Luke 4:1 – Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (NIV)

Today’s reading is the familiar story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.  We must resist our own temptation of reading too casually the familiar stories of the Bible.  There are, indeed, many lessons to learn from this short passage, but let’s focus on two.

First, we cannot escape temptation.  We can pray to God, praise and worship God, read God’s Word, and be at church every time the doors are opened, but we will still face temptation.  If God in the flesh faced it, there is no escaping it for us.  It’s a given – we will be tempted.

This leads us to our second point for today. What should we do when we face temptation?  We should do the same thing that Jesus did – we should turn to God’s Word.  When Jesus was hungry and tempted to turn a stone into bread, he turned to Deuteronomy 8:3.  When he was tempted to use his power for worldly fame, he turned to Deuteronomy 6:13.  Even when the devil used Scripture to tempt Jesus (he quoted from Psalm 91:11-12), Jesus responded with Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16).

Perhaps, I am preaching to the choir, since those of you reading this are studying Scripture, but today’s reading teaches us that we must be grounded in God’s Word.  We don’t have to be able to quote chapter and verse, but we should be familiar enough with Scripture so that when we need it, we can recall what we need.

Today I thank you for your faithful reading and studying of God’s Word, and I encourage you to persevere even when the Scriptures are difficult to understand. 

Posted by Ramón Torres