The Mountain of Temptation

The Setting

Our theme for this weekend centres around the mountain passages of Matthew’s gospel. This isn’t a topical study of mountains (that might have been too similar to the subject matter of last year’s MSW); it is more of a book study of Matthew’s gospel with an additional topical focus on mountains.

Hopefully, you have all had chance to read through Matthew’s gospel at least once. The guide circulated in advance highlighted the seven mountain scenes that feature structurally in Matthew’s narrative and we are going to look at the three principal ones in our talks. In your discussion time, you are free to discuss any of the mountain passages, of course.

Our focus throughout will be firmly on the Lord Jesus. We want to see how God’s word communicates the loveliness of the Messenger on the mountains of Judea and to understand the meaning of the “good news” he brought. In seeking to do so, we will need to investigate the structural and theological significance of Matthew’s use of mountains (noting that it is a motif more common in his gospel account than in the other Synoptics).

For now, we are going to launch right into the first of the mountain scenes and save our overview of Matthew’s gospel for later.

However, before we can properly understand what we’re calling the Mountain of Temptation (in Mt 4:8), we do need to back up a little and consider its setting in Matthew’s gospel.

Sonship Theme

In particular, we need to be alive to the theme of sonship, which is a significant theme in Matthew’s gospel (where the Greek word υἱός - son - is used 89 times) and of special importance to our passage. In fact, this theme can be traced right back to the beginning of the gospel, where Matthew introduces the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Mt 1:1).

Twice in our passage, the title Son of God is used (Mt 4:3, 6). This connects our passage with the previous pericope in chapter 3, at the close of which a voice from heaven has declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17), at Jesus’ baptism. For a moment, I want you to suspend your connection of that title to the second person of the Godhead, the divine Son of God. We need to dig a little further back to develop a fuller understanding of Matthew’s use of this title.

The secret to Matthew’s understanding is in Matthew 2:14-15. There Matthew records the escape to Egypt of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus, recalling that they did not return until it was safe to do so following Herod’s death. Amazingly, Matthew interprets their return from Egypt as a fulfilment of Hosea 11:1, a text which is a clear reference to the Exodus.

Hosea 11:1 NIV

1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

God, speaking through the prophet Hosea, described Israel as his child, his son. Indeed, this echoed the language employed by God when he commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh (Ex 4:22, 23) saying “Israel is my firstborn son.... Let my son go, so he may worship me.”

This special relationship which Israel enjoyed with God, in which he was like a father to them, lies behind Matthew’s use of the title Son of God. In applying the title to Jesus, Matthew sees him standing in the place of the nation of Israel. What we start to see emerging, through Matthew’s carefully arranged gospel narrative, is a recapitulation of the history of national Israel in the events of Jesus’ life:

Jesus’ return from Egypt ~ the Exodus

Jesus’ baptism ~ Israel’s baptism in the Red Sea

Jesus led into the wilderness (Mt 4:1) ~ Israel led into the wilderness

Jesus tempted for forty days and forty nights (Mt 4:2) ~ Israel wandered for forty years; also Moses (as a type of the Lord) on Sinai for forty days and forty nights (Ex 34:28) to receive the tablets of the law

Jesus’ crossing back over the Jordan (Mt 4:15-16) ~ Israel crossing the Jordan to take the Promised Land

Calling 12 disciples ~ Israel’s 12 tribes

So, both the temptation narrative’s place after the baptism narrative and (as we will see next) its structure are purposeful. God declared Jesus to be his Son at his baptism and we have seen how Matthew links this title to God’s covenant love for his people, Israel. In our passage, the devil is going to test Jesus’ belief in God’s declaration. The scene is perfectly poised: how will this Son of God respond under intense testing?

The fact that the three portions of Scripture that Jesus quotes are from Deuteronomy adds to the connection with Israel we have already observed.

In fact, our passage seems to allude strongly to Deuteronomy 8:2-5.

Deuteronomy 8:2–5 NIV

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

God led Israel into the wilderness to humble and test his son, in order to know what was in his heart. In just the same way, we see that it was the Spirit of God who led Jesus into the wilderness that the motivation of his heart might be proved in just the same way. How would the newly-declared Son of God fare? Let’s look now at the detail of our passage.

The Structure

The content of our passage is well-known: three temptations, each rebuffed by the Lord in the power of the Spirit and involving quotation from the word of God.

Three escalating temptations

As we consider the structure of the temptation narrative, we notice that the intensity and tension escalates from the first to the third temptation. In the first two temptations, Satan subtly tests Jesus’ understanding of his sonship with the repeated phrase “if you are the Son of God”.

1. If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread

Jesus’ response to Satan’s first temptation in Matthew 4:4 alludes to Deuteronomy 8:3.

Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV

3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

It recalls the events of Exodus 16 when, less than two months after they had come out of Egypt, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron on account of their hunger. The “every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” in Deuteronomy 8:3 that man is supposed to live by is God’s promise of provision. God promised to provide for Israel with manna, rained down from heaven. But God regulated the gathering of the manna - they were only to gather enough for each day - thereby testing their reliance on his word (Ex 16:4).

Israel failed the test. They tried to keep the manna overnight and it rotted just as God had said. Some went in search of manna on the Sabbath and found none; they should have taken a double portion on the sixth day, just as God had said.

Jesus’ experience in the wilderness was like that of the Israelites. It was a place of solitude and scarcity. Satan hoped that the Son of God may have felt abandoned by his Father and tempted to provide for his own needs just like the Israelites were tempted to provide for their own needs. But Jesus, unlike the Israelites, resisted temptation and fully relied on his Father.

Jesus did not seek to provide for himself apart from his Father. He relied on his Father’s promise of provision.

2. If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down

Jesus’ response to the second temptation in Matthew 4:7 alludes to Deuteronomy 6:16.

Deuteronomy 6:16 NIV

16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.

The command not to put the Lord to the test was given through Moses to Israel in order that they might prosper in the Promised Land. Moses recalls the events of Exodus 17. There we read about how Israel tested the Lord at Rephidim (later called Massah (testing) and Meribah (quarelling)) on account of their lack of water, demanding that they be given water to drink (Ex 17:2) and asking “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Ex 17:7). God was committed to their prosperity and had already given them plentiful evidence of that fact.

In setting up the second temptation, the devil quotes, in Matthew 4:6 from Psalm 91:11-12. We notice that Psalm 91 applies to the person “who dwells in the shelter of the Most High”. That definitely applied to Jesus during his life on earth, but what does not apply is the devil’s application of the Psalm. Here’s an example of how Scripture, once removed from its context, can be made to mean something it was never intended to mean!

Satan was encouraging Jesus to brashly force God’s protective hand as Israel had done at Rephidim. When we look at the passage that Satan quotes in its context, we see that the Psalm was written to encourage God’s people to rely on his protection, not to demand or test it. God is a refuge from the difficulties and dangers that can befall his people as a result of living in a sin-cursed world. The implication of this truth is not to fear. The implication is not to test God’s protection and care.

Once again, Jesus, unlike Israel, passed the test. Jesus relied fully on his Father’s protection and did not seek to force his Father’s hand to save him.

3. Bow down and worship me

At this point, let’s pause to notice the escalation. The first temptation tested whether Jesus would trust his Father for his sustenance and took place in the wilderness with no one around.

The second temptation ups the intensity: would Jesus trust his Father’s presence and protection at the temple, the place that symbolised God’s presence with the nation of Israel?

For the third temptation, the devil takes him to a very high mountain and all the nations of the world are now in view! The escalation in geography mirrors the escalation in intensity of the temptation.

In this third test, the devil questions Jesus’ devotion to his Father and trust in his Father’s promise of future glory.

By the way, Satan’s offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world (Mt 4:8–9) was not idle and exaggerated boasting. Satan actually is the ruler of this domain. These kingdoms lie within his power, although they are not rightfully his and one day will be fully delivered from that control which he now exercises as a usurper. Furthermore, God had already promised all of these things to his Son as an inheritance. The issue with this third temptation, then, is whether the Son of God will wait on the Father’s timing.

R.T. France puts it like this: “the more subtle suggestions of the first two proposals are succeeded by a blatant challenge to God’s authority when the devil ‘drops his disguise’ and the central issue is brought into the open.… The devil is trying to drive a wedge between the newly-declared Son and his Father.”

Will Jesus worship the devil in order to get what the devil offers him, or will he continue in his relationship of dependence on the Father?

Jesus’ response to the third temptation, in Matthew 4:10 alludes to Deuteronomy 6:13.

Deuteronomy 6:13 NIV

13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

The context, as before, is a series of regulations which were given to Israel in order that they might prosper in the land of promise. Israel was not to follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, because the Lord God is a jealous God whose anger would burn against them and who would destroy them from the face of the land. Acknowledging the Lord as the only God was the only way to live and to prosper in the land.

It is worth noting that the passage from which the Lord’s quotations are taken commences with the Shema (Dt 6:4-5).

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NIV

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This single-minded devotion to the Lord was the definition of sonship for Israel and is what God intended to test during their wanderings in the wilderness. Of course, we know that they failed this test too, regularly turning to the idols and gods of the nations around them. Most notably, they failed this test, even as the presence of God overshadowed them at Mount Sinai, in their making of the golden calf (Ex 32).

But in the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew presents us with a true Son of God - one who answers to the definition of sonship in Deuteronomy 6:5; one who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength.

High Mountain Climax

The escalation of the temptation narrative has brought us to the first of our mountain encounters with the Lord Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. It is not a mountain we can identify, save to say that it was very high. Matthew alone refers to this mountain and it appears at a structurally significant part of his narrative - the commencement of Jesus public ministry.

Given everything we have said so far concerning the salvation-historical background to Matthew’s narrative and the recapitulation of Israel’s history, it seems quite plausible to see theological significance in the mountain setting too. The obvious link, of course, is to Sinai - one of the two great covenant mountains of the Old Testament.

It was on that great mountain that God entered into covenant relationship with Israel, his son. It was a relationship that was conditioned on obedience to the Lord’s commands. And Israel responded as one to all the Lord’s commands saying, “We will do everything the LORD has said” (Ex 19:8). Of course, they never could live up to that commitment, neither during the 40 years of testing in the wilderness nor after they had entered the Promised Land. The Old Testament stands as a record to Israel’s repeated failure of the Father’s testing of the motivation of his son’s heart.

What Matthew is announcing, then, is truly good news and its significance for salvation history (one of Matthew’s key themes) will be seen as go deeper into Matthew’s gospel. In essence, Matthew is announcing the fulfilment of the law by the Son of God and, with that, the renewed hope that God will be present with his people.

Another of Matthew’s key themes is Christology - exaltation of the person and work of Christ. In this first mountain scene, Matthew elevates the true Son of God, who passes the tests which Israel failed. On the mountain of temptation we see the lovely feet of the perfectly obedient Son of God - transcendent in his obedience - and this is reason for us to exalt him in our hearts.

Matthew 5 sees the start of another mountain scene - the Sermon on the Mount - in which Jesus introduces the superior form of righteousness that will characterise those in his kingdom.

He embarks on a series of comparisons, such as:

Murder - the spirit of that law, he says, is broken just by anger/resentment in the heart.

Adultery - to which the Jews had created all sorts of exclusions (e.g. slaves and single women didn’t count!). Jesus says the spirit of that law is broken by lust in the heart.

By Jesus’ day, the law of Moses had been watered down to the point that the Jews actually believed they were keeping it (as many still do today). Jesus was not introducing a new law in the Sermon on the Mount; he was showing them their inability to keep the law because it is so demanding. He shows them what true righteousness before God looks like. He shows them that they need a Saviour.

And that is the Saviour whom Matthew presents atop the very high mountain of temptation - one who came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil them (Mt 5:17).

On the mountain of temptation, Matthew exalts the Saviour they and we need. He wants us to see the Son of God standing in precisely the same place as corporate Israel stood at Mount Sinai - in line to receive the blessings of the covenant, namely the presence and voice of God. And this Son of God will secure those benefits for us by his own record of perfect obedience, not by any effort of our own.

Chiastic Victory

There is an interesting structural point in Matthew 4:11. This verse reverses the three temptations in a chiastic structure. Chiastic structure is common in the Bible and is a type of parallelism where the parallel elements radiate from the center. In this instance:

A – temptation to minister to his own needs (bread)

B – temptation to test God (requiring him to send angels)

C – temptation to worship Satan

D – AWAY FROM ME : Jesus rejected the devil’s request in the most aggressive way by not only refusing to worship him, but by telling him to leave

C - the devil leaves Jesus which is the result of Christ’s words in the third temptation

B - the angels’ arrival, which corresponds to the temptation to force the angels to come rescue Him

A - the angels ministered to Him, which is God’s provision for the hunger Jesus felt.

At the center of this chiasm, and of the narrative itself, is Jesus’ powerful command and its result. “Away from me, Satan!… Then the devil left him” (Mt 4:10-11). Not only had Jesus passed the tests, He had triumphed over the devil.

This foreshadows the victory Jesus would have over the devil at the cross where Satan will try, one last time, to tempt Jesus with the subtle challenge “if you are the Son of God” (Mt 27:40). The victory on the mountain of temptation foreshadows the resurrection but also has in focus the victory Christ will have over the devil at the end of the age.

Application

We could summarise the meaning of Matthew 4:1–11 as follows: in the temptation, Jesus, the promised Messiah and beloved Son of God, victoriously triumphed over the evil one through reliance on his Father, succeeding where Israel and the rest of humanity failed.

So, the meaning of Matthew 4:1–11 is thoroughly Christological in nature. By that we mean that when Matthew included this story in his narrative, he wanted us to know something about Christ more than he wanted us to know anything else (including how to overcome temptation).

The main purpose of the narrative sections of Matthew’s gospel (including this passage) is to cause us to look to Jesus, not ourselves. He is the one who fulfilled the hope and destiny of the nation of Israel. He is the one who perfectly relied on the Father. He is the one who defeated Satan and sin on our behalf.

And the main application, therefore, is faith. We must have faith in the perfectly obedient and victorious beloved Son of God. This principle applies as directly to us as it did to Matthew’s original audience.

We can now take this principle and begin to apply it to our own lives. There are two sets of questions we’ll ask to do so, one centering on Jesus’ perfect obedience, the other on Jesus’ victory over Satan in the temptation.

Faith in His perfect obedience

First, what part of our lives does not reflect faith in Jesus’ perfect obedience for us? In Matthew 3, God the Father’s voice comes out of heaven to affirm Jesus’ sonship. Immediately afterward, in Matthew 4, Satan tests that declaration in the first two temptations, challenging Christ with the words, “If you are the son of God.” Jesus demonstrates that he truly is the Son of God, not by miraculous deeds in this case, but by obedience and reliance on His Father. Matthew is showing off Jesus: he is trustworthy. We can rely on His obedience. So, in what ways are you relying on your own obedience and performance to become or maintain your status as beloved children of God?

Faith in His complete victory

Next, what part of our lives does not reflect faith in Jesus’ complete victory over Satan? The account of the temptation escalates to the final and boldest demand from Satan, “Worship me.” Jesus confronts this bold demand with an even more powerful command, “Away from me, Satan.” This was the central part of the passage’s structure and a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate victory. In what ways do we not trust Jesus’ absolute control of situations in our life, including the temptation we experience? Are we trusting Jesus for victory over our sin or are we trusting our own devices?

Secondary applications

Of course, we may find secondary levels of application too. Jesus’ reliance on the Spirit of God and the Word of God to overcome the temptation is evident from the passage. Jesus is not only our substitute and King, he is our example. We can learn from his example in our own temptation. This isn’t the primary level of application, but it is a level of application.

Many have compared Jesus’ temptation to Adam and Eve’s temptation and to the teaching of 1 John 2:15–16, which seems to give us the full range of the devil’s temptations. Seeing then that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are and yet was without sin, the way he succeeded becomes the example for the way we can succeed under similar types of temptations.

We might summarise his model as follows: resist the devil in the power of the Spirit through the guidance of the Word to accomplish the will of God.

Note that we do not apply the text, as many people have, by promising victory over temptation through quoting applicable Scripture, however helpful that discipline is. Victory over Satan is never guaranteed by our own efforts. Victory over Satan is only guaranteed through Christ’s!