The first temptation is the door through which must pass all other temptations of that sort.  If that door be opened these other temptations have a chance.  If that door be kept shut, all these others are kept waiting.  Temptation is always standing with its pointed toe at the crack of the door, waiting the slightest suggestion of an opening.  This first temptation is always the likeliest of its class to get in.  It is not always the same, of course.  It is subtly chosen to suit the man.  Jesus kept these doors rigidly shut, key turned, bolts pushed, bar up, chain hooked.  So may we.

The tempting is to be done by “the devil.”  That is his strong point, tempting people.  It is one way of recognizing some of his kin.  It is a mean, contemptible sort of thing.  He had fallen into a hole of his own digging, and would pull in everybody else.  He is never constructive in his work, always destructive.  Best at tearing down.  Never builds up.  His allies can often be told by their resemblance to him here.  Jesus is to be tempted by this master-tempter.  He is going to prove to all his brothers that the tempter has no power without the consent of the tempted.  The door into a man has only the one knob.  And that’s on the inside.

Waiting the Father’s Word.

Quite likely the form of the tempter’s words suggests the upper current of Jesus’ thought.  “If thou be the Son of God.”  Jesus was likely absorbed with His peculiar relation to His Father, with all that that involved.  The tempter cunningly seeks to sweep Him off of His feet by working on His mood.  It is ever a favorite method with the tempter to rush a man.  A flush of feeling, the mood of an intense emotion tipped over the balance with a quick motion of his, has swept many a man off his feet.  But Jesus held steady.  There was no unholy heat of ambition to disturb the calm working of His mind.

Why “if”?  Did Satan doubt it?  Is he asking proof?  He gets it.  Jesus did not need to prove His divinity except by continuing to be divine.  He proved best that He was Son of God by being true to His Sonship.  He naturally acted the part.  We prove best that we are right by being right, not by accepting captious, critical propositions.  The stars shine.  We know they are stars by their shine.  Satan would have Jesus use His divinity in an undivine way.  He was cunning.  But Jesus was keener than the tempter was cunning.

“Get a loaf out of this stone.  Don’t go hungry.  Be practical and sensible.”  The cold cruelty of Satan!  He makes no effort to relieve the hunger.  The hunger asked for bread and he gave it a stone.  That is the best he has.  He is a bit short on bread.  He would use the physical need to break down the moral purpose.  He has ever been doing just that.  Sometimes he induces a man to break down his strength in religious activity.  And then he takes advantage of his weakened condition.  Even religious activity should be refused save at the leading of God’s Spirit.  It will not do simply to do good. The only safe thing is to do God’s will, to be tied fast to the tether of the Spirit’s leading.