Day 5: Jesus' temptation by Satan in the wilderness

chronological assignment for Day 278 (October 5): Matthew 4, Luke 4-5, John 1:19-51

For more information about this study, see my introduction, which also lists daily reading assignments by subject.

I follow two Bible reading plans yearly, one chronological and one with a daily Old Testament and New Testament reading. I publish those daily readings and prayer here. At the start of 2023, I started summarizing the books of the Bible, and those summaries can be found here.

The chronological reading plan simplifies, by necessity, daily reading assignments by having, usually, whole chapters read each day. For the Gospel accounts, however, this usually results in different accounts of the same story being read on different days. One of my goals in this more in-depth chronological study, inspired by the weekly women’s Bible study that I teach, is to look at each account of the same story simultaneously, in order to glean what the Lord is trying to teach us through each. Therefore, the daily scripture readings in this study are increasingly broken up into verse, rather than chapter, segments, explaining our departure from the assigned chronological reading plan, which intensifies as we go along. We covered Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness on Days 277 and 278 of the chronological reading plan.

MATTHEW 4:1-11; MARK 1:12-13; LUKE 4:1-13 : Jesus’ temptation by Satan in the wilderness  

John is the only Gospel writer not to cover the temptation of Jesus by Satan, which occurred right after Jesus was baptized.

Mark’s description is, as usual, the most concise:

Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Mark 1:12-13

Mark’s method seems to be to include the important events with an economy of words.

Matthew’s account is much more detailed:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand 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 WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; 
and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’” Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL 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 glory; and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’” Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Matthew 4:1-11

Luke’s account is similar to Matthew’s:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”

And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand 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 COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’ and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 4:1-13

The major thing that seems to be different between Matthew and Luke’s accounts are the order of the temptations and therefore the order of Jesus’ Scriptural responses to them. Remember, Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew, who was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life and likely heard the story from Jesus Himself. Luke, the physician, was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ life but interviewed people who were, so he retells not a firsthand but a secondhand account. The content is largely the same. Ordering stories differently is common when people retell them. 

Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” The temptation of Jesus by Satan is very important not only in giving evidence of Jesus’ sinless life, enabling Him to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins, but in demonstrating that Jesus was tempted in all ways like we are. He can sympathize with us. This episode also gives us insight into how Satan might deal with us and also how we might deal with him.

My commentary is going to be based on Matthew’s ordering of events. Note this remarkable statement, “AFTER He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He THEN became hungry” [emphasis mine]. He is God, after all. When He does finally find Himself hungry, “the tempter came.” Satan knows to come to us when we’re weak, when we are in some condition for which we might seek an easy out. The easy out he offers Jesus is, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” He goes after Jesus on two counts here. First: pride. “If you are….” Satan acts like he doubts who Jesus is, tempting Jesus to prove Himself. Second, since he actually does know who Jesus is, he just reminds Him of His power and the lack of necessity that He be hungry. It is like he is taunting, “You’ve got power, do something about it!” Jesus responds, "It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’” His response has a two-fold purpose for us. First, He models answering Satan with Scripture. Second, He reminds us the importance of dwelling on "EVERY word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” [emphasis mine again]. Our knowing Scripture and therefore the will of God helps us know how to act in tempting circumstances.

But, be aware that Satan also knows Scripture and will attempt to use it against us. “Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand 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 WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU”; and “ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.”’” But Jesus knows the danger of applying Scripture inappropriately. He responds, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’” Notice he is still attempting to get at Jesus through his pride: “If You are [the Son of God]….” He is mocking Him and tempting Him to prove His power. What restraint and humility Jesus demonstrated here, and throughout His entire life, by not abusing power that He could have displayed. His answer to Satan teaches us, too, that we are not to use the promises of Scripture to test God.

Finally, recognizing Jesus has power He is not benefiting from, Satan shows him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” saying, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Notice Jesus does not call Satan’s bluff and say he doesn’t have the power to offer these things. No, as much is this is mysterious to us, God has actually given him power on the earth temporarily, until the end of days [this is symbolically explained in Revelation 12]. This interaction demonstrates the classic interaction we hear in so many devil stories in our culture (think of the song “The Devil went down to Georgia,” for example) where people are tempted to sell their soul to the devil in exchange for some temporary benefit. He entices us with things he knows we want, but the price can have eternal consequences. Jesus responds, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’” Yes, Satan has power, but we have the power to tell him to go away. And when he tempts us with any idol or any other thing, we must remember where our allegiance lies and put nothing before our relationship with the Lord.

“Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.” Jesus passed the test. And He demonstrated His power, and the power we have in Him, to make Satan go away.

Jesus’ interaction with Satan has much to teach us. The first lesson is that he exists. This is not controversial. As hard as this is for us to understand, he does have power on this earth, given to him by God, but only until the end of days. He tempts us when we’re weak, when he can fulfill a need or want, or when we want to get rid of a bad feeling. He uses our pride against us. He does know Scripture and he will attempt to make us distort it or apply it wrongly. He is our sworn enemy. He desires to destroy us. Any deal with Satan will temporarily or eternally separate us from God.

“Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8b).

We resist him by recognizing his ways and knowing Scripture. Jesus gave us three helpful verses in this interaction: “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD” (Deuteronomy 8:3), “YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST” (Deuteronomy 6:16), and “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY” (Deuteronomy 6:13). And just as Jesus had power against him, we have power against him. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7b).

Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation ends with, “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” Satan is not done vexing Jesus. He is not done vexing us either, but greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).