“Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. The angels who minister to Jesus after the temptation recall the angel who ministered to Elijah after his own wilderness collapse (1 Kings 19:5–8), but Jesus receives them from a position of victory rather than exhaustion. The devil departed — the same word used for the dismissal — and the ministry of the angels is the Father's provision of the sustenance that Jesus refused to manufacture for himself during the temptation. He did not turn stones to bread, and the Father provided bread through angels. The principle of Deuteronomy 8:3 is enacted: the one who trusts the Father's word receives the Father's provision. The wilderness is behind him; the ministry begins.
Church Fathers on Matthew 4:11
The Devil, left in uncertainty by this second reply, passes to a third temptation. Christ had broken the nets of appetite, had passed over those of ambition, he now spreads for Him those of covetousness; 'He taketh him up into a very high mountain,' such as in going round about the earth he had noticed rising above the rest. The higher the mountain, the wider the view from it.
We are not to suppose that when he shewed him the kingdoms of the world, he presented before Him the kingdom of Persia, for instance, or India; but he shewed his own kingdom, how he reigns in the world, that is, how some are governed by fornication, some by avarice.
By 'their glory,' is meant, their gold and silver, precious stones and temporal goods.
Read all 25 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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