THE BATTLE IN THE DESERT (part one)
Matthew 4:1-7
There have been some famous battles fought in desert regions. One was the Western Desert campaign (Desert War) of WWII that took place in the deserts of Egypt and Libya in June, 1940. A more recent example was Operation Desert Storm that took place during the Gulf War in 1990. But there was another desert battle that took place long before these-the one between Jesus and Satan. Let's take a look at what is referred to as the temptation of Jesus.
1) Testing ground.
Vs. 1, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil."
We see this chapter starts out with the word, then. What happened before this was Jesus' baptism, after which his public ministry started. But, before he would start his ministry he was put to the test by being led into the desert to be tempted.
Why did this need to happen now? Jesus was about to embark on three years of intense ministry. Passing this major test would play a major role in preparing him for all of what he would need to endure. Jesus may not have dealt with this level of temptation again until the end of his ministry when he was in the garden of Gethsemane.
Whenever we're put to the test and come away victorious it prepares us for the challenges that lie ahead. This is important to understand because when we see that it was the Holy Spirit that led him into the desert to be tempted we might be a little confused. You would think the HS would lead us away from temptation, not toward it.
Yes, but in this case, God had a purpose in it. It was a test. And this test involved resisting temptation. We might think this wasn't fair. However, these temptations were used by God to train and prepare Jesus and reveal his pure devotion.
Jesus would no doubt have to deal with temptations like these throughout his ministry. He would be tempted to use his power for his own purposes. He would be tempted to test God. He would be tempted to compromise his mission for worldly desires. It was good for him to go through this now so he would be better prepared later when Satan would try to get in the way of what he was trying to accomplish.
When we are victorious over temptation we give ourselves a better chance of not getting sidetracked and slowed down when we are doing God's work. There are many things that can hinder us from fulfilling our calling. Keeping in step with the Spirit involves not getting tangled up in sin.
Jesus' ability to do everything he needed to in these three short years was helped by passing this major test in the beginning so he could be prepared to move at the speed of the Spirit.
"Into the desert". Why was Jesus led into the desert? First of all, when we think of desert we think of nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. That's not the situation here. The Greek word for desert can mean a remote, solitary place. Other translations say wilderness.
But even though Jesus wasn't in a place like the Sahara desert, it still wasn't a prime vacation spot. Sure, there may have been some trees and shrubs here and there, but it was still a dry, arid place.
The main point was that Jesus was alone, far from any town or village. The Greek word for desert can also mean lonely place. Think about it-if you've been deserted you've been left all alone. Well, you can't spell deserted without desert.
So, when I think of Jesus being in a lonely, deserted, remote place, the word that comes to mind is vulnerable. Satan loves to visit us when we're vulnerable. When are we most vulnerable? When we're alone; especially when we're not only alone, but lonely too. When we're alone with our thoughts; when we're without companionship, feeling unprotected, it's at these times we're most vulnerable to Satan's attack.
Jesus being led into the desert was no accident. God allowed him to be in the most vulnerable position he could be in to face these temptations. Again, this was about preparation. When Jesus was arrested, Matt. 26:56 says everyone deserted him. Jesus was left to deal with his unethical arrest, unjustified trial and crucifixion by himself. I wonder how much this battle in the desert helped to prepare him for that?
How many times has Satan tried to take you down when you were by yourself? Everyone is by themselves sometimes; we can't be around people all the time. Some of us are by ourselves more than we want to be. That can open the door for Satan's attacks all the more. What can we do about it? We'll, let's take a look at how Jesus handled his temptations in the desert.
2) The temptation to please self.
Vs. 2-4, "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ’”
What Satan is asking Jesus to do doesn’t seem so wrong. Jesus is hungry; he’s been fasting forty days. Shouldn’t he be entitled to some bread? And since he is the Son of God he does have the power to turn stones into bread so why not do it; what's the problem?
First of all, Satan gave Jesus a command, ‘tell these stones to become bread’. There's your first problem; Jesus wasn’t going to comply with a command from the enemy.
Secondly, Satan is trying to get Jesus to do something in accordance with his will, his desires, not God’s. That’s why Jesus’ reply, ‘man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,’ is significant. We don’t live or make our decisions based on what will please us; it's about God. We don't do things in our timing, we wait for God's timing. We don't act in accordance with someone else's words, just God's.
When we looked at the account between David and Saul last week, David had the chance to kill Saul. His men told him to go for it, they even put God's stamp of approval on it. David knew different. He went by the word of God, not man. Although taking Saul out would've stopped the cat and mouse game and taken the threat away, it wasn't going to help David spiritually.
When David cut off the piece of Saul's robe, 1 Sam. 24:5 says his conscience was stricken over it. Likewise, Jesus turning the stones into bread would've satisfied his hunger but it wouldn't have satisfied his spirit. Satan will never tempt us to gratify the spirit, only the flesh. Even though Jesus was hungry, he would let the Father dictate when that need would be satisfied.
We see with Satan tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread it shows that Satan doesn't always tempt us with things we want; sometimes he tempts us with things we need. But the temptation will be for us to get those things in accordance with our timing, not God's.
If we're tempted to be impatient with God when we need something we need to resist taking matters into our own hands and wait upon the Lord to provide. We need to trust that God's timing is perfect and that he knows our needs and will meet those needs according to his perfect wisdom and timing. Satan will tempt us to circumvent that and get it our own way.
Jesus had the power to turn the stones into bread, but he knew better than to misuse that power for his own devices. We might have the ability to do something but that doesn't mean we should.
Say I needed a new car and I had $5,000 saved up. Though I have the means to purchase a $5,000 car, does that mean I should? If I wait, I might find a car in as good a shape for $4,000.
Instant gratification is a big temptation. But we can resist it. How? We do what Jesus did; he used the word. In this case, he quoted from
Deut. 8:1-3, "Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."
It's interesting-we have the Israelites being tested in the wilderness for 40 years and we have Jesus being tested in the wilderness for forty days. God said he tested the Israelites to know what was in their heart. In the test that Jesus faced, the outcome would show what was in his heart. Would his heart's desire be to please God or himself?
When Jesus talked about building up heavenly treasures instead of earthly ones, he said in Matt. 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
When Satan tempts us he wants us to compromise having a God-centered heart for a self-centered one. The substance of our lives does not consist of material things but spiritual things. We need material things and are allowed to enjoy them but never at the cost of putting them before the will of God. Jesus was hungry; he needed food. But he wanted to please the Father more than he wanted to satisfy his hunger.
Jesus resisted temptation using scripture as a means to win the battle. When Paul talked about the spiritual armor in Eph. 6, he depicted the word of God as a sword. The bible is our weapon against Satan. When we're tempted, we need to get our bibles out and fight.
3) The temptation to doubt.
Vs. 5-7, "Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’’”
This is a pretty wild scene. Here we have Jesus, being led by Satan, into Jerusalem and somehow managing to get him to stand on the highest point in the temple. In reading through some commentaries I got no indication that this was metaphorical or just happening in the spirit, or anything like that.
To understand the precariousness of what was happening here, Adam Clarke's commentary: "It is very likely that this was what was called the king's gallery; which, as Josephus says, "deserves to be mentioned among the most magnificent things under the sun: for upon a stupendous depth of a valley, scarcely to be fathomed by the eye of him that stands above, Herod erected a gallery of a vast height, from the top of which if any looked down, he would grow dizzy, his eyes not being able to reach so vast a depth."
In other words, the point at which Jesus stood was a great distance from the ground below; mainly because it overlooked a deep valley. To jump from such a height would result in sure death unless God rescued you.
For the second time, Satan starts out by saying, "if you are the Son of God". In the first temptation, it's like Satan was saying, "if you're the son of God then you should be able to make some bread for yourself using these stones. So, go ahead."
In this temptation, Satan is saying, "if you're God's son then you should be able to put yourself in a perilous situation and he will get you out of it." Satan's logic is, "if you're the son of God-prove it; if God is so great-prove it". Satan's trying to cast doubt in Jesus' mind. I could see him saying, "if you're too scared to jump then must be you don't think God will rescue you. You don't think he is able to back up his word. Where is your faith, Jesus?"
Satan wants Jesus to doubt his Father and himself. Satan tries to get us to doubt. Doubt God's love for us, doubt God's ability to take care of us, doubt the truth, doubt our salvation, doubt our ability in Christ, etc. How has Satan tried to get you to doubt God?
"I prayed for this and God didn't deliver. I doubt he really cares about me." "The bible says ask and you shall receive. I tried asking but I didn't receive. I can't trust the bible." "I keep having all these problems in my life. It doesn't seem like being a Christian and serving God is doing me any good. Maybe I should just go back to living how I was. Maybe there is no God." Such a dangerous road Satan likes to try to take us down.
And here's another scary thing-Satan will use the bible to tempt us! It's like he's saying, "Well, Jesus, this is what it says. Don't you trust the bible?" Satan quotes it mostly correct.
Psalm 91:11-12, "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."
Satan left something out. "To guard you in all your ways". Satan not only misquoted it, he took it out of context and misapplied it. These verses are about God's protection as we go about our lives. These verses are to give us comfort and confidence that we will be taken care of when hardships and dangerous situations come our way.
These verses are not meant to be used as a testing ground for God's validity. We don't purposely put ourselves in harm's way to see if these verses are true; we trust the truth of these verses when we find ourselves in harm's way. But this is what Satan tries to do-twist scripture and make it say something it wasn't meant to. Many false religions are built on the twisting and misuse of scripture.
This was going on in biblical days. In Peter's second letter, he was talking about Paul's writings. 2nd Pet. 3:16-18, "He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."
Peter acknowledges that some of Paul's writings are hard to understand. Because of that, those who are ignorant and unstable will distort them. They will twist them to make them say what they want them to say instead of being willing to learn what they really say. Peter says they do this to their own destruction.
It's easy to read the bible and not understand what it's saying. That's the way it is for all of us at first. But if we're humble, we'll be teachable. God will give us the ability to grow. But what we have to be careful of is taking verses by themselves without reading them in their context (what it says before and after). We have to be careful to understand what they are saying and what they're not saying.
And we see that Jesus used another scripture to show how Satan was misusing it. What Satan was trying to get Jesus to do would've gone against Deut. 6:16-do not put God to the test. Jesus knew Satan was wrong because another verse went against how he was using it.
Scripture always supports scripture. If someone is using a verse incorrectly, there will be another verse somewhere to counter it. Sometimes, scripture can be used, not to counter a misused verse, but to bring clarity to it.
For instance, if I read what Jesus said in Matt. 7:7, 'ask and you shall receive' and just go with that, I'll be disappointed when I ask for a million dollars but don't get it. "But that's what it says". True, but I need to use that in conjunction with 1 John 5:14-15 that says if we ask anything according to his will we will have it.
Satan's crafty, he knows scripture and he will misuse it to try to deceive us and get us to sin. But we have the upper hand because we have the word of God and the power of God; enabling us to resist temptation like Jesus did.
Our desert battles are testing ground. Each victory makes us stronger and more mature in the faith for when we face the next one. Next week we'll finish out the temptations of Jesus as we look at vs. 8-11.
