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THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS, PART 2

Matthew 4:1–11

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Matthew 4:1–11

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” (vv. 2–3). The One being tempted here is the God-Man, who possesses a perfect divine nature and a perfect human nature. He is, as the Council of Chalcedon declared, vera homo, vera Deus, truly man and truly God. The text tells us that after the forty-day fast Jesus suffered from hunger, which manifests the humanity of our Lord. He experienced severe pangs of hunger, as anyone would who went without food for forty days and forty nights.

During this time of vulnerability Satan came to tempt Jesus, not to commit some blatant evil but simply to satisfy a natural inclination and desire for food. Satan comes saying, “If You are the Son of God …” Satan is seeking to plant the suggestion that if Jesus were really the Son of God, He shouldn’t have to endure such hunger but should use His divine authority to get food from the stones.

Every Word

Jesus responds to Satan, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ ” (v. 4). Jesus was not referencing something contained in a book from the library of Alexandria or in the manuscripts of the ancient Greeks or Romans. “It is written” was shorthand that every Jew understood. Jesus was referencing sacred Scripture. Jesus responds to the temptation by citing the Bible.

Jesus does not despise our human need for food. In the Lord’s Prayer He instructs us to pray for our daily bread. We need the nutrients that food provides to sustain human life. His point here is that life requires more than physical nutrients. We cannot live by bread alone; we need bread and something else. Notice that Jesus did not say that man needs bread and also the word of God. He said “every word.” We do not live that way, which distances us immediately from Jesus. We think that the Bible is like a smorgasbord so that we can choose a bit of Matthew and Luke and some of Romans but leave behind Leviticus.

Centuries before, God had led His people to the Promised Land and told them to drive out the Canaanites from that land so that His people would not become defiled by mixing with those of pagan religions. But they did not, and the Old Testament spells out the consequences of what happens to God’s people when they fail to listen to every word that proceeds from His mouth. That’s why, when the Scriptures sound difficult to our ears, we simply need to increase our attention and understand that it is the Word of God. The Word of God in Judges is no more or no less true than the Word of God in the book of Romans. Jesus’ meat and drink was to do the will of the Father. He had a zeal that consumed Him. He understood that God had never uttered a desultory word. There is no such thing as an insignificant statement from the lips of God, and Jesus understood that. John Calvin called the Bible the vox Dei, the voice of God, and said that we should receive this word as if hearing it audibly from the lips of God Himself.

When Satan came to destroy Jesus, the defense of the Savior was the Word of God. At that point of the temptation, Satan realized that he had lost. Jesus may have had the authority to turn the stones into bread, but He was committed to fast for the sake of His Father’s will. The word that came from His Father was more important to Him than His bread.

Jesus’ Use of Scripture

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” (vv. 5–6). Since Jesus had cited the Word of God, Satan decided to do likewise, saying, “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’ ” (v. 6). In other words, “Isn’t that the word of God, Jesus? Isn’t that what the Bible says? Well, let’s see if the Bible is true. Jump and see if the angels catch you”

Jesus replied again with the Word of God: “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’ ” (v. 7). Satan’s hermeneutics were wrong. Hermeneutics has to do with the laws that govern the interpretation of Scripture. People say that the Bible is the Word of God but still take that Word and twist it to support what they want to do, and this violates the principles for interpreting Scripture. The first principle of interpretation we call “the analogy of faith,” which means that Scripture is its own interpreter; in other words, we are to interpret Scripture with Scripture. God never speaks a lie, and His Word is coherent and unified. God never contradicts Himself. Therefore, what He says in the book of Judges can never contradict what He says in Ephesians. If we set one part of Scripture against another part of Scripture, we violate the most fundamental principle of biblical interpretation, and that is exactly what Satan was doing.

Jesus tells Satan that if He were to jump off the temple to prove that the Scripture is true, He would be violating the very Scripture that forbids Him from doing it. Besides that, Jesus knew who He was. He did not have to jump from some great height to know that the angels had been given charge over Him, nor did He have to worry about dashing His foot against a rock, because He knew that angels were protecting Him.

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” (vv. 8–9). Adolf Hitler said to his henchmen, “We can lie to the people now, but after we have victory no one will remember.” He meant that no one would later care about his lies because he would bring glory to Germany, a new kingdom that would encompass Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, Poland, the low countries, Belgium, Netherlands, France, England, and then the world. Hitler made a notation in his diary that said, “Today I have made a covenant with Satan for all the kingdoms of the world and for all their glory.”

Have you ever considered your personal point of vulnerability if Satan were to come to you with a test? What would he put in front of you: glory, a kingdom, riches, or power? He offered all these things to Jesus in exchange for one thing—worship. The offer that Satan presented to Jesus was not his to give. Satan has no glory to give anyone.

Perhaps you have heard the story of a congressman from Tennessee who, after serving his first term in Washington, was seeking reelection. He returned to his home state of Tennessee to seek support for reelection, and in those efforts he went to the home of a wealthy farmer who had been a key supporter in his first election. The congressman said to the farmer, “I’m running for a second term. Will you support me again?” The farmer shook his head no and said, “No, I’m sorry, Mr. Crockett. I’m not going to support you again.” He continued, “Do you remember what happened last year when there was a fire in Washington that displaced people from their home? You voted to give the displaced people the money they needed to build a new house. You didn’t take that money from your own pocket, but you voted to take it from mine.” In other words, the money distributed by the congressman had not been his to give.

The Father has set before His Son all the kingdoms of the world and promised Him the glory that had been His from the beginning. Jesus did not need to get it from Satan. At stake here was the cost of getting it. The price of His inheritance was Calvary. Satan was offering glory without that necessary suffering and humiliation.

How do you respond to Satan’s temptations when you are alone and no one can see what you do? Here is how Jesus responded: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve’ ” (v. 10). Jesus refused to give Satan even the slightest genuflection, because the only One worthy of that is the Father. We are to serve Him and Him alone. We are snared more by that word, alone, than by any other word in Scripture, but that is how Jesus silenced the devil.

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him (v. 11). The other Gospel narratives give us a bit more information here, saying that the devil left Him for a season. This was not the end of the battle. Satan watched the ministry of Jesus every single day, always looking for a way to trap Him.

The most glorious moment in Jesus earthly ministry was at the Mount of Transfiguration. Shortly after that Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” and Simon gave the great confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:13, 16). Peter did not say, “If you are the Son” but “You are the Son.” At that time Jesus looked at Simon and said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (vv. 17–18). Before hardly any time had passed, Jesus foretold that He would be delivered to His enemies, and in his boldness Peter said, “This shall not happen to You!” to which Jesus replied, “Get behind Me, Satan!” (vv. 22–23). Right before Jesus went to Jerusalem, Satan showed up in the lips of his most trusted disciple.

It is almost always our closest friends and relatives who seek to dissuade us from our duty, if that duty promises suffering.

Jesus’ test in the wilderness concludes with exquisite irony. As soon as Satan left, the angels appeared and ministered to Him. They were there all the time. The fast was over. The Bible does not say this, but I believe the angels set before Jesus the most incredible breakfast that had ever been served to any human being. It was a gourmet feast. The angels that were not present there but were up in heaven surely noted what an honor it was for those angels who were there to minister to Him, because He is the Son of God in whom God is well pleased.

Christianity is the true worship and service of the true God, mankind’s Creator and Redeemer. It is a religion that rests on revelation: nobody would know the truth about God, nor be able to relate to Him in a personal way, had God not first acted to make Himself known. But God has so acted, and the sixty-six books of the Bible, thirty-nine written before Christ came and twenty-seven after, are together the record, interpretation, and expression of His self-disclosure. God and godliness are the Bible’s uniting themes.

From one standpoint, the Scriptures (“scripture” means “writing”) are the faithful testimony of the godly to the God whom they loved and served; from another standpoint, because they were composed through a unique exercise of divine superintendence, called “inspiration,” they are God’s own testimony and teaching in human language. The church calls these writings the Word of God because their authorship and contents are both of divine origin.

Decisive assurance that Scripture is from God and consists entirely of His wisdom and truth comes from Jesus Christ and His apostles, who taught in His name. Jesus, God incarnate, viewed His Bible (our Old Testament) as His heavenly Father’s written instruction, which He no less than others must obey (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; 5:17–20; 19:4–6; 26:31, 52–54; Luke 4:16–21; 16:17; 18:31–33; 22:37; 24:25–27, 45–47; John 10:35), and which He came to fulfill (Matt. 26:24; John 5:46). Paul described the Old Testament as entirely inspired or “God-breathed”—a product of God’s Spirit, as is the whole creation also (Ps. 33:6; Gen. 1:2)—and written for our instruction (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:15–17). Peter affirms the divine origin of biblical teaching in 2 Pet. 1:21 and 1 Pet. 1:10–12, and so also by his manner of quoting does the writer to the Hebrews (Heb. 1:5–13; 3:7; 4:3; 10:5–7, 15–17; cf. Acts 4:25; 28:25–27).

Since the apostles’ teaching about Christ is itself revealed truth in God-taught words (1 Cor. 2:12, 13), the church regards the New Testament, which records the apostolic witness, as completing the Scriptures. During the New Testament period itself Peter refers to Paul’s letters as Scripture (2 Pet. 3:15, 16), and Paul apparently calls Luke’s Gospel Scripture in 1 Tim. 5:18 (cf. Luke 10:7).

The idea of written directives from God Himself as a basis for godly living goes back to God’s inscribing the Ten Commandments on stone tablets and prompting Moses to write His laws and the history of His dealings with His people (Ex. 32:15, 16; 34:1, 27, 28; Num. 33:2; Deut. 31:9). Digesting and living by this material was always central to true devotion for both leaders and others in Israel (Josh. 1:7, 8; 2 Kin. 17:13; 22:8–13; 1 Chr. 22:12, 13; Neh. 8; Ps. 119), and the principle that all must be governed by the Scriptures has passed into Christianity.

What Scripture says, God says; for, in a manner comparable only to the deeper mystery of the Incarnation, the Bible is both fully human and fully divine. So all its manifold contents—histories, prophecies, poems, songs, wisdom writings, sermons, statistics, letters, and whatever else—should be received as from God, and all that biblical writers teach should be revered as God’s authoritative instruction. Christians should be grateful to God for the gift of His written Word, and conscientious in basing their faith and life entirely and exclusively upon it.²

1 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (p. 55). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

2 Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 141). Orlando, FL; Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries.