“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (Matthew 4:1-2 ESV).
Have you noticed how many times the numbers three and forty appear in the Bible? Both numbers are significant in today’s One Year® Bible reading. The number forty generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or preparation. We see the number in both our Old Testament and New Testament readings today. Noah and his family were kept safe in the ark while God sent forty days and nights of rain to flood the earth (Gen. 7:12). And in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days of testing by the “Spirit.”
This time of Christ’s “temptation” points back to at least two events in the Old Testament: The Israelites forty years of wandering in the wilderness and Adam and Eve’s three-part temptation in the garden.
The forty days for Jesus marked his preparation for public ministry, just as the forty years for Israel marked their preparation for entering the promised land. And the 3-part temptation by the devil was familiar too. Notice the similarity between Satan’s temptation of Eve (Gen. 3) and later, of Jesus:
1) Temptation of the flesh: Eve: “It’s good for food;” Jesus: “Turn the stones to bread.”
2) Temptation of the eyes: Eve: “Delight to the eyes;” Jesus: “Let the people see the angels save you.”
3) Temptation of pride: Eve: “You’ll be wise like God;” Jesus: “Give your worship to me instead of God and I’ll give you the world.”
Of course, the difference is that Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, but Jesus overcame it.
The apostle John reminds us that in Christ, we can be “overcomers” too. In John’s first epistle, he listed the three temptations common to man, but follows with the strong encouragement we have in Christ: “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world… Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 2:16, 5:5).
PRAYER: Dear Father, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And when we do encounter temptation, show us the way out that we might overcome it through Your Son, Jesus. For in Him, we are overcomers too. In Jesus’ name, amen.