It shows us some of the wiles of the devil
The devil is a defeated foe (1 Jn 4.4). We do not need to fear his power but we do need to fear his wiles lest he ensnare us. We should not be ignorant of his devices. W E Vine defines "wiles" as "cunning devices".
a) The account in Mark and Luke of the temptation (Mk 1.12-13; Lk 4.1-13) tells us that the Lord Jesus was tempted each of the forty days. The fortieth day was the climax, the most severe test. Satan waited until Christ had felt the pangs of hunger after forty days without food before he presented the first of these temptations recorded in Scripture. The devil wished the Lord Jesus to satisfy a legitimate desire in an illegitimate way. It was extremely plausible. Satan began with a subtle temptation and ended with a blunt one. Hunger is one of the legitimate desires that we all have. We all have other legitimate God-given desires and appreciations that the sin principle within us and the devil would like to turn into lusts, but we don't have to allow them to do so. The Epistle to Galatians states, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (5.16). Even when we are pleasing God by walking in the Spirit we still have the lusts of the flesh, but we will not fulfil them if we are dependent on the Holy Spirit. Many a time the Holy Spirit has helped to keep me from cherishing a wrong thought.
Satan could not shake the Lord Jesus' confidence in His Father's love and care, but the devil would like to shake our confidence in our heavenly Father's love and care. Sometimes we are tempted to take things into our own hands to obtain something that we need rather than waiting on God to act on our behalf. He knows what we need for our best good, and He knows the best time to give it.
b) The Word of God in the first temptation (Lk 4.3-4) defeated Satan because the Lord Jesus had perfect confidence in God and His Word. So the devil quotes the Word of God in the second temptation (Mt 4.5-7), but he leaves out the words, "to keep thee in all thy ways" (Ps 91.11). I do not believe for a minute that the devil left out those words because he had a bad memory. He deliberately left them out. He subtly quotes Psalm 91, a messianic Psalm. Satan wanted Christ to make a magnificent, spectacular display of His messiahship by falling down from a pinnacle of the temple.
When the Lord Jesus quoted Isaiah 61.1-2 in the synagogue (Lk 4.18-19) He had a very good motive for leaving out the words, "and the day of vengeance of our God". He closed the book without reading them for He knew they would be fulfilled at a later time. Satan had a very bad motive for leaving out "to keep thee in all thy ways". He was desperately trying to get Christ out of God's ways.
Christ answered, "It is written again…" (Mt 4.7). There is a very fine balance in the Word of God. The devil can even use a verse of Scripture to try to get us out of the way that God wants us to follow.
When the Lord Jesus said, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Mt 4.7; Lk 4.12) He was not saying to the devil, "You should not tempt me because I am God". I do not believe that is the correct interpretation, which, to me, misses the real meaning. In quoting those words, the Lord Jesus gives us His reason - that He as dependent man should not tempt His God by falling down from the pinnacle of the temple. It is not the way of faith to test the Word of God in impatience. We do not test a person's honesty when we have full confidence in him. If we do test a person's honesty that shows that we had some doubts about it
There is a fine line between trusting God and tempting Him. Joseph and Mary were probably trusting God in their care of the infant Christ, but it would have been tempting God to stay where they were after God had warned them to flee into Egypt. After being warned, it would have been foolishness (not faith) to say, "Because He is God's Son, God will take care of Him here".
Forty years ago when I had a wife and three children at home it would have been tempting God to give away so much to the Lord that I could not provide the necessities for my family. On the other hand, God could have put me into the position where I would be cast upon Him for all our meals. It would be trusting God if He put me in such a position, but for me irrationally to put myself into that position would be tempting Him.
Another illustration could be if there was a bridge over a big river between the Gospel Hall and me. After the bridge became very old it was replaced with a new bridge and they condemned the old bridge. It would be tempting the Lord to use the old bridge when the new one was available. But if I was expected to preach the gospel one evening and there was a bad accident resulting in the new bridge being closed temporarily so I couldn't get there in time, it could be trusting God to use the old condemned bridge.
c) The third temptation shows how highly Satan estimated Christ. The devil had been tempting mankind for forty centuries and he had never before come up against anyone like this. The glories of the kingdom of this world had been sullied by the devil himself, but he calculated that most of what he had accumulated would be worth a moment's devotion from Christ. (Interestingly, it was that very ambition that had resulted in his demotion from his place in God's presence even before man fell in the Garden of Eden.) But in reality this temptation was blasphemy. The One who later expounded Mark 8.36 could not be bought. The Lord's answer shows that anything that we worship is really what we serve!
To be continued.
