1 Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. 2 After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry. 3 Then the Devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.”
4 But Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’”
5 Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said to him, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,
‘God will give orders to his angels about you;
they will hold you up with their hands,
so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.’”
7 Jesus answered, “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness. 9 “All this I will give you,” the Devil said, “if you kneel down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus answered, “Go away, Satan! The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”
11 Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.
Read Matthew 4:1-11 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
The more I read the gospels’ record of Jesus’ temptations at the start of His ministry, the more amazed at the various nuances present in both the temptations Satan uses against Jesus, and the responses Jesus gives. One of the things that stand out as profound is the conditional nature of each temptation and this is because in each temptation, Satan phrases it as a challenge to who Jesus is.
Both Matthew and Luke include this little nuance in how Satan words his temptations, but for simplicity, we’ll just look at Matthew’s gospel. Matthew tells us that Satan’s first temptation was, “If you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.” (v. 3b)
The second temptation Matthew shares is, “If you are God’s Son, throw yourself down…” (v. 6a)
Matthew’s gospel concludes these three temptations by sharing the devil offering Jesus the world. Satan said, “All this I will give you, if you kneel down and worship me.” (v. 9)
In each of these temptations, Satan tries to plant doubt in Jesus’ mind regarding His mission. In the first two temptations, the challenge is for Jesus to prove that He really is God’s Son. In the third temptation, the challenge is for Jesus to abandon the mission of the cross. Satan essentially offers Jesus a shortcut, but the trap with this shortcut is that it would cause Jesus to sin, and by doing so, it would invalidate His ministry. The doubt that Satan tried to plant in Jesus’ mind with the third temptation is that the path of the cross would be too difficult to face.
What is fascinating about these temptations is that they echo the temptations Satan throws at each of us. All Satan needs to do is to challenge our status as children of God, which usually will either cause us to doubt God, or it will cause us to overreact and test God.
The temptations are powerful because while they try to cause sin, they are also trying to plant doubt. Too often, Satan’s temptations are successful at both causing sin and planting doubt, but when we know what he is up to, we can be one step ahead of his next attempt.
God gave Jesus to give His life for each of us. This allows us to be adopted back into God’s family. Never let a temptation plant doubt in your mind that God loves you and wants you back in His family!
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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