Deception

Satan knew Who he was dealing with here. He knew that Jesus was his ultimate adversary, and therefore he decided to bring out his most effective weapons against Him, strategies that were proven to work successfully against mankind throughout the thousands of years before that day in the desert. At heart they all boil down to deception – to make men believe something that is not truth but certainly looks like it, a hidden lie. This he typically accomplishes through outright lies; omission; or distorting facts.

The first attempt was an appeal to the lust of the flesh. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” This was a hidden test for Jesus to use God’s gifts for selfish purposes to prove that He is the Son of God, ignoring God’s timing and will in all things. The deception lay in the fact that Satan did not ask Him to create wealth or precious things out of stones, something spectacular that would impress all who heard about it later and greatly enhance Jesus’s reputation- a suggestion that was so obviously deceitful that it would immediately be rejected by Jesus. Oh no. He suggested that Jesus create only that basic necessity which would satisfy the hunger pangs of a starving man, namely bread. Presuming that Jesus would see that this was a very legitimate action and only to His advantage. But Jesus deflected this test by quoting Deut 8:3 “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”, turning the whole bread trap against Satan himself by showing that the words from the mouth of God should be much more important to us than the bread we eat.

The second test was an appeal to the pride of life. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “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.’” He was misusing a passage from Ps 91 here, omitting the words “to keep you in all your ways”. It distorts the meaning of the original which means that God will keep the righteous on their journey as they refrain from tempting God with needless and uncommissioned recklessness. Satan tried to trick Jesus into ‘forcing’ the Father’s hand to rescue Him with a supernatural event. He thought that this would bring about an attitude of pride in Jesus because this act would publicly show that the Father approved of Him. Jesus recognized this ploy as Satan trying to deceive Him into a spectacular act of self-promotion, to test God’s love for Him, as His answer shows: Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

The third test was an appeal to the lust of the eyes. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” This plays into what Jesus essentially came to do – to win all the nations back from Satan. Satan is offering them all to Jesus here, deceitfully only highlighting their splendour and hiding their sins, holding out a very enticing proposition. He offers Jesus a shortcut to what He wants to accomplish and asks only that that Jesus fall down and worship him in return. And Jesus, even while knowing about His coming crucifixion and the horrors He had to face, still resisted Satan and replied Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Pearls to ponder:

Will Satan’s lies, omissions and distorting of facts deceive you? Will you be able to recognize that he is misquoting Scripture, or misrepresenting truth? The only way to discern these things is to read and meditate on your Bible faithfully, and to practise hearing the voice of Holy Spirit. Be a doer of God’s word, and not a listener only.