Basketball coaches have their team watch videos of an opponent’s games. They spot weaknesses in defenses and get clues on how to disrupt their opponent’s offense. From this information they build their game plan.
Do you know that someone is taking videos of your behavior and devising a game plan to defeat you in your next contest? We see this person at work today trying to undermine the work of Jesus (Luke 4:1-13).
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus’ days in the desert was “practice time” to prepare him, not only for his ministry, but for a bout with the devil. The same “serpent” who defeated Adam and Eve was now taking his best shot at Jesus. His first “shot” at Jesus was to suggest that he turn a stone into bread. It isn’t sinful to change a stone into bread, is it? Jesus would not have broken a law if he worked a miracle with the stone. After all, Moses brought water from a rock, why couldn’t Jesus bring bread from a stone?
Remember that Jesus was about to begin the greatest of all missions on earth. He was to be a great spiritual leader, and in fact he was the Messiah of Israel. Just as Moses worked miracles in the desert, so it made sense for Jesus to work miracles, to demonstrate that he had God’s power in him. Besides that, Jesus’ “Lent” was over, and it was time to eat again.
Satan tempted Jesus to prove to him that he was God’s Son. Who did Satan think he was trying to make God prove himself. Jesus knew the voice of his Father and his whole life was built on listening to and obeying the Father’s voice. He knew that the devil’s voice was not his Father’s. Even though working a miracle was not a sin, letting Satan direct what he did would be a sin. And so Jesus hit the devil over the head with God’s Word: “Not by bread alone does man live.” Jesus was feasting on the spiritual “bread” given him by the Father. He was living on a different plane than Adam, who gave into the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit.
Satan lost the first round, so he tried another tactic on Jesus.
“Then he took Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, ‘I shall give to you all the power and glory; for it has been handed over to me…All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Great leaders want power and prestige. The devil had a way of giving this to Jesus. He would put Jesus in charge of the whole world, if he did one simple thing: bow down and worship him. What an easy way to become the king over all the world. As a matter of fact, Jesus was and is the King over every king and Lord over every lord. This was not the Father’s voice appealing to Jesus; it was the voice of the Evil One. Jesus slammed the devil a second time proclaiming God’s Word:
“Jesus said to him in reply, ‘It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.”
Two strikes on the devil! You can read about the third temptation and how Jesus dealt with it. Three strikes and the devil was out, until he faced him once again in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The devil’s game plan worked on many other religious leaders, but not on Jesus.
What is the devil’s game plan on me? What are my weaknesses and false ambitions that make me susceptible to the devil’s suggestions? Am I steeped enough in prayer to recognize God’s voice? Do I have my guard up, knowing that the devil is as “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”?
The four disciplines of Lent—prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and righteous deeds—are practice strategies helping us prepare for the temptations the devil throws our way. We know that the more that Jesus lives inside us, the more powerful we are to stand against the devil’s tactics.
