Luke 4

About a year ago, I was waiting to pick up a friend when she told me she would need a lot more time than anticipated. So I picked up the Bible and randomly picked a chapter to read while I waited. I turned to Luke 4. For whatever reason, at that moment, God revealed a lot to me through His Word.

Luke 4 has since become one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. The applicable reality is staggering. I couldn’t wait to make this post.

The Temptation of Jesus
Jesus was *led by the Spirit* to be tempted by the devil. Why would the Spirit purposefully lead Jesus to be tempted? One interpretation I heard compares this to a new car test drive challenge: a car salesman will let you test drive a car to show you that the car will pass your test. Similarly, the Spirit led Jesus to be tempted, not to see whether Jesus would pass, but to show that Jesus will pass.

The temptations, to me, typify three of our biggest weaknesses:

Human Weakness 1: Seeking gratification from the world instead of from God

And the devil said to Him, ”If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

If I were hungry, or in general yearning for anything, God has full power to grant me whatever I want immediately. But this scripture tells me that God will use those yearnings to teach me that it is Him and His Word that I need to hunger for – not the hungers of the flesh. And by doing so, His Word will fill me with more life than anything else possibly can.

* The verse that comes after “Man shall not live on bread alone” is “but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” – Deuteronomy 8:3

Human Weakness 2: Taking the spiritual easy-out

And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
"Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours."
Jesus answered him, "It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

The neat twist #1 here is that, the world and all its glory was slated to belong to Jesus anyway. The devil was giving Jesus an easy-out on the process to glory over the world. i.e. Jesus could have it all without dying on the cross.

As believers, we are often faced with enticing easy-outs which cause us to worship something other than God.

Neat twist #2: in verse 5, it says the devil showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world “in an instant.” I wonder if “in an instant” makes the difference between the temporary fleeting dominion of the devil’s enticements versus the everlasting glory and splendor of God!

Human Weakness 3: Putting ourselves in close proximity to sin, counting on God to keep us from "falling"

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

As believers, we can count on the Lord to get our backs. But often we think it’s a carte blanche to do whatever we want, and that the Lord will protect us. We have free will. And the devil knows that. We need to be prayerful and constantly ask for God’s wisdom; and when God tells us not to jump off the cliff, follow the instructions.