Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
After finishing our study on the genealogy of Jesus and noticing the fact that Matthew and Luke both had a record of that lineage, now we come to another text that is recorded in both Matthew and Luke’s gospel regarding the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. While we will not spend a great deal of time in Matthew’s account, there may be some interesting points to be made by way of comparison as we proceed with our study in Luke 4.
After the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended on Him to show that He was indeed the Son of God. From that point on, Luke writes that the Spirit is leading Him from place to place. In this account, the Holy Spirit led Jesus in the wilderness of temptation for forty days to guide Him against the devil.
Similarly, when we are baptized into Christ, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once we have determined to put away the man of the flesh, we are then trying to follow the leading of the Spirit. No matter what kind of wilderness we might find ourselves in, He is leading us all the way (Acts 2:38; 5:32; Rom. 8:5-17, 26-28).
Some have suggested that this was most likely the wilderness of Horeb where Moses and Elijah fasted (See Ex. 34:28; I Kings 19:8). Regardless of where it was, Jesus was in a place without food and shelter. Once you retire to a wilderness, you show yourself as separate from the world, and once you start fasting you show yourself perfectly indifferent to the body (flesh). The more that we bring our body into subjection to God’s will, the less opportunities we give to the devil. Even so, we find that you will never be able to escape the efforts of the devil, but you can be victorious every time he attacks (I Pet. 5:8-11). Jesus is our example of this truth.
Why did Jesus fast for “forty” days? “Forty” is a Bible number that seems to be associated with a period of time in trials. We find that whenever a fast was assisted by a Divine source, it usually lasted 40 days. Other events surrounding trials in Bible times also lasted for forty days (See Gen. 7:4; Ex. 24:18; I Kings 19:8; Jonah 3:4).
We need to learn to spend time humbling ourselves with prayer and fasting today. There aren’t very many people who will even consider spending any time in solitude meditating and drawing closer to God. Jesus was able to demonstrate His holy character through this time of trial. We need to follow His example.
And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE."'
After a fast of forty days, Jesus became very hungry. It was at this moment of weakness that the devil saw an opportunity to tempt Jesus. The devil told Jesus to make one of the stones in the wilderness into bread.” He had the Divine power to make children for Abraham from stones (Luke 3:8), certainly they could be made into bread in a time of need.
Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’" Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 from the scriptures to tell Satan that He would not fall into that temptation. Jesus was willing to live on the food of the will of God in this moment of trial. Several times Jesus relied on the power of His Father to care for Him with Divine food (See John 4:5-15, 31-34).
Bread in Palestine would have been flat circle shaped cakes rather than oblong loaves. The stones that lay in any valley would have looked identical to a piece of bread. Whenever you become very hungry, anything looks appealing, and yet with the power of God, Jesus could have turned stones into bread. He was unwilling to obey the voice of the devil but chose to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of His Father (See Deut. 8:3b)
The Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in all ways that we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). When we compare these temptations with the ones of man in the beginning, they are almost identical in nature. The difference between Jesus and us is that we sinned against God and He didn’t.
In Gen. 3:6, the text says,
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
While Christ ate food of which we do not know and would not give in to the temptations of the devil, man had fallen from God’s commandments and allowed Satan to trick him into eating what was forbidden.
Wycliffe said in his commentary, “Man needs bread, but bread is not all he needs. Material gratification of the appetites can never satisfy the deepest longings of the human spirit.”
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. "Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, "YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY."'
The fact that Satan led Jesus up does not in any way mean to force or cause against the will. Jesus apparently followed the devil up to this place where he would be tempted. Jesus would be found there standing on a peak of a mountain overlooking what was called “the kingdoms of the world”.
The kingdoms being referred to are to be found in the areas that were viewable from this location (See Deut. 34:1-3). Jesus was not caught up into the heavens with the devil in some miraculous sense. There were plenty of places where He could have stood on the earth and overlooked the kingdoms of the known world.
Remember that the point of this temptation was not the number of kingdoms being offered to Jesus, but the pride and prestige that was often associated with the sins of the world (I John 2:15-17). Jesus could either be Lord of heaven and earth or settle in this moment for second in command on the earth. Second…only to Satan.
The devil said, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." The devil not only lied in claiming rights to the domains of the world, but he also tried to get Jesus to forsake the word of God in disobedience to the teachings about worshipping God alone (Exodus 20:3). While Satan is the god of the world (II Cor. 4:4), he is not in control of any kingdom, nor is he worthy of any kind of praise. It could be that God allowed Satan to take control of these kingdoms in order to offer them to Jesus in testing Him, but there is no text that teaches that as a fact (See example Job 2:4-10).
Jesus was going to be the King of kings and Lord of lords over an eternal kingdom. This is exactly what He is today. But, if He had bowed down to the devil, Jesus would be in subjection to him. Since Jesus knew the word of God, and also the only One who could rightfully be worshipped, He said, “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.” He said this quoting Deuteronomy 6:13 in response to the temptation of the devil.
Isn’t it interesting that so many people today study the word of God, and never learn how to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Millions of people are claiming that their worship is acceptable to God, and yet they are forsaking the doctrine of Christ on the elementary principles of the faith. Many who claim that they bring glory to God in worship, are not living the life of a Christian. I am afraid that we have become so involved with our daily endeavors that we need to be reminded from time to time that God is the one that we are to worship and adore. Perhaps this reminder will help us to refocus our lives on Him (Matt 6:24; Acts 17:23-27). We need to make sure that we are worshipping and serving the one true God of heaven and earth in all that we do.
So many of us have heard a similar temptation from the devil, and even though we know that God has a glorious future in store for us, we have often settled for the temporal things of this life. We need to remember our Creator and remember His will for our lives. Give Him the glory, praise, and honor that is due to His high and holy name.
And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, "HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,' and, "ON {their} HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE."' And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, "YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST."'
The devil led Jesus here, just as he did in the mountainous region. Now Jesus is standing at the highest point in the temple and is overlooking the ground below as he hears these words, “’If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,' and, ‘ON {their} HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
Barnes wrote of this event, “The temple was built on the top of Mount Moriah. The temple itself, together with the courts and porches, occupied a large space of ground…To secure a level spot sufficiently large, it was necessary to put up a high wall on the east. The temple was surrounded with porches or piazzas 50 feet broad and 75 feet high. The porch on the south side was, however, 67 feet broad and 150 high. From the top of this to the bottom of the valley below was more than 700 feet, and Josephus says that one could scarcely look down without dizziness. The word "pinnacle" does not quite express the force of the original. It is a word given usually to birds, and denotes wings, or anything in the form of wings, and was given to the roof of this porch because it resembled a bird dropping its wings. It was on this place, doubtless, that Christ was placed.”
When Satan says, “If you are the Son of God”, as he begins his temptations, it wasn’t that Satan was questioning whether Jesus was the Son of God, but that he was challenging Jesus to prove it by fulfilling this scripture that he quoted. The scripture is Psalm 91:11-12 that Satan tried to misuse in this temptation. Think about how tempting it would have been to Jesus to be right there in Jerusalem around thousands of people only to be able to fall 700 feet and walk away unharmed to prove that He is the Son of God.
While this passage applies to the protection that God will give to every man that will serve Him, no man is to test God by going out and jumping off a cliff. The response Jesus gave was exactly that, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” Jesus was teaching Satan in quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.
Notice that Satan quoted scripture on this occasion. Don’t think that the devil is ignorant of the Bible, and never underestimate the power of knowing the Bible for yourself. If Satan quotes scripture to tempt us, we need to see how he twists and distorts the word of God, so that we can give him a solid truthful answer in defending our faith. We need to search the scriptures daily and make sure that what we hear is the truth from God (See Acts 17:11).
How would you respond if someone said to you, “baptism does also not save us…”? You know those words have a familiar sound. You know that must be somewhere in the Bible, so you accept it and never get baptized, since you were taught that baptism has nothing to do with saving you. Notice that only one letter was changed in that passage to create this false teaching. In I Peter 3:21 we read, “baptism does also now save us”, and it becomes obvious that someone has distorted this passage to teach error. We might respond, “It is written, ‘He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.’" (Mark 16:16). When you know your Bible, you can defeat Satan and his false teachers (I John 4:1)
Remember how much of God’s command Satan changed to deceive man in the beginning. In Gen 3:3-4 Eve tried to tell Satan what God commanded would be the result of disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden. She quotes God as saying, “…you will die.”. Satan turns around in the next breath and teaches, “You surely will not die!”.
Now this must have sounded even closer to the truth since we read God’s actual words in Genesis 2:17, which said, “but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." This time only one word made the difference in being deceived by the devil into sin. Many false doctrines are being taught today. We need to study to rightly divide the word of God and be ready to give an answer for our hope (II Tim. 2:15; I Pet. 3:15).
While the devil was indeed quoting scripture, what he was asking Jesus to do, would have been a clear violation of another text. Since Jesus knew the word of God, He was able to stand against the devil and his schemes (See Eph. 6:11-17).
Examples of error:
“justified by faith alone and not by works”…what about James 2:24? The only verse in the Bible that says, "faith alone", says, "not by faith alone". Be careful!
“he that believes shall be saved and is baptized…” what about Mark 16:16? False teachers have this verse out of order. We believe first, baptized next, then we are saved.
13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
Jesus had gone through a series of temptations and trials, yet the Bible says that Satan left Him until an opportune time. We are to notice that Satan was not going to leave forever. Satan will depart from you, but he will return for more temptation as we give him opportunities. This is why we are instructed to live holy lives and give no place to the devil for an opportunity to tempt us (See Eph. 4:17-32).
James taught in James 4:4-7,
“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore {it} says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
We need to learn to see when someone is rejecting the word of God for personal interests and say, “Get behind me, Satan”! (Mark 8:33). Some people say, “Get behind me Satan…and push.” They encourage the devil for urge them to sin.
When the devil has finished every temptation and he can see that we are standing on the word of God, he will depart from us until we give him an opportunity again. If you need prayers for help with temptation, or if I can help you get connected to a good church in your area where you can find encouragement from other faithful Christians in these battles against the devil, please reach out.
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