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Luke 4.1-13
June 16th 2019
Meat
And so we ended with Luke’s Genealogy last week which brought us to chapter 4.
Let’s read, remembering that Jesus has been baptized of John (verse 1).
Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
Okay, let’s go back to verse 1 of chapter 4.
On board:
EVE
Gen 3:6
JOHN
1st John 2:16
JESUS
Luke 4:1-13
Serve
Flesh
Sight
Enticed
Self-Promoted
And Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
It is believed by some that Yeshua, at His water baptism, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We discussed this last week when we read in Luke 3:21 where it says:
21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Some suggest that prior to the start of his ministry he appears to not have yet been in possession of the fullness of the Holy Spirit or at least not anointed by it – and the thinking was that if he was, why would this have taken place?
There is a strong temptation to believe that the angels at Jesus birth were giving glory and praising the babe in front of the shepherds but this is not what the text says; it says “suddenly there was . . . “a multitude of the heavenly host praising YHWH,” saying, “Glory to YHWH in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
The implications of this are important on a number of accounts. First, it was YHWH who send us His only human Son as scripture makes plain (see, John 3:16, 1st John 4:9-10, Ephesians 2:4,7),
Secondly, Yeshua came to bring all glory and honor to His Father, YHWH (see, Philippians 2:11);
Third, while Yeshua the infant was honorable as the child of YHYH in the flesh, and was worshipped the way all kings were approached (see, Matthew 2:2) he did LEARN OBEDIENCE by the things he suffered.
Finally, and according to Paul himself in Acts, Yeshua became the begotten Son of YHWH completely at his resurrection – something we talked about in our verse by verse through Acts.
So, some believe that over the course of his mortal life Yeshua gained the approbation of His Father incrementally (see, Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52; Hebrews 5:8) first earning the title of “beloved Son” first at His baptism (see, Matthew 3:17) then on the Mount of Transfiguration (see, Mark 9:35) with the title of YHWH’s only begotten son coming by, through and after His resurrection (see, Acts 13:33; Romans 1:4).
Interestingly, we read that the Spirit led him to the wilderness so I think it is safe to suggest that what Jesus was doing was important to Him, the cause, His ministry and to His father.
And so we now read,
And Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (verse 2) for forty days and tempted of the devil.
Where Luke appears to say that while he was in the forty days he was tempted of the devil, Matthew tells us that it wasn’t until the forty days were finished that the devil came to him to tempt him and I think Matthews report tells us how to understand Luke’s.
And in those days he ate nothing: and when they ended, he was afterward hungry.
We know that in many ways, Yeshua completed or fulfilled things that were a picture or a type of Him in the Tanahk. (like the story of Moses in the wilderness).
That being said I cannot help but believe that what we might be also witnessing here is Jesus picking things up where Adam and Eve left them off.
See, they were in paradise, and fell and were kicked out to the wilderness. So here the Second Adam, Jesus – steps forward in the wilderness, and re-faces what they experienced as a means to bring all who are part of the new dispensation by faith back to paradise – which would be founded in heaven and existing in the hearts of believers.
And so Jesus, having been washed and anointed high priest and King over the dispensation, enters the wilderness and what does he do?
He fasts. “And in those days, he ate nothing,” is what the scripture says. Did he drink for hydration. I think he had to as the human body can only go a few days without it – but not a hill to die on and I admit in his case I could be wrong.
To make it simple, the Nation of Israel was fasting all over the place and for various reasons which seemed to evolve over time.
But we know that Moses fasted forty days (Exodus 24:18; 34:28) and so also did Elijah (1st Kings 19:8) and that these two, representing both the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) also appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration so I personally believe there was more fulfilling going on by Jesus of what was of the former covenant, which was now wrapping up.
Of course over time the Jews took fasting to some ridiculous extremes and allowed it to evidence their piety – something Jesus rebuked saying, “when you fast wash your face and stop acting the fool” Not really – but he told them to avoid pretenses associated with the act.
I personally think that there are some tremendous benefits to fasting, that tend to take our eyes off this body of flesh and turn them to the things of the Spirit but it is a personal choice and the only directive we seem to get from the Lord is to do it privately meaning make it between you and the Lord.
It was in the state of fasting that Satan appeared to tempt the Lord and we might surmise that it was during this weak physical state when he physically hungered that Satan showed up.
On the other hand, the Spirit is so much stronger in the state we have to include this mitigating fact into the story too.
Luke doesn’t give us any theatrical description of the devil showing up. We are not sure how he appeared or if there was even an appearance. The details are vague.
All we know is there was communications with words between them because Luke writes:
“The devil said to him.”
It is interesting because when it comes right down too it, in the spiritual realm its all about words – what are true words and what words are lies and false.
There is something really, really, important behind the power and importance of words.
The number of times said, saith, say, answered, spake, speak, spoke and spoken are used in scripture is over 8200 times!
God Spirit and Jesus only total 5000 plus mentions!
The point is when it comes to God and Jesus and the Spirit WORDS are they means by which they operate among us and creation – over everything else.
Just listen now to the rehearsal of what happened between the Serpent and Eve and then God in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 (emphasis mine):
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Ge 3:2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Ge 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Then after the fall, we read
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Words. Speaking. Saying. VERY VERY important exchanges not only in the human experience but in how God himself operates and engages and creates!
And so here in the wilderness we have a confrontation of the ages – a time where the very Word of God made flesh – and in that flesh fasting and weak but full of the Holy Spirit – is literally confronted with the liar, the murderer from the beginning.
And the confrontation was all meted out in and through . . . words – which really amount to representations of thoughts, which are actually summaries of intentions and motives and desires.
On the one hand we have Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, representing in thoughts, intentions and will of His father, who is light and love and life, and he is being directly confronted, tempted, challenged, and invited through WORDS to three different avenues to rebuff his father and his will.
In this setting we discover the impact of words (at least in part) – of their power, of their ability to do good or evil – and perhaps an insight into why confession and sharing the Good News with our mouths is so tied to Christian instructions.
Perhaps we better understand why James talks so eloquently about the tongue, why Jesus said, “let your communications be yea, yea or nay nay because anything more is evil.”
Perhaps we understand why Paul said that to confess with the mouth is so vital tom salvation.
And on and on and on.
And so, with Jesus in the wilderness fasting forty days, we read (at verse three):
3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of YHWH, command this stone to be become bread.
There is no article present here in Luke’s account so the best rendering from the Greek is:
“If Son thou art of God.”
Which seems to hearken directly back to Luke’s report of what YHWY said at his baptism,
“This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”
(beat)
“If you are the Son of YHWH, command this stone to be become bread.
Verse two ended with Luke saying that Jesus hungered. And the contents of verse three perfectly fit in with how temptation operates.
Jesus was hungry after fasting and the first temptation Satan hits him with is:
Feed yourself, Jesus. Look at these stones. If you are really God’s Son turn one into bread and feed your flesh!
And this bring us to the first temptation of Jesus – to feed himself – forget about your fathers will as His Son – take care of your own needs and will – and use your power as His son to do it!
Looking to our comparison on the board we have similar things going on with Eve in Genesis and echoed by John in his first epistle.
(GO TO BOARD)
EVE
Gen 3:6
JOHN
1st John 2:16
JESUS
Luke 4:1-13
Serve
Flesh
And when she saw that the (forbidden fruit) was good for food:
All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh”
Turn these stone into bread
Sight
Enticed
Self-Promoted
Jesus flesh, his carnal nature was hungry, and Satan was hitting him in the very spot of his human weakness – enticing him to create something that would be “good for food,” something to satisfy the lust of his flesh” out of stones! Make a loaf of bread!
4And Yeshua replied, saying, It is written, (words) That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of YHWH.
Satan hit Jesus was a straight shot to his ego using the word, IF – (he does it three times). But Jesus doesn’t bite or let those appeals get under his skin or into his head. He does not feed his flesh or the immediate needs and wants of it – even though it hasn’t been fed in 40 days (which may or may not be a representative number popular among the Jews).
Instead Jesus appeals to the written word, doesn’t he? Isn’t that inspiring? That the written word (for it is written), which to him were older when Moses started writing to his day (about 2600 years) than when Peter’s wrote and Martin Luther read and translated them (which was about 1500 years and yet Jesus trusted the validity of the word – so much so he quoted it to Satan in these temptations!
Wow, wow, wow.
So that was the first temptation – turn these stones into bread and Jesus says something profound in response to the test:
Man shall NOT live by bread alone but by every word but by EVERY word of YHWH.
To me, Jesus, who was the bread of life, says something here than we could take into consideration – that while He is the way, and the truth and the life – we do not live by Him alone but by every word that proceeds from the Mouth of God.
I might be splitting hairs here but I see this as a profound endorsement of the written word and its value to readers and students of the Word.
You know this about me, and it is admittedly a paradoxical stance, but while we cannot become legalists and lawyers using the Word to stab and kill each other, the value of the written word in the lives of those who are God’s children cannot be overstated.
Like anything, it can be wielded improperly but if used with love by the Spirit of truth I do not think there is anything that will train and teach seekers and children of God better than a study of the written word.
So that temptation fails. Verse 5
5And the devil took him up to a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6And the devil said to him, All of this power and the praise of them I will give you, for it is mine to give to whom I will. 7If you will worship me, all of it will be yours.
The first thing to note is that the order of the temptations is different in Matthew – and that makes things difficult to reconcile – not that it is a super big deal – but it is a difference that cannot be reconciled.
Looking to Matthews account (4:3-10) both have the first temptation about bread, but Matthew has the Devil ask Yeshua to cast himself down, while Luke presents this temptation last.
When looking at our chart on the board and comparing the order found in Genesis and 1st John, it appears to me that Luke’s chronology is superior to Matthews. In fact, let’s go to this temptation relative to the Garden of Eden and John’s articulation:
GO TO BOARD
EVE
Gen 3:6
JOHN
1st John 2:16
JESUS
Luke 4:1-13
Serve
Flesh
And when she saw that the (forbidden fruit) was good for food:
All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh”
Turn these stone into bread
Sight
Enticed
And when she say that the fruit was pleasant too the eyes
The lust of the eyes
And the devil showed him all the Kingdoms of the land
Self-Promotion
It is of interest that the King James and other versions derived from the Authorized text, reads that Satan showed Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world, but the Greek is Oikomenea and this better means the land or region – most likely all of Judea – in a “moment of time” which means in an instant of exact point or dot.
And in showing him all of these he drops the bomb –
“All of this power and the praise of them I will give you, for it is mine to give to whom I will.
In John 12:31, 14:30 and 16:11 Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world. Paul, in 2nd Corinthians 4:4 says
“In whom the god of this age hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
In both cases Satan is spoken of as having a power and authority over that former age and here when he tells Jesus that he will give him the power and praise of those Kingdoms Jesus doesn’t argue.
From this it seems that Satan, due either to the fact that he got Adam, the federal head of the human race to sin against God or that because men loved the darkness more than light on their own, Satan did in fact have the right to bestow upon whom he would the things he was showing Jesus.
Of course, this is the subject of most infamous rock stars that they too, having been offered the world in exchange for their souls sold out and gained the things of this world including as Jesus was promised, the worlds power and praise.
Because of my eschatology I believe that Satan and his power and ownership of the fallen world was beaten down by Christ at the cross, but I remain convinced that there exists the possibility to sell ones soul in this life.
I just don’t think it’s a negotiated contract with Satan with promises of golden fiddles, wealth and fame.
To me, since Jesus has had the victory over Satan and his powers, it seems that human beings are either God’s, seekers of God, children of Light, or they are children of dark, rejectors of God and beneficiaries of this world – some to a greater extent that others.
And to quote Jesus, I would suggest that any who seek for the praise and power of this world merely have their reward – simple as that. Of course, there was a price for Jesus to receive all the power and praise of the Kingdoms he was shown as Satan adds:
7 If you will worship me, all of it will be yours.”
Luke has it from the Greek as “thou therefore if” which is by translation a very emphatic and subtle way.
For linguists out there it is in the ingressive aorist and could best be described, frighteningly as this sounds, “just bow the knee once up here in my presence.”
Of course the temptation was for Jesus to admit Satan’s authority by this act of prostration (fall down and worship) which was more of a recognition of authority than anything else.
To do so and Satan promised, “It will all be thine (estai sou pâsa) in other words, he offers Jesus to turn over all the keys of power to Jesus. Apparently Jesus knew that in that case he would be the agent of Satan in the rule of things and would be a Son of graft and dark forces instead of the Son of God by nature.
We also note that Satan offered Jesus the Kingdoms of that oikomenea or economy – which I see as that former age or age under the Law.
This would have fit perfectly with what the Jews assumed their Messiah to be – an earthly King but his rejection of Satan’s offer proves his words true when he said to Pilate some three years later:
“my Kingdom is NOT of this world.”
So, what does Jesus say (SAY) verse 8:
8 And Yeshua replied, saying to him, “Get behind me, Satan: for it is written, You will worship the Lord your God and him only will you serve.
Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:13 here and clearly understood that it is not possible to worship both Satan and God. We notice that in all three temptations Jesus cites Deuteronomy –
Let me speak to this a minute. Jesus CHOOSES to cite scripture to Satan and His temptations. He does NOT choose to try and reason with Satan. And the scripture he appeals to is from what we call the fifth book of the Law, Deuteronomy, which consists pretty much three discourses delivered by Moses a short time before his death from the plains of Moab in the eleventh month of the last year of their wanderings in the wilderness.
Chapter 1-4 verse 40 rehearses the main events of their forty years in the wilderness and contains exhortations to remain obedient to the ordinances along with warnings about the danger of forsaking the God of their fathers.
The second discourse (which is found in chapters 5-26 verse 19) is pretty much the body of the book and it contains practically a recapitulation of the law already given by God at Mount Sinai along with many other injunctions for conduct Moses tells them to follow once in the promised land.
The last four chapters (27-30) relates almost wholly to the solemn sanctions of the law, the blessings to the obedient, and the curse that would fall on the rebellious.
Now remember remember – Jesus came to live the law perfectly and in sold-out obedience to His father. He was a Jew born under the Law – and so it makes perfect sense that he would cite the Law as a means to refute Satan and begin His victory over him.
Also remember that Deuteronomy is Moses offering up his “farewell address” to the tribes of Israel and I cannot help but think that in appealing to it Jesus is using it as a farewell address to Satan.
So here in the wilderness, Jesus had some choices to make – just like Eve and Adam had choices to make and all of us have choices to make – the choice is summarized by Joshua in the line:
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.” Then wisely added:
“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
And this brings us to the final temptation Satan gives to Jesus. Because of the rapidity of our covering them it comes across here and today as sort of flippant.
But in my estimation, with Jesus being fully man, with a mind and a will and emotions, there must have been something tempting to Him in this – something that said, “You know, going this route might not be all that bad compared to what’s headed my way.”
If it wasn’t then I’m not sure we can say that Satan tempted him, can we.
This leads us to another important point about choosing to follow the Lord and His ways and not our own.
If something is our own will, then there is no real exercise of love for God or Man. In other words, if we want to love our enemy, and that is our will and we do it, then the truest for of love for God is not necessarily at play is it?
This is not to suggest that it is bad to naturally be kind if that is our way, but it is to say that when we choose actions, behaviors and words CONTRARY to what we want we are exhibiting the highest form of love for God and others.
And because of this we can see that in this fallen realm of difficulty, and pain, and annoyances, and injustice, we are able to vet ourselves daily and the love we have for God and others and the love we have for ourselves and our own ways.
Okay, so back to the text to wrap today up with the final temptation of our Lord, Savior and King.
(verses 9-11):
9And he (Satan) took him (Jesus) to Jerusalem, and set him on a peak of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of YHWH, cast yourself down from here:
10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you, to guard you: 11And on their hands they will bear you up, lest at any time you hit your foot against a stone.
Matthew explains this temptation differently not citing all of the scripture that Luke includes but first let’s talk about this Star-Trek teletransportation going on here.
To me – and I could be wrong of course – but to me, because these were temptations and they were pressing on the mind and heart of Jesus, all of it was visual and of the Spirit or in the Spirit realm and NOT actual.
Just my thoughts.
And let’s see exactly how this temptation rounds out our chart:
EVE
Gen 3:6
JOHN
1st John 2:16
JESUS
Luke 4:1-13
Serve
Flesh
And when she saw that the (forbidden fruit) was good for food:
All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh”
Turn these stone into bread
Sight
Enticed
And when she saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes
The lust of the eyes
And the devil showed him all the Kingdoms of the land
Self-Promotion/Ego
And would make one
wise
And the pride of life
Give me a show! Prove your power (not the power and will of God)
RESULTS
She ate the
fruit
Is not of the father
But is of this world
Don’t tempt the Lord thy God
Okay, so in the first two temptation Jesus responds with scripture. Look at the approach of Satan here as he now tries to actually tempt Jesus USING scripture Himself (Psalm 91:11-12).
We also see that Satan does not misquote this Psalm, but he misapplies it and makes it mean presumptuous reliance on God.
And this brings us to a final point in Jesus wilderness temptations – Satan tried to get him to put God in a place where his hand was forced, and therefore coerced – through the egoistic expression of His Son.
“Jump off here,” Satan says, “ for is it NOT written that
He shall give his angels charge over you, to guard you: 11And on their hands they will bear you up, lest at any time you hit your foot against a stone.
Again, Satan tried to get Jesus (by appealing to his ego of being God’s only begotten Son) to prove it by forcing God to act.
Of course Jesus gets right to the heart of the issue and shuts the whole invitation to create a circus down by replying (verse 12):
12 It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God.
Again, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6. Why in the first two temptation Jesus says, it is written, and here he replied with, “it is said,” we can’t be sure, but it seems to me that no matter what Satan did, Jesus refused to play along.
And since Satan steps in with an “it is written” challenge on this third test, Jesus replies differently by saying, “it is said.”
What was said?
“Thou shalt NOT tempt the Lord your God.”
Long form? I’m NOT gonna take advantage of my Father and put on a show for you to both feed my ego and prove anything to you. In so doing I would be breaking another part of the Law you did not cite, Satan, that we should NOT tempt God – with anything – with the word meaning, to test him.
I think its wise for the simple reason to test or tempt God is to step outside of trusting His will and ways in all things and to assume that we can get God to embrace ours.
To walk with God is to trust Him in what befalls us and NOT think we can do our will and he will be forced to conform. The basis of that is pride, an appeal to human wisdom, and Satan fails to tap into this in the Lord. (last verse)
13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
And we conclude by noting that we do not see or read about Satan showing up again to directly engage with Jesus until Gethsemane – but this is not to suggest he was not hard at work as evidenced by Jesus referring to him as present in those around him – including Peter.
Let’s stop here.
Questions/Comments
Prayer
