Matthew 4
Jesus is Tested in the Wilderness
Matthew 4:1-2
Matthew demonstrated that Jesus was a Torah observant Messiah. This passage looks back at key elements in the Old Testament to establish that Jesus is worthy of the name Messiah. The first section of Matthew 4 looks at the standoff between Jesus and Satan. Let’s explore the scriptures a bit to see why this was necessary…
Some of the most spectacular stories that we have in the Old Testament come after and during a forty day fast. The earth was rained upon for 40 days and nights when God initiated judgment against it for failing to follow His instruction (Gen 7:12-17). Moses ran for his life after killing the Egyptian to the back of the desert for 40 years before God called him (Acts 7:30). Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai (Ex 34:28). Moses went on the Mountain eight times to receive Torah. The first time He was on it was for 40 days and nights (Ex 24:18). During the incident with the golden calf, Moses fasted and prayed for Israel for 40 days and nights for the deliverance of the Hebrews (Deut 9:18, 25). The Hebrew people failed the test when they built an idol while Moses was receiving Torah. The ten spies toured the Promised Land for forty days (Num 13:25). When Israel failed the trial and rejected their information the Hebrews spent the next forty years wandering the desert (Num 14:33; 32:13). Elijah fasted for forty days and nights after running from Jezebel because he was convinced he was the only prophet left (1 Kings 19:1-18). There are a lot more forty’s in the Bible, almost all of them have to do with testing, judgment, and blessings/judgment from victory or defeat. The mark of God through Torah came often after forty days of testing. When Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for testing, He was in agreement with Torah. God demonstrated that He was the anointed one, the Messiah.
Matthew 4:3-4
First, Satan tempted Jesus with food. Jesus’ response is drawn out of Torah where he reminded Satan that man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut 8:3). This response related the way that God fed His people for forty years with manna in the desert.
His test hit on a few levels, the first one was to command Jesus to do something. His demand that Jesus prove himself by turning the stones to bread was engineered to put Jesus on the defense. Jesus did not need to prove he was the Messiah and reminded Satan of this by referring to manna in the desert that He provided during the exodus.
The second level of the test: In the beginning Satan tempted Eve in Genesis 3 by telling her how unfair it was that they were not able to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Using the excuse that if she ate from it she would become like God, sure enough, she and Adam did come to know the difference between good and evil, and died spiritually. Losing the battle completely. Satan took the other approach with Jesus, directly opposite circumstances, instead of being in a garden with everything provided, great shelter, excellent food to eat and plenty of water, with no danger from anything, Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and nights, without food, without protection from the elements, and with wild beasts roaming around. You can be sure that anything sounded good to eat to His physical body.
Third level of the test: Jesus could have turned the stones into bread, and that would not necessarily been sin. He had completed his 40 day fast (Matt 4:2). It was within His power to create food. However, creating food would have been out of selfish desire. If turning stones into bread had been sin, then wouldn’t the feeding of the 5000 also been sin? He was led into the wilderness as a test, why give in when the test just started? This would have been a violation of torah or his instructions and a failure to trust in the Father. The sin would have also been in yielding to Satan, following his lead in taking the easy way out.
Matt 4:5-7
First, let’s examine the scriptures for a moment. “Pinnacle” is a bad translation which gives the idea of a spire. “Spires” were found on pagan temples and were directly related to the Asherah poles of the Old Testament era. The translation should have been from the “highest point ore ledge”. Satan argued from Scripture that the angels would not allow harm to come to Jesus (Ps 91:10-11). Jesus did not disagree with the scriptures.
When the people were thirsty in the wilderness they tested the Lord saying “Is the Lord among us, or not?” (Ex 17:7). Jesus responded to the temptation by looking at the root deception. Satan commanded God to prove His presence. Jesus responded by reminding Satan that he had deceived the Hebrews previously at the rock of testing where God provided water from the rock (Ex 17:5-7; Deut 6:16).
God tolerated His people testing Him, he did not tolerate Satan testing him. Grace extends to people, God extended grace to humans when he provided water from the rock. Satan is a fallen angel who is not subject to grace. He knew who Jesus was beyond a shadow of a doubt. Satan at one time was the greatest of all angels, when he led the rebellion against God, he forfeited his position as God’s servant. Jesus’ warning that God was not to be put to the test was a straight forward command which Satan obeyed instantly.
Satan declared before the history of the earth that he was going to be like the Most High God (Isa 14:13). The idea put forth was that Satan would have God as an equal (Isa 14:12-14). When he demanded that Jesus prove himself, he was taking a position of authority over God. In effect, if Jesus had thrown himself off the ledge, he would have moved at the command of Satan. At that point, Satan would have won a significant battle. This is the exact problem that I have with the Catholic idea of praying to Mary. If Mary is able to coax God to answer prayers on the sole basis that she mothered Jesus into the world, then she has a higher authority than God does. I am certain that if she could hear the prayers of men it would break her heart that she has been raised above God in the sight of some well-meaning men.
I do not believe that this passage supports scripture memory since the deception of the devil goes way beyond simple quoting scriptures. If it were to refer to the use of scripture memory, did you notice that Satan quoted scripture to back up his agenda? Not only did he quote it, he argued the case. Also, of the three recorded temptations, Satan only used scripture once. Christians fail to recognize the power and the cunningness of the devil. We fail to recognize that he can take the same scriptures that we use and use them to prove his points.
Scripture memory is an excellent tool to fortify our minds for battle. Yet, I wonder how often that we take scriptures out of context to argue our point. Many times when scripture is pulled out of context and made to stand alone, the complete meaning of the scripture changes. Often when this happens, the true meaning is lost completely. Satan, the great deceiver, may agree with our argument and stop simply because we are on the wrong path. He knows the scriptures well and heartily approves when we use scripture to justify bad theology. With the case of Jesus, I do not believe that we see a battle of the wits. Satan wanted God to serve him, Jesus did not allow this to take place.
Matthew 4:8-10
The last temptation is a blatant attempt to fulfill the five “I will’s” of Satan (Isa 14:12-14). Satan took a victor’s control over earth when he defeated Adam with the fall of man. He had the legitimate ownership of all the kingdoms of the world. Satan unknowingly offered Jesus the easy way out by gaining ownership of the world for the price of an act of worship. Satan did not know that he would be defeated at the cross. If Jesus took up Satan’s offer, he would not have to suffer a hideous death, and did not have to wage war with Satan in the end.
Redemption was written through the entire Old Testament scriptures, with a scarlet blood line running from the beginning. The devil had the authority to do as he said (John 12:31; 14:30). Can you imagine how the world would be different if Jesus had taken him up on his offer? Jesus took the hard way, the way of Salvation that had been planned for Him to follow. Through following the divine plan, Jesus already had the possession of the earth, all its peoples and kingdoms (Psalm 2:8). Scripture prophesied the specifics of His crucifixion (Ps 22).
Jesus responded by quoting Torah, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matt 4:10; Deut 6:13; 10:20). The implication of this is astounding. Satan is subject to Torah! We mistakenly think of the Old Testament as pertaining to the Jews. The Torah applies to everyone, all principalities and powers. Why? Because this is the expressed way that God does business in life.
Matthew 4:11
The temptation of Jesus took place at the very last moment of His fast. The angels who had been held back because of desert experience were now freed to take care of their Master. The epic battle of all time had reached its completion. Jesus was the victor.
Lastly, the testing of Jesus was not done to see if Jesus would fail the test. It was not done to see if Satan could deceive the Lord. It was done in order to show the world that Jesus was who He claimed to be, Jesus the Messiah. It was also done to reveal to us the way that Satan works, and the tactics that he uses so that we can be ready to go into battle with effective armor. Third, Satan tempted the first Adam, and since Jesus was the figurative second Adam, He also met with the devil, and succeeded, (1 Corinthians 15:45). Where Satan had rule over the world, Jesus turned over that rule by His righteousness, and by His work on the Cross, (John 12:31; Colossians 2:15). Fourth, Jesus was to be our High Priest, interceding for us before the Father, therefore he had to be tempted in all the ways that we are, (Hebrews 2:16-18; 4:15-16; 1 Timothy 2:5-6).
I apologize for taking so long to tell such a seemingly simple story. However, this story is fundamental to the bigger story of the redemption of man. I hope you have enjoyed it and that this has sparked you to think.
Matthew 4:12-17: Jesus Begins Ministry
Matthew 4:12-17
John the Baptist was taken into custody by order of Herod. John reprimanded Herod for having his brother’s wife, and other wicked things that Herod had done (Luke 3:18-20; Matthew 14:3). Herod did not take this lightly, and his wife took it worse (Mark 6:16-20). Herod loved to listen to John, yet, his wife bore a grudge (Mark 6:20). John was executed when Herod had his daughter dancing for him, and the grudge of his wife was finally brought to completion (Mark 6:21-29).
We may not know the full story on this because as a result of John’s imprisonment, Jesus left the country. He withdrew to Galilee. Historically speaking, Galilee is referred to as “of the Gentiles” (Matt 4:15). It seems that the land of Galilee was troubled with so many Gentiles that the Hebrew dialect was butchered with a bad accent. This caused the Galileans to be immediately recognized through the rest of the land of Israel. Part of this was a colorful history which the region was conquered and populated by both Jew and Gentile.
Matthew quoted a snip from the prophet Isaiah that prophesied the Messiah would be from the land of Galilee (Isa 9:1-7). When Matthew quotes from the passage the entirety of the context applies to Jesus. It hinges on this prophecy that Jesus was identified as being from Galilee. The prophecy identifies the Messiah as one who will show a great light to deliver the people from darkness, increase gladness of the harvest and break the yoke of their burden as they walk in the presence of God. Those who are familiar with Handel’s Messiah will recognize Isaiah 9:6 where Yeshua is the child born, a son whose name is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” who will rule on the throne of David.
Matt 4:13-16: An interesting thing here, the verses quoted from Isaiah 9:1-2 were directed at Israel, but the days had gotten far worse than was prophesied. The Isaiah passage uses “walk” instead of “sitting”, giving the impression that things had gotten so bad that people could not even walk in the darkness, they were stagnant, sitting still. How can you walk without light? The land that they were sitting in was the world, and the shadow of death, Satan’s control over their lives, When Jesus shone His light on them, it became possible for Israel to start walking in the truth of Torah again.
Think for a moment as to how much light that Jesus shone into the world, all the miracles, healings, teachings, and the transfiguration. The world was blasted with light while Jesus was on earth, and that light continues to shine through every believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came primarily to save the Jews, and also to save the Gentiles (John 1:9; 12:46).
An interesting situation had developed that Matthew was pointing out, Jesus settled in Capernaum. “In Galilee there was a mixed population that was somewhat despised by the racially “pure” citizens of Judea.” The Bible Exposition Commentary. Capernaum was at a crossroads in the land, it was a place where the caravans stopped. A lot of trade went on there. Due to the history of the city, there was a very diverse mix of Jews in the city, many of them Gentile converts. This also moved the early center of operation from Jerusalem where the Jewish Pharisees were in power to an outlying point where the Gospel was free to grow. Jesus was a traveling teacher, so we will see him moving as the story develops.
Matt 4:17: The stage had been set by John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. He was imprisoned, and murdered at the hand of Herod. Jesus repeated the message of John identifying him as a prophet and purposing to pick up where John left off (Matt 3:2). Matthew records this as the beginning of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) public ministry. We learned from this passage that He was the light shining in the darkness that Isaiah fore-told.
We have discussed earlier that the idea behind “repentance” is not a “u-turn” as so many declare. The idea is to “change your mind”, literally from the Greek it is to “know after”. We have held to the idea that repentance is turning back the opposite way on a street going from an evil destination and returning to a good destination presumably where we started. My argument on this is that if Jesus is the YHVH “Lord” of the old Testament, then His message for repentance is not to return to our previous state of goodness but rather to return to His guideline for life, Torah.
The Kingdom of Heaven is an intriguing idea. Is this speaking about an earthly kingdom or of a heavenly kingdom? If you look at the references in the New Testament, Jesus flipped back and forth speaking of both a heavenly kingdom and an earthly kingdom depending upon the context of each reference. The parables regarding the Kingdom of Heaven refer to an earthly kingdom where the earth is scoured in each situation for treasures and pearls (Matt 13). Peter is given the keys of the kingdom of heaven that apply both to the earthly and heavenly kingdom (Matt 16:19). It can be concluded that the Kingdom of Heaven is equally applicable to the kingdom of believers on earth as well as the kingdom of heaven in the afterlife. We know after the fact that no one can get into or be part of the kingdom of heaven except through the Messiah, He is the door to get in (John 10:1-9). No one comes to the Father except through Jesus (Jn 14:6).
The word for “draws near” speaks of an event that is drawing very close. This is the word for “approached” in Matthew 21:34, speaking of the harvest being ready for reaping.
In an nutshell, Jesus declares that He has come and is calling for people to return to the message of Torah because His kingdom is ready to be harvested. We looked recently at the truth of the Ten Commandments and the fact that they are doable. If Jesus was calling for people to return to Torah, to prepare their hearts for the harvest and the imminent Kingdom of Heaven, then perhaps we should pay attention. Remember, Jesus did not teach new stuff, He expounded on Torah. Isaiah is quoted in this passage as declaring that Jesus is the one called out of Galilee. Matthew links the prophecy to Jesus. Yeshua (Jesus) started his public ministry in this light. He is the Messiah foretold by Isaiah.
Jesus calls disciples and begins His ministry
Matt 4:18-22
We have been discussing Torah and looking at the way that Matthew applied the Old Testament to Jesus. To this point, we have seen that everything, 100% of the book is based on and relates to Torah. A failure to understand Torah to this point would severely hinder us in understanding the New Testament. As we see Yeshua selecting the twelve disciples, this does not change. Think about it, why did Jesus choose twelve? There are a lot of places where twelve is mentioned. Mainly it is used to refer to the 12 tribes of Israel. Most of the places where it shows up in the scripture after the 12 tribes are mentioned is in reference to the 12 tribes. It also shows up pointing to twelve princes of Ishmael which made him a great nation (Gen 17:20; 25:16). One intriguing place is shows up is 24 divisions of musicians (2 sets of 12) who had 12 members with the leader, sons and relatives (1 Ch 5:8-31). Musicians formed in perfect harmony… Esther spent 12 months in beautification before she was ready to be presented to the king (Esther 2:12). Nebuchadnezzar was warned in a vision and 12 months later he became prideful of his kingdom and fell under the judgment of God (Dan 4:29). The woman with the hemorrhage suffered for 12 years before being healed by Jesus (Matt 9:20; 5:25). People studying numerology point out that 12 indicates perfect completion or harmony. There are other places where 12 is mentioned, for the sake of time we will stop here.
With all of that said, Matthew does not record 12 disciples until later (Matt 10:1-5). In this passage, he mentions four disciples who were called. The number 4 carries the idea of creation or new beginnings. The earth is represented in fours, four seasons, directions, corners, and so on. On the fourth day of creation, the earth was created to the point where animal life was created. The fourth commandment looks back at creation where we are instructed to keep the Sabbath holy because God rested after creation on that day (Ex 20:11). The study of four is exhausting since it includes 4, 40, 400, and so on. It was not by accident that Jesus picked four disciples to begin his earthly ministry. Matthew understood the significance of a new beginning, just like a new season of the year, or the creation of a new thing as Jesus began his earthly work by training disciples.
The name Jesus is not in the original Greek text (Mat 4:18). It was added for clarification in the English, it is implied from verse 17. Jesus did not send out a flyer, inviting people to come to Him. He didn’t have a great church function to draw in the neighborhood people, He didn’t even send out an ad in the local pennysaver in order to find the disciples. He went out to them, He went walking and preaching among the people. He added a personal touch, reaching out to people where they were at, where they lived and where they worked.
Peter and Andrew were at work, they were fishing, and Jesus called them from the shore. It is interesting that He did not call a young man who didn’t have a job yet, and He didn’t call a man who was retired, He reached out to men who were busy earning a living, requiring them to give up a steady income to follow Him. No promise of income, no promise of food or shelter. They left the life that they were accustomed to in order to live the life of disciples, to become students of a carpenters Son. Matthew impressed the idea from the Hebrew numeration of 4 as an entire new creation. The four fishermen were willing to drop their trades without question to follow Jesus. This was a new thing that was worth abandoning their trades over.
4:23-25 Jesus went into the Jewish synagogues to proclaim the Gospel, or literally translated, good news of the kingdom. It could be translated that Jesus was a herald of the good message or glad tidings sent from God. He carried His message of the new ministry.
Jesus healed the sick, every kind of sickness. This was done to verify His message and to prove that He is the Messiah that they have been waiting for. It also validated that He is God. One of the promises from Torah is that if the Jewish people return and live by Torah, God will not allow any of the diseases that was on the Egyptians to be on them (Ex 15:26). His name is “YHVH Rophe”, God your physician/healer.
The sicknesses that were healed were not just the normal colds and sniffles. It included the big stuff, the stuff that the doctors at the time or ability to cure. Among these diseases was demon possession, which many ignore today. Demon possession is spoken of with the same symptoms of severe psychological disorders. It is still existent today, and we in our incredible versatility have learned to treat the symptoms, not the problem. The second one is “epileptics”, this could also be translated as literally “moon-struck”, the root Greek word behind this was “luna”, or moon, where we get the word “lunatic”. The thought was that when there was a full moon, these people suffered more severe symptoms. Paralytics were those who couldn’t walk, or function in some way. What is really interesting about these diseases is that the Greek word used “for those suffering with” was the word which translated would be “touchstone”. It was a stone which was used to see if gold was real or fake. When a piece of gold was rubbed on it, the mark was distinctive. It later came to mean that a person was being tortured for something as a matter of testing them. The people with these diseases, distinctly different from common “diseases and pains” were considered to be in a perpetual state of torture. Jesus came to set the captives free, not only from spiritual sickness, but also from physical illnesses. Jesus was YHVH Rophe, God the healer who had come in the flesh. He healed every disease, great and small.
We learn from this passage that as Jesus established the creation of His earthly ministry, He demonstrated the attributes of the God of Torah. He drew people back to Torah and delivered on the promise of Torah. He is a God who heals. Large crowds flocked to see and follow him.
This is an encouragement to you as well. If you are suffering from a disease, recognize that the promise of God is that if we turn to Torah, He is our healer. Does this mean that Torah is a magic pill that cures all diseases? Not at all. God uses some diseases for other purposes. Job was a good example of this. Paul’s thorn in the flesh is another. I wonder how many suffer needlessly today because they are not willing to allow God to rule in their lives… I also wonder, if we return to Torah by taking His instructions as our life guide, will God make good on the promise from Exodus?