He was with the wild animals and the angels attended him

Mark 1:13

Mark tells us next to nothing about Jesus’ temptation, but he does say to us, “folks, don’t forget the wild animals and the angels!”

Why, I wonder?

The wild animals emphasise the desolate location.

Here is Jesus far from all human help.

His only companions are wild animals.

And they’re potentially dangerous ones.

They can stand for the enemies of God’s people.

Jesus is kept safe and he overcomes this danger.

Jesus is like a new Adam who named the animals.

Maybe too he’s like a new Noah, who was with animals of all sorts.

Like the shepherd boy David, who was to be God’s king, he had faced the lion and the bear and overcome them.

Part of the vision of the New Creation in the Bible is harmony throughout creation, the wild animals getting along together and submitting to human beings.

Perhaps in Jesus’ victory over the devil we’re meant to see a foretaste of that new creation which Jesus has come to bring.

It is appropriate that Jesus as God’s king, indeed as God, should be served by the angels.

Again he is the new Israel because Israel had been fed on Manna in the desert, the bread of angels, and had received the law from angels.