Matthew 4:1 says that “Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” What a fascinating sentence to appear in the Bible!

  • “Jesus
  • was led by the Holy Spirit
  • into the desert
  • to be tempted by the devil.”

In the wilderness, Jesus contended with Satan. And He did so, not as the all-powerful Son of God, but as the limited, finite, human Jesus.

On the 40th day of His fast, Matthew 4:2 says that Jesus was hungry. He was probably exhausted. I’d imagine He was probably frustrated – or “hangry.” And I’d bet (from my own human experience in the wilderness), I bet He was feeling lonely.

It was at THIS moment in Jesus’ life – when He was hungry, and tired, and lonely – it was at this moment that Satan came to Jesus to tempt Him. In this weakened, vulnerable moment, Satan comes to tempt Jesus – and he does so repeatedly.

Three times in this weakened state, Satan tempts the human, vulnerable Jesus – and Jesus wins! Jesus defeats the temptations of Satan, not as the all-powerful Son of God, but as the depleted, and weakened, and vulnerable human Jesus.

The wilderness experiences in your life will bring you to the end of yourself:

  • You will find out where your hunger hits,
  • you’ll find the limits of your tiredness, your exhaustion…
  • You’ll find the end of your patience,
  • your understanding,
  • your ability to bite your tongue,
  • your ability to contain your frustration.
  • The wilderness brings us to the end of ourselves.

And then – because Satan fights dirty – THAT is the moment when he pounces! In that state of exhaustion, and hunger, and frustration, and depletion and vulnerability – Satan comes at you and, He says something like this:

  • “Is God really trustworthy?
  • Are you’re really gonna believe in something you can’t see?
  • C’mon. Get real.
  • You’re still gonna trust in God – after everything that has happened?”

Satan is a cheating, lying tempter who fights dirty!

And what did Jesus teach us about temptation in that vulnerable moment of His life? He showed us that Satan is beatable. Even when Jesus had reached the very end of His human capabilities, He was still able to repel the lies and the temptations of Satan from His life with the Holy Spirit’s help.

The limited, human Jesus shows us that Satan can be beaten! Even at our weakest, we can repel the lies and the temptations of Satan with God’s help.

How is that?

Matthew chapter 4, in both verse 3 and verse 6 – Satan begins with this statement: “If you are the Son of God…” “If you’re really God’s Son…” This is Satan’s oldest technique in tempting people, going all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.

We’ll pause there for now, and we’ll take a deeper look at how Satan tempts Eve in the Garden in the next post on LikeTreesPlanted.