Say what devil?
Matt. 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Matt. 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he afterward hungered.
Matt. 4:3 And the tempter came and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.
Matt. 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
I want to look at the life of Jesus. Too many Christians struggle to make the connection with His humanity. Let me just start to say that Jesus is a risen King and Savior. He is not what He was when He became flesh. He is an eternal King and has eternal glory and life and power. To ignore the fact that He was a man in the flesh is also stupid. In the book of Hebrews it is stated that He was tempted in all things just like you and I are tempted so that He can be a Savior that can have compassion for us. The same things we are struggling with each day are the same things that were brought to Him by the devil. He did not come to just “feel” us; He came to “ be” us. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us – 2 Cor 2:21.
On the basis of understanding that He knows what we are facing, I can then be encouraged by the fact that He came to save us. More than that, I can learn to overcome because He overcame all temptations. Without Him making it possible we would not have a reason to believe. In this passage we see that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. He did not go and look for it himself. Most of the trouble we find ourselves in is not because His Spirit led us there. There is a difference in what you encounter when He leads you and what you encounter when you lead you. Jesus teaches us to pray and ask God not to lead us into temptation. This sounds like a contradiction in scripture. Not really, if you understand that one of them is with purpose and has benefits. One of them is Him leading us into the wilderness and the other one has benefits for the enemy. I lead myself and look at temptations.
After Jesus fasted for forty days he was hungry. I need you to see that his body was weak and in need of sustenance. Medically it is proven that your body can live from its own resources for 40 days. After that it begins to consume itself and causes organs to fail. So Jesus was at the point where he was physically challenged and at a point where He had to make decisions that would sustain His body. Now, the enemy comes and guess what he focuses on? The need that Jesus had to satisfy his hunger was his focus. “Make these stones to be bread.” Come on and feed yourself. You know that you can do it! Jesus knew that He had the power to do that. He could speak the word and those stones would be bread. He had the authority to do that and satisfy His own need. He had the power to save Himself by feeding His body what it needed.
I love what Jesus says in response to the enemy’s solution. The devil is smart sometimes. He comes with the solution that looks like the answer to your prayer. It looks like the perfect solution. He didn’t say to Jesus: “You are hungry so ask God to give you strength for five more days.” That is not a logical solution. The enemy likes to make it look easy. So Jesus chooses to speak, to use the same power He would have used if He spoke to the stones, but instead of speaking to satisfy His own need, He speaks about what really sustains not just His life but also all life. Every word that proceeds from God brings life. Jesus knew that bread would be a temporary fix. When God speaks it is a permanent fix.
When we are faced with difficulty and temptation we look for the quick fix. We want to find the path of least resistance. We compromise by accepting the enemy’s solution. We seek to satisfy our need first. We don’t exist by what we get, we exist by what He gives. We have the power to choose what will sustain us: our declarations or the declarations from God. What does God say about your need? Jesus obviously knew that God wanted to say something about where He was in His temptation. Remember that He was there by the Spirit’s doing. So Papa, what do you want to say about me being hungry? Papa, what do you say about my sickness? Papa, what do you say about my family? God wants to speak over your situation. That was what Jesus was saying. Not my words but His word is the solution!
I pray that we will always find His way. If He got us there, He can bring us out again. What if Jesus questioned why the Spirit led Him there? Maybe the Spirit wanted me to make these stones to be bread. That is why He brought me here, right? Now is not the time to try and prove yourself. You never have to prove who you are when God backs you up. God never takes you to the wilderness to prove who you are; He takes you to the wilderness to prove whom He is! That is why His word matters. We live from every word that comes from Him!
