Significance of the Test
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to be one of the angels from the throne of God, sent upon an errand
of mercy to sympathize with Him and to relieve Him of His suffering
condition. He tried to make Christ believe that God did not require
Him to pass through the self-denial and sufferings He anticipated; that
he had been sent from heaven to bear to Him the message that God
only designed to prove His willingness to endure.
Satan told Christ that He was to set his feet in the blood-stained
path but not to travel it, that like Abraham He was tested to show His
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perfect obedience. He also stated that he was the angel that stayed the
hand of Abraham as the knife was raised to slay Isaac, and he had now
come to save His life; that it was not necessary for Him to endure this
painful hunger and death from starvation; and that he would help Him
bear the work in the plan of salvation.
The Son of God turned from all these artful temptations and was
steadfast in His purpose to carry out in every particular, in the spirit
and in the very letter, the plan which had been devised for the redemp-
tion of the fallen race. But Satan had manifold temptations prepared
to ensnare Christ and obtain advantage of Him; if he failed in one
temptation, he would try another. He thought he would succeed, be-
cause Christ had humbled Himself as a man. He flattered himself
that his assumed character as one of the heavenly angels could not be
discerned. He feigned to doubt the divinity of Christ because of His
emaciated appearance and unpleasant surroundings.
Christ knew that in taking the nature of man He would not be equal
in appearance to the angels of heaven. Satan urged that if He was
indeed the Son of God He should give him evidence of His exalted
character. He approached Christ with temptations upon appetite. He
had overcome Adam upon this point, and he had controlled his descen-
dants, and through indulgence of appetite, had led them to provoke
God by iniquity until their crimes were so great that the Lord destroyed
them from off the earth by the waters of the Flood.
Under Satan’s direct temptations the children of Israel suffered
appetite to control reason, and they were, through indulgence, led
to commit grievous sins which awakened the wrath of God against
them, and they fell in the wilderness. He thought that he should be
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successful in overcoming Christ with the same temptation. Satan told
Christ that one of the exalted angels had been exiled to the earth, that
His appearance indicated that, instead of His being the king of heaven,