IT IS WRITTEN. Jesus and Satan spoke with each other. We don't consider this fact enough. Jesus as a man, as God with us, as the only God-man to exist, spoke to Satan, his adversary, in person here upon earth.
There is a place upon our world where Satan spoke with Jesus. It's a wilderness place.
Jesus was led to the place he was to meet with Satan, led by the Holy Spirit.
So let's picture this in our mind's eye. Jesus walking, being led where to go by the Holy Spirit and makes his way into a desert, a desolate place where he's alone, the only human being there. In that place he waits- and while waiting he doesn't eat anything for 40 days.
As a human, a divine Spirit in a human body with all its frailties, he doesn't eat. He feels hunger just as you or I would feel hunger. We know a person can go without food for up to 70 days or more as long as they are drinking water, so it's doable. Humans have suffered from starvation throughout time. They can become walking skeletons, skin and bones, and still live. Not forever of course but for a long while.
Jesus after not eating for 40 days, like any human being would be, was hungry. Was he hungry before those 40 days were up? Yes, he had to be, most likely it started an hour or so after his usual mealtime- you know what I mean.
Jesus was left alone in the wilderness those 40 days, but not under direct attack from Satan. Those 40 days were probably spent deep in prayer if I had to venture a guess.
I've seen a show called, 'Alone', and it's about people who get dropped off in the wilderness and must survive off the land, yes, they eat. The point I want to make is a lot of those people who stay there get very, very lonely and quite quickly. Some even drop out from sheer loneliness. You might think 40 days by yourself would be a good thing, but the conditions in which you are allowed to spend those 40 days alone would matter a great deal.
Jesus had no creature comforts. Jesus had no other person to talk to. Jesus was in a barren land where he couldn't have eaten if he wanted to, there was no food in this place he was at. Rocky, sandy, a barren place.
I'm not saying that no one else in existence could survive the conditions and circumstances he went through, I'm sure there have been people who've done it, just to prove they can. I'm just saying it had to be very, very difficult for them, and for Jesus.
Jesus wasn't sitting in a tent being fanned by a servant, his feet up, laying upon a soft pillowed bed for 40 days. It was a great hardship for him and if you don't think it was because he was the God-man, then you miss the reality of Him altogether.
At this very weak point in his humanity he was in rough shape- it was then that Satan was allowed to tempt him face to face.
REALITY PEOPLE. Wake up! Satan is real!
Jesus talked with him! Jesus in talking to him resisted the temptations put forth by Satan.
The thing we overlook, as if this was just another Jesus story… is the reality of it. Maybe we overlook it because we don't have a clear picture of Satan's appearance. I've seen several shows that depict him in many different ways and why is that? Because Satan is a spirit being, a fallen angel, and angels were created spirit beings. We also know that angels can appear as human beings. Satan also possessed a Serpent before it was changed into a form of a snake. So, yes, it might be hard to imagine exactly what Satan chose to look like when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Do it anyway. Create whatever version of Satan you desire and picture him there with Jesus.
Now, we aren't quite sure exactly how much Jesus remembers about his own existence before he was conceived in his mother's womb. We simply don't have all the answers. One thing we do know, 12 years old Jesus knew God, who had been declared his Father by a decree. No other boy, or man for that matter, went around calling the Almighty God, Father. People got upset later on in Jesus' ministry over his claiming the Almighty God as his father.
Why am I bringing this up? Because I suspect Jesus knew exactly who Satan was when he appeared to him in the wilderness. He knew him of old, he knew him from his turning from God to evil. He knew Satan before evil consumed him. Satan appeared there- face to face, evil angel in front of God-man.
Satan opened his mouth first. Jesus didn't challenge Satan, Satan challenged Jesus, right here on earth, somewhere over where the Judean Desert is located today. Let's read it-
Mat 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Right away Satan challenges Jesus' reality as the God-man- as being God's son by decree.
If thou be… if you are the Son of God… then you should be able to do things that ordinary human beings can't do. You should be special. You should have powers no other human has. To me you are just another human being pretending to be something you aren't, pretending to be the Messiah just like so many others before you have done. All that was IMPLIED in the words- If thou be, wasn't it? If you are who you claim you are, who John just said was the Lamb of God… then prove it. I'm not asking you to do anything all that hard- just this simple trick… just take these hard stones, something you can never eat, and turn it into simple bread- nothing fancy, no cake, not even meat, or a vegetable, just make bread.
Can you just imagine Satan's thoughts in that moment. Face to face with the Seed promised to destroy him. If he could get the so-called Messiah to flaunt his power, well, he couldn't be the Messiah.
Prove to me you are God's son! Prove it! Listen to me, do as I say! It'll settle the matter once and for all, and I'll believe you are who you say you are, but not really… I'm a liar.
Satan is assuming Jesus would care if he believed who he was. Why would Jesus care if Satan believed he was God's Son? Why would he care if the father of all lies, all deception, all evil, believed in him? It didn't matter a single bit in any way, shape or form if Satan believed in him as a God-man. It would alter nothing. He wasn't there for Satan. Jesus answered Satan any way instead of just ignoring him because he was going to reveal to us a tool to use against Satan's temptations.
Mat 4:4 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.
IT IS WRITTEN. Jesus, the God-man quoted SCRIPTURE at Satan.
Sure, he could feed himself by turning those stones into bread, but he didn't need to. He wasn't starving to death, and even if he were, He lived at God's will. His breath of life was in God's hands. There was no reason to feed himself by supernatural means, he was being sustained by God. We don't live by bread alone, none of us do. We live because God wills it to be so. Let's take a look at the Scriptures Jesus was talking about when he said-- IT IS WRITTEN-
Deu 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
God was proving the children of Israel that he'd rescued from Egyptian slavery. God wanted to know if they would keep His commandments or not. He was humbling the people, letting them suffer and then He fed them. HE FED THEM. They would have all starved to death in the wilderness if He hadn't provided for them. He wanted the people to trust HIM that He wouldn't let them starve, He would take care of them - IF they would keep His Royal Law, the Ten Commandments. Why do I say that? Who else fasted for 40 days and nights, and when did he fast?
Exo 34:27 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
Exo 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments
God sustained Moses when he was given the Ten Commandments the second time, for 40 days and 40 nights.
God took care of Him. Moses trusted God. God's word sustains us for ETERNITY. Temporary food satisfies a hunger now, it satisfies us in our temporary existence, but God's words give us eternal life, promises us we'll eat from the Tree of Life! Which is more important?
Satan wants us focused on the TEMPORAL. We need to remember that, it's so easy for us to forget that, so easy.
Enough for now… prayerfully, more tomorrow on this. All glory, praise and honor to God now and forever! In Jesus Christ's blessed and holy name!
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