From the River to the Wilderness
Matthew 4:1-2
Satan’s intention in the temptation was to make Jesus sin and frustrate God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. God’s purpose in the temptation was to prove Jesus is His Son, sinless and a worthy Savior.
Immediately after the heavens were open Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Satan’s intent was to make Jesus commit a sin so that God’s plan for the redemption of mankind would be defeated by disqualifying Jesus as the Savior.
We must never forget great privileges and tokens of God’s favor will not exempt us from being tempted. After great honors that have been put on us and blessings we must expect something that is humbling; as Paul has a messenger of Satan sent to buffer him, after he had been in the third heavens. When temptations come our way God prepares His people for the temptation before He will permit it to come upon us. The best preparation is the assurance we are a child of God’s. If the Holy Spirit witness to our adoption, that will furnish us with an answer to all the suggestions of the evil spirit, designed either to correct us or silence us.
After we have been admitted into the communion of God, we must expect to be set upon by Satan. This is the time a convert must be more aware of Satan’s intent. When God calls us for a special purpose in His harvest Satan will attack us as he did Jesus. The place where the temptation of Jesus occurred was probably in the great wilderness of Sinai, where Moses and Elijah fasted forty days. There was no part of the wilderness of Judah that fit Mark’s description of the wilderness the Holy Spirit led Jesus into.
After He was baptized Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem but into the wilderness. In the wilderness the tempter has the advantage. Though solitude is a friend to a good heart, yet Satan knows how to use it against us. Those who have shut themselves up in dens and deserts under the pretence of sanctity and devotion find that they are not out of reach of their spiritual enemies. Satan was given the advantage to make Jesus’ victory more illustrious. Satan was given the advantage because there was nothing in Jesus as there is in us. Therefore we must always pray not to be led into temptation and must keep away from those things that Satan can use to tempt us. When we are tempted we must not rely on our strength but the strength of the Holy Spirit.
We must be careful and not enter into temptation. But if God, by his providence, order us into circumstances of temptation for our testing, we must not think it strange, but trust the Lord and all shall be well. If we presume upon our own strength, and tempt the devil to tempt us, we provoke God but, wherever God leads us, He will go along with us, and we shall be more than conquerors we shall be over comers.
Jesus was led to be tempted by the devil and by the devil only. We are tempted when we are carried away and enticed by our own lust. Our Lord Jesus had no corrupt nature, and therefore he was led securely, without any fear or trembling, as a champion into the field of the battle. Our Lord Jesus submitted to the temptation because He would humble Himself in all things to make Himself like us.
There can be no conquest without a combat. Jesus was tempted, that He might overcome the tempter. Satan tempted the first Adam, and triumphed over him; but he shall not always triumph, the second Adam shall overcome him. This should be comforting to us when we are tempted. In the temptation of Jesus the enemy is subtle, spiteful, and very daring, but he is not invincible. Though he is a strong opponent the Captain of our salvation is stronger. When we are tempted we draw out strength from Him. We have a High Priest who knows, by experience, what it is to be tempted. He is touched by our infirmities in our hour of temptation (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15). It is comforting to know Jesus defeated the tempter for us. The enemy we struggle against is a conquered disarmed enemy.
Jesus was prepared for the battle in the wilderness. He fasted forty days and forty nights as did Moses the great lawgiver and of Elias, the great reformer, of the Old Testament. John the Baptist came as Elias, in those things that were moral, but not in such things as were miraculous (John 10:41); that honor was reserved for Jesus. Jesus didn’t need to fast to subdue corrupt desires. He fasted that He might humble Himself, and might seem as one abandoned, that he might give Satan both occasion and advantage against him; and so make His victory over him the more illustrious. That He might sanctify and recommend fasting to us, when God in his providence calls us to fast or when we are in a crisis or as a means of keeping the body under control.
When Jesus’ fast ended He was hungry. Instead of bread and meat Jesus’ conversation with the Father was bread and meat to Him. Afterwards being hungry is evidence Jesus was really and truly Man; and He took upon Himself our natural infirmities, that he might atone for us.
The first temptation was intended to get Jesus to prove He is the Son of God. He can prove He is the Son of God by turning the stones in the wilderness into bread and satisfy His hunger. Satan knew what God had said just as he knew what God told Adam in the Garden of Eden. If he didn’t know who Jesus was Satan would have never used the approach he used. He would not challenge Jesus saying, “If you are the Son of God.” He was telling Jesus if God is your Father prove it. If the voice from heaven was not a delusion prove it by turning these stones into bread.
In every temptation Satan’s goal is to get God’s people to doubt their relationship with God, cut off their dependence on Him, their duty to Him, and their communion with Him. The Holy Spirit, as the Comforter of God’s people is the witnesses that they are the children of God. Satan as the accuser of God’s people does all he can to shake that testimony. He uses wants, needs, and burdens to make God’s people question their son ship. Satan uses our situation and the conditions existing in the world to shake our faith in the Word of God, and question His love. When we question the truth of any word that God has spoken we are opening the door for the father of lies to enter our heart. We are satisfying his desire to prove God is unkind, unfaithful, and has forsaken or forgotten those who have given their all to Him. He used the command not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as evidence God was withholding knowledge from Adam and Eve. He uses Jesus’ hunger as evidence God has left Him to provide for His own needs. He is not a loving Father.
With these words Satan tried to convince Jesus He could prove He was the Son of God by turning stones into bread. If God can turn the stones into descendants of Abraham and Jesus is the Son of God He would have divine power to turn stones into bread. Satan’s suggestion is exert that power now. He didn’t tell Jesus to pray to the Father and ask Him to turn the stones into bread. This would be evidence Jesus was His Son. This would prove God has not forsaken Him. Satan’s suggestion is evident. Do it yourself and You won’t be beholden to God. Satan can gain the advantage if he can get us to be self-sufficient.
Satan knew who Jesus is and he knew Jesus has the power to turn stones into bread. At first view, the turning stones into bread can be justified. The truth is the more credible a temptation is, and the greater the appearance of good in it, the more dangerous it is. Jesus was aware of the snake in the grass, and would not do any thing he suggested. Jesus knew Satan’s suggestion was meant to question the truth of the voice He heard from heaven. It was meant to get Jesus to distrust the Father. Jesus knew if He turned the stones into bread He would be satisfying the desire of Satan.
In this situation in His life Jesus did what we should do when Satan knocks on our door, He turned to the written Word of God. Jesus, the eternal Word could have answered Satan without referring to the writings of Moses; but he put honor upon the scripture, and, to set us an example, He appealed to what was written in the law; and He says this to Satan, taking it for granted that he knew well enough what was written. It is possible that those who are the children of Satan may know what is written in God’s book but they ignore it. When the children of God are tempted to sin we are to resist and repel the temptation with the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, the only offensive weapon in the entire Christian armory (Ephesians 6:17).
