1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” Luke 4:1-4
Luke 4:1-13 describes the forty day temptation the Lord Jesus experienced in the wilderness. This is the final event, before the Lord Jesus actually begins His public ministry. This conflict with the Devil takes place almost six weeks. In many ways, it is the final exam of the Lord Jesus in the process of being prepared for His ministry. As Messiah, the Lord Jesus came to render sin and death null and void. In order to do this, He had to defeat Satan head to head. If the Lord Jesus is our Savior, He has to conquer Satan. Today, we are just considering the first four verses.
It is important to know that Jesus was a man. Yes, He is God, but He voluntarily set aside His privileges as God. He didn't cease to be God, He is fully God and fully man. He did what the Father wanted Him to do and He did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. So He set aside the use of His divine powers and submitted Himself to true humanness and allowed the Spirit of God to work His work through Him.
According to v.1, the Lord Jesus was fully submitted to the Holy Spirit who led Him into the wilderness. And, "the devil," in v.2, confronts Him. The word "devil" is the Greek word diabolos, which means "accuser," or "slanderer." "The Devil" is the accuser of the brethren. And, of course, he would want to bring an accusation against Jesus Himself, but he had none that he could bring legitimately.
Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Jesus. But, the demonic world doesn't. Repeatedly the Devil says to the Lord Jesus, "If” or "since you are the Son of God." He employs the first class conditional sentence which means when you use an "if" followed by a positively structured sentence, it means "since you are the Son of God." Satan knew exactly who he was dealing with, this is why he tried to pressure the Lord Jesus to sin.
Every temptation that came to the Lord Jesus was a temptation from the outside of Him. It couldn't from within because He was sinless. However, this doesn't mean the temptations weren't real. His temptation came at Him to its maximum capacity because He endured the fullest pressure and never gave in to it.
The devil found him in the wilderness, the area between the Dead Sea, the Jordan river, and Jerusalem. This is an area referred to in the Old Testament as Jeshimon, translated "the devastation." It is mountainous and rocky, with jagged peaks and severe ravines that go down hundreds of feet. It is dry and barren. It is inhabited by wild animals, snakes, and scorpions.
Before he became know as the Devil his name was Lucifer. According to Luke 10:18, the Lord Jesus saw Lucifer fall from heaven like lightning. He was the anointed angel. Some of his story is given in Ezekiel 28:11-15, Isaiah 14:12-14. He was the anointed angel which probably means he was the praise and worship leader of heaven. He was heaven's chief musician. He was the one who led all the angelic praise.
For some incomprehensible reason he decided that wasn't enough, that he wanted to be equal with God. And so the prophets tell us, Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, that he said, "I will" five times. Pride was lifted up in his heart and he thought to dethrone God and God threw him out of heaven. In Revelation 12 we learn when God threw him out of heaven, He threw a third of the angels with him because they joined his rebellion. There was a mutiny in heaven. One third of the angels became the demons then.
Then he succeeded with Adam and Eve and plunged all humanity into sin. Now he comes after the Lord Jesus, the incarnate God-Man Himself. And he must destroy Jesus because He has come to conquer sin and death and offer man a personal relationship with God.
So into the wilderness comes Jesus, all alone, led by the Spirit of God who has filled Him, to find the devil for the confrontation. This loneliest of all places, this anti-Eden, this most cursed piece of land where no garden grows and for forty days the devil throws everything he's got at Him.
According to v.2, "He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry." He had eaten nothing for forty days. The devil has been tempting Him this whole time, and He's felt the maximum power of every temptation. And finally the devil backs away and for the first time in forty days it tells us, "at the end of them he was hungry." He wasn't hungry during the forty days, the whole deal was too intense.
As the Lord Jesus begins to feel the hunger, the devil senses a new opportunity. He senses vulnerability, and he moves in yet again. This time he uses a different strategy. According to v.3 he sees an angle in the Lord Jesus being starved and weak. He's now going to exploit that to the max and see if he can't crush the Son of God under the power of his assault.
Luke gives us three examples of the temptations Satan threw at the Lord Jesus. Today, we will just consider the first. In v.3, Satan is questioning God's provision by saying, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." You will remember, he is saying "since you are the Son of God." "Since you have all power, use your power to satisfy yourself."
This is really a question about God's provision. "Hey, since you're the Promised One, you're the Son of God, since that's true, why isn't your Father providing for you out here? Why would He let His own Son, the Messiah, starve to death? So, use your power to satisfy yourself."
In v.4, we read, "Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone." He is quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 which in effect says, "You obey Me and I'll make sure you have everything you need." Life isn't a matter of what we eat. Life is a matter of realizing the purposes of God in this world and how we fit into what He is doing.
The Lord Jesus is affirming His absolute confidence in and dependence upon God. He's affirming what Paul says, "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." His confident and ours is based on the character of the Father who will always meet our every need.
