Editor's note: Yesterday, we shared a devotion written by Joel Muddamalle. You can read it here and then enjoy today's devotion from The Unseen Battle.
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The gospel writers seem to be connecting the three rebellions of the Old Testament and the three temptations of Jesus in the New Testament.1 In His incarnation, Jesus is retelling the story of Israel. However, where Israel failed, in all the ways that Israel was faithless, Jesus was faithful. This is specifically highlighted in the wilderness temptations. In the wilderness, Jesus is tempted in three ways that directly hyperlink back to the wilderness wandering and the Israelites’ sinfulness. However, Jesus remains faithful, and he quotes three passages in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13). But I don’t think this is the only connection being made. I believe there is an additional conceptual tie in back to the three rebellions of Genesis 3, 6, and 11.
Temptation 1: The Temptation of Selfish Satisfaction
The devil asks Jesus to turn the stone to bread. The devil seems to be replaying the first temptation in Eden when he convinced Eve and Adam to take something that was never theirs so their selfish desires could be fulfilled (to be like God). In this scenario, the devil attempts to convince Jesus to take the divine the power that was within His rights to use, but to use it for selfish purposes. Jesus is not tricked. He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 and stops just short of the rest of the verse, which says,
... but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
In the first rebellion, Eve and Adam did not hang on the words that came from the mouth of the Lord and instead clung to the deceptive words that flowed from the father of lies, the serpent and the devil. Jesus does what Eve and Adam should have done in Eden. He returns to the truth spoken by the Father when presented with the lies of the enemy.
Temptation 2: The Temptation of Worldly Possessions
The devil offers Jesus the world. Which is an irony, considering the world already belonged to Jesus (as the world’s creator) and was waiting to be reclaimed by Christ as God’s anointed king. Jesus responds by saying,
Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only — (NIV),
a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13. But note the very next verse, Deuteronomy 6:14, which explicitly commands us not to follow other gods. What was the nature of the third rebellion following Babel, as detailed in Psalm 82? The sons of God sought to elicit worship from the nations they were commissioned to steward and instead led them into deeper rebellion against God. The nations worship what should not have been worshiped and fall into grave sin. Here, Satan attempts to elicit the worship of Jesus, but unlike the Israelites and the wayward nations, Jesus remains steadfast in His devotion to the Father. Through His obedience to the Father, Jesus will ultimately inherit even more than what Satan promised — rule over the nations of the world as well as rule over every principality and power in the cosmos.
Temptation 3: The Temptation for Power
In the final temptation, Satan again attempts to manipulate Jesus into exercising His divine power for selfish gain. At the core of this temptation was the freedom to do whatever, whenever just because He could. Jesus responds by saying,
Do not test the Lord your God. — Matthew 4:7, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16
However, just a few verses later, Deuteronomy 6:18 says,
Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight.
In the second rebellion in Genesis 6, all of humanity did what was evil in the sight of God. They gave their daughters to the sons of God in exchange for forbidden knowledge that would give them power, and the resulting fruit of that union, the Nephilim. For their part, the sons of God saw what they desired (human women) and took of it because of their own selfish desires. Here, Jesus rejects the temptation to power by returning to a posture of faithful obedience. Though He has divine power, He refrains from exercising it, choosing to remain within the limits and boundaries of His incarnation as a human being, the path of the obedient Son of his heavenly Father.
In all three temptations we see the tactics of spiritual warfare.
There is always the visible battle over the temptations being offered, but there is also the unseen battle waging within our hearts.
Each temptation asks about the ultimate object of our affection. Will we revere, honor, and love God? Or will we give into self-obsession? Jesus shows us the way to fight these spiritual battles through the Word, by the power of the Spirit, and for the glory of the Father.
1. As I was finishing this manuscript, I sent it out to an early reader group who gave me crucial insights and feedback. I’m indebted to them for their diligence in reading a far from finished manuscript and pouring into it as if it was their own words. One of the readers in particular drew my attention to a concept that I had overlooked. Once again, a friendly reminder that theology should always be done in the context of community.
Excerpted with permission from The Unseen Battle by Joel Muddamalle, copyright Joel Muddamalle.
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Your Turn
Jesus was faithful in the face of spiritual temptation. That’s the call for us, too — faithfulness rather than self-absorption and short cuts. Stay alert to the enemy and keep your eye fixed on the goal — Jesus! ~ Devotionals Daily