Matthew 4:1

Led, not against His will, or as a prisoner, but as by a desire for the conflict.

The Lord being baptized by John with water, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be baptized by the fire of temptation. 'Then,' i. e. when the voice of the Father had been given from heaven. He was led by the Holy Spirit, not as an inferior at the bidding of a greater. For we say led, not only of him who is constrained by a stronger than he, but also of him who is induced by reasonable persuasion; as Andrew found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus. The Devil comes against men to tempt them, but since He could not come against Christ, therefore Christ came against the Devil. Not Christ only is led into the desert by the Spirit, but also all the sons of God who have the Holy Spirit. For they are not content to sit idle, but the Holy Spirit stirs them to take up some great work, i. e. to go out into the desert where they shall meet with the Devil; for there is no unrighteousness wherewith the Devil is pleased. For all good is without the flesh and the world, because it is not according to the will of the flesh and the world. To such a desert then all the sons of God go out that they may be tempted. For example if you are unmarried, the Holy Spirit has in that led you into the desert, that is, beyond the limits of the flesh and the world, that you may be tempted by lust. But he who is married is unmoved by such temptation. Let us learn that the sons of God are not tempted but when they have gone forth into the desert, but the children of the Devil whose life is in the flesh and the world are then overcome and obey; the good man, having a wife is content; the bad, though he have a wife is not therewith content, and so in all other things. The children of the Devil go not out to the Devil that they may be tempted. For what need that he should seek the strife who desires not victory? […]

(Hom. xiii.) Whoever thou art then that after thy baptism sufferest grievous trials, be not troubled thereat; for this thou receivedst arms, to fight, not to sit idle. God does not hold all trial from us; first, that we may feel that we are become stronger; secondly, that we may not be puffed up by the greatness of the gifts we have received; thirdly, that the Devil may have experience that we have entirely renounced him; fourthly, that by it we may be made stronger; fifthly, that we may receive a sign of the treasure entrusted to us; for the Devil would not come upon us to tempt us, did he not see us advanced to greater honours. The Devil is wont to be most urgent with temptation, when he sees us solitary; thus it was in the beginning he tempted the woman when he found her without the man, and now too the occasion is offered to the Devil, by the Saviour's being led into the desert. But that you may learn how great a good is fasting, and what a mighty shield against the Devil, and that after baptism you ought to give attention to fasting and not to lusts, therefore Christ fasted, not Himself needing it, but teaching us by His example. But He exceeded not the measure of Moses and Elias, lest it should bring into doubt the reality of His assumption of the flesh.

Then When? After the descent of the Spirit, after the voice that was borne from above, and said, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And what was marvellous, it was of the Holy Spirit; for this, he here saith, led Him up. For since with a view to our instruction He both did and underwent all things; He endures also to be led up thither, and to wrestle against the devil: in order that each of those who are baptized, if after his baptism he have to endure greater temptations may not be troubled as if the result were unexpected, but may continue to endure all nobly, as though it were happening in the natural course of things. Yea, for therefore thou didst take up arms, not to be idle, but to fight. For this cause neither doth God hinder the temptations as they come on, first to teach thee that thou art become much stronger; next, that thou mayest continue modest neither be exalted even by the greatness of thy gifts, the temptations having power to repress thee; moreover, in order that that wicked demon, who is for a while doubtful about thy desertion of him, by the touchstone of temptations may be well assured that thou hast utterly forsaken and fallen from him; fourthly, that thou mayest in this way be made stronger, and better tempered than any steel; fifthly, that thou mayest obtain a clear demonstration of the treasures entrusted to thee. For the devil would not have assailed thee, unless he had seen thee brought to greater honor. Hence, for example, from the beginning, he attacked Adam, because he saw him in the enjoyment of great dignity. […]

For since Adam met with luxury in paradise and, through deception, deteriorated to what is worse, it was necessary that [the Spirit] lead Christ into the wilderness in order to enfeeble the devil's force by someone greater in strength. So he fasted for forty nights …

Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Teaching us that it is especially after our baptism that we should expect temptations, He is led up by the Holy Spirit; for He did nothing apart from the Holy Spirit. He is led …

(Hom. in. Ev. 16.1.) Some doubt what Spirit it was that led Jesus into the desert, for that it is said after, The Devil took him into the holy city. But true and without question agreeable to the context is the received opinion, that it was the Holy Spirit; that His own Spirit should lead Him thither where the evil spirit should find Him to try Him. (ubi sup.) We should know that there are three modes of temptation; suggestion, delight, and consent; and we when we are tempted commonly fall into delight or consent, because being born of the sin of the flesh, we bear with us whence we afford strength for the contest; but God who incarnate in the Virgin's womb came into the world without sin, carried within Him nothing of a contrary nature. He could then be tempted by suggestion; but the delight of sin never gnawed His soul, and therefore all that temptation of the Devil was without not within Him. (Hom. in. Ev. 16. 5.) The Creator of all things took no food whatever during forty days. We also, at the season of Lent as much as in us lies afflict our flesh by abstinence. The number forty is preserved, because the virtue of the decalogue is fulfilled in the books of the holy Gospel; and ten taken four times amounts to forty. Or, because in this mortal body we consist of four elements by the delights of which we go against the Lord's precepts received by the decalogue. And as we transgress the decalogue through the lusts of this flesh, it is fitting that we afflict the flesh forty-fold. Or, as by the Law we offer the tenth of our goods, so we strive to offer the tenth of our time. And from the first Sunday of Lent to the rejoicing of the paschal festival is a space of six weeks, or forty-two days, subtracting from which the six Sundays which are not kept there remain thirty-six. […]

It is often doubted by some by what spirit Jesus was led into the desert, because of what follows: "The devil took him up into the holy city." And again: "He took him up onto a high mountain." This question is properly understood if we believe he was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit, so that his own Spirit would lead him there, where the evil spirit would then find him to tempt him. But behold, when it is said that God made man was taken up by the devil either onto a high mountain or into the holy city, the mind recoils, human ears are terrified to hear this. Yet we recognize that these things are not incredible if we consider other things that were done to him. Certainly the devil is the head of all the wicked, and all the wicked are members of this head. Was not Pilate a member of the devil? Were not the Jews who persecuted and the soldiers who crucified Christ members of the devil? What wonder is it then if he allowed himself to be led onto a mountain by him, who also allowed himself to be crucified by his members? Therefore it is not unworthy of our Redeemer that he willed to be tempted, he who had come to be killed. For it was just that he should overcome our temptations by his temptations, just as he had come to conquer our death by his death. But we should know that temptation occurs in three ways: by suggestion, by delight, and by consent. And when we are tempted, we frequently fall into delight or even into consent, because having been propagated from the sin of the flesh, we bear within ourselves that from which we endure struggles. But God, who was incarnate in the womb of a Virgin and came into the world without sin, tolerated no contradiction within himself. Therefore he could be tempted through suggestion, but the delight of sin did not bite his mind. And so all that diabolical temptation was external, not internal.

(ap. Anselm.) This desert is that between Jerusalem and Jericho, where the robbers used to resort. It is called Hammaim, i. e. 'of blood,' from the bloodshed which these robbers caused there; hence the man was said (in the parable) to have fallen among robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, bearing a figure of Adam, who was overcome by dæmons. It was therefore fit that the place where Christ overcame the Devil, should be the same in which the Devil in the parable overcomes man.

It was shown above that Christ prepared himself for preaching by receiving baptism, but now by overcoming temptation. In regard to this he does two things: first, the victory over temptation; secondly, the calling of disciples to hear the doctrine (v. 18). Regarding the first …

Then - After this glorious evidence of his Father's love, he was completely armed for the combat. Thus after the clearest light and the strongest consolation, let us expect the sharpest temptations.

Man fell by eating, and that way we often sin, and therefore Christ was an hungred. The temptations themselves. That which Satan aimed at, in all his temptations, was, to bring him to sin against God, and so to render him for ever incapable of being a Sacrifice for the sins of others.

Having fasted - Whereby doubtless he received more abundant spiritual strength from God. Forty days and forty nights - As did Moses, the giver of the law, and Elijah, the great restorer of it. He was afterward hungry - And so prepared for the first temptation.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit,.... The Evangelist having finished his account of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ; of his ministry and baptism; and particularly of the baptism of Christ; when the Holy Ghost came down upon him in a visible and eminent manner; whereby he was anointed for his public work, according to Isa 61:1 proceeds to give a narration of his temptations by Satan, which immediately followed his baptism; and of those conflicts he had with the enemy of mankind before he entered on his public ministry.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - Led up by the Spirit. Luke says Luk 4:1 that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit;” and it was by his influence, therefore, that he went into the desert to be tempted. It was not done by presumption on the part of Jesus, nor was it for a mere display of his power in resisting temptation; but it was evidently that it might be seen that his holiness was such that he could not be seduced from allegiance to God.

Thus, Ge 22:1, "It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham," or put his faith to a severe proof. But for the most part in Scripture the word is used in a bad sense, and means to entice, solicit, or provoke to sin.

The first event in our Lord’s ministry which St. Matthew records after his baptism is his temptation. This is a deep and mysterious subject. There is much in the history of it which we cannot explain; but there lie on the face of the history plain practical lessons, to which we should do well to take heed. Let us learn in the first place, what a real and mighty enemy we have in the devil. He is not afraid to assault even the Lord Jesus himself.

The first event in our Lord’s ministry which St. Matthew records after his baptism is his temptation. This is a deep and mysterious subject. There is much in the history of it which we cannot explain; but there lie on the face of the history plain practical lessons, to which we should do well to take heed. Let us learn in the first place, what a real and mighty enemy we have in the devil. He is not afraid to assault even the Lord Jesus himself. Three times over he attacks God’s own Son: our Saviour was “tempted of the devil.” It was the devil who brought sin into the world at the beginning. This is he who vexed Job, deceived David, and gave Peter a heavy fall: this is he whom the Bible calls a “murderer,” a “liar,” and a “roaring lion” ( John 8:44 ; 1 Peter 5:8 ); this is he whose enmity to our souls never slumbers and never sleeps; this is he who for nearly 6,000 years has been working at one work, to ruin men and women and to draw them to hell; this is he whose cunning and subtlety pass man’s understanding, and who often “appears an angel of light.” ( 1 Corinthians 11:14 ) Let us watch and pray daily against his devices. There is no enemy worse than an enemy who is never seen and never dies, who is near us wherever we live, and goes with us wherever we go. Not least, let us beware of that habit of foolish talking and jesting about the devil which so unhappily common. Let us remember that if we would be saved we must not only crucify the flesh and overcome the world, but also “resist the devil.” Let us learn in the next place that we must not count temptation a strange thing. “The disciple is not greater than his master, nor the servant than his Lord.” If Satan came to Christ, he will also come to Christians. It would be well for believers if they would remember this. They are too apt to forget it.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit - This transaction appears to have taken place immediately after Christ’s baptism; and this bringing up of Christ was through the influence of the Spirit of God; that Spirit which had rested upon him in his baptism. To be tempted - The first act of the ministry of Jesus Christ was a combat with Satan. Does not this receive light from Gen 3:17. I will put enmity between the woman’s seed and thy seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Jesus didn't argue. He quoted Scripture—every time. That's our model. We don't overcome with cleverness or willpower. We overcome by knowing and declaring God's Word.