Matthew 4:1-11 (NASB) (From Bible Gateway.com)
The Temptation of Jesus
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He [a]then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
5 Then the devil *took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 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,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “[b]On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
8 Again, the devil *took Him to a very high mountain and *showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and [c]worship me.” 10 Then Jesus *said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND [d]SERVE HIM ONLY.’” 11 Then the devil *left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
It is important, when we read any passage from the Bible, that we make sure we read it in context. This means being aware of what came before, and what came after. It means being aware of how the passage fits in with the rest of the paragraph, the rest of the chapter, the rest of the book, the rest of the Testament (New or Old), and the rest of the Bible.
This particular passage, Matthew 4:1-11, comes directly after the story of Jesus’ baptism. There is stark contrast. The Baptism talking place in the lush Jordan river, the temptation happening in the barren Judean wilderness The Baptism being among the large crowds who had flocked to John the Baptist, the temptation happening in absolute solitude. In Baptism the Spirit descends as a dove, in temptation the Spirit is driving him into wilderness for the express purpose of temptation. From the voice of the Father’s affirmation to the voice of the tempter’s enticements.
We cannot look at the temptations of Matthew 4 apart from the baptism of Matthew 3. Jesus’ anointing, in the Jordan is what prepared him to face the testing in the wilderness. Jesus submitting himself to be baptized, to do the Father’s will, to “fulfill all righteousness,” as it says in Matthew 3:15, prepared him to resist the temptation he was about to face.
Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. For a first century Jewish person, reading or hearing that Jesus spent this specific amount of time in the wilderness would have immediately drawn them to the Old Testament.
When Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, he met with God on Mount Saini. Exodus 24:8 says that Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. This association of Jesus with Moses would have also drawn the people’s attention to Deuteronomy 18:15, in which Moses says that God would raise up a prophet like him.
Another connection the people would have made to 40 days and 40 nights was the prophet Elijah. In 1 Kings 19 Elijah flees the evil queen Jezebel. He eats a meal, and on the strength of that he traveled for 40 days and 40 nights. Elijah was the second most important prophet in Israel’s history, next to Moses. Elijah most famously faced down the prophets of Baal and ascended into heaven on a chariot of fire.
The significance of 40 days and 40 nights would also have connected with the wanderings of Israel in the desert, after they refused to enter the promised land. One of the commentaries I read said that:
“[The] primary background [of the temptations of Jesus is] Deuteronomy 8:1-5, from which Jesus also quotes his first reply to the devil. There Moses recalls how the Lord led the Israelites in the wilderness 40 years ‘that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.’ Here at the beginning. Of His ministry Jesus is subjected to a similar test and shows himself to be the true Israelite who lives ‘by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.’” (NASB footnotes Matthew 4:1)
So, in the first verse of chapter 4, Matthew is telling us a lot about who Jesus is. Jesus is the one who is approved by the Father and led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one who is the promised prophet like Moses, upon whom God promised to put His words. He is like Elijah, who was to come before the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he is like Israel, but able to do what Israel is not.
And so, with all of this in mind, Jesus’ connections to the power of the Spirit and his connection to the OT prophets, we are taken on a journey of 3 temptations.
In the first temptation of Jesus, Satan, the tempter, the persecutor, entices Jesus to turn stones into bread, to feed himself. Satan is working from the point that Jesus has been in the wilderness without food for 40 days. He would have been extremely hungry. Satan is also playing on Jesus being the Son of God.
The Greek word translated here as “if” would more properly be translated, in English, as since, or because. The technical term for the use of the Greek e? (aye, epsilon iota) in this sentence is “first class conditional,” which means it is assumed to be true. Satan isn’t questioning Jesus Messiahship, but rather using it as a ploy to get him to abuse his Messianic powers.
So, the question that we have is, why was this a temptation? From the context of the rest of the New Testament it is obvious that Jesus making something out of something else is not a big deal. He turns water into wine; he feeds 5 and 4 thousand people with a few loaves of bread and fish.
The key, I believe, is in understanding why Jesus had gone out into the wilderness in the first place. Now we don’t have a detailed listing of why Jesus was there except for that first verse. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The second verse said that he fasted for 40 days and nights. So, we must assume that the fast was for a reason, that God was leading him to fast.
This was a spiritual exercise that played an important part in the coming ministry of Jesus. His response to the temptation is important. “It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus, in his fasting, was focusing on reliance upon the Father, and away from his reliance upon the world. Jesus is essentially saying that it is better for me to be hungry for physical food, but filled with the Word of God, than to have full belly but be apart from the Father. It is better to be obedient to God than to be obedient to my stomach, or any physical need/desire.
Jesus use of this verse wasn’t coincidental. If we were to go back and read Deuteronomy 8:1-5 we would see that Moses is talking about the children of Israel being hungry during their wilderness wanderings. We also see the promise that if they followed the commands of God, He would supply their needs. He supplied the manna, the food that came from heaven.
And so, Jesus is more concerned with following the Will of the Father, than achieving physical comfort. He knows that if he continues to follow the Will of the Father, the Father will supply all his physical needs as well.
Having successfully resisted the first temptation, Satan then brings Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city, that is, Jerusalem.
If the first temptation was about fulfilling Jesus’ physical needs, this second temptation seems to be about fulfilling Jesus’ spiritual needs. Again, Satan begins the temptation with the phrase, if you are the Son of God. And we again need to understand that this would be better translated as since, or because.
It is interesting that Satan quotes from Scripture this time. In the first temptation Jesus refuted Satan’s temptation by quoting Scripture. It seems that Satan is throwing “tit-for-tat,” “Jesus, if you can use Scripture, so can I.” This temptation also seems to be tied to the first. Satan seems to be saying, that, since Jesus believes that he should rely on God for his physical and spiritual needs, a demonstration is in order. Jesus, you believe the Scriptures. You believe that the Father will provide for you. Therefore, you know that if you were to fall off of this high place He will protect you. So go ahead, do it.
Satan, in this temptation, may have also been trying to entice Jesus to gain a following of believers. After all, a spectacle of angels swooping in to save a man falling from a great height would have caused quite a stir. It would have drawn a lot of attention to Jesus, and it would have convinced a lot of people that Jesus was something special.
Nevertheless, Jesus did not give in to the temptation. The problem with this temptation, with Satan’s use of Scripture, specifically from Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12. It is not so much that he misquoted, it, which he did, leaving out the phrase “in all our ways.” It was common practice to not include an entire passage, and to leave out certain phrases, when quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures. Many New Testament authors, and contemporary Rabbis and teachers, also quoted in similar fashion.
The problem is that this passage was misapplied. “The psalm is a psalm of trust, telling how God protects his people. It was never intended to be claimed apart from practical wisdom. God promises to protect His people; but He has also given them common sense.” (Bible.org, AN EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW: 6. The Temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11))
Jesus’ responds to Satan’s second temptation in the same way that he responded to the first. He quotes this time from Deuteronomy 6:16. This passage from Deuteronomy is referencing the Israelite’s testing of God in the wilderness at Massah. This event is recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. The people of Israel did not trust in God to provide for them. They questioned whether God was really with them and for them.
To put God to the test is to express a lack of faith and trust in Him. It is to demand from God an act to “prove” who He is. It is an attempt to force, or manipulate, God to do something.
Jesus, in his response to Satan, is saying that he has perfect trust in the Father. He is saying that he doesn’t need God to perform some heroic spectacle. Jesus did not need to act foolishly to prove that God would provide for him.
Satan has misapplied the words of God from the beginning of time. From the very first temptation in the Bible. Genesis 3, did God really say this? Did God really say you can’t eat? Did God really say he would protect you? Did God really say that he would deliver you?
Jesus did not need to test the promises of God but had complete trust.
We now come to the third temptation.
Satan has been countered at every turn thus far. He knows it. So, it seems, that he is ready to go all in. He is ready to put it all on the line to get Jesus to do what he wants. No more beating around the bush.
He gets right to the point. He wants Jesus to bow down and worship him. He’s not going to try to trick Jesus into accidentally doing something that will indirectly bring him glory, he’s going for the direct pay-out.
Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. Now this was probably not an actual mountain, as there is no mountain in Israel, nor indeed in all the world, talk enough to see all kingdoms on the face of the earth. This was probably something mystical, something supernatural.
In Psalm 2:7-9, a clear messianic passage, God promises to give to the Messiah the nations as an inheritance. In Psalm 110 God will put the enemies of the Messiah as a footstool.
Satan is basically saying, “look, I’ve already ben given authority and dominion over these kingdoms. I know you are going to inherit them, but you don’t have to do it the hard way. The hard way is for you to go through persecution and suffering and death and a cross. You could inherit them right now, the easy way. All you need to do is bow down and worship me. Satan likes to offer up what looks like the easy road, the broad way, the comfortable way. But all his promises are lies. And Jesus knows this, In John 8:44 Jesus says that Satan was a liar from the beginning, the father of lies.
And Jesus counters the lies of Satan with the truth of God. For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” Jesus goes back to Deuteronomy again. Jesus pulls from Deuteronomy 6:13. This is the prime directive (to use a Star Trek term), of Scripture. Worship the one God only.
A few verses before this in Deuteronomy is the Shema, the central verses for orthodox Judaism. Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them a s a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
So, what do we do with this?
Is this just a puff story to show how awesome Jesus is? Is this just a story to show how inferior I am compared to Jesus? I don’t think so. I believe that there is something here that can help us as we strive to grow in our relationship with Christ.
There are probably a lot of different applications we could take from the story of Jesus’ temptations, but I want to focus on one this morning.
I want to focus on how Jesus overcame temptation. I believe that this is important for us, and I believe that this is the key to how we too, can overcome temptation.
So how did Jesus overcome temptation? There are multiple sources that Jesus could have drawn from or could have turned to in these temptations. He could have relied on sheer willpower; he could have thought about how giving in to temptation would affect people around him; he could have just walked away. But Jesus didn’t do any of that. When Jesus faced temptation, he turned to Scripture. The key to his success was the Word of God.
This is our key to defeating sin and temptation in our lives as well. If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been redeemed and are justified. Those are big words to say your relationship with God has been made right. You are now in right relationship with God.
Unfortunately, that right relationship does not mean that everything will be smooth sailing from here-on-out. Jesus, who is God, and never had a broken relationship with the Father, faced trials and temptations, and if you are a follower of Christ you can be sure you are going to face trials and temptations as well.
In John, chapter 15 Jesus speaks to this very issue. If the world hated him, if the world attacked him, we, his followers, can expect the exact same treatment. In the very next chapter, John 16, Jesus promises that his disciples, his followers, will have trouble in this world. Our relationship with Christ does not give us a free pass on trouble. In fact, I feel as though it increases our trouble.
But immediately following the promise that we will face trouble Jesus says, “but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
And again, how did Jesus overcome? By the power of the Spirit and by the power of the Word. Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.”
Do you want to have victory in this world? Stay in the Word.
I have found that the most difficult times for me happen when I neglect my daily devotions and Bible study. I get so wrapped up in everything else going on. Good and important things; my wife and kids, my job, my ministry at church. And I say to myself, this other stuff is so urgent, I need to get to it now, I’ll just read the Bible later. And most times the later never comes.
But when I take time, and make time, to dig into the Word. When I am intentional about opening the Bible and allowing God to speak to me, I find that I can handle the things that come up so much better. It’s not that everything going on has changed, my wife and kids are still there, my work is still there, my church is still there.
But when I dig into the Word my relationship with God is strengthened and I have a refreshed tap into the power of the Spirit that enables me to better handle the things that come at me in this life.
If I could give you one key for success in this life, it is to stay in the Word. It is to commit the Word to memory. It is to make Bible reading and study an integral part of your everyday life. Make it more necessary to you than food, than spectacle, than power.
Psalm 119:11 says “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not Sin against you.”
Hide God’s word in your heart. Make it a part of your very being.
Let us Pray.
