It is almost ironical that the very first thing the Holy Spirit instructed Jesus to do upon entering Him was to head for the wilderness. Why? There may have been a number of reasons: Jesus had just been declared as Messiah to Israel and He needed to contemplate what this would mean for the future. Whatever, the one thing singled out was temptation. It was a testing and the initiative was God’s – to test the moral direction of His will and the strength of it in that direction. Luke’s account (Luke 4:2) says He was tempted for the forty days and so the Author of our faith, the Captain of our salvation was tempted in all points like us. After 40 days of fasting the Devil came with an approach of three temptations.
How was this done? Did the Devil appear as a person, bearing in mind he used a serpent in Eden? Did the temptations appear as visions? Jesus was taken to the pinnacle of the temple one one occasion and to a high mountain to see “all the kingdoms of the world” – that would have been some mountain! Were these real physical events? There is nothing to suggest that Jesus ever left the wilderness in all the forty days. In Ezek 8:1-3 Ezekiel was transported by his hair to Jerusalem but it is obvious this was not real but in the Spirit. In Rev. 21:10 John was carried by a angel to see the new Jerusalem, but this was not in the physical domain. The temptations were played out in the mind of Christ – where also they were defeated!
The first temptation was directed to His hunger. Now Jesus was hungry – He expressed and manifested all the weaknesses and frailties of the human frame. Remember how He sat at the well in Samaria (John 4) because He was tired? He did not patronize His mortal life with advantages unbeknown to the rest of us. After forty days it would have been torture to speak of food (talk to me about a diet AFTER I’ve eaten, and certainly not outside a hot-bread shop!). This was not fair, but Satan is not fair and loves to come in moments of our weaknesses. The suggestion is quite simple and seemingly harmless – and certainly within the bounds of the power of One endowed with the Spirit – turns stones into bread!
The temptation begins with a doubt – doubts about Jesus (note the ploy in Gen. 3:1 – it succeeded in the garden of plenty, would it fail in a wilderness of want?). Remember when children we would try to get someone to do something by expressing doubt they could do it : “betcha can’t”; “betcha ya not game” – and so often it was successful. So Satan tries it – “if you are a Son, prove it!” Then it progresses to doubts about God: “If you be a son of God”. Jesus had been acknowledged as the chosen Son and that put Him in a position similiar to Job. “Have you considered my servant Job?” So, “Have you considered my servant, Jesus?” God’s intentions are called into question and you can imagine the process: “God can’t have your best interest at heart – after all, would God really treat His Son like this – leave Him in a desert with wild beasts (Mk.1:13), without food, companions or comfort?” You can imagine Satan cajoling Jesus with “Listen man, you don’t have to be hungry like this – turn the stones into bread; after all, you’re the Son of God aren’t you?”
Now Jesus could have done it because in the next chapter we have Him turning water into wine, and feeding 5000 and 4000 miraculously. Of course, if He couldn’t have done it where would be the temptation? But if Jesus had done it, to put it in simple terms, He would have been obeying Satan and not God. This was unfair timing, not only because Jesus was hungry, but also because He had the use of a new power, and most of us can remember that feeling: eg. the right to drive a car, to use a gun etc. Power corrupts, so they say, How many have said or thought “I’ve got the right to do what I like with my life and my money etc…”. But miraculous power was at the bidding of the Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:11; 2 Tim. 4:20; 2 Cor. 12:8), not a play toy to be to be used on a whim.
Jesus, in His humanity, would not resort to supernatural power when He was in troubles and difficulties. To do so would be to prove Him a false Son, and also imply a distrust of the Father. The Father had sent Him out to the desert for a purpose and the Father would supply His needs (cf. Phil. 4:19). God had brought Him to this hunger and the Devil is saying “quit looking up to the Father and trusting Him – look down at your feet and satisfy your soul with bread”. But Sonship was not doing miracles but doing the will of the Father. This is the test of sonship for you and me too – cf. Matt.7:22.
Witness the many Jews who failed this test”: You brought us out here to die!; We remember the leeks, melons, onions, cucumbers and fish! (1 Cor. 10:5,6). The lesson for them was not just from the hunger, but the way it was to be satisfied:- they were given an unknown food that they didn’t know what it was or where it came from. So Paul makes a comparison (1 Cor. 10:1,2).
Many Christians have failed this test also. “If I am a child of God, why are things so?” It can be a fatal error to think that becoming a Christian will result in all smooth sailing and mother’s apple pie. Peter (1 Pet. 1:7) speaks of the trial of faith, and in 4:12 he reminds us that such trial is not to be thought a strange thing. Satan puts doubts of our conversion in us: “Wasn’t I just baptized? – so why is this happening to me and why do I feel this way?” Satan gets us to focus on our mistakes, failures and sins; on our unworthiness and circumstances in life. Sonship does not shield us from the slings and arrows of life. Fathers are protective, as is God (1 Cor. 10:13). What children are allowed to do increases in danger with age (eg. walking on road, driving, using guns etc.) Fathers should not be overprotective, but allow children to develop till finally they are ready to fly the coop (Gen. 2:24). Even so God does not overprotect us (cf. Matt.10:16; Jas 1:2,3).
Some of the problems of doubt spring from the motives with which we began to follow Jesus:- it may have been to escape Hell, or the influence of friends, or the guidance of parents, or even problems we were facing. God is seen as a problem-solver (and He is) but His solution is often different from what we envisage. We need to find God in problems and not think of Him as the magical problem-solver. Saul of Tarsus experienced the greatest problems of his life AFTER becoming a Christian, and Jesus did him the service of warning him it would be so (Acts 9:16).
The temptation, as with Jesus, is to take matters into our own hands. With Him it involved the idea “Why should I be hungry if I’m the Son of God?”. Satan suggests “change things – you can do a better job than this – things were better in Nazareth – this ministry of yours is not off to a very auspicious start!” With us, the temptation is to avoid the path that God has for us, because, after all, it seems I had fewer problems before I became a Christian.
Jesus’ response was to trust God – the only response in any situation (cf. Job 13:15 – though He slay me yet will I trust Him). He appealed to God’s word by saying “It has been written. This is a perfect tense implying once written but now stands forever. He smites with the Sword of the Spirit. He could have said, “Verily, verily I say to you” out of His own authority, but no, He uses the written word (Ps. 119:11). He appeals to Deut. 8:2,3 which highlights how God wanted Israel to trust in Him, not bread. Jesus did not assume any perogatives but places Himself on a level with everyone – man cannot live by bread alone, and that includes me.
All in all we might say it was a pretty foolish temptation: did the Devil really believe Jesus would believe that a man’s life rests on bread alone? On the contrary, whether a man knows it or not, he lives only by every very utterances going forth from God’s mouth. What goes forth from God’s mouth is what God orders and His orders for maintaining a man’s life may be varied. No amount of food will keep a man alive if God wills otherwise. A dying queen pleaded “A million for a moment”, but even princesses die prematurely. Rome was so confident in her position of power, considering herself impregnable, but God had other ideas (Rev. 18:7,9).
God is not unmindful either of us or the read He leads us down, even if it be a wilderness (Matt.6:31,31). As Matt.4:11 declares, He provided for Jesus when the temptation was done. And when God says “No!”? Was Jesus’ prayer in the garden the most intense prayer of His earthly sojourn (cf Luke 22:42,43)? He gave Him the strength to fulfill His task.