Temptation of Jesus

Dear All,

Studying the life of Jesus is wonderful.  This is an excerpt from the life of Jesus in Fausset's dictionary.  You do yourself an injustice if you fail to read the scripture references.

I redacted the entry for easier reading, and added the quoted poem at the end.

God Bless,

~Al

The Temptation of Jesus

 

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Mat 4:1 

 

 

Under the power of the Spirit received at His baptism He encountered Satan in the wilderness. Satan's aim was to tempt Him to doubt His sonship, "if Thou be the Son of God," etc. The same voice spoke through His mockers at the crucifixion (Mat 27:40). Faith answers with Nathanael (Joh 1:49). Mar 1:13 says "He was with the wild beasts," a contrast to the first Adam among the beasts tame and subject to man's will. Adam changed paradise into a wilderness, Jesus changed the wilderness into paradise (Isa 11:6-9). Jesus' answer to all the three temptations was not reasoning, but appeal to God's written word, "it is written." As Christ was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb 7:26), the temptation must have been from without, not from within: objective and real, not subjective or in ecstasy. The language too, "led up ... came ... taketh Him up ... the Spirit driveth Him" (ekballei, a necessary though a distasteful conflict to the Holy One), etc., implies reality (Mat 4:1; Mat 4:3; Mat 4:5; Mar 1:12).

In fallen man suggestions of hatred of God, delight in inflicting pain, cruel lust, fierce joy in violating law, are among the inward temptations of Satan; but Jesus said before His renewed temptation in Gethsemane, "the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (Joh 14:30). As 40 is the number in Scripture implying affliction, sin, and punishment (Gen 7:4; Gen 7:12; Num 14:33; Num 32:13-14; Psa 95:10; Deu 25:3; Eze 29:11; Eze 4:6; Jon 3:4), Christ the true Israel (Deu 8:3; Deu 8:16; Deu 9:9; Deu 9:11-25) denied Himself 40 days, answering to Israel's 40 years' provocation of God and punishment by death in the wilderness. Not by His almighty power, but by His righteousness, Jesus overcame. First Satan tried Him through His sinless bodily wants answering to "the flesh" in fallen man. But Jesus would not, when hungry, help Himself, though He fed multitudes, for He would not leave His voluntarily assumed position of human absolute dependence on God. He who nourished crowds with bread Would not one meal unto Himself afford O wonderful the wonders left undone, And scarce less wonderful than those He wrought!  O self restraint passing all human thought, To have all power and be as having none! O self denying love, which felt alone For needs of others, never for His own![1]

The next temptation in the spiritual order (Matthew gives probably the chronological order) was, Satan tried to dazzle Him, by a bright vision of the world's pomps "in a moment of time," to take the kingdoms of the world at his hands (as "delivered" to him, owing to man's fall) without the cross, on condition of one act of homage to him "the prince of this world." But Jesus herein detected the adversary, and gives him his name, "Get thee behind Me, Satan" (His very words to Peter, who, as Satan's tool, for the moment urged the same avoidance of the cross: Mat 16:23), "for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord," (Luk 4:8) etc. The kingdom of the world shall come to Him, just because His cross came first (Php 2:5-11; Rev 11:15; Isa 53:12). To the flesh and the world succeeds the last and highest temptation, the devil's own sin, presumption. Satan turns Jesus' weapon, the word, on Himself, quoting Psa 91:11-12, and omitting the qualification "in all thy ways," namely, implicit reverent faith and dependence on God, which were "Christ's ways."

Christ would no more presume because He was God's Son than doubt that He was so. To cast Himself from the temple S.W. wall pinnacle, then 180 feet above the valley before soil accumulated, or the topmost ridge of the royal portico, to test God's power and faithfulness, would be Israel's sin in "tempting Jehovah, saying, Is Jehovah among us or not?" though having had ample proofs already (Exo 17:7; Psa 78:18-20; Psa 78:41; Deu 6:16, which Jesus quotes). All His quotations are from the same book, which rationalism now assails. Thus the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which lured the first Adam, could not entice the Second (Gen 3:6; compare 1Jn 2:16-17). The assault against man's threefold nature, the body (the lack of bread), the soul (craving for worldly lordship without the cross), and the spirit (the temptation on the temple pinnacle), failed in His case. It was necessary the foundation should be tested, and it stood the trial (Isa 28:16). Satan left Him "for a (rather until the) season," namely, until he renewed the attack at Gethsemane, "and angels came and ministered unto Him," God fulfilling the promise of Psalm 91: in Christ's, not Satan's, way.

(Fausset)

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[1] THE CHRIST

He might have reared a palace at a word,
Who sometimes had not where to lay His head.
Time was when He who nourished crowds with bread,
Would not one meal unto Himself afford.
He healed another's scratch, His own side bled;
Side, hands and feet with cruel piercings gored.
Twelve legions girded with angelic sword
Stood at His beck, the scorned and buffeted.
Oh, wonderful the wonders left undone!
Yet not more wonderful than those He wrought!
Oh, self-restraint, surpassing human thought!
To have all power, yet be as having none!
Oh, self-denying love, that thought alone
For needs of others, never for its own!

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH