Week 6 ———  The Temptations

Matthew 4:3-11— Mark 1:13b  —  Luke 4:3-13

Jesus has endured 40 days in the wilderness, and now the adversary comes to him with three temptations.  

Matthew 4:2-4   And after fasting for days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The accuser comes to Jesus in his time of greatest weakness.  He has fasted for 40 days.  But God has not yet proclaimed an end to Jesus’ fast.  Notice the accuser begins, “IF you are the Son of God.”  Jesus had just heard the voice of God himself proclaim him as the Son 40 days ago 

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

First, the accuser will question your identity.  “If you are really saved, you would not have had that bad thought or done that bad thing.”  “If you were really a child of God, then your life wouldn’t be so hard or in such a mess.”  If he tried to place doubt in Jesus’ mind about his identity, rest assured you will face the same temptation at some point.  

Then the enemy will try to get you to question God’s goodness.  This strategy has been the accuser’s method from the beginning.  In the garden, “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  By exaggerating God’s prohibition from one tree to all, he places doubt in her mind and questions God’s goodness.  She questioned whether God was holding back something good for her.  This was Israel in the wilderness.  They were led into a place with no food, a forced fast.  Soon, they were doubting God’s goodness, asking why God brought them out of Egypt, where there was plenty of food, to a place where they would starve. This was also Jesus’ temptation.  You can almost hear the accuser saying, “Come on, 40 days of fasting is sure to be enough. You can end this fast now.  Aren’t you hungry?”  The temptation facing Adam and Eve, Israel, and Jesus is this: ‘surely your appetites are a better indication of what you need than God’s word.’  And that is the temptation we constantly face.  Will we seek to satisfy our appetites, our lusts for food, money, possessions, pleasure, power, etc?  Or will we strive to be obedient to our Father and seek first the Kingdom of God?

This was a real temptation for Jesus.  He was hungry, and he had the ability to make bread appear (even without stones) as he did in the miracle of feeding the 5000 or the 4000.  But he answers:

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, where Moses explains to Israel why obedience in fasting is essential:

“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Our appetites should not be what controls our behavior.  Our behavior should be modeled after God’s word.  

Matt. 4:5-6   “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the 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 bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

One of the secrets to understanding this temptation is a knowledge of the geography of the wilderness Jesus was in.  The Judean Wilderness is full of cliffs and wadis.  Yet somehow (whether in Spirit or physically), the accuser transports Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple.  Why was this area, with many steep cliffs, not a suitable setting for the temptation?   The difference is that in the temple in the city of Jerusalem, many people would see it.  Remember that Jesus keeps his miracles mostly in isolation in the beginning.  He tells people he heals not to tell anyone.  Other than the required feasts, he stays away from Jerusalem.  Then, in the final weeks of his ministry, Jesus purposely arranges to do an undeniable miracle in front of a crowd at Jerusalem’s doorstep.  Jesus delayed answering Mary and Martha’s plea to come and heal Lazarus, delaying his arrival until Lazarus was dead for four days.  (The thought in that day was that the spirit remained with the body for three days.  Waiting an extra day makes the miracle even more undeniable.)  Jesus forces this into the public where the religious authorities can not ignore it because “his hour has come.”  And it is this miracle that forces the Sanhedrin to decide that Jesus must die.  Had Jesus demonstrated such a public miracle before his ministry even started, he would have lost his opportunity to have that year with his disciples to teach and demonstrate the Kingdom of God to them.  That explains the ‘where’ of the temptation.

For the temptation itself, the accuser quotes Psalm 91, a Psalm about the Messiah. It promises protection, rescue, and deliverance.  But we have already discussed that putting God to the test is sinful.  Jesus’ answer from Deuteronomy references Israel testing God when they were thirsty.  Again, they doubted God’s goodness, saying he brought them there to kill them with thirst.  We easily see how jumping off a high place is a test. How is Israel testing God?

if you are thirsty and there is no water, you have two choices.  You can say:

1. “It is okay, God is over all.  He love me and will provide for me as he always has. We got hungry and he dropped bread out of the sky for us.  He will find us water”

or 

2.     Why did you bring us here to die, Moses?  We had plenty of water in Egypt. (Here they sound like my kids when they were little on a long car trip, “I’m thirsty, I’m starving to death, I’m hot, when are we going to get there?”

Again they doubted God’s goodness, saying he brought them there to kill them with thirst.  The Bible calls that murmuring. Just before this, Israel had witnessed the beginning of the recurring miracle of bread from heaven.  And yet they doubt. 

 How many signs do you need to remember that God is good?  Apparently, ten miraculous plagues, the parting of a sea, the destruction of the Egyptian army, and raining food from the sky were not enough.  How many signs do we need that God is good?  Like the children of Israel in the wilderness, we tend to groan and complain about any hardship we face.  Bad weather, the high price of gasoline, the waits at the doctor’s office, an interruption in internet or cell phone or TV service — how quickly we forget our blessings and God’s faithfulness and murmur over trivial first-world problems.  How quick we are to test God.  

This was a real temptation for Jesus.  He was the Son of God but had lived his life in obscurity.  How easy it would have been to show people all at once who he was and the power and wealth he possessed.  But that was not God’s plan.  He was to live a simple life.  For though the cattle on a thousand hills were his, he lived a life of the poor.  Though he is the power and the glory, he lived and died as the powerless and the humiliated.  At his arrest in the garden, when his disciple attacks with a sword, Jesus rebukes him, saying:

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”  Matthew 26:53-54.

It is the same temptation again: doubting God’s goodness and provision, being disobedient, abandoning God’s plan. 

The third temptation:

Matthew 4:8-10   Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

This may be the hardest one for us to identify with.  “I would never be a Satan worshiper!” we would proclaim.  It seems this temptation is no real temptation at all.  Or is it?

First, let’s deal with the satan’s promise of power and glory, all the kingdoms of the world.  Was it his to give?  Russel Moore, in his book Tempted and Tried, says this:

“Again, the Devil’s words were partly true. Because the original human rulers capitulated their dominion to the snake, Satan is now “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4: 4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2: 2). The kingdoms of the world are under his sway right now because, in sin, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5: 19). But this reign of death is illegitimate and parasitic. The cosmos itself is bucking in revolt against this dark power, groaning for the true heirs, “the sons of God” to be revealed in resurrection (Rom. 8: 19–21). Satan’s power is twofold. He incites human sin by governing people through “the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind” (Eph. 2: 3). And he stands as accuser over humanity, keeping us in captivity through fear of death and the coming judgment (Heb. 2: 14–15; Rev. 12: 10).” ¹

Indeed, these kingdoms are all the accusers (temporarily) to give.  But they would all be handed over to Jesus one day (Rev. 11:15 “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”).  Jesus was the Christ- the anointed one- anointed to be King.  Moore points out:

“Satan was not just trying to tempt Jesus; he was attempting to adopt Jesus. Satan, in all three temptations, is assuming the role of a father—first in provision, then in protection, and now in the granting of an inheritance. Satan didn’t just want to be Jesus’ lord; he wanted to be his father.”²

Jesus responds again with a verse from Deuteronomy.  He prefaces it with a command for the accuser to leave him.  He will use these exact words near the end of his ministry, speaking to Peter after Peter said Jesus should not suffer and die (Matthew 16:23).  (Peter’s statement is similar to this third temptation.)  The issue is worship.  

We think of worship as singing songs or praying, but worship is ascribing worth or value.  Billy Graham said, “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.”  We could say the same about your calendar or day planner.  What you value is where you spend your money and time.  There is a lot more worshipping of the kingdoms of this world than we would all like to admit.  We could all use a little more practice repeating Jesus’ phrase, “Be gone, accuser, You should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”

You may never have a one-on-one confrontation with the satan, but you will undoubtedly face many temptations. Remember, your desires are waiting to lure and entice you.  Sin is crouching at your door.  Like Jesus, you will likely face the hardest temptations when you are at your weakest.  But Jesus, who was “tempted in all ways like as we are,” is interceding for you.  He is praying for you. Be ready for the battle.  Put on your spiritual armor.  The victory is the Lord’s.

1. Tempted and Tried. By Russell Moore. p139.
2. Ibid. p 136.

Just a heads up! The gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry get busy for the next five days. So look for a blog entry each day today through Tuesday. I have some tough news for those of you following Jesus with your feet. In a few days, Jesus will make the trek from the Jordan River where John was to Cana of Galilee.  It will help if you have ever run or walked a marathon.  It will be even more helpful if you have done two on consecutive days.  I’ll post an optional entry in the “Step by Step with Jesus” section of the page this weekend with information on the difficulty of determining the site of John’s ministry and Jesus’ journey to Galilee, and what he saw along the way.