Part 2 of The Temptation of Jesus

Here’s the second part of yesterday’s study, I’m going to post it now so that I don’t lose it…
Heavenly Father, Please soften our hearts, and open our spiritual eyes and ears, so we may hear, understand, obey and apply what You want to teach us today. Give us a great hunger and thirst for Your Word that we can't deny. Teach us all the fear of the Lord.  Please grant each of us an insatiable appetite for sound doctrine & holy living; Grant that we will understand & trust in the inexhaustible sufficiency of Your  perfect Word. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
 

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

 

The first temptation was cunning and subtle. The last words recorded in the Gospels before the temptation are, “You are My beloved Son …” Satan took up on these words and, in effect, said to Jesus in His hunger (Matthew 4:2 (ESV) — And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.), “The Son of God, through whose Word everything exists, is surely entitled to use His creative powers to make bread to sustain Himself in His self-imposed humanity.” The first temptation used the lust of the flesh as its basis. Eating is a natural enough function, but here the temptation was for Christ to abuse His powers to satisfy His personal need, and thus to operate outside the will of God and in response to Satan. Jesus’ reply used a quotation that is perfectly apposite, for it is drawn from the context of the manna which God provided in the wilderness. Jesus’ choice of Scripture for this rebuttal indicates another subtlety in this temptation: He is the prophet ‘like Moses’ that Deuteronomy 18:18 (ESV) — I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. promises, and as Moses had been the instrument of miraculously providing bread in the wilderness, then, so Satan was suggesting, surely, He was allowed to miraculously make bread. So this temptation was to act independently of God, and that simple mistake marks the beginning of Satan’s fall (Isaiah 14:13–14 (ESV) — You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ ).

Consider the injunction Jesus quoted, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” This verse is found in Deuteronomy 8:3 (ESV) — And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.   and was first heard by a nation who had existed for forty years on miraculously supplied ‘bread.’ Their very existence itself silenced any thought of denying the reality of the visible bread on which they daily subsisted. Now, the source of that visible bread told them with the authority of forty years of performance that His word is spiritual food which is equally vital to life as the physical food He had supplied for the past forty years. Notice, too, the injunction that we are to live by ‘every’ word-there is no license to omit any of God’s word, every word of Scripture is important, one doctrine does not eclipse another, all contribute to the total revelation of God, and when any one is neglected a less than perfect God is presented.

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

 

The second temptation (Matthew’s order) was diabolically cunning; it attempted to twist Jesus’ words against Him and snare Him by His own principles. It was based on Christ’s answer to the first test, and reasoned something like this, “Since you are the Son of God, since you have confidence in God, since you believe the Scriptures …”; Satan appealed to Christ’s pride to demonstrate His beliefs, in so doing insinuating that confidence in God is based on the spectacular. (You test someone because of lack of confidence, not because of confidence-this is the thrust of  Deuteronomy 6:13 (ESV) — It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. which was Jesus’ reply.) Acceptable confidence in God arises from a recognition of Who He is, and not what He does. Christ’s action and reply suggest you can only expect God to fulfill His promises to you while you are in His will. ‘Pinnacle’ (Matthew 4:5 (ESV) — Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ) is an imprecise translation, for the Greek word can mean parapet, and the architectural descriptions we have of the temple do not include a pinnacle. Josephus describes Herod’s Royal Portico in the temple as built on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Kidron Valley. From the parapet of this portico there was a clear drop of four hundred and fifty feet to the bottom of the Kidron Valley. This may well be where Satan placed Jesus and said, “Jump—If You pull this spectacular stunt the whole nation will automatically follow You as their Messiah.”
Satan’s deceit, subtlety and daring is demonstrated in his abuse of Scripture. Compare Psalm 91:11–12 (ESV) — For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.  with Luke 4:10–11 (ESV) — for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”   You will find that, after ‘to guard You,’ Satan omitted ‘in all your ways.’ The devious subtlety of this temptation was demonstrated by the fact that the Jewish leaders would repeatedly ask for a special sign that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
Recognizing that this would happen, Satan suggested that Jesus commence His ministry with just such a sign. If Jesus had done so, then the nation would have accepted Him as Messiah because of what He could do (the spectacular) and not because of Who He is; and, as discussed above, acceptable confidence in God arises from a recognition of Who He is, and not what He does. In the spiritual realm Satan would then have been able to claim that God had failed in His design to appeal to His creation as a God of love, as His creation would have responded to His ability to perform the spectacular and not responded in love to His love. The whole basis of God’s eternal relationship with His creatures, both angelic and human, would have been eternally and irrevocably compromised.

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The third temptation was an appeal to the lust of the eyes: an appealing possession. Psalm 2 destines the kingdoms of the world to be under Christ’s authority,  Psalm 2:8–9 (ESV) — Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”   as is also inherent in the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:16–17 (ESV) — And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. ); so Satan was only offering Christ what is His by promise, but prematurely, and, again, outside of God’s will (Satan has ruled the kingdom of the world as a usurper since Adam’s fall). So Satan feigned willingness to return to God the kingdom he has usurped since the fall of man in Eden. Satan’s big desire is for worship (Isaiah 14:14 (ESV) — I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ ), that is what his battle with God is about; he was prepared to trade his kingdom to receive worship. The devious subtlety in what he did is that the one who has the right to be worshiped has the right to rule. Jesus Christ denied Satan this victory by telling him to remove himself. Jesus was only prepared to accept His due from His Father, and that only in His Father’s good time.
This final temptation is many faceted in its complexity and I imagine we will only really understand it in eternity. We can see that Satan was playing on the prevalent Jewish concept of an earthly ruling Messiah, excluding His saving office, and suggesting thereby that Jesus perform the one function of His office fully (and omit the other, which involved a death like that of a reprehensible criminal). Satan’s ability to hand over control of the world to Jesus (Luke 4:6 (ESV) — and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. ) was real, as Jesus Himself testified in John 12:31 (ESV) — Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.; John 14:30 (ESV) — I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, ; John 16:11 (ESV) — concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. , and as 2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV) — In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. repeats. He offered Jesus the opportunity to combine the office of the Antichrist with that of the Messiah. This had the appearance of an arrangement that would spare His creation the terrible torment of the coming tribulation and institute the millennium painlessly, but the price was that God submit Himself to Satan. Consider the appeal of this to a God of love, for His love for His creation would naturally want to spare it pain and suffering of the vilest imaginable sort. Yet, if Jesus had subjected God to Satan, then the creation would have had a new god, a god of evil. The price was too high and Jesus refused-all this in a moment of time (Luke 4:5 (ESV) — And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ). So Satan used the maximum temptation with a minimum of time for reflection and consideration; yet our Savior, the human Jesus, because of His absolute reliance on God and His close relationship with Him, did not stumble. Truly, God honored that part of Psalm 91:11 (ESV) — For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. which Satan omitted to quote, and so confounded the king of deceit!

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

 

Another aspect of this temptation is beyond our ken, for, as the exegetical note on Mark 1:13 (ESV) — And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. suggests, there is a motif of the end times and the forces of evil.  (The exegetical note on yesterday’s posts says: wild beasts = Revelation uses this Greek word extensively (37 times), usually of Satan’s minions; it is only used 7 times in the rest of the NT.) This is further supported by Psalm 91:13 (ESV) — You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot., for immediately following Satan’s quote (see how daring he is?) is a promise that the Messiah will have the ‘lion and the cobra’ under Him, and that He will subdue the dragon as well (‘dragon’ is a figure for Satan—e.g., Revelation 13:4 (ESV) — And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” ), an obvious reference to endtime conditions. Indeed, I wonder whether the parade of all the kingdoms of the world before our Lord was not set in the Valley of Armageddon, a setting with which Jesus was well familiar as this valley can be seen from Nazareth. Satan suggested how Jesus could avoid Armageddon and still accomplish His reign; it looked so practical and straightforward, just one small technicality—‘worship before me.’ No wonder Jesus turned on him so harshly—“Begone Satan.”
Christ’s rebuttal of each of the temptations is significant and a model for us, for each rebuttal is based on Scripture, thus pointing us to the value of scriptural knowledge as the only sure method to combat the wiles of Satan. Jesus faced Satan purely in His human strength (indeed, ‘weakness’ is a more fitting word, as the effects of the forty-day fast must be considered). Matthew 4:4 (ESV) — But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” indicates this, for Jesus identified Himself as a man by His resort to Scripture as not once did He repulse Satan by exercising His divine authority. In so doing Jesus reversed the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, as the contrast in the angelic behavior demonstrated: whereas they barred Adam and Eve from the fruit of the garden (Genesis 3:24 (ESV) — He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. ), when Jesus was through, they ministered to Him and fed Him. Jesus, by resisting Satan in His human weakness, becomes our exemplar. He is this in many ways, for first we find Him filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1 (ESV) — And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness) as we should be (Ephesians 5:18 (ESV) — And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, ); second, He used the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17 (ESV) — and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ); third, He recognized His need of spiritual strength (obtained here by fasting in His communion with God), not physical strength (from food), to combat Satan; and finally in everything He submitted Himself to the absolute will of God.
We must stand afar off and look on this scene in bewilderment, acknowledging our ignorance. Theologians through the centuries have debated whether Jesus could sin and did not, or whether He could not sin; indeed, they use a Latin pun to summarize these arguments, ‘Potuit non pecare’ (it was possible for Him not to sin) and ‘Non potuit pecare’ (it was not possible for Him to sin). We know Jesus had no sin nature, for He was the second Adam (1 Cor 15:45) and therefore, like Adam, sinless, but as He was like His brethren in every respect (Heb 2:17), presumably, He could have sinned as we can (and do), and as the first Adam could, and did. It may be that if He had sinned creation would have resulted in a stalemate; if so, all God’s purposes in creation hung in the balance as Satan attacked Jesus.

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

 

Satan is a sovereign with a principality (John 12:31 (ESV) — Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.; 1 John 5:19 (ESV) — We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ) so he was suggesting a real treaty. He suggested that there was a means by which it would be possible for Christ and him to cease their rivalry; he suggested that Jesus make peace, make an alliance with evil, accept the help of Satan in the service of God. Satan offered Jesus solutions to problems which were very real to Him, problems which He faced immediately. Surely, this is the most difficult type of test to handle, for it was not just simply a temptation to gratify a personal whim or desire, but a temptation to accept an easy way out of a problem which had arisen in God’s service. Spend time considering this; the subtlety of such a temptation needs to be understood to appreciate its force. Jesus could easily have rationalized that He was doing any one of these three things in furtherance of His God-decreed objectives. Consider the temptations individually; they were each much fiercer than the temptations we face.
  i)      We cannot turn loaves into bread, yet Christ could. Jesus was hungrier than we have ever been after forty days of fasting, yet He refused to use His powers as the Son of God to alleviate that hunger simply because it was not God’s will for Him to use those powers in the fashion Satan suggested.
   ii)      Christ had scriptural promises to claim which were unique to Him. We cannot be tempted like this, for no part of Scripture was written exclusively for you or me. If ever an appeal to the boastful pride of life had a needle-fine point, that one did. Yet, Jesus refused to avail Himself of a promise to Christ in such a way as to take Him out of God’s will, thereby compromising the unity and harmony of the Trinity.
   iii)      You and I can never be similarly tempted by the promise of all the world’s riches and kingdoms because we know we cannot handle it, but Jesus could, can and will. Furthermore, Satan can, and will, bestow this ‘gift’ on someone. Can we ever understand the force of a temptation on a God of love to compromise His holiness just a little so His beloved creation can be spared the devastation and torment of Satan’s activities? Jesus understood this (we cannot), yet He resisted, recognizing the chaos which would have followed.
The command after the last temptation, “Begone Satan,” indicates that the temptations were then complete, and, indeed, Luke 4:13 (ESV) — And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. confirms this. It seems that Jesus was waiting for the third and final temptation, knowing that Satan could only tempt Him in these three areas. All three temptations must thus be recognized as being the most intense Satan could devise, and all included in them a liberal acknowledgment of Jesus’ rights as the Christ. Jesus would surpass the extent of the demand of the first two tests in His ministry (by feeding the five thousand and the four thousand, and by His resurrection), and His Olivet Discourse and Revelation promise that He will yet achieve the third objective that Satan laid before Him. That third temptation must have been tremendously difficult to resist, because Christ knew He could wait a long time (nineteen and a half centuries to this point) for that last objective to be fulfilled, and Satan was offering it to Him in a moment of time!

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

Consider, for a moment, the humiliation that our sins heaped on Jesus. He, the sinless and pure God, had to empty Himself of His divinity (Philippians 2:7 (ESV) — but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ) and be in contact with, and submit Himself to, the vilest person in His aberrant creation, Satan, so that He could conquer sin and the Dragon on our behalf. What could be more reprehensible to God than for Him to subject Himself to Satan? Yet that is what He first did before He commenced His ministry in our behalf. The entire spiritual creation now had demonstrated to them that Adam and Eve need not have sinned; and, for that matter, so have all men had demonstrated to them that they need not sin. By resisting Satan, the man Jesus at one and the same time defeated Satan and indicted and condemned mankind.

Consider the development of Satan’s attack on Jesus: the first two temptations began, “If You are the Son of God,” the last could not. So Satan first subtly tried to trick Jesus into abusing His deity, but finally made a direct frontal attack, asking Him to abandon God and worship Him instead, thus proposing an unholy alliance against God. This logical development of Satan’s plan of attack supports our argument for the chronological order of the temptations.
CONCLUSION
A simple point, but one which nevertheless is pertinent, is that this Scripture teaches that the devil is a very real and separate entity and not just another side of an individual’s personality—a dichotomy of good and evil in the individual. It is possible to explain the first two temptations as this dichotomy, but the third obviously cannot be thus explained. The Bible treats the devil as a very real person; indeed, the only source of the tendency to regard him as a myth or a symbol must be recognized as being the father of lies, Satan himself!

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about what you’re studying!

All three temptations were made by Satan with the purpose of confusing or compromising God’s plan. The temptations which Satan presents to you and me as believers have the same purpose. If Jesus had yielded to these temptations His witness would have been undermined and compromised. When we yield to temptation we not only give Satan a victory, but also compromise and weaken our witness for the Savior Who gave His life for us. We can resist temptation, but if we do not we make God a liar. Read the promises of Hebrews 2:18 (ESV) — For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. ; Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) — Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. and the assurance and promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) — No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.!
The essential points we can and should learn from this consideration are: first, the fact that we need never yield to temptation (Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) — No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.). Second, Jesus’ example of understanding and using Scripture to rebut temptation is of paramount importance to us, for, beside pointing out the best means of countering Satan, it provides us with another rationale for diligent Bible study. Third, Jesus’ guiding principle was whether Satan’s temptation compromised God’s will for His life (and Jesus saw His life as a ministry to serve others).
Consider anew the assurances God has given us in 1 Cor 10:13: first, that He will limit our temptations to what we individually are able to endure; second, that He will provide us with the means of escaping from temptation; and third, that Jesus will aid us in resisting temptation.
Why does God allow Satan to tempt us? God allows us the privilege of involvement in His spiritual battle against Satan, for if we resist Satan we demonstrate that a weak human being who puts his trust in God is stronger than the mightiest angel ever created (Jude 9), an angel who rebelled against God. We are given the privilege of being an instrument to prove that God is greater than Satan! Wonderful privilege, but frightful shame when we fail.

Don’t forget to ask the Lord to help you remember to reflect on what we’ve studied as you go throughout the day.  You can use those things I’ve put in dark red and or bold as a guide of things to reflect on.  God bless you!
 

Mills, M. (1999). The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record (Mt 4:1–Lk 4:13). Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries.