Deserts are places of solitude. Very few people traverse these arid, rocky, and barren places. But the desert wilderness of the lower Jordan valley is where the Son of God faces off against Satan. Jesus being “full of the Holy Spirit” was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days” and “tempted by the devil.” Moreover, the Lord was fasting, so He “ate nothing” and became “hungry” (Lk. 4:1-2).[1] Exposed, hungry and alone in the desert, Jesus outwardly appears to be in a weakened and venerable state. So, the Devil moves in like a predator preparing to pounce upon the prey.
Jesus’ true self is unveiled in this skirmish. Experience shows that “most lives have a moment of truth, a crossroads where one’s mettle is tested and one’s character emerges. In such moments the ethical options stand out starkly, and the choice that is made reveals on which road a person is traveling.”[2] Two cosmic forces are at battle in the wilderness. It is like a “heavyweight championship fight” with the temptations in the desert being “the first round of many battles Jesus will have throughout His earthly ministry against Satan and his demonic minions throughout. Though at points like the crucifixion, it looks as if Satan wins, Luke tells us not to be fooled about who is the stronger force.”[3]
Luke makes certain the audience knows Jesus is “full of the Holy Spirit” and “led by the Spirt” (Lk. 4:1). The Lord is more than adequately prepared for the spiritual battle. Just as Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of God to carry out the duty of crafting the tabernacle of the Lord (Exod. 31:1-4; 35:30-32), so Jesus is full of the Spirit to carry out His vocation as the Christ. The power of the Spirit enables the Lord to defeat the Devil.[4]
Jesus responds to each temptation by appealing to the Scriptures. First, the Devil challenges the Lord to turn stone to bread, casting doubt upon God the Father who offers “care and provision.”[5] Jesus responds, “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Lk. 4:4). This is an obvious condensing of the Mosaic precept: “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). God sustained Elijah for forty-days and nights on just a single cake of bread and jug of water (1 Kings 19:7-8).
Satan’s enticement is to immediately gratify one’s own sensual appetite, but God’s way is to understand that whether we are in a season of fasting or feasting that all provisions come from our Father in Heaven.
Next, the Devil bids Jesus to engage in “false worship.”[6] The Lord is given a vision of being a mighty ruler of nations just for exchanging allegiances. Of course, God is the true ruler of the nations, whereas the ruler of the world or Satan is the illegitimate usurper of the throne, whose reign is coming to an end. But again, Jesus replies, “It is written, |’You shall worship the Lord your God, | and him only shall you serve’” (Lk. 4:8; cf. Deut. 6:13).
Those who have given into the satanic temptation to build utopian empires without God come to ruin, like the Marxist and National Socialist experiments from the twentieth century, and the retooled Marxism coming in the variety of critical theories in the present epic will fair no better.[7] None of them ever resolved the problems of poverty and injustice but only recapitulate them in different forms.
Jesus resists Satan’s false promise for world domination in exchange for allegiance and veneration. The Son of God remains true to the path of exaltation through humiliation (Phil. 2:5-11).
Lastly, the Devil perverts the Scriptures as the mechanism for delivering the deception. He cites lines from Psalm 91 in conjunction with a dare, “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, | lest you strike your foot against a stone’” (Lk. 4:9-11). Yet, Satan illegitimately twists the meaning of Psalm 91:11-12, and “91:10 makes clear that God’s protection is for events that befall his servants, not an excuse to seek out such dangers” (emphasis in original).[8]
Challenging the Son of God to leap off the pinnacle of the temple and do a superhero landing upon the ground unscathed is Satan’s subtle way of calling into question Lord’s “faithfulness.”[9] The corollary of divine trustworthiness also applies. The end game is to cast doubt upon God’s goodness. Can you really trust God? Just how dependable is He? This is reminiscent the question posed to Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). So, the Devil attempts to make God the Father out to be the morally deficient bad guy. Jesus answers back, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Lk. 4:12; Deut. 6:16). This recalls the occasion when the Israelites complained about being led into the wilderness to die of thirst but God gave them water from the rock (Ex. 17:2-7).
Despite the Lord supernaturally providing the Israelites with manna and water throughout their sojourn to the promise land, they complained time and again about the lack of food and water. But Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit remains faithful to the Father, shuns the Devil’s enticements, and receives the victory. Whereas the Israelites failed, Jesus succeeds. The Son of God triumphs over the Satan in the desert showdown.
Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit and knowledgeable of the Scriptures successfully thwarts the wiles of the Devil. Christians are likewise to be filled with the Holy Spirit and knowledgeable of the Scriptures. To be biblically illiterate is an immense liability. Without a knowledge of God’s Word, one ends up with a deficient theology. A deficient theology leaves one unable to think Christianly in this world. An inability to think Christianly leaves on without any wherewithal to navigate about every false doctrine blowing in the wind.[10]
Christians led by the Spirit participate in days and seasons of feasting and fasting, but through it all, we are reminded that true substance that sustains life is in the receiving the Word of the Lord each and every day. We do not live by bread alone.
— WGN
Notes
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 4:1–13.
[2] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 82.
[3] Bock, 82.
[4] John Stott observed that Jesus “returned from the Jordan “full of the Holy Spirit,’ and we naturally assume that this was his invariable spiritual state. At the same time, the statement immediately follows his baptism at which the Spirit descended upon him (3:22) to ‘anoint’ and equip him for his ministry as the Messiah (4:14, 18). Third, since the story of the temptation is both introduced and concluded by references to the Holy Spirit (4:1, ‘led by the Spirit,’ and 4:14, ‘in the power of the Spirit’) it seems that the Lord was especially strengthened by the Spirit for that emergency” (John Stott, Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2006], 64-65).
[5] Bock, 83
[6] Bock, 84
[7] See Jay W. Richards, “History’s Bloody Mess: Why Marxism (and Socialism) Always Fails,” Christian Research Journal, 42, 1 [2019]: https://www.equip.org/articles/historys-bloody-mess-why-marxism-and-socialism-always-fails/ and C. Wayne Mayhall, “The Original ‘Fight Club:’ Understanding the Philosophy of Karl Marx,” Christian Research Journal, 36, 4 [2013]: https://www.equip.org/articles/the-original-fight-club-understanding-the-philosophy-of-karl-marx/
[8] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 4:9–11.
[9] Bock, 85.
[10] Additional insights on Son of God’s battle with Satan in the wilderness can be read about in the previous post “Reflections on Christ’s Temptation.”
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