Forty days without food, and the first thing the devil tempts him with is exactly what his body is starving for. He stands up in his own hometown synagogue and reads a prophecy about himself, and by the end of the same sermon the same congregation is dragging him to a cliff to throw him off it. And somehow, walking straight through the middle of a mob that means to kill him, he simply keeps walking, and is gone.
A study in Luke 4 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 22 min read
Get Thee Behind Me, Satan
This site’s own studies of Matthew 4 and Mark’s own opening chapter already told this same wilderness testing. Luke’s version is worth its own attention for one structural detail alone: he tells the three temptations in a different order than Matthew does, ending not at the mountain of the world’s kingdoms but at the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem — the city where this whole Gospel is quietly already headed.
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
Luke 4:1-4
“For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 117
“And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Luke 4:5-8
“Placing Jesus upon a high mountain, Satan caused the kingdoms of the world, in all their glory, to pass in panoramic view before Him. The sunlight lay on templed cities, marble palaces, fertile fields, and fruit-laden vineyards. The traces of evil were hidden.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 129
Every ugly consequence of every kingdom’s sin is carefully edited out of the view Satan offers. He is not showing Jesus the world as it actually is. He is showing Him the world exactly as it would need to look for the offer to be tempting at all.
“And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.”
Luke 4:9-13
“After the foe had departed, Jesus fell exhausted to the earth, with the pallor of death upon His face. … He was strengthened with food, comforted with the message of His Father’s love and the assurance that all heaven triumphed in His victory.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 131
“For a season,” Luke notes — not forever. The tempter’s departure here is a retreat, not a surrender, and this Gospel already knows exactly where he will return: on the night a friend’s kiss becomes a signal, and a garden becomes a battlefield all over again.
This Day Is This Scripture Fulfilled In Your Ears
“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.”
Luke 4:14-15
Glorified everywhere — and then Luke deliberately takes his reader to the one town where that will not last the length of a single sermon.
“During His childhood and youth, Jesus had worshiped among His brethren in the synagogue at Nazareth. … Here were His mother, His brothers and sisters, and all eyes were turned upon Him as He entered the synagogue upon the Sabbath day, and took His place among the worshipers.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 236
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.”
Luke 4:16-20
“Jesus stood before the people as a living expositor of the prophecies concerning Himself. … The tide of divine influence broke every barrier down; like Moses, they beheld the Invisible.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 237
He did not simply read the scroll. He sat back down and began to explain it — and the very first line He speaks after closing it is the boldest claim any preacher in that room had ever made about a text he had just finished reading.
“And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?”
Luke 4:21-22
“They were suddenly recalled to think of themselves, and of the claims of Him who had been addressing them. They, Israelites, children of Abraham, had been represented as in bondage. They had been addressed as prisoners to be delivered from the power of evil; as in darkness, and needing the light of truth. Their pride was offended, and their fears were roused.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 237
“Is not this Joseph’s son?” is not really a question. It is a verdict already reached, dressed up as wonder — the same neighbors who watched Him grow up deciding, in the span of one sentence, exactly how much they are willing to let Him be.
“And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
Luke 4:23-24
They Rose Up, And Thrust Him Out Of The City
“But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4:25-27
Jesus reaches for two of the most celebrated prophets in Israel’s history, Elijah and Elisha, and points out something His hearers already knew but never liked to dwell on: both men, in their own greatest need, passed over Israel entirely to help a foreign widow and a foreign leper instead. It is the same note Simeon struck over His cradle, now spoken by the grown man Himself, in His own hometown synagogue, to the people least prepared to hear it.
“Every word cut like a knife as their real condition was set before them. They now scorned the faith with which Jesus had at first inspired them. They would not admit that He who had sprung from poverty and lowliness was other than a common man.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 239
“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.”
Luke 4:28-30
“The heavenly messengers who had been by His side in the synagogue were with Him in the midst of that maddened throng. They shut Him in from His enemies, and conducted Him to a place of safety.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 240
Nine words carry the whole escape — “passing through the midst of them went his way” — no struggle recorded, no chase, no dramatic intervention described for the crowd to witness. A congregation that had been ready to kill Him moments earlier simply finds itself unable to, and Luke does not slow down long enough to explain how.
With Authority And Power He Commandeth The Unclean Spirits
This site’s own study of Mark’s opening chapter already told what happens once Jesus settles into Capernaum — the synagogue exorcism, Peter’s mother-in-law healed of her fever, the whole city gathered at Simon’s door by sundown.
“And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.”
Luke 4:31-35
One town rejects Him and reaches for stones. The very next town He enters recognizes Him too — not from a human crowd, but from the mouth of a demon, who names Him correctly before a single Nazarene neighbor ever did.
“And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
Luke 4:38-40
Luke, the physician, is the one Gospel writer here who names the fever’s severity — not just a fever, but a “great” one — the kind of clinical detail a doctor notices even while writing a Gospel.
“And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.”
Luke 4:42-44
A chapter that opened with Jesus alone in the wilderness, refusing bread for Himself, closes with a crowd trying physically to keep Him from leaving — and Him refusing to stay, for exactly the same reason He refused the bread. He was not sent to satisfy the nearest want. He was sent for the world Nazareth had just tried to throw Him off a cliff rather than share Him with.
