The First Temptation of Jesus

Mat 4:1-4:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus has just been baptized. He comes out of the Jordan in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the next thing that a believer does when he is full of the Holy Spirit is to live a godly life and share their testimony with others. Jesus too was taken into a desert which implies that this was an unharvested field. No crop grows in a desert. When Jesus or a believer sees that there is a potential for a huge harvest, he is faced off with Satan. Satan always appears wherever there is a harvest waiting to happen. Other versions say that he came to torment Jesus. 

What was he trying to accomplish? He was trying to frustrate the plans that God has given the believer. He is contending against the growth of the church that will bring in the kingdom of God. So the believer gets into a fast to break all the demonic opposition. All the time they fast (40 indicates fullness of testing), they are getting more and more hungry for the harvest. There is a good amount of prayer, a good amount of seeking and yet there is no sign of life. All your prayers look unanswered. 

The devil now comes around and says, “Are you sure you have been called to this task? I really wonder if you are even a son of God. Didn’t God hear your prayers? It doesn’t look like you are a son of God because He doesn’t hear your prayers or answer them. Surely, God is not on your side. This is why all you have in your field is a heap of stones and rubble.” 

As we know stones are lifeless. Therefore they do not show any growth. They stay the same all their life and most of them disintegrate into dust. So there are many people whom we fear will return to the dust. But the church is always praying that they may attain life and become living stones giving glory to God.

1 Peter 2:5 : You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The Triumphal Entry …39But some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!” 40“I tell you,” He answered, “if they remain silent, the very stones will cry out.” 41As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it…

The devil comes around and asks the believer to “command that these stones be made bread”. (vs. 3) There are three things that must happen: One, the stone must become seed after receiving the Word and having the knowledge of Christ firmly planted in the soil of their heart. Two, the seed must grow and mature and bear fruit as corn or wheat or barley. Three, the wheat or barley must be ground and baked to become bread. Satan commands the believer to do that which only God can do. 

Jesus replies, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

He is saying, “I don’t need to see the harvest to hope in God and live for Him. I trust that God knows how to bring in the harvest. All I know and can do is to follow the Lord and His direction for my life. So long as I am hearkening to God’s guidance and following through in obedience, He will surely show me the bread that He has made ready for Himself.”

We know that bread is indeed symbolic of harvest because in John 6, the disciples go out to get food for Jesus. But when they return and urge him, “Rabbi, eat something.” (John 4:31), Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” (vs. 32)

John 4:34-38:

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Practical Application:

We see how God demonstrated this word in the life of Paul as we read in Acts 27:1-44 and 28:1-11. Paul sails to Rome but ends up in Malta which is a desert when he goes in but a flourishing harvest ground when he comes out. Satan opposed the apostle in several ways and Paul and the 276 men fast for fourteen days but eventually they eat because Paul has sound knowledge and can hear from God and knows God’s plans as a mature believer. His steps are ordered by the Lord so that he has success at every step. There are losses because of disunity and the centurion not obeying the leading of God’s apostle Paul. The losses could have been averted as Paul says in 27:21. But the end is truly glorious for the kingdom because all the inhabitants of the island of Malta are healed and Paul testifies to Jesus being the healer. He teaches the message of the Gospel for three months (though this is not explicitly mentioned in the text, we surmise that God extended his stay at Malta for the purpose of sharing the Gospel with them). 

Prayer:

Father, you are truly awesome in your ways. You always know the right thing to do and the best way to do it. We laud you for your greatness and your measured discipline unto us until we breakthrough. Thank you for watching over us and making us mature and complete, not lacking anything. Amen.