In the temptations, Satan wants to disqualify Jesus as the Messiah while God wants to demonstrate that Jesus is worthy to be the Messiah. We’ll look how how Jesus responds when he’s tempted to believe God is no longer taking care of him.

For each of the temptations we’ll answer 3 questions:

Why is the choice wrong?

Why is the choice attractive?

How does Jesus respond?

Review

At Jesus' baptism, we have a dramatic heavenly confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah.  After that, we might expect Jesus to rally an army and march to Jerusalem to establish his rightful reign.  We might expect him to claim the throne of David as is his right amidst the cheers and adoration of his nation.  Instead Jesus is led into the wilderness, alone, to face starvation and temptation.

Setting

Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit. He is there because God told him to go there (Matt 4:1). 

God sends Jesus into the wilderness is so that he might be tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1).

The basic meaning of the Greek word for "test" (periazo) is to test something to find out what it's made of. If you are testing a person with the hope that he fails the test, this word is typically translated "tempted." If you are testing a person with the hope that he succeeds, this word is often translated "try" or "test."  God and Satan have two very different purposes for this testing.

Satan wants to disqualify Jesus as God's Messiah while God wants demonstrate that Jesus is qualified to be the Messiah. 

God is deliberating creating a parallel between the nation of Israel in the wilderness and Jesus in the wilderness. 

Jesus appears to understand the parallel by quoting from the sermon Moses gave to Israel reviewing the lessons they were supposed to learn from their journey in the wilderness.

Jesus succeeds in obeying God where Israel failed. 

Passage

1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  2And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  3And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  4But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  - Matthew 4:1-4

Satan is not asking Jesus to prove that he is the Messiah.

It is not inherently wrong to turn the stones into bread. Elsewhere Jesus miraculously produces food.

Satan is trying to convince Jesus that God cannot be trusted and he should take matters into his own hands.

Satan's logic: "If God is really good, He would feed you. He's not feeding you, so God must not be good. If God isn't good, I can't trust Him to care for me. And if I can't trust God to care for me, then I'd better look out for myself.”

The problem is the premise: God is good and He may not feed you.

The choice is tempting because Jesus may conclude from his present circumstances that God is no longer taking care of him.

The choice is wrong because it would be to stop trusting God and take matters into your own hands.

Exodus Review

When the nation of Israel is suffering in slavery in Egypt, God sends Moses to them with a message of deliverance (Exodus 4:1-31).

God promises that He will deliver them from their slavery with a striking display of power. He will be their God and they will be His people (Exodus 6:1-130.

Even though Israel is skeptical, God delivers them through a series of ten miraculous plagues, including the Passover (Exodus 7-13).

Pharaoh agrees to let them go, but pursues them with his army after they leave.

The people panic when they see Pharaoh's army approaching (Exodus 14:10-13). But God miraculously saves them by parting the sea (Exodus 14).

The people believe God (Exodus 14:31), but their trust does not last.

When they face hunger, the nation again loses confidence in God (Exodus 16:1-3).