1:13 forty days. Possibly a symbolic reference to the forty years of Israel’s wilderness experience (Deut. 1:3; cf. v. 12 note).

wild animals. This detail emphasizes that the wilderness is a place of curse where the devil is master (Matt. 12:43; cf. Eph. 2:2). Jesus enters this domain and binds the strong man (see note 3:23–27). This is a kind of reenactment of the testing of Adam. Although Adam was in a garden and was not threatened by wild beasts, he fell to Satan’s tempting. In the wilderness, Jesus, the second Adam, begins His defeat of the devil and His work of redemption by passing the test of filial obedience.

angels were ministering. Angels accompanied Israel in the Exodus (Ex. 14:19; 23:20; 32:34; 33:2). Jesus’ experience in the wilderness is a type of that of the Christian in the world, which is experienced as Satan’s domain (Eph. 6:12). See note 10:30.