The Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4:3 “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
And when the... Notice in verse 3, the devil approached Jesus with a question, as he did Eve. “If thou be the Son of God.” He was trying to plant a doubt in Jesus’ mind that He was the Son of God.
If thou be... The conditional “if” carries the meaning of “since” in this context. There was no doubt in Satan’s mind who Jesus was; but Satan’s design was to get Him to violate the plan of God and employ the divine power that He had set aside in His humiliation (Phil. 2:7).
The first test pertained to the matter of sonship. Satan assumed that if He were the Son, perhaps He could be persuaded to act independently of the Father. Satan’s test was subtle for since He is the Son of God, He has the power to turn the stones all around Him into bread. But that was not the will of His Father for Him. The Father’s will was for Him to be hungry in the desert with no food. To submit to Satan’s suggestion and satisfy His hunger would have been contrary to God’s will.
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