The devil took the God-man to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said to Him, “All these will I give You if You will fall down and worship me,” but the God-man conquered him by not loving the worldly kingdoms and their glory and saying to the devil, “Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve’” (4:8-10). The Lord defeated the devil by standing on the ground of man to worship and serve only God.
It was under the leading of the Spirit of God that the first God-man was brought to be tempted by the devil for His test. With the devil, the enemy of God, that temptation was a temptation, but with God, it was a test, and the test became a battle between Satan and God concerning the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. Knowing that God wanted to destroy him by the man, in his flesh, that is, in his humanity, whom he had poisoned and spoiled, Satan took the strategy of tempting the first God-man to assume that He was the Son of God, standing far off from the position of His humanity. Knowing this, the first God-man fought back by saying “man” (v. 4), holding fast the standing of His being a man. This defeated Satan’s subtle strategy! Furthermore, in the God-man’s second and third fighting back, His answers, “You shall not test the Lord your God” and “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve” (vv. 7, 10), all were His strongest emphasis that He was a man, a creature of God, dealing with Satan, another creature of God, to take the strongest stand with God for God’s glory. God would not deal with Satan as his Creator. Instead, God dealt with him by another creature, man. Satan tried his best to tempt this man to stay away from His position as a man. But the Lord Jesus stood in man’s position firmly to glorify God and accomplish God’s economy.
The God-man’s defeating of the tempter’s initial temptation equals His passing of God’s test and qualifies Him to be God’s Anointed, Messiah, among Israel, and Christ among Christians for God’s economy.
In this initial warfare Satan’s intention was to destroy the One anointed by God for His economy. But he lost the war and left that battleground in shame before the angels of God (v. 11a).
In this initial fighting for God’s economy, the first God-man won the war for the glory of God, and the angels of God came triumphantly and ministered to the God-man, taking care of His forty-day fasting hunger (v. 11b).