Explanation accompanying the study ‘Satan’s character according the use of words in the N.T.’
Matthew 4:1-11.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus had just been baptised by John the Baptist.
And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
(Mark 1:11)
The devil tries to make Jesus doubt this statement by His Father, and, as a result, to persuade Jesus to prove Himself.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
Once again the devil tries to make Jesus doubt Who He is.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
The trap he sets for Jesus gets all the larger, because the devil quotes Scripture (Psalm 91:11-12). He suggests, therefore, that his suggestion is a good one.
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
The devil offers Jesus the possibility of obtaining dominion over the world, without going the way of the cross.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
If Jesus had done as he said, He would not have had to die on the cross. Sins would then have never been able to be forgiven.
The world would have then remained under the dominion of the devil, forever, because Jesus would have received dominion under the devil’s authority.
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’
Jesus addresses the devil here as Satan, the adversary, who is barricading the way, to prevent Jesus from carrying out the commission for which He came to this world.
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
The parallel text from Luke 4:1-13.
Luke describes the same event.
The text thereof is added to the devil’s statement, that dominion over the world was transferred to him.
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted[p] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus does not deny that the devil possesses dominion over the world. The devil took it over from Adam and Eve in paradise. They came under subjection to the adversary as a result of their disobedience.
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.