Satan’s rebellion against love

Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both relate the story of Satan confronting Jesus after forty days spent in the desert. Satan tempts Christ in three ways:

•  Turning stones into bread
•  Forcing the angels to physically intervene to demonstrate God’s protective love
•  Receiving the kingdoms of the earth

 What is the real point?

•      Jesus’ response to Satan’s challenge to turn stones into bread was to quote Deuteronomy 8:3. What is this telling us? The priority of Spiritual connection such as hearing God’s spoken word over physical nutrition for sustenance. More generally, the paramount importance of a direct and experienced connection with God over the things of the world - money, food, houses, land. God can easily supply these things. Our challenge is to live trusting in His spoken words. We find a similar  thought when Jesus multiplied the loaves in John 6, and then told His listeners that He is the bread of life (John 6:36). Not just physical life, but eternal life — fellowship with God for all eternity. Satan had rejected that eons earlier. Satan’s existence continued, but apart from God he was eternally damned to a self-absorbed rejection of the agape life.

  •      When Satan challenged Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple quoting Psalm 91:11-12, Jesus’ response was to put the promise into perspective by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. Satan tempted Jesus to claim a promise that was legitimately His, because He (and perhaps only Jesus) met the conditions of Psalm 91:1-2, 9, and 14. But that is not the whole of Scripture. Jesus knew that a long life (Psalm 91:16) was not what the Father had called Him to, because the redemption of humankind would entail Him enduring the punishment due to the wicked (Isaiah 53:6). But His response was to refer to Deuteronomy 6 (You shall not put Yahweh to the test), in which Moses referred to Exodus 17:7; in that circumstance Moses called the place where the Israelites grumbled Massah (meaning test) because the Israelites questioned whether God brought them into the wilderness to die of thirst. This temptation was not about water in the desert, but in context, Jesus was telling us that trust in God does not mean things will always go smoothly. To create a crisis to try to force God to intervene is the presumption of arrogating His role to ourselves. He may allow trials and tribulations for His purposes, but for us to create them ourselves would be to play God - which Satan is trying to do.

•      Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered them if Jesus would bow down to worship him. We can relate to this Faustian temptation. Is it any different when shysters promise heaven on earth if we sell our souls to their worldly ways? Whether selling vacation timeshares or proposing a new political order, the scent of sulphur is palpable to those attuned to the Master’s voice. Jesus knew He could not bypass the cross to bring the kingdom of God on earth. But the nature of Satan’s offer to Jesus was insidious: he was telling the God of creation, agape incarnate, to bow down to the rebel, the author of lies. If Jesus had done so, He would have changed His very nature by partaking of Satan’s character, seeking to bring about the Kingdom of God by worshipping Satan, and thereby becoming like him. The essence of this temptation — to achieve “good” by worldly means — He rejected.

This confrontation may have reproduced on earth a similar event in eternity, eons earlier, when Satan rebelled. The outcome would not be any different on earth than it was in heaven, because Jesus was perfectly obedient to the Father. But the connection here gives us a hint to that greater mystery - why does God allow suffering? Jesus told His disciples to take up their crosses to follow Him. (Matthew 16:24) God’s purposes are often advanced through suffering, both in our souls and on earth as a whole. Perhaps this voluntary self-sacrifice for the sake of others - God’s agape love - can only mature in this way; and Satan rejects this truth. The easy way out - sell your soul and receive what you want now - is Satan’s counterfeit. And that is the choice we each face, to embrace God’s agape love - sacrificial service to others - or to emulate Satan’s self-serving approach to existence. And ultimately we will reap the fruit of our decision.