Seeing Jesus Christ: Part 5: temptation, the world and the word

The gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us that, after His baptism, Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The gospel of John mentions the baptism of Jesus in the testimony of John the Baptist, as something which was already accomplished and makes no mention of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

The scriptures tell us plainly that God doesn't tempt us to sin: Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God''; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. James 1:13 However, the Lord does clearly put us into situations where we may be tempted.

Jesus' experience in the wilderness is typically used in sermons to demonstrate how we are to use the word of God to resist the devil, and this is a valid application of those passages. There is, however, another reason we are shown these temptations which is purely to demonstrate the fulfillment of scripture as it pertains to the Messiah and Son of God.

When Moses led the tribes of Israel out of Egypt, God spoke prophetically through him to Pharaoh and to Identify "Israel" as the son of God: "Then you shall say to Pharaoh, `Thus says the Lord: "Israel is My son, My firstborn. "So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.'' Exodus 4:22-23

This passage is interpreted in a number of ways by those who reject Jesus as the messiah and as the Son of God, but the translations that I use speak of the Son and Firstborn of the Lord in the singular form, not as a plurality, and in the present tense, not past or future.

We need to remember here that God spoke this to Pharaoh through Moses, before the Covenant of Law was given or instituted, so that those who try to make the verses refer to themselves through their "keeping" of the Law are greatly mistaken in their understanding. Now we know that God is not part of Creation, nor bound by time, but these words were given to men, who are. God spoke these words in reference to our Lord, but He also spoke them to the congregation of Israel in which was the body of our Lord waiting to appear in the fullness of time. As such, God addressed the tribes of Israel as His Son and dealt with them as He would deal with Him.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses summarizes the wilderness experience of Israel and gives clarification as to the purpose of it. In chapter 8 of the book of Deuteronomy Moses gives a brief explanation of God’s purpose in leading Israel through the wilderness for forty years: "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.”And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:1-3

So, we see that the tribes of Israel were led through the wilderness to humble them and to test their faithfulness in keeping the commandments of God. In that same passage, Moses goes on to explain that God’s treatment of Israel in this manner was for the purpose of discipline, treating Israel as a son, with the intent of providing a good inheritance to His people: "So you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.”Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; "a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Deuteronomy 8:5-10

In the gospel according to Mark, we aren’t given details about the temptation of Jesus, but he does tell us that this experience immediately follows God’s declaration that Jesus is His Son: It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'' And immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. Mark 1:9-13

We know that God is omniscient, knows all things, not just now but in the past and future as well, and is unrestricted by time, so its safe to say that the testing of Israel and the testing of Jesus was not for His benefit, but for theirs and for ours. The statements (or questions) through which Satan tempts Jesus are all specifically aimed at His legitimacy as the Son of God and heir of all creation.

The gospel according to Matthew tells us that after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness that Jesus was hungry and this is the first occasion for Satan to question His divinity: And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.'' But He answered and said, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:2-4

In Jesus’ answer, He is not only quoting scripture from chapter 8 of the book of Deuteronomy, but by comparison with Israel’s journey through the wilderness, He was demonstrating that He would not complain or grumble against God, but was accepting this trial without rebellion, believing that it was for His good and in preparation for His inheritance.

Jesus was willing to accept discipline as a Son, knowing the good character of the Father, and the benefit of obedience to Him. Jesus didn’t speak of the consequence of disobedience to God, the Father, as these were understood from the passage that He quoted: "Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.”As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 8:19-20

The message in this for the church is that while we may profess to know the Lord, or declare our relationship to Him with our mouths, it is our actions that confirm or deny that relationship, obedience revealing love for God, disobedience revealing selfishness which must be dealt with. In the economy of God’s grace toward us, we have the ability to deal with our selfishness, confessing our sin and receiving forgiveness for it.

The faithfulness of God is shown in His willingness to accept our forgiveness under the covenant of mercy and through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness is also shown in His actions to discipline us when we remain unrepentant in our selfishness, for the love of a father is revealed in the disciplining of his sons, and what earthly father has more love than God?

In His letter to the Church in Corinth, called 1st Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of the example of Israel in the wilderness in these terms as warning to the church: Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.'' Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:1-11

If we really understand that God is Sovereign and has ultimate control over all things upon the Earth, then we need to realize that every illness, accident, and every evil occurrence in our lives has been allowed according to His purposes, and more often than not, to reveal something to us if we take the time to talk to Him and seek a reason for it: To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1

I’m not suggesting that every trial is the result of some personal sin, but every trial is an opportunity for introspection and learning something about ourselves and about God. The man named Job, about whom we have the book of Job in the Bible, was identified as a righteous man, yet he had to suffer many trials at the hands of the tempter. In Job’s case he did have a serious fault, something lacking that he was unable to see about himself. Job was self righteous: So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Job 32:1

God allowed Job to suffer many things and not as punishment, but to open his eyes to a fault keeping him from spiritual completion and a right relationship with the Lord. The scripture tells us that Job, when confronted by God, was finally able to see his fault and repented: "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Job 42:5-6

Seeing God always humbles and changes a man. No one may look at the face of God and live, but He has the power to raise us up in new life and is pleased to do so through the death and resurrection of His Son.

This one fault, Job’s self righteousness, was separating him from God, but in his repentance, he received restoration and blessing: And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. Job 42:10-12

Having spent some time looking at suffering and trials and their purpose in our lives, we can go on to consider the second temptation of Jesus as recorded by Matthew: Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, 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 shall give His angels charge concerning you,' and, `In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' '' Jesus said to him, "It is written again, `You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' '' Matthew 4:5-7

In this passage, the devil quotes from psalm 91 and effectively tells us that this psalm is referring to the Son of God. The psalm is about God’s protection of His servant, the one who places his trust in Him, with the last lines suggesting that it is a promise to the Messiah: You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation. Psalms 91:13-16

The first thing that we have to ask here is “in what way was Jesus being tempted?”

Jesus walked out across the Sea of Galilee in the midst of a storm to join His disciples on their way across the sea. He had no problem demonstrating His power in such a manner and also in revealing something of His nature in this way to His disciples.

Later in the gospels we hear that He could’ve called legions of angels to His defense on the night that He was arrested, but didn’t. He could’ve hurled Himself off the pinnacle of the temple and called the angels to His rescue if it was His desire to do so, but what is the temptation in considering this, and what does His response mean?

First let us consider that Jesus knew the scriptures as well as Satan, and Satan was aware that in the book of Daniel, the scripture foretold the death of the Messiah: "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. the end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Daniel 9:26

The devil also had to have known that Isaiah also gave prophecy of the death of God’s servant as an offering for sin and transgression: He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. by His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:8-12

Satan had to have known that Jesus, even from the start of His ministry, was on the way to the cross. In choosing to quote from psalm 91, this psalm about the deliverance of God’s servant, Satan was at once mocking Jesus and trying to cast doubt upon God’s word.

How could Jesus be called by God to die upon the cross for His people, yet also be promised delivery from evil?

The two seem contradictory and it has always been the way of Satan to tempt those who know God, by twisting and casting doubt upon His word and His character.

The first temptation recorded in scripture is of this type: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, `You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?'' And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; "but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' '' And the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.”For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'' Genesis 3:1-5

Satan could have brought Jesus to a mountaintop or cliff, or any high place for the purpose of this temptation, but in bringing Jesus to the temple, he brought Him to a place where God’s justice was accomplished, where the law was confirmed and practiced, and where the glory of God was manifested when the ark of His covenant was present.

Jesus was manifest in the world to satisfy God’s justice and provide atonement for sin, and this place was the best reminder of this purpose, to punctuate the mockery of Satan’s attack. That Jesus understood this was shown by His answer. As the Son of God, Jesus could’ve jumped from the pinnacle and called upon the angels to save Him, or knowing that He was going to die for the sin of His people, He could’ve jumped and let Himself die upon the stones below and thereby avoided the brutal treatment of His arrest and execution.

The latter had to be a temptation to His humanity, because we know from His prayer on the night that He was betrayed that He wasn’t looking forward to the experience of the cross and all that it entailed: Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.'' He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.'' Matthew 26:38-39

When Jesus answered the devil’s temptation, He again quoted from the book of Deuteronomy: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.”You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. Deuteronomy 6:16-17

To understand the full implication of this response we need to understand what the temptation at Massah actually was. In chapter 17 of the book of Exodus we find a passage that tells us about a time during the wilderness journey, when the tribes of Israel grumbled against Moses, because they were thirsty and there was no water in the place to drink.

Moses was so threatened by them, that he told God that they were ready to stone him to death. God’s response was to have Moses strike a rock before reliable witnesses and that the rock would bring forth water to drink: And the Lord said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. "Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.'' And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?'' Exodus 17:5-7

The scriptures tell us that Satan offered to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would just drop down and worship him, and Luke’s version of the temptation gives us a little more information than Matthew’s: Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Luke 4:5-6

To understand the authority that Satan was given we need to know that Satan was created as an Angel and that the Angels were created to be ministers of creation, to serve God in judgment, in mercy, and in grace, and not according to their own will, but according to His.

God never had need of Angels to minister to Himself in eternity, though they would minister to Him in the person of His Son, and the scriptures tell us that the Angels were created to minister to those who would inherit salvation: But to which of the angels has He ever said: "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool''? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:13-14

The last verse is posed as a question, but is understood to be rhetorical. Psalm 103 tells us that the Angels exist to do perform God’s word: Bless the Lord, you His angels, Who excel in strength, who do His word, Heeding the voice of His word. Psalms 103:20

Satan and his devils exist, because God first created them as angelic beings, but they rebelled against God. While this rebellion was not according to God’s will, it couldn’t have happened if it wasn’t ultimately according to His purposes.

The reasons for all these things are not given to us, beyond that fact that all things will ultimately reveal the glory of God. So we can believe that Satan had the authority to give the kingdoms of this world to Jesus, but he also would have known that Jesus is the rightful heir and King of all creation. What was the point of the offer? What was the temptation?

Jesus understood that Israel tempted God by rising up against His prophet, Moses, doubting God’s presence (and His good character,) and challenging the man chosen by God to deliver Israel from the bondage of Egypt.

Satan was doing the same thing in challenging Jesus’ legitimacy as the Son of God, chosen by God to deliver men from the bondage of sin.

Jesus knew that He must go to the cross to accomplish God’s purpose and the passage that He quoted from warned that Israel should keep His commandments, His testimonies and His statutes.

One of those testimonies was the rock that He stood before in the last passage from Exodus, the rock that was struck and gave forth water. The Apostle Paul told us in the passage from 1 Corinthians quoted earlier, that this rock was Christ.

The Rock that was struck represented the death of Jesus under the authority of the law (the priesthood that condemned Him) and the water that flowed to satisfy the thirst of Israel represented the Spirit of God given after His death to those that believed Him: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. John 16:7

Jesus response to Satan clearly showed that Jesus recognized the necessity of His death upon the cross for the purposes of our salvation and that He, being the Son of God, is Himself equal to God so that the commandment quoted from Deuteronomy applies to Satan and His temptation of our Lord as well. In other words, Jesus pointed out the sinfulness of Satan’s action in tempting Him.

If we can accept that Satan was tempting Jesus to abandon the path to the cross, then we can see how this leads to the third temptation as presented by Matthew: Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.'' Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, `You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.' '' Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him." Matthew 4:8-11

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. Luke 4:1-2