Parenting Resources for 4 year olds through 5th grade

After Jesus’s baptism, “the Spirit [led him] into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). The fact that the Holy Spirit was leading Jesus shows us that Jesus’s temptation was part of God’s plan. While in the desert, Jesus fasted from food. That means he stopped eating for a reason. No peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. No apples and oranges. No cheeseburgers and fries. Not even wild honey and locusts! The Bible says “he was hungry” (4:2). He sure was! So, guess what temptation Satan (“the tempter”; 4:3) started with? He said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (4:3). That must have been so tempting! Jesus was really hungry, and he had the power to do what Satan asked him to do. Fresh warm bread—so good! But not on that day. He knew that obeying God’s word was more important than obeying his stomach’s cry for food! He answered Satan with a Bible verse, “It is written, ‘Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God’” (see 4:4). Jesus passed the first test.

For the second test, the devil took him to the top of the temple. “Jump, Jesus,” he told him. “Because if you are God’s Son, the Bible says that God will send angels to rescue you.” Satan was twisting the Bible, and Jesus knew this. That is why he responded with another Bible verse, “It is wrong to put God to the test” (see 4:7). Jesus passed the second test. 

The final test was perhaps the toughest. Satan brought Jesus to a very high mountain, and as they looked down as far as the eye could see, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. He saw their riches and power. Their earthly glory! “If you bow down before me,” Satan said, “then I will let you rule over these kingdoms.” Jesus refused. “We should worship God and him alone!” Jesus also told the devil to get lost: “Be gone, Satan!” (4:10). Jesus passed the third test. Where Adam and Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. A+++.