Matthew 4
An exilic motif has been overshadowing the book of Matthew since the very first verse. At a time in history when the Jews believed themselves to be in exile under Roman rule, they were awaiting Messiah to come and establish his rule. This is about to come to fruition - with the Son of Man now coming onto the scene being baptized by John in the River Jordan (chapter 3). His preaching ministry was about to begin after some intense days and nights of fasting, after which, he was tempted by none other than the master of deception and notorious scum bag, Satan. This was the same scum bag that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, thus resulting in sin entering into the world.
In Matthew 4, the first temptation was this; “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread”. Right off the bat, Satan questions Jesus’ divinity. Not only that, but I believe his intent was to cause Jesus to doubt it too. Jesus, being an astute observer of Satan’s intent as well as being a student of scripture, quoted Deut. 8:3. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Then Satan tempts again, this time by leading him to the highest point of the temple and saying: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down?” Then using scripture Satan quotes Psalm 91: 11-12. Again, Jesus combats Satan with scripture. Deut. 6:16. “You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.”
Lastly, Satan took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur. He promised Jesus that if he bowed down and worshiped him, he would give him all those things. Jesus once again withstood him with scripture. Deut. 6:13. “You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”
It is noteworthy that Jesus quotes Deut. 8:3. A look at this passage will reveal that Israel had been in the wilderness for 40 years being tested to see if they would be able to keep God’s commandments. Guess what? They were unsuccessful to say the least. They were constantly being disobedient to God in spite of all God’s miraculous provision.
Here in Matthew 4, we see a glimpse of the same test. Despite Satan’s best attempt to thwart God’s plan of restoring mankind back to himself - Jesus, “the true Israelite”, would prevail.
Thank you Jesus!
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6 comments:
Nice way to tie it in to Deutoronomy. I never realized that.
Matt,
Thanks for the comment. I am reading Matthew for Everyone by Tom Wright. It has been most insightful. He shows in this commentary how the author of Matthew is weaving the story of exodus and exile into his gospel story. He does this brilliantly. You ought to check him out. Again, thanks for the comment.
In Christ,
Wes
Thanks
Hi, Wes. I actually bought a book by N.T. Wright yesterday. I wanted to get "The New Perspective on Paul," or whatever it's called, but the only one they had was "The Last Word" which has to do with how to interpret the Bible as "authoritative." Have you read that one?
I started it but got busy and had to return it to Russell. I do intend to finish it eventually. It is one of his more scholarly works, therefore it is a little hard to read for me. Let me know if you like it. If not you can give it to me. Ha Ha.
Wes, your blog is starting to gather dust my brother. Time for an update.
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