Then after His baptism by John, Jesus was led and guided by the Holy Spirit Into the desert to be tempted, tried and tested by the devil. But first He fasted For forty days and forty nights. The number forty is mentioned many times in The Bible, and it is significant to know that the number forty means trials, Probation and testings. Thus, Jesus was led to fast for His testing was at hand. He had grown in purity as a child. Now as a man, His integrity, obedience, faithfulness and righteousnes would be tested by His greatest enemy the devil. Jesus was God in the flesh, much as we as Christians are flesh indwelt by God (His Holy Spirit). Jesus had to answer to the flesh as well as to His Deity.

And then Jesus went without food for forty days and forty nights, and later He Was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him. “If you are God´s Son, Command these stones to be made into loaves of bread.” Jesus looked at the tempter and replied. “It has been written, that man shall not Live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes From the mouth of God. “

Then the devil took Jesus into the holy city, and place Him on a pinnacle of the Temple sanctuary, and he said to Him. “If You are the Son of God, then throw Yourself down. For it is written, He will give His angels charge over you, and they Will bear you up on their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Jesus said to Satan, “On the other hand it is written also, You shall not tempt, Test throughly or try excedingly the Lord your God. “

Again the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain, and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory, splendor, magnifience, preminence and Excellence of all of them. And then Satan said to Him. “These things all taken Together I will give You. If, You will prostrate Yourself before me and do Homage and worship me.”

Then Jesus said with authority to the devil. “Begone, Satan! For it has been Written, You shall worship the Lord your God and Him alone shall you Serve.”

With that in mind, the devil departed from Him, and behold, angels came and Ministered to Him.

The Temple

Comparable verses in the Old Testament

Exodus 34:28 “Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and Drank no water. And He wrote upon the tables of the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

1 Kings 19:7-8 “The Angel of the Lord came the second time, and touched him (Elijah), and said, ‘Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.´ So Elijah arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.”

Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:13; 6:16 “And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”

“You shall reverently fear the Lord your God, and serve Him, and swear by His name and presence.”

“You shall not tempt and try the Lord Your God, as you tempted and tried Him in Massah.”

Exodus 17:7 “He called the place Massah meaning ‘proof´, and Meribah meaning ‘contention´, because of the faultfinding of the Israelites, and because they tempted and tried the patience of the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalm 91:11-12 (cf New Testament Luke 4:10-11; Hebrews 1:14) “For He will give His angels special charge over you, to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways of obedience and service.” “They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.