In response to the words: “He remembered God and rejoiced” (Ps.

The sun, rising above the earth and making its way to us from the east, drives away the night, awakens those sleeping and calls them to action; the light of knowledge of God awakens the soul, illuminates thoughts and calls to virtue; and we need to desire this more than the shine of the sun. Someone who does not look at the sun will live, - after all, a blind person lives, knowing about the sun by hearing, - and souls deprived of the sun of knowledge of God are dead, even if they thought that they were living; It is about them that the Lord says: “leave the dead to bury their dead” (Matthew 8:22). But the conqueror of the culprit of death freed us from both deaths. We have a double death. One is characteristic of mortal nature, the other arises through the loss of knowledge; ignorance of God is like deathly insensibility. The culprit of both is the devil. Christ, having crushed him, freed nature from both deaths: he restored the soul to life-giving. teaching, but he gained mortal things through resurrection. If the persecutor has fallen, then the persecuted will rise. And the picture of this struggle is left (for us) for life, so that, looking at it, we can be strengthened. Where is the picture? Look at the desert: there grace resurrected us in a manner disastrous for the tyrant, and pursues the tyrant in the desert. We see the desert as the place of struggle, and the devil is a hand representing the hunger of the Lord; three attacks, three replies; (such is) the law of struggle that it consists of three parts. And count the three parts of this struggle. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (“If you are the Son of God, Lord, let these stones become bread”) (Matthew 4:3). This began the struggle between the devil and the Lord. Christ told him: “man will not live by bread alone” (“man will not live by bread alone”) (Matthew 4:4). The Lord remained unharmed. “if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (“if you are the Son of God, cast yourself down”) (Matthew 4:6). This is the demon's second attack. “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (“thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”) (Matthew 4:7). With this saying the test is terminated. “I will give all this to you if you fall down and worship me” (“I will give all this to you if you fall down and worship”) (Matthew 4:9). This is the beginning of the third competition, in which the Lord, like a certain athlete, threw the devil out of the race as a quarrelsome opponent. “Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only” (“follow me, Satan: for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only”) (Matthew 4:10). Having seen the struggle, learn to fight; turn from a contemplator of struggle into a student. The Lord's first struggle with the devil teaches you the struggle against pleasures. Famine was the beginning of the competition; hunger is unlimited passion; hunger is the main thing in pleasure. The desire for food is an unbridled desire; the stomach sees inevitable pleasure; and many, not being able to recover from this, usually deviate to denying providence, as if there is no God who cares for the hungry. The devil pushes Christ into this, planning to shake Him, like a man tormented by hunger; he did not know about the combination of divinity in Him: otherwise he would not have approached the deity as if he were starving. Knowing about his own nature that it cannot starve, he would not even talk about food, having recognized God. But looking at a person, as a person, he says: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” He, an unnecessary researcher of adoption, a guardian of food, more dangerous than hunger, from the very beginning inspired deification from the tree, now from a strong desire he points to the desert, where there is nothing but stones, so that the hungry place, intensifying despair for food, would become for the soul, as it were, an impetus to unbelief, and would destroy sonship. But let us look at the tempter and delve into the deceit of his words. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” “You were called,” he says, “the Son recently, at baptism, and I heard the words of a voice: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (“this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”) (Matthew 3:17). I laughed at this greeting, at its pompousness, at this meaningful joke, at an honor that was in reality empty; But perhaps this speech was pleasing to you, and you believe that you are truly loved, bold, as if you were placed in heaven, and glad, as if you were very desirable to God. What father doesn't care about his hungry son? What patron does not nourish his petitioner? And you have been languishing from hunger for 40 days, and the Father does not care about you when you are hungry, and neglects your many-day hunger. What child-loving father happily does not give bread to his child? Is it good for a hungry son if he is not fed by his father? Let Him show His love by willingly giving bread; let him feed the Son who was hungry in the desert. He can turn stones into bread; ask for it out of hunger; may He show grace that You may remain in the beauty of the Son; but before you get it, don't joke with Your name. Oh, the philanthropy of the hater of people! Oh, the compassion of a murderer! Oh, disastrous care! Oh sweet poison! The fallen one encourages unbelief and calls for food - not in order to feed the hungry, but, by seducing him into demanding it, pitting him, as an infidel, against God. Turn to God, by whom you are deceived, (that) “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” What does the Lord Christ have to do with this? He does not reveal the hidden God, so as not to drive away the prey from Himself, but answers like a simple man: “it is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (“it is written: “Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”) (Matthew 4:4). “Lack of food does not amaze Me,” he says, “I am not embarrassed by starvation in the desert, I do not require the preparation of bread from stones; there are many ways of divine care and varied patronage. He provided people with food to eat; food is the cunning of the flesh; but Divine Scripture teaches Me that God transcends the boundaries of nature. I remember the divine voice to people so that they would not be afraid of hunger when God cares. Do not feel sorry for the hungry, and do not point to the desert in despair; let God take care, although there will be no bread nearby. There is a life-giving God even without food, and the flesh will live without food if God commands it to live. So it is written, and I boldly believe in the divine saying, and I do not expect life only from nutrition.” Adam stumbled on this; Christ reconciles. Since Adam fell through unbelief and because of food (he was rejected when he did not believe God and ate), then Christ who came and raised us begins with abstinence and faith. So, the devil finally enters the fight personally. “Before birth,” he says, “I plotted against the Baby through suspicion of adultery; having lost hope (in this), I made a mistake (also), chasing through Herod after the one born; always remaining defeated, I will now fight on my own.” O grumpy blind man! Defeated by the Child, and enters into battle with the matured one! Come and taste, O devil, the man who has matured; know His power once again. He was already amazed when he approached the hungry man (you heard how he fell); but, calculating to win, He redoubles his insolence. Since he was deceived in the first trick and did not deceive the hungry man, he resorts to the second cunning. “Unsuccessfully,” he says, “my old remedy; I part with the cunning that overthrew Adam; I abandon the deception of food; this one is apparently the king of pleasure. He cannot relax with the pleasure of food; he has not looked for bread for a long time. Doesn't obey hunger at all; It cannot be taken by the warfare of the flesh. I conceived another trick to fight; I have one fishing rod even sweeter - (this is) glory that delights the soul. The loop of vanity is pleasant; not only pleasant, but also double twisted; next to vanity stands madness. He who loves fame is terrible at boasting; and He has a pretext for this passion. Maybe He thinks a lot about Himself, like a faster who fasts for many days. I will tickle boastfulness; Having approached as if I were approaching a righteous man, I will rant with a psalm saying, as if it had been spoken to Him before, and will seduce with a crafty question. Let the break be the place of my question; I will drag you with me onto the wing (of the Church), and on high I will suggest: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written: He will give His angels commandment concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest you dash Your foot against a stone” (“if you are the Son of God, look down; for it is written, that an angel will take up His commandment concerning You in their hands.” thee, let not thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Matthew 4:6). He, of course, will either accept this saying to Himself or run away. If he accepts, then, like a righteous man, he will hastily agree to the offer to fall and throw himself from a height; and I will laugh at the dead if, having fallen, He dies; I wounded (Him) alive with the passion of vanity, convincing me to throw myself down as proof. If I see that (He) refuses, then I will quarrel Him with God, like Job, by slandering the gift of sonship. I read to Him the saying You wrote, told Him about the promise of Your salvation, and He did not dare to rush into the depths; it is clear that He is not steadfast in what You have promised. How did You greet such an unfaithful one as your Son?” The Lord recognized his plan and allowed Himself to be carried away, as a man follows a man. When (He) ascended, he proposed (to Him) his plan: “if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” We respond to the devil's offer. If you consider God to be the Father of a man who has mastered Himself so much as to remain unharmed when harmed, then you already have proof of what you offer; This very thing, devil, is an indicator of sonship, that you do not push the one standing next to you into steepness, although you have long been trying to overthrow Him. This means nothing more than the fact that, in urging, he seems to say: “You do not fall involuntarily, throw yourself down voluntarily: throw yourself down, for it is written: He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone,” because this also shows and makes clear (Him) as God. If the enemy had recognized God (in Him), he would not have invited Him to fall from on high; he knew before that height and breadth are not dangerous to God, but He rises to the high and fills the wide; he previously knew that the Godhead was free from stumbling; Stumbling is characteristic of human feet, but not of God. That he did not speak as with God is evidenced by the words of the devil. Let's delve into the meaning of his words. “Recently You said: “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). And I praised Your faith in God. But since there is another saying of God, that “He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone,” then show that you believe the word of God: so that, having been cast down, you fall without harm, use this rapids (as) a judge of Your sonship, use the fall (as) evidence of divine care. If, having fallen from here, you get up unharmed, then the name of sonship expressed to you is true: it was to you that God promised earlier that “he will command his angels about you, and in their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). You, devil, have resumed the old story: you pour out myrrh from a fragrant vessel. Samson killed a lion with honey in its mouth; he (the lion), foul-smelling, was abandoned (then); and you, lion-shaped, exude from your mouth the honey of Scripture, and you will find yourself cast down by the Lord’s answer: “It is also written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (“It is written: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”) (Matthew 4:7). He neither refused to rush nor agreed. By refusing to throw himself, He would have given the devil an argument that He was not steadfast in God; agreeing with the proposal to fall, he would seem boastful and quick to prove. There is no agreement or denial in “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” By this He says to the devil: “You will not tempt Me, your Lord.” Having understood this, he could not then promise, as a person: “I will give all this to you if, when you fall, you worship me” (Matthew 4:9). – “The words of the psalm that God who promised has intercession, I accept as true; I know that He commands the angels about people, but not when they rush into rapids, when they die of their own free will, when they tempt needlessly.” So the devil fell a second time, (and) rises for the third temptation. But the essence of the third temptation is debt, and you all have a manuscript of this debt. This manuscript is sweet, and only bitter for the devil, because the payment lies in his fall. So, I am convinced that (this is so far) two payments on the manuscript of the promise; there remains more debt; I think it is the most difficult to pay. The rest of the debt is the third deceit of the devil; third in order, first in magnitude; it is the last deception, but the first in cunning art. At first he was tolerant of all wickedness; he did not directly demand apostasy from God, but by abusing the memory of God and turning to Him: “if you are the Son of God,” he gave a pious appearance to his God-fighting cunning. in the third temptation in nakedness, low rage, uncovered evil peeks out; he demanded worship from the Worshiped, imagining worship on the basis of what he (the devil) heard (from the Lord). Since he saw that the Lord spoke with faith everywhere and said that God did not need to be tempted, he thought that the Lord was easily accessible to faith and would not bother much about testing it. And he approaches with a majestic appearance to amaze with the spectacle: “Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (“The devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory”) (Matthew 4:8). Having painted in the air with a shadow, invented aerial forms, made a rough image of the world and fabricated the beauties of a falsely depicted kingdom, he hoped with the brilliance of fiction to lure the Lord, who was easily accessible in relation to faith. But now he no longer feels that he is arguing against himself and is in a hurry to fall. In order not to fall, he promises the gifts of the world: “I will give you all this if, when you fall, you worship me.” Whoever does not believe Paul that the covetous man is an idolater, let him listen to the father of idols, who agrees with the words of Paul. “To him who worships me,” he says, “I will give what belongs to others.” So, the seeker of someone else’s property is under the protection of the devil. He himself promises to give what belongs to others, harms with gifts, and gives what he steals. And in relation to the Lord, he has that curious thought to subtly overwhelm him with the promise of gifts. “This one,” he says, “is not weak to the pleasure of food, and is not captivated by the passion of vanity. He immediately broke two of my arrows, convenient for fighting; you need to look for another strong arrow; everyone has the passion of lust; seeking benefits is not disgusting to anyone; everyone is, so to speak, wounded by selfishness; Having taken this (arrow) out of my quiver, I will fire it. But where will I shoot? Which place will help me? Oh, that He would go with me to a high mountain! The height is convenient for spectacle; I would show fertile countries from above; I would bring the treasures of kings closer to my sight; would present for contemplation the famous splendor of life, one actually showing, and another imagining through cunning. Human nature is very susceptible to self-interest. If He sees the lordship of the earth, He will rush to gain it, will take the shadow for the truth, and will now believe what is being shown, because He everywhere reveals faith in Himself. I said: “Demand bread!” - and He let this pass by Himself, believing that God feeds even without bread. I said, "Cast yourself down!" - and He rejected this word, saying that it should not tempt God. So, I will approach Him with a majestic air. He will believe my deception, because he is used to falling before God; will believe because he is not inquisitive; and when he believes, I will laugh and leave.” Knowing these thoughts, Christ ascended a high mountain with him; and the devil began his cunning: he presented to his eyes a painted fiction. The Lord did not expose the cunning, but contemplates, as if not knowing the deceit. And he thought that He was defeated by cunning invention, and captured by the beauty of the phenomenon; With this assumption, he finally fools with monstrously powerful words: “I will give all this to You if, when you fall, you worship me.” “Don’t you see,” says the man, “the greatness of the world? Do you not contemplate his wealth? Are you not amazed at the multitude of kingdoms therein? The lord of this is me. I distribute these gifts among people, each according to my decision. But You are preferable to me above all, and only You have the right to reign on earth; receive from me world power, and reward it with worship: “I will give all this to you if, when you fall, you worship me.” You prophesy half involuntarily, devil: you will give up the world that you have enslaved to evil, but not for worship, but for scourging. Don't you think you're talking to Adam? He seduced Adam, convinced him that he would be a god, and, having convinced him, overthrew him. And now he promises Christ omnipotence, counting on Him to fall at the height of hope. But I heard a worthy answer: “Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him alone” (“follow me Satan: for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only”) (Matthew 4:10). "Get away,...Satan!" - by the way, here he adds the name of Satan; like a certain ruler, he calls the hiding slave by name, showing that he (to Him) is obvious. "Move away!" ("Go") - I think the meekness of this word is formidable - like the Lord angry with him. “You are tired of being a hypocrite and have revealed your pretense; despair of victory, and flatter me with gifts; You are already trying to sell Me; You are already preparing for Me, which is in accordance with the work of (My) traitor. The devil took care of the sale prematurely, wait for his comrade, Judas. Go now: I await the cross; go now: you cannot buy Me; now go: save your gifts for the traitor; Now I only tell you: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.” Do not share with God people, because they are debtors only to Him.” “Then the devil leaves him” (“Then the devil leave him”) (Matthew 4:11). Great is the victory over the last deception. Just as some noble athlete, having lifted his opponent to a height, throws him down from above, so the Lord Christ, having lifted the devil to a mountain and filled him with dreamy hopes, brought him down from the heights of hope. The miracle of victory, which amazed the angels, constituted (of them) a guard for the winner: “and behold, the angels came and served Him” (“behold, the angels came and served him”) (Matthew 4:11). Like the angels, we too will surrender ourselves into slavery to the Lord; Let us please heaven by performing angelic service on earth; let us give our souls into invincible hands; let us love the corrector of fallen nature; let us embrace the One who weakened the common enemy; Having glorified the victory, we will imagine ourselves as spearmen; let us disgrace the fallen devil; and, tearing off our shameless head, let us exclaim with all our hearts: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Matthew 4:10). To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – edition of the ABC of Faith.