Matthew 4: 3 – 11 (NLT)
“During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Deuteronomy 8:3)
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ (Psalm 91: 11 – 12)
7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ (Deuteronomy 6: 16)
8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’ (Deuteronomy 6: 13)
11 Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.”
The first temptation for Jesus was to turn stones into bread. He was likely very hungry and weak after fasting for 40 days. Eating would be tempting. But Jesus refuses and says eating is not the primary source of life. Could Jesus have turned stones into bread? Of course he could! In Matthew 14, we read about Jesus taking 5 loaves and 2 fishes and feeding thousands of people – the Bible says 5000 men, and that didn’t count women and children.
In Jesus’ day, magic was a big draw. It was back in Moses’ day too. Remember when Moses went to Pharaoh to ask that the Israelites be freed? His staff that was used for his shepherding days turned into a poisonous snake. But then Pharaoh’s magicians did the same thing. Moses’ serpent devoured those snakes, but Pharaoh wasn’t impressed. In the Roman Empire with its strong Greek influence, magic was still a big part of the culture. Jesus was not going to do something people would consider wonderful; He was going to follow God’s heart. “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Today as we hope to spread the gospel, do we look to the gimmicks our culture uses? Do we copy the methods used by promotional companies? Do we glorify the idea of huge churches with dozens of programs to attract every age and group? Jesus tells us that the ‘word of God” is the primary source of life. That’s something to think about.
Next, Satan takes Jesus to the top of the Temple and tells him to jump off. Angels will protect him says Satan. Jesus replies that ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’ We can’t think we have God all figured out, and rush ahead with plans assuming God will support them. When ‘great plans’ come to mind, we need to pray and wait a little to be confident that these plans are God’s plans.
Finally, Satan takes Jesus to a very high mountain and tells Jesus he will give all the kingdoms to him if he will just kneel down and worship him. Satan is hoping he can divert Jesus from a spiritual mission to a political one. Israel was chaffing under Roman rule. Some of Jesus’ followers even thought Jesus would save them from Rome. When Jesus is before Pilate, he makes this distinction clearly. John 18: 36 says, “Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world”. (NLT) There is no way Jesus is going to bow down to Satan to rule kingdoms.
Our focus should not be on gaining influence or power or wealth – whatever we see as important or desirable in our culture. Jesus tells us what our focus should be – “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him”. You might say, “I don’t worship things or position”. I know I would say that. But what takes up the majority of your time and effort? Again, something to think about.
Did you notice that Satan used scripture to tempt Jesus? Satan just twisted it a little. Jesus replied with scripture – accurate scripture. It’s important that we know the Bible. Even today, we can twist scripture, especially if it’s taken out of context. In our culture, we tend to like a verse for the day, and a nice thought to start our day. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we also need to know the context of scripture. If we’re not reading our Bibles, then we don’t know if someone is twisting the meaning a little.
I really liked the last verse in this account of Jesus’ life. “Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus”. God does take care of us when we face a tough time. When we’re tempted to turn away from God and follow our own dreams or the dreams of our culture, but we reject that and turn to God – He takes care of us. Life doesn’t always go smoothly; we live in a broken world. We’re human and we make mistakes. But we can be assured that when we trust God in all those hard times, He will take care of us.
Our song for today is Whatever May Come by Adrienne and Jeremy Camp.