Luke 4: The Devil

LUKE 4:1 – 13: THE DEVIL

Leon Morris comments on the temptation of Jesus:

‘Clearly he faced questions like: What sort of Messiah was he to be? Was he to use his powers for personal ends? Or for the establishing of a mighty empire that would rule the world in righteousness? Or for working spectacular, if pointless, miracles? He rejected these for what they were, temptations of the devil. That they were temptations implies that Jesus knew that he had unusual powers. “It is no temptation to us to turn stones into bread or leap from a Temple pinnacle” (Barclay). But Jesus was not bound by our limitations. He knew he had powers other men do not have and he had to decide how to use them.’ (p. 112 Luke, IVP, 1974, 1988.

Morris’ point is that Jesus had the ability to do everything that the devil suggested to him. And that is true. But Morris also seems to infer that Jesus, at this point actually considered these actions as possible ways of accomplishing the purpose for which he came. But that is not what the scripture says. Jesus knew what he had come to do, and he knew how that would be accomplished. The plan of salvation that he would accomplish was set in place before the creation of the world, and is predicted in the Scripture as early as Genesis 3:15.

Hendrikson, having referred to Hebrews 4:15, describes the (first) temptation this way:

‘Hebrews 4:15 cannot mean, however, that the psychological process involved in being tempted was exactly the same for Jesus as it is for men in general. For the latter, including believers, there is first, the tempting voice or inner whispering of Satan, urging them to sin. But there is also the inner desire (“lust”) goading the tempted one to give heed to the devil’s prompting. Thus man, being “drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire” (James 1:14), sins. With Christ, the case was different. The outward stimulus – outward in the sense that it did not originate in the Lord’s own soul but was the voice of another – was there, but the inner evil incentive or desire to co-operate with this voice from without was not. Nevertheless the temptation – that is, the sense of need, the consciousness of being urged by Satan to satisfy this need, the knowledge of having to resist the tempter, and the struggle to which this gave rise – was real even for Christ.’ p223, The Gospel of Matthew, Baker Book House 1973.

The one big decision, the one choice that determined and put boundaries around every other choice, had already been made prior to Christ’s incarnation. At each point of choice (temptation/pressure), Jesus deliberately rejected every course of action that did not work towards the planned outcome of that one big choice made before the beginning of time.

If we read the temptation narratives carefully we will see that the temptations were an essential part of the incarnation of the Son of God -

Matthew 4:1 – ‘Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil ...’

Mark 1:12, 13 – ‘At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan.’

Luke 4:1, 2 – ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil...’

For Jesus, who came to do the will of God, it was necessary for him to suffer the same pressures from the evil one that Adam and Eve suffered, and that we suffer. Only having experienced and endured that pressure would he be qualified to die as our substitute under the judgement of God, and to represent us as our mediator/advocate in the presence of God. The reality of the temptation/pressure that Jesus survived is essential.

A. WHAT THE DEVIL KNEW AND WHAT HE DID NOT KNOW

A.1 What the devil knew
One thing that the devil did know was that Jesus was the Son of God – that he was God in human flesh. The Greek language has two different words for ‘if’, one indicating uncertainty about something, the other meaning more like our English ‘since’ ... if (= since) such and such is true, then this is also true or possible. It is this second ‘if’ (the ‘if’ of assumption or actuality) that the devil used in tempting Jesus. How do we know that the devil knew that Jesus was the Son of God?

We know he knew, because God had just declared it (Luke 3:22).

We know he knew, because, as we will see later in Luke, the evil spirits recognized Jesus as the ‘Holy One of God’ who had the authority to destroy them (Luke 5:34) and as ‘Son of the Most High God’ (Luke 8:28).

We know, also, that the devil knew that Jesus had the approval of God, because this approval was included in God’s spoken affirmation in 3:22.

When Satan pressured Jesus immediately after God’s affirmation of Jesus, he was using the same strategy by which he had successfully corrupted Adam and Eve, and by which he had tried, unsuccessfully, to corrupt Job.

Consider the following:

[1] Having completed his work of creation, God affirmed all that he had made ‘as very good’ – Genesis 1:31.

Immediately, Satan came in and corrupted the faith and knowledge of God of the first humans, bringing sin, death and suffering into the world (Genesis 3).

[2] God affirmed Job as ‘blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil’ (Job 1:8; 2:3).

Immediately Satan accused Job of having a fake, materialistic faith, and sought to expose that fakeness by causing Job to suffer (Job 1 & 2).

Now here, immediately after God’s affirmation of Jesus, Satan attacks him, seeking to corrupt him just as he had corrupted Adam and Eve.

There is one other aspect of the Genesis 3 temptation that Satan reduplicates here: Just as he offered Adam and Eve something that they already had (likeness to God), so he offers to Jesus something that Jesus already had – authority over the whole world – verses 5 - 7.

Another thing we know that the devil knew was that Jesus, as the Son of God, had miraculous powers, and it was on the basis of these miraculous powers that Satan taunted him, pressing him to use those powers to ease his personal hunger and to achieve his purpose. As indicated in the quote from Morris above, there was a certain logic in Satan’s pressuring Jesus to accomplish his purpose by means of miracles, because Jesus had both the power and the authority to do miracles. He actually could have done everything that Satan suggested to him.

A.2 What the devil did not know
He did not know that he was already defeated before he began. He did not know that Jesus was already fully committed to do his Father’s will. He did not know that although Jesus could have done each of these three things, he would not. This commitment of the Son was already evident when he was twelve years old, and would continue to be evident right up to his crucifixion.

How do these verses express Jesus’ commitment to his Father’s will?
Luke 2:49

Luke 12:50

Luke 9:51

John 5:19

John 9:4

Philippians 2:6 – 8

Hebrews 10:7

Jesus was committed to do his Father’s will, a commitment the devil could neither understand nor appreciate:

[1] In the incarnation. Even before it happened, the Son of God was committed to come as a human being, in weakness and humility. Paul points this out in Philippians 2:6 – 8. Christ, the Son of God, was involved in this divine decision before the beginning of time (1Peter 1:20).

[2] It was for this purpose he came: to do the Father’s will.

[3] The very first words reported of Jesus (Luke 2:49) express his commitment to his Father. They include the word ‘must’ – it cannot be any other way, it must be this way, of necessity.

[4] When we read through the Gospels, we see that this commitment included fulfilling everything that was written about him in the Old Testament scriptures.

Just as the devil did not understand the nature of true faith when he pressured Job to give up on God, so he did not understand the unshakable commitment of the Son of God to God the Father. He who is the enemy of God, with a vicious hatred of God, has no idea of the love for God that those who know him have. Indeed, it seems that he has convinced himself that no one, not even the Son, really loves God. He knows neither the love of God, nor love for God. To him it is all fake, all a deception, all corruptible.

B. WHAT THE DEVIL SUGGESTED

A key element in ‘temptation’ is pressure: pressure to give in and give up one’s commitment to God and to God’s way. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, had taken on our humanness with the fixed purpose of living our human life and dying as our substitute as he bore our sin, our guilt and our condemnation. He is ‘the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8); he is ‘the lamb without blemish or defect ... chosen before the creation of the world’ (1Peter 1:19, 20). All through the ages he had known what he would do and what would happen. He came for us and for our salvation.

And he had always known that it would not be easy. He had always known that he would encounter opposition and rejection. To embrace our human life meant to embrace a life of suffering. To come hidden in human flesh meant to abandon all of the glory and honour and worship that was due him as God. To come also meant to die.

B.1 The first temptation
The devil knew Jesus was hungry, having fasted for ‘forty days’. The devil also knew that, as the Son of God, as the creator of all that exists, it would have been a very easy thing for Jesus to create bread from stones. He could have done it even without the stones as a starting point. There was no need at all for him to continue hungry. Why suffer hunger when you can make bread, when you can simply and easily speak bread into existence?

In this first temptation, the devil addresses Jesus in terms of his deity: ‘If (= ‘since’) you are the Son of God ...’ But Jesus responded from the perspective of his humanity – ‘Man does not live by bread alone...’ Just as in his baptism he refused to let John to persuade him not to be baptised because of his deity, so here also he identifies with us, with our vulnerability, with our createdness, with our physical hunger. We do not have the ability to create bread out of stones. Jesus here refuses to abandon his humanity in order to satisfy his human need and ease his human suffering. We could not do that, so he, who came to substitute for us under the judgement of God and to represent us in the presence of God, chooses also not to do that.

Read Hebrews 2. What do these verses say about the necessity of Jesus’ suffering all that we as humans suffer?
Verse 9:

Verse 10:

Verse 14:

Verse 17:

Verse 18:

And also Hebrews 4:15:

Hebrews 2:13 (Isaiah 8:17) cites Jesus as saying ‘I will put my trust in him’. And that trust is included in Jesus’ reply to the evil one – ‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone”’ which is a shortened rendering of Deuteronomy 8:3 ‘man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD’.

Here, in this first temptation, Jesus’ response is the opposite of Adam and Eve’s:

They were tempted to eat the fruit, and, trusting the deceptions of the evil one rather than the word of God (spoken in Genesis 2:17), they gave in to the pressure, and ate the fruit (Genesis 3). Their life-giving connection with God was broken. They were banned from the tree of life, separated from God, the source of life. The suffering that led to physical death began.

Jesus was tempted to make bread out of stones, but trusting the word of God (Isaiah 8:17), refused the temptation, resisted the pressure, and lived.

Key takeaway: In refusing this temptation Jesus identified an important perspective: that the words of God are life giving. To deny and to disobey those words is to not believe God, to express lack of trust in God. Jesus chose to obey and trust God, rather than gratify his own physical hunger at the devil’s suggestion. It is not only ‘bread’ that is essential for our survival: we also need the word of God. We cannot survive physically without food; so also we cannot survive spiritually without God.

B.2 The second temptation – 4:5 – 8
[Note: Matthew and Luke list the second and third temptations in different order.]

The next temptation reported by Luke is that the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and promised to give them to him if he would worship him. It is a strange, twisted sort of temptation that leaves us wondering what on earth the devil was thinking. How could he possibly have thought that such an offer would appear attractive! And how could he have expected to deceive Jesus with it?

At one level, Satan was correct in assuming that he had authority over the nations (‘it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to’).

How do these verses refer to Satan’s dominion and control?
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11

Acts 26:18

2Corinthians 4:4

Ephesians 2:2

Colossians 1:13

Hebrews 2:14

1John 5:19

But Satan’s authority is neither absolute nor innate; by his own description ‘it has been given to me’. His authority is not his by right of his essential being, but his only because we humans put ourselves under his dominion way back in Genesis 3 when we rejected God’s authority. Even so, whatever authority and power he has by our default is limited by God’s greater power and authority. This is obvious in Job 1 and 2, where Satan can do nothing to Job without God’s permission, and only within the boundaries set by God. [That Jesus Christ is stronger than the devil we will see later in Luke.]

As for his assumption that he can give the nations to Jesus, the Old Testament affirms the absolute sovereignty of God over the nations, including those nations that are completely ignorant of him.

How is God’s authority over the nations taught in these verses?
Psalm 2:1 – 12

Isaiah 40:15 – 17

Both of these passages also identify Jesus Christ as this powerful, authoritative King/Lord/God. In Psalm 2 he is God’s Son, the King installed by God; in Isaiah 40 he is the powerful Lord/God for whom John the Baptist would prepare the way.

Yet another fact that makes Satan’s offer ludicrous are the Old Testament predictions concerning the eternal reign/government of the promised Messiah not only over Israel, but over people from all nations. These predictions are affirmed by New Testament affirmations of the absolute authority of the Son.

Read these texts about that authority:
Ephesians 1:19b – 22

Philippians 2:9 – 11

Revelation 17:14; 19:16

Still another truth that renders this temptation pointless is that Christ as ‘the firstborn’(Colossians 1:15), is heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2); it all belongs to him. Everything was created both by him and for him (Colossians 1:16).

But Jesus did not rebut Satan with any of these truths about his deity. He rebutted them from the position of his humanity; as a real human being his worship was due only to God: ‘It is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”’ That is what we are required to do, we who are so easily led astray to other ‘gods’, we who so easily worship something or someone other than God. As our substitute, as our representative, he refused to worship the evil one. He remained faithful, where we have failed.

There is a further, deeper truth, a truth that reveals Satan’s arrogant ignorance of God the Father and God the Son – that the Son is the ‘way’ to the Father (John 14:6), that the Son came to bring us to God (1Peter 3:18). That purpose, that eternal plan set in place before time began, could not be accomplished if the Son were to worship the devil. Had he yielded here, at this pivotal point of whom should we worship, the Son would have taken us away from the Father, not to the Father. He would have affirmed us in our allegiance to the devil, rather than rescuing us from the devil’s dominion.

B.3 The third temptation – Luke 4:9 – 12
In Matthew, who mentions the temptations in chronological order, this is listed as the second temptation, following the temptation about bread which challenged Jesus’ trust in God and his word. In this temptation to throw himself down from a high point of the temple, the devil takes up this issue of trust in God. And again, as he did in the first temptation, the devil presents this temptation to Jesus as the Son of God.

The scripture the devil quoted is Psalm 91:11, 12; it is a promise that is given to people of faith, people who –

Live and rest in the presence of God – verse 1.
Who trust in God as their refuge and fortress – verse 2.
Who make God their dwelling, their refuge – verse 9.
Who love God – verse 14.

And the promise of Psalm 91:11,12 applies in the context of various troubles in which humans inadvertently find themselves, such as war, plagues and dangerous creatures. It is obvious, given this context, that the devil is seriously misapplying God’s promise of protection: he pressures Jesus to deliberately create a situation of danger – to deliberately do something dangerous (and totally unnecessary) and then expect God to rescue him from that danger. More, to actually do it with the presumptuous intention of manipulating God into action, of coercing God into keeping his promise.

Again, Satan has revealed the limitations of his understanding:

As the Son of God, Jesus didn’t need the angels to uphold and protect him; he who would later walk on water (Mark 6:45 – 52), could certainly have walked on air.

He who would soon escape unharmed from the furious murderous crowd in Nazareth (Luke 4:28 – 30), could easily have survived the thing suggested by Satan, for he was, after all, the creator and sustainer of all that exists – his physical body, the air, the ground (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16, 17; Hebrews 1:3).

And again, Jesus does not use the power of his divine Sonship to rebut and refuse Satan’s pressure: he answers as a human being, affirming the right human attitude towards God, by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. This verse refers back to Exodus 17:2 & 7, which reports the grumbling of the Israelites, newly redeemed from Egypt: in verse 2 Moses responded to their grumbling with the words ‘Why do you put the LORD to the test?’ In verse 7 we read ‘they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”’ Their ‘testing’ the Lord expressed their unbelief, their lack of trust.

Jesus trusted God. He did not need to manipulate God into a visible demonstration of his existence and his faithfulness. True faith, the faith that Jesus exercised, simply trusts, and, out of that simple trust, also obeys.

Jesus endured, and resisted, the devil’s pressure. Unlike Adam and Eve. Unlike the Israelites. Unlike us.