Mat. 4:1 ... Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
The word "devil" comes from a root that means "slanderer." The other word commonly used in the Bible to refer to the devil is "Satan." The term is the Anglicization of the Hebrew that means "adversary." Both of these meanings reveal the nature of the malign being to whom they refer. Scripture records many instances where the devil slandered both God and man, especially those men who were trying to live righteously in God's service. And the Holy Record shows this evil one absorbed in the effort to resist the Lord and His will. Satan is the arch adversary of God and all that pertains to God.
In the beginning God established man in a veritable paradise in the Garden of Eden. He supplied man's every need, and man basked in perfect happiness and in the blissful peace of innocence. But Satan soon appeared in the garden disguised as a serpent, enticed Eve with vain promises, and called God's instructions and motives into question. She fell victim to the tempter's subtlety and sinned against God, inducing her husband to do likewise. Through Satan's evil work man lost his innocence, his beautiful home in paradise, and his close relationship with God.
As the centuries passed, God set in motion a plan designed to redeem man from the slavery of sin into which he had sold himself. Satan, however, was well aware of this plan and tried his best to defeat it. The limits of this essay preclude even a brief outline of the course of this struggle, but anyone who reads the Old Testament with this conflict in mind will find its evidence throughout. For example, when God chose a nation to prepare the way for the Redeemer, Satan devoted his vast energy to the attempt to divert that nation into idolatry. Except for a small remnant, he succeeded. But through that tiny fraction of people, God went on in time to accomplish His purpose.
A great climax occurred when Jesus appeared among men as the Redeemer whom God had promised millennia before. Satan realized he had to subvert Jesus before He could fulfill His mission, or else his own eventual doom was insured. That puts the history at the point of this text. Jesus had just been baptized and was ready to begin His work. God knew that Satan's time to act had come, and He was prepared for it. He was quite willing to subject His Son to a head-on encounter with the devil, for He knew His Son would win the contest. Therefore He sent the Spirit to lead Jesus "into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
When they met, Satan tempted Jesus, who had not eaten in 40 days, to prove His divinity by changing stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. Next, he tempted Jesus to prove God's sovereign care by casting Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. Finally, he tempted Jesus to worship him in return for the world and all its glory. But Jesus did not pause or waver before any of these temptations. To the contrary, He brandished the "sword of the Spirit" in Satan's face by quoting the exact Scripture that annihilated the force of each temptation. Thereupon the devil fled, knowing that he was defeated.
Nevertheless, he continues to oppose God by trying to ruin as many people as he can to share the eternal misery of hell with him. Our challenge is to prevent his success in our own personal lives. We can do this just as Jesus did, by storing up in our minds the great power of the knowledge of God's word and then releasing it against every temptation that assaults us.
