And when he had fasted forty days— So much greater was Jesus than Adam. Jesus, worn down by fasting and hunger, oppressed with want, and in a wild howling wilderness, overcame the devil; by whom Adam was overcome in full strength, and abounding with all things. It was usual for persons to prepare themselves for any sacred office by fasting, and prayers so intense, as to cause a neglect of common food. See Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23. The number forty is remarkably distinguished in Scripture: Moses and Elijah fasted forty days. See also 3 John 1:3. Ezekiel 4:6. It is a very just remark of Dr. Whitby, that to institute, or pretend to keep a fast for forty days, in imitation of this example of our Lord, is to place morality in numbers, and introduce an endless heap of superstitious follies; for it is certain, that so great and so long abstinence is inconsistent with the frailty of our nature, and so can be no duty. Better is the note of Theophylact and others, that "we are then especially to expect temptations, when we are in straits and exigencies, from which we see no ordinary way of deliverance;" which was here the case with Christ.
Related Commentaries of Matthew 4:2
Matthew 4:2
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.