Chapter 4
Jesus fasts forty days
and is tempted—He begins His ministry, calls disciples, and heals the sick.
After His baptism, Christ went “into the wilderness to be
tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1).[1]
Luke gives us some additional information. “Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost
returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Luke
4:1).
“The circumstances attending this
time of exile and test must have been related by Jesus Himself, for of other
human witnesses there were none. The recorded narratives deal principally with
events marking the close of the forty-day period, but considered in their
entirety they place beyond doubt the fact that the season was one of fasting
and prayer.”[2]
When He was weakened physically by
this ordeal, He faced temptations from the devil.
He begins with a challenge – “If thou be the Son of God…” (emphasis
mine). He is attempting to have Christ question his divinity. The only way He
can satisfy the devil is to prove to him He is the Son of God. Of course, this
was a carefully crafted lie. He knew Christ was the Son of God.
Knowing He was hungry after 40
days, he told Him to “command that these stones be made bread” (Matthew 4:3).
Christ responded, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3).[3]
“[W]hen He was hungry and
physically weak, the tempter came with the insidious suggestion that He use His
extraordinary powers to provide food. Satan had chosen the most propitious time
for his evil purpose. What will mortals not do, to what lengths have men not
gone, to assuage the pangs of hunger? Esau bartered his birthright for a meal.
Men have fought like brutes for food.”[4]
“Jesus rejected temptation. When
confronted by the great tempter himself, Jesus ‘[yielded] not to the temptation’
(Mosiah 15:5). He countered with scripture: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4).
Gospel commandments and standards are our protection also, and like the Savior,
we may draw strength from the scriptures to resist temptation.”[5]
The devil than took Him to “the holy city” and placed him on
a pinnacle of the temple.[6]
“If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give
his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6).[7]
The devil added a new twist – he quoted scripture.[8]
“Again appears the implication of doubt. If
Jesus was in fact the Son of God, could He not trust His Father to save Him,
and particularly so as it was written that angels would guard Him and bear Him
up” (emphasis in original).[9]
Christ responded, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God”[10]
“Christ’s reply to the tempter in the wilderness had
embodied a scriptural citation, and this He had introduced with the impressive
formula common to expounders of sacred writ – ‘It is written.’ In the second
attempt, the devil tried to support his suggestion by scripture, and employed a
similar expression – ‘for it is written.’ Our Lord met and answered the devil’s
quotation with another, saying: ‘It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God.’”[11]
The devil then took Him to “an exceeding high mountain, and
sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (Matthew
4:8).[12]
He then had the unmitigated gall to ask Christ, the Son of
God, to worship him.[13]
“The effrontery of his offer was of itself diabolical. Christ, the Creator of
heaven and earth, tabernacled as He then was in mortal flesh, may not have
remembered His preexistent state, nor the part He had taken in the great
council of the Gods; while Satan, an unembodied spirit—he the disinherited, the
rebellious and rejected son—seeking to tempt the Being through whom the world
was created by promising Him part of what was wholly His, still may have had,
as indeed he may yet have, a remembrance of those primeval scenes.”[14]
If He did worshiped the devil, he would give him all these
things. “We need not concern ourselves with conjecture as to whether Satan
could have made good his promise in the event of Christ’s doing him homage;
certain it is Christ could have reached out, and have gathered to Himself the
wealth and glory of the world had He willed so to do, and thereby have failed
in His Messianic mission. This fact Satan knew full well. Many men have sold
themselves to the devil for a kingdom and for less, aye, even for a few paltry
pence.”[15]
Christ responded, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew
9:10).[16]
“Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and
ministered unto him” (Matthew 4:11).
[1] “into the wilderness to be with God” (JST Matthew 4:1).
[2]
Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 10.
[3] “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know;
that he might make thee know that man
doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the Lord doth man live” (emphasis mine) (Deuteronomy 8:3).
[4]
Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 10.
[6] “Then Jesus was
taken up into the holy city, and the
Spirit setteth him on the
pinnacle of the temple” (JST Matthew 4:5).
[7] “Then the devil came unto him and said, If
thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his
angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest
at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone” (JST Matthew 4:6).
[8] “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to
keep thee in all thy ways.
“They
shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Psalms
91:11-12).
[9]
Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 10.
[10] “Ye shall not tempt [HEB put to the test] the Lord
your God…” (Deuteronomy 6:16).
[11]
Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 10.
[12] “And again,
Jesus was in the Spirit, and it taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain,
and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (JST
Matthew 4:8).
[13] “And the devil
came unto him again, and said, All these things will I give thee, if thou
wilt fall down and worship me” (JST Matthew 4:9).
[14]
Jesus the Christ, Elder James E. Talmage, Chapter 10.
[15]
Ibid.
[16] “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and
shalt swear [IE make oaths] by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13).
No comments:
Post a Comment