1510 | Matthew 4:1 Jesus s testeed in the wilederness
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness 4:1 – 11pp // Mk 1:12,13; Lk 4:1 – 13
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Then Jesus was led by the Spir it into the wil der ness to be tempt ed a by the dev il. 2 Af ter fast ing for ty days and for ty nights, f he was hun gry. 3 The tempt er g came to him and said,“ If you are the Son of God, h tell these stones to be come bread.”
4 Jesus an swered,“ It is writ ten:‘ Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ b” i
5 Then the dev il took him to the holy city j and had him stand on the high est point of the tem ple. 6“ If you are the Son of God,” he said,“ throw your self down. For it is writ ten:
“‘ He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ c” k
4:2 f Ex 34:28; 1Ki 19:8
4:3 g 1Th 3:5 h Mt 3:17;
Jn 5:25; Ac 9:20 4:4 i Dt 8:3
4:5 j Ne 11:1; Da 9:24; Mt 27:53
4:6 k Ps 91:11, 12
4:7 l Dt 6:16
4:10 m 1Ch 21:1 n Dt 6:13
4:11 o Mt 26:53; Lk 22:43; Heb 1:14
4:12 p Mt 14:3
Mt 4:11 ❖ How does God help us stand firm against temptation in our lives?
7 Jesus an swered him,“ It is also written:‘ Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ d” l
8 Again, the dev il took him to a very high moun tain and showed him all the king doms of the world and their splendor. 9“ All this I will give you,” he said,“ if you will bow down and wor ship me.”
10 Jesus said to him,“ Away from me, Sa tan! m For it is writ ten:‘ Wor ship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ e” n
11 Then the dev il left him, and an gels came and at tend ed him. o
Jesus Begins to Preach
12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in pris on, p he with drew to Gal
a
1 The Greek for tempted can also mean tested. b
4 Deut. 8:3 c
6 Psalm 91:11,12 d
7 Deut. 6:16 e
10 Deut. 6:13 judgment for those who reject the message of the arriving kingdom of God. We can create a warped view of God and the gospel by overemphasizing the judgment to come, but we just as surely distort people’ s view if we minimize the reality of judgment.
John is inviting those who respond to his message to experience life, to escape from the wrath to come, and to await the baptism of the Holy Spirit that the Coming One will bring. No message of judgment should ever be given without the accompanying message of promised life for those who respond.
Jesus laid aside both the glory and the independent exercise of his deity to live a life like ours on earth. That is why he is the very real, very tangible example of what our lives are being transformed into when we choose to follow him.
4:1 – 2 The Spirit that came on Jesus at his baptism leads him to the desert and empowers Jesus to withstand Satan’ s temptations. The Father uses Satan’ s evil intention to strengthen Jesus for his messianic role. 4:3 – 4 Satan does not doubt Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, nor is he trying to get Jesus to doubt it. For Jesus to have turned the stones into bread would lead Jesus outside the Father’ s will for the Son’ s human experience. Temptations are one of the enemy’ s ways of trying to get a person to abandon God’ s will. 4:5 – 7 By intentionally putting himself in harm’ s way, Jesus would be inappropriately testing his Father’ s love, manipulating him to send a rescuing force of angels. Such a spectacular display would not honor the Father’ s pathway for Jesus: obediently proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and suffering whatever consequences may come.
UNCORRECTED PROOF
4:8 – 10 Satan tries to sidetrack Jesus by getting him to take a shortcut to gain the kingdom that will someday be his via the hard way of the cross.“ Away from me, Satan!” In this response Jesus exerts his rightful authority over Satan by issuing his first command. He quotes for the third time the book of Dt. 4:11 Matthew adds a comforting comment:“ and angels came and attended him.” That is, angels attend to Jesus’ physical needs after his long period of fasting. This comment indicates the cosmic significance what has just happened. The Son has begun the invasion of Satan’ s domain.
4:1 – 11 A temptation is not always something inherently“ evil” but rather consists of a good thing used for wrong purposes. Therefore, one of the most important considerations when addressing temptation is to understand the proper purpose for anything we face. Said in another way, what does God want for us in a situation? Being tempted is not a sin. Succumbing to the temptation is when it becomes sin.
4:12 – 17 Jesus makes Capernaum, located in the ancient region of Naphtali, his base of operations. Having moved there from Nazareth in what had been the ancient territory of Zebulun, Jesus fulfills another OT prophecy( v. 16). Here, these Jews are the first to see the great light of God’ s deliverance in Jesus.
The phrase“ from that time on...”( v. 17) marks a significant turning point. The preparations for Jesus’ messianic ministry are complete. The prophesied miraculous birth and infancy of Messiah have been established.
Matthew’ s summary of Jesus’ message is the same as that of John the Baptist:“ repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”( v. 17). When