Everything that surrounded Adam, the first man, might well have pleaded for God against the enemy. The sweetness of the whole scene, the beauty of that garden of delights, with its rivers which parted hither and thither, the fruits of the perfume, with the willing service of the thousand tributary creatures, all had a voice for God against the accuser.

But Jesus was in a wilderness which yielded nothing, but left Him an hungered; and the wild beasts were with Him, and all might have been pleaded by the accuser against God.

All was against Jesus as all had been for Adam, but He stood as Adam had fallen. The man of the dust failed, with all to favor him. The man of God stood, with all against Him. And what a victory was this! What complacency in man this must have restored to the mind of God. To achieve this victory Jesus had been led up of the Spirit into the place of battle, for His commission was to destroy the works of the devil (i John 3:8). He now stood as the champion of God's glory and man's blessing in this revolted world, to try His strength with the enemy of both, to make proof of His ministry; and to the highest pitch of praise, He is more than conqueror.

But He was conqueror for us, and therefore at once comes forth with the spoils of that day to lay them at our feet. He had been alone in the conflict, but He would not be alone in the victory. He that soweth and He that reapeth must rejoice together. It was an ancient statute of David, that he that tarried by the stuff should share with him that went down to battle. But a better even than David – one, not only of Royal but of Divine grace – is here; and accordingly Jesus the Son of God comes forth from the wilderness to publish peace, to heal disease, to meet all the need of those who were the captives of this enemy, and to let them know that He had conquered for them.