part a: Jesus tempted as God
25.1 Immediately after He was baptized, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This was not the only time He faced temptation, but it was perhaps His severest test. There were other temptations during His lifetime as the Bible says, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Hebrews 4:15
25.2 We take up the account of His temptation in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1 "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
25.3 There were three temptations in the wilderness. In all of them the devil tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross and leave His work of redemption.
25.4 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Matthew 4:2
Many times in our lives the devil tempts us when we are at a weak point. This is one of his favorite tricks. But he also attacks us at our strength. It is not our weaknesses he is afraid of, but our strength. He tries to discredit us. In the wilderness, he was trying to discredit Jesus.
25.5 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Jesus was hungry. There was nothing wrong with that. There would have been nothing wrong with eating either. But Jesus said, "It is written "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." The key word is "alone". This means without God. Any attempt to satisfy our material wants and needs without God is sin.
If Jesus had done this miracle, He would have been using His divine power to ease His own suffering. This would have made His life easier than ours. He would no longer be identified with us as completely human. If He had satisfied his hunger by working a miracle, He would have been doing it without God. He would have left the work of redeeming us. This same temptation came to Him on the cross when people passing by mocked, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." Matt. 27:40
Notice the terrible insult, "If you are the Son of God"... No words could have hurt worse. It was precisely because He was the Son of God that He could not come down from that cross. If He had, the work of redemption would never have been completed. But Christ had faced this temptation years before, in the wilderness, and He was ready for it.
25.6 Jesus defeated the devil with the Word of God. He said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." This is a direct quote from Deuteronomy 8:3
25.7 The next temptation was not so subtle. It was a direct attack. Jesus was tempted to declare Himself to be the Son of God and obtain recognition as the Messiah by doing something to gain national attention -- again avoiding the cross.
25.8 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. 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.
25.9The devil had cleverly twisted a verse from the Bible to try to tempt Jesus! He had misquoted the verse. He had left out the middle of it. It actually reads like this:
"For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." Psalm 91:12
The devil loves to misquote and misuse the Bible.
25.10 Once again Jesus defeated the devil by quoting from the Bible, "It is written again, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 6:16
To tempt the Lord God means to act without reference to God, or the will of God. Jesus knew God's will for Him was the cross.
25.11 Among the Jews of Jesus' day, there was a general belief that the Messiah, the coming KING would appear on the pinnacle of the temple. It was believed that he would throw himself down the cliff without being hurt while the people in Jerusalem watched.
If Jesus had done this miracle the people would have proclaimed him king, and Messiah on the spot. He could have had that recognition without going to the cross. But God's redemptive plan was different. God's plan was the cross.
During his entire ministry Jesus NEVER did even one miracle to boost His own reputation. In fact, He often told those who had been healed to be quiet, and not tell anyone.
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