This week we took a look at the second part of the series “deal with the devil”. We looked at the first interaction that Jesus had with Satan and the exchange that happened. It’s really fascinating when you look at all of the intricacies that are going on in the following two verses:
Matt. 4:3-4
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The first thing that Jesus actually gets tempted with comes with the first word that Satan actually said to him “if”. The devil would love nothing more than to get us confused about our identity and who God’s created us to be. He follows up with saying “…command that these stones become bread…” - this also is a form of trying to cause doubt and insecurities about Jesus’ identity. You see, during this time in history there had been all sorts of stories that were passed down about what the coming messiah would look like. They said he would be able to do all sorts of supernatural things and turning a stone into bread wouldn’t be a hassle at all. What the devil is doing is he’s trying to get Jesus to fit into this perfect mold of what people are expecting of him.
One of the most amazing things about God is his desire for VARIETY - God doesn’t have a “Christian” factory up in heaven where there’s one mold and he produces all the believers to look the same way. God wants and needs and desires individuality, he doesn’t want us to feel forced into acting and performing a certain way. The devil would love nothing more than to have a group of Christians who don’t know who they are running around trying to “find themselves”. NO ONE ELSE CAN BE YOU- don’t rob the world of the gifting and callings and dreams you have- don’t try to conform and be like everyone else, or be what others want you to be- be who God created you to be.
The in the same sentence we can find the devil trying to convince Jesus to give in to what we call “the lust of the flesh”. He’s saying “hey, you’re starving – you’ve been fasting for forty days and forty nights- why don’t you take this stone, make it bread and eat it – it’s what you want, it’ll taste good and satisfy your hunger.” The thing we have to understand is that the devil is always looking to take what God has created and twist it around and distort it to be used in a manner that it was never intended for. God created a stone to be a stone – not bread. In the same manner God created sex to be a beautiful, wonderful, and amazing thing- in the context of marriage, but the devil, like he always does, takes sex and twists it and distorts it and tempts people with it in all manners except in the way that God intended it- that’s why pornography and sex outside of marriage is so rampant- lust of the flesh- “if it feels good and you’ll enjoy it – do it”, and it’s not right. He wants Jesus to give into the “lust of his flesh” and twist original creation and use it to whatever he wants.
But Jesus answered and said that man isn’t to live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. The first thing to note is that Jesus answered
him, we are faced with a choice when temptation and sin comes whether to answer it or not- Jesus could have just shrugged the devil off and ignored him but he chose to answer him- in the same way we need to respond to sin in our life. And the he said that we are to live no only by bread, but by the very words that come from the mouth of God. As we eat naturally for the benefits of growth and getting the proper nutrients, we also need to consume ourselves on the word of God (look at last week’s blog for more detail on this). So this week, thank God for individuality and make sure that you are responding to any form of temptation or sin in your life, and continue to feed yourself on the word of God.
For Him,
