things only at the Father’s initiative.  He could make bread, but He wouldn’t, unless the Father gave the word.  It was not simply that He would not act at the tempter’s suggestion, but He would not act at all except at the Father’s word.  And to this Jesus remained true, whether the request for evidence came from the tempter direct, or from sneering Pharisee at the temple’s cleansing, or from unbelieving brothers.

Life comes not through what a man can make, but through the Father’s controlling presence:  not through our effort, but through the Father’s power transmitted through the pipe line of our ready obedience.

    “Just to let thy Father do
        As He will. 
    Just to know that He is true,
        And be still. 
    Just to follow hour by hour
        As He leadeth. 
    Just to draw the moment’s power
        As it needeth. 
    Just to trust Him.  This is all. 
    Then the day will surely be
        Peaceful, whatsoe’er befall,
    Bright and blessed, calm and free."[8]

Jesus held every activity, every power subject to the Father’s bidding.  Not only obedient, but nothing else.  Waiting the Father’s send-off at every turn:  this is the message from Jesus that first tug, and first victory.  Jesus had held true in the realm of the body, in His relationship to Himself.

Love Never Tests.

Satan shifts the scene.  These wilderness surroundings grate on his nerves.  The setting of this place, once first class, is now rather worn.  He’s famous at that.  It’s a favorite device of His; quick scene-shifting.  A man wins a victory over temptation, but a quick change of surroundings finds him unprepared if he isn’t ever alert for it, and down he goes before the new, unexpected rush, before he can get his wind.  The tempter is not a fool, as regards man.  That is, as a rule he is not.  In the light of all facts obtainable about his career, that word might be thought of.  Yet no man of us may apply the word to him.  Not one of us is a match for him.  We’re not in the same class.  In his keen subtlety and cunning he can outmatch the keenest of us; outwit and befool without doing any extra thinking.  I am not using the word wisdom of him.  We are safe only in the wisdom of our big Brother who drew his fangs in the wilderness that day.

He chooses shrewdly the spot for each following temptation.  He’s a master stage manager.  He always works for an atmosphere that will help his purpose.  He took Jesus up to one of the wings of the temple in the holy city.  The holy city, and especially its temple, would awaken holiest emotions.  Here it was that Jesus, as a boy, years before, had probably first caught fire.  It is likely that He never forgot that first visit.  Here everything spoke to Him of His Father.  The tempter is skilfully following the leading of Jesus’ reply.  Jesus had given a religious answer.  So He is given