Diabolos Temptation

Matthew 4:1-4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Our weekly home Bible Study was reminded that, just as the Lord experienced temptations through deceitful lies, we should not be surprised at the great tests of our dependency of and obedience to our Heavenly Father. Led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil was the test of Jesus. If He sinned, that He could not be the Savior of the world, because He would have to pay for His own sins, and need a Savior himself. When Satan challenges saying, “if you are the Son of God”, he is not casting doubt of Jesus’ divine Sonship. The devil wouldn’t have showed up if he didn’t think that Jesus was the Son of God. The devil is tempting Christ to use His supernatural powers as the Son of God for His own needs and not trust God; to turn from the spiritual to the physical, from the heavenly to the earthly, from God’s provision to self provision. But Jesus says “live by God’s Word”. Do we live by this?

Matthew 4:5-7 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

As written last time, the great things that Satan aims at in tempting Jesus (and us) is to overthrow the relationship with the Him, and so cuts off their dependency upon Him, their duty to Him and their communion with Him. In Christ’s sake Satan’s ultimate goal of the temptations were to get Jesus to abandon God’s Plan of Salvation and bypass the cross. The devil quotes scripture with a twist of words out of context of, but Jesus was ready and quote scripture back, in context, saying “You don’t tempt Lord God”. Do we live by this too?

Matthew 4:8-11  Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Matthew Henry writes: “That temptations commonly take rise from the world, and the things in it. The lust of the flesh, and of the eye, with the pride of life, are the topics from which the devil fetches most of his arguments. It is a great cheat which the devil puts upon poor souls, in his temptations. He deceives, and so destroys; he imposes upon men with shadows and fast colors; shows the world and the glory of it, and hides from men's eyes the sin and sorrow and death.” But Christ’s concluding statement in this test was, “worship Lord God and serve Him only.” Do we live by this also?

The power of God, the supernatural force of miracle power is translated from the Greek word - δύναμις “dynamis”, where we get the English word: “– dynamite”. In dealing with the devil, we must always remember the force that is standing with the child of God. Jesus used the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17) and the sword of Spirit, which is the word of God in response to the temptation attacks to stand firm. We must be on alert. Our enemy, the devil, is subtle and scheming and skilled in the art of temptation.

James 3:15 “This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”

Earthly, sensual, and devilish, answers to the unholy trinity, the three spiritual foes of man, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The word schemes, which are used in his tactics, carries the idea of cleverness, crafty methods, cunning and deception that appeal to the lustful physical appetite, personal gain, and desire for positional power of the flesh, so we must not be caught off guard. Jesus stood the test and showed us the way. Shall we follow and stand firm? That’s our test.

In Christ, Brian