Jesus, now filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was
immediately driven into the desert, where he remained with the wild beasts for
forty days to be tempted by Satan.
During all this time, He ate nothing, and after forty long days and nights he
was hungry. The tempter, Satan, came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of
God, order these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus replied, “It is
written, ‘Humanity shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the Mouth of God.’”
Then Satan took him into Jerusalem, the holy city, and put him on the very top
of the temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from
here, because it is written that ‘God will command the angels to guard you…,’
and ‘In their hands they will hold you up, lest you strike your foot against a
stone.’” Jesus answered Satan, saying, “It is also written, ‘You shall not tempt
the Sovereign your God.’”
Again, Satan took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him in an instant all
the glorious realms of the world, and Satan said to Him, “All these things–all
their power and glory–I will give to you. It was given to me, and I can give it
to whomever I choose. Therefore, if you will fall down and pay me homage, it
shall all be yours.” Jesus replied, “Begone Satan! It is written, ‘You shall
worship the Sovereign your God, and God only shall you serve.’”
So, Satan, having finished all of the testing, left Jesus alone for a while; and
angels came and ministered to Him.
(Matt. 4:1-11; Mark. 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13)
Luke begins by telling us that the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. Ignoring jokes about whether the Spirit used a Cadillac or an SUV to drive Jesus, the word in the original language was elauno, and means to push, drive, or to carry. The inference is that Jesus didn’t necessarily go of His own free will. The term forty appears in several places in scripture, but numbers in the Bible don’t always indicate exact totals. Many have symbolic uses. The number forty is the most frequently used round number in the Bible and can mean a relatively long period of time (i.e. forty years). It also was a typical period of time for ritual observances, as when Moses (Ex. 34:28), Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), and Jesus (Matt. 4:2, etc.) fasted in the desert. The flood lasted forty days (Gen. 7:4), Goliath challenged the Israelites forty days (1 Sam. 17:16); there were forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension (Acts. 1:3). These are just some of the many examples of the use of forty.
What we do know is that Jesus was made to spend a long time in the desert without food or water, during which time He was visited by Satan. The name, Satan in the Hebrew meant adversary or accuser. Now, we tend to associate Satan with the enemy–with everything that is evil–with everything, which is opposed to God. However surprising as it may seem, Satan isn’t always portrayed that way in the Bible. For example, in the book of Job, we find Satan among the angels and enjoying God’s company (Job 1:6-7). God is more or less bragging to Satan about Job’s righteousness and love for God when Satan issues a challenge to God: attack everything Job has and Job will “…surely curse you your face (Job 1:11).” So God turns Job over to Satan in order to test Job’s faithfulness. The thing is, Satan is free to visit mischief on Job, but only to the limits that God has placed on Satan. Satan, only acts under God’s authority.
Likewise, in other Hebrew Testament scriptures Satan acts as an adversary against the Israelites, either by trying to make them commit evil, or by accusing them before God for their sins. But again, in these and other instances in the Bible, Satan acts only in accordance with God’s will.
Entrapment is a word used to describe actions taken by police to entice people to engage in wrongdoing. The lesson that is taught by Satan’s actions is that people are always responsible for their own behavior. “The Devil made me do it,” is never an excuse for wrongdoing. Righteousness does not consist in doing the right thing only when there is no enticement to do wrong. Righteousness consists in doing the right thing in spite of temptation to do otherwise, even at personal cost.
Lest you get the impression that I’m trying to make Satan a “good” being, I’m trying to point out that it is Satan’s job under God’s authority to attempt to provoke people to do evil, not because God wants people to be evil, but to give people the opportunity to overcome the temptation to do evil, and make them better people.
So, we find Jesus, alone in the wilderness and very hungry. At some point during these forty days, Satan decides to drop in on Jesus and invites Jesus to use His powers to obtain for Himself food, riches and immortality. Now, we need to put this scenario into some kind of perspective. We can only guess as to how much Jesus knew growing up Who He was and what His life was to be. Though we have some indication from His comment to Mary and Joseph when they found Him at the Temple when He was twelve, it could be that He was indicating to them only that He knew He was called to be a rabbi, without necessarily being fully aware (as a human being) of Who He really was. However, at His baptism, any lingering doubt was removed. God calls Him “My Son!”
Enter Satan who immediately challenges Jesus’ Sonship: “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become loaves of bread.” There are multiple layers to this question. The immediate thought is that Satan is telling Jesus, if you really are the Son of God and if you’re hungry, turn the stones into bread and feed yourself. Jesus’ reply is that there is more to hunger than just the deprivation of food, and God’s Word fills the spirit.
On the other hand, Satan could be trying to treat Jesus as some sort of magician and demanding that Jesus perform a trick. Then again, Satan could have been telling Jesus in so many words that: An uncaring God stuck you out here alone and hungry, but you don’t have to stay that way. You have the power to undo what God has done to You; turn the rocks into bread, and feed yourself. Jesus’ response quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, acknowledging in trust that God knew what God was doing, and acted in obedience to what God had placed before Him.
The order of the three temptations in Luke is different from Matthew and Mark, but again, this fact acknowledges that Luke was doing his own research and not just copying what others had written nor was he just concocting a story. The various witnesses he interviewed for his gospel might have remembered the order differently. Of course, we must realize that since Jesus was alone in the desert when these events occurred, this would have been a story that Jesus at some time or another shared with His disciples–letting them know that He certainly knew what temptation felt like.
A second time Satan challenges Jesus to test His Messianic authority as well as God, using a quote from Psalm 91:11 and 12: “God will command the angels to guard you…In their hands they will hold you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’’ Satan offers us a classic example of taking scripture out of context. The psalm is an encouragement to the reader to place complete trust in God–not an excuse to attempt to force God into a particular action. Knowing this, Jesus responds with the quote from Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not tempt the Sovereign your God.”
Satan then offers Jesus the world, claiming that Satan is Sovereign of the world. This was a very powerful temptation. Jesus had come to claim the world for God, but in order to succeed Jesus would have to face the cross. Satan offers Jesus a way out. Satan tells Jesus He can have it all–the whole world with all its power and all its glory–with no pain, no suffering, no death. Just one little catch: Jesus must submit to Satan–must desert God and instead worship Satan. But Satan has gone too far. Jesus orders Satan to depart with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13: ‘You shall worship the Sovereign your God, and God only shall you serve.’
Satan’s job is done for now, so says verse 11, but not for good, as we will soon discover. As written earlier, though Satan/the Devil through many centuries has been considered the epitome of evil, in this scenario we could make a different case–Satan as God’s messenger of adversity. Jesus was about to begin His ministry–one that He knew would lead to an excruciatingly painful death. On His way there, He would encounter distractions of all kinds. He would be pulled in many different directions. He would be loved and hated, He would be cheered and reviled, He would receive little comfort from those closest to Him, yet His enemies would beat, mock, and finally crucify Him. In order to accomplish the task God set before Him, He would have to dig deep within Himself to find the strength to do it.
It is the nature of human beings to learn in times of adversity–not so much in times of peace, joy and prosperity. It is our hard times that refine us and define us–that teach us who and what we are. In Romans 5:3-5, Paul explains it this way: “…we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God has poured love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us.”
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert to experience loneliness and deprivation early on, to prepare Him for what was to come. God then sent Satan to teach Jesus about the seduction of temptation, and to offer Jesus a choice. Since Jesus was not only God, but also fully human, Jesus had received from God the gift of free will that every human has–the gift to follow His heavenly Parent, or not.
What we must remember, though, even if Jesus was lonely in the desert, He was not alone. We must remember that Jesus went to the desert filled with the Holy Spirit. We must remember that in the original language the Holy Spirit is described as an intercessor, consoler, advocate, comforter, while Satan in the Hebrew meant adversary or accuser. In a court of law, we could describe Satan as the prosecutor, and the Holy Spirit as defense counsel, each arguing their case, for and against Jesus, before the ultimate Judge, God. In spite of all of Satan’s temptations–even though Satan tried to convince Jesus to give in to the temptations so that “the prosecutor” could defame Jesus before God, the Holy Spirit was present to strengthen Jesus such that Jesus could overcome anything Satan put before Him.
Paul puts it this way, in Romans 8:26-27: “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what or how we ought to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And God, who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Jesus passed the tests with flying colors and ordered Satan to leave. Having accomplished all that was to be done to test Jesus; Satan retreated, to try again another day.
We must realize that these tests would have shaken Jesus to the core. Having not eaten for so many days and yet having to reject food must have been difficult enough, but assuming that Jesus now knew that the cross lay ahead, He chose to pass up the opportunity to escape it. He chose instead, in obedience, to answer God’s call. When all was done, God sent angels to Jesus to comfort him and minister to Him.
As it was with Jesus, so it is with us. From time to time, we are called to do the right thing, even at great cost. We must remember that however painful our situation may turn out to be, God will send us the comfort of angels to help us get through it. God may not always “save” us from difficult times just because we ask, because of the greater picture we are not privileged to see, but God will never leave us alone and bereft. God will always send us comfort, if we but remember to ask.
This ends our study for today.
Points to Ponder