Matthew 4:2

Matthew 4:2. Fasted. Entire abstinence from food; comp. Luke 4:2.

Forty days and forty nights. Not fasting by day and feasting by night. The length of the fast is not incredible. Comp. the fasts of Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), Absorption in intellectual pursuits, but especially in spiritual contemplation, will render any one for a time independent of ordinary food or nourishment. If necessary, supernatural support would be granted. There is nothing here to encourage asceticism, however. Our Lord was enduring for us, not prescribing fasts to us. He neither practised nor enjoined monastic habits.

He afterward hungered. The wants of His human body were no longer overborne. Here for the first time the Gospel presents our Lord as sharing our physical needs. The glorious attestation to His Sonship preceded, the victory over Satan followed. Sent by God to triumph for us. He appears identified with us. Even when weakest physically, when the temptation would be strongest, He overcame in our nature what enslaves our unaided nature.

The tempter came. Luke (Luke 4:2) says that Jesus had been tempted during the forty days of fasting. ‘Tempter,' the ‘one tempting,' implying that this was his office or business. Actual approach is suggested by the literal meaning, ‘And the one tempting coming said to him.'