The Life of the Messiah

Judean Wilderness

His Temptation

Clearly, it was not possible that Jesus could enter on His Messianic mission without opposition, and for Him that opposition would come from God’s ancient enemy, Satan. The Spirit of God put Jesus in harm’s way by pressing Him to an area where there would be no food and no help. No ‘manna in the  wilderness’ for Him. Nevertheless, He was able to meditate upon Israel’s wilderness   experience and understand that only reliance on God would get Him through as it did in getting Israel to Canaan. Indeed, this very thought would be His defence against the first temptation.

It is Matthew and Luke that give us most  information. In both accounts, the first    challenge is to turn stone into bread. Taking the “shield of faith … to quench ….the fiery darts of the wicked one” Eph.6.16)  and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17).  Jesus countered the attack with a quote from the T’nach:  “It is written,  Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”  The passage from which the quote was taken is in Deuteronomy, chapter 8.  “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed  you  to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”  Observe the highlighted words.  “The Lord … led you … to test you. … He allowed you to hunger, … that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord”.   

The Messiah, recalling the events of the 40-year wilderness experience of Israel, and comparing them to His 40-day wilderness experience, concluded that in a similar manner the Spirit of God had led him there to test Him.  It was God Himself that permitted, nay required Him to be hungry. To yield to the insinuation that He would benefit by stepping outside the revealed will of God would have alienated Him from His Father. As the last Adam He would have failed in a similar manner to the first Adam. What Satan did not include in his calculations was the fact that performing the will of God is both physically and spiritually nourishing.  Jesus Himself speaks of it at another time when He was again hungry and thirsty, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). Since His  condition  was  in  the will of God, to seek to alleviate His hunger would put personal comfort above the purposes of God, and equate to disobedience of the command of God.  Jesus understood that His  experience was not simply the enmity of the Adversary but also a test from God, as to whether He would keep His Father’s commandments, do His Father’s will.  The quote from the Torah was enough to close that avenue of temptation while at the same time assure His Father of His commitment to the task at hand.

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