If Thou art the Son of God. Here note—
Satan had heard the voice from Heaven, proclaiming Christ to be the beloved Son of God; but he may have considered Him as a son in some sense as Adam, who was called a son of God. That he could have grasped the mystery of the hypostatic union is impossible. Sin produces blindness, and Satan could not have seen and comprehended God’s purposes. Had he believed Christ to be very and eternal God, it is inconceivable that he should have thought it possible to tempt Him into sin, unless the eyes of his understanding were so obscured by his pride that he had lost belief in all good, that he actually could imagine the Godhead to be peccable, just as a prostitute disbelieves in the purity of the most spotless virgin.
If Thou art. Note—
I. That Satan tempts even by that little word if; implying a doubt whether God had meant what He said when the voice came from Heaven; by this word if Satan endeavoured to drive Him into—
α. The sin of pride: by causing Him to perform a miracle, so as to prove Himself to be the Son of God, and thus to dispel the doubt of the querist.
β. The sin of doubt: by causing Him to question the declaration from Heaven; for Satan’s if implied that God, had He meant that Christ were His Son, would not have left Him to starve.
II. That it does not behove us to question the dealings of God’s providence, though He suffer us to want, nor if He refuse to hear our petitions. Perhaps we ask for what is wrong, unsafe, or contrary to His will.
Command that these stones be made bread. Here note—
1. God wills to draw us from temporal things to things spiritual, but the devil obtrudes carnal matters, to draw us from spiritual things to things temporal.
2. The temptation of Christ bears some analogy to that of our first parents. Eve was tempted by the sight of the fruit which was good for food, Christ by the cravings of natural hunger.