Whoa! That changes things.
Luke 4:12, Exodus 33:18-19 (and others)
If you’ve been attending church for a while, you’ve probably, at some point, heard the story of Jesus’s temptation.
It seems to be a favourite for sermons and Sunday school lessons.
The main takeaway is usually: “Use the Bible to defeat Satan”; with a little: “If Jesus was tempted, you can also expect to be tempted” thrown in.
Now, those are great takeaways. They’re true. But they’re not what I want to highlight today. Today, I want to tell you about how this Bible story, a video sermon about the story, and a completely unrelated podcast converged to sit me down and made me say “Whoa.”
The story begins with Jesus leaving his baptism (by John in the Jordan River) and heading to the wilderness at the Spirit’s leading and “where for forty days he was tempted” and he fasted.
Did you catch that? Luke only records three specific temptations, but there in verse 2 we’re informed that both Jesus’s fast and his tempting lasted for forty days.
This brings up an interesting side note: I read or heard somewhere as I was studying this story, that there are only two other people in the Bible who were said to have fasted for forty days: Moses and Elijah. Those two people also happen to be the ones who spoke with Jesus during His transfiguration.
Now, let’s go back to the story because next, we’re going to get to the specific temptations that Luke mentions.
First up, after being told that Jesus was hungry (which seems a normal thing if one has not eaten for forty days), the devil shows up to suggest turning the stones into bread to satisfy that longing of the flesh.
Jesus replies with a scripture about man not living by bread alone. That seems fitting and directly related to the temptation, doesn’t it?
Score = Jesus 1; Devil 0
For his second attempt, the devil leads Jesus to a high place and offers Him the kingdoms of the world for the “small payment” of worshiping the devil! Wow! Was the devil stepping out of his place and trying to place himself above God, or what?
Again, Jesus answers with a scripture that is fitting: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.”
Score = Jesus 2; Devil still 0
The devil isn’t thwarted completely by this. He’s going to try again. This time, he leads Jesus to the highest point of the temple and quotes scripture (a slightly twisted version) to Jesus when putting forward this temptation to demonstrate He is the Son of God by throwing Himself down to be caught by the angels.
For a third time, Jesus quotes scripture: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” But wait. That doesn’t sound directly related to the temptation as the other two answers did, and for that reason, it caught my attention and made me start delving into this Temptation of Jesus story a little deeper, which led to the video and provided the foundation that made the unrelated podcast deliver the “whoa” blow.
But before I share about that, let’s finish the story and give the final score.
After this rebuttal, the devil leaves Jesus but not forever because Luke 4:13 says, “he left him until an opportune time.”
Score = Jesus 3; Devil still and always will be 0
However, the devil isn’t daunted by that score, nor does he accept that he’s never going to win one over on Christ. He’s coming back. Later. When things look good for a death blow that will give him the victory. He does that with us, too. He’s always prowling and looking to devour. (see 1 Peter 5:8)
Now that the story is concluded, let’s go back to that third reply that arrested my attention:
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Luke 4:12 NIV)
A footnote told me that this quote is from Deuteronomy 6:16, which in turn, I discovered via a quick YouVersion search, references an incident from the beginning of Exodus 17.
Exodus 17:7 says “And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’”
If you look back at the temptations as I did, you’ll see that each one starts with “If you are the Son of God…” Each of them is followed by a “prove it this way” statement. In all of these temptations, the devil was saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” and taunting Jesus with “come on, show us who you are.”
The devil didn’t need to be shown who Jesus was. He knew. It was why he was working so hard to get Jesus to fail here.
I stopped here to ask myself, “Do I do that?” Do I put the Lord my God to the test? I mean if the Israelites did it by complaining about not having water in the desert, then, it seems like a thing that would come pretty easily to us humans.
But what did it mean? Was there more to this? I wanted to understand completely so that I could avoid doing what the Israelites had done. So, I went to YouTube and did a search for this passage. I listened to a couple of Bible teachers that I have listened to before, and one of them, Skip Hietzig, said something that made my ears perk up.
In his message, “Confronting the Prince of Darkness”, he said: “So when Satan says, "Command these stones be made bread," it's not a slam on Jesus' identity. Satan is questioning God the Father's provision, his love. It's a slam on His love. Hey, since you're the Son of God, why didn't your father feed you? Why would he let you stay out in this godforsaken desert without any food for this long of time? Where is the love?”
He says later in his sermon that the second temptation is questioning the Father’s plan, and the third temptation is questioning the Father’s protection.
Provision. Plan. Protection. These very properly alliterated sermon outline points are all about God’s goodness.
Is a God who doesn’t provide good?
Is the plan that God put in place the best one? Or was there a better, “more good” plan?
Will God truly protect you? Can you truly trust his goodness? Is he really good? Why don’t you test Him to see.
Pause here and recall the through line that I mentioned having possibly seen when reading Luke 18. It was all about trusting God’s goodness.
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d see that through line here in what I’d call the introductory portion of Luke’s gospel. I thought I’d have to wait until I started reading the teachings of Christ to see it.
I was wrong. It’s here. In fact, it’s THE thing that the devil wants to destroy - faith in the goodness of God. He’d rather that people thought God wasn’t good or wasn’t always good. He’d really like that if we were to not believe in God’s goodness. As Skip Hietzig pointed out in his sermon, you can see the devil causing Eve to question the goodness of God way back in the Garden of Eden.
So, I guess that through line might actually start in the beginning. :) I mean, I knew that the Bible tells the story of the epic battle of good versus evil. I even know that good wins because I’ve read the end of the story. But I hadn’t imagined that God’s goodness was a connecting line weaving its way through the biblical narrative. It was a fact to me - a smattering of isolated incidents or demonstrations - rather than a picture of a chain, robe, or string of pearls, linking beginning to end.
I liked how this shifted my understanding in a way that gave me a mental image like that. But that’s not the “whoa” moment.
For that, we have to go to a recent Mere Christians podcast in which Jordan Raynor (the host) is talking to Dave Hataj (Owner of Edgerton Gear, Inc). In the course of their discussion, the goodness of God comes up and the verses below are shared.
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Exodus 33:18-19 NIV)
Do you see what God shows Moses when He is asked to reveal His glory?
All. His. Goodness.
And if you look before these verses in the chapter, you’ll see God extending goodness to a people He doesn’t even want to be around because they infuriate Him with their rebelliousness.
If you continue reading in this chapter, you’ll see how God protects Moses from looking directly at Him by placing him in a crevice between rocks, covering him with His hand, and only allowing Moses to see His back.
God’s goodness is too great for any man to witness fully – even for a man with a special relationship with God like Moses had.
God is good, and His goodness (not His holiness or His justice or any other character quality He possesses) is how He revealed His glory to Moses.
Let that all soak in. Hold on to it. Turn it over and examine it from every angle. Ponder it. Really let that settle into your awareness.
And then, ask yourself a few questions along with me:
Let’s start by going back to the question I had earlier: “Do I put God to the test?” Do I question His goodness in such a way that I will step out of my God-given place to take matters out of His hands into my own hands? As if I know the better way?
Do I trust that His goodness is so great that simply looking upon the full extent of it would endanger my life with its overwhelming glory?
And finally, if His goodness is how He reveals His glory, how does that inform how I move through my life as I seek to show Him to everyone around me?
That, my friend, that last question is the “whoa” moment that literally knocked me onto my bed and has me viewing life through a different lens.