Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4 (ESV)
It is Jesus’s answer for Satan’s first test, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3, ESV). Jesus quoted back to the devil from Deuteronomy 8:3. Indeed, Satan was clever and cunning as he was in Eden. The first Adam failed but the second Adam Jesus succeeded the first temptation. As the serpent did with Adam and Eve, his concern seems to be fair overall. He was caring about Jesus’ present situation that He was hungry and weak physically after 40 days of fasting. Is he?
Jesus is fully in flesh like any other human being on the earth. However, Satan knew that Jesus is also God. Most importantly, the devil knew God’s plan to crush his head on the cross by Jesus as promised in Genesis 3:15. We can draw a parallel between what happened in the Eden and what is happening with Jesus. Satan’s request makes sense. Jesus is God, so why He can’t just convert stones to bread? But Jesus knew what was His purpose on the earth and what was the devil trying to accomplish. Obviously, Satan was trying to deceive Jesus to make an easy arrangement to meet His needs by himself. Jesus can use His divine power to meet his needs. What a wonderful idea by Satan! Some of you thinking what is wrong with that? Being independent is good, isn’t it? The answer here is the devil was trying to make Jesus to mistrust His Heavenly Father.
The cunning devil started the conversation “If you are the Son of God” to Jesus. Clearly, Jesus is Son of God and Jesus Himself knew it without any doubt. Satan’s trick was to raise doubt using the truth. When Israelites grumbled in the wilderness before Moses for food, God answered them by providing manna. And Jesus was using the same speech Moses was using to affirm God’s love toward Israelites and trust God completely. Moreover, Jesus was replying to Satan, “Don’t worry, Thanks for your concern and I appreciate it. But my Father is trustworthy and He will meet my needs as He did with the Hebrews in the wilderness.”
Many times, anxiety strikes us from worrying about tomorrow’s needs. Or the struggles we are going through now. Categorically, it could be anything. Deep inside our heart, we know that God is loving, caring and trustworthy. But often a question arises in our heart, “Are you really a Son or a Daughter of God?”. We know we are. However, Jesus affirmed the bond between God and us through His work on the cross. We are sons and daughters of living God, He will meet our needs. Amen!