Where God Leads He Feeds

Luke 4:3-8

The temptations directed at Jesus Christ are unique to Him. What the devil tempts Jesus to do here would not be a temptation to us.  We could not be successfully tempted to try to turn stones into bread.  We could not be successfully tempted to imagine that somehow we could rule the kingdoms of the world, nor could we take a dive off of a 150-foot precipice and expect a safe landing.  These are not specific temptations that could come to us, but they are temptations that could come to Him. However, they each apply to us in principle.

The first temptation is a temptation to distrust God's love.  You've been tempted to distrust God’s love. So have I. We are tempted to say that things aren't going the way that we think they ought to go. If God really loved me, I never would have wound up marrying this person.  If God really loved me, I wouldn't have wound up in this circumstance.  If God really loved me I wouldn't have this illness.  If God really loved me my kids wouldn't turn out this way.  If God really loved me I wouldn't be living with so much disappointment.  If God really loved me He wouldn't have plopped me in this community where things are so difficult.  I wouldn't have a career that I don't like.  If God really loved me I wouldn't be missing the things that I think are so important to a fulfilled life.  If God really loved me, He'd enable me to do things for my family that I'm unable to do.  If God really loved me, I wouldn't be bearing so many burdens. 

v. 3          I can't turn stones into bread but I can be tempted to distrust God's love for me. 

All the way through the devil speaks with a measure of truth.  Deception only works if it somehow has partial truth in it.  And so when the devil speaks, he starts from a point of truth. That's the subtlety of his deception.  “If [since] You are the Son of God."  This is true and this is the measure of truth with which Satan launches the deception. And can Jesus change stone to bread? Of course. But should He?

Now at first glance you look at that and you say, hmm. Is this a temptation?  It is certainly not a temptation to make bread. Bread isn't sinful.  It’s certainly not wrong to eat bread if you haven't eaten in forty days.  In fact, I think bread is probably a very reasonable thing to eat after a fast of that length.  This is certainly not gluttony.  Satisfying your hunger is not sinful. The problem is what I do after I’m full, as I continue to eat…that’s when it becomes a sin. This is not a temptation to show off either because there isn't anybody there to show off to.

The implication here is to distrust God's love.  Satan knew that Jesus had restricted His independent use of His own deity to do only the will of the Father through the power of the Spirit, and that He wasn't to do anything that the Father didn't will and the Spirit didn’t empower. 

John 4:34

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Satan says, “Look, if God really loved You, You wouldn't be hungry.  How much does God really love You?  You've waited all this time in Nazareth, You had Your moment in the sun down there at the Jordan river at Your baptism, and now for forty days You've been out here in this God-forsaken place and You've been in conflict with me and You've had nothing to eat for forty days and now You're very hungry and God hasn't provided anything for You.  So You think You can trust God's love?   Do You think that's an evidence that God really loves You?  Maybe God doesn't love You as much as You think He loves You.”

This is exactly the formula that Satan used with Eve, isn't it?  What Satan was saying to Eve in the Garden is, “You mean to tell me there's a tree that has lovely, juicy fruit on it and God doesn't want you to have it?  Well if God really loved you, why would He restrict you?  God probably isn't as loving as you think He is. He's probably not as kind as you think He is.  He's probably not as good as you think He is or He wouldn’t restrict you from eating that tree.  Don't you think that maybe God isn't quite as good as you think He is, or as loving as you think He is.  In fact, you know I'll tell you why He doesn't want you to eat that, because if you eat that you'll be like Him and He hates competition.”

And Eve bought into the lie that God wasn't as good as she thought He was; He wasn't as kind as she thought He was; He wasn't as loving as she thought He was.  And so she ate.  That's the same scenario here.  What Satan wants to do is to set Jesus against the Father and the Spirit, acting independently on His own.  And he can't appeal to Him in His deity so he appeals to Him as the God-Man through His humanity.  You shouldn't be hungry, You shouldn't be suffering this.  You shouldn't be going through this.  You're the Son of God.

“Didn't God even feed those cantankerous, doubtful, sinful, idolatrous, complaining people wandering in the wilderness with manna?  And here You are, the Son of God, the perfect, sinless, Son of God and You're hungry.  I don't get it.” 

We need to learn from Jesus that where God leads, He feeds.

You could even say that Satan could have used the argument of why the wicked prospered in the wilderness, and You're suffering and You're righteous?  And by the way, didn't God say He'd rain down bread miraculously on His people and didn't He do it for them in the wilderness?  And didn't Isaiah say that God's people would never hunger and thirst?  And didn't the psalmist say God always fills the hungry with what is good, Psalm 107, and that he'd never seen God's people begging for bread?  I would suggest to You, says Satan, that it's time for You to act on Your own because I don't think God is as good to You as You might have thought He is, or You wouldn't be in this situation. 

Well, there's no question that Jesus could make bread. He made enough bread and enough fish to feed thousands of people, didn't He?  He was being tempted to take it on to Himself to decide when the food would come and how the food would come.  He knew that where God leads He feeds. And the temptation was to distrust God's love.  

Satan would have been saying, "It's inconceivable to me that You could be the Son of God, that You could be the one who fully pleased God and yet here You are starving. It does not make sense.  There are all kinds of people who hate God, there are all kinds of enemies of God who are full and fat.  It doesn't make sense.  You're God's Son. You have a right to it."

You see, he's never denying the deity of Jesus.  It’s just a clever manipulation to act independently of the Father, and therefore express disobedience, which is sin. 

v. 4          He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3.  The people of Israel were tested in the wilderness for forty years whether they would obey God and they failed the test, right?  Well, in an interesting parallel, Jesus was tested in the wilderness forty days and He passed the test.  You see, what happened in the wilderness was they began to distrust God's love, didn't they?  And what did they do?  They murmured because God hadn't given them the food they wanted.  They hankered after the leeks and onions and the garlic and the stuff they had had in Egypt. [breath issues?]

In the words of the Sermon on the Mount, "Don't take any thought for what you're going to eat, or what you're going to drink, seek first the kingdom.” You obey Me. If you want to really live your life, you obey My Word and I'll take care of your bread.

God determined that you were born, and when, and God determines that you will die, and when.  You don't live because you eat. You eat because God determined you live.

By the way, when this was over, Matthew said the angels came and ministered to Him.  I think they brought bread.  Do you think they just came and sang songs and put an arm around Him? He's hungry. 

What Jesus is doing here is He's affirming His absolute confidence in God.  He's affirming what Paul says, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  He knows God will meet every need.  He has no question about that.

He says to Satan, in effect, "Satan, you are presuming that a man needs bread to live. I'll tell you what you need to live. You need to be obedient to God and then you will live the full life that God grants to His obedient children.  It's not the bread that keeps you alive. It's the energizing sustaining power of God that keeps you alive."  If He wants Me to live, Jesus is saying, He'll give Me bread, I trust Him.

Now what do you need to trust Him for?

Do you know He loves you? He never actually says so. Love is an action. He shows it. For God so loved…

2^nd temptation…

It all happened in a moment of time. Zip. The devil transported himself and Jesus to a far away place in an instant, where he then showed him a dynamic panorama of all the glories of Earth.

v. 5          Satan could only have the power to do so because God allowed it.  I don't think they took a long hike.  After all, Satan can go from earth to heaven to the presence of God, he's a supernatural being, he can move in dimensions that we don't know, and so could Jesus if He chose, but He usually limited that ability. That ability for Satan will end in Rev. 20:10-11] But anyway, they went somewhere from which there was a high vantage point where you could see the sweeping kingdoms of the world. Maybe there was some way in which this became a supernatural vision because it says he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

This is the second temptation, not to distrust God's love as in the first temptation, but to distrust God's plan.  He didn't succeed on the first one, so here's another subtle one.

v. 6          What's he saying?  "Ah, You know, look at You, Jesus, here You are in this terrible barren place, this devastation, this rocky, craggy, lifeless place.  You possess nothing.  You've got the clothes on Your back. You have no food, You have nothing.  Here You are and You are the Son of God."  That's the implication, Matthew indicates, that again is reiterated to him.  And it may have reminded him of Psalm 2:8 which says, "Ask of Me and I'll give the nations as Your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as Your possession."

He's saying, "Oh really, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and He has nothing and I haven't given Him anything. How does that work?"  He could have perhaps even reminded Jesus of some pretty powerful words in the 7th chapter of Daniel in which there is a vision and it says in Daniel 7:13, "I kept looking in the night visions, behold with the clouds of heaven, one like a Son of Man was coming, came up to the Ancient of Days."  The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, comes up to God, "And it was presented before Him and to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away.  His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed."  There's a vision of the Father giving the Son the kingdoms of the world.  So where are the kingdoms?  "Here You are, Jesus.  I'll tell you what. I'll give it to You. I'll give it all to You.  You can bypass any more humiliation. You've had thirty years living in that obscure place called Nazareth, that out-of-the-way town, that hick town up there.  You've had thirty years of making tables and chairs and putting in beams in a roof, or building a wall.  You've had thirty years of absolute meaninglessness working with Your father in the construction business.  And now You've had forty days wandering around in this horrible place.  You've had enough humiliation. Don't You think it's time for You to take hold of what is really rightfully Yours?  I mean, wasn't this promised to You?  Shouldn't You have it?  I'm willing to give it to You."

And then Satan makes this serious overstatement in verse 6, “It’s mine to give.” Oh really?  Boy, did he have an inflated opinion of himself and his power.  There is some truth in that and Satan always likes to deal in half-truth.  He is called in John 12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11, "the ruler of this world."  That's true.  In 1 John 5:19 it says, "The whole world lies in his lap."  In 2 Corinthians 4:4 he's called, "the god of this world."  It does not mean that he literally possesses the nations of the world.  What it means is that he rules the system of evil that dominates the nations of the world. And now we can better understand Rev. 4 and 5 where Jesus opens the scroll which is the title deed to the Earth. He has only given Satan dominion for a time. Only He is worthy to reclaim the deed!

According to Acts 17 it is God who sets the boundaries of the nations, isn't it?  Paul said this on Mars Hill.  It's God in whom we live and move and have our being and it's God who designs the times and seasons of nations.  And furthermore, you remember old Nebuchadnezzar?  Nebuchadnezzar thought he was higher than God.  He thought he was king of the whole universe.  And when he elevated himself to that point, the Lord knocked him down and he became for seven years like a wild animal.  His fingernails grew like bird's claws and his hair grew like feathers and he was wandering around outside with the dew on his back eating, grazing like an animal for seven years.  This is Nebuchadnezzar, for seven years eating like an animal.  At the end of the seven years he comes to his senses, in Daniel 4:17 he says, "Thee Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes." Beware the leader who has all the statues and thinks so highly of himself!

Satan can't give it to anybody.  He simply rules the system of evil.  He does not determine the nations and who rules the nations.  In fact, Romans 13 says the hours that be are ordained by God.  But Satan is a liar.  Not only did he not have the power to give it, it wasn't his to begin with anyway.  He can't move one inch in any direction outside God's permission and purpose.  But he says to Jesus, "I can make life easy for You, You deserve it, You're the Son of God, You've just heard, 'This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,' and You're supposed to have the kingdoms of the world for Your own. You're supposed to be the ruler, You're supposed to have all.  And I can tell You right now, it's been given to me and I will gladly give it to You.  I certainly will, and You can just go right to the crown, and skip the cross, You've had enough suffering, You don't need the next three years of agony, You don't need to be going up there to Nazareth again and have them try to throw You off a cliff.  You don't need to go down to Jerusalem and have everybody hate You and try to plot Your death.  You certainly don't need to be scourged and whipped near death.  You don't need to be put on a cross, nailed up there, have thorns crammed in You.  You don't need to go through all of that terrible, horrible death.  I'm willing to give You the whole thing, it's mine, I can give it to whomever I wish and I would like to give it to You.”  However, there's one condition, verse 7, just worship me, and then it’s all Yours.

Now Satan has a problem with this worship thing.  It's what got him kicked out of heaven to start with. He wanted to be worshiped.  "I will be like the Most High God," that was his thing.  That's what he sought to do and that's how he rebelled and that's why he was hastily placed out of heaven and that's why a lake of fire was prepared for him and all those who were in his rebellion.  And he hasn't changed at all.  He still wants to be worshiped.  He concocts religions all over the face of the earth that ultimately are forms of worshiping him. All the idols are demons, the Bible says.  So if you're worshiping a false god and a false religion, you're worshiping the devil.

But that's not enough.  Now he wants to be worshiped by the Son of God.  In fact, that would be the ultimate for him.  Could you imagine if he could get the Son of God to start worshiping him instead of God?  That would almost be like accomplishing his original rebellion where he sought to be as high as God.  If he could get the second member of the Trinity to worship him, he's achieved what he wanted in the first place.

What marks Lucifer is the lust for worship.  You read Ezekiel 28 and you read Isaiah 14 and you read about that lust for worship.  He says, proskynēsēs enōpion, which means "bow down before me as Your lord and I'll give it all to You."

You know, that was a lie.  Do you think he would really hand it over if he could have?  Not on your life.  He's a liar and the father of lies.  This is egomaniacal, this is brash, astounding evil pride.  But he's saying to Jesus, bypass the cross, come on I'll just give You the crown.  What he really wants Jesus to do is sin against the Father by distrusting the Father's plan, which involved the cross before the crown, suffering before glory, humiliation before exaltation.  And he's saying, I'll give You a painless path.

Now we can identify with that kind of temptation, to distrust God's plan.  You can say in your life, God, You know, this is taking a long time to unfold, I wanna be blessed.  I see lots of sorrow, lots of problems, lots of pain.  I've got illness, I've got this, I've got that.  You know, the suffering part, I don't know how long I can take this.  Is there a shortcut to the glory?  Is there a quick path to the crown?  I'm not sure I want to do it Your way anymore, I think I'm going to grab some satisfaction for myself.

And off you go into a path of sin you think will bring satisfaction.  But Jesus gives the right answer.  In verse 8 He quotes Deuteronomy 6:13.

Boy, that's so clear, isn't it?  Jesus immediately and instantaneously, without a capacity to sin, responds by saying, "God alone is worthy of loyal worship and allegiance, I will not worship you, I will worship God alone because that's what Scripture demands of Me and that's what I will do.  It is God's will that He be worshiped and He alone and that is what I will do."  Here is obedience in its perfection.

Here are the children of Israel forty years in the wilderness. They're supposed to be worshiping the true God.  Along comes Satan and tells them to worship an idol, and what do they do?  Worship an idol.  They failed the test.

Here is Jesus forty days in the wilderness.  He's told to worship an idol, if you will, Satan, and He will not.  He will worship God only.  He makes no deals with the devil.  There is no shortcut to glory.  He will follow the plan, whatever the plan has, however painful the plan might be, however deep the suffering, however far down He has to go, even to death on the cross.  If that's where the Father plans for Him to go, that's where He's going to go because He's going to worship God and glorify God and God alone and make no compromise with the devil.

“Worship” is a great word here. So is the word “serve.”  It's the word latreuō. It means religious service/spiritual service.  Whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, He will serve the only God and the only one worthy of worship.

When the Lord gives this answer, He really helps us.  He shows us that we can be strong against temptation to distrust the love of God, and strong against temptation to distrust the plan of God.  We face those kinds of things every day.  We can't make stones into bread and we can't assume to take over the world, but we can certainly be disloyal and disobedient.  We can certainly question God's love and question God's plan. That is sin.  It would have been sin for Jesus, it is sin for us.  My God will supply all your needs.  You seek the kingdom and He'll provide everything you need.  He has a plan and it's a plan for good and it's a plan for glory and it's a plan for a crown, but the path is the path of suffering.  That's the plan.  Don't make bargains with the devil to avoid the suffering.

So you have some trouble in your life.  So it isn't all that you would like it to be.  The testing of your faith builds strength, doesn't it?  It makes you trust God more, love God more, depend on God more, hope more for the glory to come.  Stay obedient, trust His love, trust His plan.

And then Satan takes a final turn in one of the most incredibly devious moves he could make. The last assault is as clever as it is evil. If you want to know what it is, you have to come back.