Then Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the desert to be put to the test by the devil. 2He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was hungry, 3and the tester came and said to him, 'If you are Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.' 4But he replied, 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'
5The devil then took him to the holy city and set him on the parapet of the Temple. 6'If you are Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down; for scripture says: He has given his angels orders about you, and they will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.' 7Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'
8Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9And he said to him, 'I will give you all these, if you fall at my feet and do me homage.' 10Then Jesus replied, 'Away with you, Satan! For scripture says: The Lord your God is the one to whom you must do homage, him alone you must serve.'
11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels appeared and looked after him.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, 2for forty days being put to the test by the devil. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry. 3Then the devil said to him, 'If you are Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.' 4But Jesus replied, 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone.'
5Then leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world 6and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and their splendour, for it has been handed over to me, for me to give it to anyone I choose. 7Do homage, then, to me, and it shall all be yours.' 8But Jesus answered him, 'Scripture says: You must do homage to the Lord your God, him alone you must serve.'
9Then he led him to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the Temple. 'If you are Son of God,' he said to him, 'throw yourself down from here, 10for scripture says: He has given his angels orders about you, to guard you, and again: 11They will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.'
13Having exhausted every way of putting him to the test, the devil left him, until the opportune moment.
1. The description of Jesus’ temptation must have been based on what Jesus Himself passed onto His disciples; there was no one else there. What we know about what happened during that time is therefore based on Jesus’ judgment about what is most important for us to know.
2. These passages provide insights into the nature of temptation:
A. Temptation, as the word is used here, is usually a way to reveal something. That is the sense of the Greek word used to describe what Jesus went through here (πειράζω or peirazō). It means to try, scrutinize, or examine something. That is also the sense of the Greek word used in Jesus’ response to the devil’s invitation to jump off the temple parapet in Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12 (ἐκπειράζω or ekpeirazō).
B. Consistent with that, it often occurs in temporal proximity to a significant movement of God in/through a person’s life, perhaps to see how he will react to God’s plan/purpose, or to help the person accurately discern God’s nature or things he needs to learn to be fully used by God. For example, Joseph’s (son of Jacob) testing came before he was to assume a significant role in salvation history. Compare Genesis chapters 37, 39-40 with Genesis chapters 41 through 51. David’s testing (his time being persecuted by Saul) occurred shortly after his defeat of Goliath and before he assumed full leadership of God’s people. Compare 1 Samuel chapters 17 and 18, 1 Samuel chapter 19 through 2 Samuel 1, and 2 Samuel 2 et seq. Peter and the disciples were sent into the storm immediately after they had experienced the miracle of the fishes and loaves. See Matthew 14:13-33. Common experience among the faithful follows the same pattern, albeit usually on a less dramatic level.
C. Also consistent with that, God sometimes sets up the circumstances that lead to testing. That is the sense of what happened here; “Jesus was led by the Spirit,” “the Spirit drove him into the desert,” and he ended up in the desert because He was “[f]illed with the Holy Spirit” (emphasis added). That dynamic is also described in Deuteronomy 8:2-3, the passage Jesus alludes to in response to the temptation of the stones/loaves. We also see that with the David’s testing via his persecution by Saul, 1 Samuel 18:10-11, 1 Samuel 19:9-10, Job’s testing. Job 1:6-12, Job 2:1-6, and the disciples’ experience after the miracle of the fishes and loaves. Matthew 14:22-33. A similar dynamic is described in Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:5-6.
D. Temptation is not prevented by faithfulness/piety and is not an indication that a person is insufficiently faithful or pious. David was certainly a faithful man before Saul went after him; that was manifest in his encounter with Goliath, which preceded of his testing. See 1 Samuel 17:36-37, 45-47. The disciples Jesus sent into the storm after the feeding of the multitudes were faithful; they were doing exactly what Jesus told them to do. Matthew 14:13-33. Jesus’ general faithfulness to the Father is indisputable. That general principle is also implicit in Sirach 2; it speaks to the difficulties that follow active service of God, an act of faithfulness.
E. Temptation can come when we are weak/vulnerable. Here, the temptation to turn the stones into bread came after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days.
F. Temptation can go on for prolonged periods of time. Mark 1:13 suggests, and Luke 4:1-2 explicitly states, that Jesus’ testing went on during the entire 40 days, not just at the time of the three specific temptations described here. Joseph’s (son of Jacob) and David’s testing likewise had long durations.
G. Temptation can be multifaceted. Jesus surely experienced hardships beyond the three described here. During the 40 days he likely suffered from heat, cold, lack of sleep, and lack of social contact. That same dynamic occurs during our times of testing. For example, those being tested by grave illness, unjust treatment, or job loss not only have to deal with the direct pain of those things, but also various “ripple effects.”
3. Jesus’ response to these temptations applied/modeled a number of reactions to temptation we see elsewhere in scripture:
A. He did not give into the natural reaction to the adversity confronting Him, but instead addressed it with faith that God would get Him through it—and do so in route to something that made the interim difficulty worthwhile. That’s why He rejected the shortcuts the devil proposed. We also see that in Moses, Joshua, and Caleb’s response to the apparent obstacles to entering into the promised land, Numbers 13:27-14:9, Deuteronomy 1:27-32, and Abigail and David’s response to Nabal’s bad behavior. 1 Samuel 25:22-35. That same principle is explicitly stated in Proverbs 3:11-12, Sirach 2:8, Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:5-13, and James 1:2-8. That principle also underlies many of the scriptures collected at Wisdom Principles--Fortitude.
B. Jesus drew on the helps God provided in the midst of His trial. Other scriptures tell us that God gives us helps during our difficulties and instruct us to faithfully take advantage of them. 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:5-8. See also Psalm 37:5, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 55:22, Psalm 103:13-14, Sirach 2:7, 11, 18. That is illustrated during the Exodus, David’s flight from Saul, and Peter ‘s time in the storm. Deuteronomy 8:2-4, 1 Samuel 20, 1 Samuel 21:1-9, 1 Samuel 25:22-35, Matthew 14:27-31. The help made available to Jesus here was His familiarity with scripture, and He made full use of it. We should follow His example by looking for the helps God provides us in the midst of our difficulties and using them with faith in their efficacy.
C. Jesus evaluated the temptations by comparing them to what God had already revealed. Jesus responded to each temptation by reviewing it in the light of scriptures that had some correlation to the nature of each temptation. We see a similar response in 1 Samuel 24:1-12 and 1 Samuel 26:1-11; David resists the temptation to kill Saul because he considers that action in the light of what God has already revealed to him (that God anointed Saul). That kind of analysis is implicit in Proverbs 6:20-7:27; it instructs us to recall what we have already been taught when faced with tempting situations. 1 John 4:1-6 explicitly tells us to evaluate tempting matters against the benchmark of what God has already revealed. Two specific things flow from that general approach:
i. We have to be wary of purported scriptural justifications for questionable conduct. That is illustrated by Jesus’ evaluating the devil’s scriptural justification for jumping off the temple parapet against a more fundamental theme of scripture. Matthew 4:5-7, Luke 4:9-12.
ii. We should be familiar with the scriptures addressing areas where we are commonly tempted. That allows us to have them at hand to address those temptations when they reoccur. See generally James 1:25, Matthew 5:29-30, Matthew 18:8-9, and Mark 9:43-47.
D. Jesus directly confronted and abruptly shut down the temptations; He did not give the devil an opening by even entertaining the possibilities offered. To put it in today’s vernacular, He wouldn’t “even go there.” That was consistent with His own response to another temptation, Matthew 16:22-23, Mark 8:32-33, the principle discussed in James 1:14-15, and is the opposite of the negative example given in Proverbs 7:6-27.
4. The fact that Jesus himself went through such temptations—and made the effort to tell us about it—powerfully verifies Hebrews 4:15-16. Jesus “has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin.Let us, then, have no fear in approaching [His] throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help.” The fact that Jesus submitted to the hardships described here should also help us defuse the anger at God we sometimes feel when we go through trying times; God does not ask us to go through something that He Himself has not gone through.
5. Jesus going through this ordeal is a demonstration of His love and selflessness. This was very hard, He did not have to do it, but He did, and He did it for us--each of us.
