Week 3 | Wilderness: From Temptation to Deliverance

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Matthew 4:5–7).

In this second temptation, the enemy once again asks Jesus to “prove” Himself: “If you are the Son of God …” Again, this temptation was relevant to where Jesus found Himself. He had been in the desert for 40 days – all alone. 

In this temptation, the tempter is targeting God the Father’s declaration that His Son is beloved. The internal questions that frequently surface are: Does anyone care? Am I seen? Do I matter to anyone? What do I need to do to get people to show up for me?

We live in a world where it can feel like we need to prove ourselves in order to receive love and affection. It may have been ingrained in us at an early age. “If you are a good little boy/girl, you can have dessert.” “If you clean up your room, you can have a friend come over to play.” Seemingly innocuous statements can set a foundation of seeing love as something we earn through good behavior. We learn how to think of ourselves in terms of how others are receiving us.

The specific temptation here is to define ourselves by what others think of us. If the enemy could shift Jesus’ gaze away from the Father, he may have been able to tempt Jesus to prove that He was worth the Father’s love. In the challenge to “throw yourself down” from the pinnacle of the temple, he was asking: Don’t You trust that God will show up?

So too, we often use the language of God “showing up” or not showing up. Jesus does not. His response to the temptation was to say, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” More specifically, we might insert the word “love” to say it is the “love of God” that we do not test because that is what the enemy was challenging. The reality is that God is always present with us. His presence does not come and go, and it is not earned.

In Jesus’ response, He referenced Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” Massah is a Hebrew word that means “testing” and it was at Massah in Exodus 17:1-7 that the people tested God as they quarreled with Moses. They asked two questions: “Did you bring us out here to die?” (v 3) and “Is the Lord with us?” (v 7)

When we are in a wilderness time or space, it can feel like we are not going to make it and we may ask that first question. It is the second question that reveals the heart of the matter: Is God even with us? God’s love is His presence with us. One way the enemy works on us is that he arouses doubts like, “If things hurt this bad, is God even with me?”

The contemplative foundation that carried Jesus through this temptation is that God is always present, always loving us. Therefore, whatever happens, we can see it through the lens of His love and presence. There is no need to do anything drastic like jumping off the temple to prove His love.

Our hearts often want to get some proof or an assurance of His presence and love. So we complain and use the word “if.” We might engage in some variation of the phrase, “If God really loves me, then _______.” When we believe this way, we are vulnerable to doing things to be seen by others.

The invitation in this temptation is to sit – to rest in His love. We return to His gaze in which He calls us His beloved. We hear Him say, “I see you and I know you. I understand you.” We release the questions in trust. We are delivered from the cycle of needing to prove ourselves and/or needing God to prove Himself. His love holds us. He is always present with us. He is always loving us.

Quiet your heart and simply rest in His love. As you notice distracting thoughts or even a resistance to sitting in His love, allow those thoughts to simply pass – not needing to fight them or resist them. Notice the ways that God is present with you and loving you. 

Prayer: Lord, please calm and quiet my soul, like a weaned child with its mother. May my soul be like a weaned child within me. Amen. (Psalm 131:2)