“IF you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Matthew 17
Have you ever noticed that the greatest time of testing often occurs when you are tired, hungry or alone? In this case, it’s no doubt that Jesus was all three. Scripture tells us that our Savior was not only led into the rocky and inhibited wilderness by the Spirit of God where he was “being tempted” for forty days, but Luke 4:1 tells us that He dealt with temptation every day by the Devil. After enduring over a month of testing and fasting and not sinning, Satan pulls out the big guns and didn’t hold back any punches.
“IF you are the son of God,” the Deceiver starts off saying, “tell these stones to become bread.” Satan wasn’t challenging Jesus’ sonship as much as he was suggesting that Jesus had the power and the right to satisfy his own needs without relying on God because of who He was. Satan was twisting the concept of faith (trust + belief) hoping that Jesus would show doubt with His Father and take care of His own needs. If you had that capability at such a crucial place and time, why would you wait and rely on God? We come across this crossroad in life frequently. Why seek and wait on God and have faith in His will or direction in an area we are entirely capable of handling ourselves? The answer lies in the Bible; we are to increase our faith by trusting and believing on God to provide all our needs, the most important of which are the needs of our souls that can only be fulfilled by His presence and Word (Luke 17:5).
Jesus’ answer to Satan shows us that he clearly was able to look beyond his immediate physical needs and the satisfaction fulfilling them would bring, and look at His circumstance from an eternal perspective. Our Savior knew that capability and opportunity should never trump faith and submission unto God.
“It is written,” Jesus answered the Devil, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Jesus was hungry and wanted to eat, but he knew He could go without food and survive; he’d done so for forty days, and He knew by faith God would give Him the strength to endure longer if necessary, but He knew he couldn’t go without the Word of God, because only the Bible is living and has the power and ability to feed and sustain the soul. Hebrews 10:38 tells us that God wants us to live by faith – trusting and believing in Him. Jesus understood that to take things into His own hands would satisfy him for a moment, but to wait on God and trust in Him would satisfy Him not just in that moment, but eternally. Jesus’ food was to do the will of His Father who sent Him, not what He wanted or thought was best (John 4:34).
What is it you’re being tempted to do on your own accord and in your own ability instead of waiting on God and clinging to every Word that comes from His mouth? Where is the enemy challenging who you are in Christ and enticing you to abandon the Father’s mission for your own agenda? Are you Biblically prepared to fend off an attack of the enemy of your soul by the Word of God? Like Jesus, we must be prepared for the battle at hand through faith and knowledge of God’s Word – and we begin to do that in prayer. Equally so, we must continually be building and increasing our faith for the inevitable times we are in the wilderness and the enemy comes to tempt us to leave our first love behind and do our own bidding.
In closing, please know that I pray for YOU daily – I mean that, so if you have any specific prayer requests, please do not hesitate in sending them my way. I love you guys. God bless!
No comments:
Post a Comment