It Is Written

Matthew 4:1-11

After Jesus’ baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit to go out into the wilderness.  Before He was going to start His public ministry, Jesus knew that much prayer and fasting would be needed, so He spent the next forty days and nights in so doing.  Though it was God who led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted, God does not tempt us.  That is the devil’s doing.  God does test our faith to see if we will stay on the course that He has set for us.

Let’s take a look at how Satan tempted Jesus, and see how we can learn from this, to help us when we too are tempted.  Naturally, after having not eaten for almost 1 ½ months, Jesus would be hungry; so Satan thought it would be an easy mark to tempt Jesus into turning the stones into bread (vs. 3 - 4).  Satan thought he could get Jesus to use His divinity to provide for His physical needs.  Jesus responded back by using the Word of God, and quoted Deuteronomy 8:3.   He knew that in everything, including all of our physical necessities, we need to trust God to provide for what we need.  Though physical food is obviously needful, God’s Word is more important.  It gives nurture to our spiritual needs, and that will benefit us for all eternity.

The second of Satan’s temptations was to take Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple, and challenged Him to throw Himself from the edge (vs. 5-7).  Satan quoted from Psalm 91:1-2, saying that the angels have been charged to protect Him.  This was a twisting of that Scripture verse, turning it from being about trusting God to trying to justify tempting Him.  Jesus responded back by quoting another Scripture, this time from Deuteronomy 6:16.  In this and the previous temptation, Jesus was not going to use His divine power to satisfy His desires or safety.

With the final temptation of Jesus, Satan took Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and promised Jesus that if He would bow and worship him, he would give them all to Him  (vs. 8-10).  Satan was trying to get Jesus to declare His kingship prematurely.  That would block God’s purpose in His and our life, in addition to the unthinkable of Jesus worshipping Satan.  For the third time, Jesus responded by quoting Scripture, Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20.

What can we learn from Jesus’ temptations, and hopefully put into practice with our own temptations?  First, in each of these temptations Jesus responded by only quoting Scripture to him.  “It is written”, was His only response, not trying to argue or debate with Satan.  The Word of God is our sword, the only offensive weapon we have against the devil and his minions (Ephesians 6:17).  Just like any weapon, we need to be skillful in using it, and the only way we can get that way is from reading, meditating and studying the Bible.  Jesus not only knew His Scriptures, He obeyed them.  Satan showed that he knew Bible verses as well, but he certainly doesn't obey them!  When we use Scripture to battle the devil, we need to be sure we are also following what it says.

Another thing to note from this passage is that Satan picked an opportune time to come against Jesus.  Satan came with his temptations when Jesus was tired, hungry, and alone, when He would be the most vulnerable.  This would be a prime time when Satan might chose to attack us, when we are physically and emotionally under stress.  Satan also tempted Jesus in three areas - to meet His physical needs, with possessions, and with pride.  Those are areas he will come against us with - to satisfy our physical needs, to gain possessions, and to feed our pride.

We need to recognize that Satan is constantly fighting those who try to follow and obey God.  Satan’s temptations are real, and we need to be on alert and aware of them.  Satan will try to get us to turn away from God, to doubt His promises and His Word.  Remember - Satan is a liar (John 8:44).  We can trust God’s Word.  God does not lie, He will always tell the truth (Numbers 23:19).