Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 4:3

"And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." — Matthew 4:3 (ASV)

When the tempter came — Nothing in the narrative suggests a physical presence visible to the natural eye. All attempts to portray it this way, whether by Milton in Paradise Regained or by rationalistic commentators who held that the Tempter was a scribe or priest, are unauthorized and diminish our sense of the reality and mystery of the Temptation. The narrative is no less real and true because it takes place entirely in the spiritual realm of a person's life.

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread — The phrase these stones seems to be united with a glance and gesture, pointing to the loaf-like flints of the Jordan desert. The nature of the temptation, as far as we can grasp its mysterious depth, was likely complex. There may have been an external suggestion, similar to what was expressed in Esau’s cry, What profit shall this birthright do to me? (Genesis 25:32). Hungry and exhausted, with life seeming to ebb away in the terrible loneliness of the desert and with wild beasts around Him as if waiting for their prey, what good would it be to have been designated the Son of God, the long-expected Christ?

This was combined with another thought. If He were the Son of God, did not that name involve a lordship over nature? Could He not satisfy His hunger and sustain His life? By exercising the power He now, perhaps for the first time, consciously possessed, would He not be establishing His status as the Christ in the eyes of others? That thought presented itself to His mind, but it was rejected as coming from the Enemy. It would have been an act of self-assertion and distrust, and therefore would have involved not the affirmation, but the denial of the Sonship which had so recently been attested.