We are looking at how to fight against the temptations that our enemy, the devil, is using to attack our faith. Our enemy wants us to doubt God, doubt God’s love, doubt our relationship with God, and doubt that God cares for us. There are many, many doubts that the devil launches at us so that we will question God, weaken our faith, and ultimately destroy our souls. I want to remind us the promise that God has given to us regarding our temptations.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV)
God is faithful. God is with you. There is a way of escape and a means of endurance provided with every temptation. Let’s look at how this promise plays out as the devil is launching his spiritual attack against Jesus in the wilderness. Open your copies of God’s word to Matthew 4 and we are going to look at the second temptation which is recorded in verses 5-7.
The Temptation (Matthew 4:5-6)
The devil is certainly not done with his tempting efforts against Jesus. The devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem and has him stand on the highest point of the temple. The temptation is for Jesus to throw himself down from the top of the temple. Now on the surface this can sound like a dumb temptation. It almost sounds like two middle school boys daring each other to do something foolish. But this is not a silly dare. We should also notice that nothing is said about people seeing the miraculous power of Jesus and all following him if he jumps. The tempter challenges Jesus with the scriptures. The tempter quotes from Psalm 91 to make a point to Jesus. Psalm 91 is a psalm about the protection of the righteous. The psalm talks about how those who put their trust in the Lord, making him their refuge and fortress, will be delivered. God’s faithfulness will be shield to them. The tempter quotes the part of the psalm that declares that no harm will come to the righteous.
Now I want us to notice two things that the tempter is doing this time. First, I want us to notice that this is again a temptation to doubt. The tempter challenges Jesus, “If you are the Son of God….” We looked at this in the first lesson. This is not the devil wanting to know if Jesus is who he says he is. This is trying to put doubt in the heart of Jesus regarding the relationship with his Father. If you have this relationship with your Father, then you can make sure that he will care for you and protect you like he said he would by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple.
Second, the devil uses the scriptures to try to cause this doubting of who he is as the Son of the God and the relationship he has with his Father. The scriptures say that God will protect you and that no harm will come to you. The scriptures say that if you belong to God then no evil will befall you (cf. Psalm 91:10). The scriptures say God will command his angels to guard all of the ways of those who put their trust in him and they will lift you up (cf. Psalm 91:11). The devil is using the scriptures to cause the doubt. I want to rest on this important idea for a moment because this can happen to us. We read the scriptures about what God has said he would do for his people and we wonder if this can be true. God said he cares for me but it does not seem like it right now. God said he would protect me but it does not look like right now. God said he would guard my steps but my life is full of pain and misery right now. We question that providence and protection of God. We even have a song where each verse begins, “Does Jesus care….”
But we are not the only ones who have these doubts about God’s providence and protection. When the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, a great storm arose so that the waves were smashing into the boat and the boat will filling with water. Jesus was asleep in the stern. Do you remember what the disciples said to Jesus when they woke him up?
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38 ESV)
This test for Jesus is only intensified by the location of the temptation. Why did the devil take Jesus to the top of the temple? Why not the top of a high mountain for this test? Remember that the temple represented God’s presence. In terms of the Law of Moses and the purpose of the temple, then this was as close to the presence of God that you could get on earth. If God is going to rescue, it would surely be right here in God’s presence. So the temptation is not about glory or making a spectacle of himself. The temptation is if God will protect and care for those who are his.
The Filter (Matthew 4:7)
Jesus’ answer to the temptation is another quotation from Deuteronomy. This time the quote comes from Deuteronomy 6:16. In Deuteronomy 6:16 we read the full quotation, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.” (Deuteronomy 6:16-17 ESV). When we read this, we realize that we need to know what happened at Massah to understand the reference that Moses and Jesus are using. The event at Massah is recorded in Exodus 17:1-7.
Exodus 17 reveals that the people of Israel are in the wilderness on their way to Mount Sinai after the exodus from Egypt. Exodus 17:1 tells us that there was no water to drink where they camped. So the people began to quarrel with Moses and tell him to get them water to drink. Moses asks why they are fighting with him. But listen to what else he says at the end of verse 2. “Why do you test the Lord?” Now I want us to think about that this does not sound like testing God to us. We would just say that we want some water out here in the wilderness. But the rest of the paragraph reveals that this is more than a request for water. Look at Exodus 17:3. The people thirsted for water and complained against Moses. “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3 ESV). The complaint is that you brought us out of Egypt to kill us. The Lord tells Moses to strike the rock and water will come out for the people to drink. Now notice the teaching point in verse 7.
And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7 ESV)
I want us to see the three layers of their testing of the Lord. In Exodus 17:1-2 the people are claiming that you are not taking care of us. In Exodus 17:3 the point intensifies that you not only are not taking care of us, but you brought us out here to die. Then in Exodus 17:7 we see the third layer that they were testing the Lord. Not only are you not taking care of us and not only did you bring us out here to die, but we do not know if the Lord is with us or not. We don’t think God cares. If God cared, we would have water to drink. If God cared, we would not be dying out here. If God cared, we would not be in the circumstance in the first place.
The Test
The people put God to the test by challenging that God did not care for them. Their life circumstances caused them to doubt God’s care and protection. God had brought them out here to die. God was not going to help them. God was not going to care for them. God is not with us. Now we need to stop and think about this for a moment. Why should the people have known that God was with them and cared for them? What could the people point to so that they would know God cared? The greatest event in the history of Israel had just occurred. We are reading from Exodus 17. God had just set the people free from Egyptian slavery and showed them an amazing miracle. God had parted the sea so that the people walked on dry ground and the enemies were swallowed up in the sea when they pursued. This showed God cared. But the people were putting the Lord to test by wanting him to prove it again.
This is the temptation that the devil has put before Jesus. If you are the Son of God, then have your Father prove his care for you. God said he would protect you and care for you. So demand God do it for you. Friends, this is the temptation that is regularly put before us. When life is hard and we feel like we are in the wilderness without water, we expect God to change our circumstances. If he cared, then he would do something. We tell God that life is not right and he is doing us or others wrong. God needs to prove his care to us! Is the Lord with us or not? If he is, then why are we struggling in the wilderness?
But I want to challenge us at this moment with a question. What does God owe you? What does God owe you in this life? What is God required to do for you? Is God required to make your life go the way you think it should go so that you know that God is with you? Let me ask this another way. Is God only worthy of our trust when we does what we want? Daniel’s friends perfectly knew the line of faith to draw with God. In Daniel 3 we read about three men who would not bow down to the statue that the king had set up. They were about to be thrown into a blazing furnace for their disobedience. Please listen to what they say in response.
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18 ESV)
Notice that they do not say that if God does not deliver us, then we know that God is not with us and that God does not care. Far from it! God has cares and has the power to deliver. If he does not, then that does not change anything about our worship, love, and service to our God. They will not put the Lord to the test. God does not have to do anything for them because he is the Lord alone. God is with us no matter what the conditions are that we face.
The Victory
So how can we have the same victory? I think it is important to realize that we cannot put ourselves in harm’s way and then wonder why God is not protecting us or caring for us. We make bad decisions. We make sinful decisions. We disregard what God has told us to do. Then we wonder why life is painful. We cannot question God’s care when we are making bad decisions. We cannot question God’s providence when we are disregarding what God has told us to do. Do not fail to listen to God and then wonder where God is and if he cares or not.
But we can know that God cares in the exact same way that the people of Israel should have known that God cared for them. God has proved his protection and providence to us when he gave his Son on the cross for us.
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 CSB)
Any time we ever begin to be tempted by doubt because we feel thirsty in the wilderness or feel the flames of the furnace heating up, we are told to look to the cross as the proof of God’s love for you. There is nothing greater that God could ever do to prove his love toward you. Does God care? Oh yes, he cares, and I know he cares because he gave his Son to die by crucifixion to save me from my sins. Then God raised his Son from the dead and exalted him to his right hand so that we would know that we will be raised from the dead and reign with him. Do not put the Lord your God to the test by wondering if God is among us or not. Do not test the Lord by doubting his care for you.
No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. (John 15:13-14 CSB)