The Issue at the Heart of Every Temptation (Luke 4:1-13)

At the baptism of Jesus, the Father’s voice comes from heaven, declaring: “You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You!” (Luke 3:22). The devil then comes and couches all his accusations in terms of doubt, tempting Jesus to distrust His Father: “If You are the Son of God…”

At the heart of this whole series of temptations is the issue of trust, just as it was in Eden. Jesus is taking a stand where humankind first (and ever since) fell. The character of God is called into question, and Jesus chooses to trust His Father unwaveringly.

Jesus answers by quoting the words of God, demonstrating His trust in the Father.

Turning stones to bread: Jesus trusts His father to provide for His needs. God has led Him to the wilderness and has sustained Him without food for 40 days, but now He feels hungry. Whether He feels the hunger or not, He trusts God to satisfy and sustain His life.

We, too, must trust God and rely upon His word regardless of how we may feel or what evidence is thrown against us. We may look around at all the evil in our world and be tempted to distrust the love of God. God may seem to have abandoned us or not helped us at times, and we may feel tempted to turn to those who claim to turn stones to bread, but only by trusting in God and His word will we really live.

Worship the devil in exchange for the kingdoms of the world: To anyone, this would be a temptation, but how much more to Jesus who came to this earth for the very purpose of taking back what the devil had stolen – the people of this world. And here Satan offers Jesus that very thing! But Jesus knows two things: 1) only God is worthy to be worshiped and served, 2) trading with the devil never works out the way he claims. Jesus could have made the trade and “gained” the world, but He would have lost everything eternally. Instead, He chose to trust the Father’s plan of redemption, though it was much more difficult. Jesus chose to trust that only through His sacrifice could humankind truly be rescued.

We, too, face offers from the devil. There are times when he will offer us, apparently, the very thing we’ve been waiting and trusting God to provide. And it will be so much easier to accept his deal rather than to trust and wait for God, to endure the difficult path ahead of us in God’s plan. God does not make it difficult arbitrarily, but His leading is as it is because it is the only way to truly attain what He has promised. We must trust God’s abundant promises and reject the devil’s empty promises.

Presumption/testing God: Since Jesus has been so firm in trusting His Father and His Father’s promises, the devil twists the Scriptures in order to tempt Jesus to sin. He quotes (at least partially) from Psalm 91. But again, notice that the whole thing is done in order to tempt Jesus to distrust His Father. “If You are the Son of God,” then prove it by throwing yourself off this cliff. After all, this God You claim to be Your Father has promised to protect You, so when He does, that will be proof that You really are His Son. If Jesus had done this, it would not have been out of trust, but out of an attempt to force God’s hand, not for any good, but to remove the need to trust.

We, too, must trust God’s promises, but not use them to try to prove His love for us or His existence, etc. His promises are evidence of His character, not means to test His character. Jesus gave us an example of trust in God, and He did so by putting His trust in the Words of God, which are evidences of His love for us. Let us be diligent to study and store in our hearts the words of God, so we too can stand firm in the face of temptation.