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THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE LORD |
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THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE LORD |
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COMPARISON WITH ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS OF SINAI
Matthew 2:15 says of the Lord "Out of Egypt have I called My Son," referring to the flight to Egypt and subsequent return from Egypt of the Lord and His family. This is a reference to Hosea 11:1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." It can be seen that Hosea is referring to the nation of Israel from the next two verses.
"The more I called them the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them."
So, there is some comparison here between the Lord and Israel, and this will be brought out further as we examine the Scriptures quoted in the account of His temptation in the wilderness.
This comparison with Israel continues in the Lord's baptism. We read in 1 Corinthians 10:2 that "the fathers... were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea", that is, they were baptised into the Law. Immediately prior to His 40 days in the wilderness (compare the baptism of Israel in the Red Sea immediately prior to their 40 years in the wilderness) the Lord was baptised in Jordan by John and the Spirit alighted on Him (descending as a dove, Matthew 3:16) and remained on him (John 1:32 and 33) not being given to Him by measure John 3:34). The Lord was here (symbolically at least) baptised into the Holy Spirit as He was later to baptise others (Matthew 3:11), and was immediately led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (of the devil). Similarly God led Israel 40 years in the wilderness "to know what was in their heart, whether they would keep His commandments or not." (Deuteronomy 8:2). Possibly their trials were provided by Satan, as were the Lord's, but the purpose was God's. Note this purpose of Matthew 4:1 "to be tempted".
When we consider the temptations themselves we see that they are external to the Lord, being provided by the Devil (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:2), the Slanderer or Accuser, and Satan (Mk. 1: 13), the Adversary. With this contrast James 1:13-14.
"God cannot be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire," (RSV)
which refers to internal temptations caused by the lusts of our fallen nature, in which our Lord had no part. Note also that the temptations itemised in Matthew and Luke (Mark gives no details) occurred after the 40 days.
"He fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter came..." (Matthew 4:2-3, RSV).
"40 days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days and when they were ended, He was hungry. The devil said to Him..." (Luke 4:2-3, RSV).
Luke here implies that the temptations continued throughout the 40 day period as well. Following Luke's account, the temptations proceed as follows:-
(i) Hunger (Luke 4:3-4)
"He ate nothing in those days and when they were ended, He was hungry. The devil said to Him, 'if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread'. And Jesus answered him 'it is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone........"
In the parallel account in Matthew, this is also the first temptation.
"He fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterwards He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, 'if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread'. But He answered, 'It is written "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God........" (RSV)
The Lord's reference is to Deuteronomy 8:3, which shows the purpose of Israel's 40 years in the wilderness.
"He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna... that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. "
The repeated failures under the judges and after showed that Israel had not properly learnt their lesson, as we also see in John 6:26 "you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."
The Lord triumphed where Israel according to the flesh failed and the Scripture He quotes is the exact one to reveal the parallel and contrast. As He said elsewhere "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work" (John 4:34). That will was revealed in His Father's Word, in the Psalms, the Law and the Prophets which He came to fulfil, not to destroy, (Matthew 5:17), for they all spoke of Him (Luke 24:25-27).
(ii) The kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5-8)
"And the devil took Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to Him, 'to you will I give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours. And Jesus answered him 'It is written, "you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." (RSV)
In the parallel Matthew account (Matthew 4:8-10) this is the last temptation (see Appendix 116 of The Companion Bible for a discussion of the alleged discrepancies), but is the same wording discounting minor variations.
Note that Satan was not lying. He is the God of this world (or age) (2 Corinthians 4:4), the prince of this world John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), the kingdoms of this earth have not (or at any rate had not) yet become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15), even though God rules over all (see Daniel 4:32 "the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.") and places bounds on Satan's activities (Daniel 4:32; Job 1: 12). What Satan seeks is not the kingdom as such, but the worship due to the King. However, the Lord Jesus does not wish to take over as Head of Satan's world system, which He will rather break in pieces (Daniel 2:44) when He sets up His own kingdom. The Lord's response is to quote Deuteronomy 6:13:-
"You shall fear the lord your God; you shall serve Him, and swear by His Name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people who are round about you."
It is notorious that Israel failed to keep this injunction. Again the Lord shows Himself to be the perfect anti-type of Israel.
(iii) The pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9-12)
'And he (Satan) took Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for it is written "He will give His angels charge of you, to guard you" and, "On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." ' And Jesus answered him, 'It is said "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." '
In Matthew, where this is the second temptation, the words are very similar except the Lord's reply is "it is written" rather than "it is said" and Satan omits "to guard you."
The devil is quoting Psalm 91:11-12 here, and this is very clever indeed, as this Psalm fits nicely into the context, fitting the experience of the righteous man (for instance Joshua, the Old Testament 'Jesus'), in the great and terrible wilderness (Deuteronomy 1: 19; 8:15) (and note that the Lord Jesus was "with the wild beasts" (Mark 1: 13)). How can this be answered, since a passage of Scripture has been correctly quoted in context ?
The fault would seem to be that the application is incorrect - it is applied to the wrong circumstance. Psalm 91 promises protection (to those to whom it applies) against any external malevolent agencies, but not against self-induced dangers. Another similar instance is Mark 16:18 "They (ie. those that believe) will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them."
Here is a promise of protection against natural hazards and Paul experienced this protection in Malta (Acts 28:1-6) where he survived the viper's bite. However, had Paul presumptuously dared a viper to kill him, the outcome could have been different.
The Lord's reply is a quotation of Deuteronomy 6:16 "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested Him at Massah." Again, this fits in to the Israelite wilderness picture. Massah was so called (it means 'testing') because there Israel put the Lord to the test by asking for water. There was nothing wrong with this as such, but they did it in a contentious and rebellious spirit of unbelief.
"And he (Moses) called the name of the place Massah and Meribah (contention), because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the proof by saying 'Is the lord among us or not?'" (Exodus 17:7, RSV).
The Lord sees through Satan's plan. He will not put His Father to the test - "is He with Me or not?" - by challenging Him to rescue Him from attempted suicide. He already knows His Father is with Him, for He had said, after His baptism, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17 etc.).
In passing we suggest that the popular interpretation of "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" as "you (Satan) shall not tempt the Lord your God (Christ)" is an over-enthusiastic attempt to find another proof text for the Deity of Christ. Such a reply does not fit the implied scripture background, and could equally well have been given to the first or second temptation. It sounds a note more of exasperation than mastery. There are other texts from which to prove the Deity of Christ, as well as from the supreme place given to the Lord Jesus throughout Scripture, which would be idolatrous were He not 'equal with God" (Philippians 2:6). We do the Lord a disservice by attempting to demonstrate correct doctrines from the wrong texts.
COMPARISON WITH LOVE FOR THE WORLD
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever." (1 John 2:15-17, RSV)
We should also note the previous half verse:-
"I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (1 John 2:14b)
How well this fits the Lord Jesus as the Archetype of the young man to whom John is writing, strong in the Spirit, demonstrating by His use of the Scripture that the word of God abode in Him and who overcame the evil one and could say "Begone Satan." (Matthew 4:10).
The verses 15-17 tie in sequentially with Luke's account of the temptations.
"Now is the judgement of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. And He said this to show by what death He was to die." (John 12:31-33).
"The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as my Father has commanded me, so the world may know that I love the Father." (John 14:30-31).
"If I go, I will send Him (the counsellor) to you. And when He comes He will convince the world of... judgement... because the ruler of this world is judged." (John 16:7-1 1).
COMPARISON WITH ADAM AND EVE
The analogy of this passage (Genesis 3:1-7) is of use because, apart from the fall of Satan himself, of which Scripture tells us little, it is the only other example we have of the exposure of an un-fallen being to moral decision. One should pause before describing Satan's activity here (in Genesis 3) as a temptation for, as far as I know, Scripture only describes the incident as a 'beguilement' or 'deception' with respect to Eve which resulted in a transgression from both Adam and Eve. For, as Paul said to the Corinthians,
"I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (by accepting another Jesus, Spirit or Gospel)." (2 Corinthians 11:3)
and to Timothy
"Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (1 Timothy 2:14).
Concerning the transgression we have the Authorised Version of Job 31:33
"if I covered my transgressions as Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosom" (note that modern versions translate KeAdam by "as men do" - e.g. RSV, Moffatt, NIV)
and Romans 5:14
"Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the One who was to come."
This passage in Romans also refers to Adam's transgression as a trespass (paraptoma) "But the free gift is not like the trespass" (Romans 5:15) as sin (hamartano) "And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin" (Romans 5:16), and as disobedience (parakoe) "for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).
These quotations from Romans 5 show that Adam was a type of Christ and contrast Adam's disobedience with Christ's obedience. Now the "act of obedience" referred to is pre-eminently the Lord Jesus' "obedience unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8), yet He "learned obedience by the things that He suffered " (Hebrews 5:8) and the temptation in the wilderness is the first (public) step in this process.
It is now time to quote Genesis 3:1-7 in full:-
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wise creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God say, "You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?" ' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." ' But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Now there are many aspects of this passage that do not bear comparison with the Lord Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. However, there are certain obvious parallels. Firstly, both Eve (and Adam) and the Lord Jesus were innocent, that is, untainted by inherited sin. 'God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.' (Genesis 1:31). 'Good' is an adjective which, after the fall of Adam, may only properly be ascribed to God (Matthew 19:17), but which before the fall applied to Adam and the whole creation. The Lord Jesus was born of a virgin through the agency of the Holy Spirit that he should not inherit Adam's sin.
Secondly, the two trials are external ones. They are not internal psychological battles involving the struggle with an innate predisposition to sin. Instead they are attempts by an external agency (Satan) to lead the subject out of the will of God, to induce to disobedience. Adam and Eve had been given an express command to obey. The Lord Jesus came into the world pre-eminently to do His Father's will, as it is written in Hebrews 10:5-9
"When Christ came into the world He said, 'Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me...... Then I said, 'Lo, I have come to do Thy will, O God.'
What about the details? Eve saw that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was "good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise." This relates to 1 John 2:16 "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" in a threefold correspondence and thereby to the Lord's experiences in the wilderness, as we noted above. Note also Satan's claim that, upon eating the fruit, Adam and Eve would be "like God, knowing good and evil," - the prize put before Eve is that of independent knowledge. Until then, Adam and Eve had been dependent upon God as their Teacher. Contrast the Lord Jesus, the last Adam, Who throughout His earthly life submitted Himself to the Father, speaking not of Himself (John 12:49) and doing only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19), saying what the Father taught Him (John 8:28) and commanded Him (John 12:49).
What is left for us to consider is the enigma "what leads an innocent being, with no inherited predisposition to sin, actually to commit sin?" We have to beware of making analogies with our own, fallen, experience. For instance, with us, the desire is already sin (cf. Matthew 5:28 "every one that looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.") Such 'evil concupiscence' had no place in the Lord Jesus (or even in Adam before the fall), but what of the desire of Eve for the fruit before she ate it? What she desired was, in itself, good and would possibly have been granted her in due time as she and Adam matured. Her sin was one of disobedience rather than evil desire. Thoughts such as these touch on the reality of the temptations undergone by the Lord Jesus. Were they easy for Him to overcome or did they involve Him in real struggle? We are prone to stress His Deity to the exclusion of His humanity. The temptations can seem almost like play acting. Yet the experience of Adam and Eve, and that of Satan himself who was "blameless in his ways from the day he was created, till iniquity was found in him" (Ezekiel 28:15), should cause us to think again.
Please address any comments on these documents to theotodman@lineone.net.
© Theo Todman August 2000.
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