Our Lord had been led into the wilderness by One who was a part of the triumvirate Counsel of God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit had discussed the details of Christ’s coming to earth, (Acts 2.23) and had determined that Christ Jesus must have suffered in every point as anyone. Furthermore, He must endure testings and temptations in each form as it was presented to every individual. Unless He had the power over falling into the hands of the greatest tempter, Satan, He would not have had the ability to save lost sinners from their sin. He would, in fact, have failed in His mission of redemption.
There were three specific areas of temptation through which Satan approached Jesus. The first concerned Jesus’ physical needs. He had fasted for forty days and was not only hungry, but also weak from the lack of nourishment. Even in His weakened condition, Jesus had the power and the authority to change the stones into bread. Many have set forth ideas as to why that would have been a sin; however, suffice it to say that doing so would have been outside of His Father’s will. It was for that purpose – to be tested in every situation as a human would be (Hebrews 4.15) –that He suffered.
The third temptation was one offering power and position. Satan took Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world (most probably all those throughout time which had been and which would be) offering them all to Jesus should the Son of God fall down and worship him. Essentially, Satan was telling Jesus to fall on His knees and to kiss his hand. The ancient oriental (especially Persian) mode of salutation between persons of equal ranks was to kiss each other on the lips; when the difference of rank was slight, they kissed each other on the cheek; when one was much inferior, he fell upon his knees and touched his forehead to the ground or prostrated himself, throwing kisses toward or kissing the hand of the superior. In this Jesus would have been identifying Satan as His superior.
The second temptation, however, is the one that interests me most for this devotional. In it Satan does something he did not do in the other two temptations; he quoted Scripture accurately and made a proper application. Satan quotes from Psalm 91.11, 12, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
In this temptation Satan acknowledged the authority of God’s Word – the accuracy of its prophecies – the identity of Jesus as the Son of God – the power of God to accomplish His will – even Jesus’ superiority and power over Satan himself. Although Satan is a liar, in this second temptation he spoke the truth and encouraged Jesus to act upon God’s revealed, inspired Word. The problem lay in the fact that Satan was taking the verses out of context. Jesus was in the wilderness to be tempted, not to be delivered.
Today, we face a plethora of people who are spewing various Bible verses – often they come from preachers who are accurately quoting the verses but not accurately applying them. Forgetting the context, they spew biblical promises that are meant for specific applications and in special situations.
We are warned to try the spirits. Just because a song has the word “Jesus” in it, or just because a preacher quotes Bible verses does not guarantee what comes out of their mouths is of God. Carefully consider the messenger’s lifestyle before buying into everything they teach. Examine the person before applying their teaching.
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try* the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” I John 4.1
* dokimazō – “to test, examine, prove, scrutinize (to see whether a thing is genuine or not)”
Copyright © 2023 Dr. John H. Hill, All rights reserved.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/