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Verse 1: Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Jesus needed to be subjected to everything a mortal man experiences, even temptation directly from Satan. Because of this no one will be able to stand before the Lord on judgment day and say, “you don’t understand” or “you don’t know what it was like”. By the time Jesus is crucified He will understand all that it is to be truly human. When Jesus is on the right hand of God and we stand before Him He will be able to say something like, Father forgive him, I understand his temptations, agonies and weaknesses because I lived the life he did. Jesus is our intercessor however Jesus will also know where we have no defense of our choices.
2: And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Jesus was hungry; this proves he is actually in a flesh body because His body suffers the same human frailness any other man does. The reasons for this are many and as we go along we will understand more about why this is important.
3: And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Satan already knows Jesus is the Son of God. We will see in other books and chapters that Satan’s minions recognize Jesus immediately.
Satan uses the word if as a taunt daring Jesus to prove who He is, another temptation. Jesus knows He does not have to prove anything to Satan and refuses.
4: But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Jesus means that food may sustain the body but the word of God sustains our spirit bodies. Without the word of God the sprit would perish. The spirit is much more important than the flesh. This statement is found in:
Deuteronomy 8: 3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. If your spirit seems as though it is not hungry for the word of God then your spirit MUST be feeding from the words of Satan. Which do you hunger for, the word of God or the things of this world? We cannot hunger for both.
Continuing on to verse 5:
5: Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, The holy city is Jerusalem.
6: And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7: Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Today there are religions that tempt God regularly by handling snakes and supposedly drinking “poison”. If Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is not going to tempt God it is most assuredly wrong for any man to do it. This is another example of false teachers and false doctrines.
8: Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9: And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. How can Satan offer these things to Jesus? Satan is the prince of this world. For the moment he is in charge of the earth but this is only temporary. Although Satan is prince of the earth God regulates what Satan can and cannot do or how far he can go. That is why we will not be tempted past what we can bear. This is also why we cannot blame Satan for our sins, Satan may tempt us but ultimately our decisions are ours alone.
10: Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Jesus gives us our answer to anything Satan tries to do to us. Christians have to power to force Satan to leave us alone but only if we are truly Christian and have full faith in God and your command to Satan follows the will of God. Notice the word “if” in the last sentence. This word occurs many times in the Bible and it is there for a reason. When God makes a statement that He will do a thing for you it almost always includes the word “if”. Without your obedience and faith to the instructions that follow that word “if” you will not receive God’s blessing.
11: Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Notice the angels arrived after all this has occurred. Jesus was probably in bad shape after being in the desert for forty days without food. Jesus was in his weakest state when tempted by Satan. This was to give Satan the best chance he would have at tempting Jesus just so Jesus could demonstrate His strength in His Father and demonstrate how we as Christians should react in times of weakness. This is for the glory and honor of God.
12: Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; Why? John being imprisoned could not preach the Gospel to the multitudes. Remember John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ now it is time for Jesus to take over. The story for John the Baptist is not over yet as we will see.
13: And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
14: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
15: The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
16: The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. Let’s look at Isaiah 42:7: as it relates to these verses, it says: To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Verse 16 in Matthew and the verse from Isaiah both have multiple meanings. Darkness is the realm of Satan and the same is true of the shadow of death. Satan is death. Jesus is the Light. As Jesus teaches and heals there is hope for everyone both in their flesh bodies and their spiritual bodies. Jesus has arrived and death will soon be defeated. The light also indicates truth. Isaiah 42:7 says: To open the blind eyes etc.(read this please) Jesus will heal the blind physically but also spiritually. The blind are those that do not know God, the same with those “in darkness of prison”. Prison and darkness here are realms and traps of Satan. Jesus is here to guide and direct us from certain death at the hands of death himself, Satan. The only way to find the escape from darkness and prison is to follow the Light.
17: From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven will be established by Christ Jesus on earth deposing Satan as the prince of the earth.
18: And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19: And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. “Fishers of men”, to cast the “net of truth” and bring men into the understanding of the gospel having to do with Christ Jesus.
20: And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
21: And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22: And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. Why did these men leave their life’s work to follow Jesus without question? Think about this. Would you pick up and leave your job to follow someone you just met to go on a mission you do not yet fully understand? When Jesus spoke these men knew He was something special and in their hearts they understood Jesus was more than just a common man. They recognized the Son of God because God opened their eyes to the Truth.
23: And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24: And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. “Lunatic”, taken from the word lunar, the moon and stars are words often used for Satan’s realm or his minions, ergo fallen angels.
25: And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. Great multitudes followed Him because they could see the truth in Him and His miracles. Unfortunately, just as today, many followed Jesus only because of what they hoped Jesus could do for them and not for the Gospel, Truth and Love He was teaching. As we will see many were like the children of Israel wandering the desert. The children of Israel saw the wonders of God but constantly failed to love and understand and follow Gods commands. The slightest obstacle caused them to forget the wonders of God and search for other gods and demand more from God. Whatever was asked of God while the children of Israel were in the desert God provided and just as humans are today it seemed as though it was never enough.
As we will see even the disciples of Jesus denied Jesus after He was taken from them.
It is impossible for us to understand the depth of Gods love for us because we always fail Him and the one-thing humans do understand is failure. Moses was gone from the children of Israel for forty days on the mount and when he returned everyone was worshiping a golden calf. How soon we forget Gods love, caring, power, miracles and devotion. Stand strong in God because in this day and age we do not have the privilege of seeing Gods wonders as the children of Israel did. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. If you need miracles to have faith and to believe then you may never understand God or His Son Christ Jesus.
