1690. The rest fled into the mountain means that not all of them were conquered, as can be seen without explanation from the fact that the ones who escaped survived.

The inner meaning speaks of the trials the Lord endured when he was young. Not a word is said about them in the New Testament Scriptures but only about his crisis in the wilderness (or just after he came out of the wilderness) and finally about his last crisis, which began in Gethsemane.

From his early youth up to the last hour of his life in the world, the Lord's life was one continuous struggle and one continuous victory, as many passages in the Old Testament Word indicate. The Lord's trials did not end with the test he faced in the wilderness, as these words in Luke show:

After the Devil had finished all his testing [of Jesus], he left Jesus alone for a while. (Luke 4:13)

The same thing can be seen from the consideration that the Lord was tested up till his death on the cross and so till the last hour of his life in the world. This evidence makes it clear that the Lord's whole life in the world, from early youth on, consisted of constant trials and constant victories, the last of which occurred on the cross when he prayed for his enemies and so for everyone everywhere in the world.

[2] The Word's description of the Lord's life in the Gospels mentions none of his trials outside his final crisis, except for the one he faced in the wilderness. No more was revealed to the disciples. What was revealed seems so mild that it hardly amounts to anything, as far as the literal story goes; to speak and answer in that way is no trial. ¹ The fact is, though, that he was tested more severely than any human mind could ever grasp or believe. No one can know what a spiritual crisis is like except the person who has lived through one. The trial mentioned in Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; and Luke 4:1-13 sums up all the Lord's trials, which consisted in his battling the self-love and materialism that filled the hells, out of love for the entire human race.

[3] All trials target the love we feel. The severity of the trial matches the nobility of the love. If love is not the target, there is no trial. To destroy a person's love is to destroy the core of that person's life, since love is life. The Lord's life was love for the whole human race, a love so great and good that it was pure, unalloyed love. He allowed this life of his to be attacked continuously, as noted [§§1661:5, 1676], from the dawn of his youth until his final moments in the world.

Love, which was the absolute core of the Lord's life, is symbolized by this:

He was hungry, and the Devil said, "If you are the Son of God, say to this stone that it should become bread." And Jesus answered, "It is written, ‘Humankind is not to live by bread alone but by every word of God.'" (Luke 4:2-3, 4; Matthew 4:2, 3, 4)

[4] He fought against materialism and everything bearing its stamp, as symbolized by these words:

The Devil led him up onto a tall mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited world in a moment of time and said, "I will give you all this authority and the glory of these kingdoms, because it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone I want. If you will worship before me, then, they will all be yours." But answering him Jesus said, "Go back behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him alone you shall serve.'" (Luke 4:5, 6, 7, 8; Matthew 4:8, 9, 10)

[5] He fought against self-love and everything bearing its stamp, as symbolized by these words:

The Devil took him into the Holy City and stood him on a pinnacle of the Temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will carry you, to keep you from stubbing your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.'" (Matthew 4:5-6, 7; Luke 4:9, 10, 11, 12)

His constant victory is symbolized by the statement that after his trial, "angels came close and tended to him" (Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13).

[6] In short, the Lord was attacked by all the hells from early in his youth up to the very end of his life in the world, while he was continually routing, subduing, and vanquishing them. This he did purely out of love for the entire human race. Since his love was not human but divine, and the greater the love the harder the struggle, you can see how fierce his battles were and how savage on the part of the hells.

This is how it was, as I know for certain.

Footnotes:

1676. All the way to El-paran, which is up in the wilderness, symbolizes the extent of those persuasions, as can be seen from the fact that the Horites were struck and fled that far. The wilderness of Paran is mentioned in Genesis 21:21; Numbers 10:12; 12:16; 13:3, 26; Deuteronomy 1:1.

What El-paran, which is in the wilderness, symbolizes here is not very easy to explain. I can only say that the Lord's first victory over the hells that are symbolized by those nations did not yet reach any further. The lengths to which it did reach are symbolized by El-paran up in the wilderness.

[2] Those who have not received the opportunity to learn the secrets of heaven might imagine that there was no need for the Lord to come into the world in order to fight the inhabitants of the hells and to defeat and conquer them by letting himself be put to the test. He could have subdued them and shut them up in their hells simply by his divine omnipotence, such people might believe. Yet it is unshakably true that he did need to. Unraveling those secrets just in their general outlines would take a whole book, and it would take another to make enough room for rational arguments about such divine mysteries. Even then, human minds would still be unable (and for the most part unwilling) to comprehend them, no matter how well they were explained.

[3] It is enough to know and believe this eternal truth, since it is true: Had the Lord not come into the world to subdue and vanquish the hells by willingly undergoing trial, the human race would have perished. Human beings could not have been saved in any other way, not even those on our planet who lived in the days of the very earliest church.