CHRIST'S TEMPTATION
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.” (Luke 4:1, 2).
“Then Jesus
was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty
nights, afterward He was hungry.” (Matthew 4:1, 2 NKJV).
“For we
have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).
Temptation, in whatever form it takes in our lives, is
something that scripture calls “common to
man” (Corinthians 10:13); it happens to us all. James tells us that “EVERY man is tempted” (James
1:14), and Peter reminds us that our adversary, the devil, is always walking
around looking for someone to trip up and devour. We must learn to resist him, “…knowing that the same sufferings are being
experienced by your brothers in the world.” (1 Peter 5:8, 9 HCSB). ALL Christians go through
temptations. No one is exempt. It comes along with being in the world and
being in flesh and blood. It has nothing
to do with whether we have been “good” or “bad”. Temptations come to try our faith and give us
opportunities for our faith to be refined and perfected in the fire (1 Peter
1:5-7).
Jesus, because He was in the world and became flesh and
blood, was also subject to temptation.
Scripture tells us, “Though He
were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered…” (Hebrews
5:8). Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus “…was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin.” There is nothing,
therefore, that you or I can experience that Jesus wasn’t first tempted by, yet
He endured them all without committing a sin.
He did this to prove that it is possible - even expected - for us to be
free from sin by His power working in us.
Paul says that God has delivered
us from the power of darkness and has translated
us into His glorious Kingdom by the death and resurrection of His Son. Scripture tells us, too, that God’s goal is
to “…redeem us from all iniquity, and
purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Titus
2:14). We understand that this is a
process – a progression – that ultimately leads to our maturity in Christ
Jesus. Tribulations and temptations work
patience in us, patience works experience, and experience works hope (Romans
5:3-5); and everyone who has this hope in them will purify themselves even as
Christ Himself is pure (1 John 3:2, 3).
LED OF THE
SPIRIT
TO BE
TEMPTED
In the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, when He
was 30 years old, He went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the
Baptist. Matthew records what happened
next: “And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto
Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven,
saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
(Matthew 3:16, 17). One would think that
after such an experience as that, Jesus would have been ready to plunge right
into His ministry; but, no, that’s not what happened. We’re told that Jesus was immediately
led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Mark
1:12). When we think of being led by the
Spirit, we don’t normally think of being led into temptation. Just as
Jesus’ baptism was part of God’s plan for His Son, so was Christ’s
temptation. It is an essential part of
our maturing as Christians to learn to resist temptation and endure
suffering. Jesus said, “…for thus it is fitting [or proper] for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Like Jesus, we often enter a time of trial or
temptation that tests our faith to its limits, and it is usually right after we
have been greatly blessed or greatly used by God. This, too, is normal, and can be expected as
a routine part of our spiritual growth.
St. Paul experienced being transported up to the third heaven and into
Paradise itself. He heard words spoken
that were so holy that he was not permitted to repeat them to anyone
afterward. It was so real to him that
afterwards he wasn’t sure whether he had seen a powerful vision or had really,
physically been caught up. Later, the
Apostle was afflicted by a physical condition that he referred to as “a thorn in the flesh” and “the messenger of Satan.” Though he prayed repeatedly to be healed, God
did not see fit to deliver Paul. Paul
said that this thing was sent to buffet (strike with the fist) him, lest he
become big-headed because of his visions.
God showed Paul that through his weaknesses the Lord would perfect His strength in Paul and show the
sufficiency of His grace. These are
lessons that we must learn also, and our trials and temptations are one way
that we learn them.
BEING FORTY
DAYS TEMPTED
“…and [Jesus] was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of
the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He
afterward hungered.” (Luke 4:2).
“And He was
there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild
beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.” (Mark 1:13).
The Bible accounts of Jesus’ temptations by Satan are
found in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. They record
three specific times that the Lord was tempted during that forty day period of
His fasting. Seeing that Jesus “…was in all points tempted like as we are…” we
can deduce that either the Lord was only tempted thrice in the wilderness, and
then in every other way during the remainder of His ministry, or that He was
tempted in many ways during that forty days. However, only three specific
temptations are highlighted. I prefer to
believe the latter because Luke states in verse 13, “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him FOR A SEASON.” In other words, the devil wasn’t done; he
would return to try again and again.
I think that the three temptations that are recorded in Matthew and Luke are
representative of the three main categories of weakness that is inherent in human
flesh. John lists these in 1 John 2:16. They are: “…the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” These
things belong to the world. Satan, who
is called the god of this world, has engineered the world system to cater and
to allure to the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the eyes, and the pride
of life. The world, we’re told, will pass
away along with its pride and various lusts, but the one who does the will of
the Lord shall abide forever.
Mankind’s first temptation in the Garden of Eden was
also representative of these three main weaknesses in the human flesh. When the serpent began to seduce Eve into
eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he
used the woman’s primary weaknesses to tempt her. Scripture records the three things that were
appealing to her about the fruit: “And
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food [the lust of the flesh], and that it was pleasant to the eyes [the
lust of the eyes], and a tree to be
desired to make one wise [the pride of life], she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:6).
Every temptation of man falls into one of these three primal
impulses, and they are all linked to man’s love of the world. Regarding the world system, John issues this
warning, “Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him…And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for
ever.” (1 John 2:15, 17). This is why Paul exhorted the Church at Rome
not to be conformed to the world, but, instead, to be transformed by the renewing of the mind by the Word of God and
Spirit of truth.
Scripture illustrates the deceitfulness of the world
and its lusts over God’s people in the story of Israel’s Exodus from
Egypt. As long as the children of Israel
remained in Egypt, they were subject to the bondage of Egypt. When Moses appeared, his message from God
was, “Let My people go that they may serve
Me.” (Exodus 7:16). The indication is that until they were
free from Egypt altogether, they could not serve God as He wished them to. They would be distracted by too many things
in Egypt. They had to break free! Likewise, we are in bondage to the worldly
system that permeates everything around us.
In order to truly serve the Lord as we should, we, too, must break
free. As Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful
riches, money, possessions, or whatever one trusts in).” (Matthew 6:24 Amp),
but, “If the Son therefore shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36).
MAN SHALL
NOT LIVE
BY BREAD
ALONE
Christ’s first temptation was something very basic: hunger. “And
the devil said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it
be made bread.” (Luke 4:3). After
forty days without food, Jesus was hungry; but His fasting was meant to direct
His focus on the will of God and not His fleshly needs. It isn’t that eating bread was a bad thing of
itself. It was more a matter of Jesus not
allowing His fleshly appetites (of any sort) to interfere with what God had
revealed as His will for Him at that time.
Scripture says that “…to him that
knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17). To eat bread today might be wrong for me to do because the Lord has called me to
fast and pray, and I know that is His will for me. Tomorrow it would be fine to eat bread when
my fast is ended.
Two examples that I think are relevant to this study are
the stories of Esau who was willing to sell his birthright to his brother,
Jacob, for a bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29-34); and of the Israelites as they
wandered in the wilderness and would have returned to Egypt so that they could
enjoy the melons, cucumbers, leeks and garlic that they ate there (Numbers
11:4-6). God is clearly not against our
eating stew or cucumbers any more than He is against our eating bread. It is all about context. In both Esau’s and the Israelites’ cases they
were both ready to casually trade what was enduring for that which was only transient.
It
does not matter what is right for others, or what commandments man may give us;
it only matters whether or not we are obedient to the Lord, and to the still,
small voice of the Spirit inside of us.
This was the battle that Jesus was facing.
IT IS
WRITTEN
“But He [Jesus] answered and said, It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).
Jesus’ response to this temptation came straight from
the Word of God. He said, “It is written…” Jesus was, after all, the Word made flesh
(John 1:14). It was He Who was in the
beginning with God, He Who was God, and
He Who made all things (John 1:1-3). He was
the One Who spoke the universe into existence by the Word of His power: “And God said, let there be…” The worlds and everything that God made in the
first six days of creation were framed by the Word of God (Jesus). (Hebrews
11:3). As the psalmist wrote, “Thy word is true from the beginning: and
every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Psalm 119:160), and, “For ever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in
heaven.” (Psalm 119:89). The things
that were spoken by God were then written and recorded by holy men of old as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Yes, “It is written” were three very powerful
words indeed. In each of His subsequent
temptations, Jesus’ responses to Satan were preceded by these same three
words.
The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Among all of the spiritual armor that God has promised
us in Ephesians 6, it is the only one with which we can go on the offensive. This is what Jesus used against Satan in the
wilderness, and it is an example for us to follow. When He drew the sword of the Spirit and
stood on the authority of God’s Word, the devil then had to desist in that
temptation. The enemy whispers lies and half-truths
to us to convince us that they are right, but, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto
the simple.” (Psalm 119:130). The
light of God’s Word exposes Satan’s lies, and he can no longer use them to
deceive us. As the psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I
might not sin against Thee.” (Psalm 119:11).
If our foe were flesh and blood, we might resort to fleshly
methods to fight him; but our battle is in the unseen world: against
principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness, and against spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places. Physical
strength and fortitude do no good against the enemy of our soul. He is neither frightened nor convinced by
logical arguments or intelligent debate.
God’s Word, however, stands as a mighty bulwark against all the power of
the enemy. When we invoke what is
written in God’s Word, and confess it by faith, the day is won, and Satan must
flee.
EVERY WORD
OF GOD
“…man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God.”
The words that Jesus chose to use against His
adversary, the devil, were written in Deuteronomy chapter 8. Moses had admonished the Israelites with the words
God gave him when they came out of the wilderness after wandering there forty
years. He said, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to
do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the
LORD sware unto your fathers. And thou
shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in
the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine
heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know; that He might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” (Deuteronomy 8:1-3).
I believe that the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the
wilderness and was tempted by Satan corresponds to the 40 years that Israel was
tempted and tried in the wilderness.
They, too, were enticed and allured by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts
of the eyes, and the pride of life many times as they wandered through the
desert, not often with very good results.
Jesus, on the other hand, endured all without erring or committing
sin. God allows us to wander through the
wilderness of this world also. It is to
humble and prove us, to know what is in our hearts (not that God doesn’t
already know, but WE need to know), and to see if we will love and keep His
commandments. He suffers us to hunger –
and feeds us with manna. He suffers us
to thirst – and satisfies us with water from the Rock: Christ Jesus our fountain
of living water. Everything is for one
purpose: that we come to understand that we cannot trust in temporal things,
but only in what God says is true. “…but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day. For
our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2
Corinthians 4:16-18).
ALL THE
KINGDOMS
OF THE
WORLD
“Again, the
devil taketh Him [Jesus] up into an
exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them...” (Matthew 4:8).
This temptation that Satan presented to Christ was all
about the lust of the eyes. It was not
just the kingdoms themselves that the devil showed the Lord, but all the glory
of them as well. All the things that
attract us to the world and that we covet with our eyes, are the things that Satan
uses to bring us into bondage and servitude to him and to sin. St. John said, “ALL that is in the world…is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And
the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever.” (1 John 2:16, 17).
Because a thing is “pleasing to
the eyes” does not make it “good for
food.” Ask Eve about that one!
“And the
devil said unto Him, All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou
therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine.” (Luke 4:6, 7). The New Testament writers referred to Satan
as the “god of this world.” (2
Corinthians 4:4). All the power of the
kingdoms of this world, along with all of their earthly glory, has been
delivered to Satan. Much like God allowed
the Pharaoh of Egypt during Moses’ time to rise to power and afflict the
Israelites, He has allowed Satan to control the kingdoms of the world. The Pharaohs of old considered themselves to
be gods also, but the God of the universe brought judgment upon Egypt for His
people’s sake in order to set them free.
The love of the world and the things of the world are designed to bring
us into bondage so that we will be distracted from serving God. Covetousness can be one of the most insidious
of all temptations. In the end, it is
the devil himself that we are in danger of worshipping. Jim Elliot, an American missionary who was martyred
in South America for the sake of the Gospel, once wrote these words: “He is no
fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” His words are
a powerful reminder for us to prioritize the eternal over the temporal, and to
seek treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth.
“And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Luke 4:8). It is all about whom we will worship and whom
we will serve. We can’t serve two
masters at the same time. Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same
shall save it.” (Mark 8:35).
It is good to consider carefully what we allow of the
world into our lives, and what we do not.
There are things that are on the television, in movies, and on the
internet that are designed to only vex our souls. The light of the body is the eyes, therefore,
we must make wise decisions concerning what we will allow ourselves to view,
and what we will not. The Psalmist
wrote, “I will set no wicked thing before
mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”
(Psalm 101:3). Whatever we allow
ourselves to look upon, we should picture Jesus sitting down with us and
viewing the same thing. Would He be
pleased with our choices, or would He be grieved?
IS THE LORD
AMONG US
OR NOT?
“And he
brought Him
[Jesus] to Jerusalem, and set Him on a
pinnacle of the temple, and said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself
down from hence: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over Thee,
to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou
dash Thy foot against a stone.” (Luke 4:9-11).
Notice that Satan twists the truth of God in this
instance to accomplish his own will and try to trip the Lord Jesus by using the
Word himself. This is not unusual, for
the devil is able to transform himself into an angel of light to suit his needs,
so why not distort the scriptures to achieve his end. Jesus saw through the enemy’s ploy, however,
and called him out, again, with the Word.
“Jesus said unto him [Satan], It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.” (Matthew 4:7).
Just what is tempting the LORD, anyway? To tempt God is to test His knowledge, will,
power, wisdom, or any of His other attributes in order to gain one’s own way. It is challenging Him to prove Himself in
some way. In scripture, we are given the
example of the Israelites when they contended with Moses at a place called
Massah. The people, after being
delivered out of Egypt and experiencing great miracles from God, had run out of
water in the wilderness. They began to
chide (strive physically with words, complain, quarrel) with Moses saying, “Give us
water that we may drink” and “Wherefore is this
that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our
cattle with thirst?” (Exodus 17:2, 3).
The worst thing that the people said,
though, was when they said, “Is the LORD among us, or not?” (Exodus
17:7).
You see, tempting the LORD is just the opposite of trusting
Him. If we truly trust God with all our
hearts, we will not demand that He prove His love for us every time we
encounter adversity or hardship. We will
not expect God to prove His presence in our lives just because things aren’t
going the way that we think they should.
Just because Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat didn’t mean that
He was not fully aware of the storm the disciples were experiencing (see Luke
8:23, 24). We must never doubt that the
Lord is with us and cares for us. He has
said, “I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5). In
the case of the Israelites at Massah, God instructed Moses to smite a rock that
was in Horeb, and water flowed out of it so the people could drink (Exodus
17:5, 6).
No matter how dark some of the valleys are that you
must pass through, never think for an instant that God is not with you. He is with us always, even to the end of the
world. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
Two verses out of the Book of Proverbs have come to
mean a lot to me. They have been an
anchor for me when I don’t understand the path that the Lord has me on, or can’t
figure out what to do next or which way to go.
They are found in the third chapter, verses 5 and 6, and they say, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding. In
all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” In those times when we don’t understand what’s
happening to us, we can trust that HE does. We must resist the urge to try to figure it all
out on our own. God always has plan and
purpose in what He does and in what He allows.
The important thing is to acknowledge
God in all our ways. He is at work, He has not left us. He loves us supremely and is working all
things together for good according to His purpose.
The other aspect of this temptation of Christ has to do
with the pride of life. This is the last
of the three basic weaknesses of the flesh and can be the most subtle. Whenever we expect God to do things the way
that we want Him to, it is the pride
of life. Whenever we allow the promise
of spiritual power, knowledge, wisdom, or ministry to puff us up and exalt the
flesh, it is the pride of life. There is
nothing that we have received of the Lord that is not a gift and manifestation
of His power and glory. Without Him we are nothing. Whenever we move forward to do something that
God has not first directed us to do, it is the pride of life. A dear brother I know, when he was young and
zealous for God, announced to a congregation that he believed the Lord was
going to turn water into wine for their communion service that night. When they poured out the water into the cups,
however, it was just water. He thought
that he had the faith to believe, but he was lacking the key ingredient: faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. God had not spoken to him about turning water
into wine. Many Christians have run
headlong, thinking they have heard from God when God has not first spoken to
them. This is the pride of life. Jesus has called each of us to follow in His
footsteps, but we are often too busy trying to lead HIM than to recognize where He is leading us.
“And when
the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season.” (Luke 4:13). Notice that it says the devil left Jesus “for a season.” This was not the end of all the temptations
that the Lord would endure, but was representative of main ways in which the
enemy tempts our flesh.
“Then the
devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.” (Matthew 4:11). Angels are always near at hand to minister to
the heirs of salvation. Scripture says, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about
them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” (Psalm 34:7). You can be sure they are never too far off.
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