The King is tested in the wilderness
4
📚Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil 📖. 2 📚And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.4:2 Compare Ex 24:18; 34:28; Deut 8:2; 1 Kings 19:8. In the Bible the number 40 is connected with a time of trial and preparation.⚜
3 📚And when the tempter 📖 came to him, he said, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”.
4 📚But he answered and said,
“It is written, 📖 Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word
that comes from the mouth of God 📖”.
4:4 The Lord Jesus in His fight against Satan used the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And He put up the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of Satan (Eph 6:16-17).⚜
5 📚Then the devil took him up to the holy city 📖, and had him stand on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 📚and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
He will give his angels a command
concerning you,
and they will bear you up in their hands,
so that you will not at any time strike
your foot against a stone”.
4:6 Satan too can quote from the Bible. He will try to use the sword of the Spirit against us. He will deny that the Bible is God's Word if it suits His purpose. Or he will say it is God's Word and then pervert its meaning, if that suits his purpose. And He has many willing helpers in the world – 2 Cor 11:13-15; Gal 1:7. Satan will take his quotations from the Bible out of context and misapply them.
The words of v 6 are taken from Ps 91:11-12. They were given to those who live in God and who accept God's rule over their lives (Ps 91:1-9). The promises there were not given to those who act as they please for their own purposes apart from God. It is never wise to follow a suggestion of the devil, especially when he quotes from the Bible. His aim will always be to get us to act on our own apart from God's guidance, to have us attempt things for our own reputation or pleasure or profit, and not for God's glory.
Each of the three temptations Satan brought against Christ had to do with Christ's complete submission to God's will. Christ came to glorify God, not to win fame and name for Himself. It was not for Him to perform some spectacular miracle without moral purpose.⚜
7 📚Jesus said to him,
“Again, it is written,
You shall not test the Lord
your God”.
4:7 See Deut 6:16. Men should not get themselves into difficulties and dangers by their foolishness and presumption, expecting God to miraculously deliver them. It is man's business to believe God and obey Him, not to try to force God to do miracles. There is a big difference between presumption and faith. Observe that Jesus used a Scripture rightly interpreted to counter Satan's misapplied use of Scripture. For a proper understanding of the Bible, Scripture must be compared with Scripture, and any Scripture should be studied in its context.⚜
8 📚Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, 9 📚and said to him, “All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me”.
4:8-9 Here Satan revealed his secret desire – he wants people to worship him. He is the “god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4). As such he wants people to honor him and bow to him and obey him. And men do so, some knowingly, some unknowingly. See Lev 17:7; Deut 32:17; Ps 106:37; 1 Cor 10:20; Rev 9:20. To accomplish this he is active in all matters on earth, both secular and religious.
One way he attracts people to himself and his ways is to offer them worldly possessions and power. He can give these things because in a sense they came into his power when he caused Adam to sin. Adam was God's person to rule the earth (see Gen 1:27-28). He was the father and representative of the human race. Satan succeeded in gaining a large measure of control over the human race because of Adam's fall into sin. Compare Luke 4:6; John 12:31; Eph 2:1-2; 2 Tim 2:26; 1 John 5:19.
For only a little of this world's wealth or glory or power a great many people are willing to abandon righteous principles, reject God's truth, and follow the way of lies and deceit and selfishness and injustice, which is the way of Satan (it is a very sad thing that some of these call themselves Christians).
The difference between Christ and them is seen in this: they will abandon all principles of righteousness to gain a small piece of land, but Christ would not abandon a single principle of righteousness to gain the whole world. Christ scorned all that Satan offered. He remained determined to be true to God the Father, and do the Father's will, though it meant poverty, suffering, and death. He is our example.⚜
10 📚Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan. For it is written,
You shall worship the Lord your God,
and you shall serve only him”.
4:10 See Deut 6:13. This sets forth the limit of true worship. Only The Lord (Jehovah – Ex 3:14), the God of the Bible, the Creator of the universe, the only God there is, is worthy of worship (notes at Ex 20:1-6). A clear command of God in the Bible was enough for Jesus. It meant for Him immediate, absolute, permanent obedience. And any suggestion that would lead Him away from that was to be utterly rejected. He is our example in this too. The fact that Jesus accepted worship from others and that God told angels to worship Jesus reveals that Jesus is the incarnation of God (Matt 28:17; John 20:28; Heb 1:6).⚜
11 📚Then the devil left him, and, at once, angels came and ministered to him.
The King begins His public ministry
12 📚Now when Jesus heard that John had been thrown into prison, he went to Galilee. 13 📚And leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the lake, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
14 📚so that there might be a fulfilment of what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
15 📚The land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond
the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles:
16 📚The people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and on those who sat in the region
and shadow of death light
has dawned.
17 📚From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, 📖 for the kingdom of heaven 📖 is at hand”.
18 📚And Jesus, walking by the lake of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 📚And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”.
4:19 Being “fishers” of men does not mean catching men for one's own purposes. The work of Christ's disciples was (and is) to bring men from sin to Christ and eternal salvation. This is the greatest and noblest work on earth. Observe that it is Christ who makes His disciples “fishers of men” – it does not come out of their own hearts and they cannot accomplish it themselves. Christ makes them that as they “follow” Him – as they take His way, obediently listen to His instructions, and receive the Spirit He gives. From the book of Acts and the letters of the apostles we can see what fishers of men they became.⚜
20 📚And immediately they left their nets, and followed him.
4:20 Observe the power and authority of Jesus' call to these men, and their immediate obedience. Here is another example of God's sovereign choice of some from among men to be His servants (Mark 3:13-14; John 15:16; Acts 22:14-15; Gen 12:1; Ex 3:4, 10; Josh 1:2; Jer 1:4-5).⚜
21 📚And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. They were in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 📚And immediately they left the ship and their father, and followed him.
4:21-22 The Lord Jesus did not choose His disciples from among the priests in the temple, the learned teachers of the law, the wealthy, or the politically or socially powerful. He chose ordinary people in ordinary jobs, and then made them extraordinary in the work of God's kingdom. Compare 1 Cor 1:26-29. This is still the method of the Lord Jesus.⚜
23 📚And Jesus went around all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues 📖, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and disease among the people. 24 📚And his fame spread all over Syria 📖. And they brought to him all who were in the grip of various diseases and acute pains, and those who were demon-possessed 📖, and epileptics and paralytics. And he healed them. 25 📚And great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan, followed him.
4:25 Decapolis was a region east of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River.⚜