Temptation Number 1: God's Will or Mine?
And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " Matt. 4:2-4, RSV.
I have never been tempted to turn rocks into bread. Not even once in all of my life. In fact, that is no temptation for me at all for the simple fact that I can't do it. I could spend the next three years in the rock garden behind the church parking lot commanding stones to become bread and never have a single loaf to show for it.
But Jesus could. As the agent of creation (John 1:3), He could make bread out of stones, or even out of nothing. To do so, however, He would have to "unempty" Himself and take up His divine power. The temptation to transform rocks into bread was a Messianic temptation, aimed at One who not only had the power to carry out the act but who also knows that He has it.
While Jesus was undoubtedly hungry, and while the suggestion to produce bread from stones must have been attractive, we miss the point if we see the first temptation as merely one to satisfy His appetite. At its core, it was an attempt to get Jesus to use His divine power to satisfy His own needs, a course of action fatal to the plan of redemption in which He was to rely on God like other human beings.
Even more central was its implications for avoiding the all-important cross. By creating bread out of stones, Jesus could have set up an immediate economic/political kingdom, and the Jews would have followed Him gladly.
That is clear from John 6, when Jesus fed the 5,000. In that miracle the Jews saw the predicted prophet who would be like Moses (Deut. 18:18). After all, hadn't Jesus performed an equivalent to the manna miracle? The populace got so worked up that they sought to "make him king by force" (John 6:14, 15, NIV). Even the disciples got caught up in the move to make Jesus into a political Messiah at that time (Matt. 14:22).
But Jesus rejected the initiative. He knew that the way of the cross would be infinitely more difficult in setting up His kingdom than feeding the poor in a hungry land. Also, He realized that the way of the cross was the only way to solve the sin problem.
Lord, this day as I travel through life help me to seek Your will rather than the route of expediency.
And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread." But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " Matt. 4:2-4, RSV.
I have never been tempted to turn rocks into bread. Not even once in all of my life. In fact, that is no temptation for me at all for the simple fact that I can't do it. I could spend the next three years in the rock garden behind the church parking lot commanding stones to become bread and never have a single loaf to show for it.
But Jesus could. As the agent of creation (John 1:3), He could make bread out of stones, or even out of nothing. To do so, however, He would have to "unempty" Himself and take up His divine power. The temptation to transform rocks into bread was a Messianic temptation, aimed at One who not only had the power to carry out the act but who also knows that He has it.
While Jesus was undoubtedly hungry, and while the suggestion to produce bread from stones must have been attractive, we miss the point if we see the first temptation as merely one to satisfy His appetite. At its core, it was an attempt to get Jesus to use His divine power to satisfy His own needs, a course of action fatal to the plan of redemption in which He was to rely on God like other human beings.
Even more central was its implications for avoiding the all-important cross. By creating bread out of stones, Jesus could have set up an immediate economic/political kingdom, and the Jews would have followed Him gladly.
That is clear from John 6, when Jesus fed the 5,000. In that miracle the Jews saw the predicted prophet who would be like Moses (Deut. 18:18). After all, hadn't Jesus performed an equivalent to the manna miracle? The populace got so worked up that they sought to "make him king by force" (John 6:14, 15, NIV). Even the disciples got caught up in the move to make Jesus into a political Messiah at that time (Matt. 14:22).
But Jesus rejected the initiative. He knew that the way of the cross would be infinitely more difficult in setting up His kingdom than feeding the poor in a hungry land. Also, He realized that the way of the cross was the only way to solve the sin problem.
Lord, this day as I travel through life help me to seek Your will rather than the route of expediency.
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