whole scope of the words is to state
the law of physical nourishment as dependent at last on the divine will,
and therefore equally capable of being accomplished with or without
bread, by ordinary means or apart from these.

The bearing of the words on Christ's hunger is twofold: First, He will
not use His miraculous powers to provide food, for that would be to
distrust God, and so to cast off His filial dependence; second, He will
not separate Himself from His brethren, and provide for Himself by a way
not open to them, for that would really be to reverse the very purpose
of His incarnation and to defeat His whole work. He has come to bear all
man's burdens, and shall He begin by separating Himself from them?
Therefore He answers in words which declare the law for 'man,' and
thereby merges all that was distinctive in His position in a loving
participation in our lot. If the Captain of our Salvation had begun by
refusing to share the privations of the rank and file, and had provided
dainties for Himself, what would have become of His making common cause
with them? The temptation addressed to Christ's physical nature was, to
put it roughly, 'Look out for yourself.' His answer was, 'As Son of God,
I hold by My filial dependence. As man, I share My brethren's lot, and
am content to live as they live.'

II. The second assault and repulse, on the temple.

We need not touch on the questions as to whether our Lord's body was
really transported to the temple, and, if so, to what part of it. But we
may point out that there is nothing in the narrative to warrant the
usual interpretation of this temptation, as being addressed to the
desire of recognition, and as equivalent to the suggestion that our Lord
should show Himself, by a stupendous miracle before the multitude, as
the Messiah. There is nothing about spectators, and no sign that the
dread solitude wrapping these two was broken by others. We must seek
for the point of the second temptation in another direction.

The very locality chosen for it helps us to the right understanding of
it. There were plenty of cliffs in the desert, down which a fall would
have been fatal. Why not choose one of them? The temple was God's house,
the fitting scene for an attempt to work disaster by the abuse of
religious ideas. The former temptation underlies this. That had sought
to move Jesus to cast off His filial confidence; this seeks to pervert
that confidence, and through it to lead Him