We started looking yesterday at the testing of Jesus. If you are new on the list, or missed yesterday’s, please read it first! As soon as God announced that Jesus was ready, the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

Test Number One.

Matthew 4:1-4

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

3 And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

When Satan says “If” in verse 3, he’s not asking a question! In the Greek, that’s a first class conditional, which means “if and it is true.”

I’ve always wondered about this test. What would have been the big deal if Jesus had turned stones into bread? He certainly performed other miracles. I’m sure He was really hungry – I can’t imagine fasting for a day, much less 40! He certainly had the power to do it, for at the same time that the humanity of Jesus was hungry, the deity of Jesus Christ was sustaining the universe!

Hebrews 1:3a

3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.

But Jesus had just identified Himself with the plan of God, and since God had a plan for Jesus’ life, then God had to supply everything that Jesus needed to accomplish the plan. For Jesus to use His own power as the Son of God would have been saying that God’s provision was not enough! Satan wanted to show that Jesus’ humanity could not depend on God’s provision. The plan of God required Jesus to rely on the system of provision designed by God.

God’s plan for Jesus required Him to lay aside the use of His divine attributes. Imagine having the power to do all things, and not using it! Why did Jesus do this?

2 Corinthians 8:9

9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

There’s a great lesson to be learned in this test. Jesus had the ability to do ANYTHING He wanted, yet He laid aside that power to accomplish the plan of God. As for us, we don’t have anything like the power that Jesus Christ had, but we still try to accomplish things in our own power! If Jesus can lay aside the power of deity to function only in the power of the Word of God, why can’t we lay aside our puny human power to function only in the power of the Word of God?

What will you do when you are tested this way? Do you stick with the plan of God, or do you try to solve the problem in your own power?

Jesus could have answered Satan by crushing him with a mountain. But instead, He uses the Word of God!

4 But He answered and said, "It is written, (in Deuteronomy 8:3) "MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

What a great lesson Jesus teaches us here! It’s not about using our own power to accomplish what we want, it’s all about using God’s provision to accomplish what God wants for our lives.