But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4
The son of a factory owner wanted a job working for his father’s company. His father sent the young man to the shipping department, and told the manager there not to hire his son unless he was qualified. The work was not difficult, so the son was hired, and was kept at menial tasks until he had them all mastered. Slowly, he worked his way through the company, excelling at every job he was given. His father gave him no help. Finally, the son had proven himself to the point where he was qualified for, and received, a management position, and he excelled there, too. In later years, as he took over the reins of the company, workers were never able to approach him to complain about their work being too hard. He merely pointed to his own experience and reminded them that, if he could do the work, they could too. In today’s text, we see the Lord Jesus being tested by the devil. He succeeded and proved Himself qualified for lordship.
The Lord Jesus was tempted as a man. The devil appealed to His human needs. Note that Jesus responded as a man, quoting Scripture that applied to mankind and how we are to be sustained. He sets for us a pattern that Scripture has the answer to all of the devil’s temptations. Note that Jesus did not come up with anything new in his responses. He did not step outside of the Word of God for His responses. In fact, He declared that the whole Bible is ours for nourishment and support. Nothing that the world, the flesh, or the devil can throw at us is proof against the Bible’s resources.
In each of His temptations, Jesus quotes Scripture. We might say that it was easy for Him to do so, because it was His Word. But it can be easy for us too, if we know the Word well enough. We need to read and study it daily, to listen to able men expound it, to spend time in Assembly Bible studies learning it, and to commit as much of it as possible to memory.
The better we know the Book, the better we repel the tempter’s darts. Our Lord shows us how. -Jim MacIntosh