You may wonder what is this 40/40? Bible had many 40’s incidents which are major milestones of transformation in the spiritual journey
For 40 Yrs. the Israelites wandered in the wilderness,
Noah’s Flood – The flood during Noah’s time lasted for 40 days.
Jesus was tempted for - 40 days and 40 nights
In this blog we have a lot to learn from our Lord’s temptation and his experiences, we have many things to learn from Jesus’s experience of managing temptation in our life.
We all would know this story, just to refresh our memories lets read this together
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Matthew 4:1-11
To understand this temptation better if you read the previous chapter Matt 3:13-17, Let’s compare his prior state (Matt 3 vs Matt 4)
He was anointed in from the Voice in Heaven in “This is my Son, Whom I Love “ - Matt 3:17; now attacked by Satan
Then the water of baptism; now the fire of temptation.
We read Matt 4:1 - “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil”, The Holy Spirit cannot tempt, but the Holy Spirit may lead us to a place where we will be tempted. This is not to prove something to God (who knows all things), but to prove something to us and to the spiritual beings watching us.
Jesus need not to be tempted to help him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character as written in Hebrews
'Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.' Hebrews 2:18
'For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 'Hebrews 4:15
If you read Matt 4:1-11, Jesus was tempted three times by Devil, each encounter has many things for us to learn to grow spiritually
First Temptation - An appeal to the lust of the flesh
After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Matthew 4:2-3
Notice that Matthew writes “the tempter came to him”. In our lives, it is not a question of if the tempter will come, but when he will come. It’s not a one-time event, it can happen any time for us, we will face temptation until we go to glory.
We should consider the circumstances that preceded the temptation of Jesus:
He was in an especially devout frame of mind before his temptation.
He was engaged in an act of public obedience to his Father’s will before His temptation.
He was in an exceedingly humble frame of mind before his temptation.
He was blessed by a heavenly assurance of his Sonship before his temptation.
He was filled with the Holy Spirit before his temptation.
He was completely separated from the world before his temptation.
“If you are the Son of God” - The question asked by Satan is more literally “Since you are a son of God ”to Jesus, watch out to be asked by Satan “Since you are a child of God”
“tell these stones to become bread.” - Satan suggested that Jesus use His miraculous powers to provide food for Himself. Yet Jesus would not command that these stones become bread, especially at the instigation of Satan.
Jesus fought the temptation with the word of God
'Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 'Matthew 4:4
By relying on the power and truth of God’s Word “It is written”, Jesus was willing to fight this battle as a man; He could have easily rebuked Satan into another galaxy but resisted him in a way that we can imitate and identify with.
Jesus used Scripture to battle Satan’s temptation, not some elaborate spiritual power inaccessible to us. Jesus fought this battle as fully man, and He drew on no “special resources” unavailable to us
Second Temptation - An appeal to the pride of life
'Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” ' Matthew 4:5-6
In the second temptation Devil uses “For it is written” the same word as what Jesus told him in 1st temptation response, we can trust that the devil has memorized the Bible himself, and is an expert at quoting it out of its context to confuse and defeat those he tempts.
Unless we are familiar with the word and be rooted it’s hard to fight the temptation. Satan is master of deception he quotes bible verse, unless we know what is written we can be outwitted in his eyes to succumb to him.
Satan invokes pride to tempt Jesus, to say you are superior to command the angels concerning you. “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” But our lord use the word of God to fight back
Jesus fought 2nd temptation back as “It is also written
'Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 'Matthew 4:7
It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Jesus replied with Scripture but applied correctly. He used the word of God to fight the temptation
Third Temptation - An appeal to the lust of the eyes
'Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 'Matthew 4:8-9
The third time he wanted to show Jesus the Lust of eyes, so he showed Jesus “devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor”
Devil is a master of deception, he knows Jesus is the author / creator of the world, but still he pretends that he has the control over the world and woos Jesus by showing the splendour of the world.
All of this is to make him be worshiped and recognized. He says “if you will bow down and worship me”
But Jesus commanded to flee away from him – “Away from me, Satan!”
'Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. ' Matthew 4:10-11
The immediate moment we read “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”
In the book of James, Paul writes the same power that’s given to us as well “'Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ' James 4:7
Temptation - Learnings we can apply on in our lives
Temptation comes more to Believers than to Non-Believers of Christ, the reason he wants us to get off worshiping Christ and follow Satan.
Sometimes the spirit of God may lead us to a place where we will be tempted, it is to test if our true sovereignty is there in Christ or are we living a weak life outside Christ
Temptations comes only with lies and deception, some may even look true to even believe that it’s a lie, as he quotes scriptures to make us believe that it’s from Jesus and what we do is spiritually correct.
The aim of temptation is to make us fall to sin, but Jesus is against sin, this is the spiritual battle that Satan uses us with Jesus.
Only the word of God - “Bible” can counter this temptation. If you know scripture ,know it deeper than what you know, don’t stop at what you know. Satan knows deeper than you think.
Satan tempts repeatedly - Mostly tempted 3 times with different methods to make you succumb to this trick. Keep watch of how this told 1st time vs 2nd time vs 3rd time from Jesus’s temptations.
Man’s wisdom is no match to the lies and deception, we need to counter that with the spirit of God. Only with the Holy spirit these deceptions can be challenged and fought back.
Jesus showed the only effective way to counter deception: God’s truth, not man’s wisdom. First, we must see temptation for what it is – a lie. Then, we must combat temptation with the Word of God. Then, we must always build ourselves up in the truth, and have it in our heart.
We read “Then the devil left Him” means that Jesus won. He won because he recognized Satan’s mode of attack lies and deception. Primarily, Satan is a deceiver, and for those who live in light of the cross, deception is his only tool, because demonic powers were disarmed at the cross of their “real” weapons and power ‘And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. ' Colossians 2:15. But deception is extremely effective at leading us into sin, and causing us to live lives of fear and unbelief.
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