Bible Studies: Worldnet Grace Ministries

Matthew 4:1-11

Tempted In His Humanity, Yet Without Sin

By Johnny Tatum

PART 3: ENCOUNTERING THE SNAKE

Scene One: The Wilderness in Judea

Jesus of Nazareth needed the time to prepare, and He also needed to be tempted by Satan. There is no question that during His forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, Satan was there. Satan was watching like a buzzard (a bird: a vulture) hovering around, ready and waiting for Jesus to get hungry, and knowing that when Jesus got hungry He might be vulnerable.

So Jesus gets hungry, and here comes Satan:

3 And the tempter came.

Satan comes to Jesus with three temptations. The first temptation is classic satanic deception in this sense:

Satan is the master at asking one question when he really has another question in mind.

Illustration:

"The Snake"

Satan's mastery of deception reminds me of rowing. I have a very difficult time watching rowing on the Olympics, because it drives me crazy how the rowers are facing one way, yet they are moving another way.

On the other hand, I love to watch a great [American] football quarterback who, unlike an amateur one, knows not to watch his primary receiver. Amateur quarterbacks will stare at the receiver to whom they are going to throw the ball, and the defense automatically knows to whom the pass is going. Quarterback Kenny Stabler (ironically, nicknamed The Snake) was the best at keeping eye contact with one receiver when all the time he intended to throw the football to another player. The Snake!

That is what this snake does. Whenever Satan starts asking a line of questions, you know he really has something else (a different angle) in mind.

Before we look at the temptations, let us recall that a voice from heaven just declared Jesus to be the Son of God, and Satan comes in. There is another instance in which a man was just declared the son of God and Satan comes in. Who was that? That was Adam in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 1:26-2:25).

The difference is:

Adam was a created son of God, and Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

Jesus was declared by His Father to be the Son of God at His baptism, and was proved to be the Son of God at His resurrection (see John 20:1-31). It is at the baptism of Jesus when Satan thinks *I broke up the sonship the last time the Father had a son, and I will take care of this Son too.

*Notice: Satan went to Adam indirectly; he came in on the side like a good football quarterback. How? Satan was after [and in pursuit of] Adam, but he went to Eve, though he really was not after Eve (see Genesis 3:1-7); Satan wanted that son of God — Adam.

With both Adam and Jesus of Nazareth, Satan's point was to question what God said:

In the Garden, there is the son of God. Satan comes to him and says Did God really say that?

In the wilderness, there is the Son of God. Satan comes to Him and says If You really are the Son…

To both Adam and Jesus of Nazareth, Satan's question is one of sonship — of identification — Satan is trying to break that connection.

A Public Relations N-i-g-h-t-m-a-r-e:

Satan's Offering: Hell

Satan has a real PR (public relations) problem when he describes what he has to offer: hell. After all, eternal torment and eternal separation from God is hard to put a good spin on. However, Satan is the master at marketing his bad product. Since he knows that he cannot hype his own product, he puts down God's product. How does he do that? Satan puts doubt into what God says about who His Son is.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam bought what Satan said, he chose to sin, he lost dominion over the world and creation (since Adam was the representative of the entire human race, the human race lost dominion), and he lost the kingdom he could have had. At that moment, the world system came under Satan's rule, and that is why everybody born [excluding Jesus of Nazareth] is born a child of Satan with a sin nature.

Note: There is a period in the life of a child when God protects that child. However, when they reach a certain age (that many parents reflectively remember), we KNOW they are sons of Satan! Every person is eventually held accountable for the one he believes: Satan (by default) or the Lord God.

After Adam fell, he was driven out of the Garden of Eden and into the wilderness. That is where the human race has stayed ever since: in desolation (in the wilderness) and separated from God.

Now Jesus of Nazareth comes as the second Adam, and where does He pick up the battle with Satan? In the wilderness — right where Adam was expelled when he lost the battle. So in this passage we have Jesus undoing what Adam did by restoring that kingdom. And in the three temptations, Satan is thinking Well, it worked before; maybe with the second Adam it will work again.

We read the first temptation:

3 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

[I am assuming that He was in the Judean desert, which is located east and southeast of Jerusalem and west of the Dead Sea.] The place if full of rocks that look like — have the same shape and almost identical color as — loaves of rye bread. To this day, there are stories in the Orient about people who are out in this desert starving and who are tormented by the sight of these rocks.

Questions: What was Satan trying to accomplish and what did he think he would get? How would it have helped Satan if Jesus had turned that rock into bread? And What would the harm have been to Jesus of Nazareth?

Why did Jesus not just say Okay, get out of here Satan and then, even when Satan was not looking, turn the stones into bread? [That shows you the way my mind works…]

Let us remember that Satan comes like a good football quarterback or like a rower and he is going backwards. It seems that Satan is attacking Jesus' deity If You are the Son of God… I do not believe he is attacking His deity; that is a diversion. Satan is actually attacking Jesus' humanity. Notice that the focus is not on God but on Son:

If you are the Son of God.

Remember the Context: Satan has been at the baptism and he heard This is My beloved Son. When he heard that, Satan knew what the context was. What was that?

Jesus of Nazareth had identified Himself with the riff raff at His baptism.

What was Satan attacking?

Jesus of Nazareth being the Son of God, and

His identification with those who would identify with Him by believing in Him.

Actually, when we look at this temptation, do you know who Satan was after? He was really after you; specifically, he was after Jesus' identification with you, and he was trying to break it. When Satan came to Jesus and tempted Him Turn that rock into bread, he was attacking you.

Satan says If You are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. Now we see how it would help Satan and how it would harm Jesus of Nazareth.

The question [Satan is asking Jesus] is:

Are You really going to identify with the riff raff?

What is Satan challenging Jesus to do? To use His divine nature. There is no doubt that Satan knew that Jesus of Nazareth could tap into His divine nature and turn those rocks into bread; Satan would dare not tell Jesus to do something that Jesus could not do. There is no question that Satan desperately wanted Jesus to turn that rock into bread.

Do you know why Jesus did not? Let us suppose Jesus' thinking was like this: I can turn a rock into bread, but [insert your name] cannot. And I am identified with [insert your name], so I will not. That is how the temptation in the wilderness affects you — affects me. Basically, Satan is saying Are You really identifying with [insert your name]? Satan really wanted Jesus to do it.

If Jesus of Nazareth had used His divine nature, which He had (we cannot forget that Jesus had a divine nature), and if He had turned that rock into bread, then what would that have meant?

He really was not identified with us.

If He was not really identified with us, that means He could not be our Substitute.

If He really was not our Substitute, that means the death that He died on the cross really was not the death that we should have died.

If His death was not our substitute death, that means that we are still in our sins and we still have to answer for them.

The way we answer for our sins is not to answer questions about them, but to pay with eternal death.

So you see, this is one small step for a Man, but for Him not to turn that rock into bread is a giant leap for us. He was not willing to give up that identification with us — with you.

Here Jesus Is Our Substitute and Our Example

In the Matthew 3:13-17 study, we saw that Jesus of Nazareth is our Substitute but not our example in baptism. And here we begin to see that He is our example as well, but only on the grounds that He is our Substitute (our Identity). If He were NOT trying to give us an example, He would have vaporized Satan right then. However, notice that Jesus of Nazareth does not just refuse, He also counters with Scripture.

4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

Jesus rejects all three temptations, and He counters them with a Scripture from Chapters 6 and 8 in the Book of Deuteronomy. What a context! What is happening in these chapters? Israel is out in the wilderness, they are hungry, they doubt the Lord God is going to feed them, and they are asking the Lord God Why did You bring us out of Egypt?

Now Jesus quotes a passage from Deuteronomy 8. It is interesting that He did not quote the whole verse, so let us quote the whole verse. [This is Moses speaking to Israel]:

"And He

Who is He? God.

humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your Fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Jesus chooses a passage, which refers to Israel in the wilderness and refers to bread, manna, showing God (the Provider) supernaturally taking care of His children.

Jesus was not tempted to turn the rock into bread. Why not? He is identified with His children. And what did Jesus find in that passage in Deuteronomy? That He did not have to use His divine nature to get bread, because He is one of God's children and God takes care of His children.

What is Jesus saying?

I am identifying with sinners. I am identifying with God's children, with everybody who trusts in Me. God feeds them and God will feed Me on that same basis.

Again, nobody would have seen if He had turned that rock into bread, meaning that His identity with us was straight from His heart; He was not play-acting. He maintains that identification with sinners who identify with Him.

The Gospel of Your Salvation:

"Believe In The Lord Jesus, And You Will Be Saved." (Acts 16:31)

Though Jesus had omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence during His ministry on earth, He chose not to use them because, from His heart, He identified with everybody who identifies with Him. If you would like to identify with Jesus as your Redeemer (Savior), simply acknowledge:

God, I confess I am a sinner, and I deserve to go to hell because of my sins. But I believe that Jesus of Nazareth took my sins upon Himself, and when He died on the cross He was paying the penalty for my sin. And when He rose again, He rose to give me eternal life.

Paul said once we believe in Him, we are sealed in Him:

In Messiah, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Scene Two: The Pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem

Satan does not give up, and now he is saying Okay, Jesus used Scripture; I will too. Now they go to a second location, and [Reverend] Satan quotes Scripture to Jesus of Nazareth (the Son of God)…

5 Then the devil takes Him into the holy city; and he has Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,

Let us imagine Jerusalem:

On the east (to the right) are the Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives.
Running north and south (up and down) is the Kidron Valley.
On the west (to the left) is the Temple area.

The Kidron Valley, moving south to north, gets deeper as it moves to the north. The Temple Mount is level, but by the time you get to the north you are up pretty high. And Herod had built a massive wall up on that corner. So there is the Kidron Valley, which is already deep; the Temple Mount, which is already high (there is a huge structure there); and then the pinnacle, which is where the daily designated priest would ascend to see whether it was time ("the sun shines") to kill the daily sacrifice. The pinnacle is also the place from where some people chose to commit suicide.

As Recorded in Ancient History: The pinnacle is where at least two false messiahs came [prior to Jesus of Nazareth's temptation], stood on that pinnacle, and jumped off, because they thought they would fly to prove they were the messiah. How wrong they were!

It was not just a random place Satan takes Jesus of Nazareth.

Next:

Matthew 4:1-11, PART 4: ATTACK!

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