The Preparation of  Temptation

Introduction

Hello and welcome to everyone who is joining me today. My name is Sarah Bradbury, and this is Garden to Glory: The Mystery of God.

In our last episode, we looked at the baptism of Jesus and the role this event played in the identification and inauguration of Jesus’ ministry.

We also examined the first act of this newly-initiated venture as Jesus followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit by going out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

Through various Scripture passages, we learned that the suffering and temptations Jesus endured during His life on Earth uniquely equipped and qualified Him to be our merciful High Priest and to be given a position of glory and honor that He would not have without these experiences.

Today we will pick up the discussion about Jesus’ wilderness temptation by looking at the more detailed description of this experience in Matthew chapter four. From this passage, we will seek to identify tactics Satan used to tempt Jesus, the responses He gave that chased Satan away, and the ways these specific temptations uniquely equipped Jesus for the path ahead of Him.

So, let’s begin by reading Matthew 4:1-4. It says:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

The first thing we can notice about Satan’s tactics here is that he waited for the moment of optimal vulnerability before bringing a temptation. Jesus was brought to the wilderness for testing, which implies that being in this place of solitude helped create the optimal circumstances for feeling that temptation.

The Problem of Being Alone

Being far from our friends and family can put us at a disadvantage when it comes to temptation. When we are alone, there is no one to witness if we make a wrong choice. This eliminates our sense of accountability. When there are no visible eyes on us, we tend to believe that our choices do not have consequences. Therefore, we feel more free to do whatever we please. Also, when we are alone, we have no support encouraging us to make good choices.

God created people to operate best in community. Even God – who has eternally existed – did not do so alone. We understand God through the language of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons of God who are somehow unified as one God. 

This means that even before creation, God existed in community with Himself. We see language consistent with this when we read Genesis 1:26a:

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us…”

Throughout Genesis 1, we read about God creating the world and everything in it, and we see a pattern. Each day of the week was filled with a new group of created things, and at the end of each day’s list, we read the words, “And God saw that it was good.”

This pattern continues until we get to day six when God created man and woman. On that day, God looked over the totality of everything He created, and we read that “God saw it was very good.”

The combination of everything God created – including humans – upgraded it all from “good” to “very good.” Yet when we read Genesis 2, we see the only instance when God said something was “not good.” 

Prior to God’s creation of woman, we read this statement from God in Genesis 2:18:

“It is not good for the man to be alone.”

In the Christian world, we often emphasize the idea that if God has not given us something we desire, that item has probably been elevated to the status of an idol in our lives. We reason with ourselves that we should always be content; God gives us everything we are supposed to have. So if we feel a lack, we must be seeking our joy in God’s gifts instead of God’s presence.

It sounds solid, doesn’t it? The problem is that the narrative of Adam in Genesis doesn’t line up with this idea. Adam was in paradise. He was in a perfect, sinless world. He physically walked through the garden with God every day! Adam wasn’t alone; he had God!

Do We Need More Than God?

Yet it was God Himself who said this wasn’t good enough! Adam needed the company of another human, and that need was present before Adam had even recognized it himself. Yet God didn’t meet this need until after Adam felt it. In fact, God arranged the circumstances for Adam to realize this need on his own.

For Adam, the need for a companion specifically required a woman; humanity is incomplete without them. However, this principle goes far beyond the need for a spouse. 

The main reason Adam specifically needed Eve was because the world needed more people. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply; to fill the Earth with humanity. Humans were tasked with governing and stewarding the Earth and everything in it. We were to be the representatives of God in the world, and this could only be done by creating a community of humans.

We benefit from the presence of others. People can be great sources of love and encouragement, instructing and guiding us in the way we should go. Unfortunately, we all realize that people can also be a negative influence as well due to sin. 

Yet when it comes to resisting temptation in general, I can’t help but think of Hebrews 10:24. It says:

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

It is this motive from the people of God that makes community an asset when resisting temptation and standing through trials.

The Factors of Vulnerability

This is why it is significant that Jesus finds Himself alone in the wilderness. While God designed us primarily for community, we will find that following the path of God will often lead us into solitude as well. In this example of Jesus, we see two realities. His solitude increases His vulnerability, and sometimes, that is precisely God’s intent.

Satan waited for Jesus to be alone. Not only this, but he waited 40 days before approaching Him. I don’t know about you, but I would be feeling pretty lonely after not seeing anyone for 40 days. There is a reason why solitary confinement is considered such a harsh punishment.

Yet Jesus’ solitude was not the only factor working to make Him vulnerable. He was also fasting. As we read earlier, Matthew 4:2 says:

For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.

I’m going to throw in a little health disclaimer here: I strongly discourage all of you from ever trying to go 40 days without food!

It is technically possible for a human to survive that amount of time without food (even if you don’t have miraculous powers!), but it is extremely dangerous, and you could die trying. Forty days without food is considered to be the extreme limits of what is possible for a human to endure. 

Jesus pushed Himself to the point of almost dying from hunger. How many of us would fail a simple test of our character if dinner were served a couple hours late? We coined the term “hangry” for a reason! We humans don’t do well when we are hungry.

Yet this is the position Jesus willingly put Himself in. He followed the Spirit into the wilderness and allowed Himself to be secluded. He chose to fast, and it was only when Jesus reached this weakest moment that Satan pounced.

Why Couldn’t He Just Eat?

To be honest, I’d like explicit explanation as to why He fasted for 40 days. The text doesn’t tell us if He was instructed to do so. Perhaps it was implied by the fact that the Holy Spirit wanted Him in the wilderness – there was no food there. 

Yet we know that later in His ministry, Jesus used miracles to feed others who had come to listen to Him. The very fact that Satan told Jesus to make the rocks into bread implies that He had the ability to feed Himself in the wilderness.

Maybe the reason Jesus knew to fast was simply because He was following a path that pivotal servants of God before Him had taken. Moses was the person God had used to bring the Old Testament Law to His people, and Elijah was the main representation of Old Testament prophets. Both of these men also fasted for 40 days during their lifetimes. 

For these individuals, these fasts ended with miraculous encounters with God. These were also men who performed amazing miracles and brought about significant events in God’s redemptive plan through history.

As Jesus began this part of His journey to bring the New Covenant to the world, it’s possible that He recognized fasting as part of the process. Or maybe He knew that His testing and His suffering just wouldn’t be complete without this fasting. Perhaps He knew Satan wouldn’t pounce until He stretched Himself as far as He could go.

Without knowing the reason why Jesus needed to fast, I find it hard to understand why it was required for Him to say “no” to this first temptation.

Better Than Food

I think our best clue as to why it would have been sinful for Jesus to turn these rocks into bread is found in Jesus’ answer to the devil in Matthew 4:2-4. It says:

For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus essentially told Satan that although food is necessary for life, following God is essential as well. It would seem in this case that following God’s command was directly at odds with eating bread. This would imply that Jesus felt His call to go into the wilderness was also a call to fast.

Choosing to eat when you are hungry is not by itself sinful, but choosing to eat when God has told you to fast is! We may be a little fuzzy on the exact particulars here, but the overall message is clear: Jesus faced great temptation to satisfy His very real need to nourish His body with food. However, Jesus recognized that it was more satisfying to follow the path God laid out for Him despite the hunger. 

As we look at this temptation, we can easily see Jesus’ incredible commitment to God over His personal desire for comfort or health. Yet can we see the relevance of this particular trial to the objectives that Jesus was set to accomplish with His life and ministry?

Ultimately, Jesus was set to conquer Satan. The primary path to accomplishing this would require dying on a cross. Jesus would have to endure great physical pain without resorting to performing miracles to save Himself from it. Being obedient to the point of dying on a cross would require valuing a life led by God more than His actual life.

In this first temptation, we see a small version of this ultimate test. Jesus allowed Himself to starve almost to the point of death because following God was more important than eating.

Can We Do That?

When we look at the temptations of Jesus, I think we’d all be inclined to think, “I could never do that!” There is truth to that statement. We are all sinful people. Even as Christians, we do not fully possess the character of God. We will fail, and we will fall.

Even if we were to succeed in some of the particular tests that Jesus endured, our sin and failure in other areas of our lives would still bring us short of the sinless life required to accomplish the mission of Jesus. Jesus did what we cannot do! 

Yet in Hebrews 4:14-16, we learn that Jesus was tempted in the same ways we are tempted. It says:

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

We face the same kinds of temptations Jesus did. Yet He did not sin; obviously, we do. We might as well just give up now, right? There’s no way we can resist temptation like Jesus.

Yet 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.

This is one of those verses that has been horrendously misused in Christian circles! So many well-intentioned people have told struggling and hurting brothers and sisters in Christ that “God doesn’t give us more than we  handle” based on this verse.

Their intention has been to encourage others to persevere through hard things. Unfortunately, many hurting people have been defeated by the idea that they shouldn’t feel overwhelmed, inadequate, or crushed by the circumstances God has brought into their lives.

God Gives Us More Than We Can Handle

As someone who absolutely recognizes my own inability to handle the trials God has brought into my life, I understand this verse very differently. I hope I can share that understanding with you in a way that will encourage you in trials and stop you from using this verse to accidentally kick someone when they are down.

The Bible absolutely does not tell us that we won’t be given circumstances that are too hard for us. As a Christian following the Holy Spirit, you may be led out into the desert. You may not only experience great hunger like Jesus, but you might die of starvation. Other Christians have done so (some as a direct result of their belief in Jesus).

For these believers, experiencing a lack of food to the point of dying from starvation was a trial that was too great for them to bear. That is why they died; it literally overwhelmed their body to the point of death! They could not endure it.

Similarly, you might find yourself in circumstances that overwhelm you to the point of harm. You may endure panic attacks, PTSD, depression, physical challenges, or disabilities that far outweigh your ability to handle them. These things can wear you down, inhibit you from thriving, and stand in the way of feeling joy – and rightfully so!

These are experiences that are not part of the good, eternal, perfect ideal that God has planned for us in eternity. They are part of the temporary, fallen, cursed, sinful world that we now live in. As Christians waiting with hope for the future God has promised us, we need to be able to acknowledge how broken the world is now. If everything is so fine and dandy, what do we need God to rescue us from?

God does give us more than we can handle. What God doesn’t do is give us a temptation that is beyond our ability to withstand. So, what is the difference between these two things?

The Way of Escape

A temptation is a desire to sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that with every temptation we are given, we are also given a way to escape that temptation. So, God tells us that we do not have to sin. We will not be spared pain, struggle, or failure in this life, but we can follow God through those things.

So, what is this way of escape? We see it in Jesus’ response to the devil in His temptation.

Matthew 4:4 says:

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,

‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus wanted the bread; He was hungry. However, He believed that God was better and that God was good. Jesus’ desire for God outweighed His desire for food, and that is the way of escape. It is faith in God and His goodness that empowers us to want God more than any sinful thing we may also desire.

So, we may die because of our inability to withstand the circumstances we have been given in life. We may fail in our attempts to spare our friends and family from whatever thing we think we should be able to protect them from. We may find ourselves unable to get out of bed some mornings due to physical, mental, or emotional limitations, but we are given a way to say no to temptation: faith.

Nonsensical Peace

To quote another frequently-misused passage, Philippians 4:6-7 says:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but these verses don’t tell us we are going to skip off into the sunset thinking everything is hunky-dory! They don’t even tell us that we will receive the things we are praying for.

This passage doesn’t say, “pray for stuff, then God will give it to you and you’ll have God’s peace.” It says that we will be given God’s peace that makes no sense. Despite the logical conclusion we should have that the world is awful and our circumstances stink, the peace of God guards our hearts and minds to believe in God’s goodness. 

We believe He is making all things new. We believe that all will be well, and as a result, we can face the awfulness of the world knowing that it is not the final word. These verses do not call us to ignore our heartache and struggle, nor do they tell us to just smile through it. They tell us that no matter how bad things are, God is good, and we know it.

This is the peace the surpasses understanding. It is believing that God is good, that He is for you, that He will one day rescue you, and that God will make all things right. This is true even when everything you can see and feel crumbles.

This is the power and peace God gives to His people. It is a faith that defies human logic and gives us the ability to abstain from sin because we value the unseen things more than the things we can see.

We are all given the same way out of temptation: the calling to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus. We just need to understand where the Spirit is leading us and choose to follow.

Am I Equipped to be Tempted?

The same inclinations that cause us to minimize the sorrow of other Christians often cause us to avoid the circumstances that would lead us to be tempted as well.

We look at the trials of Jesus – or even the trials of people we may know – and find ourselves thinking that they must have some ability we don’t have. We could never do the things they are doing! “God doesn’t give us things we can’t handle,” we think, so we must not be made to do that hard thing. If it was God’s will, we’d have different desires or abilities. “I don’t have peace about doing that.”

It is true that the talents we have differ from each other and that God has a unique calling for each individual believer. Yet we must be careful to not dismiss the challenges others face when following Jesus or to excuse ourselves from pursuing the path God has put in front of us because we think we simply can’t do something.

If you feel a pull on your heart that God may be leading you to do something that you just don’t believe you can possibly do, I’d like you to consider one element of preparation for trials that we all frequently overlook: experiencing trials.

In Romans 5:2-4, we read:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

What increases our ability to endure trials? Enduring trials. It’s one of the most annoying answers in all of Scripture!

But the truth is, we may feel like we could never endure this thing or that thing not because we couldn’t possibly do it, but rather because we’ve never had to. We increase our ability to endure by being required to endure.

I guarantee that whatever experience you believe you could never handle, at least one person (likely way more people!) have made it through that experience despite believing they never could. We would be far more empathetic people if we would stop believing that of course God would never put someone like me in that position.

Nevertheless, one of the mercies of God in preparing us for the trials we must go through is to use those trials to further prepare us to endure them.

This is the pattern we see in the temptations of Jesus. Hebrews 5:8 says:

Even though Jesus was God’s Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered.

As Jesus learned obedience through these trials, they also increased His endurance for the harder trials to come. It was no accident that Jesus began His ministry with testing. It not only proved He was worthy; it also equipped Him for the tasks ahead.

Testing God

Moving on to the second trial listed in Matthew 4:5-7, we read:

Then the devil took Him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order His angels to protect You. And they will hold You up with their hands so You won’t even hurt Your foot on a stone.’”

Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

You guys, the devil is crafty! At the end of the first temptation, Jesus basically told Satan, “I care about following God more than food.” So Satan essentially said, “OK, you want to follow God. Here is some Scripture. See, it’s the biblical thing to do to throw yourself off this Temple! You believe that you are the Son of God. Prove it! Test God and show that it’s true!”

Friends, there is no faster way to appear to be holy and righteous than to throw around some Bible verses. However, we know from this passage – if not from our own life experiences – that throwing around a few verses doesn’t mean your aim is holy.

The devil himself used Scripture to tempt Jesus, so don’t believe everything someone attaches a Bible verse to! This is where it becomes vital to know the whole counsel of God. Jesus responded to Satan not by claiming this verse was out of context. Jesus didn’t say, “Well actually, in the original Hebrew…” He was simply able to point out that Satan’s conclusion was wrong by quoting more Scripture.

True, the Bible does say that thing, but that’s not all it says. We need to hold our conclusions about Scripture up to the entirety of the Bible. Jesus essentially said, “Yes, I believe God loves me and will protect me, but I don’t need to prove it. It’s wrong for me to doubt God’s goodness and try to make Him show me it’s true.” The best way to combat misused Scripture is by using Scripture well.

As we look at this second temptation of Jesus, can we see other ways that this trial is helping to prepare Jesus to endure the suffering to come?

One of the trials of Jesus’ ministry was engaging with the religious elite of His day. These Pharisees and Sadducees were well-trained in Scripture, yet they frequently twisted it to appear holy while tearing others down. This temptation gives Jesus a taste of the experience that He will repeat frequently in the years to come.

Also, the underlying temptation to test God’s goodness and love would likely be present for Jesus each time things got hard. This would be especially true toward the end when Jesus called out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” 

Don’t we all long to see the evidence of God’s love for us? Don’t we want to test and see that it’s true? We may not attempt to throw ourselves off a building (which is good since we don’t have the promise of angels keeping us from dashing our feet!). Yet if we are honest with ourselves, when the heartache comes, there is a piece of us that wonders if God doesn’t care. Don’t we think this? I don’t know; maybe it’s just me…

The Crown without the Cross

This leads us to the final temptation in this passage. Matthew 4:8-11 says:

Next the devil took Him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.“I will give it all to You,” he said, “if You will kneel down and worship me.”

“Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.’”

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

For this last temptation in the wilderness, the devil tries a different tactic. In the first temptation, Jesus declared that God was worth more than His physical desires. In the second temptation, Jesus asserted that He believed in God’s goodness and love for Him without having to test that love. Now in this third temptation, Satan presented the idea that the goodness Jesus expected to receive from God could be attained outside of God’s plan at a much lower cost.

The devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. He showed Him all the power and the glory that empires can offer, and Satan told Jesus He could have all of it for the simple price of bowing down.

We tend to think of this temptation as a minimal one. Why would Jesus bow down to Satan when He knew that God was more powerful? Jesus knew that God was already going to make Him the “King of Kings.”

What possible advantage could it be for Jesus to make a deal with Satan to obtain power that would already be given to Him by following God? 

In the case of Jesus, the desire to rule over the nations was a desire to fulfill the role that was His to fill. The Bible has numerous verses that reference Jesus being placed on the throne at the right hand of God to rule over all things. So, the desire to have this power was not in itself sinful for Jesus. The temptation to sin here was solely regarding the path Jesus would take to receive that power.

We read in Philippians 2:5-11:

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. 

When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The elevation of Jesus to the place of highest honor was a direct result of His dying on the cross. It took pain, heartache, obedience, humility, and death to accomplish this; it was not an easy path! Who wouldn’t want to avoid this pain?

This is the temptation Satan offered: all the power without the pain. The crown without the cross. Satan essentially told Jesus, “Do you want what God can give you? You can have it all without the struggle.”

Satan does this to us as well. We have needs and wants that align with the plans and purposes God has for us. To some degree, we long to do the things we were made to do. 

Psalm 37:4-7 says:

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.

The crown has no worth without the cross. The desires of our hearts are corrupted when we do not follow the paths of God to achieve them. The way to attain the true purposes and positions God has planned for us is to patiently endure the trials of our lives while following God, not the passions of this world.

Jesus knew this. He trusted God and found God to be worth more than His physical desires. Jesus did not require God to jump through His hoops to prove His goodness, and He believed that God’s path and plans were the only way to truly fulfill His deepest desires and purposes.

Knowledge of God’s word and faith in God’s character fueled Jesus’ ability to resist temptation, and it can do the same for us.

Once again, this final temptation helped prepare Jesus for the trials to come as well. In order to endure the cross, Jesus had to determine that the cross was necessary. He later prayed to God that if there was any way to accomplish His purposes without having to endure the cross, let it be so. Jesus didn’t want to die, yet this temptation in the wilderness was the first time Jesus had to choose the way of death. He was unwilling to take the easy way out; He recognized the importance of doing it right.

After Jesus chose God over everything else, the devil finally left Him alone and angels ministered to Him. Yet we read something interesting in Luke’s account of Satan’s retreat. Luke 4:13 says:

When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left Him until the next opportunity came.

Jesus’ resistance to Satan and His determination to love and follow God led to a time of some peace. Satan gave up and left Him alone. The angels took care of Him, but this was not a permanent defeat of Satan. The devil did not leave Him alone forever. He retreated due to the steadfastness of Jesus’ faith, but he waited knowing there would be more opportunities.

The way out of every temptation is to have faith in God, but showing faith is not a one-time experience. Testing and temptation is a recurring experience in life. Sometimes those temptations will be short-lived, and other times they may last a lifetime. As long as we are alive and waiting for Jesus’ return, we must be ready for Satan’s schemes.

Summary

Though God has designed us to flourish in community with met needs and fulfilling work, living in a broken world means that we will often find ourselves in positions of lack and weakness. 

These situations are not a sign that we have stepped out of the plans of God. In fact, the Holy Spirit frequently leads God’s people to these places of testing and temptation. It is precisely in these weaknesses that we can find the strength to endure and be equipped for the work that God has for us to do, whether in this life or in eternity.

As we look at the temptations of Jesus, we can take great heart that He suffered in the same ways we do. Jesus shows us how to endure. He shows us how to trust. He shows us the way of escaping temptation.

The life of Jesus is proof that the will of God leads us through suffering and that the power of God is more than sufficient to bring us through it! We are not wrong for feeling hurt and lack in this world, but we are also not forgotten in that hurt.

I will leave you today by reading 1 Peter 5:8-11. It says:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.

In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. All power to Him forever! Amen.

Thank you for reading.