Verse 1 After his baptism, Jesus was filled up with the Holy Spirit with even greater measures of strength and comfort. And it’s often in these moments when we are filled up with the Holy Spirit ourselves, that Satan will come to try to take it all away. He comes to tempt us into selling ourselves short, into believing we don’t have enough of God’s strength in us to exercise self-control, or he simply tricks us into believing we don’t have all of our needs met and we need more.

But just as the devil is hoping we’ll settle for less (which is always what the devil offers – less than God’s best), God’s power in us will be at work as well, proving we can overcome temptation if we trust Him to empower us to do so. We get to make the choice of which side we will choose. Stay connected to Jesus and do the right thing, God’s way, or cave to what’s less than our best, which is what the devil offers.

This verse says Jesus was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness”. So God had a lot of confidence in leading His Son into the wilderness alone. The devil loves to catch us alone and try to tempt us when no one is around to witness or to even pray for us. We don’t have to be afraid of these vulnerable places. This is where God can show off His strength in us if we have been filled up (as Jesus was). When we are committed to God, He shows up to conquer our battles. We do not try to put ourselves in temptations way (1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to “flee from sexual immorality” or tempting situations. Do not linger there. The temptation isn’t sinning, but if we remain in the temptation then we will most likely give in with the action.). Wisdom tells us to flee. But if we cannot escape temptation, then the situation provides us with an opportunity to prove that Jesus inside of us is greater than the devil working in this world (1 John 4:4). 

One more important note to make. Jesus is known as the “second Adam” or the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). In the very beginning of all created things, God made a man and his name was Adam. He was made in perfection and placed in a beautiful garden but Adam chose to disobey God’s word. He sinned and got us all kicked out of paradise and into the wilderness. The Old Testament chronicles this journey we’ve been on as a human race to get out of the wilderness and into a promised “land flowing of milk and honey” that God promised and intended for us.

Jesus is the second Adam who will go into the wilderness and defeat the devil holding us hostage. This is another shot for humanity to get back to that garden.

Verse 2 The devil also caught Jesus hungry. 

There are four tipping points in each of us that can make temptation more of a struggle. We make terrible decisions and have less self-control when we’re caught hungry, angry, lonely/alone, and tired.

Jesus had been fasting 40 days, denying His body of food, for deeper communion with God. When we deny our flesh its physical cravings and fill up our souls spiritually, we train our bodies to overcome the world’s suggestions for fulfillment and seek God for nourishment. Fasting puts priorities into place. Where we spend our time determines what/who is Lord in our lives. What is taking up the first and most of time? Where do you give the first bit of time you have in the day? And where do you give the most of your time? You may be a spouse, a parent, a child, a student, an employee, a sibling, and these roles all take up lots of time. But where is your heart when you operate in these roles? Are you dwelling on Jesus? Are you remaining in a place of praise and thanksgiving to God?

Everything comes after the Lord in our lives. Nothing else is Lord but God Almighty, Jesus Christ. And we show this by where we spend those first few moments of the day and where we let our hearts linger throughout the day.

40 days of fasting is miraculous, by the way. (This is not suggested.) Both Moses and Elijah, prophets in the Old Testament, fasted for 40 days. This amazing ability showed Jesus was very much like a prophet sent from God.

How does fasting work? When we fast, we strengthen our spiritual muscles and make it harder for Satan to get a hold of us. We put our wants and desires to death and make our bodies submit to filling up with God’s Word. We put old habits behind us and train our thoughts to seek God, not food when we are hungry. The Bible calls the Word “bread” and “living water”. The Word of God has a miraculous way of filling up our needs and desires so that we are satisfied and not in want. When we read God’s Word and dwell on it (stay there in the Word in our minds), all of our feelings and desires come into submission to our actions and thoughts and are satisfied. When the brain says it is physically hungry, we feed our thoughts with the Word of God.

In a fast, our thoughts die to what the world says we need. T.V., stuff, a nicer house, more social media presence, food, a better car, etc. Our emotional cravings will prove themselves false when we realize food/stuff/people do not satisfy us like God. We discover our urges of the flesh/body only satisfied us temporarily but the Word of God us sustaining the life in us for much longer. The more we deny ourselves, the less that Satan can use to tempt us. This is why we should never fill up on the things of this world. They are temporary and do not satisfy like Jesus. The things of this world can be taken away. If we have made our lives about them, we will crumble that our “gods” or “idols” have been destroyed. Jesus, our true and lasting satisfaction, can never be taken from us.

When you need to realign your life with God, fast. If you need a spiritual breakthrough to go deeper with the Lord, fast. If you need to cleanse your life of the things in this world holding you hostage, fast. If you need direction in your life, fast.

Verse 3 The devil is so crafty. These next few verses will outline ways in which the devil will get us to distrust God in our lives (not just in a fast) and operate independently of God, that is to take matters into our own hands without consulting God in prayer and His Word. The devil was watching Jesus and knew He was hungry. The devil is always watching us and waiting for an opportune time to jump in and start making suggestions.

The devil is not questioning who Jesus is (“If you are the Son of God…”). The devil knows who Jesus is. The devil knows scripture and has been watching it be fulfilled. So what the devil is saying where in other words is “since you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread, etc.” The devil had been watching and knew what Jesus needed. In Jesus’ time of weakness and vulnerability, Satan suggests Jesus fill his own needs. The devil knows our weaknesses as well. He will wait until we are in a crisis, frantic, stretched emotionally, and then capitalize on that point of weakness in us with suggestions of taking matters into our own hands and filling our own needs our own way.

The devil’s words also question God’s provision in Jesus’ life. Where’s the food? You are hungry and in need. God isn’t giving you all that you “need”. The devil insinuates that Jesus’ needs weren’t being met by God. That perhaps God wasn’t willing to provide for Jesus’ needs. The devil will do that to us by suggesting we need bigger, better, more, greater, and that God hasn’t given us enough.

The devil then suggests Jesus take matters into His own hands. If Jesus is hungry, then he should make his own food. 🍞 Sounds innocent, right? Because Jesus is God and can perform miracles like that.

Never take matters into your own hands and reason your way into doing anything without going to God first. Believing all the devil’s lies will lead us into believing we need to take matters into our own hands. Our emotions listen to a lot of suggestions from the enemy. We must always submit our feelings to God’s Word for the Truth on how to handle our situations.

One theologian points out that it is the devil’s temptation if we live by our own desires or live by our own “forecast” for our future (basically what we want or dream up). If we decide we want more money and we go out to get wealthy or rich by our skills and strength, this leaves God out of the equation and lets the devil (worldly desires, our emotions, our cravings, our whims, our flesh) control our future. Satan always wants us to think and act independently of God. The devil doesn’t want us to consult God about our future.

The miracles that Jesus performs are done in the presence of followers to confirm their faith. To strengthen their faith. Jesus’ miracles have a purpose in proving that faith in Jesus, faith in God brings results. Here the devil is asking for a miracle of bread out of stones. The devil has no faith to confirm. He’s tricking Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need his own faith confirmed because He already knows He has the power to do it. The miracles Jesus performs bring the fruition or manifestation of His Word. If His Word says it, Jesus will perform a miracle to make it happen. On another note, Jesus does not do miracles for Himself. He did not come to earth to please Himself. Jesus would rather look weak in front of the enemy than prove Himself to be the Son of God. Jesus knew who He was. The devil knew who He was.

You will see in Jesus’ final hour while hanging on the cross that the enemy tried to speak through witnesses to his crucifixion, saying “if you’re the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Jesus was fulfilling what His Father had sent Him to do and had nothing to prove to bystanders and hecklers. His identity would be proved three days after his death when He rose from the grave.

Jesus never did anything that looked like He distrusted God, His Father. Nor did He do anything that looked like He acted separately from God or in disagreement with God. He lives in total dependence on God’s divine provision and promises. Jesus trusted God.

Verse 4 Jesus responds with the Word of God. He is full of the Spirit and armed with scripture. And this is where we should turn and respond to the devil too. That’s why it’s important to know what the Bible says. We use the Word of God to encourage ourselves with God’s promises and to shut down the devil’s temptations. Ephesians 6:17 says we use the Word of God as a sword. This is our one and only offensive weapon against the devil. “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” (Hebrews‬ ‭4:12‬ ‭NLT‬‬) The Word of God exposes the devil’s lies. And our faith in God’s Word is our shield.

The verse Jesus quotes is from Deuteronomy in the Old Testament. It says, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deuteronomy‬ ‭8:3‬ ‭ESV‬‬) In this verse, Moses was explaining to the children of Israel how they survived in the wilderness. It was by God’s provision. In the middle of nowhere, God provided His children with manna, which is food sent down from heaven. It wasn’t about the food, it was about being connected to the source.

Jesus uses this verse to say to the devil that my Father sees me. He provides for me. If He wanted me to have food right now, He would rain down manna from Heaven as He did in the wilderness for the children of Israel. Jesus lives by God’s Word and we should too. We should live by what God appoints in our lives. If God wants us to have something, He will get it to us. We can live fully satisfied in communion with God to the point that it drowns out our fleshly desires and wants. Reading His Word and studying His Word satisfies longings and desires at the root of our core that we were created to desire and want. Everything points to Jesus. All of our physical wants and desires have a deeper root that is actually a spiritual desire for more of Jesus.

God has many ways of providing for His people. When we depend on God for food, He might give food right then or He might take away our appetite, or grant us with the strength of patience for food to come. He might even make water more nourishing than all the “good food” we could find (Dan. 1:12, 13). In the face of nothing to eat, He might enable us to rejoice in the Lord still and be filled up with the encouragement of His promises.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, fill me up with even greater measures of strength and comfort from Your Word. Help me to narrow my focus to what Your Word says and not get distracted with the devil’s temptations or anything less than Your best for my life. Help me, Holy Spirit, to stay connected to Your Jesus and let Your power be at work in me to overcome any temptations that come my way today. Let any strength in me be for Your glory, Lord. May You get the credit for any good in me. Help me ignore the world’s suggestions for fulfillment and seek You for nourishment, Lord. Help me to keep you first place in my life and remain in a place of thanksgiving and praise for everything in my life, Jesus. Help me strengthen my spiritual muscles with Your Word. Show me when fasting is necessary to defeat the sin or flesh in my life. Help me to put my wants and desires to death and make my body submit to filling up with Your Word. Weed out the idols that only temporarily satisfy me. I trust You, Lord. I trust You when You say, ‘wait.’ I trust You when You say, ‘not yet.’ And I trust You when You say, ‘move.’ I never have to fill my own needs. Your Word reminds me that You will always provide exactly what I need. I have nothing to fear. Your future for me is much exceedingly, abundantly better than anything I could ever dream up for my life. Fill me with confidence in who You say I am, Lord. Help me, Holy Spirit, to not give in to the trap that I have to prove to people who I am. I am a child of the Most High God. I have a rich inheritance awaiting me in Heaven. I am loved, cherished, adored, thought of, and provided for. I have all my needs met in You, Jesus. I am not in despair but filled up and confident that my God will make a way and come through for me. I am satisfied with You, God. You fill all my deepest longings and desires. Help me to wait on You, Jesus, with honor and obedience to Your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.