TBR Bible study -- Matthew 4

Jesus calls to all, but the issue of possessions and rich/poor is unavoidable.

Jesus quoted Isaiah to say He had "come to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (that last part being a reference to the Jubiliee year tradition of the OT).

Jesus said you cannot serve both God and money, and He instructed people to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth.

That said, Jesus wants all to follow, all to taste of the goodness of dying to themselves. That sounds like foolishnesss to some, I know. The best way for me to put it is a recent example. I've got a church member I've been counseling for several months. He had a hard childhood - physical abuse, foster care, poverty, street life/crime, etc. He has openly admitted to me that he loves his family, but it is hard, if not impossible for him to love others. After taking him a month ago to help feed the homeless out of the back of a van one Saturday, he got a taste of it. The next day, with a gleam (and a tear) in his eye, he said he now knew love. He said he looked into the eyes of a grown man, looking back at him with a plate in his hand, and he was hungry, and my friend was able to give it to him. There's a goodness, a fullness experienced in helping others.

I don't know, that may be more wordy than anything...you may just have to give it a try to understand. Like how Mother Teresa would respond when people asked what could/should they do or how could they help. She would often look them in the eye, with that gleam of hers, and say, "Come and see."

 

I also find it interesting & instructive that Satan himself quoted scripture in his second temptation. It shows that something good can be twisted & used for evil ends.

Serious question:

WHAT IF Jesus had caved in to the 3rd temptation? Satan offered all the world's kingdoms to him right then, without his having to undergo the coming sacrifice--correct? Could he have "taken the deal," & become the king of everything right then? What would that have meant in the long term?

 

I would think, that it isn't Satan's to give. Just another one of his lies.

 

HB touched on it a little bit, but I think that first verse if very important, b/c:

1. The purpose for going to the wilderness (in this instance) was temptation/being tested

2. It was the (Holy) Spirit that led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted.

We tend to like the role of the Holy Spirit as Holy Comforter. But this is a part of the Holy Spirit as Holy Guide that is a bit uncomfortable. God sometimes sends us to wilderness experiences in our lives to be tested. Granted, if we fall (give in to temptation) His grace is there for us and He is always more ready to forgive us than we are to forgive ourselves. But there is a growth of faith in depending on God while resisting temptation in our "wilderness experiences."

 

Jesus seems to sum up the difference in His final response by saying that we are to serve God only. I think he was contrasting that not only to service to Satan, but also to service to ourselves. That's often the temptation, to serve ourselves instead of serving God, to use our resources and time for ourselves instead of for God. Or to put it another way, we miss out on God's kingdom because we are too busy building our own kingdom.

 

Verse 9. He could have taken the "easy" way out, Satan promised everything, but Jesus knew Satan is a liar, I'm afraid I believe him sometimes.

 

Hasn't God supposedly allowed Satan power over the earth until Christ's second coming? When Lucifer was cast out of heaven, he was cast down to earth. He's called "the god of this world (or age)" in the NT. Took me forever to find it, but an example from 2 Corinthians 4:4 is:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

That sounds like a reference to Satan to me, & it sounds like he does have power over the kingdoms of the world--at least for now. So couldn't he have offered to let Jesus take over as king without fulfilling his mission first? Couldn't Jesus have legitimately been tempted by such an offer? If not, there's no real temptation there to overcome, as far as I can see.

I could see him, growing up as a human being, perhaps feeling some doubt about his own divinity. But being fooled into thinking Satan could offer him kingdoms not under Satan's control? That seems pretty far-fetched for someone so close to God & so well-versed in scripture & prophecy.

 

I think you're right - that it was a real temptation and the consequences would have been devastating. How much so would be difficult to say - I could see 2 very different extremes anywhere from things staying as they were and non-Jewish people being without any hope to total world destruction because the word of God had not been fulfilled.

 

First, it doesn't really make sense for Satan to even make this offer -- the universe already belonged to Jesus (as God incarnate), so Satan really had nothing to offer. But hypothetically speaking, let's say Jesus took Satan up on his offer and bowed out of the crucifixion. The results would be Jesus is still Jesus, Satan is still Satan, and we are still under Mosaic Law and ultimately separated from God by our own choices.

 

But how far would the authority of a "god" really reach? Did Jehovah abdicate any authority He had over Earth and mankind by referring to Satan as the "god of this world"? I don't think that's necessarily true. In other words, I think it was a situation of both/and, not either/or.

Maybe not if we take into consideration He'd been fasting alone in the desert for 40 days. That's liable to take any human being a little off His game.