The Forty Days of the Lord's Temptation

 •  18 min. read  •  grade level: 7
 
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.”
"And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
"But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
"Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
"Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
“And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.”
"And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.”
"And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
"And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; and the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou, therefore, wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”
"And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
"And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
" And Jesus, answering, said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
" And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season." (Luke 4:1-131And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: 11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. (Luke 4:1‑13).)
We may recall very easily another scene that was enacted about a thousand years before this (of which we have two detailed accounts given by two of the writers of the Gospels); the former happened in the valley of Elah, as narrated in 1 Sam. 17. David- then a stripling, and just about to enter on his public service in the reign of Saul- had come down from his father's house to the aid of his brethren and the people of God, who were trembling in terror at the power of the Philistines. Goliath, their champion, had challenged them each day for forty days, when David arrived on the scene. At once he is rejected by his brethren, and then entered into the conflict alone- a conflict, of which the issue was complete victory for the armies of God, and deliverance for His people, at that day.
It was, but a shadow, forecasting that greater conflict of the greater than David, who came from His Father's house to re-open that great question, commenced four thousand years before in Paradise, between man and Satan, and to show what the true "Man after God's own heart" could do in the presence of the foe. It was but a faint type, but it points, as all things did in God's hand, to Jesus.
If we examine these two accounts of the temptation of Christ, we find that He not only enters on this scene and conflict to prove His right as the Second man, the Lord from heaven, in all that in which the first man had failed; but He begins that wondrous course of education- if I may so say- in which He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and suffered, being tempted, that He might be able to speak a word in season unto him that is weary, and that He might succor them also which are tempted; thus practically fitted to be a merciful and faithful High Priest for us.
We are not told what passed in those "forty days and forty nights." God has drawn a veil over that solemn conflict. But we are allowed to see its close- "all the temptation" being finished.
We may note the difference in the order in which the temptations are spoken of in the two Gospels. This, like everything in the word of God, is of importance, and has its significance. In the account in Matthew, the order is this: you have His obedience tested first, then His dependence. These are the two characteristics of the new man- Christ in us- of which He was the grand and blessed exemplar. Then to this obedient and dependent One are presented all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and He triumphs over the enemy and all his toils.
In the Gospel of Luke I think another lesson is presented to us. Here we have the trinity of evil which came in, in Paradise when our first parents fell. "The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," then entered this fair scene: "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise." This, then, is the order here. In verse 3, &c., we have the lust of the flesh; in verse 5, the lust of the eye; and in verse 9, &c., the pride of life. And at the close, we find that when the "devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season." Then, at the close of His course, He said to His disciples, at the end of John 14, on His way to the garden of Gethsemane, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." This was the second time the tempter was permitted to cross His path. At the beginning he sought to seduce Him from His path of obedience, and then to deter Him from being the Victim in making atonement at the end. This was the time when He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood in His agony, when accepting the cup from His Father's hand.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, which unfolds the Priesthood and work of the blessed Lord, we find those two scenes alluded to separately and distinctly. In Heb. 4:1515For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15), the Spirit of God specially refers to the close of the forty days' temptations at the opening of His public service, in the words, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we, except sin (χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας);" and in Heb. 5:55So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. (Hebrews 5:5) we have the other scene at the close of His life: "who, in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." In the scene of Gethsemane, in Matthew 26, we find those prayers, supplications, and strong crying and tears referred to in verses 39, 42, and 44, His "prayer" deepening to "supplication," and His "supplication" to "strong crying and tears," to be answered fully on the morning of resurrection, and to be dried up forever when He entered upon His heavenly joy and glory.
But when we contrast those words which describe His sorrow with those which describe the heart of the tried saint, in Phil. 4, instead of "prayer and supplication, with strong crying and tears," as with Him, He has taken the sting out of every bitter sorrow for His own, and with them it is "prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving." He has borne our sins- not one remains. He has tasted our sorrows- not one is without His sympathy. In life and in death, and in life for evermore, He is our perfect High Priest and Savior!
Over those "forty days" temptations God has drawn a veil. "Afterward [mark the word] he hungered." Note now the wisdom of the foe. We shall always find that the tempter adapts the temptation to our present state. With Christ it was ever perfection. He hungered; but this was not sin; there was nothing evil in being an hungered. Still, the temptation was suited to His then state by this father of lies.
Is not this the case with us? Does not the tempter know how to suit his temptation to our present state? Does he not know what is suited to move our lusts- to seduce us out of the path of obedience? Does he not know the love of the world in our hearts?- the ambition of another- the pride of a third- the vanity of another? Does he not see the covetousness of that heart- the lust working in this? Does not the tempter know how to draw each one away of his own lust, and entice such? There is a poor man struggling with the world and his children's need. The tempter tempts him to be discontented with his lot. There is a godly woman with a bad husband. She is tempted to impatience with her life of sorrow. There is that rich man who hoards his money. He has been often deceived, he thinks, in giving it away. There is a corner of his heart over which "covetous" may be written. He gives way to the temptation to close his purse-strings, and the tempter has his victory.
I might go on in this strain; but all who read these words know well how the thing that suited the "old man, which is corrupt," within them, has been ministered to by the tempter, and how, perhaps unknown to themselves, they have fallen his prey for the moment. I say "for the moment," for I speak of those who are open to his devices- saints of God with the flesh in them. The poor child of Adam is often left alone by the tempter; he is his sure and certain prey, and needs no special watchful care from the enemy of Christ. With him, his course seems in Satan's highway, and unless grace turns his heart there is no need; his own heart, and his own lusts, and the world around, answer well enough for him.
But Jesus "hungered." This was the will of God. Could it happen without such? Nay. "Command that these stones be made bread," suggested the tempter. "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God," had passed the lips of the Eternal Son, and now on earth He will obey. Have we never satisfied our hunger, our need, at the expense of the word of God? Look at our daily life, reader; does it not cut home deeply into every motive of our life and ways? Our needs, too, each day, are they ever satisfied independently of God? Alas, for the reply, even from the lips and hearts of the brightest saints I How "Christ" detects our souls, yet, blessed be His name, forms us after the image of Himself who thus lays us bare. Jesus came to be the subject One, the will-less Man (though divinely entitled to have a will, surely). To "command," then, was not for Him who came to show us how to obey. To command the winds and waves was His, when in obedience to His Father and God. To command for self and His need could never be, for "self" was never there! To obey was all with Him in a scene formed by man under Satan's power, independently of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." No word had passed His "mouth" to "make stones bread" to satisfy hunger, apart from His will. Thus was the tempter stripped of his power; obedience to the word of God left him a conquered foe, and Christ was victor by obedience over man's mighty conqueror.
We have a nature capable of being drawn aside, and an ever watchful enemy ready with his temptations. Christ had not this; but still, whether for Him or for us, obedience is victory. We never can be in a single circumstance where we cannot- nay, are not bound- to do the will of God, be that what it may. Thus we may ever be conquerors, as He was here. But let us ever remember that it is the state of soul in which we are to which the tempter presents his wile, adapting it to that which is uppermost at the moment in our heart; and each moment of each day and hour is the opportunity for his defeat or victory. If the latter, the soul may be restored, but the scar remains, telling us of a moment's defeat in us, and of a victory of the enemy.
Now mark what ensues. The skilful general does not continue to attack the point where he has been repulsed successfully, he changes his mode, and turns the nank of his foe. How rapidly, too, is this accomplished by the successful tempter. How well the human heart is known. How frequently have those who have resisted well in his attacks fallen, forgetful that they were never nearer a fall than when they had resisted well.
In the case of Jesus how sudden was the change. "Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple," &c. So with us: one thing is tried, and we resist, and foil the foe; the next moment we fail where we least expected to have done so. Our success was thought to be our own. We ceased to be dependent, and withdrew our eyes from Him who withdraweth not His eyes from us; and thus, and only thus, we fall. A heart distrustful of itself, which ever looks to Him, He succors with His timely help to keep us from a fall.
Will Jesus, too, be a dependent One, and teach us so? The tempter says- using, as it were, the word of God, by which He lived, that to which He had appealed as His guide, and the director of His life- he says, "If thou be Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." The promise of God to His Messiah who dwelt in the secret of the Most High, and lodged under the shadow of Abraham's God, who had made Jehovah His refuge and fortress; His God, in whom He would trust. It was to Him this promise was made, just quoted by the enemy. But mark the word which accompanied this promise; how God, as it were, delighted to unite with His promise the dependent heart of this blessed One, which only brought out His deep perfections. "Because thou hast made the Lord my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation." This was the dependence of Jesus; this, what drew forth the promise of the Lord just quoted by the enemy. He had made His God His refuge and His trust: no need, then, to try would He be as good as He had said- no need to test One fully trusted. We put the test to those we do not fully trust, not to those we do. To do so, would be but to "tempt the Lord." Satan sought to inspire Him with confidence in the word of God in spite of disobedience. He quotes the promised security, omitting the required trust. Jesus quotes that word to Israel which made the obedience the ground of His security, and kept His blessings as the dependent Man
Oh, my reader, have we no word in this for our own souls? Have the promises of our God been clung to, and even rejoiced in, by us when walking in disobedience? Have we never beheld this in those we love and esteem as His own? What He has done for them in salvation trusted in and enjoyed; while a disobedient pathway speaks so plainly as to need no word from us to point it out? In this, too, Jesus was the blessed Conqueror- in this the enemy of souls was foiled.
Again," (ver. 8.) What, "Again!" Yes, my reader, and “again," and onwards to the end. No truce here in this path for us, no time here is allowed to put off the armor of God, even for a moment. "Again," then, all the glory of the world is presented to Him whose own it is, but refused by Him from any hand but from His Father's. The distant time might have been shortened, the path of suffering spared, the cross and shame avoided. But this was not to be. The Giver was valued in His gift, and the Son chose to have it alone from His Father's hand. Let the blessing come only from Him, and all would be well. The malignant foe is discomfited, and Jesus stands at the close of this conflict a Victor! "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," closes the scene.
Satan departs from Him "for a season," and angels came and ministered unto Him. Mark this striking scene. How it reminds one of that final day of victory which ushers in the millennial glory: "The kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," stretched out beneath His gaze; then all His own. Satan cast into the bottomless pit for the thousand years' restraint; God's unfallen creatures ministering to their true and only Lord with willing hearts and hands. It only wanted His own blood-bought ones, His church, to complete the scene. But the day is coming fast when she, too, will be there, and when Satan, as lightning, will fall from heaven, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.
There is a calm for human hearts, too, which conquer in temptation even now- a holy sense of deep dependence and of joy felt by those who have resisted, in the strength of Christ, the tempter's power. The angels who ministered to those who shall inherit salvation may thus be employed even now. But the day is approaching when every trial of our faith will come forth as gold tried in the fire, and be found unto His praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Would not the Lord, too, as He looked across that scene of sin, and sorrow, and evil which stretched before His view, as Satan was cast down before Him- the obedient and dependent Man- would He not think of all who then were His; and all who would come after, for whom He had thus learned what it was to "suffer, being tempted," and how to speak a "word in season" to every weary heart? This, too, ere He descended to traverse that path which led only to His cross and shame.
But remember, dear friends, that, while the tempter thinks of your state of soul, and suits his temptations to your desires, there is Another, too, who thinks of us, who "ever liveth to make intercession for us," One who has been in conflict and in victory, and thus has shown us how to obey, and how to conquer too. We have to do with a beaten foe, and to be sustained by his Conqueror. But this must ever be as dependent ones, who, like Himself, should "learn obedience by things which we suffer." He learned as One to whom to obey was a new thing- new, for One who commanded all from eternity. We learn obedience, too, as a new thing as well as He, but new to us in another way; new, because God's will is now taking its place in hearts hitherto opposed in will to Him, but taking its place surely, though it may be slowly, in hearts renewed by grace, to which the deepest joy will be, that His will shall flow in unhindered blessedness in that scene of rest, from our restless wills, when God will rest in His love forever. F. G. P.