Have you ever played king-of-the-hill? After the heavy snows of this past week, I'm sure my little nephews in WI will be busy with that game this upcoming week.
When I was in grade school, king-of-the-hill was one of my favorite recess games. After a heavy snow, the snowplows would push all the snow in the school parking lot into great piles. The tallest pile was the “hill” for our game. The object of the game was simple: be the last one standing on top after throwing everyone else down. We would spend our entire recess pushing and pulling one another off the hill until one person remained. He was the king.
In my early years at the game I wasn't so successful; none of us were, except for one boy. He had worked out a strategy that proved flawless for him. It seemed like he won every single time.
His strategy was this – he would sit back, watch, and wait for the right time to attack. On the other hand, the rest of us were out the school door like a shot the minute the recess bell rang. We'd run to the hill and immediately clamber up it, pushing and pulling as we went. We wanted to be the first one on top. But it's not important to be the first one on the hill as much as it is to be the last one. Our friend would wait and watch as we wore each other out. Then, when we were at our weakest, he'd take over and with little effort ended up being the last one standing because we didn't have the strength to oppose him.
When it comes to being on top spiritually in our lives, the devil can work in a similar way. He doesn't care if he's the first one on the hill so long as he's the last one standing. He'll allow us to push and pull at each other; he'll allow us to wear ourselves out; he'll sit back and observe; and then, when we're at our weakest, he'll attack with the intent of easily throwing us down. He even thought that he could work that same strategy with the Lord Jesus Himself.
I. Tested.
Notice what it says in our text: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'” He began his attack on Jesus when the Son of Man, was at His weakest.
He was hungry. Of course Jesus was hungry! Normally, I can't go but a few hours without food. Jesus had been in the desert 40 days and nights - fasting. As true man He must have been famished, weak from hunger. And He was tired out by more than hunger.
Jesus had already been battling temptations by the devil during the entire 40 day period (Lk.4). Besides that, He was alone; no one was with Him to comfort and strengthen him emotionally or in spirit, except the “wild animals” (Mk.1). What encouragement could they give? He was tired in His human make-up within, and weakened by hunger. At that point Satan attempts to mount the hill.
Isn't that the way he works with us, also? Think of it. When is he frequently successful with his temptations? When we're down and out, tired and discouraged, weakened – physically, mentally, dare we say spiritually? Watch those times, dear friends. That's when he'll be prowling about, seeking to devour you like a lion looking for weakened prey, too weak to resist him. (2 Pt.5:8). It's exactly the time he came to test the Lord Jesus, too.
He starts with the test: “If you're the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” He's testing Jesus in Jesus' state of weakness.
I'm not sure of the whole strategy behind Satan's attack, but it seems to me that this first of the three big temptations is a little milder, if any of Satan's temptations to sin could be called mild. It goes kind of like this: “Okay, you're the Son of God, or so it's said. What are you made of? Let's see what you can do? You're hungry. It's a shame if the Son of God goes hungry because He's divine; He made the world. Surely then, He can turn stones into bread. Let's see what you're made of.”
It's a trait of our humanity that we want to see what we're made of and to prove it to others, isn't it? We want to see what we can do; we want to let others see what we can do. It's a test for us to ascertain our very nature and to prove our value. Can we do it?
For example, isn't that at least one of the fascinations for us behind involvement in sports? Can we do it?
We just came through the football playoffs and the Super Bowl last weekend. Weren't all of those athletes, at least in one sense, striving to see what they were made of? Didn't they talk as though they wanted to prove themselves? Big guy or little guy, it doesn't matter. Pride within collides with our sinful flesh. And Satan knows just how to use it to his advantage and our defeat.
So it is that the Scriptures frequently warn us against pride and
encourage us in a life of humility under God. Peter writes, “Clothe yourselves with humility because ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.” (1:5:5f).
Interesting, isn't? Peter talks about anxiety in the same breath as humility. Do anxieties attack us partly because of lack of humility?
Satan thought Jesus might be anxious in the face of weakness, and attacked Him with a test involving His pride: “Prove yourself, show your ability; let's see what you're made of.” The weakened Lord Jesus was tested , as the Scriptures say, in every way like we are – yet was without sin (Hb.4:15). We give in; He did not give in to human pride or anxiety. Instead, our Savior declared His trust in God's providence for Him: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
II. Tempted.
Thwarted! The devil's strategy failed. But he still wants to be the last one standing on the hill. So he persists. This time he tempts. “Enough testing; let's add some pressure,” the devil thinks. So he takes the Lord Jesus to the top of the highest point in the temple and challenges, “Throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'”
Oh, he's cunning, just like he was with Eve in the Garden, much craftier than we think. Paul warns about this when he writes to his friends in Corinth (2:11:3), “I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
In his cunning Satan thrives on trickery and deception. The Scriptures tell us that he “masquerades as an angel of light” (2Co.11:4). Don't expect him to come to you with a large sign or with bells and whistles warning that he's going to tempt you now. That's why we need to keep careful watch. He can even quote the Scriptures. But he either leaves things out or he quotes the Scriptures in the wrong way, by setting one passage against another, hopelessly confusing the matter. Jesus' way to interpret the Scriptures is by setting one passage alongside another. He balances the Word because often 2 things are true with God at the same time.
So it is that when Satan turned up the heat and cunningly tempted Jesus with a Word of God, Jesus said, “True. But it is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
What did Jesus mean? Martin Luther explained it this way. Yes, God promises to protect us in all the usual rounds of our lives. But, “when you have a ladder, there is no reason for throwing yourself out of a window.” In other words, faith believes God can and will guard His own. So, don't cast yourself needlessly out the window, especially when God provides a ladder for you.
At the same time, unbelief refuses to believe unless God acts according to its demands. If one has to test God's love and protection like someone lighting a cigar under a smoke alarm to see if it works, that is false trust which dares God. God grant us the kind of trust that depends on Him, not questions Him.
III. Triumphant.
Thwarted again. Now it's time to really turn up the heat. So, Satan takes Jesus to a place where he can show Jesus the whole world and promises that he will give Him everything, if Jesus will only bow down and worship him.
By this time the devil is really grasping at straws. Jesus obviously knows the Scriptures better than he does. He would know what the Psalmist says: “The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it” (24:1). Or again, He knows the promise that God made to Him as the Messiah in the O. T. when He said, “I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession” (2:8). How silly! Satan tempts Jesus by offering Jesus something that the Father has already promised Him.
With one triumphant cry Jesus responds, “Away from me for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”
With that Satan retreats. He wanted to be last man standing, but he underestimated the power and will of the Savior. In love for us, nothing could stop the Savior from overcoming him, neither temptations nor even the cross. In all Christ proves triumphant.
That, dear friends, is your hope. Can you overcome Satan who wants to mount your hill? That depends. If you look to Christ as the One who conquered him for you and you wield His Word in humility and confidence of faith, you shall, for nothing overcomes the Savior – nothing. Tested, Tempted, He was Triumphant for you. God grant it in our lives of faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.