The Teachings of Jesus Christ. Pt. 3 The Power of the Word over the Devil

The 3rd temptation of Christ by the devil will show us the power of the Word of God in combating our enemy.   We need the Word of God in so many ways and in this example it is life giving food for our souls.

Let us remember the circumstances of the temptation of Christ by the Devil. 

First, the baptism of Christ announced that the Lamb of God was going to take on the sins of humanity. 

Second, the Father declared that He was well pleased in His Son. 

Third, Jesus endured 40 days of fasting in the wilderness with no food.  Wild beasts were in the area and He cried and shed tears while He communed with the Father in prayer and supplication.

When all of the testing was over, Jesus was hungry.  This brings us to the first temptation of Jesus Christ by the Devil.

Matthew 4:1-4 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The text says that the tempter came.  The word  "tempter" means one who is trying to prove or test.  Satan came to attempt to lead Christ astray and probe for weaknesses with his temptations.  The word "came" is also an interesting word.  It means to draw near and in other places it means drawing near to worship God. 

Satan used the same tactic he used on Eve in the garden.  He used deceitful words.  Satan cast doubt on the claim of Christ, to be the Son of God.  Then, aware of the 40 days of fasting that Christ endured, he sought to tempt Jesus by appealing to His hunger. 

Jesus is the Son of God and He certainly had the power to turn all things around Him into bread if He wanted to, but that would be acting independently of His Father's will.  And that is exactly what Satan hoped to accomplish.  It was not the Father's will for the Son to turn stones into bread and Jesus obeyed His Father. 

Jesus answered the Devil by quoting the authority of the Old Testament scriptures, specifically from Deuteronomy.  This book is under attack by liberal Bible critics who deny that Moses wrote Deuteronomy.  In turn, people who believe the scholars' conclusion dismiss the truth contained in the book.

3 simple words destroy the first temptation from Satan. 

Jesus demolishes all the arguments of the critics by quoting from this book and showing us that it is authoritative scripture. "It is written" are three words that should cause us to rejoice.  We have unchangeable truth from God in heaven.  He has spoken and we can be blessed by learning and obeying His truth.

The words "it is written" are found 80 times in the Bible including 63 times in the New Testament.  This phrase is always connected to the written Word of God.  All born again Christians should arm ourselves with these three words and the scriptures that they point to.  When Satan tempts us to sin, our first thought should be "It is written." 

John 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Jesus points out another important thing for us.  We are not made to live by bread alone.  The physical foods that we eat cannot nurture the new man in Christ.  We need to eat the heavenly manna that God provides in His word.  The Word of God is the word of eternal life, as Peter declared in the text above.  Our new man (our mind, and heart and soul) is fed by scripture. 

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Manna is like the Word of God in several ways.

• God sent manna down from heaven to man.
• Each person is responsible to gather his or her own supply of manna.
• It was to be gathered early in the morning.
• It fed all people equally whether they gathered much or gathered little.
• If it was gathered but not eaten it decayed and bred worms. 
• A fresh supply of manna needed to be eaten each day. 

Each born again Christian is responsible to God to pick up the Word of God and read it.  The Bible makes it clear that this is best if done in the morning.  Verbal inspiration of the scriptures means that the Word of God came down from heaven from God. 

Scripture is milk, honey, and strong meat for our soul.  Having our Bible sitting on a shelf and gathering dust cannot help us at all.  We must pick it up and consume the words on each page. 

Points to Ponder.....

• When we seek to draw closer to God by prayer and fasting we will be opposed by the Devil.

• The tempter will come and seek to destroy us.

• When we desire to be more like Christ then our enemy will hurl fiery darts at us.

• When we go through a trial or troubles that cause strong crying and tears, the enemy will attack.

• Our sure defence is the phrase "It is written.." 

• The Word of God is bread from heaven just like the manna. It feeds our inner man.

• We must seek the manna of scripture early in the morning, gather it and partake of it. 

• The manna of the scriptures will not do us any good if we do not ingest it. 

I suggest reviewing previous posts on studying the scriptures to review the important points about Bible study.  We can see the genuine need for each one of us to read, meditate, study, learn and "know" the scriptures.  The more of God's word that we hide in our hearts the better we can resist the tempter when he pays us a visit.

Bob