Mateus 4

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.*This episode was ordained by the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to confront Satan when He was physically the weakest He would ever be (40 days without food!). When Satan failed to defeat this weakened Jesus he was probably filled with despair—he now knew that he could never defeat Him. (But he would still try to kill Him.) 3 And coming to Him the tempter said, "Since you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread."*Satan was not so foolish as to question Jesus' identity, "if"; he was more subtle, "since". 4 But in answer He said, "It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word coming out of God’s mouth.’ "*See Deuteronomy 8:3. 5 Then the devil takes Him into the holy city*‘The holy city’ was evidently Jerusalem. One is tempted to ask, what was ‘holy’ about it? and sets Him upon the pinnacle of the temple,*This is literal; Satan has the power to transport things. Matthew has the correct sequence, whereas Luke inverts the order of tests 2 and 3 (Matthew uses adverbs of sequence, but Luke does not). 6 and says to Him, "Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written:

‘He will give orders to His angels about you,

and they will lift you up on their hands,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ "*See Psalm 91:11-12. Satan knows the Bible, and how to twist it.

7 Jesus said to him, "It is also written: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God!’ "*See Deuteronomy 6:16. The point is to not put God to the test, to not deliberately do something irresponsible with the intention of obliging God to work a miracle to save you. 8 Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.*This also is literal and obviously supernatural (since the world is a sphere, even from a satellite one can only see half of it). We have here a master stroke of Satan—Jehovah the Son took on human form in order to recover what the first Adam had lost, and Satan offers it to Him on a silver platter, with just one ‘small’ condition… 9 And he says to Him, "All these things I will give to you, if You will fall down and worship me." 10 Then Jesus says to him: "Get behind me, Satan!*88% of the Greek manuscripts have "Get behind me…"; in Luke 4:8 at least 97% have "Get behind me…". For it is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ "*See Deuteronomy 6:13. Note that Jesus did not deny his right to make the offer. 11 Then the devil leaves Him, and then, angels came and began ministering to Him.*The impression one gets is that the angels were not allowed to help Jesus during His direct confrontation with Satan.