Message: After Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended upon him and verse 1 of chapter 4 says that he was full of the Holy Spirit and he went to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I noticed that this didn’t say he went on speaking and performing, and the devil attacked him. It said that he went there with the intent of being tempted by the devil. Not only did he do this while fasting, but he did it on purpose! When the devil came to tempt him he hit Jesus with every vulnerability that we face. He started with his appetite, moved to his identity and ended with his life and purpose.
Command: Silence the voice of satan with the word of God.
Promise: God will fulfil the promises that we have and we don’t need to take any shortcuts to get there.
Warning: The devil will try to use legitimate needs and desires to distort their purpose. There was nothing wrong with eating bread and the truth was that he didn’t need to bow to satan in order to gain the throne. Satan took what was God-given and he distorted the means of getting it!
Application: When I read through the temptations I realized how significant they were for humanity. Our most difficult struggles are our appetites, our identity and our very lives. Satan comes to distort our appetites with counterfeit substances and desires, he challenges our identity by trying to convince us that he will give us something that God has already given us. He threatens our very existence by trying to convince us that we should take our own lives. He has not created anything and he can’t provide anything so his temptation is to distort the very things God intended . When the devil lies to us we need to silence him with the truth of God’s word. Just like Jesus did.
