Forty Days in the Wilderness
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’” 5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the 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 command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.
Where the earliest account gives two verses, Matthew gives the exchange — three appeals, three answers from one book, and a Son who will not prove what he has just been told.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
The earliest telling records the fact in two verses and none of the content Mark 1:12–13, so the substance of the temptations is Matthew's to give — and the setting he gives it is deliberate. A son called out of Egypt Matthew 2:15 now enters the wilderness for forty, where the nation was tested for forty years and failed at exactly these three points: bread, testing God, and worship. Every answer comes from the book written for that wilderness Deuteronomy 8:3 Deuteronomy 6:16 Deuteronomy 6:13.
The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
The opening word is the hinge of the first two appeals. The voice at the river had just said this is my beloved Son; the tempter's if invites him to establish by demonstration what he has been told by declaration. That is the shape of the temptation rather than the bread — a settled identity asked to prove itself, which is the same pressure applied at the cross by people quoting the same word Matthew 27:40.
"He will command his angels concerning you" Matthew 4:6.
The second appeal quotes Scripture accurately Psalms 91:11–12 and uses it to propose a stunt at the temple, and the answer is not a better verse but a governing one: you shall not test the Lord, your God Matthew 4:7. A promise of protection is not a warrant for manufacturing danger to see whether it holds. Scripture can be quoted correctly and applied to make God serve a purpose he never offered, and the corrective is other Scripture read as a whole.
He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”
The third drops the pretense and names the price. The offer is the kingdoms of the world, which is what he is going to receive anyway Matthew 28:18 — the difference is the road. A crown without the cross, purchased with a moment's worship, and the refusal is you shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only Matthew 4:10.
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.
The angels come afterward, unasked, having been declined as a demonstration. The one thing the tempter proposed to arrange is the one thing given freely once the proposal was refused.
settled What this mark means