Matthew 4:1-11 Part 2
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The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 1Jesus, in the wilderness, was tested by God and tempted by Satan.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 1Jesus, in the wilderness, was tested by God and tempted by Satan.
Jesus was tested
Jesus was tested
The purpose of testing
Now let’s talk a little bit about the purpose of testing. The purpose of testing in the OT was to disclose the inner quality of the heart. It’s what we see God doing in the book of Genesis with Abraham and his son Isaac on the alter - God is testing Abraham’s heart. Does Abraham love God more than is only son? This testing is meant to disclose the heart of man for his benefit. It’s not so that God can come to know what’s in a person’s heart, for God already knows. You see God is the teacher and we are the students and tests are given to students not for the teacher’s sake but for ours.The Pharisees test JesusThe Pharisees, for instance, test Jesus constantly in the NT by demanding a sign, but Jesus refuses to give them a sign. He tells them that an evil and adulteress generation seeks after a sign. Why? Because they weren’t genuinely interested in whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. There were countless public miracles one after the other performed at the hand of Christ, but that wasn’t enough. Jesus had to submit to them and their testing. Their wicked hearts demanded that the role of teacher and student be switched. They demanded that Jesus submit to them.Satan tests JesusIt’s the same thing we see here with the devil in Matthew chapter 4. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” So what does Jesus say? “Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” We test God because of our unbeliefPeople test God because of their unbelief, and not just as to whether God exists or not, but unwillingness to submit to and trust him. You see James says that even the demons believe, and tremble, and Paul says in that all men know that God exists, it’s just that they suppress it by their unrighteousness; they are willfully ignorant of him and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, creatures and creeping things - things that are made. It’s a worse state than that of the demons really, for the demons believe that God exists and they tremble.Satan want Jesus to worship himSatan here in this passage knows full well that Jesus is the Son of God, he just wants Jesus to fall down and worship him. It’s why we read starting in verse 8 that, “Again, devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’’”Jesus suffered when he was tempted. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Jesus the Son of God
Jesus the Son of God
“If you are the Son of God....”Jesus’ actions will demonstrate that he is indeed the Son of God. He’s, again, the son that Israel could never be. He’s the son that when tested in the wilderness was victorious. He never wavered in his obedience toward his Father.
Jesus was tempted
Jesus was tempted
God does not tempt and cannot be tempted
English Standard Version Chapter 1Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Jesus was tempted in every kind of way: self-gratification (lusts of the flesh), unbelief and self-exaltation (pride),God tests us and the devil tempts usThe hunger Jesus experiences parallels that of Israel’s own time in the wilderness as recorded in Exodus. They had grumbled against Moses and spitefully asked him if he had brought them into the desert to kill them by starvation. They think it would be better to return to Egypt where at least their bellies were full.
English Standard Version Chapter 16on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Jesus truly man and truly God
Jesus is hungry like the Israelites in the wildernessJesus is hungry just as the Israelites were hungry in the wilderness. The Israelites grumbled against God and complained, provoking God to wrath, and even so, God’s wrath was restrained and instead be poured in its fullness upon the back of Christ.
The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 1Jesus, in the wilderness, was tested by God and tempted by Satan.
Warning against unbelief
English Standard Version Chapter 37 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.