Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

Luke 4:1-30 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵ And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁹ And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; ¹⁰ for it is written,  ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ ¹¹ and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

¹² And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹³ When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which ^]were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” ²³ And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. ²⁵ But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; ²⁶ and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. ³⁰ But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Many people are experiencing unprecedented times of testing because of the current situation and circumstances in the world. In difficult times like these it can be hard not to allow the testing to turn to temptation. Perhaps a believer would not be driven to immorality, but fear, doubt, worry and anxiety are all sinful if we allow them to negatively affect our lives. Temptation is not sin. As we see in today’s text Jesus was tempted. Hebrews 4:15 says:  We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  James 1:12-15 says:  Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin  is accomplished, it brings forth death.   Like Jesus, we are tempted by the devil. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:  No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.   In today’s text Jesus models the way of escape from temptation. It says:  The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”  And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”  Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”  And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;  for it is written,  ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’  and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”  And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”   The first thing the devil tried to tempt Jesus with was to satisfy His own flesh. Jesus answered the temptation with truth from scripture. The second temptation was to seek power and position in exchange for worshipping something other than God. Jesus again answered with truth. He also knew who He was in God’s sight. In Luke 3:21-22, just prior to being tempted, when Jesus was baptized it says:  Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”  The devil could not give Jesus anything that was already His. Seeing that Jesus answered both times with scripture, the devil used scripture in the next temptation. The devil is familiar with scripture and he will gladly incorporate several truths from God’s word in order to weave in one lie or deception. Using; twisting and manipulating God’s word is one of the devil’s oldest and favorite ploys to deceive those who only have a shallow familiarity with God’s word, or those who are willing to enter into dialogue with the devil regarding the word.  Manipulating God’s word was the method he used to deceive Eve in the garden. Genesis 3:1-3 says:   Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”   Eve took the bait. She not only questioned God’s word but she also added to it. Jesus on the other hand, knew God’s word better than the devil. He didn’t allow one truth to over ride another truth. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.   Like Jesus, we need to stand on the whole truth of God’s word, not taking a particular verse out of the context of All Scripture in order to justify our actions or decisions.  So we see that the way out of temptation is to know God; to know the word of God and to know who we are in God’s sight. It is also important not to entertain the temptations of the devil, but rather to answer with the truth.

Again, for many of us today, we face challenging difficulties that will test our faith. We should be encouraged though, because not only does today’s text model the way out of temptation, but it also says:  When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.  And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.  And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.  And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”  And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Jesus, having escaped and overcome every temptation, launched into the most powerful ministry the world has ever known. For us too, the difficulties that we face will not be our end, but rather if we will find the way of escape, knowing God; knowing His word and knowing who we are in His sight, we too will be launched into the powerful ministries that God has planned for us.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit that You provide the way out of every trial and temptation we face. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. You lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Your’s is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.