Luke 4:1-13
After the Holy Spirit had come upon the Lord Jesus, it is told that Satan spoke to tempt Jesus to obey him. It was in the lonely land near the Jordan river, and Jesus had eaten no food there, and was hungry. Satan said to Him, “If thou be the Son of God, command this stone to be made bread.”
God had spoken from Heaven to say Jesus was His beloved Son, but Satan tried to doubt those words. Yet Jesus did not do a miracle to prove Who He was, or for food; this was His answer: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Deuteronomy 8:3.
Those words were from the Old Testament, and it was from those scriptures He answered each time.
Satan could not deny Jesus’ answer, and he tried another way to persuade Jesus to obey him; he said all the nations of the world were his, and he would give their glory and role to Jesus, if He would worship him.
That also was doubting that Jesus was the Son of God, Who should be worshiped; and the nations were not Satan’s to promise. Jesus answered him again with words of God,
“It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (vs. 8; Deut. 6:13).
Satan tried once more to cause Jesus to obey him, and said that “if” Jesus were the Son of God, He should throw Himself down from a high point of the Temple, because it was written that God would give His angels charge over Him, to keep Him, lest He dash His foot against a stone.
Those words were from Psalms 91, so Satan knew scripture, but used it in an evil way; for the words were not given that the Holy One should do as Satan wanted. The answer of Jesus was, as before, from God’s written words to men:
“It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Deuteronomy 6:16.
Satan then went away, he found he could not tempt Jesus to do his way; he showed his awful pride and hatred that he could try to tempt the One he knew to be the Son of God to obey him; his promises were false; he knew the written words of God, and used them for evil to try to bring harm to Jesus. Yet his fear was shown, for he went away.
In all the tempting, Jesus did no miracle, but showed His trust in God as a humble, perfect man; He showed that God was the authority over all, and proved the power of His words in the scriptures.
Some persons try to believe there is no Satan, yet he is written of in many parts of the Bible as a most wicked being, or spirit, not seen by men, but able to suggest to the mind what is evil and false, especially to have them doubt that God’s words are true.
Yet God’s words are “the weapon,” or power, the Christian has to resist Satan’s doubts and evil, as the Lord Jesus resisted him, and it is told he will be fully conquered by the Lord (Rom. 16:20; 1 John 3:8; Rev. 20:10).
ML 11/19/1944