Luke 4:1-13
Luke 4
The Temptation of Jesus
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours."
8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"
9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
12Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
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There is so much that could be analyzed in these thirteen verses. Many a sermon has been preached on Christ's temptation. Most of this is straight-forward, so I'll try not to say very much.
Jesus goes out into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days. Forty days with no food! That's dedication, there. To say that "at the end of them he was hungry" is a huge understatement. So as he is tempted by the devil, think about how physically weak he must be at this point.
Notice that Jesus uses scripture to combat the devil. All of his comments are scripture. However, also note that the devil even uses scripture in his attacks. Satan is knowledgable of God and the Bible. Using a few words out of context can twist the meaning of something.
Jesus' comment in verse 4 (from Deuteronomy 8:3) is a good lesson that we have needs other than the physical -- we need more than just food, shelter, and clothing.
His comment in verse 8 (from Deuteronomy 6:13) is a good lesson in priorities. God is to be worshiped above jobs and money and power and relationships. He is a jealous God who wants our attention and devotion.
And his comment in verse 12 (from Deuteronomy 6:16) indicates to me, in a small way, that God is a powerful God that shouldn't be trifled with. You get the feeling that the devil is trying to push his buttons, and he's lucky that God didn't do something a bit more... severe.
So why do you think Jesus was tempted? Did the devil REALLY think it would work?
posted by FTN @ 11:08 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
"He is a jealous God"
Why? Why would an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful Lord succumb to one of the 7 deadly sins?
~~Surfie~~
JMO, I don't believe that jealousy is a sin at all. Coveting/envy is, but there is a difference.
The following is taken from http://en.bibleinfo.com Emphasis mine.
The seven deadly sins in the Christian tradition were first compiled by Pope Gregory I around the year 600. They are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Gregory also compiled a list of the seven virtures: faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude.
The Scripture would validate all of these concepts, but nowhere are they recorded in a list like this and nowhere in the Bible are they specifically referred to as the seven deadly sins or seven virtues.
They do not pre-date the Ten Commandments which were given at Mt. Sinai around 1450 B.C. It is probably true that they were used extensively to teach principles from God's Word, particularly in the centuries before the invention of the printing press when the Bible was not available for the common man to read and study.
Hope that helps you in your understanding.
I think that coveting is wanting something that is not mine. A nice car, someone else's wife, something like that.
When the writers of the Bible talk about God being a jealous God, it is indicating that he desires our worship and devotion. He loves us, and wants us to be in a relationship with Him rather than another God (or money or power or whatever).
I'm guessing that some of our confusion (because, granted, "jealousy" is usually a pretty negative term in our society) is a matter of wording and translation from the original Greek and Hebrew...
This past weekend, I was on a retreat, and the passage was read, "I am the Lord; there is no other." And it struck me in a new way, that He's all there is; there's no-one else for us to go to and get a 'better deal'. It's of the nature of monotheism - He's the only God there is, so we better figure out how to deal with Him.
Why was Jesus tempted? I've always thought of this in terms of the Incarnation; that it was integral to His work of saving us, that He take on our human nature completely. Since we're tempted, He had to be tempted. In a sense, He had to fully experience our humanity, what it means on a very down-and-dirty level, for us to be human, in order to save and redeem us. In a sense, He was transforming our human nature by living it to the fullest, and by uniting ourselves to Him, we get to participate in the transformation. Irenaeus, a Church Father of the second century, famously said, "What wasn't assumed, wasn't healed." Which is to say, that Christ took on ALL of our human nature, in order to heal us completely.
Yeef; sorry to go all high-falutin' theological on y'all. If nothing else, Jesus was tempted in order to show us how to deal with temptation ourselves (altho, we also know that there was a good deal more going on than just setting an example).
Thanks again, Flutterby. Much appreciated.
~~Surfie~~
General question, FTN, but do you believe in "the devil?" If so, can you expound on that belief a little?
Yes, I do. I'll explain what the Bible says about the devil (Satan, Lucifer, whatever), but let me also say that I have many questions myself. I by no means have all the answers.
Lucifer was created as an angel of God. But he became corrupted -- perhaps by pride, maybe he was power-hungry. God cast him away from his presence. I believe this is discussed in multiple places in the Bible. Ezekiel 28, for instance, and in Isaiah.
Satan wanted to be God. We could probably say that he has now become the "god of this world." Multiple scriptures mention that he roams the earth, choosing "whom he might devour." That's not to say that he *makes* anyone sin, but he is definitely the great temptor.
Tempter? Or temptor? Whatever.
There's plenty of stuff in Revelation about Lucifer -- when he was cast out of Heaven, one third of all angels were cast out with him. They became what are referred to as "demons." Revelation also says that he'll be eternally punished for it.
Satan isn't a little red guy with horns. It's more of a struggle of light and dark that is always going on, something we can't see. Many years ago, as a teenager, I read some very good books by Frank Peretti -- "This Present Darkness" was one of them. It fictionalizes the struggle between angels and demons in a real, graphical way. (I haven't read that book in a long time, so it may very well be a lot more cheesy than I remember it being.)
Sin had entered the world because of Adam and Eve's choice, and God already had in mind a sacrifice so Adam and Eve (and their descendants) could be brought close to him. Enter... Jesus.
Oh Boy. *evil dictator fingers twiddling* this brings up some even bigger questions. Profound questions.
I'm not in a position to argue the veracity of the "person" of Satan. I am unsure myself as to the meaning of Scripture in this realm.
It is interesting that all the occurences of "satan" in Hebrew are simply refering to the linguistic meaning of the word, "adversary". In Hebrew, if someone was my enemy, I would literally call him/her "my satan". Along these lines, it's interesting to note that the idea of Satan as an entity or person is not a Hebrew idea or something that is found in any Jewish (ancient or otherwise) writings. Only when Judeo/Christian faith encountered other ideologies which influenced it (such as Hellenism, Dualism, etc.) and began to be conveyed in the Greek language, did these concepts begin to be espoused.
What the ancient Hebrews DID have, however, was a strong belief in an inner adversary... the Evil Inclination. Or, as we also see it in Scripture, our Carnal Nature. This is the element of evil residing in each human which strives against (opposes or is an adversary) holiness and Godliness in our lives. It is this element or ideology that some believe -- when communicated in the Greek (remember, the writers are trying to find words to describe Hebrew concepts) -- became misunderstood or syncretized with their own dualistic beliefs to become what we know today as a doctrine or belief about the person of Satan.
Now, I'm not saying this is wrong... just interesting.
So, if I haven't lost you all yet, the thought that crossed my mind is this:
If the writers of the Gospels, in choosing a Greek word to represent their concept of Adversary or the Evil Inclination, chose the word "devil" -- which was later interpreted as an actual personified evil, rather than the carnal inner nature of man... it is possible that the retelling of the temptation of Jesus was simply telling of an internal struggle -- a battle between his own carnal nature and His Spiritual essence. (Go ahead now and read it in this light... really, do it.)
This is big. Because it says a lot about who you believe Jesus to be. Is He simply God clothed in flesh? Or is He fully God and fully man, housed in flesh? Do you see the difference? Also, was He tempted in every way that we are tempted (inner struggle)? Or is the only record of His temptation something that the average human cannot relate to? (I mean, when was the last time we all voyaged in the wilderness for over a month without food, only to be taunted by an ethereal being of power?)
Anyway, just some food for thought, which I'm sure will spur some conversation.
FTN,
This reminds me of the old chicken and egg question -- was sin first or the devil? Is/are it/they one in the same or somehow a product of causation or correlation?
Flutterby,
Again, thank you for your well-thought and concise response. Again, this makes much more sense to me and is in synch with my thoughts on willful sinning (as above).
~~Surfie~~
Actually...make that willfull sinning comment referring to a previous post.
~~Surfie~~
Flutterby -- Hmm, interesting. Very interesting. I do believe that Jesus was fully human, and had plenty of "inner struggle." Reading the temptation of Jesus in this text with the background that you gave definitely makes for an interesting reading. What you say does make sense.
It's difficult to look at it that way, however, in the broad scope of other places that refer to Lucifer being cast out of heaven with 1/3 of the angels, and all of that jazz. Plus, you've got the whole book of Revelation. (But I'm no expert on Revelation, I honestly have avoided studying it much since I was in high school.)
But the language background is indeed something I wasn't aware of. I'm glad ONE of us here has an education in this stuff!
FTN,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I certainly haven't figured it out. Just wanted to throw out some history there.
It is confounding to read Scriptures that do seem to lend a personification to evil (ie: Satan) -- at least to our cultural bias. And they seem hard to explain any other way.
But then, I'm also confounded by the fact that Hebrew history doesn't exactly speak of a "devil", per se, as we have been accustomed to thinking of.
All of it just makes me glad that God is so much bigger than my little pea-brain and that my salvation isn't hinged on me having everything figured out.
Flutterby,
I'm assuming your are Jewish. If it's okay with FTN, can you define for me salvation in that context?
? Yeshua ?
Forgive me, I am learning.
~~Surfie~~
Surfie,
As FTN hasn't responded, it might be best to discuss personal stuff via email, rather than on his Bible Study page. You can find my email on my profile. I'd be happy to correspond.
Will do, Flutterby.
Thank you,
~~Surfie~~
You guys can discuss anything here or via email, either way... totally up to you.
The question of Jewish "salvation" is an interesting one, though. I thought Judaism was quite different than Christianity in that context.
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