Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Matthew 4: 1 – 11

After Jesus’s baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the Wilderness for forty days (and nights) to fast and prepare for His ministry. Here He resisted the devil and the temptations laid before Him and strengthened Himself to be ready for what lay ahead. 

Forty is a number that pops up time and time again in the Bible. In the account of Noah, once he and his family are on the ark it rains for forty days and nights. Moses fasted on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights. Elijah fasted in the desert for, wait for it, forty days and nights. After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years.

A lot of forties and we should also recognise that we are in one ourselves as we travel the forty days of the season of Lent, participating in Jesus’s ministry and following His way toward the cross. We remember Jesus’s time in the Wilderness during this time of Lent but are we taking the opportunity of the Lenten time of preparation to patiently prepare spiritually, seek God and deepen prayer?

After identifying with sinners in His baptism, Jesus then identified with them again in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.

Temptation is a certainty for everyone. Yet Jesus’s temptation was more severe because He was tempted directly by the devil himself, while we contend mainly with lesser demons. It was also more severe because there is a sense in which temptation is “relieved” by giving in, and Jesus never did yield. Therefore He bore levels of temptation we will never know by experience.

Jesus is tempted by food, by who to worship, and by the power of the nations. This is another way in which Jesus identified with us as all three of these were faced by the Israelites in their exile. Sometimes they were able to withstand the temptation, and sometimes they did not. Jesus, on the other hand, withstood all His temptations even though what Satan offered him is firmly within Jesus’s rights and power.

Jesus’s wilderness temptations “prove” to us what sort of God He is. The tempter starts each of his offers with the Greek word, ei, which is often translated as “if” but also translates as “since…” Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God, he knows the power and authority that belong to Jesus, he also knows that what he is tempting Jesus with are well within Jesus’s rights and capability. Satan is both tempting and taunting Jesus but Jesus refuses to fall for either, proving His humility through denying Himself for the sake of others.

So Jesus was tempted just like us but Jesus succeeded where we fail. Jesus succeeded because He knew that His life was in God’s hands. We do not live by our power of provision but by God’s help and blessings. Jesus succeeded because He knew that God was with Him and He did not need another display of power to prove it. 

The cross reminds us that God is with us. We do not need to tell God how to run our lives or how to do things differently; God is with us no matter what. God is with us whether He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death or to the mountain peaks of joy. Jesus succeeded because He knew that worshiping God meant doing God’s will and not seeking His own desires. We do not live for our own desires but for God’s glory so that in the end we will be glorified by God.

We can have victory over temptation if we will look at the root of what the devil is putting in front of us. Ultimately, every temptation challenges whether or not we believe that God is with us, that God will provide for us, that God is for our good, and that God will deliver on His promises to us. Jesus had victory in the wilderness so that He could set us free from these enslaving temptations and sins. Jesus had victory so that he could stand before the Father on our behalf, interceding for us when we fail. His success is even more proof that He is the King who has come to save us from our sins.