By BRUCE GREEN
RELIGION —
(This is part one of a two-part look at Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.)
The backdrop for understanding the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4/Luke 4 is Israel’s time in the wilderness. The parallels aren’t difficult to see. I’ve adapted the following from Liefeld and Pao (“Luke, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary”).
• Israel was God’s son (Exodus 4:22-23); Jesus was proclaimed God’s Son at His baptism (Luke 3:21-22).
• God led Israel into the wilderness; the Spirit led Jesus.
• Israel was there for 40 years; Jesus was there 40 days.
• Israel was tested by God; God allowed Jesus to be tempted by Satan.
• Israel failed miserably when tested; Jesus triumphed gloriously.
• At the time of their testing, both were vulnerable.
That last point is worth thinking about. When Israel was in the wilderness, they were fresh off their miraculous rescue by God. Not only had they come out of Egypt, but they had done so by crossing the Red Sea and then witnessing the waters close over Pharaoh and his army. Egypt was in their rear-view mirror and Pharaoh would bother them no more. They had been delivered.
In regard to Jesus, He had just been manifested to Israel as the Messiah at His baptism (John 1:31). Words from His Father were spoken, and the Spirit came upon Him. There’s almost always a vulnerability that comes with great victory. We’re basking in the moment, our guard is down, and if we’re not careful, we can fall victim to overconfidence. Satan is an opportunist and knows how to take advantage.
Israel quickly collapsed under the heat of their trials in the desert, but not Jesus. He stood tall. Satan came at Him three different times and was decisively rebuffed each time.
How did this happen?
Jesus repelled him with scripture. Not just any scripture, but scripture from Israel’s wilderness time. Specifically, it was the book of Deuteronomy — the book that rehearses Israel’s wilderness experiences. In other words, Jesus did what Israel did not do by putting into practice in the wilderness the principles they had ignored. By doing so, Jesus showed Himself to be a true Son of God.
1. In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted to rely on something other than God. He was tempted to use His own powers to turn stones into bread and feed Himself. He was tempted to assert Himself (“If You are the Son of God”), rather than humbly trusting God. After all, He had fasted for 40 days — hadn’t he already shown His submission to God? What would eating a little bread hurt?
It would have been natural for the story of the manna to come to Jesus’ mind (it might have been in Satan’s mind and prompted his taunt). Like Israel, He was in the wilderness and hungry. Satan was in essence suggesting that Jesus produce manna on His own — rather than waiting for God to send it. Even though Israel had received manna from above every morning, they had never really learned to wait for God. They had never really learned the truth that man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
But Jesus knew. And He told Satan He would be waiting on God and living off His word (Deuteronomy 8:3).
We’ll look further into this topic in part two.
You can find more of Green’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com.