Matthew 4:1-17
The first part of the Bible tells of a wicked spirit, who spoke by a serpent to Eve, and caused her by his deceitful and false words to doubt God’s words, and His goodness. She obeyed the wicked one, and disobeyed God’s words (Gen. 3:1-6).
That same wicked one, called Satan, was so bold that he tried to tempt Jesus to obey him. It was in the wild lonely land near the Jordan River; there was no food in that rocky place, and Jesus had not eaten for a long time, and was hungry.
Satan wanted Jesus to command the stones to be made bread. But Jesus had not come to earth to use His power for Himself, but for others, and He did not obey Satan. His answer was with words from the Scriptures that God had told Moses to write:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word....of God.” Deut. 8:3.
Then Satan showed that he knew scripture, and quoted from a psalm, wanting Jesus to cast Himself down from a high place of the Temple, that angels should come to keep Him from harm (Psa. 91:11,12).
Jesus did not obey Satan, but again told him words from the Scripture:
“Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 6:16.
A third time Satan tried to tempt Jesus, saying he would give Hint the rule and glory of all nations, if Jesus would worship him. It is God who over rules the nations, so they were not Satan’s to give (Dan. 4:17).
Jesus then commanded Satan to go away, telling him more words of Scripture:
“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve”. Deuteronomy 6:13.
Jesus was more directly tempted by Satan than others ever have been, yet He did not obey him, but perfectly obeyed God’s words. That evil one is still an enemy to those who love the Lord; he is not seen, and has not a body, but is able to put doubts in our minds to tempt us to sin. Yet he cannot succeed if we trust God, and obey His words. Faith, or trust, is like a shield against him (Eph. 6:16).
After this, Jesus went to Nazareth, then to other towns farther north. That land had once belonged to the tribes of Israel, but when Jesus went there, many of the people were of other nations, called Gentiles. It was told long before to Isaiah that those people should see The Great Light, which meant they should see Jesus, the Son of God Jesus went to them, and many believed on Him there (Isa. 9:1; Matt. 4:14-16).
ML 01/31/1943