The temptation:

v. 12. And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness.

v. 13. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was, with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him.

“Immediately,” not a mere introductory word here as so often in Mark’s Gospel, but emphasizing quick action. Christ was now formally installed and prepared for His work; He must enter upon it at once. Mark well: the Spirit drove Him: into the wilderness. It is a stronger word than that used by the other evangelists, Mat 4:1; Luk 4:1. Christ was a true human being. He had some idea of the severity of the trial that awaited Him, and He very naturally hung back; the flesh was weak. But the Spirit, by gentle insistence, urged Him onward. It was a hard fight which He must undergo, but it was a part of His office. For forty days He was out there in the mountainous wilderness; for forty days He withstood the unceasing attacks of Satan, for the incidents narrated by Matthew and Luke are only outstanding features of the temptation. To destroy the works of the devil He had come into the world, 1Jn 3:8, and to destroy the works of the devil He must begin at the very outset of His official work. An impressive picture: The Son of God, according to His human nature, surrounded by the majesty of the desert hills, with no living being to keep him company but the wild beasts whose haunts He had invaded, attacked in every possible way, in every conceivable manner, by Satan, who endeavors, with all his devilish power and cunning, to hinder the work of redemption. But the Savior conquered, He routed the devil. And the Victor received the ministrations of the angels, the good spirits, who came to Him after the battle, whose service refreshed Him according to both body and soul. It was a spiritual crisis through which Jesus here passed while He resisted the temptation, both fierce and protracted. It is more than probable that the terrific strain of those days of ceaseless vigilance left Him as exhausted as in Gethsemane. When it was necessary for an angel to come and strengthen Him.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mar 1:12. Driveth Conveyeth.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mar 1:12-13 . See on Mat 4:1-11 ; Luk 4:1 ff.

] He drives, urges Him forth ; more graphic than the of Matthew and the of Luk 4:1 . The sense of force and urgency is implied also in Mat 9:38 . Observe the frequent use of the vividly realizing praesens historicus .

And He was there ( , see the critical remarks) in the desert (whither the Spirit had driven Him), i.e. in that region of the desert, during forty days, being tempted by Satan , a manifest difference of Mark (comp. also Luke) from Matthew, with whom it is not till after forty days that the temptations begin . Evasive interpretations are to be found in Krabbe, Ebrard, and others.

] and He was with the wild beasts . This is usually [51] taken as merely a graphic picture (according to de Wette: “a marvellous contrast” to the angels) of the awful solitude (Virg. Aen. iii. 646, and see Wetstein in loc. ); but how remote would such a poetic representation be from the simple narrative! No, according to Mark, Jesus is to be conceived as really surrounded by the wild beasts of the desert . He is threatened in a twofold manner; Satan tempts Him, and the wild beasts encompass Him. The typical reference, according to which Christ is held to appear as the renewer of Paradise (Gen 1:26 ; Usteri in the Stud. u. Krit. 1834, p. 789; Gfrrer, Olshausen, comp. Bengel, and also Baur, Evang. pp. 540, 564; Hilgenfeld, Evang. p. 126; Schenkel, Holtzmann), is not indicated by anything in the text, and is foreign to it. The desert and the forty days remind us of Moses (Exo 24:18 ; Exo 34:28 ; Deu 9:9 ; Deu 9:18 ), not of Adam .

] The article denotes the category.

] There is no occasion at all, from the connection in Mark, to understand this of the ministering with food , as in Matthew; nor does the expression presuppose the representation of Matthew (Weiss). On the contrary, we must simply abide by the view that, according to Mark, is meant the help which gives protection against Satan and the wild beasts . There is in this respect also a difference from Matthew, that in the latter Gospel the angels do not appear until after the termination of the temptations.

The narrative of Christ’s temptation (regarding it, see on Mat 4:11 , Remark) appears in Mark in its oldest, almost still germinal, form. It is remarkable, indeed, that in the further development of the evangelic history (in Matthew and Luke) the wonderful element (which, according to Hilgenfeld, merely serves to colour and embellish the meagre extract), should have remained unnoticed. But the entire interest attached itself to Satan and to his anti-Messianic agency. The brevity [52] with which Mark relates the temptation, and which quite corresponds [53] to the still undeveloped summary beginning of the tradition , is alleged by Baur to proceed from the circumstance that with Mark the matter still lay outside of the historical sphere. Against this we may decisively urge the very fact that he narrates it at all, and places the . earlier. Comp. Kstlin, p. 322.

[51] So also von Engelhardt ( de Jesu Christi tentatione , Dorp. 1858, p. 5).

[52] For the idea that . . . . is only the closing sentence of an originally longer narration (Weisse, Evangelienfr. p. 163) is fanciful. Only the short, compact account is in harmony with all that surrounds it. Weisse supposes that something has dropped out also after ver. 5 or 6, and after ver. 8.

[53] How awkwardly Mark would here have epitomized, if he had worked as an epitomizer! How, in particular, would he have left unnoticed the rich moral contents of the narrative in Matthew and Luke! Schleiermacher and de Wette reproach him with doing so. Comp. also Bleek.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

(12) And immediately the spirit drives him into the wilderness. (13) And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

I refer the Reader to the observations made on CHRIST’s temptations in Mat 4:3-11 . And in addition to what is there offered, I would just beg to say, that very sweet are the consolations every child of GOD may draw, and indeed ought to draw, from those exercises of JESUS, when, at any time, brought under peculiar trials of his own. If the SON of GOD, when dwelling upon earth in sub stance of our flesh, was with the wild beasts, as well as tempted forty days of Satan, surely none of the members of his mystical body can wonder at their habitation and their exercises. And what can console a member of CHRIST’s mystical body, under the sharpest conflicts, equal to the assurance, that JESUS, in our flesh, was all this, and more; purposely that he might be the better suited to ad minister relief to all the trials of his people. And while as GOD, his divine nature enabled him both to know and provide a largeness equal to all that might be needed for their relief, as man, his human nature gave him a fellow-feeling, that the mercies he imparted should be so loving and similar as one man is to another. The HOLY GHOST has said as much, and infinitely more, when by his servant we are told; for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Heb 2:18 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XX

THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

Harmony pages 16-17 and Mat 4:1-11 ; Mar 1:12-13 ; Luk 4:1-13 .

The theme of this chapter is Satan’s first temptation of Jesus, our Lord. The lesson is found on pages 16-17 of the Harmony. There are three historians of the great event: Mat 4:1-11 ; Mar 1:12-13 ; Luk 4:1-13 . Following closely the text, let us note these general observations.

(1) All the historians agree on five express particulars and one implication, to wit:

The temptation of our Lord immediately follows his baptism, in which the Father audibly proclaimed him as his Son, and the Spirit visibly accredited, anointed, and endued him as the Messiah. So that the temptation is hell’s prompt response to heaven’s challenge in the inauguration.

Our Lord was Spirit-guided to meet the issues of the conflict.

The scene of the battle was “in the wilderness.”

The time of the struggle was “forty days.”

The tempter was Satan himself.

The implication is clear that no human being stood with Jesus. On the contrary, Mark adds: “He was with the wild beasts.”

(2) Matthew and Luke agree: In expressing the Spirit guidance as a leading “led of the Spirit.” But Mark expresses it as a propulsion “driven of the Spirit,” while Luke adds he was “full of the Spirit.”

He fasted throughout the forty days and afterward hungered.

In the consummation Satan visibly appeared and verbally submitted three special temptations, though Luke reverses

Matthew’s order of the last two.

Satan commenced two of these special temptations with the phrase, “If thou art the Son of God,” showing his knowledge of the Father’s avowal at the baptism.

Jesus triumphed over Satan in them all.

In achieving this victory, Jesus used only the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, quoting from Deuteronomy only.

Satan also quoted Scripture.

Then Satan left him. But Matthew adds that Satan left because Jesus recognizes his adversary and peremptorily dismissed him, “Get thee hence, Satan,” and Luke adds he left him only “for a season,” so it was not the final battle.

Matthew and Mark agree that when Satan left him “angels came and ministered unto him,” meaning, at least, that they supplied him with food and encouraged him. Thus three worlds were interested in the great conflict.

(4) Mark implies that in some form the temptation lasted throughout the forty days, which Luke seems to confirm by saying, “When Satan had completed every temptation.” From this implication it follows that the form of the temptation up to the culmination when Jesus hungered was by mental suggestion only, Satan holding himself invisible, but when Jesus was faint with hunger, then, as Matthew and Luke agree, he appeared visibly and submitted audibly the three great special temptations.

Thus face to face, the two great warring personalities conducted the verbal duel and spiritual wrestling. This is evident from our Lord’s recognition of his adversary and his peremptory dismissal of him by name, “Get thee hence, Satan.” We need not stagger at Mark’s implication when we reflect how easy it is for one spirit, by direct impact, to impress another, chough the one impressed may not be conscious of it, nor when we consider how many of what we consider our own thoughts are not self-originated, but suggestions from without. Bunyan represents his Pilgrim, when passing through the valley of the shadow of death, as being horrified at curses, slimy thoughts, and blasphemies in his mind, which he supposed were his own, whereas, they were suggestions from without by invisible whispering demons. The capital point is that our Lord was tempted in both forms first for many days by invisible external suggestions; second, when Apollyon, as in the case of Bunyan’s Pilgrim, visibly, audibly, palpably, horribly, and suddenly came upon him in his weakest hour, straddled across his narrow way, and buried his fiery darts in rapid succession.

(5) We should carefully note, as illustrative of the value of harmonic study of the testimony of several witnesses, the special contribution of each historian. We see the force of Matthew’s “Get thee hence, Satan” and Mark’s “driven of the Spirit,” and his implication of continuous temptation, and Luke’s “full of the Spirit,” and especially his “left him for a season.”

(6) The Greek word rendered “tempt” means “to try, prove, or test.” The moral character of the “testing” depends upon the object and methods. If the object be to incite or to entice to sin, or the means be guile, flattery, lying, indeed any form of deception that would turn the tempted one from God and appeal to lower motives, then it is bad, whether coming from Satan or from his subordinates. But if the object be to honorably ascertain or prove character by lawful methods, or to fairly develop and discipline the inexperienced soul, then it is good. We may lawfully prove or test God himself in any way appointed by him whether of promise or precept. We may sinfully tempt him by creating situations not appointed by him and then claiming his help.

In the sense of enticing to sin, God tempts no man. In the sense of proving his people, he is always tempting us, as he did Abraham. In his providence he often permits us to be tested with evil intent by Satan, as in the cases of Job and Peter. In this providential permission to Satan there are always great limitations.

We are never tempted in a good sense nor allowed to be tempted in an evil sense beyond our ability to bear or to resist. And always the decision and the responsibility are upon the tempted one.

He himself must yield in order to fall. The words of James and Paul are pertinent: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin; and the sin when it is full grown, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:12-15 ). “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it” (1Co 10:13 ). Our English word “tempt” once had both the good and evil senses of the Greek word, but now is limited to the evil sense.

(7) The exact site of the temptation in the wilderness has never been determined. It is quite probable that on this point the Scriptures are designedly silent, as in the case of the burial place of Moses, to hedge against superstitious pilgrimages and shrines. If it be lawful to venture on conjecture, I would suggest the wilderness of the Arabian peninsula, for these reasons:

There is a strong scriptural parallel between our Lord and Israel as a nation.

Israel, as a nation, was not only tempted and fell in this Arabian wilderness, but also there evilly tempted God.

There is a correspondence between their forty years and Christ’s forty days.

There both Moses and Elijah “fasted forty days.”

All of our Lord’s quotations ‘in his temptation are from the Pentateuch, word fruitage of Israel’s wilderness life.

As the forty years wilderness life and the wilderness words quoted by our Lord prepared God’s son, Israel, for the national life, so this forty days fasting and triumph over Satan’s temptations prepared his Son, Jesus, for his great lifework of Israel’s redemption.

Before Paul enters his great work for the salvation of the Gentiles it was necessary that there should be a period of seclusion for meditation, for receiving his gospel, for settling great questions between himself alone and God on the one hand, and the devil on the other hand. He says, “I conferred not with flesh and blood went not to Jerusalem but I went into Arabia.” Evidently not to preach, but under the shadow of Sinai where the Law was given, there in the light of the gospel to gain that view of the Law so powerfully set forth in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans. Why not, then if we must guess follow these analogies and this fitness, and suppose that this was the wilderness site of Christ’s temptation, returning from which to deliver his marvelous Sermon on the Mount, which, after all, is but the highest spiritual exposition of the Law?

(8) Can a man do without food forty days? It has been objected against the credibility of the Bible, that it represents Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasting forty days. Within my own memory this fact has been demonstrated scientifically. A Dr. Tanner, after a careful preparation, did, in the presence of competent witnesses, fast forty days. He ate no food. The only thing he allowed himself was occasionally to rinse his mouth with water, and very rarely to swallow just a little of the water. He was not sustained by the high spiritual exaltation of Moses, Elijah, and our Lord.

(9) From Christ’s fast of forty days two new words, or institutions, have been derived:

Etymologically, our English word “quarantine.” The wholly unscriptural “forty days of Lent” preceding the equally unscriptural festival of Easter observed by Romanists and Episcopalians. The word “Easter” in the common version of Act 12:4 is simply the Jewish Passover and is so rendered in our best English versions.

(10) Was this a real temptation of our Lord? In other words, was it a case of “Not able to sin” (non posse peccare) or “able not to sin” (posse non peccare)1 This is a vital question and must be squarely answered. The temptation of our Lord was not only real, but was an epoch in his own life and in the history of the race. It was no sham battle.

The teaching of the Scriptures is express and manifold. It was not the essential deity of our Lord on trial, but his humanity, and also in an emphatic sense his representative humanity. There is no stronger proof that the Messiah was really a man and had a human soul than his susceptibility to temptation and his successful resistance to it as a man. This becomes the more obvious when we consider the later battles with Satan in Gethsemane and on the cross, to which this wilderness temptation was no more than a preliminary skirmish. The true answer to this question lies in the answer to a broader question: Why should Jesus be tempted?

We must fairly answer this broader question:

He was the Second Adam the new race-head (1Co 15:45-49 ; Rom 5:12-21 ). “The first Adam was tempted in a garden full of permitted fruits, and by his fall converted it into a desert. The Second Adam was tempted in a desert, faint with the hunger of a forty days’ fast, and by his victory converted it into a garden.” The new race head was on probation like the first.

In the highest sense he was Israel, God’s Son: “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” He was Isaiah’s “Servant of the Lord,” so marvelously foreshadowed in the last twenty-seven chapters of that book. National Israel failed under temptation in every probation under the theocracy established by Moses, under the monarchy established by Samuel, under the hierarchy established by Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, culminating in its rejection of the Messiah. If “all Israel is to be saved” as taught by Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Paul, then this “Son which God called out of Egypt” must triumph over real temptation.

He could not become man’s vicarious substitute in death and judgment unless on real probation from birth to death, he himself was demonstrated to be “a lamb without spot or blemish, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” “For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2:10 ).

He could not destroy the work of the devil and rescue “the lawful captives,” “the prey of the terrible one,” “except as he shared the common lot of humanity.” “Since then the children are sharers in the flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:14-15 ).

Without enduring real temptation in his humanity he could not become a sympathizing and efficient high priest: “Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a faithful and merciful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Heb 2:17-18 ). “Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that has been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need” (Heb 4:14-16 ).

He could not seat humanity on the throne of the universe as King of kings and Lord of lords except by emptying himself of heavenly glory, laying aside the form of God and assuming the form of a slave, and when found in the fashion of a man he should through every temptation be perfect in obedience to every precept and submissive to every penal sanction of the Law (See Phi 2:6-11 ).

He could not, as the Son of Man, become the judge of the world except he had triumphed in real temptation as a man. (Note carefully Joh 5:22 ; Joh 5:27 ; Act 17:31 ; Mat 25:31 f.) Not otherwise as enduring temptation could he become an example to his people in their hours of trial. (See Phi 2:5 ; 1Pe 2:21-23 ; 1Pe 4:1 .)

In assigning these reasons for Christ’s real temptation we have not limited ourselves to Satan’s first temptation of our Lord.

(11) On the subject of the temptation, what may we say of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained?

Paradise Regained is very inferior, as a literary epic, to Paradise Lost.

The Devil of Paradise Lost is a far grander personage than the Devil of Paradise Regained. Says Robert Burns, “The Devil is the hero of Paradise Lost, but in Paradise Regained he is a sneak nibbling at the heel of Jesus.” In neither have we a true portrait of Satan.

In closing his Paradise Regained at the preliminary skirmish between Jesus and Satan, he virtually acknowledges his failure to master his great theme.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS Reserving the discussions of the three special temptations of Jesus to the next chapter, we close the present discussion by citing from Dr. Broadus’ great treatment of this theme in his commentary these quotations:

“Christ hungered as a man, and fed the hungry as God. He was hungry as man, and yet he is the Bread of Life. He was a-thirst as a man, and yet He says, Let him that is athirst come to me and drink. He was weary) and is our Rest. . . He pays tribute, and is a King; he is called a devil, and casts out devils; prays, and hears prayer; weeps, and dries our tears; is sold for thirty pieces of silver, and redeems the world; is led as a sheep to the slaughter, and is the Good Shepherd” Wordsworth.

“Observe (1) that the first word spoken by Christ in His ministerial office is an assertion of the authority of the scripture. (2) That He opposeth the word of God as the properest encounterer against the words of the devil. (3) That He allegeth scripture as a thing undeniable and uncontrollable by the devil himself. (4) That He maketh the scripture His rule, though He had the fullness of the Spirit above measure” Lightfoot.

“The devil may tempt us to fall, but he cannot make us fall; he may persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down” Wordsworth. “True faith never tries experiments upon the promises, being satisfied that they will be fulfilled as occasion may arise. We have no right to create danger, and expect providence to shield us from it. The love of adventure, curiosity as to the places and procedure as vice, the spirit of speculation in business, the profits of some calling attended by moral perils often lead men to tempt God. It is a common form of sin” Broadus.

“The successive temptations may be ranked as temptations over-confidence, and over-confidence, and other confidence, The first, to take things impatiently into our hands; the second, to throw things presumptuously on God’s hands; the third, to transfer things disloyally into other hands than God’s” Griffith.

QUESTIONS

1. Who were the historians of Satan’s first temptation of Christ?

2. In what particulars do the historians agree?

3. In what particulars do Matthew and Luke agree?

4. In what particulars do Matthew and Mark agree?

5. What is the strong implication of the continuance of the temptation throughout the forty days by Mark?

6. What was the form of the temptation during the forty days? Explain and illustrate its possibilities.

7. In what part of the temptation does Satan appear visibly face to face with and tempt and wrestle with Christ?

8. What is the value of harmonic study illustrated in the special contributions of each historian?

9. What is the meaning of our Greek word rendered “tempt”?

10. Upon what does the moral character of the tempting depend?

11. How may we lawfully in one case, and unlawfully in another case, tempt God himself?

12. Give Scripture proof that in the bad sense of the word God tempts no man, and proof that in the good sense of the word he does tempt man.

13. Give proof that he does, under great limitations, permit Satan to tempt us in an evil sense

14. When tempted by Satan, upon whom do the decision & responsibility rest?

15. Cite the pertinent words of James and Paul.

16. To what sense is our English word “tempt” now limited?

17. Why, probably, are the Scriptures silent on the exact spot of the temptation in the wilderness?

18. If we venture on a suggestion of the site, give the reasons, in order of the wilderness of Arabia as the place.

19. Prove scripturally and scientifically that a man can fast forty days.

20. How is our English word “quarantine” derived etymologically?

21. What two institutions observed by Romanists and Episcopalians are without scriptural warrant?

22. What is the meaning of the Greek word rendered “Easter” in the common version at Act 12:4 ?

23. Was the temptation of our Lord a real one? In other words, was it a case of “Not able to sin” or of “Able not to sin”?

24. Give, in order, the great reasons why Christ should be really tempted.

25. Concerning the temptation, what may we say of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained?

26. In what commentary may we find the most critical and rational treatment of the temptation of our Lord?

27. Cite, in order, Dr. Broadus’ quotations of practical observations from Wordsworth, Lightfoot, Broadus himself, and Griffith.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

Ver. 12. The Spirit driveth him ] That is, suddenly carrieth him (who was most willing to go) as that legal scape goat, Lev 16:8-10 , into the wilderness, and there permitted him to be tempted, but supported him under the temptation, that he came safe off again. Sancti etiam nequaquam sui iuris sunt, sed toti spiritus cedunt imperio. The saints are at God’s beck and check.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

12, 13. ] TEMPTATION OF JESUS. Mat 4:1-11 .Luk 4:1-13Luk 4:1-13 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

12 , 13. ] = Matt., = Luke. It is a more forcible word than either of these to express the mighty and cogent impulse of the Spirit.

= . Matt., Luke: see note, Mat 4:1 .

It seems to have been permitted to the evil one to tempt our Lord during the whole of the 40 days , and of this we have here, as in Luke, an implied assertion. The additional intensity of temptation at the end of that period, is expressed in Matt. by the tempter coming to Him becoming visible and audible. Perhaps the being with the beasts may point to one form of temptation, viz. that of terror , which was practised on Him: but of the inward trials who may speak?

., as . generic.

There is nothing here to contradict the fast spoken of in Matt. and Luke, as De W. maintains. Our Evangelist perhaps implies it in the last words of Mar 1:13 . It is remarkable that those Commentators who are fondest of maintaining that Mark constructed his narrative out of those of Matt. and Luke (De W., Meyer) are also most keen in pointing out what they call irreconcileable differences between him and them. No apportionment of these details to the various successive parts of the temptation is given by our Evangelist. They are simply stated to have happened, compendiously.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mar 1:12-13 . The temptation (Mat 4:1-11 ; Luk 4:1-13 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mar 1:12 . : historic present, much used in Mk. with lively effect; introduces a new situation. The first thing the Spirit does ( ) is to drive Jesus into the wilderness, the expression not implying reluctance of Jesus to go into so wild a place (Weiss), but intense preoccupation of mind. Allowing for the weakening of the sense in Hellenistic usage (H. C.), it is a very strong word, and a second instance of Mk.’s realism : Jesus thrust out into the inhospitable desert by force of thought . De Wette says that the ethical significance of the temptation is lost in Mk.’s meagre narrative, and that it becomes a mere marvellous adventure. I demur to this. The one word tells the whole story, speaks as far as may be the unspeakable . Mt. and Lk. have tried to tell us what happened, but have they given us more than a dim shadow of the truth?

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 1:12-13

12Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. 13And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Mar 1:12-13 This account of the temptation of Jesus is so brief compared to Mat 4:1-11 and Luk 4:1-13. In these accounts the purpose of the temptation is clear: how would Jesus use His Messianic powers to accomplish His redemptive task (cf. James Stewart, The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ, pp. 39-46)? But what could Mark’s brief account mean? It is possible that Peter saw this event as a symbol of Jesus’ defeat of evil (i.e., by the empowering of the Spirit), a foreshadowing of the Passion Week. But this is only speculation. The text itself gives no clue except the event’s timingjust after Jesus’ (1) enduing by the Spirit and (2) affirmation by the Father, but before His public ministry. This is one of the three events mentioned before Jesus’ public ministry ([1] John’s ministry; [2] John’s baptism; and [3] Satan’s temptation).

Mar 1:12 “Immediately” See note at Mar 1:10.

“the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness” The term “impelled” is the strong term “throw out” (often used of exorcisms, cf. Mar 1:34; Mar 1:39; Mar 3:15; Mar 3:22-23; Mar 6:13; Mar 7:26; Mar 9:18; Mar 9:28; Mar 9:38). The Son’s temptation was by the agency of the evil one, but instigated by the Spirit (cf. Mat 4:1-11; Luk 4:1-13). It was God’s will that Jesus be tested! I would like to recommend two good books on this topic, The Life and Teaching of Jesus by James S. Stewart and Between God and Satan by Helmut Thielicke.

In the OT the wilderness was a time of testing for Israel, but also a time of intimate fellowship. The rabbis called the wilderness wandering period the honeymoon between YHWH and Israel. Elijah and John the Baptist grew up in the wilderness. It was a place of seclusion for training, meditation, and preparation for active ministry. This period was crucial for Jesus’ preparation (cf. Heb 5:8).

Mar 1:13 “forty days” This is used both literally and figuratively in the Bible. It denotes a long indeterminate period of time (i.e., longer than a lunar cycle, but shorter than a seasonal change).

SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE

“was being tempted” This is an imperfect passive periphrastic linked to an imperfect active “to be” verb. The term “tempt” (peiraz) has the connotation of “to test with a view toward destruction.” From the first class conditional sentences in Matthew 4 (cf. Mar 4:3; Mar 4:6) we learn that the temptation was over how to use His Messianic power to accomplish God’s redemptive will.

SPECIAL TOPIC: GREEK TERMS FOR TESTING AND THEIR CONNOTATIONS

“by Satan” The Bible repeatedly asserts a personal, supernatural force of evil.

SPECIAL TOPIC: SATAN

“the wild beasts” This is possibly a simple reference to an uninhabited area. However, because wild beasts are used as metaphors for or names of the demonic in the OT (cf. NEB) this could also refer to a place of demonic activity (cf. Psa 22:12-13; Psa 22:16; Psa 22:21; Isa 13:21-22; Isa 34:11-15).

These wild beasts could also be a continuing allusion to the new exodus, the new age of restored fellowship between mankind and the animals (cf. Isa 11:6-9; Isa 65:25; Hos 2:18). The Bible often describes the new age as a restoration of the Garden Eden (cf. Genesis 2; Revelation 21-22). The original image of God in mankind (cf. Gen 1:26-27) is restored through Jesus’ sacrificial death. Full fellowship, which existed before the Fall (cf. Genesis 3), is possible again.

“angels were ministering to Him” This is an Imperfect tense which means (1) ongoing action in past time or (2) the beginning of an activity in past time. Angels ministered to (1) Elijah in the wilderness in the same way (i.e., providing food, cf. 1Ki 18:7-8). This may imply Jesus as the new prophetic voice (cf. Deu 18:18-22) and (2) Israel in the wilderness, so too, to Jesus while in the wilderness. This may have implied Jesus as the new Moses paralleling his baptism and testing (cf. 1Co 10:1-13).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

immediately. A word characteristic of this Gos pel, setting forth no it does the activities of “Jehovah’s Servant”. The Greek words which it represents (in this and other renderings of eutheus and euthus) are used (in Mark) twenty-six times directly of the Lord and His acts; while in Matthew they occur only five times, in Luke once, and in John twice.

driveth Him = driveth Him out. Divine supplemental information as to the character of the leading of Matthew and Luke.

into. Greek eis. App-104. Not the same word as in Mar 1:16.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

12, 13.] TEMPTATION OF JESUS. Mat 4:1-11. Luk 4:1-13.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mar 1:12. , immediately) So, in the case of the sons of God, temptation is wont speedily to follow after great and striking testimonies as to their state [their standing as accepted of God].-, driveth out) The present.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Mar 1:12-13

3. TEMPTATION OF JESUS

Mar 1:12-13

(Mat 4:1-11; Luk 4:1-13)

12 And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness.–Mark uses a stronger term than any of the other writers. Matthew says he was “led up of the Spirit.” (Mat 4:1.) Mark shows more clearly that it was not at the volition of Jesus that he entered into the temptation. That he was led by the Spirit to be tempted shows that he was subjected to temptation in accordance with a deliberate purpose, but a purpose not his own. It was not of voluntary entrance into temptation, but of being divinely led into it for a special divine purpose. God desires the faith and loyalty of all his children and servants to be tried and approved before he can commit high trust to them. Jesus was entering on the highest work that pertained to earth–that of rescuing the world from the rule of the devil and of bringing it back to its loyalty to God, and to its proper and harmonious relations to the universe, and of adjusting all the forces and operations of the world to the workings of the divine order. They had all been disturbed and broken by the rule of the devil on earth. Christ had come to rescue the world from the devil. The devil naturally sought to induce him to turn from his purpose and to enter his service.

13 And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan;– [Whether this fast was entered upon voluntarily to bring him into a state of close and holy communion with God, and to give him spiritual strength for the temptation, or whether it was the devil’s work to weaken him bodily to make him an easy prey to the tempter, we have no means of determining. He fasted forty days, so had Moses done twice (Exo 34:28; Deu 9:9), and once Elijah (1Ki 19:8). Possibly this was the limit of human endurance, that it was selected by or for each of them. Some have thought they were miraculously sustained. If so, the effect of the fast would have been counteracted. But at the close of the forty days he hungered–the pangs of hunger were intense, the bodily powers were exhausted, and all fleshly strength of will, he was at the mercy of the tempter. But his spirit by the fast had been probably drawn into closer union with God, and had grown the stronger. Spiritual power was and is gained by fasting and prayer. “This kind goeth not out save by prayer and fasting,” explained Jesus when his disciples could not cast out a demon. (Mat 17:19.)]

and he was with the wild beasts;–He had no comfort from and no association with man. His only earthly companions were wild beasts, which were more likely to annoy and hurt him than in any way to help and comfort him.

and the angels ministered unto him.–The angelic world is represented. No human being was with him, yet he was not alone. Angels were present. Angels communed with Christ in his glory of transfiguration, sustained him in the anguish of the garden, watched over him at the tomb; they thronged the earth at his coming, and hovered in the air at the hour of his ascension. We could not imagine our Lord in the wilderness without angelic love. Twice has the destiny of the world been suspended on the action of a single person, and each of these was made an object of especial temptation by our cunning adversary. The first Adam fell and the race fell with him. The second Adam defeated the tempter and redeemed the race from the fall. He won his victory by familiarity with the word of God, coupled with his loyalty to the will of the Father.

[It is a part of the order of God that every servant of God shall be tried and tested. This means that only what is worthy and well-approved shall enter into the eternal home of God. The testing, the proving of persons, is temptation in the better sense of that word. All suffering, all self-denial for right is temptation. “My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?” (Heb 12:5-7.) Jesus was tried and tempted that he might prove himself worthy to be the Son of God, and that he might fully sympathize with man whom he came to rescue and redeem. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that bath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15)]

It seems to our wisdom needful that man should be tempted and his weakness shaken to call out the character of God. If we had no trials, temptations, and weaknesses we would never know good from evil. If our fellow men never sinned against us, were never weak, helpless, and in distress, our own better natures would never be brought out and strengthened. If man had not sinned there would have been no occasion to call out the mercy, love, wisdom, and to prove the excellencies and glory of God; and we would be in ignorance of the qualities of the divine character that are most helpful to us and that draw us to God and call out the best elements of man. The mistakes, errors, misfortunes, weaknesses, and wants of the child call out the love and tenderness of the parent. So man, a weak, erring sinner, calls out the love of God, shows who and what he is, and excites man’s love to him. “We love, because he first loved us.”

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The Temptation

And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.Mar 1:12-13.

These two verses contain St. Marks account of the temptation of Jesus. He does not describe the three separate acts of temptation which are given both in St. Matthew and in St. Luke. But he has some features of his own. They are expressed in the words immediately, driven, wild beasts.

Altogether St. Marks description of the Temptation contains five parts, which may be considered in order

1. The Driving of the Spirit

2. The Wilderness

3. Satan

4. The Wild Beasts

5. The Ministering Angels

I

The Driving of the Spirit

And straightway the Spirit driveth him.

Our classical scholars have a recognised rule that they observe as often as they are engaged upon an ancient manuscript. The rule is to this effect: that the more difficult any reading is, the more likely it is to be the true reading. Now each of the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, has his own peculiar reading in the way he narrates to us the manner of our Lords entrance upon His time of temptation. And since that threefold variation of theirs allows, and indeed invites me to take my free choice among those three readings of theirs, I have no hesitation, for my part, in preferring the reading of Mark before the other two. For if his reading is at first sight the most difficult to receive, afterwards it becomes the most lifelike, the most arresting, the most suggestive, of the three offered readings. And all that goes to prove to me that Marks reading is the true and original reading, and that the other two readings have, so to speak, been toned down from it. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.1 [Note: Alexander Whyte.]

i. Straightway

1. Immediately (or straightway, R.V.) is one of St. Marks great words. He uses it forty-one times, while St. Matthew uses it nineteen times, and St. Luke only seven times. Matthew here uses then, Luke simply and. Each Evangelist, however, has some word of connection.

2. Immediately after what? Immediately after the Baptism. Now at the Baptism two things had occurredthe Spirit as a dove had descended upon Jesus, and a voice had come from heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. These experiences were inseparable, but they may be examined separately.

(1) The voice recognised Jesus as the Son of God in the sense in which the Messiah is spoken about as Gods Son in the Old Testament. That is to say, there is complete understanding between the Father and the Son, the fellowship of love. And that fellowship is not merely the emotion of love. The understanding between Father and Son is directed to the work which Jesus as Messiah is to do.

(2) Then follows the endowment of the Holy Spirit. It is new and unparalleled, just because the fellowship is new and unparalleled. And it is an endowment for the accomplishment of the work which the Father has given Him to do. The first energy of the Spirit, however, is not seen in the accomplishment of some Messianic act. If Jesus is conscious of being the Son of God, He is also conscious of being a son of man. And like all the sons of men, He must be tested. He must be tested as a man. He must face a mans temptations, and stand or fall. Before He can go forth as the Messiah, that is to say, as the Saviour of the world, it must be made evident to Himself and to all the world that He Himself does not need to be saved. And straightway the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness to be tempted.

Why does the temptation come so soon after the blessing? Just to show that it is the sequel of the blessing. What was that in Jesus with which the Father was well pleased? It was the vision of what was to come, the vision of where the Spirit would drive Him. The Father saw that the dove-like peace which had fallen on the Son of Man would make Him fit for the wilderness; He blessed Him for what He would be able to bear. The shining on the banks of Jordan was the hour of His adoption, but the wilderness was the hour of His inheritance.1 [Note: George Matheson.]

Now understand me wellit is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.2 [Note: Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road.]

When you have been at prayer, when you have made new resolves, when you have felt the uplifting of Divine grace, when you have taken the Blessed Sacrament,then beware! For very likely Satan will try to upset you. It will be a grand success for him to take you by surprise and rob you of the good you have got. One has read of the old highway robbers, how they went to work. They always watched for a man who was coming along with plenty of money upon him, a man who had been to market and had been receiving payments.3 [Note: E. L. Hicks.]

There are three significant years in the life of St. Paul of which we are told nothing. He beholds the heavenly vision, which suddenly stands like a pillar of fire between his past and his future; in Damascus he learns in detail the truth which from that moment changes his whole life. And what does he do then? He goes into Arabia. He takes himself out of the sight of all men, whether Jews or Christians, out of the hearing of all human voices, into the bleak desert, into the land of rocks and solitude. And there he stays three years. In the history of his life the space of three years is blank, totally blank. So far as we know, St. Paul never spoke of that experience: he never told what happened. But we may guess. He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. This new truth which summons you to contradict all that you have said and stood for, which calls you to a career of poverty and difficulty and tragedyis it true? May there not be some mistake about it? And if it is true, what does it mean? What does it mean for you? The apostle went into the desert to meet the devil; and the devil asked him three questions. And it took the apostle three years to answer them. That was his temptation in the wilderness. First, the heavenly vision on the Damascus road; then the long contention with doubt and desire and the devil in Arabia.1 [Note: George Hodges.]

ii. The Spirit

The Authorized Version, using a small s at spirit, suggests that it was some evil spirit that drove Him into the wilderness. And it has been deliberately maintained that Satan himself was the driving power. Others have suggested some man or men under the influence of an evil spirit, one of His disciples, perhaps, as Peter or Judas, or even some member of His own family. But without doubt the Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God, with which He had just been uniquely endowed. The temptation is the first and necessary step in the fulfilment of the purpose for which Jesus had come into the world.

It is not true to say that the devil arranged the temptation. Temptation here is in the Divine plan and purpose. Jesus went into the wilderness under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to find the devil. My own conviction is that if the devil could have escaped that day, he would have done so. It is a very popular fallacy that the enemy drove Christ into a corner and tempted Him. But the whole Divine story reveals that the facts were quite otherwise. Gods perfect Man, led by the Spirit, or as Mark in his own characteristic and forceful way expresses it, driven by the Spirit, passes down into the wilderness, and compels the adversary to stand out clear from all secondary causes, and to enter into direct combat. This is not the devils method. He ever puts something between himself and the man he would tempt. He hides his own personality wherever possible. To our first parents he did not suggest that they should serve him, but that they should please themselves. Jesus dragged him from behind everything, and put him in front, that for once, not through the subtlety of a second cause, but directly, he might do his worst against a pure soul.2 [Note: G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of the Christ, 133.]

The initiative in this temptation was not taken by Satan; it was taken by the Holy Spirit. He displayed masterly generalship. He did not wait until the tempter came, but obliged the tempter to come. He forced the fighting. It was a fine bit of generalship. We ought to follow His lead far more there. Most of us, may I say, wait until we are tempted, and then, half-scared, seek for help. But we should always pray ahead, and take the ground before the Evil One can come. That is what the wondrous Holy Spirit does here. He forestalls the Evil One.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]

At one time Mr. Moody was on an ocean liner, in a great storm, and they were sure the boat was going to the bottom. They were all praying; everybody prays in a bad storm, you know. A gentleman has told that he went to one of the decks, and to his great surprise he saw Mr. Moody standing on the deck, not in the prayer meeting down below, but standing quietly looking out over the raging waters. And he said, Mr. Moody, arent you down in the prayer meeting? And in his quiet way Mr. Moody said, Oh! I am prayed up. There is a marvellous generalship in praying ahead.2 [Note: Ibid.]

1. The temptation of Jesus was part of Gods deliberate plan and purpose. So is the temptation of every man. Yet no man can say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. Nor does the fact that God ordains the temptation relieve the instrument of his responsibility. After the crucifixion of Christ, Peter charged the Jews with having taken Him and by wicked hands having crucified and slain Him, although in the same sentence he said that He had been delivered to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.

And this distinction between the ordainer and the agent of temptation is not one of words. For not only does the withdrawal of anything, save positive sin, from the sphere of Gods will, affect the integrity of His moral government of the race, and relax the hold which God has on the progress of human affairs, but the teaching of Scripture is to be reconciled with itself only by bearing in mind that God may ordain a moral discipline for the soul, of which it is impossible He should be the instrument and immediate cause. We are told, for example, by St. James, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man; and yet we are equally told, It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham; and if it be said that this only means that God did try Abraham, the difficulty is removed but a step further back, for trial is always temptation, just as temptation is always trial. The true solution of the apparent contradiction seems to be suggested by the typical temptation of Christ, that whilst God Himself never does offer, and never can offer, personal seduction or inducement to sin to the soulthe supposition itself is utterly blasphemousyet God may permit, and may will, that the soul should pass through temptation as the only means of that purifying and strengthening discipline to which we referred in the first chapter, as the chief object and result of all moral trial of every kind. And hence it is that the same temptation may be said, from one point of view, to come from God, and from another, to come from the devil.

Perhaps the most striking illustration of this truth to be found in Scripture is the numbering of the people by David. It is said, in the Book of Samuel, to have been the result of God moving David against Israel; whilst in the parallel history of the Book of Chronicles we read, And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.1 [Note: G. S. Barrett.]

Was the trial sore?

Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time!

Why comes temptation but for man to meet

And master and make crouch beneath his foot,

And so be pedestaled in triumph? Pray

Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!

Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold,

Lead such temptations by the head and hair,

Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight,

That so he may do battle and have praise!2 [Note: R. Browning, The Ring and the Book.]

2. But we have to be careful that we do not seek temptation, under the impression that it is Gods purpose for us, or that it is good for our growth in grace. We may not know what is Gods purpose for us. Let us rather pray, Lead us not into temptation, and remember that Christ did not enter into temptation of His own will, but was driven into it by the Spirit. All three Synoptists emphasise the fact that the temptation of Christ was the result of Divine compulsion and not self-sought. The Spirit led or drove Him into the wilderness. He who taught us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, did not court temptation Himself. So may we expect God to help to deliver us from evil and to emerge from the conflict victorious, if our temptations come to us, but not if we go to them.

Once, while William of Orange was laying siege to a town on the Continent, an officer ventured to go with a message to the spot where he was directing the operation of his gunners. When the message was delivered, and the answer to it received, he still lingered. Sir, said the Prince, do you know that every moment you stand here is at the risk of your life? I run no more risk, replied the officer, than your Highness. Yes, said the Prince, but my duty brings me here, and yours does not. In a few minutes a cannon-ball struck the officer dead. The Prince was untouched.1 [Note: C. Stanford.]

iii. Driven

The Spirit driveth him forth. Yet it was not some outside force. He had received the Spirit which now drove Him into the wilderness. It was a pressure from within, although it is not to be watered down into a mere desire of His own soul to be alone. It was that pressure of the Spirit of God, though here in larger, fuller measure, which drove the prophets to do their unwelcome duty and sent them to carry their burden. When Jesus sat down to speak in the synagogue of Nazareth, He applied the prophets words to Himself, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. he hath sent me.

Jesus was not driven forth in spite of His own will. H. J. C. Knight notices that Christ had to take account of four willsthe Fathers will, His own, the will of man, and the will of the devil.2 [Note: The Temptation of our Lord, 45.] The will of the devil He deliberately thwarted, and that on all occasions. The will of man He respected, drawing it by the bands of a man, which are the bands of love, but forcing it never. The will of the Father He made His own, bringing His own will into harmony with it.

But He had a will of His ownFather, if it be possible nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. He was driven forth by the Spirit, because that was the will of the Father. But in the wilderness, as in Gethsemane, He made the Fathers will His own.

There is only one knob to the door of a mans heart. That is on the inside. The tempter cannot get in unless the man within turns that knob and lets him in. And, be it remembered with greatest reverence, that our gracious God wont come in except by the mans free consent. Man is the battle-field. He decides which way the battle should go. No man can be whipped without his own consent. And every man may have victory, sweet and full, if he wants it.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]

O well for him whose will is strong!

He suffers, but he will not suffer long:

He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong:

For him nor moves the loud worlds random mock,

Nor all Calamitys hugest waves confound,

Who seems a promontory of rock,

That, compassd round with turbulent sound,

In middle ocean meets the surging shock,

Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crownd.2 [Note: Tennyson.]

iv. Driven to be Tempted

I. Why was Jesus driven forth to be tempted?

1. Because He was a man. Temptation is as inevitable to man as death. Terrible to all men is death, says Carlyle; from of old named king of terrors. But to some men at least the real king of terrors is not death, but temptation. Jesus was in all things made like unto his brethren (Heb 2:17).

To be human is to be tempted. It is a matter of fact, wherever you find a man you find a tempted being. Gods will has never been that we shall find it easy to do right and hard to do wrong. And the reasons lie in the nature of the case. For the making and training of moral beings, temptation is necessary. Virtue untried is no virtue; valour untested is no valour. Untempted virtue is at best what Milton calls a fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary. We are destined to gain moral strength and a developed manhood by the overcoming of trials, difficulties, temptations. As Milton further reminds us, Our sage and serious poet Spenser, describing true temperance under the guise of Guyon, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon and the bower of earthly bliss, that he may see and know and yet abstain.

The temptation was involved in the Incarnationit was necessary; it could not be avoided. That is purpose enough. If you meet a man in a steamer going to Europe, and ask him why he came to sea, he tells you what his business is in Europewhy he had to go there. The purpose of his going there is his purpose in crossing the sea. He could not do one without the other. And so we can well believe that the perfect holiness could not come into this wicked world to save us without coming to struggle with the sin of which the world is full. The Incarnation was a real Incarnation. Christ did not play at being made man. Into everything that really belongs to man He perfectly entered.1 [Note: Phillips Brooks.]

And so I live, you see,

Go through the world, try, prove, reject,

Prefer, still struggling to effect

My warfare; happy that I can

Be crossed and thwarted as a man,

Not left in Gods contempt apart,

With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart,

Tame in earths paddock, as her prize.2 [Note: R. Browning, Easter Day.]

2. He was tempted that we might know Him to be man, that we might recognise Him unmistakably as of ourselves, and take Him for an example. It is in temptation that we need His example most of all. And if He had not been a man in His temptation He would have been no example.

I believe it can be shown that these experiences so follow the lines of the generically human, of what is true for all men, and point the way to the solution of so many problems affecting human life universally, as to compel the conviction that this is, at least, one design behind the record of His career, namely, that it should exhibit once for all the central, archetypal human life in its victory over all incompleteness, and over all evil. This conviction is specially forced upon any one who ponders much on the story known as the Temptation of Jesus. Standing where it does in the record of His career, a rsum of the main elements in His soul-travail as He stood on the threshold of His lifes work, it reflects not His temptations only, but ours: setting forth, under the veil of parable, the universal human threshold fight, the multiform yet essentially threefold moral conflict which men everywhere must endure who would at the outset of their career place themselves in the path to true success.1 [Note: G. A. Johnston Ross.]

Sometimes we meet people of much piety and sweetness of character, who have lived quiet lives and gained much respect, but who do not carry with them a rebuke of sin, because sinners say, They have never been tempted. The poor, fallen woman sometimes says, as the worlds wife and daughter sweep by her with disdain, They would have been no better than I, had they lived as I have done. The thief thinks that magistrate and judge might have been in the dock with him, had they known what it was to be unable to get work and food. We look at the Lord Jesus, and say, Man was never tempted as He was tempted, and we hail Him as Saviour, not because Satan left Him alone, but because Satan assailed Him on every hand and was defeated.2 [Note: L. R. Rawnsley.]

Get thee hence, Satan! at His withering look

Hells tottering kingdom to its centre shook;

While from the myriad Angel hosts on high

Burst forth loud shouts of praise and victory.

Gainst man the fiend had tried his worst in vain

And hope for ruined man shone forth again.

Dismayed, undone, the baffled tempter fled,

In lowest hell to hide his bruised head;

Crippled his power, his reign of darkness oer,

The kingdoms of the world his own no more.

Yet not unscathed the Conqueror in the strife,

Who there had won for unborn millions life;

Crushed was the foe beneath His conquering tread,

But bruised the Victors heel by that foul head.

As Man, not God, He fought in that dark hour,

And braved alone the tempters utmost power;

The Womans Seed, the Virgins mighty Son,

As Man had fought, as Man the victory won;

Wielding that sword alone which man can wield,

Quenching the fiery darts with mans own shield.

And still as Man, with fasting faint and worn,

His inmost soul by that fierce conflict torn;

Alone He stands upon the mountain now,

Cold drops of anguish on His suffering brow,

Sadly foreshadowing that tremendous night,

When drops of blood should start in deadlier fight.

Alone? no, not alone, for swift draw near

Bright Angel forms, to strengthen and to cheer;

To minister to all His wants and woes,

And soothe His weary form in calm repose.1 [Note: Sophie F. F. Veitch.]

3. He was tempted in order that we might feel assured of His sympathy. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15).

Carlyle was at one time strongly tempted to give up striving for success in literature: No periodical editor wants me; no man will give me money for my work. Despicablest fears of coming to absolute beggary besiege me. His Sartor was pronounced clotted nonsense; but at this critical juncture he received a letter from some nameless Irishman, recognising its merit, and this one voice renewed Carlyles strength. One mortal, then, says I am not utterly wrong; blessings on him for it. Every one knows what the sympathy of Kadijah was to Muhammad, how all her life he set her first: She believed in me when none else would believe. In all the world I had but one friend, and she was that. This is part of the aid which Christs sympathy brings to us: He believes in us; when others shake their heads, and we ourselves are in despair, He tells us we may yet succeed.2 [Note: Marcus Dods.]

As Christs temptation was vicarious, and when He conquered He conquered for others besides Himself, so it is with us. There are men and women all around us who have to meet the same temptations that we are meeting. Will it help them or not to know that we have met them and conquered them? Will it help us or not to know that if we conquer the temptation we conquer not for ourselves only, but for them? Will it help the master of a great business house or not to know that if he resists the temptation to cheat on a large scale it will help every clerk at the counter to resist his petty temptation to his little fraud? Will it help a father to keep sober or not if he knows that in his victory over drink his sons victory becomes easier? The vicariousness of all life! There is not one of us who has not some one more or less remotely fastened to his acts, concerning whom he may say, as Christ said, For their sakes I sanctify myself.3 [Note: Phillips Brooks.]

The raw apprentice, who is trying his best, and finds a great deal in his work that is dull and difficult, is cheered at once if his foreman tells him, I have gone through it all, my lad, in my timeits the only way of getting a good training. Go on, and things will be easier soon. The youth in his teens, bewildered and surprised by the new and mysterious impulses that are surging up within him, confusing his conscience, engulfing his will, might be saved from years of sorrow by a word of sympathy from one older than himself. Why do not fathers speak frankly and calmly to their lads at that critical age, and assure them of their knowledge and their perfect sympathy? What a moral leverage it would confer, what a new power for victory!1 [Note: E. L. Hicks.]

Galahad is not the only hero of that medieval legend, called the Quest of the Holy Grail. It is told to the accompaniment of solemn music how Parsifal achieved the Grail. The most significant difference between the two is that Galahad wins with ease, but Parsifal with difficulty. Galahad is born good, and stays good, and never meets a champion who does him any serious hurt. On he goes, serene and confident, as if the Quest of the Grail were but a summer journey along a shady lane. But Parsifal is one of us. He has our human nature. He fights our human battles, while we hold our breath wondering whether he will win or not; he meets our own temptations and finds them terribly hard, as we do, struggles with them, wrestles with them, is weary and heavy-laden, hurt and bleeding. When he achieves the vision of the Grail, it is not with smiling face and shining armour. Parsifal is the true hero of the search for the Holy Grail, not the serene Galahad. In the story of the temptation, the Son of God shows us that He is the Son of Man. The Divine master, the Lord of life, assures us that He is of our kin and kind, flesh of our flesh. He suffers with us, as well as for us: and is perfectly good, but not easily good.2 [Note: George Hodges.]

4. He was tempted that Satan might be defeated. And now we have the great advantage of fighting a defeated foe. All the stinging sense of defeat, the disappointment and disheartening that defeat makes, he knows. And all the swing and spirit, the joyousness and elasticity of action, that come from an assured victory already won, we have in our Lord Jesus. We ought to sing as we fight.

I recall the experience of a man of matured years and well-seasoned judgment. He had been led to take an advance step in his Christian life which meant much of sacrifice. He has since then been used in Christian service in a marked way, and to an unusual degree. This experience came just after the step referred to had been taken. He was awakened in the night by a sense of an unwholesome presence in the room, or rather that the room was full of evil beings. A peculiar feeling of horror came over him, with strange bodily sensations. The air of the room seemed stifling. He quickly recognised that he was being attacked, rose from bed, and attempted to sing a verse of a hymn with Jesus Name in it. It seemed impossible at first to get his lips open, or any sound out. But he persisted, and soon the soft singing was clear and full, and the spirit atmosphere of the room cleared at once. And with grateful heart he lay down again, and slept sweetly until the morning. Yet he is a man of unusual caution, with a critical matter-of-fact spirit of investigation.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]

2. Two questions must be asked here(1) Was the temptation of our Lord a reality? (2) What means did He use to win?

1. Was His temptation a reality? Yes, it was a real temptation. That is to say, it could not have been a temptation unless there was present the possibility of yielding to it. You can say on one side of the question that our Lord could not yield. Theoretically, ethically, you can say quite truly that He could not yield to temptation. But practically it was entirely possible for Him to yield. He was really tempted. He faced the question of yielding. He felt the power of each temptation. But He asserted His will, and in full dependence upon the blessed Holy Spirit, He met the tempter at every point. He did not meet the temptations as Son of God. When we are tempted, let us remember that He met every temptation as a man, just as we must meet ours, and as we may meet them in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

We do less than justice to this sacred experience of Christ, less than justice to His perfect sympathy, if we lay no stress on the reality of His temptation. Sinless temptations may be the most severe. Jesus knew nothing of the terrible might and craft of a temperament naturally predisposed to some formidable vice, and pampered by long habitual indulgence into a despotism that brooks no resistance. Miraculously born a Holy Thing, with no evil stain contaminating His blood and driving Him to evil, how could He understand the helpless misery of those whose nature is stained through and through, and all whose propensities are towards evil? But it is a mistake to suppose that the most violent temptations are those which appeal to evil passions. The strength of temptation depends, among other things, on the strength of the feeling appealed to, and it is easy to show that pure and right feelings and natural appetites are more powerful and persistent than impure and acquired desires. The drunkard fancies that he must yield to his appetite or die, but that is a mere imagination. His acquired appetite may be resisted without fatally injuring him; but the natural appetite of thirst, if persistently restrained, destroys the physical system. If this natural appetite of thirst can be gratified only at the expense of anothers life, as has often happened in shipwreck, in this case the innocent thirst and the ungenerous means of quenching it form material of a temptation far surpassing in severity anything the self-indulgent profligate experiences from the cravings of a pampered appetite. The same law holds good in the higher parts of our nature. The richer a mans nature is, the more interests, the finer susceptibilities he has, the more numerous connections he sustains to other men, and the more loving his attachment to them is, the more open is he to the severest temptations. And it was the wealth of our Lords nature, the tenderness and truth of His attachment to men, the universality of His sympathy, the vividness of His insight, the vastness of His undertaking, that made Him the object of temptations more distracting, persistent, and severe than those which assail any other.

Temptation does not necessarily imply the expectation of failure. It really means no more than testing. Take a simple illustration. A battleship has its trial trip before it is accepted by the government. The machinery is tested. Can the boilers stand the strain, and make the required speed? Can the guns carry the necessary distance? Can the armour plates withstand the shells? Can the bolts stand the shock of firing? The authorities do not anticipate failure, though there must be this possibility under trial. So it is with human characters. Are the convictions clear, and the will strong enough? Will the man rise up and live in accordance with the higher faculties of his nature, his reason, and conscience, or will he sink to the lower animal desires and instincts? Will he cling to the things that are seen and felt, or will he lay hold of the unseen and spiritual? We are not tempted to evil, but concerning evil.1 [Note: A. C. A. Hall.]

2. What means did He use to win? He used the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. To every form of temptation with which Satan assailed Him, He replied by It is written. He knew the promises of God, and He believed them. May we not know and believe them also? We have an additional guarantee, even Christ Himself. For how many so ever be the promises of God, in him is the yea (2Co 1:20). The only difference between us seems to be that, being full of the Holy Spirit, He was able to believe the promises utterly, and to use them with unerring effect. His whole heart was full of the thought of God, full of the letter and the spirit of the writings that speak of God. And then, when the assault came, it found Him fully armed with the remembrance and love of His Heavenly Father. We must follow that great example. Let us charge our hearts with the love of God and His will, by a habit of prayer and by saturating our minds with the Holy Scripture.

A mother once told me that her two sons, who were the joy of her life, differed only in one particular from one another. She discovered the difference when they were both away from home. She was able to trust one a little more than the other. One of them she knew confidently to be quite safe wherever he might be; the other she was not quite so sure about. One relied solely on his power of character and his sense of security in the keeping of God. The other relied a little too much on his own cleverness and strength of will. And it was this latter fact that gave the mother anxiety. Her own heart denned the difference, and told her that the only safety was in the strength of a pure life. A good man is safe anywhere.1 [Note: F. R. Brunskill.]

II

The Wilderness

The Spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days.

i. Jesus in the Wilderness

1. Jesus had always a strong desire for human fellowship. He appointed the twelve that they might be with Him (Mar 3:14). And He afterwards appointed unto them a kingdom because, He said, Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations (Luk 22:28-29). The pain of His Hour as it drew near, was intensified by the thought that they would leave Him alone. And when all the agony was over, the promise which He made was, Lo, I am with you alway. For there was no promise He could make that would mean so much to them in the future; there was none that meant so much to Himself.

Jesus did not choose the wilderness to live in as John the Baptist did. He preferred the haunts of men. And because He lived amongst them they called Him a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. John had sought the wilderness from his youth in order to the imperfect attainment of what Jesus had in perfection, even while He mingled freely with His fellows. It was a different necessity which drove Jesus into solitude, from that which denied the social life to His Forerunner. It was not that He had need to keep His hands clean from the sordid soiling of gain, or His lips from words that might be hasty and unkind, or false, or in any way injurious; nor that His heart needed to be retired from the reach of stains that might sully it; nor that His feet must be removed from paths where waywardness might stray into the snares of common life. Nor was it that the severities of natures wildness might ennoble His spirit and strengthen His will for lofty purposes. These were the ends that were sought by John, as they had been sought by many who were lesser than he among the prophets. But it was different with Jesus. He was driven to the Wilderness for the enacting of a drama which no eye might see save Heavens. The theatre of this temptation must be solitude. This is the explanation of the rigid solitude into which Jesus was driven by the Spirit of God.1 [Note: A. Morris Stewart.]

2. Yet He was much alone. The prophetic words, I have trodden the winepress alone (Isa 63:3), have always been applied to Him. And in St. Lukes Gospel there is a significant remark that when Jesus was praying alone the disciples were with Him (Mar 9:18). For not only did He often go away to some mountain to be alone with the Father; but even when the disciples were beside Him, His prayer was solitary. In the deepest exercise of life, He never could associate even His disciples with Him. Our Father which art in heaventhat is not the Lords Prayerit is ours; for it contains the petition, and forgive us our trespasses. So when the hour of His temptation came He was driven into the wilderness.

3. What wilderness was it? We cannot tell. If we may search for it geographically it seems to have been further from human habitation than Johns wilderness, for He was with the wild beasts. Many find it on the western shores of the Dead Sea. Those denuded rocks, says Pressens, that reddened soil scorched by a burning sun, that sulphurous sea, stretching like a shroud over the accursed cities, all this land of death, mute and motionless as the grave, formed a fitting scene for the decisive conflict of the man of sorrows.

The place was a desert, waste, barren, shelterless, overhead the hot sun, underfoot the burning sand or blistering rock. No outbranching trees made a cool restful shade; no spring up bursting with a song of gladness came to relieve the thirst; no flowers bloomed, pleasing the eye with colour and the nostrils with fragrance: all was drear desert. Now, two things may be here notedthe desolation and the solitude. The heart that loves Nature is strangely open to her influences. The poet sees a glory in the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, which exalts and soothes him; but a land of waste and cheerless gloom casts over his spirit a shadow as of the blackness of darkness. And Jesus had the finest, most sensitive soul that ever looked through human eyes. He loved this beautiful world, loved the stars that globed themselves in the heaven above, the flowers that bloomed in beauty on the earth beneath, the light and shade that played upon the face of Nature, now brightening it as with the smile of God, now saddening it as with the pity that gleams through a cloud of tears. Think, then, how the desolation must have deepened the shadows on His spirit, increased the burden that made Him almost faint at the opening of His way. And He was in solitudealone there, without the comfort of a human presence, the fellowship of a kindred soul. Yet the loneliness was a sublime necessity. In His supreme moments society was impossible to Him. The atmosphere that surrounded the Temptation, the Transfiguration, the Agony, and the Cross, He alone could breathe; in it human sympathy slept or died, and human speech could make no sound. Out of the loneliness He issued to begin His work; into loneliness He passed to end it. The moments that made His work divinest were His own and His Fathers.1 [Note: A. M. Fairbairn.]

ii. Why in the Wilderness?

1. Because, temptations are keenest in the wilderness. There is no human sympathy at hand. And where there is no human sympathy, it is the noblest that temptation assails most fiercely. The hermits fled to the wilderness to escape temptation. They fled to Satans chosen battle-ground, and the saintlier they were, the more was his advantage over them.

We are apt to think that Satan is most powerful in crowded thoroughfares. It is a mistake. I believe the temptations of life are always most dangerous in the wilderness. I have been struck with that fact in Bible history. It is not in their most public moments that the great men of the past have fallen; it has been in their quiet hours. Moses never stumbled when he stood before Pharaoh, or while he was flying from Pharaoh; it was when he got into the desert that his patience began to fail. David never stumbled while he was fighting his way through opposing armies; it was when the fight was over, when he was resting quietly under his own vine, that he put forth his hand to steal. The sorest temptations are not those spoken, but those echoed. It is easier to lay aside your besetting sin amid a cloud of witnesses than in the solitude of your own room. The sin that besets you is never so beseeching as when you are alone. You may say kind things in public to the man you hate; but you make up for it in the wilderness. It is our thoughts that hurt us; and we think most in solitude. Many a man who resists the temptation to drunkenness at the dinner-table is conquered at the secret hour. Paul says that the Christian armour is most needed after we have vanquished the outward foe, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.2 [Note: George Matheson.]

2. It is through temptation that He must win His place among men. And first of all He must be separated from men, and He must feel the separation. That is the reason why He was driven into the wilderness. The separation was itself the temptation.

(1) He came to Johns baptism that He might identify Himself with men. All the people were baptized, says St. Luke; Jesus also was baptized. John knew that there was a difference. But Jesus would have it so. For thus it becometh us, He said, to fulfil all righteousness. It was not simply that He made Himself one with the multitude; it was that He identified Himself with them in their sin. It was a vicarious actnot the vicarious act, however, of one standing without the race. It was an act whose very vicariousness consisted in this, that He made Himself one of the race, a sinless One, content to be reckoned with sinners.

(2) But if He has already identified Himself with mankind, why is He now separated from men? Because before He begins His work as Saviour He must prove Himself to be a man. The identification in baptism is the identification of the Saviour with the race He has come to save. In return for that He received the voice from heaven and the endowment of the Spirit. But before He goes forward to His work as Saviour He must meet His own temptations as a man, and conquer. For He can never be the Saviour of others if He needs a Saviour Himself. Now, every man must meet his temptations alone. Jesus must be driven into the wilderness.

We must be solitary when we are tempted. The management of the character, the correction of evil habits, the suppression of wrong desires, the creation of new virtuesthis is a work strictly individual, with which no stranger intermeddleth, in which the sympathy of friends may be deceptive, and our only safety is in a superhuman reliance. The relation of the human being to God is altogether personal: there can be no partnership in its responsibilities. Our moral convictions must have an undivided allegiance; and to withhold our reverence till they are supported by the suffrage of others is an insult which they will not bear. What can those even who read us best know of our weaknesses and wants and capabilities? They would have to clothe themselves with our very consciousness before they could be fit advisers here. How often does their very affection become our temptation, cheat us out of our contrition, and lead us to adopt some pleasant theory about ourselves, in place of the stern and melancholy truth!1 [Note: James Martineau.]

In the end each must do the work for himself, and in his own fashion. Only in solitude can the hardest part of the pathway to reality be trodden:

Space is but narroweast and west

There is not room for two abreast.

No one of us is like any other, either in his needs or in the mode in which these needs must be satisfied. Every man bears the impress of his finitude, with its infinite variety of form. Hardly less is that impress borne by even the greatest and highest expression in which the truth is told to us. Yet if that truth be hard to reachnay, even if the most genuinely strenuous effort to reach it must ever remain incomplete, and the work have to be done over again by each one for himself, we have no justification for despair, or for sitting in idleness with folded hands. For in the search for truth, as in all the other phases of our activity, we gain and keep our life and freedom only by daily conquering them anew.1 [Note: R. B. Haldane, The Pathway to Reality.]

(3) But more than that. The wilderness was necessary to the temptation, because isolation is death. What was the death He died for sinners on Calvary? It was separation from the Father. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?that was His death on Calvary. For fellowship with God is life; and the moment that a man sins he dies because he breaks that fellowship. As a Saviour our Lord identified Himself with man even in baptism; but that was only a foretaste. He drank the cup of identification on the Cross when the Father made Him feel His unity with sinners in their separation from God. But He is to be a man as well as a Saviour. Before He can enter into the fulness of fellowship with man He must be separated from man and feel the separation. He must of His own free will die to man that He may rise again into the enjoyment of human fellowship, and be indeed the Son of man. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Unless Jesus had been driven into the wilderness He would have remained without the human family.

Thou wast alone through Thy redemption vigil,

Thy friends had fled;

The angel at the garden from Thee parted,

And solitude instead,

More than the scourge, or Cross, O, tender-hearted,

Under the crown of thorns bowed down Thy head.2 [Note: H. E. H. King.]

III

Satan

Tempted of Satan.

i. The Form of the Temptation

In what sense is the narrative to be taken? Many writers accept it as literal history, and suppose the tempter to have appeared in bodily form and to have conveyed our Lord, also in the body, both to the mountain top and to the pinnacle of the Temple. Others have regarded it as a vision; and intermediate views have been adopted by many. On one point, fortunately, we may be pretty confident. The substance of the history came from our Lord. The most unfavourable critics allow this, from the extreme difficulty of referring it to any other source. It cannot have been introduced in order to make the Gospel fall in with the Jewish notions of the Messiah, for there are no traditions that the Messiah should be tempted; and if the passage had been devised by men, the drift of it would have been plainer, and the temptations would have been such as men would feel might have come upon themselves. We have many accounts, in the legends of the saints, of the sort of trials which present themselves to the imagination of human writers; and they differ totally from these.

That Satan should have appeared in a bodily form is, to my mind, opposed to the spirituality of all our Lords teaching. Such an appearance presents endless difficulties, not only physical but moral. If our Lord knew the tempter to be Satan, He was, as I have said, forearmed; if He did not know him, that introduces other difficulties. He must at any rate have been surprised at meeting a specious sophist in the wilderness. Milton deals with the subject with great skill, from his point of view, in Paradise Regained. Certain points he leaves unexplained, and those I believe to be inexplicable. They are these. I cannot understand that our Lord should suffer Satan to transport Him to the mountain top, or to the pinnacle of the Temple, or that the Evil One should propose to Jesus to fall down and worship him.

I can, however, readily comprehend that our Lord should represent under this imagery and under these personifications what had passed within Himself. He could not indeed bring the lesson home to His hearers in any other way. To have represented mental emotions, to have spoken of the thoughts that passed through His mind, would have been wholly unsuited to His hearers. We know how difficult it is to keep up an interest in a record of inward struggles and experiences. Men want something to present to their minds eye, and they soon weary of following an account of what has been going on within a mans heart, void of outward incident. A recital of what had passed in our Lords mind would have taken no hold of mens fancy, and would soon have faded from their thoughts. But the figure of Satan would catch their eye, the appearance of contest would animate the hearers interest; while the survey of the realms of the earth, and the dizzy station on the pinnacle of the Temple, would take possession of mens memories and minds.1 [Note: Henry Latham.]

The Apologue was to Orientals a favourite vehicle for conveying moral lessons; and we have a familiar instance in English Literature of the attraction of allegory. Would Bunyans Pilgrims Progress have possessed itself, as it has done, of the hearts of whole sections of the British race, if, shorn of its human characters and its scenery, it had only analysed and depicted the inward conflicts, the mental vicissitudes and religious difficulties of a sorely-tried Christian youth?2 [Note: Ibid.]

It is wise not to allow this matter to assume an exaggerated importance. For to suppose such angelic appearances and communications as are related in the early chapters of St. Luke to be imaginative outward representations of what were in fact but merely inward communications of the divine word to human souls, is both a possible course and one which is quite consistent with accepting the narrative as substantially historical and true. No one who believes in God and His dealings with men, and who accepts the testimony of all the prophets as to the word of the Lord coming to them, can doubt the reality of substantive Divine communications to man of a purely inward sort. Such an inward communication is recorded in these chapters to have been made to Elisabeth, and the angelic appearances to Joseph, recorded by St. Matthew, are merely inward occurrences, i.e. they are intimations conveyed to his mind in sleep. No one, moreover, who knows human nature, can doubt that such inward communications could be easily transformed by the imagination into outward forms.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]

ii. The Existence of Spiritual Beings

There can be no a priori objection against the existence of such spiritual beings, good and bad, as angels and devils. Many of us would say that the phenomena of temptation, as experienced by ourselves, cannot be interpreted without a belief at least in the latter. Above all, our Lords language certainly reaches the level of positive teaching about good, and still more about bad, spirits. As regards good spirits, not only does His language constantly associate angels with Himself in the coming and judicial work of the last day, but He talks of them with explicit distinctness as beholding the face of God, as limited in knowledge of the great day, as without sensual natures, as attached to children, ministering to the souls of the dead, attendant upon Himself at His request. As regards evil spirits, He must Himself have related His own temptation to His disciples, in which the personal agency of Satan is vividly presented. He speaks with great simplicity of the devil as disseminating evil and hindering good. He warns Peter of an explicit demand made by him upon the souls of the apostles. He deals with demons with unmistakable seriousness, emphasis, and frequency. He sees Satan behind moral and physical evil. He looks out upon the antagonism to good which the world presents, and says, An enemy hath done this. He recognises the approach of evil spirits in the trial of the Passion. But He knows that the power of the forces of evil is really overthrown and their doom certain.

The present writer, then, does not see how doubt about the existence and action of good and bad spirits is compatible with a real faith in Jesus Christ as the absolutely trustworthy teacher. There is nothing contrary to reason in such a belief. That it should have been associated with a vast amount of superstition and credulity is no more an argument against its validity than against religion as a whole. No one can deny that, in our Lords case, the teaching which He gave about spirits is guarded from superstition by His teaching about God and human responsibility.1 [Note: Bishop Gore.]

Evil thoughts come to us which are alien from all our convictions and all our sympathies. There is nothing to account for them in our external circumstances or in the laws of our intellectual life. We abhor them and repel them, but they are pressed upon us with cruel persistency. They come to us at times when their presence is most hateful; they cross and trouble the current of devotion; they gather like thick clouds between our souls and God, and suddenly darken the glory of the Divine righteousness and love. We are sometimes pursued and harassed by doubts which we have deliberately confronted, examined, and concluded to be absolutely destitute of force, doubts about the very existence of God, or about the authority of Christ, or about the reality of our own redemption. Sometimes the assaults take another form. Evil fires which we thought we had quenched are suddenly rekindled by unseen hands; we have to renew the fight with forms of moral and spiritual evil which we thought we had completely destroyed.2 [Note: R. W. Dale, Lectures on the Ephesians, p. 422.]

iii. The Personality of the Tempter

The assertion of the existence of a Tempter at all, of a personal Wicked One, of the devil, this, as is well known, is a stumblingblock to many. Not urging here the extent to which the veracity of Christ Himself is pledged to the fact, I will content myself with observing that it is not by Scriptural arguments alone that it is supported. There is a dark, mysterious element in mans life and history which nothing else can explain. We can only too easily understand the too strong attractions of the objects of sense on a being who is sensuous as well as spiritual; the allowing of that lower nature, which should have been the ruled, to reverse the true relation, and to become the ruler. We can understand only too easily mans yielding, even his losing, of himself in the region of sense. But there is a mystery far more terrible than this, a phenomenon unintelligible except upon one assumption.

All who shrink from looking down into the abysmal depths of mans fall, because they have no eye for the heavenly heights of his restoration, or for the mighty powers of God that are at work to bring this about, seem to count that much will have been gained by casting out Satan; although it may be very pertinently asked, as indeed one has asked, What is the profit of getting rid of the devil, so long as the devilish remains? of explaining away an Evil One, so long as the evil ones who remain are so many?1 [Note: Archbishop Trench.]

Men dont believe in a devil now,

As their fathers used to do;

Theyve forced the door of the broadest creed

To let his majesty through;

There isnt a print of his cloven foot,

Or a fiery dart from his bow,

To be found in earth or air to-day,

For the world has voted so.

But who is mixing the fatal draft

That palsies heart and brain,

And loads the earth of each passing year

With ten hundred thousand slain?

Who blights the bloom of the land to-day

With the fiery breath of hell,

If the devil isnt and never was?

Wont somebody rise and tell?

Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint,

And digs the pits for his feet?

Who sows the tares in the field of time

Wherever God sows His wheat?

The devil is voted not to be,

And of course the thing is true;

But who is doing the kind of work

The devil alone should do?

We are told he does not go about

As a roaring lion now;

But whom shall we hold responsible

For the everlasting row

To be heard in home, in Church, in State,

To the earths remotest bound,

If the devil, by a unanimous vote,

Is nowhere to be found?

Wont somebody step to the front forthwith,

And make his bow and show

How the frauds and the crimes of the day spring up?

For surely we want to know.

The devil was fairly voted out,

And of course the devil is gone;

But simple people would like to know

Who carries his business on.

1. There are three distinct ways of proving the personality of Satan.

(1) First of all there is the Biblical way. For those who are willing to accept the plain teaching of Scripture there is no need of going further. For this Book plainly teaches both his personal existence and his great activity and power. But for those who are not content to accept these teachings there are two other independent sources of evidence. And each of them is quite conclusive in itself, to the earnest, seeking man.

(2) There is the philosophical evidence. That is to say, there is no power apart from personality. That can be put down as a purely philosophical proposition. There may be manifestations of power without the personality being seen or recognised. That is very common. There cannot be power apart from an intelligence originating and directing it. And certainly there is an evil power in the world. That is plainly felt and recognised everywhere. Now that presence of an evil power argues plainly the personality of an evil being actively at work behind the scenes.

(3) There is still a third line of approach quite distinct from these two, and as irresistible in itself. That is the experimental, or the evidence that comes through experience. Let a man who has been yielding to temptation try to quit; let a man try to cut with the sin he has been indulging; and he will at once become aware that he has a real fight on his hands. He will become conscious of a real power attacking him with terrific force. About that the man himself will have no doubt. It will come with peculiar force, and drive, and cunning subtlety. It will hang on with great tenacity and persistence.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon.]

2. Very remarkable is the prominence which Satan assumes in the New Testament, compared with the manner in which he and the whole doctrine concerning him is kept in the background in the Old. In the Old Testament, after the first appearance of the adversary in Paradise, which even itself is a veiled appearance, he is withdrawn for a long while altogether from the scene; there is but a glimpse of him, a passing indication here and there of such a spiritual head of the kingdom of evil, through the whole earlier economy (as in Job 1, 2, Zec 3:1-2, and 1Ch 21:1). He is only twice referred to in the Apocrypha (Wis 2:24; Sir 21:27). This may partly be explained by an analogy drawn from things natural, namely, that where the lights are brightest, the shadows are the darkest. Height and depth are correlatives of one another. It is right that first reveals wrong; and hate can be read as hate only in the light of love, and unholiness in the light of purity; and thus it needed the highest revelation of good to show us the deepest depth of evil. But this does not explain the reticence of Scripture altogether. No doubt in that childhood of the human race men were not yet ripe for this knowledge. For as many as took it in earnest, and as it deserves to be taken, for them it would have been too dreadful thus to know of a prince of the powers of darkness, until they had known first of a Prince of Light. Those, therefore, who are under a Divine education are not allowed to understand anything very distinctly of Satan, till with the spiritual eye it is given to them to behold him as lightning fallen from heaven; then, indeed, but not till then, the Scripture speaks of him plainly and without reserve.1 [Note: Archbishop Trench.]

In the New Testament there is not one single writer who does not speak of Satan and his work, not so much in the way of insisting on his existence, as, taking this for granted, building thereon exhortations and warnings. St. Peter bids us Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. St. Jude looks back to the fall of the angels. They were not always devils, they were created good; they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. St. James, the most practical of New Testament writers, bids us Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, just as he tells us, Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. The one is as real and personal a being as the other. St. Paul, the philosopher of the New Testament, tells us that our real conflict is not with flesh and blood, not with fallen human nature in ourselves or in society around us, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Behind the flesh, stirring up its unruly appetites; behind the world, organising it in independence of God, or spreading out its fascinations to bewilder and beguile us, the Apostle recognises the prince of this world. St. John, the theologian, declares the object of the Incarnation, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil; and he goes on to distinguish between the children of God and the children of the devil by their moral likeness and affinity to the source from which they derive their spiritual character. He that committeth sin, he declares, is of the devil.

What is most remarkable is that it is in the pages of the Gospels and from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself that we are told most about the evil one, that we have the fullest and clearest teaching on this subject. This doctrine is taught in the parables, those earthly stories with a heavenly, spiritual meaning. In the very first parable, that of the Sower, the first reason assigned why the seed sown brings forth no fruit is because the birds of the air, which our Lord explains to represent the devil and his angels, snatch away the seed. In the parable of the Tares sown among the wheat, it is said, An enemy hath done this; the devil seeks, if he cannot destroy the truth, to pervert it. Many of our Lords miracles and works of mercy were the putting forth of Divine power to free those who had fallen under the influence of evil spirits, to restore them to their own self-control and self-possession. He tells His disciples the effect of the setting up of His Kingdom. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Speaking of His coming Passion, our Lord says, The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. He shall try Me at every point, but he shall find My will unswerving in its allegiance to My Father. Our Lord describes the character of the devil: he was a murderer from the beginning, and a liar, murdering souls by the seduction of his lies.

If the Gospels trustworthily reflect His mind, nothing else than the conception of a personal will underlies the way in which Jesus uniformly spoke of the Evil One. To Him it was a will actively antagonistic to the will of the Father and His own will; one which rules and disposes, desires and purposes, and which as a will can touch the wills of men. Towards this will His attitude is one of uncompromising and irreconcilable hostility, and is incomparably summed up in the apostolic words, He partook of human nature that he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. To His eye the Ministry was a war against Satan come down to conflict in all his lightning splendour; but He was conscious of having authority, and of capacity to bestow authority, over all the power of the enemy, a term ( ) which is itself evidence of the conception of a personal will. This prince of this world is to be dethroned; and Christ Himself, if lifted up from the earth, is to draw all men to Himself. So Christ moves through the Ministry as the stronger than the strong man fully armed, to establish the Kingdom of heaven. The resoluteness of this attitude is heightened by His facing from first to last the fact that this bringing to nought the devil is to be effected at supreme cost to Himselfthrough deathand a season of apparent triumph of the power of darkness. But He stands as one who has counted the cost, and whose purpose towards the hostile will is irrevocably fixed.1 [Note: H. J. C. Knight.]

3. It may relieve some minds if we tell ourselves with regard to this that it is not necessary to believe in the bodily appearance of Satan to our Lord. Indeed the belief in such is largely due to the impression on the imagination of the efforts of painting and poetry to reproduce this scene, and is in no wise required by the narrative itself. Yet we must not allow such needful reminders to weaken our appreciation of the power which Jesus encountered in His loneliness. To Jesus, evil was a force and an intention outside of man, though it had its allies within him. It was a power bigger than man himself could breed; which hungered for the souls of men, and could finally have them for its own with the same absoluteness as He, the Son of God and Saviour of the world, longed to make them His. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. Jesus said this from His own experience of the subtlety and covetousness of evil. In the earthly life of our Lord there are no moments so intense as those in which He felt the attempts of evil upon Himself. And it was out of this horror that, in spite of all His illustrations of the necessity and Divine uses of temptation, He bade His disciples pray not to be led into it.1 [Note: Principal George Adam Smith.]

iv. His Presence and Work

1. Consider some of the evidences that any one may recognise as proofs of Satans presence and work.

(1) Think of that mystery of iniquity, so to speak, in the sudden injection of evil thoughts, when no point of connection can be traced, no unguarded talk, or want of watch over the eyes. Yet horrid thoughts of blasphemy and unbelief, of impurity and rebellion and hatred, assail the soul at some sacred time, perhaps of prayer or Communion, when we would give anything to be free therefrom. An enemy hath done this.

(2) Think of the mystery of iniquity in the stirring up of curiosity, that so fruitful cause of evil, in a childs mind, the invention of evil in a heart that was fenced against its entrance. Why should that book, that column in the newspaper, exert such a fascinating attraction? Whence this passionate desire to know both good and evil? Again, an enemy hath done this.

(3) Think of that further and more awful mystery of iniquity in the propagation of evil, when men and women, knowing in their own experience the misery of sin, of scepticism, it may be, or drink, or lust, seek to spread its influence and to blight others lives. Do you believe they do this simply of their own accord? Is it not at least as reasonable to suppose that they are used as instruments by one to whom they have sold themselves, that, having yielded to powers of evil, those powers claim their service? The tempted and fallen are used in turn to tempt others.

(4) Consider the chains of ignorance, the bonds of prejudice, in which not only heathen nations are fettered, but which keep back so many of our own countrymen from recognising the truth, so that, while rejecting the sweet reasonableness of the Christian faith as a badge of credulity, they take up with silly superstitions like those of Mormonism or Spiritualism. Is it not reasonable to recognise here the working of a lying spirit propagating error, instilling prejudices and misunderstanding, blinding the mind to the truth?

(5) Once more, the experience of those who are earnest in the service of God bears the mark of the intervention of an enemy who carefully and persistently manipulates temptation, and adjusts it to the special weakness of each person, to his circumstances and environment, to his disposition and temperament. We do not catch a sin as we catch a fever; there is an adjustment and dexterous arrangement of temptation that tells to the thoughtful mind of a personal spiritual foe who is constantly on the watch to ruin souls, seeking to mar Gods handiwork and thwart His purposes.1 [Note: A. C. A. Hall.]

It was cleverly said by a French priest to a young man who accosted him in a patronising tone with the question, Surely, sir, you dont believe in the devil? Thank God I do, for otherwise I should have to believe myself to be a devil.

We all know the despair which successive submissions to temptation fasten upon the soul; and how, yielding to sin, men fall into a state of mind in which evil feels not only real and powerful, but indeed more real than anything else: the only possibility for them, the only thing with any reality left in it. One who had fallen very far into sin wrote thus of it:

They say that poison-sprinkled flowers

Are sweeter in perfume,

Than when, untouched by deadly dew,

They glowed in early bloom.

They say that men condemned to die

Have quaffed the sweetened wine

With higher relish than the juice

Of the untampered vine.

And I believe the devils voice

Sinks deeper in our ear

Than any whisper sent from Heaven,

However sweet and clear.

2. All through the New Testament Satan is spoken of as an agent of evil to the body as well as to the soul. Our trials and tribulations, as well as our enticements to sin, are attributed to his malice. Our Lord Himself employs language which at least implies His acquiescence in this belief of His day: And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? (Luk 13:16). St. Paul uses similar language to describe his thorn in the flesh, doubtless a bodily ailment (2Co 12:7): And lest I should be exalted above measure there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. This idea is equally implied in the same Apostles language (1Co 5:5) in speaking of excommunication: To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Here to deliver up to Satan means to expose them to the peril of physical hurt and misfortune, unhelped and unprotected by the prayers and sacraments of the Church, so that by fear and chastisement they may be brought to repentance. And this further explains 1Ti 1:20 : Of whom is Hymenus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan (i.e. have excommunicated) that they may learn not to blaspheme. Even plainer still is the same meaning in 1Th 2:18, where St. Paul is excusing his delay in revisiting Thessalonica: Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us, The hindrances that occurred, whether they arose out of sickness or other external circumstances, are set down to the malice of Satan, who was always for obstructing so good a cause.1 [Note: E. L. Hicks.]

Let us not always say

Spite of this flesh to-day

I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!

As the bird wings and sings,

Let us cry All good things

Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!2 [Note: R. Browning.]

IV

The Wild Beasts

He was with the wild beasts.

When our Lord was in the wilderness, He was not only tempted of Satan, but, as the evangelist takes pains to tell us, He was with the wild beasts. How far was He in danger from them? How far was He conscious of them? What share did they have in His great temptation? The fact that their presence is noted forbids us to regard Him as entirely indifferent to them. During the day they might be neither seen nor heard.

The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together,

And lay down in their dens.

But

Thou makest darkness, and it is night:

Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

Faint, shadowy forms pass by, gleams of otherwise unperceived light are focussed and reflected from strangely luminous eyes, stealthy movements may be just detected by the strained ear, and the night trembles with distant howlings, or is perhaps startled by the hideous shriek of some jackal close at hand. How was He who had been driven of the Spirit into the wilderness affected by these sounds and sights? Did He think of these wild beasts as imperilling His safety, as we should probably have done had we, unhoused, unguarded, without companions, been spending the hours of darkness in the desert wastes?

What were they? In referring to Kuser Hajla, near Jericho, Tristram says: In its gorge we found a fine clump of date palms,one old tree, and several younger ones clustered round it, apparently unknown to recent travellers, who state that the last palm tree has lately perished from the plains of Jericho. Near these palm trees, in the thick cover, we came upon the lair of a leopard or cheetah, with a well-beaten path, and the broad, round, unmistakable footmarks quite fresh, and evidently not more than a few hours old. However, the beast was not at home for us. Doubtless it was one of these that M. de Saulcy took for the footprints of a lion. But inasmuch as there is no trace of the lion having occurred in modern times, while the others are familiar and common, we must be quite content with the leopard. Everywhere around us were the fresh traces of beasts of every kind; for two days ago a great portion of the plain had been overflowed. The wild boar had been rooting and treading on all sides; the jackals had been hunting in packs over the soft oozy slime; the solitary wolf had been prowling about; and many foxes had singly been beating the district for game. The hyena, too, had taken his nocturnal ramble in search of carcases. None of these, however, could we see.1 [Note: Tristram, The Land of Israel, 245.] When in the Wady Hamm, again, in the district of Gennesaret, he says: We never met with so many wild animals as on one of these days. First of all, a wild boar got out of some scrub close to us, as we were ascending the valley. Then a deer was started below; ran up the cliff, and wound along the ledge, passing close to us. Then a large ichneumon almost crossed my feet, and ran into a cleft; and while endeavouring to trace him, I was amazed to see a brown Syrian bear clumsily but rapidly clamber down the rocks and cross the ravine. While working the ropes above, we could see the gazelles tripping lightly at the bottom of the valley, quite out of reach and sight of our companions at the foot of the cliff. Mr. Lowne, who was below, saw an otter, which came out of the water and stood and looked at him for a minute with surprise.2 [Note: Ibid., 451.]

In Rome, in the catacomb of S. Callixtus, there is a painting of Orpheus, and round him are depicted the wild beasts, tamed and hushed to listen while he plays. Though the representation is an uncommon one, it is generally agreed on all sides that its subject is really our Blessed Lord. The assumption is that the artist, though on every side of him there were evidences of what following Christ meant, though perhaps in his ears was still ringing the cry The Christians to the lions, was so possessed with the idea of the love and protecting power of Him whom he owned as his Lord, that he painted Him as sitting unharmed though surrounded by wild beasts. His thoughts possibly went back to the old days when he had himself stood among the howling mob who, on a Roman Holiday, had seen some poor Christian writhing in utter isolation in the midst of the amphitheatre during that awful moment before the beasts were let loose upon their victims; and now, not knowing how soon his own turn might come to experience the same ordeal, he depicted for his own encouragement Christ sitting among the wild beasts. A writer in the Spectator (H. C. Michin, 13th December 1902) describes with vivid power what must frequently have been in such a mans mind:

The ranks are crowded, tier on tier,

And midst them in my place am I,

As oft before; we talk and jeer,

Waiting to see yon captive die

Who in the arena stands alone:

He turns his faceI see my own!

Tis I that wait the roar and rush

When bars are raised; tis I that fall

Upon my knees, amid the hush

Of cruel tongues, on Christ to call;

Upon whose parted lips the while

There breaks a glad triumphant smile.

Some points deserve attention in this unexpected but most interesting statement that He was with the wild beasts.

1. His Recognition of their Presence.It was the sudden perception of a soul in stress of conflict. Relaxing one moment from its intense agony, it saw, gathered around, the wild beasts of the desert. It remembered them in its after-thoughts on the deadly struggle with more terrible foes.

Can we recall experiences like this in our own life battle? At night, in a great suspense, when the soul is sick, blind, helpless, and the forces of being are warring with one another, there has come a momentary change of mood. The carving of some picture-frame, a face hung on the wall, the blazonry on some book, the chance phrase on an open pagetrifles like these fasten themselves on our minds. We turn dully from them, but the impression is ineffaceable. Even when the memory of the trial grows dim, it is they that keep it living.

Or we have sought under a sudden blow to escape from the worlds grey soul to the green world. On the hillside or the moor we have sat with bowed heads and downcast eyes. It seemed as if we had outlived all loves, buried all hopes. Yet through some chink the flower at our feet enters into the heart, mingles with our thought, and strangely belies our misery. The cup passes from us, and again, again we live. These hours change us, but their memory clings round that single thing: the flower which we never see without the whole sorrow and relief returning. As Rossetti has expressed it in his poem, The Woodspurge

The wind flapped loose, the wind was still,

Shaken out dead from tree and hill:

I had walked on at the winds will,

I sat now, for the wind was still.

Between my knees my forehead was,

My lips, drawn in, said not Alas!

My hair was over in the grass,

My naked ears heard the day pass.

My eyes, wide open, had the run

Of some ten weeds to fix upon;

Among these few, out of the sun,

The woodspurge flowered, three cups in one.

From perfect grief there need not be

Wisdom or even memory:

One thing then learnt remains to me,

The woodspurge has a cup of three.1 [Note: W. Robertson Nicoll.]

Above the altar the antique glass of the East Window contained a figure of the Saviour of an early and severe type. The form was gracious and yet commanding. Kneeling upon the half-pace, as he received the sacred bread and tasted the holy wine, this gracious figure entered into his soul, and stillness and peace unspeakable, and life, and light, and sweetness filled his mind. He was lost in a sense of rapture, and earth and all that surrounded him faded away. When he returned a little to himself, kneeling in his seat in the church, he thought that at no period of his life, however extended, should he ever forget that morning, or lose the sense and feeling of that touching scene, of that gracious figure over the altar, of the bowed and kneeling figures, of the misty autumn sunlight and the sweeping autumn wind. Heaven itself seemed to have opened to him, and one fairer than the fairest of the angelic hosts to have come down to earth.2 [Note: J. H. Shorthouse, John Inglesant.]

2. Was He afraid of them?Be not afraid of them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Here for all time is the reprobation of physical fear, of mere cowardice in Christians; here, too, is the commendation of a right fear, the fear of God in the Old Testament sense, which flies from evil suggestion, which shrinks from dishonouring Him, a fear which is the realisation of both the holiness and the power of the Supreme Being. If there is one passage in the Lords life more than another where we may in all reverence associate such fear with His Person, it would be the occasion of His temptation in the wilderness. Fear is an essential factor in any real temptation. Of physical fear during that time our Lord knew nothing; the words, He was with the wild beasts point conclusively to this; but that He felt a godly fear during the awful contest seems plain, though this was cast out, in the issue, by the triumph of a perfect love.

Ill to the wilderness, and can

Find beasts more mercifull than man;

He livd there safe, twas his retreat

From the fierce Jew, and Herods heat;

And forty dayes withstood the fell

And high temptations of hell;

With Seraphims there talked he,

His fathers flaming ministrie;

He heavnd their walks, and with his eyes

Made those wild shades a Paradise.

Thus was the desert sanctified

To be the refuge of his bride.1 [Note: Henry Vaughan.]

3. Had He not much sympathy with the wild beasts?Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. One who would entertain such a thought could not be without sympathy towards the dumb creatures. The fox is not a particularly lovable beast; yet the compassionate heart of Christ could enter into the grateful sense of home comfort which banished its brute cares and soothed its savage breast, as it crept into its hole for shelter and for rest. He had seen it slink out of sight, but sympathy had made His human heart bolder than His eye, and it, unseen and pitying, had tracked the poor beast to its inmost den. I do not know if anywhere this touching sympathy with animals unhuman finds better expression than in these lines of Burns

Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,

Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,

While burns, wi snawy wreaths up-choked,

Wild-eddying swirl,

Or, thro the mining outlet bocked,

Down headlong hurl;

Listning the doors an winnocks rattle

I thought me on the ourie cattle,

Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle

O winter war,

And thro the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle

Beneath a scar.

Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!

That, in the merry months o spring,

Delighted me to hear thee sing,

What comes o thee?

Where wilt thou cowr thy chittering wing,

An close thy ee?

Evn you, on murdring errands toild,

Lone from your savage homes exild,

The blood-stained roost and sheep-cote spoild

My heart forgets,

While pitiless the tempest wild

Sore on you beats.

This poem, said no less a critic than Thomas Carlyle, is worth several homilies on Mercy; for it is the voice of Mercy herself. And need I point out that the germ of that poem lies embedded in the sympathetic words of our Lord, Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests?1 [Note: H. Rose Rae.]

The impression that this touch in the picture conveys to me is rather of desolate isolation. I think of Him enduring a severe struggle, in which sympathy and ministry would have been comfort and help inestimable, conscious of being surrounded by creatures which have no interest in His thought, no sympathy with His feelingcreatures which, if attacked or aroused, would doubtless show themselves conscious of His presence and prove dangerous; but, being unmolested, simply avoid Him, wander by Him in unconcerned indifference. The laugh of the hyena proclaims and emphasises the lack of sympathy on the part of the wilderness world with the strife and the tragedy of the temptation.2 [Note: A. J. Bamford.]

My wilderness, in which I have learned a little of the meaning of this unsympathetic environment, has perhaps been the darkened house before which the worlds traffic has rattled, within sight of which the children have played, and on the roof of which the sparrows have twittered as though no home had been made desolate.

In the hushd chamber, sitting by the dead,

It grates on us to hear the flood of life

Whirl rustling onward, senseless of our loss.1 [Note: A. J. Bamford.]

In the cave of Gouda dwelt Clement the hermit. By prayers, washings, flagellation, labours, he fought his temptations. Yet his despair deepened and his soul was well-nigh sped with the torment of temptation. But one morning, awaking from a deep, prolonged sleep, Clement held his breath. He half closed his eyes lest they should frighten the airy guest. Down came robin on the floor he was on the hermits bare foot. Clement closed his eyes and scarce drew his breath in fear of frightening and losing his visitor. Now, bless thee, sweet bird, sighed the stricken solitary; thy wings are music, and thou a feathered ray camedst to light my darkened soul. And so the days rolled on; and the weather got colder, and Clements despondency was passing away. And presently his cell seemed illuminated with joy. His work pleased him; his prayers were full of unction; his psalms of praise. Hosts of little birds followed their crimson leader. And one keen frosty night, as he sang the praises of God to his tuneful psaltery, and his hollow cave rang forth the holy psalmody upon the night, he heard a clear whine, not unmelodious; it became louder and less in tune. He peeped through the chinks of his rude door, and there sat a great red wolf moaning melodiously with his nose high in the air.

Clement was rejoiced. My sins are going, he cried, and the creatures of God are owning me, one after another. And in a burst of enthusiasm he struck up the laud:

Praise Him all ye creatures of His!

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

And all the time he sang the wolf bayed at intervals.2 [Note: Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth, chap. xciii.]

4. Did He not look upon them as sharers in the curse He had come to remove?Did He not see in their eyes an appeal from their misery? Was He not quick to behold the earnest expectation of the creatures waiting for the manifestation of the Son of God? Did He not long for the day which Esaias saw in vision, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, when the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child put his hand on the basilisks den, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain,that day when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea? We cannot tell; but surely the wild beasts were to Him as they will be to all in the regeneration. Even yet some men exercise strange powers over them; and when He, the creating Word, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, beheld them in His dumb agony, did they not cease one moment to groan and to travail, as if they saw their hope in His grief?1 [Note: W. Robertson Nicoll.]

5. The wild beasts are with us in all our temptations.We need to take into account the magnitude of our exposure to the wild beasts. The tendency is to make a careless reckoning. St. Marks term wild beasts is a strong one, but none too strong to represent the facts. The unfriendly agencies that are about us are pitiless as the wild beasts. How often we find them destructive, dark, revolting, cruel, and deadly! The error of youth is to clothe the lion in sheepskin and the wolf in lambs wool.

What have the Scriptures to say concerning the wild beasts? The Book of Genesis opens the first account. Our first parents had to wage war with the serpent. Innocency was defeated by a wild beast. None of the heroes of the far-off ages of Abraham and Moses were free from the conflict. Daniel had his exposure to the wild beasts; but the lions in the den were as lambs compared with those that had their shelter in the kings palace in the hearts of the kings courtiers. Isaiahs prophetic vision was interrupted by the growl of the wolf, the leopard, the young lion and the bear; but he saw the eternal highway called Holiness along which no ravenous beast should walk. And if we turn to the New Testament and have a moments interview with such men as St. Peter, we shall hear them say, Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. And St. Pauls experience is the same. Even in his beautiful Philippian Epistle he commands mands the saints to beware of the dogs. And lastly the Saviour, when sending forth His seventy disciples, did not forget to warn them with the words, Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

J. M. Barrie has a beautiful chapter in Margaret Ogilvy, entitled, How my Mother got her Soft Face. It is a suggestive exposition of a sweetness of life that came through suffering and bereavement. The wild beasts tear our life and strive for the mastery, but we have the angel ministry to keep the soul in perfect peace. And in our day we have a great example in General Booth. What has he not suffered from the wild beasts? What shall we say of the hate and malice and persecution that he has borne? He has been in the wilderness with the foes and come out more than conqueror. It is the same story in each case, and apostles, martyrs, saints, humble mothers, and all sacrificial and sainted lives are proof of it.1 [Note: F. R. Brunskill.]

V

The Ministering Angels

And the angels ministered unto him.

One hardly thinks of the angels as indigenous to the wilderness, as are the hyenas and jackals, the lions and serpents. These heavenly ministrants were there because Jesus was there. It was He that peopled the wilderness with angels. They were there to minister to Him. And if there, where may they not be? The devil and the wild beasts and the angels followed our Lord into the Temple and along the hillsides and by the shore of the sea. He had ever to reckon with the hostility of those who understood enough to see that their gains were imperilled. He had ever to endure the keen grief of being incomprehensible to many whom He pitied, loved, and sought to serve, upon whose feelings His enemies could play, making them the tools of their enmity. He had ever to feel the chill of the cold indifference of those who neither knew nor cared. But He rejoiced ever in the truth of the words which the devil had sought to make the means of His destruction:

He shall give His angels charge over Thee,

To keep Thee in all Thy ways.

They shall bear Thee up in their hands,

Lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.

1. We find here, therefore, the Son of Man, man as God meant Him to be, the ideal man of the Psalms, standing in suggestive environmentbetween the savage animals on the one hand, and the holy angels on the other, freely recognised and served by bothwith the wild beasts, and at the same time ministered unto by angels. It is to be noticed that this same strange and remarkable association of man with the higher and lower orders of beings had already appeared in the Psalms. The same Psalm (91) which promises, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, goes on immediately to add, Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under feet (Mar 1:11-13). And very similarly in Psalms 8, Thou hast made him [but] a little lower than the angels, is followed by Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field (Mar 1:5-7).

Thus, what in a special manner proved true of the Incarnate Son of Man is in a measure and in a certain sense true of every son of man in his degree. We all stand between the wild beasts and the holy angels. The angelic will not let us sink utterly to the brutal, nor the brutal let us soar altogether with the angelic. And so we are in a strait betwixt two. But these elements preponderate differently in different men.

Some, like beasts, their senses pleasure take;

And some, like angels, doe contemplate still.

Therefore the fables turned some men to flowres,

And others did with brutish formes inuest;

And did of others make celestiall powers,

Like angels, which still trauell, yet still rest.1 [Note: Sir J. Davies, Nosce Teipsum.]

It may be true, says Dr. A. Smythe Palmer, that only by a slow development and evolution man passed out of the highest rank of animals into the lowest rank of humanity. It may be that sin is in some particulars a relic of heredity, an undestroyed residuum of his old animal stagestill, a spark of the Divine is glowing in him, the breath of God is stirring in him; his progress is ever upwards towards the angels.

If my body come from brutes, tho somewhat finer than their own,

I am heir, and this my kingdom. Shall the royal voice be mute?

No, but if the rebel subject seek to drag me from the throne,

Hold the sceptre, Human Soul, and rule thy Province of the brute.

I have climd to the snows of Age, and I gaze at a field in the Past,

Where I sank with the body at times in the sloughs of a low desire,

But I hear no yelp of the beast, and the Man is quiet at last

As he stands on the heights of his life with a glimpse of a height that is higher.1 [Note: Tennyson.]

The idea of angels is usually treated as fanciful. Imaginative it is, but not altogether fanciful; and though the physical appearance and attributes of such imaginary beings may have been over-emphasised or misconceived, yet facts known to me indicate that we are not really lonely in our struggle, that our destiny is not left to haphazard, that there is no such thing as laissez faire in a highly organised universe. Help may be rejected, but help is available; a ministry of benevolence surrounds usa cloud of witnessesnot witnesses only but helpers, agents like ourselves of the immanent God.

Hidden as they are to our present senses, poets can realise their presence in moments of insight, can become aware of their assistance in periods of dejectiondejection which else would be despair. So it has been with one and another of the band of poets who, stranded and unknown in a great city, have felt the sting of poverty; to them at times have the heavens opened, the everyday surroundings have become transfigured,as Cheapside was, in Wordsworths poem, at the song of the thrush,and, to the vision of Francis Thompson, angels have ascended and descended in the very streets of London:

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)

Cry;and upon thy sore loss

Shall shine the traffic of Jacobs ladder

Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.2 [Note: Oliver Lodge, Reason and Belief, 43.]

2. In what ways may their ministry be thought of?

(1) They supplied His bodily wants.The angels ministered to Christ; they brought Him that which He needed. Perhaps the truth to be learned is that when the unlawful gratification of the desires of our nature is resisted, the lawful gratification is a Divine thing. We feel that Heaven is giving it to us to enjoy. Or perhaps the truth is, that when we resist unlawful pleasures, God compensates us by sending into our souls, through His heavenly messengers, Divine joys and a spiritual fulness. It is sweet to have resisted temptation; the mind is filled with a heavenly satisfaction.

When we have carried on a long struggle, and have been pinched or in distress, and have felt as if we must give way, and have been upheld only by naming God every hour, saying God is able, God will not fail us; then, when the relief comes at last, there is a strange sense that it has come direct from God. Angels come and minister to us. The joy of resisting temptation is the highest joy man can feel. It is a moment when our little life here grows larger, and we feel ourselves lifted into a wider sphere; we have a sense of fellowship with higher beings, and are somehow conscious of their sympathy. All Gods creation smiles upon us, and appears made for our joy. Every pore of our nature seems opened, and there rushes into us a stream of joys that lifts us into another world. At such moments angels do minister unto us.1 [Note: A. B. Davidson.]

It is probable that on this occasion they brought food (cf. 1Ki 19:5); the word in the original () may imply as much; and that word, Man did eat angels food (Psa 78:25), may have thus received its highest fulfilment; nor less may they have celebrated with songs of triumph this transcendent victory of the kingdom of light over the kingdom of darkness. So much Keble has suggested:

Nor less your lay of triumph greeted fair

Our Champion and your King,

In that first strife, whence Satan in despair

Sunk down on scathed wing:

Alone He fasted, and alone He fought;

But when His toils were oer,

Ye to the sacred Hermit duteous brought

Banquet and hymn, your Edens festal store.

(2) They succoured Him in His hour of darkness and depression.It is always in His depression that we read of the angels corningin the manger, in the wilderness, in the garden. Why do they come in His depression? Because there is a virtue in depression? Nay, the reversebecause there is a danger in it. God will not let me have a cross without the alabaster box; He fears the effect on me of unqualified pain. There is not in all His providence a night without a star. He plants a flower on every grave, and that flower is the boundary line beyond which grief cannot go.

(3) They brought Him the fellowship of Heaven.So great were the love and desire that welled up in Jesus towards His Father, and so great was the response of Gods heart towards Him, that the place where He stood became heaven upon earth, while He stood there held out to God for His embrace. He was kindred with earth, but still more closely kin to Heaven. His call pierced the barriers of separation; the interposing powers of Hell were swept into an instant flight. Deep called to deep; like the flash of lightning between thunder-clouds, the fellowship of God rushed to meet the welcome of the man Jesus. He claimed it, and in answer it claimed Him.

That is what the coming of the angels means; and thus they came. The tide of heavenly love that rose in Jesus heart was met by a great tide of kindred love that swelled towards Him out of heaven; and these met in a visible concourse of angelic presences that gathered round the Man who first from earth had chosen, ay, compelled, the full fellowship of God. The angels did not compass the deliverance of Jesus; nor did they merely celebrate it in a pageant of glorious rejoicing. Their presence was His victory in its outward showing. In the hour of Satans majesty and insolent assault, the motions of Heaven were so strong in Jesus, that suddenly and with great strength He grasped the very heart of Heaven and drew it to Himself.

Can we believe that the glory of Heaven was only around Jesus at this time? Nay! It was upon Him and in Him, and shone out from Him. Long afterwards, in agitated prayer to God regarding the trial of the Cross which was before Him, Jesus was suddenly transfigured in company with Moses and Elias, and in the presence of a well-loved three of His disciples. And He was transfigured now, amid that band of bright angels. There was no man there to see and tell of it; and Jesus did not tell such things. Yet we may see our Lord clothed in transfigured radiancy, and in aspect not inferior to His visitants.1 [Note: A. Morris Stewart.]

3. The words of the text are better rendered: Angels came and were ministering unto him. The ministry was probably continued throughout the whole of Christs earthly life. It is reasonable to suppose that He who was made in all things like unto His brethren, and was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, was in all points as we are ministered unto by the angels. Let us remember, however, the marvellous obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, which made Christ unwilling to invoke angel aid that would have been His to command, which made Him say to Peter, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Forty days and forty nights

Thou wast fasting in the wild,

Forty days and forty nights

Tempted, and yet undefiled,

Sunbeams scorching all the day,

Chilly dewdrops nightly shed,

Prowling beasts about Thy way,

Stones Thy pillow, earth Thy bed.

Shall we not Thy sorrow share,

And from earthly joys abstain,

Fasting with unceasing prayer,

Glad with Thee to suffer pain?

And if Satan, vexing sore,

Flesh or spirit should assail,

Thou, his Vanquisher before,

Grant we may not faint nor fail.

So shall we have peace divine;

Holier gladness ours shall be;

Round us too shall angels shine,

Such as ministered to Thee.2 [Note: George H. Smyttan and Francis Pott.]

The Temptation

Literature

Bamford (A. J.), Things that are Made, 129.

Barrett (G. S.), The Temptation of Christ, 45.

Brooks (Phillips), Sermons for the Principal Festivals and Fasts of the Church Year, 130.

Brooks (Phillips), The Spiritual Man, 47.

Davidson (A. B.), Waiting upon God, 109.

Dods (M.), Christ and Man 1:1.

Fairbairn (A. M.), Studies in the Life of Christ, 80.

Gordon (S. D.), Quiet, Talks about the Tempter.

Gore (C), Dissertations on Subjects connected with the Incarnation, 21.

Hall (A. C. A.), The Example of our Lord, 59.

Hall (A. C. A), Christs Temptation and Ours, 29.

Hicks (E. L.), Addresses on the Temptation, 1.

Hodges (G.), The Human Nature of the Saints, 61.

Jerdan (C.), Gospel Milk and Honey, 342.

Knight (H. J. C.), The Temptation of our Lord.

Latham (H.), Pastor Pastorum, 112.

Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Moments, 99.

Matheson (G.), Times of Retirement, 68.

Matheson (G.), Voices of the Spirit, 97.

Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 65.

Palmer (A. S.), The Motherhood of God, 33.

Pearse (M. G.), The Gospel for the Day, 60.

Rawnsley (L. R.), The Temptations of our Lord, 1, 55.

Ross (G. A. J.), The Universality of Jesus, 85.

Smith (G. A.), The Forgiveness of Sins, 51.

Stewart (A. M.), The Temptation of Jesus, 17.

Trench (R. C.), Studies in the Gospels, 1.

Vaughan (D. J.), The Present Trial of Faith, 174.

Whyte (A.), The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus Christ our Lord, 105.

Wright (T. H.), The Shrine of Faith, 89.

Christian World Pulpit, xliii. 69 (Rae); lxix. 139 (Brunskill).

Expositor, 6th Ser., i. 193 (Whitefoord).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

the Spirit: Mat 4:1-11, Luk 4:1-4

driveth: Or, “sendeth him forth,” [Strong’s G1544], . The expression does not necessarily imply any violence; but seems to intimate the energy of that impulse on our Lord, by which he was inwardly constrained to retire from society.

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

LENTEN LESSONS

And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan.

Mar 1:12-13

In the desert country the Manhood of our Saviour was as completely isolated as it could be from contact with humanity, yet that long retreat was but a still more emphatic example of that retirement which we often find our Lord desirous to obtain.

I. The fast of Lent.It was in the great Fast of forty days that His withdrawal of His Humanity from human contact was the most marked; this withdrawal lasted as long as the Fast; from this we see that the fasting was in secret. From the same fact we may notice that, if our fasting is to be spiritually profitable, it must be coupled with some degree of withdrawal or isolation of ourselves. We need not find an actual desert country to which to betake ourselves in the body during Lent; but seclusion and retirement there must be if Lent is to teach us its real lessons. Perhaps some may shrink from being alone with God. To evade the warning of the Voice within is a fearful danger. To endeavour to escape from a sense of the Divine Presence is as ungrateful as futile. Let us, therefore, see that in Lent we have our times of seclusion, for thorough searching of heart, mind, and soul.

II. The trials of Lent.The Temptation and Fast of Jesus were full of bitterness, and our own spiritual withdrawals into the desert country must, therefore, have these trials. Shall we say then, What shall Lent profit a man? Nay, look again, and see in the sorrows of the Son of God both His joy and our own! There must have been a gleam of joy in the heart of Jesus even amid the sorrowful trials of His Temptation and Fast in the wilderness.

III. Spiritual benefits of Lent.Herein we may see the benefits accruing from a right use of Lentspiritual joys growing out of sorrows. Assaults of Satan there may be in times of isolation and seclusion, loss, too, of temporal pleasuresbut instead thereof (a) what increased opportunities for holding communion with our Maker, (b) what an insight into the true nature of things, (c) what a rending asunder of the veil which hides spiritual realities from us in times of worldly ease, (d) what lifting up of heart and mind into the domain of the spirit-world, (e) what loosening of fleshly ties, what shaking off of sensual encumbrances, what strengthening of the pulse of the souls life.

Rev. C. G. C. Baskcomb.

Illustrations

(1) It is not without special instruction that it was immediately after His baptism that Christ was led, or as Mark saysto show how painful the ordeal wasdriven by the Holy Ghost to be tempted of the devil. He had just received the Holy Ghost, and was anointed by Him without measure in His three great offices; when, directly the new grace is put to a severer test. Satan, jealous and provoked, attacks Him with exceptional violence and malice! The whole history of the saints of the Catholic Church bears testimony that, in lonely hours and quiet seasons, the Evil One has been the nearest, and the battle has been the severest! One might have thought that a man fasting in the wilderness would have been safe from danger. But no place is safe, no time is safe; and the unlikeliest is the most likely, because Satan always takes advantage of improbabilities.

(2) The associations of the number forty in this connection are interesting and significant. Moses is represented as having thrice fasted for this period: when he received the law in the mount (Exo 24:18), and twice afterwards. The three occasions are gathered together in Deu 9:9; Deu 9:18; Deu 9:25. Elijah went fasting to Horeb during forty days (1Ki 19:8). The symmetry of the use of the number forty in this relation, taken along with its evidently approximate use in other connections, cannot fail to suggest that a symbolical meaning is attached to it. It certainly here means a fast prolonged to the utmost known in human experience, and beyond the utmost limit of endurance possible to human nature in the normal state and level of its life.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

CHRIST AND THE CHRISTIAN

Christ was a representative Person. In no instance of His life did He act other than in His official relation. Thus all He taught, did, and endured had a substitutionary reference to His people, and in no instance was exclusively of a personal and private character. That our Lords Temptation was of such a character cannot be doubted.

I. The Tempter.Marks language admits of no reasonable misconception. Yet there are individuals who, in their judicial blindness and supercilious self-conceit, have found it convenient and soothing to ignore the positive existence of Satan altogether, affirming that there is no devil! Others reject the idea of personality, substituting for it the vague, incoherent notion of a principle of evilan impersonal influencea phantom of power! That our Lord was not acted upon by an abstract principle of evila shadowy, impalpable foeall the circumstances of His most wonderful Temptation clearly demonstrate. O Christian! forget not that in the great moral conflict in which you are enlisted, you are opposed by no mere principle, or influence, or phantom of evil, but by a Foe possessing a distinct personal existence, to whomwithout the slightest deificationwe ascribe an intelligence, power, and presence second only to the Divine Being Himself. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.

II. The occasion of the Temptation.Our Lord, as the Mediator of His Church, had lessons to learn which could only be learned in this fiery conflicta fitness to be attained as the sympathising High Priest of His people, which only could be acquired as He Himself was tempted in all points as we are. No wonder, then, that, while His robes were yet streaming with the baptismal waters, and the halo of the Spirits glory yet encircled His head, and the cadence of His Fathers voice yet lingered upon His ear, that He should be led into the depths of the forestthe abode of wild beaststo battle with the Prince of Darkness, surrounded and backed by the confederated host of countless demons! Is not this often the experience of the believer? In nothing, perhaps, is the identity of Christ and the Christian more signal. Have not some of our sharpest temptations, and sorest trials, and heaviest afflictions, immediately succeeded a season of high, holy, spiritual exercise?

III. The Spirit and the Temptation.The relation of the Holy Spirit to the Temptation of Christand thus His association with us in all our temptationsis a most remarkable and instructive feature. In the symbol of a dove He had just appeared in the baptismal scene of our Lord; and now, in a not less remarkable and significant way, He appears on the field in one of the most important events of Christs life. The forms of expression which record it vary, yet all agree as to the personal and actual relation of the Holy Spirit with the circumstance. Mark expresses it thus: the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. But whatever the force which the Holy Spirit employed, enough that He was personally connected with our Lord in His conflict with the Evil Onesustaining, comforting, and crowning Him with victory. Descending upon Him in the emblem of a dove at His baptism, He now appears in the closest sympathy with His Temptationa twofold baptism thus imparted to our Lordthe baptism of water, and the baptism of the Spirit! And thus, associated with all our temptations, is the Holy Spirit our Shield and Comforter. Not a shaft can touch, not a temptation befall us, but the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us as His temple, is present to quench the dart, or, if it wounds us, to heal, comfort, and sanctify.

Rev. Octavius Winslow, d.d.

Illustration

A rope is strained to prove its strength, an engine is tried to test its power; nothing which is to be of service is used without proof of its reliability. A thing may look fair enough on the outside, but it may have a flaw which makes it useless. The greater the work for which a thing shall be used, the greater the test to which it must be put first. In the great work of saving the world, and leaving us an example which should never lead us wrong, Jesus Christ had to be tested, proved, to show He was fit; and the greatest and best reason for us to remember is, He can take His place by the side of us, and feel for us when we are tempted to go wrong. He was in all points tempted like as we are, so He can feel and be sorry in our hardest fight, for He can remember His own.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Chapter 4.

The Temptation

“And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him.”-Mar 1:12, Mar 1:13.

The Spirit’s Compulsion.

“And straightway the Spirit driveth Him forth into the wilderness” (Mar 1:12, R.V.). The Spirit did this! The Spirit which in Jordan had descended upon Him like a dove. The first thing the Spirit did was vehemently and violently to “cast Him forth” into the wilderness.

What strange work for the Spirit to do! It reminds us that there is an austere and bracing side to the Spirit’s ministry. We sing, “Gracious Spirit, tender Spirit, dwell with me.” But sometimes the Spirit comes as a “stern lawgiver.” We read in Scripture of the Spirit hindering, forbidding, binding. It is this austere side of the Spirit’s ministry we get here. The Spirit “driveth Him forth into the wilderness.”

-Its Meaning.

“The Spirit driveth Him forth.” What does this statement imply? Clearly this, there was a Divine necessity for the Temptation. This fierce struggle in the wilderness, just as certainly as the death on the cross, took place by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Can we discover wherein the “must needs” for this terrible experience lay? I think we may.

-On the Side of God.

(1) First there was a “must needs” from God’s side. Jesus was God’s chosen instrument for the redemption of the world and the establishment of His kingdom. But the redemption of the race was to be a costly business. It meant the bitter cross and everything that led up to it. And that was really the question that confronted our Lord in the wilderness. Was He ready to take God’s path to the throne? The threefold temptation, as recorded by the other evangelists, was really an appeal to Him to take a short cut to the throne, instead of travelling to it by the weary, rugged, blood-stained via crucis.

In vision it was revealed to our Lord what our redemption would cost. It was revealed to Him that it would mean rejection, scorn, Gethsemane, the cross. And the question was, whether Jesus was willing to do God’s will at such a price. It was the Father’s testing of the Son’s obedience and faith. He showed Him the bitter cup the Redeemer of Souls would have to drink. Privations, sorrows, bitter scorn, the life of toil, the mean abode, the faithless kiss, the crown of thorns-these were all ingredients in that bitter cup. And the Father showed them all to His Son in the wilderness, and said, “Art Thou able to drink of the cup?” And our Lord, counting the bitternesses, everyone, knowing all the pain and shame involved, answered His Father, “I am able.”

-On the Side of Man.

(2) There was a further “must needs” in the Temptation from man’s side. For Christ was to be not only God’s Messiah, He was also to be our brother and friend. Now an untempted Christ could never be a friend for tempted folk. To be a true and helpful friend, it was necessary that He should be tempted in all points like as we are-for temptation plays a large part in every human life.

Queen Victoria, in a letter to Lord Tennyson after the death of his eldest son, wrote, “I say from the depth of a heart which has suffered cruelly and lost almost all it cared for and loved best, I feel for you; I know what you and your dear wife are suffering.” The words that make that letter grateful and helpful are the words, “I know,” “I feel.” And Jesus passed through this struggle in the wilderness that He might be able to sympathise with us in our temptations. “I feel,” Jesus cries to every struggling soul, “and I know.”

Wild Beasts at Hand-and Angels.

“And He was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him” (Mar 1:13, R.V.), “Wild beasts-angels”-what a startling contrast! “Wild beasts,” eager to rend and tear and devour, and “angels,” sent forth to minister for the sake of them that inherit salvation. They stand for the opposing forces at work in human souls, and in this great world of ours. There are wild beasts abroad. “My soul is among lions,” cries the Psalmist (Psa 57:4). “The devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8), says the apostle.

Here is an extract from a letter about one who had just made a start in the Christian life-“She has absolutely no help at home, as her mother will not allow the name of Jesus to be mentioned.” Poor soul! She was among the “wild beasts.”

But let us not forget that there are also angels about us, always eager to help and succour and save. And they come to us at our need, as they came to Jesus in the wilderness; as they came to Him again in the Garden; as they came to Peter on the eve of what was meant to be his execution; as they came to Paul when threatened with shipwreck. “He shall give His angels charge over Thee” (Psa 91:11). And after all the angels are mightier than the wild beasts. Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound.

The Lord’s Conflict and Ours.

In the great conflict Jesus overcame. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). His victory is prophetic of ours. We too, in the strength of God, may “tread the powers of darkness down, and win the well-fought day.”

Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary

2

Having been recognized formally as the Son of God, Jesus would not enter into his work until he had been tested. The word spirit always comes from the same Greek word, whether good or evil spirits, human or divine spirits, are meant; the connection here shows it means the Holy Spirit. Driveth is from EKBALLO which Thayer defines at this place, “to command or cause one to depart in haste.” This is virtually the same in meaning as Matthew’s statement that Jesus was “led up of the Spirit” (Mat 4:1).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mar 1:12. Straightway. The same favorite word as in Mar 1:10. The E. V. uses seven different words to represent this one Greek word, which may always be rendered straightway.

The spirit driveth him forth. Comp. Mat 4:1. The expression here used is stronger than led up (Matthew), led (Luke).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Immediately, That is, 1. After his baptism. Christ is no sooner out of the water of baptism, but he is in the fire of temptation: such as are baptized with Christ, and entered into the profession of christianity, must look to be assaulted with Satan’s temptations.

Again, immediately, that is, 2. After the Father had declared his complacency in him, and being well pleased with him.

Learn thence, That great manifestations of love from God are usually followed with great temptations from God. The Spirit driveth him, that is, the Holy Spirit of God. For the devil is seldom, if ever, called the Spirit, but usually some brand of reproach is annexed, as the evil spirit, or the unclean spirit and the like.

Christ was led by the Spirit, says Mat 4:1. He was driven by the Spirit, says St. Mark; that is, he was carried by a strong impulse of the Spirit of God to be tempted by Satan, and did not go of his own private motion to enter the lists with Satan. Teaching us our duty, not to run into or rush upon temptations, without a warrant and call from God.

Observe next, The place where Satan assaulted Christ with his temptations: it was a solitary wilderness. No place can privilege us from temptations, or be a sanctuary from Satan’s assaults. The solitary wilderness has a tempter in it: yea, Satan oftentimes makes use of men’s solitariness to further his temptations; and such as separate themselves from human society, and give themselves up to solitude and retirement, give great advantage to the tempter to tempt them.

Observe next, the time and continuance of our holy Lord’s temptations; not for an hour, a day, a week, or a month, but for forty days and forty nights; not all the time, but very often in that time. Teaching us what we are to expect from Satan; temptations not a few; he will not solicit us once, but often to resist him.

Observe farther, A special aggravation of our Lord’s temptations in the wilderness. He was with the wild beasts, having no comfort from man, but only wild beasts for his companions, which were more likely to annoy and hurt him, than any way to help and comfort him. Here we have an evidence of the divine power of Christ; who, as Lord of the creatures, can alter and change the nature of the creature at his pleasure; restraining the most savage and hurtful beasts from hurting either himself or any of his people.

Observe lastly, The supply sent in to Christ in the hour of temptation: The angels came and ministered unto him; food to his hungry body, and comfort to his tempted soul.

Learn thence, that those who in the hour of temptation do hold out in resisting Satan, shall find that the power and faithfulness of God will not be wanting to them to send in succour and relief at last; Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mar 1:12-13. Immediately the Spirit driveth him Gr. , thrusteth him out, or, sends him away, as the same word signifies, Mar 1:43. Luke says, , he was moved, or led; Matthew, , he was led up, namely, from the plain of Jordan. He was forty days tempted of Satan Invisibly. After this followed the temptation by him in a visible shape, related by Matthew. These forty days, says Dr. Lightfoot, the holy angels ministered to Christ visibly, and Satan tempted him invisibly; at the end of them, Satan puts on the appearance of an angel of light, and pretends to wait on him as they did. See on Mat 4:2-11. And was with the wild beasts Though they had no power to hurt him. Mark, we may observe, not only gives us a compendium of Matthews gospel, but likewise several valuable particulars, which he and the other evangelists have omitted; especially such particulars as might enable the Romans, or Gentiles in general, better to understand him. Thus, as a Roman might not know how wild and uninhabited the deserts of Arabia were, in which Christ was tempted, he adds here, that he was with the wild beasts.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

XIX.

JESUS TEMPTED IN THE WILDERNESS.

aMATT. IV. 1-11; bMARK I. 12, 13; cLUKE IV. 1-13.

c1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, b12 And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth cand a1 Then [Just after his baptism, with the glow of the descended Spirit still upon him, and the commending voice of the Father still ringing in his ears, Jesus is rushed into the suffering of temptation. Thus abrupt and violent are the changes of life. The spiritually exalted may expect these sharp contrasts. After being in the third heaven, Paul had a messenger of Satan to buffet him– 2Co 12:7] was Jesus led up [The two expressions “driveth” and “led up” show that Jesus was drawn to the wilderness by an irresistible impulse, and did not go hither of his own volition ( Eze 40:2). He was brought into temptation, but did not seek it. He was led of God into temptation, but was not tempted of God. God [87] may bring us into temptation ( Mat 6:13, Mat 26:41, Job 1:12, Job 2:6), and may make temptation a blessing unto us, tempering it to our strength, and making us stronger by the victory over it ( 1Co 10:13, Jam 1:2, Jam 1:12), but God himself never tempts us– Jam 1:13] of the Spirit into the wilderness [The wilderness sets in back of Jericho and extends thence along the whole western shore of the Dead Sea. The northern end of this region is in full view from the Jordan as one looks westward, and a more desolate and forbidding landscape it would be hard to find. It is vain to locate the temptation in any particular part of it. Jesus may have wandered about over nearly all of it] to be tempted of the devil [As a second David, Jesus went forth to meet that Goliath who had so long vaunted himself against all who sought to serve God, and had as yet found none to vanquish him. The account of the temptation must have been given to the disciples by Jesus himself, and as it pleased him to give it to us as an actual history of real facts, it behooves us to accept it without being presumptuously inquisitive. Of course, it has supernatural features, but the supernatural confronts us all through the life of Jesus, so there is nothing strange about it here. Jesus had taken upon him our flesh, and hence he could be tempted, with a possibility of falling. But his divinity insured his victory over temptation. He became like us in ability to fall, that he might make us like unto himself in power to resist. It behooved him to be tempted, and thus sharing our nature with its weakness and temptation he might bring us to share his nature with its strength and sinlessness ( Heb 2:17, Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15, Heb 4:16). Sinlessness does not preclude temptation, else Adam could not have been tempted, nor could Satan himself have fallen. Moreover, temptation is in so sense sin. It is the yielding of the will to temptation which constitutes sin. The spiritual history of humanity revolves around two persons; namely, the first and the second Adam. The temptation of Christ was as real as that of Adam. He had taken upon himself our temptable nature ( Phi 2:7, Phi 2:8), and he was tempted not as a private soldier, but as the second Adam, the Captain of [88] our salvation ( Heb 2:10-18). The failure of the first Adam brought sorrow, darkness and death; the success of the second Adam brought joy, light and immortality. One of the tenets of modern infidelity is the denial of the personality of the devil. It is asserted that the idea of a devil was not known to the early Hebrews, but was borrow from Persian dualism. The Persians held that there were two contending deities–a good one and a bad one; and the Hebrews, according to these critics, learned this doctrine from the Persians during the days of their Babylonian captivity, and modified it so that the god of evil became the devil. But such a theory is based upon the absurd notion that all the books of the Old Testament were written after the return of the Jews from Babylon. Their theory requires this notion, for the books of Genesis and Job, which were written centuries before the captivity, both show a knowledge of this being, and the first connects him and his work with the very beginning of human history. Those who believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures must also believe in the personality of the devil, for they plainly teach it. The devil is a fallen angel ( Jud 1:6, 2Pe 2:4). This doctrine need startle no one, for as there are good and bad spirits in the body, so there are good and bad spirits out of the body. Since God permits sinful spirits in the body, why should he not also permit them out of the body? If there can be a Herod, a Nero, a Judas, among men, why may there not be a Satan among evil spirits? Being but an angel, Satan is neither omnipresent, omniscient nor omnipotent. He is only a tolerated rebel, as we are tolerated rebels. He was the first sinner ( 1Jo 3:8), and was the originator of sin ( Joh 8:44). He is the perpetual tempter of mankind ( Rev 20:2, Rev 20:8), but he shall be conquered by the Redeemer ( Joh 12:31, Rev 12:9), and may be conquered by us also through the grace of Christ ( 1Pe 5:8, 1Pe 5:9, Jam 4:7); but is, nevertheless, dangerous ( Rev 2:10, Rev 3:9). Jesus, therefore, teaches us to pray for deliverance from him ( Mat 6:13, R.V.). Jesus will destroy the works of Satan ( 1Jo 3:8), and Satan himself shall suffer eternal punishment [89] ( Rev 20:10). There is but one devil in the spirit world. The word which our King James Version translates “devils” should be translated “demons.” The word “devil” means false accuser or slanderer, and the word in the plural is twice applied, metaphorically, to men and women ( 2Ti 3:3, 1Ti 3:11). The devil is called slanderer because he speaks against men ( Rev 12:10-12) and against God ( Gen 3:1-5). The word “devil” is Greek. The word “Satan” is Hebrew, and means adversary ( Job 2:1). Satan is referred to under many other terms, such as Beelzebub ( Mat 12:24); serpent ( Rev 12:9); prince of the powers of the air ( Eph 2:2); Abaddon (Hebrew) and Apollyon (Greek), meaning destroyer ( Rev 9:11); Belial, meaning good for nothing ( 2Co 6:15); murderer and liar ( Joh 8:44); prince of this world ( Joh 12:31); god of this world ( 2Co 4:4); and the dragon ( Rev 12:7). These terms are always used in the Bible to designate an actual person; they are never used merely to personify evil. The devil may have appeared to Jesus in bodily form, or he may have come insensibly as he does to us. Our Lord’s temptation makes the personality of the tempter essential, else Christ’s own heart must have suggested evil to him, which is incompatible with his perfect holiness.] b13 And he was cled in the Spirit [that is, under the power of the Spirit] in the wilderness [Isolation from humanity is no security from temptation. In fact, our present passage of Scripture shows that it is highly favorable to temptation. The experience of all hermits shows that loneliness is the mother of a multitude of evil desires] 2 during forty days [Matthew speaks of the temptation as coming “after” forty days. Evidently Mark and Luke regard the long fast as part of the process of temptation, seeing that without it the first temptation would have been without force. There is no evidence of any other specific temptations before the three], being tempted of bSatan; cthe devil, band he was with the wild beasts [A graphic touch, showing the dreariness and desolation of the wilderness, and indicating its peril. Lions, [90] wolves, leopards and serpents have been found in the Judan wilderness]; cAnd he did eat nothing [It used to be thought that a forty days’ absolute fast was a practical impossibility, and Luke’s words were therefore modified to mean that he ate very little. But as a forty days’ fast has been safely accomplished in modern times, and as it was Jesus who fasted, we see no reason why we should not take Luke’s statement literally, as indicating an absolute fast] in those days: and when they were completed. a2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights [A forty days’ fast was accomplished by Moses ( Exo 34:28, Deu 9:18), and by Elijah ( 1Ki 19:8), and it is a significant fact in this connection that these two men appeared with Christ at his transfiguration ( Mat 17:3). Those who share Christ’s sufferings shall also share his glorification ( Rom 8:17, 2Ti 2:11, 2Ti 2:12). The forty days’ fast became a basis for the temptation. We are told that temptation results from the excitement of desire ( Jam 1:14), and, as a rule, the greater the desire the greater the temptation. Viewed from this standpoint the temptation of the second Adam greatly exceeded in strength that of the first, for Adam abstained as to a particular fruit, but Christ fasted as to all things edible], he afterward hungered. [Here, for the first time, our Lord is shown as sharing our physical needs. We should note for our comfort that one may lack bread and suffer want, and still be infinitely beloved in heaven.] 3 And the tempter came [Satan is pre-eminently the tempter, for other tempters are his agents. He may possibly have appeared as an angel of light ( 2Co 11:14), but the purpose of his coming is more important than the manner of it. He came to produce sin in Jesus, for sin would render him forever incapable of becoming our Saviour–a sacrifice for the sins of others] c3 And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it {acommand that these stones} become bread. [The devil’s “if” strikes at the faith of Christ, and faith is the bond of union and accord between man and God. The main sin of this temptation was therefore distrust, though [91] it had other sinful phases. The Father’s voice had just declared the Sonship of Jesus, and Satan here boldly questions the truth of God’s words, just as he did in the beginning ( Gen 3:3-5). The temptation smacks of curiosity, and curiosity is the mother of many sins. Though Satan so glibly questioned the divinity of Christ, his kingdom soon began to feel the power of that divinity ( Luk 4:34-41), and shall continue to feel it until his kingdom is destroyed ( Heb 2:14, 1Jo 3:8). This temptation appealed to the present appetite, the impulse of the moment, as many of our temptations do. It has been quaintly said of the tempter that “he had sped so successfully to his own mind by a temptation about a matter of eating with the first Adam, that he practiced the old manner of trading with the second.” This first temptation is still Satan’s favorite with the poor. He suggests to them that if they were really the beloved objects of God’s care, their condition would be otherwise. We should note that Jesus wrought no selfish miracle. Such an act would have been contrary to all Scripture precedent. Paul did not heal himself ( 1Co 12:7-9, Gal 4:13, Col 4:14), nor Epaphroditus, ( Phi 2:25-27), nor Trophimus ( 2Ti 4:20). Denying himself the right to make bread in the wilderness, Christ freely used his miraculous power to feed others in the desert ( Mat 14:15-21), and merited as just praise those words which were meant as a bitter taunt– Mat 27:42.] 4 But he {c4 And Jesus} aanswered and said, cunto him, It is written [Jesus quotes Deu 8:3. It is a saying relative to the times when Israel was sustained by manna in the wilderness. The case of Jesus was now similar to that of Israel. He was in a foodless wilderness, but he trusted that as God had provided for Israel in its helplessness, so would he now provide for him. Israel sinned by doubt and murmuring, and proposing to obtain bread in its own way–that is, by returning to Egypt ( Exo 16:1-9). Jesus avoided a like sin. We should note the use which our Lord made of Scripture: in his hour of trial he did not look to visions and voices and special revelation for guidance, but used the written Word as the lamp [92] for his feet ( Psa 119:105); in the conflict of temptation he did not defend himself by his own divine wisdom, but used that wisdom which God had revealed to all Israel through his prophets. Jesus fought as a man ( Phi 2:6, Phi 2:7), and used that weapon which, as God, he had given to man ( Eph 6:17). Jesus used the Scripture as of final, argument-ending authority. Eve also started with “God hath said” ( Gen 3:3); but she was not constant in her adherence to God’s word. Jesus permitted Satan neither to question nor pervert the Scripture], Man [In using the word “man” Jesus takes his stand with us as a human being] shall not live by bread alone [Called out of Egypt as God’s Son ( Mat 2:15), Jesus could well expect that he would be fed with manna after his forty days’ fast. He trusted that God could furnish a table in the wilderness ( Psa 78:19). We, too, have abundant reason for a like trust. God gave us our lives, and gave his Son to redeem them from sin. He may let us suffer, but we can not perish is we trust him. Let us live by his word rather than by bread. It is better to die for righteousness than to live by sin. God fed Israel with supernatural bread, to show the people that they lived thus, and not by what they were pleased to call natural means. The stomach is a useful agent, but it is not the source of life, nor even the life sustainer. Those who think that the securing of bread is the first essential to the sustaining of life, will fail to seek any diviner food, and so will eventually starve with hunger–soul hunger.] abut by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God [To satisfy our sense of duty is often more pleasant than to appease the pangs of hunger ( Joh 4:32-34, Job 23:12, Jer 15:16). The trust of Jesus that God would speak in his behalf and save him, was like that of Job ( Job 13:15). God can sustain our lives without food if he chooses. We shall live if God wills it, bread or no bread; and we shall likewise die at his word ( Mat 6:25, Joh 6:47-58, Act 17:28). God can support our lives independent of our body– Mat 10:28.] 5 Then the devil taketh him [Matthew emphasizes the [93] compulsory companionship of Satan. Jesus was in the hands of Satan as was Job ( Job 2:5, Job 2:6); but in Jesus’ case Satan had the power of life and death, and he eventually took Jesus to the cross and slew him there] into the holy city [A common name for Jerusalem. The inscription on Jewish coins was “Jerusalem the Holy.” Arabs to-day call it “el Kuds,” “the Holy.” The Holy City did not exclude the tempter nor temptations. The church may be the scene of man’s sorest trial to resist wrong. But in the Holy City which is to come there will be no temptation]; c9 And he led him to Jerusalem, aand set him [The two verbs “taketh” and “setting” imply that Satan exercised a control over the bodily person of our Lord] on the pinnacle of the temple [It is not known exactly what spot is indicated by the word “pinnacle.” Hence three places have been contended for the proper locality: 1. The apex of the temple structure itself. 2. The top of Solomon’s porch. 3. The top of Herod’s royal portico. As to the temple itself, Josephus tells us that its roof was covered with spikes of gold, to prevent even birds from alighting upon it, and, if so, men could not stand upon it. Solomon’s porch, or the eastern portico, faced the Mount of Olives, and has been fixed upon by tradition as the place from which James, the Lord’s brother, was hurled. The royal portico of Herod was at the southeast corner of the temple enclosure, and overlooked the valley of Kidron. Here was then, and is yet, the greatest height about the temple, and it was, therefore, the most suitable place for Satan’s proposal], 6 and saith {csaid} aunto him, If [Godly life rests on faith. The life the devil would have us lead rests on ifs and uncertainties, on doubt and skepticism. We should note that foolish men doubt the divinity of Jesus, but the temptations of our Lord show how positively Satan was convinced of it. The opening scenes of Christ’s ministry are redolent with his divinity. The Baptist asserted his purity and might, the Spirit visibly acknowledged his worthiness, the Father audibly testified to his Sonship, and the devil twice assaulted him as the divine champion] thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down [94] [The first temptation was to under-confidence; the second to over-trust and presumption–two very dangerous conditions of the soul. Men begin by disparagingly doubting that Jesus can save them from their sins, and end by recklessly presuming that he will save them in their sins. Comparing this with Eve’s temptation, we find that she was vainly curious to see if she might be like God ( Gen 3:5), but Christ resisted such curiously. It is urged by some as to this temptation that there is no hint of vainglory or display, because nothing is said about casting himself down in the presence of the people, and that Jesus was merely taken to the temple because the sacred locality would tend to heighten his trust in the protecting promise which Satan quoted. But this ground is not well taken, for 1. The temple presumes a crowd. 2. We have a right to presume that this temptation would be like others to which Jesus was subjected. He was frequently invited to work miracles to satisfy curiosity, and he invariably refused to do so]: cfrom hence: 10 for it is written [This quotation is taken from Psa 91:11, Psa 91:12, and applies to man generally. Note 1. The devil’s head is full of Scripture, but to no profit, for his heart is empty of it. 2. By quoting it he shows a sense of its power which modern rationalism would do well to consider. 3. Satan’s abuse of Scripture did not discourage Christ’s use of it], He shall give his angels charge concerning thee [Regarding Satan’s words as a quotation, we are struck with the fact that his knowledge of this particular passage was based upon his personal experience. He had been confronted by the presence of the guardian angels and had fretted at it ( Job 1:10, 2Ki 6:8, 2Ki 6:17, Psa 34:7, Jud 1:9). As a temptation, Satan’s words appeal to Jesus to be more religious; to put more trust and reliance upon the promises of the Father; and he puts him in the place–the temple–where he might argue that God could least afford to let his promise fail], to guard thee: 11 and, On their hands they shall bear thee up [All who love pomp, display of artistic taste, gaieties of fashion, intoxication of fame, etc., fall by this temptation. Those who truly rest on God’s promises, stand on a sure [95] foundation, but those who rise on bubbles must come down when they burst], Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering, said unto him, aagain it is written {csaid,} [“Written,” “said”; the writings of Scripture are in general the sayings of God. But the Bible is not made up of isolated texts. To get a right understanding we must compare Scripture with Scripture. We could have no higher indorsement of the Old Testament than this use of it by Christ. It was sufficient for him in his temptations, and with the addition of the New Testament, it is sufficient for us in all things– 2Ti 3:16, 2Ti 3:17, Col 3:3-16], aThou shalt not make trial [Make experiment upon God, set traps for him, put one’s self in dangerous situations, hoping thereby to draw forth some show of loving deliverance. Had Jesus cast himself down, he would have demanded of the Father a needless miracle to prove his Sonship, and would thereby have put the love of God to an unnecessary trial. All who jeopardize themselves without any command of God or call of duty, make trial of his love] of the Lord thy God. 8 Again, the devil taketh him [whether naturally or supernaturally, “whether in the body or out of the body” ( 2Co 12:2-4), we can not tell. But it was a real, practical trial and temptation] unto an exceeding high mountain [it is immaterial which mountain this was; for from no mountain could one see the whole earth with the natural eye], c5 And he led him up, aAnd showeth {cshowed} ahim [It is not said by either evangelist that Jesus saw the kingdoms from the mountain-top, but that Satan showed them to him. From any high Judan mountain it would be easy for him to locate Rome, Greece, Egypt, Persia and Assyria, and as he pointed out their locality a few brief words of description would picture them to the imagination of Jesus, and cause their glories to move before his eyes. But it is very likely that to this description some sort of supernatural vision was added. It tempted the eye of Jesus as the luscious fruit did the eye of Eve– Gen 3:6] all the kingdoms of the world [It tempted Jesus to realize the dreams [96] which the Jewish nation entertained. It was an appeal to him to reveal himself in the fullness of his power and authority as above generals, princes, kings, and all beings of all ages. An appeal to obtain by physical rather than by spiritual power; by the short-cut path of policy rather than by the long road of suffering and martyrdom. Jesus came to obtain the kingdoms of the world. He was born King of the Jews, and confessed himself to be a King before Pilate. All authority is now given to him, and he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet, and until all the kingdoms of the world become his kingdom. Satan’s way to obtain this kingdom differed from God’s way. He might obtain it by doing Satan’s will and becoming his worshiper, or by worshiping God and doing his will. Satan would give the speedier possession, but God the more lasting. We also strive for a kingdom; but let us obtain ours as Christ did his], and the glory of them [That is, all their resources as well as their magnificence. Their cities, lands and people, their armies, treasures and temples, etc. Many parents, in encouraging their children to seek earthly glory and distinction, unconsciously assist Satan in urging this temptation]; cin a moment of time [These words strongly indicate that the prospect must have been supernaturally presented. The suddenness of the vision added greatly to the power of the temptation]; a9 and he cthe devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority {aAll these things will I give thee,} [From the standpoint of Christ’s humanity, how overwhelming the temptation! It was the world’s honors to one who had for thirty years led the life of a village carpenter; it was the world’s riches to him who had not where to lay his head. From the standpoint of Jesus’ divinity the temptation was repulsive. It was a large offer in the sight of Satan, but a small one in the sight of him who made all the worlds. Such offers are large to the children of the world, but small to those who are by faith joint-heirs with Christ ( Rom 8:17, Phi 3:7, Phi 3:8). But the temptation was, nevertheless, very specious and plausible. The power of Jesus linked with that of Satan, and [97] operating through Jewish fanaticism and pagan expectation would, in a few months, have brought the whole earth into one temporal kingdom, with Jesus as its head. But the kingdom of Christ rested upon a surer promise ( Psa 2:8) than that here given by the “father of lies.” God had promised, and, despite the pretensions of Satan, God had not yet retired from the government of the world. It was true that Satan and his emissaries had, by usurpation, gained an apparent possession of the world, but Jesus had right to it as the heir of God ( Mat 21:33-43). Being stronger than Satan, he had come to regain his kingdom, not by treaty, but by conquest ( Luk 11:19-22). Moreover, he would obtain it as a spiritual and not as a carnal kingdom. Servants of Christ should remember this. Every attempt to establish Messiah’s kingdom as an outward, worldly dominion is an effort to convert the kingdom of heaven into the kingdom of the devil. God’s kingdom can not be secularized. It should be noted also that Satan omits the words “if thou art the Son of God” in this instance, for their presence would have marred the force of the temptation. Note also that this was the only temptation wherein Satan evinced any show of generosity. He is slow to give anything, and most of us sell out to him for nothing– Isa 52:3], and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me [Satan does not claim an absolute but a derivative right, and his claim is not wholly unfounded ( Joh 12:31, Joh 14:30, Joh 16:11). But the kingdom has been delivered unto him by men rather than by God ( Eph 2:2). How much more quickly Jesus would have obtained power, had he received it from men by consenting to co-operate with them in their sinful practices as does Satan]; and to whomsoever I will [Not so Jesus. His giving is according to the Father’s will– Mat 9:23] I give it [The Emperor Tiberius then held it in the fullest sense ambition ever realized. Yet he was the most miserable and degraded of men. Satan knows how to take full toll for all that he gives.] 7 If [In the temptations Satan uses three “ifs.” The first “if” is one of despairing doubt; the second, one of vainglorious speculation; the third, one of moral and [98] spiritual compromise] thou therefore wilt afall down and worship cbefore me [Satan and God each seek the worship of man, but from very different motives. God is holiness and goodness, and we are invited to worship him that we may thereby be induced to grow like him. But Satan seeks worship for vanity’s sake. How vast the vanity which would give so great a reward for one act of worship! Verily the devil is fond of it. He gives nothing unless he obtains it, and all his generosity is selfishness. Worshiping before Satan is the bending of the soul rather than of the body. He holds before each of us some crown of success, and says: “Bend just a little; slightly compromise your conscience. Accept the help of Pharisee and Sadducee, and keep silent as to their sins. Mix a little diplomacy with your righteousness. Stoop just a little. If you do, I will aid you and insure your success. If you do not, I will defeat you and laugh at your failures.” It is Satan’s sin to make such suggestions, but it is not our sin until we comply with them. We may more quickly obtain by his wrong way, but more surely by God’s right way. Let no Christian be humiliated or discouraged by gross temptation, since even the Son of God was tempted to worship the devil. What Jesus would not do, the Beast has done, and has received the kingdoms for a season ( Rev 13:1-9). Note, too, that it is all one whether we worship Satan, or mammon, the gift which he offers– Mat 6:24], it shall all be thine. 8 And a10 Then cJesus answered and said {asaith} cunto him, aGet thee hence [The passionate utterance of an aroused soul. Indignation is as divine as patience ( Eph 4:26). Satan’s sweetest temptation was most disgusting to Christ, for its sin was so grossly apparent. It ran counter to the very first of the ten commandments. Jesus would give it no room in his thoughts; he spurned it, as being as heinous as the law describes it ( Deu 5:6-11). Temptation must be peremptorily rejected. Jesus did not stop to weigh the worthiness of Satan; it was sufficient that God only is to be worshiped. As God, Jesus was himself an object of worship; but as man he worshiped the Father privately and publicly. Satan [99] sought to command Jesus, but was commanded of him. Step by step Satan has obeyed this command, and foot after foot, earth’s spiritual world has been yielded by his departing presence], Satan [The first and second temptations were so subtle and covert, and their sin so skillfully disguised, as to suggest that Satan himself was disguised. If so, his pride and vanity, revealed in this last temptation, betrayed him so that Jesus tore off his mask and called him by his right name. When he tempted him in a somewhat similar matter, Jesus called Simon Peter by this name ( Mat 16:23), but he laid a different command upon each of them. To Satan he spoke as an enemy, saying, “Get thee hence.” He ordered Satan from his presence, for he had no proper place there. To Peter he spoke as to a presumptuous disciple, saying, “Get thee behind me.” The disciple is a follower of his master, and his proper place is in the rear]: for it is written [Jesus gives a free translation of Deu 6:13. He substitutes the word “worship” for the word “fears.” Fear prohibits false and induces true worship, and loving worship is the source of all acceptable service. The three Scripture quotations used by Jesus are all from the book of Deuteronomy. He struck Satan with that very part of the Spirit’s sword which modern critical infidelity, in the name of religion, and often aided by so-called religious organizations, seeks to persuade us to cast away], Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. [By serving God, Jesus obtained all the earthly authority which the devil offered him, and heavenly authority in addition thereto ( Mat 28:18). So much better are the rewards of God than Satan’s.] c13 And when the devil had completed every temptation. a11 Then the devil leaveth {che departeth from} him for a season. [See Jam 4:7. But Satan left to return many times. Here was the first being endowed with human nature who had defeated Satan under all circumstances for thirty years. This was Satan’s first defeat under Christ’s ministry. His last is yet to come, and it shall come by this same Christ. Temptations are battles. They leave the victor stronger and the [100] vanquished weaker. Hence Satan when resisted is represented as fleeing. But he only flees for a season. He never despairs of the conflict so long as man is on the earth. Christ was constantly tempted by the returning devil ( Luk 22:28). As Jesus hung upon the cross, all these three temptations with their accompanying “ifs” were spread out before him– Mat 27:39-43] aand behold, angels came [They had probably witnessed the contest. Compare 1Co 4:9, 1Ti 3:16. Angels do not appear again visibly ministering unto Jesus until we find him in Gethsemane ( Luk 22:43). When Satan finally departs from us, we, too, shall find ourselves in the presence of angels– Luk 16:22] and ministered unto him. [Jesus was probably fed by the angels, as was Elijah by one of them ( 1Ki 19:4-7). Satan and suffering first, then angels, refreshment and rest. God had indeed given his angels charge, and they came to him who refused to put the father to the test. But they did not succor Jesus during his temptation, for that was to be resisted by himself alone– Isa 63:3.]

[FFG 87-101]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

THE TEMPTATION

Mat 4:1-11; Mar 1:12-13; Luk 4:1-13. Matthew says that He was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. Mark says: The Spirit immediately impels Him away into the desert. And He was there in the desert forty days, being tempted by the devil; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels continued to minister unto Him. Luke says: Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost, went away from the Jordan; and was led by the Spirit into the desert, being tempted by the devil forty days. And He ate nothing during those days; and they being completed, He was afterward hungry. I have gazed much upon the Mount of Temptation, lifting his bleak, rugged summit immediately west of Old Jericho, whose walls fell down responsive to the shouts of Israel, and about twenty miles from the ford of the Jordan where Jesus was baptized. It is a bleak, desolate, rugged, dreary region, inhabited only by wild beasts and robbers, unless the Bedoum, in his wanderings, here pitches his tent. The fact that Matthew and Luke positively state that He became hungry after the forty days, and Mark certifies that the angels were ministering unto Him throughout these forty days, involves the conclusion that He was supernaturally kept, in a state of spiritual rhapsody, like Moses and Elijah, during the forty days, so that He did not realize the sensation of hunger until after their expiration; and the ministering angels retiring, the natural, physical condition returns, and with it an intense sensation of hunger, as He had been forty days entirely without physical nutriment. Mark and Luke both state that the temptation was going on during the forty days, while Matthew states that after the forty days, the tempter coming to Him, said, If Thou art the Son of God, say that these stones Mark, and Luke, we conclude that during the forty days He was undergoing a temptation by the combined minions of perdition, and the powers of darkness turned loose against Him; meanwhile, the angels are present with Him, and through their sympathetic and consolatory ministrations, He enjoys a heavenly prelibation to such an extent as to fill His spirit with an unearthly rapture, the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom He had received when He descended on Him at the Jordan, so thrilling Him with heavenly ecstasy as to supersede and hold in suspense the physical appetites, so as to suspend the sensation of hunger during the forty days of angelic ministration. During this period, while evidently the powers of darkness are turned loose against Him, and doubtless the monsters of the pit swarm around Him, their hideous howling commingling with the growl and the roar of the wild beasts, yet, amid all, He enjoys a glorious victory, so that His spiritual rapture enables Him so to triumph over the physical destitution and depletion as to utterly suspend the sensation of hunger. At the expiration of forty days, the angels having retreated away, and the roar of the hell-hounds, the hissing of reptiles, and the ferocity of the wild beasts all combine to augment the dismal solitude and the awful peril of the situation, suddenly King Diabolus, having vacated his ebony throne in the Pandemonium, and assuming the form of a great and mighty man, like Napoleon Bonaparte or Alexander the Great, dressed in all the pompous costume of royal majesty, approaches Him, and enters upon a personal interview. The ministering angels have retreated away; His spiritual rhapsody no longer holding in suspense the physical functions, a fearful collapse of exhausted nature now supervenes, the intensity of His hunger, after a fast of forty days, being utterly inconceivable. Here we see Jesus at the greatest possible disadvantage.

(a) He is in the enemys territory, surrounded by desolation and horror; the ferocious wild beasts ready to devour Him, and more ferocious demons and hellish monsters on all sides, every angel having retreated away, and the bright glory of heaven mantled in dark eclipse, with the awful intensity of hunger, super induced by a forty days fast.

(b) In addition to all this, the prince of the Pandemonium, with the cultured intelligence of an archangel, now meets Him, with a personal order to satisfy His poor body with bread.

We must remember that, as Jesus was free from infirmity and from all physical ailment, which so frequently, in our case, suspends the appetite for food, His hunger subsequently to the expiration of the forty days and the angelic ministry was unutterably intense. While the Divinity of Christ could not be tempted, His humanity was tempted, in all the three great departments constituent to our being; i.e., the physical, spiritual, and intellectual.

(c) You observe from the inspired narrative that Satan made his first assault against the physical nature of Jesus, availing himself of the most superlative case of intensified hunger in order to induce Him to satisfy it by resorting to a miracle, which would be out of harmony with the Divine economy, because in probationary life we must be true to providence as well as grace, the former appertaining to the body, and the latter the soul; hence it was pertinent that Jesus, like every other man, should await the providence of God to satisfy His hunger.

In the case of Adam the First, Satan began with the physical, as now in the temptation of Jesus, it so turned out that he economized two thirds of his ammunition, achieving a complete victory in his first assault; i.e., slaying Adam on the first round. If he had failed in the temptation of his body with the fruit, he would then have proceeded to carry the war with all possible expedition into the dominion of spirit and intellect. Not so in the case of Adam the Second; there, Satan used all of his ammunition and lost it all.

(d) You see here the simple method by which Jesus defeated the devil:

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth through the mouth of God. He is our Infallible Example, who alone has a right to teach the Christian soldier how to fight. If we will follow His example, we are certain to always have victory. You may fight the devil with your creed, and he will run over you rough-shod. Fight him with the plain, simple Word of God, and, like the Salvation Army song,

If you want to see the devil run, Always shoot him with a gospel gun.

(e) Then the devil taketh Him into the holy city, and places Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and says to Him, if Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it has been written, He gives His angels charge over Thee, to hear Thee up, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. (Psa 91:2)

Satan is a great Scriptorian, always ready to quote it; but never giving it correctly. So you find Satans preachers, always twisting and turning the Word of the Lord to suit their creed. In this quotation, Diabolus very adroitly omits the clause, In all Thy ways. We can perfectly rely upon the keeping power of God, so long as we are in the Divine order; but when we get out, then the devil drops a lasso round our necks. In this assault i.e., Satans second campaign against Jesus he directs his ammunition against the citadel of His human spirit, the receptacle of Divine grace and keeping-power through faith. Consequently the enemy makes a gattling- gun attack on His faith, using all of his chicanery to vitiate it, by turning it into presumption, which is the devils counterfeit for faith. O how Satan manipulates to supply the pulpits and the pews with this counterfeit at which is but a trap-door to let them fall into hell! The people believe their creed and support their Church, and presume that they are Christians, while experimentally ignorant of that faith which alone can move the mountains of sin out of their hearts. Again, Jesus uses the Sword of the Spirit, responding to Satan, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Deu 6:16.) This consummates the second victory which Jesus won in that memorable wilderness battle. The holy city here, as revealed by Luke, was Jerusalem, whose magnificent temple, so splendidly and artistically built and repaired by Herod the Great, had several lofty towers, to the highest of which Satan now leads Jesus, and having Him now in position and plight to leap away and take chances on the stone pavement several hundred feet below, he makes the bold challenge. It is about twenty-five miles away from the Mount of Temptation in Judea to Jerusalem. I trow, Satan, in gaudy sacerdotal robes, or perhaps royal regalia, in human incarnation, actually became the concomitant of Jesus for a period of time not here specified, but beginning at the end of the forty days. shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of the same, and says to Him, All these will I give unto Thee if, falling down, You may worship before me. Luke states, Because it has been given unto me, and I give it to whom I wish.

Here we see that Satan resorts to a positive and unequivocal falsehood; though he has a false claim on the world, and a dominion over it which he has usurped, and for the time being for reasons not well known to us, but doubtless lying deep in the probationary economy he is permitted, in a sense, to reign over the world during the present evil age. (2Co 4:4.) Where E.V. represents God as calling the devil the god of this world, the true reading is the god of this age, as the world is to be gloriously redeemed after the Satanic age has come to an end. This is peculiar to Satans method of lying, especially to the people of God. While it is a substantial falsehood, it exhibits a phase of truth, in the simple fact of his usurped and temporarily permitted dominion over this world, which, even in the most plausible aspect, is subordinated to the sovereign, discriminating providence of God. We have no specification here as to what mountain this was. Mt. Olivet, east of Jerusalem, is the highest in all Southern Palestine. Mt. Pisgah, in full view, in the Land of Moab, east of the Dead Sea, is the highest in all that region. Mt. Hermon, two hundred miles north, ten thousand feet high, is actually the highest in all the Land of Canaan. As Luke says Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, he must have resorted to a panorama, in which he exhibited before the eye of Jesus all the time-honored kingdoms and mighty empires possessing and ruling the world at that time. This temptation was an assault against the powerful, unfallen intellect of Jesus. The greatest minds the ages have ever known, have all been embargoed, darkened, and paralyzed by the fall. As an Intellectualist, the Man Jesus stands alone in the world. Do you not see in His life how all the genius and the learning of the world and the fallen Church were laid under contribution to confuse, tangle up, and perplex Him? In all the histories of the ages, no other absolutely imperturbable man has ever been found. All the sophistry of priests, theologians, and politicians combined, signally failed in any case to embarrass or confuse Him. This final assault of the enemy, on the line of human ambition, appeals to His wonderful intellect. Nebuchadnezzar, order to conquer and possess it. These were all powerful intellectualists. The greater the intellect, the more incorrigible the ambition. The Greek proskuneses not only means worship, in the sense of adoration offered to a god, hut it means that homage and civility which we extend to persons of royal rank and dignity.

(g) You must remember that Satan before his fall was a great archangel, one of the brightest that ever shone around the effulgent Throne.

The Son of God is uncreated and co-eternal with the Father. Doubtless, during this interview, which was probably more prolix than we generally think, Satan adverted to their old friendship in the regions of fadeless bliss, and perhaps appealed to His sympathies; as amid those terrible troubles which had already resulted in his ejectment from heaven, he had resorted to an effort to enlarge his dominions by the accession of this world to the contracted regions of woe; and now, O Son of God, that You have come to dispute my claim to the planet Earth, I propose to compromise the whole matter by surrendering up to You the sole and exclusive dominion of this controverted territory, with the understanding that You shall have it and reign over it forever, while I will reign in the dominion of Hades; meanwhile, I shall enjoin but one condition on Your part, and that is, that You and I shall be friends again, as in bygone ages in celestial worlds. Of course, any complicity with Satan would have abducted the humanity from the Divinity, which, in that case, would have returned back to heaven, the plan of salvation collapsing forever. Then Jesus says to him, Get behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord God; Him only shalt thou serve. (Deu 6:13.) Then Satan leaves Him, as Luke says, for a season.

Behold, the angels came and continued to minister unto Him. Here you see that a single stroke with the Sword of the Spirit repels Satan, and consummates the victory. There is now good reason for his final and utter withdrawal from the battle-field. Every army retreats the moment their ammunition is all expended. As Satan had no possible access to the Divinity, he could only work on the humanity, which, pursuant to the Divine similitude in which man was created, has but three entities i.e., the physical, spiritual, and intellectual. When Satan had turned all the battering rams of hell against these three towers of Mansoul, and in every case suffered signal defeat, he could do nothing more than retreat from the field, crestfallen and hopelessly defeated. What a decisive contrast with his first battle against humanity in Eden, where he saved two thirds of his ammunition, Adam falling on the first assault! But now, in his campaign against Adam the Second, you see he used all of his ammunition, and lost it all. Glorious victory for you and me, and all who, through evangelical repentance and humble faith, will receive it!

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 12

Driveth him; that is, influenced him to go.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

I will not make a lot of the point that the Spirit descended and “immediately the Spirit” wasworking in His life. Some make huge effort to prove that Christ did all He did on earth by His own divine power, yet here it is plain that the Spirit was very powerful in His life. “Driveth” is not the term I would have used of a being that was choosing His own options in life.

“Driveth” is normally translated “cast out” which demands a little more than just a minor “leading” of the Spirit, but a real force in His life. The lexicon lists as part of the meaning the thought of “deprive of power” thus again we see something that is of marked import, not just something of insignificance. Christ was driven to the wilderness for God’s purpose. Again, if Christ was under His own divine power, do you think the Spirit could “drive” Him or indeed need to drive Him? It seems rather inconsistent to me.

“Wilderness” gives a good definition to the word. Desert is also a possible aspect to the word. One aspect that might be surmised but that is not evident in the word itself is “lonely” which seems to be an additional thought of the word. Not only was Christ in a desolate place, but a lonely place as well.

Mat 4:1 “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” The term Matthew uses is more in line with the thought of leading and it is in the passive voice which would indicate the action did not involve the Lord. It was the Spirit that was doing the action. This is the case in the Luke text as well. The Lord was being acted upon according to Matthew and Luke, while Mark also pictures the Spirit as the active member of the situation. It would seem that Christ was definitely moved of the Spirit to go into the wilderness.

Luke also uses the term “led” to describe this moment in the Lord’s life. 4.1 “and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” The term he uses has the thought of laying hold of to lead as you would lead an animal.

The synoptics seem to picture Christ as being led or directed quite forcefully into the wilderness. It is of note that there were different words used. From the Spirit’s action it seems to be much more forceful, but from Jesus perspective much less forceful. What a perfect picture of God’s working in our lives. We see His leading as a part of our life, something that is allowed, yet in God’s mind and action it is something that is much more forceful and definite. (Calvinists, do not make too much of this statement, it does not mean that Christ had no choice in the situation and I do not imply such 🙂

This is such a beautiful picture of God’s working in the background of our lives. We seldom know the intricacies of His working and protecting within our lives. He is constantly involved in our lives background not just spasmodically. Many times in our lives it has been evident in retrospect that He was so totally in our lives. Many times when we have narrowly avoided terrible accidents or problems, it has been evident in looking back over the situation that many little things came together to bring us to the close call rather than the catastrophe that it could have been.

One Christmas we were to drive to another state for the day. When I was finished with work, I climbed into the car and found we had car trouble. The problem added about a half-hour to ourdeparture time. We finally left our home and started down the freeway. As we entered the interchange area where we needed to go north, we could see a large fire burning. The nearer we came to the fire the more chilled we became. It was a fuel tanker that had overturned on the exit area where we needed to go north.

The terrible thought was plain in our minds – what if the car had not given trouble – might we have been in that disastrous wreck?

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

1:12 {6} And immediately the Spirit {i} driveth him into the wilderness.

(6) Christ being tempted overcomes.

(i) “Driveth” here does not refer to something violent and forcible: but the divine power clothes Christ (who had lived until this time as a private man) with a new person, and prepares him for the battle that was at hand, and for his ministry.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The temptation of Jesus 1:12-13 (cf. Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13)

Jesus’ temptation by Satan was another event that prepared the divine Servant for His ministry. [Note: For comparison of Moses’, Elijah’s, and Jesus’ 40-day periods of temptation, see Edersheim, 1:294.] Mark’s account is brief, and it stresses the great spiritual conflict that this temptation posed for Jesus. The writer omitted any reference to Jesus’ feelings about the temptation. A servant’s response to his trials is more important than his feelings about them.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

"Immediately" connects the temptation closely with the baptism. The same Spirit that came on Jesus at His baptism now "impelled" or drove (Gr. ekballo) Him into the wilderness for testing. [Note: See Sydney H. T. Page, "Satan: God’s Servant," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 50:3 (September 2007):449-65.] In the Old Testament the Israelites associated inhabited and cultivated land with God’s blessing and wilderness with His curse. Jesus had submitted humbly to identification with humankind and Israel in particular. Now he experienced the consequences of that identification: temptation. Temptation is not an indication that one is out of God’s will. It sometimes results from following the Spirit’s leading.

"Mark’s expression does not mean that Jesus was forced out into the wilderness against His will but that He went with a strong sense of the Spirit’s compulsion upon Him. Since the object of His Messianic mission was to ’destroy the works of the devil’ (1Jn 3:8), Jesus recognized that His acceptance of the Servant vocation made the encounter essential. It was the initiation of His mission to overthrow the devil. His miracle-working ministry of authority over demons was based on the victory won in this encounter." [Note: Hiebert, p. 39.]

"Mark makes evident that the wilderness in his story carries a dual significance: At times it is a hostile and threatening atmosphere, at other times it is a place of preparation." [Note: B. Dale Ellenburg, "A Review of Selected Narrative-Critical Conventions in Mark’s Use of Miracle Material," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38:2 (June 1995):175-76.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER 1:12, 13 (Mar 1:12-13)

THE TEMPTATION

“And straightway the Spirit driveth Him forth into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and He was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him.” Mar 1:12-13 (R.V.)

ST. Mark has not recorded the details of our Lord’s temptations, and lays more stress upon the duration of the struggle, than the nature of the last and crowning assaults. But he is careful, like the others, to connect it closely with the baptism of Jesus, and the miraculous testimony then borne to Him.

It is indeed instructive that He should have suffered this affront, immediately upon being recognized as the Messiah. But the explanation will not be found in the notion, which Milton has popularized, that only now Satan was assured of the urgent necessity for attacking Him:

“That heard the adversary . . . and with the voice Divine

Nigh thunderstruck, the exalted Man, to whom

Such high attest was given, awhile surveyed

With wonder.”

As if Satan forgot the marvels of the sacred infancy. As if the spirits who attack all could have failed to identify, after thirty years of defeat, the Greater One whom the Baptist had everywhere proclaimed. No. But Satan admirably chose the time for a supreme effort. High places are dizzy, and especially when one has just attained them; and therefore it was when the voice of the herald and the Voice from the heavens were blended in acclaim, that the Evil One tried all his arts. He had formerly plunged Elijah into despair and a desire to die, immediately after fire from heaven responded to the prophet’s prayer. Soon after this, he would degrade Peter to be his mouthpiece, just when his noblest testimony was borne, and the highest approval of his Lord was won. In the flush of their triumphs he found his best opportunity; but Jesus remained unflushed, and met the first recorded temptation, in the full consciousness of Messiahship, by quoting the words which spoke to every man alike, and as man.

It is a lesson which the weakest needs to learn, for little victories can intoxicate little men.

It is easy then to see why the recorded temptations insist upon the exceptional dignity of Christ, and urge Him to seize its advantages, while He insists on bearing the common burden, and proves Himself greatest by becoming least of all. The sharp contrast between His circumstances and His rank drove the temptations deep into His consciousness, and wounded His sensibilities, though they failed to shake His will.

How unnatural that the Son of God should lack and suffer hunger, how right that He should challenge recognition, how needful (though now His sacred Personality is cunningly allowed to fall somewhat into the background) that He should obtain armies and splendor.

This explains the possibility of temptation in a sinless nature, which indeed can only be denied by assuming that sin is part of the original creation. Not because we are sinful, but because we are flesh and blood (of which He became partaker), when we feel the pains of hunger we are attracted by food, at whatever price it is offered. In truth, no man is allured by sin, but only by the bait and bribe of sin, except perhaps in the last stages of spiritual decomposition.

Now, just as the bait allures, and not the jaws of the trap, so the power of a temptation is not its wickedness, not the guilty service, but the proffered recompense; and this appeals to the most upright man, equally with the most corrupt. Thus the stress of a temptation is to be measured by our gravitation, not towards the sin, but towards the pleasure or advantage which is entangled with that. And this may be realized even more powerfully by a man of keen feeling and vivid imagination who does not falter, than by a grosser nature which succumbs.

Now Jesus was a perfect man. To His exquisite sensibilities, which had neither inherited nor contracted any blemish, the pain of hunger at the opening of His ministry, and the horror of the cross at its close, were not less intense, but sharper than to ours. And this pain and horror measured the temptation to evade them. The issue never hung in the scales; even to hesitate would have been to forfeit the delicate bloom of absolute sinlessness; but, none the less, the decision was costly, the temptation poignant.

St. Mark has given us no details; but there is immense and compressed power in the assertion, only his, that the temptation lasted all through the forty days. We know the power of an unremitting pressure, an incessant importunity, a haunting thought. A very trifling annoyance, long protracted, drives men to strange remedies. And the remorseless urgency of Satan may be measured by what St. Matthew tells us, that only after the forty days Jesus became aware of the pains of hunger. Perhaps the assertion that He was with the wild beasts may throw some ray of light upon the nature of the temptation. There is no intimation of bodily peril. On the other hand it seems incredible that what is hinted is His own consciousness of the supernatural dignity from which

“The fiery serpent fled, and noxious worm;

The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.”

Such a consciousness would have relieved the strain of which their presence is evidently a part. Nay, but the oppressive solitude, the waste region so unlike His blooming Nazareth, and the ferocity of the brute creation, all would conspire to suggest those dread misgivings and questionings which are provoked by “the something that infects the world.”

Surely we may believe that He Who was tempted at all points like as we are, felt now the deadly chill which falls upon the soul from the shadow of our ruined earth. In our nature He bore the assault and overcame. And then His human nature condescended to accept help, such as ours receives, from the ministering spirits which are sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation. So perfectly was He made like unto His brethren.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary