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S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5
Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of
Christ’s long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His
anguish was not so much from enduring the pangs of hunger as
from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and
passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man’s idol,
and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the
way of his salvation (
The Review and Herald, September 1, 1874
).
Satan Attacks at Weakest Moment
—While in the wilderness,
Christ fasted, but He was insensible to hunger. Engaged in constant
prayer to His Father for a preparation to resist the adversary, Christ
did not feel the pangs of hunger. He spent the time in earnest prayer,
shut in with God. It was as if He were in the presence of His Father.
He sought for strength to meet the foe, for the assurance that He
would receive grace to carry out all that He had undertaken in behalf
of humanity. The thought of the warfare before Him made Him
oblivious to all else, and His soul was fed with the bread of life, just
as today those tempted souls will be fed who go to God for aid. He
ate of the truth which He was to give to the people as having power
to deliver them from Satan’s temptations. He saw the breaking
of Satan’s power over fallen and tempted ones. He saw Himself
healing the sick, comforting the hopeless, cheering the desponding,
and preaching the gospel to the poor,—doing the work that God had
outlined for Him; and He did not realize any sense of hunger until
the forty days of His fast were ended.
The vision passed away, and then, with strong craving Christ’s
human nature called for food. Now was Satan’s opportunity to make
his assault. He resolved to appear as one of the angels of light that
had appeared to Christ in His vision (
Letter 159, 1903
).
The Trial Not Diminished
—Christ knew that His Father would
supply Him food when it would gratify Him to do so. He would not
in this severe ordeal, when hunger pressed Him beyond measure,
prematurely diminish one particle of the trial allotted to Him by
exercising His divine power.
Fallen man, when brought into straightened places, could not
have the power to work miracles on his own behalf, to save himself
from pain or anguish, or to give himself victory over his enemies. It
was the purpose of God to test and prove the race, and give them an
opportunity to develop character by bringing them frequently into