Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 Vs. 13

 The Temptation of Jesus

Mark 1:13 “And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.”

wilderness forty days... Perhaps reminiscent of Israel’s 40 years of wandering in the wilderness (Num. 14:33; 32:13). Matthew and Luke add that Jesus went without food during this time. Moses (twice, Deut. 9:9, 18) and Elijah (1Kgs. 19:8) also fasted for that length of time.

tempted of Satan... From a Hebrew word meaning adversary. Since He had no fallen nature, Jesus’ temptation was not an internal emotional or psychological struggle, but an external attack by a personal being.

the wild beasts... An additional detail not mentioned by any other writer. He not only became Master of Satan, demons, and all their works, but also became Master of the animals and had immunity from their poisons. All this He promised believers (Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:19; Psm. 91:1-16). A detail unique to Mark’s account, stressing Jesus’ loneliness and complete isolation from other people.

The temptation is portrayed as lasting throughout the forty days. But so is the sustaining ministration of God’s angels. Wild beasts underscore the loneliness and hostility of the surroundings.

With the wild beasts

Peculiar to Mark. The region just alluded to abounds in boars, jackals, wolves, foxes, leopards, hyenas, etc.

Here in Mark, we see a very short statement. This is covered in detail (in Mat. 4:1-11), and again (in Luke 4:1-13). I would suggest that you read both of those accounts several times along with this to get the full message. I will touch on just one or two items here.

The Spirit driveth him into the wilderness is a shortened statement. The true meaning, I believe, is found in Luke:

Luke 4:1 “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,”

We see a similar statement (in Mat. 4:1), “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

We see here, a perfect example of cross references of Scriptures which interpret themselves. We see from this, that Jesus was so full of the Holy Ghost and its power, that He was led by the Spirit. It is one thing, I have said before, to be saved; but it is an entirely different thing to have Jesus as your Lord.

Jesus in this case, had totally submitted His will to the Spirit. He gladly went to be tempted of the devil. God is not a tempter. The devil tempts through the lust of the flesh. When we are tempted, it is the lust of the flesh that causes the temptation. In Jesus’ case, He had no lust. The devil tried to cause Jesus to lust for the things of this world and failed.

and the angels... Mentioned here; Ending the temptations, which were:

1. Use Your miraculous powers to supply ordinary and personal needs at my command.

2. Prove Your Sonship by a special demonstration of God’s protection; be reckless and make a spectacle of Your power.

3. Use my power, influence, worldly organizations and kingdoms and become great among men whom You seek to get power over. Luke 22:43.

Note here that the angel strengthened Him to endure His agony (cp. Mat. 4:11). Perhaps the ordinary human strength could not have endured the agony, the bloody sweat, and the terrible struggle in the garden when Satan and all his forces sought to kill Him before He could get to the cross (Heb. 5:7). We have no way of knowing the terribleness of this conflict. The whole plan of God was at stake. If Satan could have succeeded here or on previous occasions to kill Christ, he could have averted his own doom and kept control of the earth indefinitely. It was imperative that God be victor and Christ get to the cross to pay the penalty for sin and conquer Satan forever (Col. 1:20; 2:14-17; Heb. 2:14-15).

Another point we must make here, is that the angels of God did not minister unto Jesus, until He had been tempted and overcame the temptation. Then they ministered to Jesus (Psm. 91:11-12). The tense of the Greek verb, to minister, suggests the angels ministered to Jesus throughout His temptation.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Partially quoted by Satan in Mat. 4:6; Luke 4:10. Satan omitted the phrase in all thy ways, but added the phrase at any time, showing how he misquotes and misapplies Scripture. Also, Psm. 91:13 is omitted by Satan, because it predicts his own crushing defeat (Gen. 3:16; Luke 10:19). The verse has a double reference.

Forty throughout the Bible is symbolic of trials and testing. These forty days were no exception. We will find in our Christian walk that we too, have times of testing. We too must withstand the devil with the Word of God and in the name of Jesus.

In (Jas. 4:7), we read “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are. He was first tempted in food, because He was hungry after forty days. He was tempted to tempt God and see if God would protect Him, and He was tempted to attain earthly fame. To read more in detail about this, you may read in the lessons on Matthew and Luke which deal with this same subject (in chapter 4), of both books.

As if Satan forgot the marvels of the sacred infancy. As if the spirits who attack all could have failed to identify, after thirty years of defeat, the Greater One whom the Baptist had everywhere proclaimed. No. But Satan admirably chose the time for a supreme effort. High places are dizzy, and especially when one has just attained them; and therefore, it was when the voice of the herald and the Voice from the heavens were blended in acclaim, that the Evil One tried all his arts. He had formerly plunged Elijah into despair and a desire to die, immediately after fire from heaven responded to the prophet’s prayer. Soon after this, he would degrade Peter to be his mouthpiece, just when his noblest testimony was borne, and the highest approval of his Lord was won. In the flush of their triumphs, he found his best opportunity; but Jesus remained unflushed, and met the first recorded temptation, in the full consciousness of Messiahship, by quoting the words which spoke to every man alike, and as man.

It is a lesson which the weakest needs to learn, for little victories can intoxicate little men.

It is easy then to see why the recorded temptations insist upon the exceptional dignity of Christ, and urge Him to seize its advantages, while He insists on bearing the common burden, and proves Himself greatest by becoming least of all. The sharp contrast between His circumstances and His rank drove the temptations deep into His consciousness, and wounded His sensibilities, though they failed to shake His will.

How unnatural that the Son of God should lack and suffer hunger, how right that He should challenge recognition, how needful (though now His sacred Personality is cunningly allowed to fall somewhat into the background) that He should obtain armies and splendor.

This explains the possibility of temptation in a sinless nature, which indeed can only be denied by assuming that sin is part of the original creation. Not because we are sinful, but because we are flesh and blood (of which He became partaker), when we feel the pains of hunger we are attracted by food, at whatever price it is offered. In truth, no man is allured by sin, but only by the bait and bribe of sin, except perhaps in the last stages of spiritual decomposition.

Now, just as the bait allures, and not the jaws of the trap, so the power of a temptation is not its wickedness, not the guilty service, but the proffered recompense, and this appeals to the most upright man, equally with the most corrupt. Thus, the stress of a temptation is to be measured by our gravitation, not towards the sin, but towards the pleasure or advantage which is entangled with that. And this may be realized even more powerfully by a man of keen feeling and vivid imagination who does not falter, than by a grosser nature which succumbs.

Now Jesus was a perfect man. To His exquisite sensibilities, which had neither inherited nor contracted any blemish, the pain of hunger at the opening of His ministry, and the horror of the cross at its close, were not less intense, but sharper than to ours. And this pain and horror measured the temptation to evade them. The issue never hung in the scales; even to hesitate would have been to forfeit the delicate bloom of absolute sinlessness; but none the less, the decision was costly, the temptation poignant.

St. Mark has given us no details; but there is immense and compressed power in the assertion, only his, that the temptation lasted all through the forty days. We know the power of an unremitting pressure, an incessant importunity, a haunting thought. A very trifling annoyance, long protracted, drives men to strange remedies. And the remorseless urgency of Satan may be measured by what St. Matthew tells us, that only after the forty days Jesus became aware of the pains of hunger. Perhaps the assertion that He was with the wild beasts may throw some ray of light upon the nature of the temptation. There is no intimation of bodily peril. On the other hand, it seems incredible that what is hinted is His own consciousness of the supernatural dignity from which.

The fiery serpent fled, and noxious worm.

The lion and fierce tiger glared aloof.

Such a consciousness would have relieved the strain of which their presence is evidently a part. Nay, but the oppressive solitude, the waste region so unlike His blooming Nazareth, and the ferocity of the brute creation, all would conspire to suggest those dread misgivings and questionings which are provoked by the something that infects the world.

Surely, we may believe that He Who was tempted at all points like as we are, felt now the deadly chill which falls upon the soul from the shadow of our ruined earth. In our nature He bore the assault and overcame. And then His human nature condescended to accept help, such as ours receives, from the ministering spirits which are sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation. So perfectly was He made like unto His brethren.

Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. Despite possible appeal to various Old Testament verses (Exo. 34:28; Deut. 9:9, 9:18; 1Kgs. 19:8), the closest parallel is that of the victory of David over Goliath who had opposed Israel 40 days (1Sam. 17:16).

Jesus was being tempted by Satan. Tempted is a form of peirazō which means put to the test, make trial of in order to discover the kind of person someone is. It is used either in a good sense God’s testing, e.g., 1Cor. 10:13; Heb. 11:17) or in a bad sense of enticement to sin by Satan and his cohorts. Both senses are involved here. God put Jesus to the test the Spirit led Him to it to show He was qualified for His messianic mission. But also, Satan tried to draw Jesus away from His divinely appointed mission (cf. Mat. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Jesus’ sinlessness does not rule out the fact that He was actually tempted; in fact, it bears witness to His true humanity (cf. Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:18).

The tempter was Satan, the adversary, the one who opposes. Mark did not use the term the devil slanderer, Mat. 4:1; Luke 4:2. Satan and his forces are in constant, intense opposition against God and His purposes, especially Jesus’ mission. Satan tempts people to turn aside from God’s will, accuses them before God when they fall, and seeks their ruin. Jesus encountered the prince of evil personally before confronting his forces. He entered on His ministry to defeat him and set his captives free (Heb. 2:14; 1Jhn. 3:8). As the Son of God, He battled Satan in the desert, and the demons confessed Him as such (cf. Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7).

The reference to wild animals is recorded only by Mark. In Old Testament imagery, the wilderness was the place of God’s curse - a place of desolation, loneliness, and danger where frightening, ravenous animals lived (cf. Isa. 13:20-22; 34:8-15; Psm. 22:11-21; 91:11-13). The presence of wild animals stresses the hostile character of the desert region as Satan’s domain.

In contrast with the dangerous wild animals is God’s protecting care through the angels who attended (lit., were serving, diēkonoun) Jesus throughout the temptation period though the verb could be rendered began to serve Him, i.e., after the temptation. They supplied general aid and the assurance of God’s presence. Mark did not mention fasting (cf. Mat. 4:2; Luke 4:2), probably because Jesus’ stay in the desert region clearly implied it.

Mark’s temptation account is brief in contrast with Mat. and Luke). He said nothing about the temptation’s content, its climactic end, or Jesus’ victory over Satan. His concern was that this began an ongoing conflict with Satan who kept attempting through devious means to get Jesus to turn aside from God’s will (cf. Mark 8:11, 8:32-33; 10:2; 12:15). Because of the vocation Jesus accepted in His baptism, He faced a confrontation with Satan and his forces. Mark’s Gospel is the record of this great encounter which climaxed at the Cross. At the outset Jesus established His personal authority over Satan. His later exorcisms of demons were based on His victory in this encounter (cf. Mark 3:22-30).