SATAN TEMPTS JESUS

Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights . Just at the end of His fasting, He was confronted by the tempter (Matthew 4:2-10).

The devil used three things because they are a very crucial part of us. For Jesus was human much as He was God incarnate. Yet the devil sought to place himself very strategically so he could serve his evil desires. He (the devil) had sought to execute his evil desires in the following ways:

• Asked Jesus to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3-4).

• The devil tempted Jesus about His personality and how He (Jesus) would use His power (Matthew 4:5-7).

• The devil tempted Jesus about His view of the things (riches) of this world (Matthew 4:8-10).

Meaning and purpose of each of the above.

Turn stones into bread

Meaning

The devil sought to tempt Jesus at that moment because it was the best time for him (the devil) to do so. For Jesus had just fasted forty days and nights without food. Upon this, the devil hoped that if he tempted Jesus with food, Jesus would easily fall prey.

But the devil found Jesus well aware of the devil's evil schemes and He was well armed with scripture and spiritually and mentally strong to fend off the devil's schemes (Matthew 2:3-4). For it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God (Deuteronomy 8:3). For the devil had attempted to use scripture, but using it by wrong interpretation. How do you use scripture? 

Yet again, much as it presents as a matter of hunger, it is only symbolic of whatever directly touches or does apply to the demands of this life. There is a possibility that if we are denied these things in this life; we are likely to be compromised in our faith and trust in God. 

When the word of God comes to us, it becomes the seed to propagate faith in us (Matthew 13:31-32). But there are also forces of evil aiming to snatch it (word of God) away so we can lose our faith in God, or rather that it becomes ineffective and can't thereby effect faith in us (Matthew 13:24-30). Upon this, Jesus taught us using the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23).

We should never place our bodily demands in any position above God. We ought to deny ourselves the freedom to act just the way we feel or may wish (1Corinthians 9:27). For this is a warfare between flesh and Spirit. Thus scripture urges us to walk in the Spirit so we do not fulfill the lustful desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-18).

We are not to give in to the devil’s manipulations. Our strength can only be traced in doing the will of God rather than seeking to meet our insatiable selfish bodily demands.

The devil convinced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit because the fruit was good to eat and pleasant to look at (Genesis 3:1-6). According to this, there are two major reasons why Eve succumbed:

• The fruit was good for food

• It looked pleasant to the eyes.

 What do you draw out of this?

• Do you note the power of food? 

• Do you realize that the devil had also sought to tempt Jesus using food?

• Do you note that the devil showed Jesus the Kingdoms of this world so he could tempt Him (Jesus) on this front? Isn't it pleasant if you look at the beauty of the kingdoms of this world? What a beauty to look at, experience and eventually own!!!??? For the devil pretty knew that this gesture would be attractive and pleasant to Jesus' eyes. It only so was that Jesus was not the type of Eve. What type are you?

How many things have you given in to simply because they look pleasant to your eyes? Thus the saying: "not everything that glitters is gold".

It is imperative to note that anything that is without the blessing of God is destructive. Many things can be glittering to look at, but they may not be truly glittering as they appear. And many things may not appear as glittering, but if they have the blessing of God, they will be a blessing as well to the recipient (Psalms 37:16).

The devil used very treacherous language and was very strategically selective of his words when he (the devil) was talking to Eve. For the devil said to Eve:  

“...Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden...’?” (Genesis 3:1).

 Then Eve replies and does so very well:

"...From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die". (Genesis 3:2-3)

Do you note that Eve knew that even merely touching the fruit would breed death for them? Yet the devil did not relent because he knew that it would finally bear fruit, and he said to Eve:

“...You surely will not die! 5“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)


The devil tells Eve that if you eat of this fruit, you will be "like" God. What a promise? So, the woman succumbed because she wanted to be like God???!!! Isn't it that the devil was seeking to set man in a purely self defeating race with the almighty God???!!!

What exactly was the devil's promise meant for? Was it that man would become God, or that he would become like God? If to be like God, how were Adam and Eve to become like God? For man was already like God because he had been created in God's own image!

If being like God was to know between good and bad (just as God is), of what benefit was it to be to them (Adam and Eve)? Rather what is the gain in what you do or believe? Or is it yet time to know it? How exactly did the devil's promise materialize? Lessons from this:

• Consider the consequences before you engage in anything!!!

• Test the spirits, always (1John 4:1-5)

• Take your due time, in everything.

• It is not about the position you are, but it is about how purposely you are positioned.

• Do not go for or into what you do not understand. It is pretty possible that Eve did not understand a thing what the devil was promising or saying.

• Do not hope for promises which are not from God.

• God gives us free will.

Purpose

The insatiable daily demands of life such as; food and water, and bodily dangers such as pain and infirmities, tend to compromise our resolve to serve God’s will. When Jesus overcame the devil on this front, it teaches us that:

• It is possible to overcome the wiles and machinations of Satan.

• That we can overcome the devil even when with stinging pain. 

• We should be able to identify the devil no matter how he masquerades. 

• There is all grace to overcome. 

Job stood even in the face of stinging pain (Job 2:4-6). The word of God is better food and more precious than the lust of the body. For heaven and earth will pass away, but God's word is eternal (Psalms 119:89), (Isaiah 40:8), (Matthew 24:35), (Luke 21:33).

The devil tells Jesus to jump from high as proof that God was with Him (Jesus)

Meaning

The devil sought to tempt Jesus using this front (Matthew 4:5-7). He (the devil) wanted Jesus to demonstrate how He (Jesus) is:

• Unique from all the rest

• Anointed unlike others. 

But this was only a deception the devil had yet again sought to use.

In this, yet again, the devil seeks to interpret scripture the wrong way so it can serve his evil purpose (Psalms 91:12). But Jesus countered the devil's evil schemes with the word of God. We are not to engage in anything that intends or seems to tempt or challenge God  (Deuteronomy 6:16). 

By seeking to tempt us to tempt and challenge God, the devil wishes to ignite the ego in us by using two things:

• Promises of God to us (Joshua 23:14), (Psalms 84:11, 89:34, 103:12), (Micah 7:19), (Luke 11:13, 18:27), (2Corinthians 1:19-20), (1John 1:8-9, 2:25), (Philippians 4:19).

• Assurances of God to us (Job 19:25-26), (Psalms 23:4, 46:1-3), (Isaiah 12:2, 32:17), (Jeremiah 29:11), (Matthew 7:13-14), (Luke 4:18-19), (Romans 5:1, 8:16).

Say for example that God has assured us of protection, it is not true that upon this assurance, we should place ourselves in danger. But if danger comes our way, then we can "remind" God of His assurance of protection to us. Additionally, God's assurances and promises are fulfilled in our lives by way of faith in God, and not by taking instructions from the devil.

So, the devil pretty knows that we can't believe his word. Thus the reason he blends his (the devil's) word with God's own word so it becomes attractive to us. For the devil is pretty deceptive. The devil pretty convinced king Ahab by deception:

'By what means?' the LORD asked. "'I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. "'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' (1Kings 22:22), (2Chronicles 18:21)

And because the devil keeps closely tracing us (if we allow him to), he pretty knows that we tend to use all material to express our ego. He (the devil) knows that we do.

Yet again, Jesus was well equipped both mentally, spiritually and with the word of God. For if Jesus had done just what the devil was tempting Him into, how well would it have gone? Didn't Jesus have the space to do just that? Did Satan misquote scripture when he said:  

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. ¹² They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone (Psalms 91:12).

Satan did note misquote scripture, but he sought to misuse it for his evil schemes. So then, what does this mean?

• Not every time scripture is quoted, it is so in good faith

• The devil can do anything to get your attention

• Scripture without the Spirit of God can't lead you well

• Take care where from you take instructions. 

• Take care how scripture is to be fulfilled in your life

• The devil is a liar, always

Purpose

The purpose is that much as God would love to use us mightily and exhibit His presence in us, it is not intended to be used to satisfy our personal egos, but to serve God’s purpose and that is it. 

We should understand that it is not about us but about the one we serve and that is God. For we are soldiers in God's army. And if we are soldiers in God's army, we serve to please Him and not us. We must then endure anything which comes thereof (2Timothy 2:3-4). We are to use God's promises and assurances to us not in any of the following ways:

• Wishful

• Serve own personal interests. 

• Selfishness.

We can only have God's purpose fulfilled in us if we keep taking instruction from our commander and that is God, through His Son Jesus Christ. Thus Jesus left us the Holy Spirit who keeps testifying to us about Him (Jesus) (John 15:26).

Riches

Meaning

Everyone in flesh would love to be rich and to own riches. Some people would do anything to get riches. Some of us have gone as far as offering our loved ones for human sacrifices because we have been promised that if we do, it will pave the way for us to acquire the much craven for riches. 

The devil had nurtured a feeling that Jesus would be one of such people. He had falsely thought that Jesus would be overwhelmed if He saw the riches of this world and that He (Jesus) wouldn't have hesitated to imagine how great He would be if He had acquired such riches (Matthew 4:8-10). The devil had only sought to use this to blindfold Jesus.

In Jesus' reply, He showed the devil that His love for God would never be compromised for anything. For it is God alone we are to worship and serve (Deuteronomy 10:20). And everything that we may own either in form of riches or wealth, must be to the honor of God. Rather we must use it to serve God. For it is not to be used for the devil's purpose of killing and destroying.

Yet it is never true that the riches and the kingdoms of this world belong to the devil. The devil has created nothing. For the world and everything therein is the Lord's (Psalms 24:1).  But the devil is master at manipulating and twisting things in the very treacherous way. For if you lack God's word in you, or if you lack proper understanding of God's word, then you will be easy prey for the devil. 

It is upon this that Jesus taught us that riches alone cannot add up a person. For there is life beyond mere riches of this world (Luke 12:13-15).

If some of us can sacrifice their dear ones simply to acquire riches, how easy would it have been if the devil had made it to seem so simple like he tried to make it appear to Jesus? He only wanted Jesus to worship him (the devil) as the only requirement. Yet the repercussions would have never been simple any bit. Take care before you engage in anything, it may not be as simple as it looks or seems for that matter.

The purpose

This teaches us that it is not bad to be rich, but the way and the cost at which one acquires riches is what is imperative to note. For it is of the Lord to make rich (Deuteronomy 8:18), (1Chronicles 29:12), (Job 1:9-10, 41:11), (Proverbs 8:17-18), (Revelations 5:12).

The devil gives earthly riches (if at all he does) as a way to set a trap upon which we can serve his evil purposes. Serving the devil means forsaking God and this is terribly consequential.

Satan uses man's insatiable greed to woo his (man's) allegiance away from God. But it is only a malevolent move because even greed itself is of Satan. It is only a trap. The devil does nothing in genuine terms.

Anything with the intention to get us away from the only true God should be resisted to the tooth.

Names and titles of Satan

 

• Thief and Destroyer (John 10:10)

• The angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon (Revelation 9:11)

• Accuser (Revelation 12:10)

• Adversary and devourer (1Peter 5:8)

• Beelzebul (Matthew 12:24)

• Belial (2Corinthians 6:15)

• Murderer (John 8:44)

• Devil (Matthew 4:1, 25:41), (Acts 10:38)

• Serpent of old (Revelation 12:9, 20:2)

• Enemy (Matthew 13:39)

• The evil spirit (1Samuel 16:14)

• Dragon (Revelation 12:3)

• Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1), (Psalm 74:14), (Job 3:8, 41:1-34)

• Deceiver or deceiving spirit (1Kings 22:22)

• Domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13)

• The world (John 14:30)

• Prince of the power of the air, spirit of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).

• Force of wickedness (Ephesians 6:12)

• Satan (1Chronicles 21:1), (Matthew 16:23)

• Liar (Genesis 3:4), (John 8:44)

• Tempter (Matthew 4:3), (1 Thessalonians 3:5)

• god of this world (2Corinthians 4:4)

• Unclean spirit (Matthew 12:43)

• The evil one (Matthew 13:19), (2Timothy 2:26), (Ephesians 6:11)

Conclusion

How to defeat the devil

In all such, we should always learn to:

• Be in position to detect the wiles and machinations of the devil. 

• Be equipped with the word of God. 

• Understand that there is nothing good about Satan. 

• Be pure in everything so that Satan has nothing to do with us (John 14:30).

In all that Jesus did, He wanted us to learn from Him in the following ways:

• Have courage to gain strength in the face of stinging pain and want. 

• The devil wants to break our faith in God. 

• Our faith in God will always be tested 

• We should remain obedient to God in all circumstances. 

Additionally, the devil had quoted scripture, and it is pretty true that that is what it says. But the devil had sought to use it for his own consequential treachery. For whether scripture is right or not, it is not the devil to quote it for us. Rather it is not the devil to direct us how to apply scripture. The devil's treachery is ever at play. Note that the devil is already fallen and his only destination is everlasting hell. 

And upon this, even if Jesus were to do just as the devil had sought to remind Him to do (treacherously using scripture), Jesus was not to do anything upon being told by the devil. It is not the devil to tell you what to do, whether using scripture or anything else. For we get instructions from God because we are in God's Kingdom and never again in Satan's evil kingdom.

Recall that when Eve gave the devil some little space, it has translated into very serious consequences for everyone. For the devil presents as if he is an angel of light and he uses many tricks so that he can mislead many (2Corinthians 11:14), (Daniel 11:32). To us Christians, we should all stand well informed that the threat and danger of the devil misleading us is so lively and it is still a possibility (2Corinthians 11:3).

Jesus only defeated the devil with the right approach blended with the timely word of God. Additionally, temptations are a part of our Christian journey, we must not quake when they come. And our shield of faith in Jesus who is but our perfect example will fend off any and every darts of the evil one.