elijah, the great prophet and reformer of the Old Testament. John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah in matters of moral character, but not in miracles (John 10:41); that honor was kept for Christ. Christ did not need to fast to subdue sinful desires, because he had none. Yet he fasted for several reasons. He humbled himself and appeared as one deserted, someone no one was seeking after. He also gave Satan room to attack, so that his victory over him would shine all the more clearly. And he set apart fasting for our use, when God’s providence calls us to it, when we lack daily food, when discipline over the body is needed, or when prayer needs to be stirred up. These are good ways to prepare for temptation.

If faithful people are brought low, if they lack friends and help, this can comfort them. Their Master was tested in the same way. A person may lack bread and still be favored by heaven and led by the Spirit. The Roman Catholic use of Lent as a reference to Christ’s forty-day fast is, in the source’s words, foolishness and superstition, and the law of the land at that time testified against it. When Christ fasted forty days, he was not hungry during that time. Fellowship with heaven took the place of food and drink for him. But afterward he was hungry, to show that he was truly and fully human. He took on our natural weaknesses so that he could make atonement for us. Humanity fell through eating, and we often sin in the same way, so Christ also became hungry.

Now come the temptations themselves. Satan’s goal in every temptation was to lead Christ into sin against God, so that he would no longer be fit to be a sacrifice for the sins of others. Whatever form the temptation took, Satan was trying to do three things: make Christ doubt his Father’s goodness, make him presume on his Father’s power, or draw him away from his Father’s honor by giving it to Satan. In the first two, the temptation looked harmless, and that is where the tempter’s skill showed. In the last, the thing offered looked attractive. The first two were clever temptations that required great wisdom to detect. The last was a strong temptation that required great resolve to resist. Yet Christ defeated them all.

First, Satan tempted him to doubt his Father’s goodness and care. The devil came to him (Matthew 4:3). The Devil is the tempter, and so he is also Satan, the adversary. Anyone who leads us into sin is working as Satan’s agent and doing his business. He is called the tempter in a special way because he tempted our first parents, and he still does the same. He came to Christ in a visible form, and not in a frightening one as later in Gethsemane. If the Devil ever disguised himself as an angel of light, he did so here, pretending to be a good spirit or guardian angel.

The tempter was very subtle in joining this attack to what had just happened. Christ had begun to feel hungry, so the suggestion to turn stones into bread seemed fitting for his need. Satan often takes advantage of our outward situation and uses it as a base for his attacks. He is watchful as well as spiteful, and the more skill he uses against us, the more carefully we must guard ourselves. When Christ was hungry in a wilderness where nothing was available, the Devil attacked him. Want and poverty are a strong temptation toward discontent, unbelief, and unlawful ways of getting relief. People excuse this by saying that necessity has no law, or that hunger will break through stone walls, but God’s law should be stronger to us than stone walls. Agur prayed against poverty, not because poverty is only a shame or hardship, but because it is a temptation, lest I be poor and steal. Those who are brought low need to guard themselves twice as carefully. It is better to starve than to live and prosper by sin.

Christ had also just been declared the Son of God, and now the Devil tempted him to doubt it: “If you are the Son of God.” If Satan had not known that the Son of God was to come into the world, he would not have said this. And if he had not suspected that Jesus was that Son, he would not have said it to him. He would also not have dared to say it if Christ had not then hidden his glory, and if the Devil had not become brazen. The suggestion was this: if Christ was really God’s Son, how could he be left in such need? If God were truly his Father, surely he would not let him go hungry, since all the beasts of the forest belong to him (Psalm 50:10, Psalm 50:12). The voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son,” was dismissed as a mistake, or worse, as a lie. Either God was not his Father, the tempter said, or he was a very unkind one.

This is one of Satan’s main goals when he tempts godly people, to destroy their sense of being children of God. If he can do that, he cuts off their trust in God, their duty toward him, and their fellowship with him. The Holy Spirit, who comforts believers, witnesses that they are children of God. The evil spirit, who accuses believers, does all he can to shake that witness. Outward troubles, lack, and burdens are among Satan’s strongest arguments, as if suffering could not fit with sonship, when in fact it often comes from God’s fatherly love. Those who can answer this temptation with holy Job’s spirit are well armed: though he slay me, though he starve me, yet I will trust him and love him as a friend, even when he seems to come against me as an enemy.

The Devil also tries to shake our faith in God’s word and make us question whether it is true. He started that way with the first parents: “Has God really said this?” Here he does the same thing again: Has God said that you are his beloved Son? Surely he did not say so, or if he did, it is not true.

We give the Devil room when we question any word God has spoken. His work, as the father of lies, is to fight against the true sayings of God. He often does this by putting hard thoughts about God into people’s minds, as if God were unkind, unfaithful, or had forgotten those who trusted him.

He tried this with our first parents by making them think God forbade the tree of knowledge because he was keeping something good from them. Here he suggests to our Savior that the Father has cast him off and left him to fend for himself. But the suggestion is unreasonable and easy to answer. If Christ seemed like only a man because he was hungry, why should he not be confessed as more than a man, even the Son of God, when he fasted forty days and was not hungry?

The Devil’s point was this, “You now have a chance to prove you are the Son of God. If you are the Son of God, show it by commanding these stones, probably a heap lying before him, to become bread” (Matthew 4:3). John the Baptist had just said that God can raise up children to Abraham from stones, so divine power could surely make bread from stones too. If Christ had that power, the Devil urges him to use it for himself in his need. He does not say, “Pray to your Father to turn them into bread,” but, “Command it to be done.” In other words, your Father has left you, so act on your own and do not depend on him.

The Devil loves whatever is proud and self-reliant. He reaches his goal if he can turn people away from dependence on God and make them think they can manage on their own.

Christ resisted and overcame the temptation in two ways. First, he refused to do it. He would not command the stones to become bread, not because he could not, for he soon turned stones into bread in another sense, but because he would not. At first glance, the request seemed reasonable enough. In fact, the more convincing a temptation looks and the more good it seems to hold, the more dangerous it is. Christ saw the hidden trap at once and would do nothing that looked like questioning the truth of the voice from heaven, doubting his Father’s care, acting independently, or pleasing Satan by doing what Satan suggested.

Second, he was ready with Scripture (Matthew 4:4). He answered, “It is written.” That is worth noticing. Christ answered every temptation from Satan with, “It is written.” He himself is the eternal Word and could have spoken God’s mind without quoting Moses, but he honored Scripture and gave us an example. He spoke this to Satan, knowing Satan knew very well what was written. Even those who are the Devil’s children may still know what is written in God’s book, for “the devils believe and tremble.”

This is the way we must answer temptation too. We should resist and drive it back with, “It is written.” The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, the only offensive weapon in the Christian armor (Ephesians 6:17). In our spiritual battles, nothing is like it.

Christ’s answer comes from Deuteronomy, which means the second law. That book has very little ceremonial law in it. The Levitical sacrifices and washings, which were part of the law given to Levi’s priestly system, could not drive Satan away, even though God appointed them. Much less can holy water or the sign of the cross, which people invented. But moral commands and gospel promises, joined with faith, are mighty through God for defeating Satan.

The words come from Deuteronomy 8:3, where God explained why he fed Israel with manna. He did it to teach them that man does not live by bread alone. Christ applies that lesson to himself. Israel was God’s son, whom he called out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1), and Christ was too (Matthew 2:15). Israel was then in the wilderness, and Christ was in the wilderness now, perhaps the very same one.

So the Devil wanted Christ to question his sonship because he was in need. Christ answers that Israel was God’s son too, and God was very tender with that son, though he also disciplined him (Acts 13:18). Deuteronomy 8:5 says, “As a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.” In the same way, Christ, as the Son, was learning obedience.

The Devil also wanted him to distrust his Father’s love and care. Christ’s answer is, “That would be like Israel, who in their need asked, ‘Is the Lord among us? Can he provide bread in the wilderness?’” God had already shown that he could provide. The Devil also wanted Christ to look for relief at once, as soon as hunger began. But God had wise and holy reasons for letting Israel hunger before feeding them. He humbled them and tested them. God’s children must learn not only to wait on him, but to wait for him.

The Devil wanted Christ to supply himself with bread. Christ answers, in effect, “Why should I? It has already been settled beyond dispute that man can live without bread, as Israel did in the wilderness for forty years on manna.” God normally keeps people alive through bread from the earth (Job 28:5), but he can use other means if he chooses. Any word that comes from God’s mouth, anything he appoints for that purpose, is enough to sustain a person as well as bread.

We may have bread and still not be nourished if God withholds his blessing (Haggai 1:6, 1:9; Micah 6:14). Bread is called the staff of life, but it is God’s blessing that keeps the staff strong. And we may lack bread and still be nourished some other way. God sustained Moses and Elijah without bread, and Christ himself had just done forty days without food. He fed Israel with bread from heaven, with angel’s food. He fed Elijah with bread brought miraculously by ravens, and another time with a widow’s meal that was miraculously multiplied. So Christ did not need to turn stones into bread. He could trust God to keep him alive some other way, just as he had been kept alive through the forty days before hunger came.

Notice here that, just as we must not think we can live without God when we have plenty, we must also learn to live on God when we are in great need. When the fig tree does not blossom, and the field gives no food, and every ordinary means of help is gone, we still must rejoice in the Lord. Then we must not try to demand what we want, even if it goes against God’s command, but humbly ask for what he sees fit to give us, and thank him for the bread he allows us, even if it is only a small portion.

Let us learn from Christ to depend on God’s provision rather than our own resources, and not take unlawful steps to meet our needs, however urgent they may be (Psalm 37:3). Jehovah-jireh means, “the Lord will provide” in some way. It is better to live in poverty on the good gifts of God than to live in abundance on the results of our own sin.

Satan then tempted Christ to presume on his Father’s power and protection. See how restless and tireless the devil is. If he fails in one attack, he tries another. In this second temptation, we can see that he wanted to turn Christ’s confidence in his Father’s care for food into careless trust in his Father’s care for safety.

We are in danger of going wrong on either side, so we must be careful. If we avoid one extreme, Satan may try to push us into the opposite one. If we overcome wastefulness, we may fall into greed. The extremes of despair and presumption are especially dangerous in the things that concern our souls. Some people become convinced that Christ is able and willing to save them from their sins, and then they are tempted to think he will save them while they stay in their sins. In the same way, when people begin to grow serious and zealous in religion, Satan can drive them into harshness and angry heat.

In this temptation, notice how he prepared the way for it. He did not take Christ by force against his will, but led him to Jerusalem and went with him. It is not clear whether Christ went on the ground and up the temple stairs, or whether he went in the air. But he was placed on a pinnacle, or high point, of the temple.

Notice, first, how submissive Christ was in allowing himself to be carried there, so that Satan could do his worst and still be conquered. Christ’s patience here, as later in his suffering and death, is more amazing than Satan’s power. Satan had no power over Christ except what was allowed from above. How comforting it is that Christ, who allowed this power of Satan against himself, does not allow the same against us in the same way. He restrains it, because he knows our frame.

Second, notice how crafty the devil was in choosing the place for his temptation. He wanted to tempt Christ toward showy pride and a vain confidence in God’s care. So he placed him in a public spot in Jerusalem, a crowded city and the joy of the whole earth, in the temple, one of the wonders of the world, always being admired by someone or another. There Christ could make himself known to everyone and prove himself to be the Son of God, not in the hiddenness of a wilderness, as in the first temptation, but before a crowd, on the most visible stage.

Jerusalem is called the holy city, because it was holy in name and profession, and because a holy people still remained there, the substance of the city. But no city on earth is so holy that it keeps us safe from the devil and his temptations. The first Adam was tempted in the holy garden, and the second Adam, Christ, was tempted in the holy city. So we must stay on our guard everywhere. In fact, the holy city is often where the devil most effectively tempts people to pride and presumption. Yet thanks be to God, no unclean thing will ever enter the Jerusalem above, the heavenly holy city. There we will be safe from temptation forever.

He set Christ on a pinnacle of the temple, which Josephus says was so high that a person would feel dizzy just looking down. Pinnacles of the temple are places of temptation in two ways. First, high places are dangerous. They are slippery places. Rising in the world makes a person an easy target for Satan’s fiery darts. God brings down so that he may raise up. The devil lifts up so that he may cast down. Anyone who wants to avoid falling must be careful not to climb too high.

Second, high positions in the church are especially dangerous. Those who have great gifts, hold important posts, or have gained a strong reputation need to stay humble. Satan will try to puff them up with pride so they fall into the same judgment as the devil. Those who stand high need to stand firm.

Then the devil moved the temptation along. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “show yourself to the world and prove it. Throw yourself down.” He was saying, first, that Christ would be admired as one who had special protection from heaven. If he fell from such a height and received no harm, people would say, as the people said of Paul, that he was a god. Tradition says that Simon Magus tried to prove himself a god in this same way, but he was exposed because he fell and was badly hurt.

Second, the devil suggested that Christ would be received as one who came with a special message from heaven. All Jerusalem would see and accept not only that he was more than a man, but that he was the Messenger of the covenant, the one who was to come suddenly to the temple (Malachi 3:1), and then go out into the streets of the holy city. In that way, he seemed to think, the work of convincing the Jews would be quickly finished.

Notice that the devil said, “Throw yourself down.” He himself could not throw Christ down, though a small push from the top of that spire would have been enough. Satan’s power is limited. He can only go as far as God allows. Yet even if the devil had thrown Christ down, he would not have won. That would have been Christ’s suffering, not his sin. Whatever real harm comes to us is, in one sense, our own doing. The devil can only persuade, not force. He can only say, “Throw yourself down.” He cannot throw us down. Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire, not forced, but lured. So let us not harm ourselves, and then, praise God, no one else can truly harm us (Proverbs 9:12).

To support this suggestion, the devil even backed it with Scripture: “He will give his angels charge concerning you.” But is Saul also among the prophets? Is Satan really so familiar with Scripture that he can quote it so quickly? It seems he is.

It is possible for a person to know a great deal of Scripture in the mind and on the lips, while the heart is still full of hatred toward God and all that is good. The devils know Scripture too, and that knowledge only increases their malice and their misery. The devil never spoke with more pain to himself than when he said to Christ, “I know who you are.”

The devil wanted Christ to throw himself down, hoping he would destroy himself and bring his work to an end. To make that seem safe, he pointed to the promise in (Psalm 91:11), “He will give his angels charge over you.” There was some truth in that quote. It is true that God has promised the service of angels for the protection of his people. The devil knows this from experience, because his attacks on them keep failing, and he rages over it, just as he raged over Job’s hedge of protection (Job 1:10).

He was also right to apply the promise to Christ, because all the promises meant for the protection of God’s people belong first and in the highest sense to Christ, and then to them through him. The promise that none of their bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20) was fulfilled in Christ (John 19:36). The angels guard believers for Christ’s sake (Revelation 7:5, Revelation 7:11).

But there was much that was wrong in the devil’s use of the promise. He may have had a special hatred for this promise because it often blocked his evil plans against God’s people. He misquoted it, and that was bad. The promise says, “They shall keep you,” but only “in all your ways.” If we leave the path of duty and act outside God’s will, we forfeit the promise and step out of God’s protection. Christ would have been out of his way if he had thrown himself down, because he had no call to do so.

This is why it is so good to check Scripture for ourselves and not accept secondhand claims. We must not let people cut pieces out of God’s word and use them to deceive us. We should be like the noble Bereans, who searched the Scriptures every day.

The devil also misapplied the promise, and that was even worse. Scripture is abused when it is used to support sin. When people twist it in that way, they do it to their own ruin (2 Peter 3:16). The promise itself is sure, but the devil turned it into an excuse for presumption, that is, for taking sinful risks while assuming God will protect us. It is no new thing for God’s grace to be turned into a license for sin, or for people to take comfort in sin from God’s kindness to sinners. But shall we keep on sinning so that grace may increase? Shall we throw ourselves down so that angels may lift us up? By no means.

Christ overcame this temptation the same way he overcame the first, by saying, “It is written.” The devil’s misuse of Scripture did not stop Christ from using Scripture rightly. Christ answered with (Deuteronomy 6:16), “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” This does not mean, “So you must not tempt me,” but, “So I must not tempt my Father.” In the original setting, the command is in the plural, “You shall not tempt,” but here Christ uses the singular, “You shall not.”

We are most likely to gain good from God’s word when we hear general promises as though they speak to us personally. Satan said, “It is written,” and Christ also said, “It is written.” That does not mean one part of Scripture cancels another. God is one, and his word is one. The difference is that one is a promise and the other is a command, and the promise must be understood and applied in light of the command. Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. Those who explain Scripture must do it in line with the truth of faith (Romans 12:6) and with practical godliness.

If Christ had thrown himself down, he would have been tempting God in two ways. First, he would have been asking for more proof of what had already been clearly shown. Christ was fully satisfied that God was already his Father, cared for him, and had given his angels charge over him. To demand a new test would have been to tempt God, as the Pharisees did when they had many signs on earth but still asked for a sign from heaven. That is to put limits on the Holy One of Israel.