The temptation of Christ in the wilderness is a most intriguing, solemn story. Many writers and preachers have dwelt upon this topic which is about the 40 day fast of the Son of God, and Satan’s revolting, trying temptations afterwards.
There the faith of Jesus, His physical endurance, love, obedience to God His Father and His love for fallen mankind was severely tested.
Matthew 4:1–11 illustrates this event in clear, plain language. But much food for thought lies in between the lines for us to ponder upon what Jesus Christ must have felt and experienced in this so demanding, dramatic ordeal.
Scripture narrates (Matthew 3:16–17) when Jesus was baptized …”lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It was the anointing of Jesus as the Messiah (Daniel 9:24). Right after He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (Matthew 4:1).
There at the beginning, Jesus was in close communion with His heavenly Father to be prepared for the great mission before Him. While wandering in the stillness of the desolate environment He conversed with His Father, altogether oblivious to the barren, unattractive wilderness around Him. His thoughts and mind were fixed on the intimate contact with heaven that thrilled His soul. Though being on earth, He felt the loving embrace of God His Father, enrapturing Jesus with such warmth and bliss, that the desert seemed to be heaven itself, delighting His soul with that holy atmosphere that satiated His every need.
His sleep was sweet, resting in the security of His Father’s love…
But this was not to continue. –
God sent His Son to this world to save fallen man from sin. The solemnity of the Messiah’s mission was pressed upon Him with great force. He immersed Himself with heart and soul into it, pleading with His Father to prepare Him for this immensely challenging ministry, to be an obedient Son, faithful unto death. His ardent prayers became ever more intense, lying prostrate on the rough earth, crying out for strength, endurance, how to reach the souls of man.
To reveal to them the love of God, to obey His word and overcome sin, so that they will have eternal life…
A Grave Reality
Jesus was very aware that Israel had long ago lost its high spiritual calling. The religious, sacred ceremonies became mere formalism, the sacrifices a plain mechanism without genuine repentance for transgression, forgetting the significance of the enormity of sin, that only blood can cover. Hearts became cold, minds spiritless, failing to look forward for the true Sacrifice—the Lamb of God to come.
Greek influence, pride, greed for gain, lust for power had corrupted the religious leaders, who oppressed the people with rigid laws that were impossible to follow through, bringing the nation to despair and discontentment.
Israel was at its lowest ebb, under a hated Roman rule; and waited for the Messiah to appear as the King who will drive out the Romans and make Israel great again.
This was the mindset the Son of God would have to contend with!
Satan perverted the minds of Israel’s people; he successfully blinded and drew them away from the true meaning of the promised Messiah…
This grave reality occupied Jesus day and night. He ate nothing, the matter was too serious to even think about eating. As the days progressed, Jesus—to save man—had to discipline Himself to resist satisfying the desire for food, because man failed to restrain himself from eating of the forbidden tree in Paradise (Genesis 3:6), transgressing the specific commandment of God, and falling into sin…
But then the days for Jesus became evermore demanding, as He was in His body, feeling the want of nourishment. Then He prayed and pleaded more intensely for endurance and fortitude. His fervent entreaties were heard, and God gave Jesus the assurance that He will be sustained and strengthened in His trials and whatever He will have to face.
For Christ, the Son of God became man with all the weaknesses of fallen flesh.
Because of this, He needed divine help to assist Him in the challenging situations ahead; to meet rejection of the religious hierarchy and, most of all, the onslaught of the archenemy Satan, who was ever at His heels.
The great test of Jesus—God in the flesh—was to continually conceal His divinity, to never use it in any way for His own benefit—a trial which sinful man could never comprehend. Human beings, after thousands of years, degenerated in spiritual and moral strength, making them yield to the desires of the flesh, barely able, or even making an effort to, resist temptations, but rather yielded to them. The more the carnal nature had been fed, the weaker the spiritual nature had become. It is simply the rule of the natural law of cause and effect.
The word of God says “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7
Thus, sinful man was in a hopeless, lost state, in constant bondage, a slave to his habits and desires.
And now comes the Son of God, the Messiah, who is to meet man where he was, to save him from the power of temptation to yield to sin, to reconcile him to God, offering personal redemption and eternal life.
This continuously occupied the mind of Jesus. He meditated intensely about how He could reach the hearts of the nation, awaken in them the desire for a higher spiritual experience, and to lift their souls out of the mire of carnal lusts, and of the cold, lifeless hypocrisy—to a genuine, warm-hearted piety.
In those days He fasted to the limit of human endurance so that He might, in His body, overcome the temptation of the flesh, so that He could be a true Saviour to fallen, helpless man. In this ordeal Jesus needed to completely rely on His Father for in those trying 40 days in the desert, He very much felt the human weakness. It became harder to resist the temptation to eat after such a long fast with His degenerated physical nature crying out. Jesus was in His body experiencing what sin had done to humanity.
Because of Adam’s disobedience, Jesus needed to have the victory over the desires of the flesh.
Day by day, He became weaker, but the more determined to resist the urge to satisfy His hunger. His mind was constantly focused on the lost human race. This filled Him with such deep pity and love, that nothing could persuade Jesus to yield to His own needs.
At the end of the 40 days, the ordeal of the long, taxing fast left its mark on His appearance. His body was extremely weak, emaciated, His face reflecting great weariness.
The Tempter appears
Just then, in His frail state—suddenly, there stood Satan before Him, appearing as an angel of light. Satan watched Jesus during His fast very closely and waited for the time when He would be most feeble.
This wicked, fallen angel thought he would have a quick victory over Jesus, because so far men had become easy prey to his devices.
With angelic glory, Satan intended to make Jesus feel as if He was in company with an angel from heaven. But he gave himself away quite quickly in the way he was addressing Jesus: “If thou be the Son of God… “(Matthew 4:3, 6). He very well knew that the promised Messiah was before him, but ventured to try to make Jesus question and doubt who He was.
Only a mean, vicious devil could approach and tempt, in His extreme hunger, the exhausted Son of man to perform a miracle for His want. This would suit Satan just fine, knowing that Jesus would then be in his hands and thus forfeit His mission to save mankind.
But the archenemy got a short “It is written” (Matthew 4:4). as an answer. Then Satan tried another thing to make Jesus yield, but this failed also (vs. 5-7).
There was sneer and contempt in the tone when casting those malicious suggestions upon the Son of God, that very clearly revealed the character of this once glorious cherubim at the throne of God. The adversary hoped that Jesus would surely follow his next prompting, for now he was getting really anxious and desperate.
In this last quest, Satan laid all his cards in the open. He boldly affronted Jesus with the most revolting proposal, showing Him all the kingdoms of the world, saying, “All these things will I give thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8, 9. With this the devil made an open show of who he truly is, and what he actually had in mind all the time.
It is either him, or Jesus Christ, who will once rule the world, who will be worshipped. He pretended that he would be so generous as to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, if He only would worship this infamous foe!
What an impertinence! What inconceivable arrogance and despicable haughtiness is here revealed! If he really would have had the victory over the Messiah, Satan would have made Jesus a slave, never giving Him anything at all. He—Satan would be the sole ruler and king!…
But, praise to God, even in all His extraordinary weariness, Jesus never yielded one hairbreadth to the wily suggestions of this archfoe!
His only response and reply every time had been: “It is written” (vs. 4, 7, 10).
From the beginning, Jesus knew who contended with Him, nevertheless, the prince of darkness kept going on with his heinous quest, till he received the stiff order: “Get thee hence Satan”…. vs. 10.
In a most miserable, totally confounded state the tempter had to leave. His anger and rage, the fury that came over him cannot be described! How could he lose this so easy-looking contest? Satan was greatly alarmed! There was a serious miscalculation in his reckoning! This shaken up wicked angel retreated to a place where he let out his ineffable wrath in boundless curses against himself, unable to accept his defeat. How could he now face his host???
Deep, sinister thoughts arose in his overwhelmed mind. He had to take rigorous measures to make up for this shameful failure!
If he could not triumph over this so incredible steadfast, unyielding Messiah, then there can be only one way—to make the mission of Jesus as hard as possible, even to the brink of despair!
The people of Israel, especially the religious class must be hindered to accept Him from the start! This gave Satan great satisfaction and with fresh, devilish vigour. He hastened to meet the vast throng of his fellow angels, instructing and urging them on, without delay to engage in his very smart thought-out plan…
The Trial is over
When Jesus was finally alone again, He was exhausted to the core. The ordeal of the long fast and then the taunting onslaught of Satan to make Him yield to the devil’s contemptible suggestions, drained His last spark of energy. Staggering with great effort He retired to the spot where He so often communicated with His Father. Jesus was completely spent—totally undone.
Sinking down, leaning against the rock where He always prayed, Jesus, overcome with fatigue, instantly fell asleep…
The enormous trial was over. The Son of man got the victory over the taxing temptations the adversary threw against Him, and for fallen, mortal beings’ sake, endured the gruesome test of self-denial. The first step for the redemption of man was accomplished.
However, this took all willpower, faith, love; strict obedience to the plan of salvation with unyielding determination to conquer over the weakness of the flesh, to lift the fallen human race out of its depraved state. The prize was inconceivably high set, and there was the risk that the human nature of Christ could succumb under the immense pressure.
Only the full surrender of His will to the extremely arduous, all consuming pursuit to be the Saviour for sinners, in self-forgetful love, was able to master this harsh, severe trial. Then, “angels came and ministered unto Him.” Matthew 4:11
The Contrast
Comparing the utterly base and diabolic selfishness and haughtiness of Satan, with the humility and sacrificing love of Jesus—what an inestimable contrast in characters is here revealed!
Both are so contrary to each other, as far apart as east is from the west; so distinct as the light of the day is with the blackness of the night.
They can never come together, never harmonize, never reconcile. It would make sin and Satan acceptable. Only eternal separation, a total annihilation of Satan and sin can be the solution…
When Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from the presence of God, were driven from their Eden home, had lost their spiritual nature and communion with heaven…
As people multiplied on the earth and men lived for carnal pleasure, power, and riches more than seeking God and His worship, they distanced themselves more and more, so that the rift between became ever deeper and wider.
There was only one way to bridge over this chasm, to reach the sinner and rescue him from the deep abyss—this one and only way was the cross—reaching over to pave the way to reconciliation with God and eternal salvation.
The beginning of redemption is the eradication of sin in the heart of man, and for this very reason, Jesus Christ came into this world.
As He “made Himself of no reputation… He humbled Himself ,and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:7–8
To learn from Jesus
We, like Jesus, can also overcome. What did He do? He prayed for help to His Father for strength and endurance, as He felt the weakness of the human nature. He gave Himself totally into the hands of God to guide and lead Him with complete self-surrender and unyielding trust. This is the sure recipe for resisting the strong power of temptation, and we, in our weak humanity, must adopt this with enduring faith, for Jesus is our mighty Saviour.
He says: “Abide in Me, and I in you…He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4–5
“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.” Proverbs 24:16. We must never, never, never give up, but looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith, always keep going forward, upward, pressing toward “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
Jesus will never disappoint us. His heart longs to sustain us in our severe struggle against sin and character defects. He went before us and gained the victory over every temptation without ever yielding. And we can claim His victory for us; this is a mystery, but a wonderful truth that gives us courage and stamina, to face the battle and win it at last! To God be the glory! Amen.
Edda Tedford, Canada