Luke stressed how the Spirit who had come upon Jesus at His baptism guided and empowered Him in His temptation and how Jesus, God's approved Son, pleased His Father by His obedience. Jesus overcame the devil who opposed God's plans. This story is also edifying because it helps believers understand how to recognize and overcome Satan's attacks. We do so as Jesus did by obeying God's will as revealed in Scripture. Jesus drew His responses to Satan from Old Testament passages that relate to Israel in the wilderness (Deut. 8:3; 6:13, 16). Jesus succeeded, in the wilderness no less, where Israel had failed.151
Luke recorded the same three temptations as Matthew did, but he reversed the order of the second and third incidents. Probably Luke rearranged the order to stress Jesus' victory in Jerusalem. Luke viewed Jerusalem as the center toward which Jesus moved in this Gospel and the center from which the gospel radiated to the uttermost part of the earth in Acts (Acts 1:8). Matthew, on the other hand, concluded his account of the temptation with a reference to the kingdom, his particular interest.
Greek readers had an interest in the idea of the Son of God, explicitly present in two of the temptations. They also had an interest in miracles, which appear in one if not two of them, and Satan who appears in all three.
4:1-2 Reference to Jesus' fullness with the Spirit links this incident with Jesus' baptism (3:22). There seems to be a deliberate comparison between Israel as God's Son (Exod. 4:22-23; Hos. 11:1) and Jesus as the Son of God in this story. Both sons experienced temptation in the wilderness for 40 periods of time, Israel for 40 years and Jesus for 40 days (cf. Gen. 7:4; Exod. 24:18; 1 Kings 19:8; Jon. 3:4). Perhaps God regarded a period of days as the appropriate counterpart for a man compared to years for a nation.152Moses also went without food for 40 days in the wilderness (Deut. 9:9). Israel failed, but Jesus succeeded. God led Israel into the wilderness, and God's Spirit led Jesus there. God tested Israel there, and God allowed the devil to test Jesus there.
Satan tempts people to depart from God's will, but God never does this (James 1:3). People tempt God by making unreasonable demands on Him (Num. 14:22; Deut. 6:16; Ps. 106:14). God tests, but does not tempt, people (Exod. 16:4; 20:20; Deut. 8:2; 13:2; Judg. 2:22; 3:4; 2 Chron. 32:31). All three types of testing occurred in Israel's temptation in the wilderness and in Jesus' temptation there.153
Jesus proved completely pleasing to God in His trials, but Satan was displeasing to Him. Jesus, filled with the Spirit, sided with God, whereas Satan, not filled with the Spirit, opposed Him. Jesus was physically hungry, but He was full of the Spirit. Thus the importance of Spirit control is obvious in this passage as is the importance of familiarity with and fidelity to the Scriptures. Jesus had been fasting (Matt. 4:2; cf. Exod. 34:28; Deut. 9:9). Evidently Jesus experienced temptation all 40 days, but the three instances Luke recorded happened at the end of that period (cf. Mark 1:13).
4:3-4 All three of the tests recorded enticed Jesus to abandon His dependence on God. The first one was a temptation to gratifyself but not by doing something wicked since eating is necessary. The devil attacked Jesus where He was vulnerable since He was then hungry. To continue to exist in the wilderness, Jesus, and the Israelites before Him, had to believe that God's word was trustworthy (Deut. 8:3). God had revealed a plan for both that assured them that they would not die in the wilderness. Satan assumed that Jesus was the Son of God, as is clear from the first class condition in the Greek text (v. 3).
Human welfare does not depend primarily on food or even physical provisions. It depends mainly on obedience to God's will even though that may mean physical deprivation. By applying this passage to Himself Jesus put Himself in the category of a true "man"(Gr. anthropos). Luke had special interest in the testing of Jesus' humanity, and he presented Jesus as the example for the Christian to follow.
4:5-8 The devil also took Jesus up on a mountain (Matt. 4:8; cf. Deut. 32:49; 34:1-3). Evidently he showed Jesus the kingdoms in a vision since He saw them all "in a moment of time (instant)."This was a temptation to exaltself. Jesus could not enter into His glory without suffering first, according to God's will (24:26). Jesus' response was that of the perfect man, the last Adam (Rom. 5:19). He worshipped and served God alone (Deut. 6:13).
4:9-12 Next Satan tempted Jesus to glorifyHimself. Jesus refused to repeat Israel's sin in the wilderness of putting God to the test by forcing His hand. The Israelites had wondered if God was still with them (Exod. 17:7). Instead Jesus committed Himself to simply following God's will in God's time. Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 and Jesus responded with Deuteronomy 6:16. The Deuteronomy passage applied to Satan as well as to Jesus.
4:13 The devil only left Jesus temporarily. He continued to tempt Him later. However, Luke viewed Jesus' victory here as significant. His lack of reference to the fact that angels then ministered to Jesus (Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:13) reinforces Jesus' personal victory over Satan.
