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January 10, 2010 |
| Strengthened in Temptation | ||
After the baptism of Jesus that we saw last week in Matthew 4, Jesus is tempted by Satan. In this lesson we will be studying those temptations and Jesus' responses to them.
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
"This narrative underlines the biblical principle that God's calling must be tested. The Spirit, having empowered Jesus for his mission as God's Son (3:16-17), now is the one who leads him into the wilderness where his call must be tested (4:1, 3, 6). Matthew expressly informs us that the purpose of the Spirit's first leading of God's Son was that he might be tested! Like most of his heroic predecessors in biblical history (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Job), Jesus had to pass a period of testing before beginning his public ministry. Some of his predecessors almost snapped under pressure, restrained only by God's favor, but our Lord Jesus provides the perfect model for triumphing in testing."1
"The Spirit's role in this is not to directly tempt Jesus, for God cannot tempt any man (James 1:13), but rather, to lead Jesus to the situation where Satan would provide the temptations. Why could Jesus not do this on His own? Because it is in and of itself a sin for man to seek temptations. […] The man who willingly seeks after temptations is a man who is not doing the Lord's will. Yet, it was necessary that Jesus be tempted while on earth, so the Spirit directed Jesus to undergo such.
"Why was Jesus tempted? While Jesus was God, He was also man. Jesus hungered as a man, thirsted as a man, suffered as a man, and ultimately died as a man. He was also tempted as a man, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). This was necessary so that He could become a merciful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus knew what it meant to be tempted with sin and the things of this world. […] He resisted temptation his entire life. In so doing, He became the perfect standard for us to imitate in life (Hebrews 12:1,2).
"There seems to be a significance in the number 40 here. The earth was cleansed in 40 days and 40 nights of rain during the flood. Joseph's embalming process was 40 days (Genesis 50:3). The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. It seems to be a number that indicates cleansing and purification. The numerology is consistent in the case of Jesus' fasting as well."2
"In fact there are strong parallels in this passage to the testing of "Israel in the wilderness; whatever God commanded Israel his child in the wilderness, much more he would require of his Son the Messiah. […] Matthew emphasizes that Jesus, unlike Israel, passed his test in the wilderness. Matthew makes this biblical background clear even in simple ways like saying the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness […]. We should also note that Jesus quotes three texts from Deuteronomy, all of them commandments that Israel failed to obey but that Jesus is determined to obey."3
3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
"When Satan says If you are the Son of God, he is not expressing uncertainty as to who Jesus is, but rather taunting Jesus to prove it."4
"In tempting Jesus with bread, Satan attempts to use Jesus' source of spiritual strength (His fasting) against Him. Satan knew Jesus was hungry. Satan's temptation, however, was not in the form of offering bread directly to Jesus, but in tempting Jesus to use His power for purely selfish purposes. [Later] Jesus used His power to multiply the loaves and fishes (Mark 6:39-44). But he did it for selfless purposes in that case. Here, the sin would have been two fold; first it would have been an abuse of God's power, and second, it would have been obeying the voice of Satan."5
From a broader perspective, "The devil invites Jesus not so much to deny his sonship as to act according to various worldly expectations for that role. […] We must acknowledge God's right not only to determine what to label our calling but also to determine what that label should mean."6 For example, a call to evangelism may mean a street ministry rather than a pulpit ministry. In this case, Jesus was not there to exercise His power to change stones into bread. He was there to be tested.
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
"Jesus' response […] cites Deuteronomy 8:3 where God instructs the children of Israel regarding the manna with which He fed them. They were to know and realize that it wasn't by bread alone that they survived, but by the very words of God themselves. [And it] is not by just SOME of God's words that it is sufficient for us to live, but all of them. It takes all of God's teaching on any one given subject for us to know what the entirety of that teaching is."7
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
"This time [Satan] quotes scripture to Jesus. It is a grave lesson to us. Satan knows what God's word says and is prepared to use it against us if we are not educated and knowledgeable in it. Satan even uses the scriptures in, at least, their immediate context. He quotes from Psalm 91:11,12. These were legitimate prophecies concerning the Christ and the protection that He would be afforded while on earth. Satan, however, always has in mind a misappropriating spirit and while he seemingly understands these passages correctly, he makes an incorrect application of them."
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
"Jesus' reply to Satan corrects his use of scripture. God's word must be understood as a whole, not by taking one part of it and using it separate from what the other parts teach. There are several contexts in which we must handle scripture. There is the immediate context (the passage), there is the mediate context (the book), and there is the remote context (the entire Bible). Satan appears to have used this scripture correctly so far as the immediate and mediate contexts are concerned. But he doesn't consider the remote contexts and thereby he is causing the word of God to contradict itself. We simply cannot afford to make the same mistakes that Satan makes here. We simply cannot afford to handle God's word in a way that is inconsistent with other parts of that word and message. We must handle God's word correctly (2 Timothy 2:15)."8
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
"The temptation was for Jesus to take the easy path for world ‘salvation.' With control of all the nations, Jesus could force everyone to do His will. After all, He created this world and these are His subjects. Why not compel them to obey Him instead of having to go through the future He knew He had in store? Because such is not the way of God. God desires to reason with man regarding his sins (Isaiah 1:8), not force upon man His ways. Jesus authority would come from His self sacrificing spirit, and humble example (Philippians 2:5-9), not from a desire to rule and conquer the earth with the sword (John 18:36)."9
10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
"Jesus flatly refused to worship Satan. It was an appalling concept. Jesus answers Satan with the words ‘Get thee hence,' ‘Be gone,' ‘Go away,' or in the modern vernacular ‘Get out of here.' It is a strong rejection and one which was closely followed, once again, by scriptural rebuke.
"God alone is worthy of our worship, no other.
"This is the third time that Jesus has quoted from scripture to refute Satan. It is a powerful example to us that if we know the scriptures then we can rout Satan's temptations. Again, Psalm 119:11 is very appropriate, ‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.' When we know and understand God's word, we have the greatest weapon of righteousness with which to go on the offensive against Satan (Ephesians 6:17)."10
I believe we are also seeing an example of James 4:7, where it says ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.'
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
"The devil left Jesus, at least for [the time]. [Luke's account of this testing (4:13) says ‘when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time'.] Satan may leave us alone for a time, but he will always return and seek us out again. As long as we are on this earth, we have temptation.
"God has promised, however, that he will not completely abandon us to Satan's devices. 1 Corinthians 10:13 states ‘No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.'"11
These three temptations all have the same goal at heart – to separate Jesus from His ministry. In the first temptation Jesus would have been caring for himself rather than His mission. In the second He would have been testing God, rather than following Him. In the third He would have been taking a different path than the one God had chosen. In summary they all would have been disobedience of God.
These temptations also have a sin in common – obeying the guidance of Satan, the father of lies. For us as well, no long term benefit could ever come from doing that.
Also involved in these temptations are human weaknesses. A weak body would be attracted to food; a strong ego would be attracted to power; a lazy person would be attracted to an easier way. If Jesus had any of these weaknesses, he overcame them.
In our lives, when we pass tests, whether spiritual or secular, we are strengthened by the assurance that we had the strength and knowledge to succeed. And having passed through the testing process we are better prepared for similar tests. We also enjoy the sense of victory. It makes sense then that Jesus was also strengthened by overcoming his tests and so was better prepared for his ministry.
Will testing come to us?
Will it last forever?
What technique does Jesus use that provides us with an example for over-coming temptation?
Does Satan know the Bible? Probably better than we do. Do we hear non-believers quoting scripture without understanding it? A few verses out of context. "Eat, drink, and be merry"
Does Satan know our weak spots and when we are weakest?
Jesus was the Messiah and the temptations tried on Him were appropriate to that role. What temptations do we face? Alcohol, drugs, pornography, money, power, …
In your experience, does Satan's temptation strategy for each of us change over time, or does it remain pretty much the same?
1 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Matt/Gods-Son-Passes-Test
2 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
3 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Matt/Gods-Son-Passes-Test
4 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christ the Fulfillment, Unit 2, Lesson 6
5 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
6 http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Matt/Gods-Son-Passes-Test
7 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
8 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
9 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
10 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/
11 http://preachersfiles.com/matthew-41-11-jesus-is-tempted-by-satan/