USE YOUR WEAPON

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give You,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.

Matthew 4:1-11

At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him.

Mark 1:12-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry.

The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, “I will give You all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be Yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

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 is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time.

Luke 4:1-13

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus’ baptism was something to behold and nothing like anyone had ever seen before. For as John the Baptist brought Him up from the water, the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and God Himself acknowledged Jesus as His Son, proclaimed His love for Him, and let all know that He was pleased with His Son. Armed with the Holy Spirit at that moment, Jesus was fully equipped to start His adult ministry, a ministry that began with a staunch test which came in an encounter with Satan. Look again at these words here from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give You,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.  Matthew 4:1-11

At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him.  Mark 1:12-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry.

The devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, “I will give You all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be Yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

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 is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time. Luke 4:1-13

Before I proceed too much further, I wanted to share a verse from the Apostle Paul who wrote about equipping oneself to battle against Satan as we step out onto life’s battlefield each day. Paul writes this in his discourse on donning the full armor of God:

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17

What is Paul getting at here?

He’s telling us that the way we’re going to defend ourselves against Satan’s attacks is by wielding the word of God against him, by using the sword of the Spirit (the scriptures) as our sword.

This is an important point to remember as we turn back to the Gospel accounts because what we are essentially seeing is Jesus using the weapon Paul speaks of to absolute perfection. More on that in a moment but let’s not get ahead of ourselves with this passage and go back to set the scene.

We read where the Holy Spirit, newly imparted on Jesus, was the instrument by which Jesus was led into the wilderness where He fasted forty days and nights. The deprivation of food had left Him hungry and it was into this time of weakness that we find Satan entering center stage with the primary goal of tempting Jesus into sin.

This is critical to our understanding of how the enemy operates against us. For it is in our times of weakness that we are most vulnerable to Satan’s attacks, when we are less likely to succeed in resisting Him.

Given Jesus’ hunger state, look at the first thing Satan goes after, trying to exploit a potential Achilles' heel:

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

It would have been so easy to do as Satan was asking. Jesus had the power to do amazing things, to include turning stones into bread and if He did it, He would no longer have to experience the pangs of starvation. But there was one major tradeoff. Jesus would have to sin in order to eat and He wasn’t about to do that.

So how did He fight off Satan’ enticement?

He used His weapon, the word of God, saying:

“It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

These words from Deuteronomy 8:3 were just what were needed to fend off Satan as he gave up pressing the food angle and instead went for a second option:

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

The scriptures tell us that Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the highest point of the holy temple. There, he dared Jesus to literally jump and test the word of God from Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12, which indicated that God would send a rescue for Jesus as He free fell toward the ground, catching Him and saving Him from sure death.

It sounded reasonable enough on the surface. And Satan was even using God’s word himself so it had to be legitimate, right?

It’s in this second temptation attempt that we see how shrewd and insidious Satan can be when it comes to trying to lure us into sin. For in this instance, he used the scriptures to try and convince Jesus to do what he wanted Him to do.

There was only one problem with that. Jesus knew God’s word well enough to see what Satan was up to and used His knowledge of that word to avoid failing and falling. Jesus used Deuteronomy 6:16 in saying:

“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

In stiff arming yet another temptation try, Jesus showed us the importance of not knowing just a little of the word, but as much as we can humanly comprehend so we will be able to spot any endeavor to distort the word and bring us to sin.

Well, Satan wasn’t about to give up just yet. For he next took Jesus up to a “very high mountain” and promised to give Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor”. All Jesus needed to do was bow down and worship him.

We sense Jesus had had enough of the foolish attempts to lead Him into transgression for He says:

“Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

Jesus was fed up. Twice He deflected Satan’s attacks but the enemy wasn’t giving up. Instead, he went with the most ludicrous temptation yet, offering Jesus everything when He already had it and then asking Him to bow down and give him worship. And so Jesus gave the devil a simple command, “Away from Me!” before using the word of God one more time, again from Deuteronomy (6:13), to make it clear that His Father was the only One worthy of worship and service.

And with that, Satan left and angels attended to Jesus, helping Him restore His strength. There was still much for Him to do in carrying out His Father’s business.

So what are we to take from this event? What are the scriptures trying to teach us?

I think the message is simple.

It’s use your weapon.

Jesus faced temptation three times and each time He masterfully used His sword, swinging away at His adversary with the word of God and successfully defending Himself each time. Finally, Satan left Him.

Friends, if we’re going to be equally masterful in combating temptation today, then we need to be as well versed in the scriptures as Jesus was and ready to use our weapon, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, whenever we need to in order to defend ourselves. I pray this blog with its more than 2,500 devotions grounded in the Bible and its books can go a long way to equip you with what you need.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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