God sent His son into the world to redeem mankind.  Jesus was born to His mother Mary and grew up as a child in a Jewish household.  He was both human and divine, both man and God. He had the power of God as demonstrated by His ability to heal the sick, raise the dead, change water into wine, forgive sins, walk on water, and cause food to multiply to feed thousands of people.  No one could do those things without having the power of God. But He also was a man who felt hunger and thirst and pain and sorrow; He needed sleep to rest and regain His strength for the next day.  You and I are humans, and we understand our own physical needs and physical problems. Jesus felt these needs also. It is wonderful that Jesus understands us since He was a human just like we are.

Jesus was tempted as you and I are tempted. That means to me that in addition to His spiritual nature in which he wanted to please the Father, He also had within Him a fleshly nature that wanted to do what pleased Himself. He could have yielded to whatever tempted Him and He could have sinned.  But He did not sin.  Hebrews 4:15 “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.”  Jesus is now our High Priest before God.  Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses and what it means to be tempted.  He was in all points tempted as we are.  But He didn’t yield to His temptations.  He can understand what we are going through and therefore He is our advocate to God the Father. John wrote in 1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Let us look at how Jesus was tempted and yet did not sin so that we can learn from Him.  Jesus had just been baptized by John in the river Jordan.  The Spirit of God descended like a dove and alighted upon Him.  There was a voice from heaven which said “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  But then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  I am confident that this was not the only time that Jesus was tempted, but the Bible describes this significant time of temptation. 

Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights.  He likely spent much of this time in prayer with the Father asking for guidance and strength on the ministry that lay before Him.  But after He had fasted for so long a time, He was afterwards hungry.  Perhaps He was more vulnerable to temptation after denying Himself for such a long time, just as we can be more vulnerable at times in our life when we are weakened.  Matthew 4:3 “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’” This is like a challenge.  “Jesus, are you really who you say you are? Are you really the Son of God? Then prove it to me. If you are the Son of God, you have the power to change stones into bread so that you can satisfy your hunger.” Jesus might have been tempted to prove that He was the Son of God.  He might have been tempted to distrust God’s providence and support and make use of His own power to supply His needs and prove to the devil who He really was. This would have led Jesus to begin doing what the devil wanted Him to do. Matthew 4:4 “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 quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 in response to the temptation and taught us that supplying our physical needs should not be as important to us as is the guidance from God.  He did not need to prove Himself to the devil.

Matthew 4:5-6 “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.’’” The devil quoted Psalm 91:11-12. This challenge seems to be “Jesus, are you really who you say you are? Then prove it to me. If you are God’s son, you should be able to put yourself in danger so that God will come and rescue you.” Jesus might have been tempted to prove who He was to the devil.  This would have led Jesus to begin doing what the devil wanted Him to do. Matthew 4:7 “Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’’” Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:16. It is wrong to deliberately put ourselves in harm’s way with the intent of questioning God and requiring Him to prove Himself to us.

Matt 4:8-9 “Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’” The devil no longer was challenging Jesus to prove that He was the Son of God.  The devil is getting to what he really wanted.  He wanted Jesus to betray God the Father and worship him instead.  He promised to give Jesus the power and glory of all of the kingdoms of the world.  All Jesus had to do was to betray the Father and worship the devil. Matthew 4:10 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’’” Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13. The devil has great power, and Jesus might have been tempted to worship the devil so that He would receive the power and glory of the world.  But instead, He quoted the scripture that teaches us to only worship and serve God.

There are perhaps many things that we can learn from the temptation of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 4.  Here are a few of the things we can learn from it. When we are weakened by our trials, we are perhaps more vulnerable to temptation.  That is when we should be especially careful to resist temptation.  We should never put God to the test but instead trust in Him. No matter what we are promised by the devil, the only response on our part is to worship and serve God. As Jesus quoted scripture in response to the devil’s temptations, we need to have the word of God in our minds to help us overcome temptation. Praise God that we have a Savior who understands us and can help us overcome temptation.