OCTOBER 7, 2026 – TEMPTATIONS

READ: Luke 4:1-13: … forty days, tempted … by the devil … for it is written …

The devil attacks Jesus immediately. As a true man, He is without sin, but He is nevertheless sensitive and exposed to deprivation, hardship, temptations, fears, and trials. Adam was initially without sin, but he succumbed to the devil’s temptation. Now Jesus is tempted in an extreme way, much more severely than Adam.

It begins with an exhausted body that has gone without food for forty days. The devil then points to one of the many stones in the wilderness: if You are the Son of God, make it become bread. Why would that not be permissible in this situation? It is not permissible if it is contrary to the will of the Lord God.

Jesus later does show that He is able to do this, providing many baskets full of bread and fish in the miraculous feeding. But the situation is different here. Here the man Jesus is exposed to what the Father causes Him to undergo: heat and hunger.

Adam succumbed to the Father’s test by taking the forbidden fruit even without experiencing hunger. But Jesus, as a man, desires to submit Himself completely to what the Father requires of Him and trusts that the Father will provide for Him. He does not use His divine power to save Himself apart from the Father. Jesus follows the Father even now that He is being tempted.

Jesus points the devil to what is written in God’s Word, in Deut. 8:3: ‘man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.’ Thus Jesus holds fast to the Father’s Word: ‘You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased!’

Then the devil tries to persuade Jesus to worship him by showing Him all the kingdoms of the world, probably in a vision. The devil suggests that he possesses authority over the glory of those kingdoms and can give them to Jesus. Jesus need only kneel down. But Jesus sees through him and again points to God’s Word (Deut. 6:13; 10:20). In the final temptation, the devil misuses God’s Word. But Jesus rejects this: ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’

What example does Christ give us by this?

Sing: Ps. 91:4,5