COMMAND THESE STONES

by Ivan Maddox

West End Bible Fellowship

Atlanta, GA

When it comes to the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, it is easy to read quickly through them, presume that we understand them and have absorbed the proper lessons to be learned from them, and then go on to something else.  However, there is much of value that can be learned from the record of these temptations.

Matthew 4:1-4.

1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

It was a shock to me to realize, while reading about the first of these temptations, that had this temptation been presented to me instead of Jesus, and had there been no information given identifying the source as “the tempter,” I would probably not have recognized this as a temptation.  And even reading the record in the scriptures, I was not at all sure what would have been wrong with turning stones into bread.

The key to understanding these things, of course, is Jesus’ response to the tempter.  While his answer seems to make sense on the surface – the tempter asked him about bread, he answered about bread – his answer was a quote from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, and to understand clearly what he was saying, we need to take a look at the passage Jesus was quoting.

Deuteronomy 8:1-3.

1  All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

2  And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

In Deuteronomy 8, Moses the prophet is speaking to Israel at the end of his ministry, reminding them of what God has done for them during the previous forty years.  But Moses has something new to explain to Israel this time:  Some of the troubles that they had run into in the wilderness had been deliberately allowed by God in order to humble them and to test them.

In particular, when they ran out of food in the wilderness, that was God’s idea.  He was trying to teach them a lesson that we have a hard time learning today:  that man’s primary responsibility is not to take care of himself; his primary responsibility is to obey God.

Jesus echoed this important truth in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:31-33.

31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

What, then, was Jesus saying to the tempter in the wilderness?  In short, he was saying, “Putting food in my stomach is not my priority.  Obeying God is.  I will eat what God tells me to eat, when God tells me to eat it.”

What does this have to do with the temptation?

The context of this temptation is very important in understanding its significance.  This was the first great temptation given to Jesus after his baptism in the Jordan, and after his receiving the spirit of God on that occasion.  Before his baptism by John, Jesus did not have the spirit of God.  This means that he was unable to do any miracles before this time.

For the first thirty years of his life, Jesus had to operate without the spirit of God, with only the written word of God to guide him.  Using only the written word of God, Jesus was able to walk perfectly before God for the first thirty years of his life.  In doing so, he completely demolished every excuse we’ve ever had for disobeying God.

The tempter came to Jesus right after he received the spirit of God, and suggested that he use the power of God he had just received to do a miracle.  In modern terms, he was encouraging Jesus to take spiritual authority over the situation he was in, and bring the power of God to bear on the situation.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

The problem was that God hadn’t given Jesus a single word of instruction on this situation.  Jesus knew he was VERY hungry, but he didn’t know what God wanted him to do in this situation.  He had two choices:  he could act, or he could wait for guidance from God.

He chose to wait.

What was at stake in this temptation?

Suppose Jesus had commanded the stones to be made bread?  Would it have worked?  It’s easy for us, in our awe for Jesus, to forget his own testimony about who was behind the mighty works that he did.

John 14:10.

10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Jesus’ Father was the one who powered the mighty works done by Jesus.  In this case, Jesus’ Father was not at all involved in this work.  In the best case scenario, Jesus would have commanded, and nothing would have happened.  Jesus would have been guilty merely of trying to do a miracle independent of God.  Of course, that would have been sin, and all hope of our salvation would have gone down the toilet at that point.

There is a worse possibility.  The miracle might have worked.  I do not know whether any angel, even “the tempter,” has the power to actually turn stones into bread, but a quick substitution of bread for stones is certainly something an angel could accomplish.  Had this miracle actually worked, Jesus would have successfully performed his first miracle without any help from God.  And Jesus would have started his ministry, such as it was, with a new partner by his side.

What disturbs me is this:  Did the tempter make this offer exclusively to Jesus?  Or does he continue to walk to and fro, seeking out those of God’s people who are willing to “command these stones to be made bread”?

How many of God’s people have supplemented the power of God with a little “something extra,” a power that seems to work independent of the word of God?  And how many of God’s people are discerning enough to recognize the difference?  Do we “prove all things,” judging them by the standard of the scriptures?  Or do we run to and fro after every supposed manifestation of the power of God, regardless of whether it seems consistent with either the written word of God or the character of God?

There is power available today to make people “fall out” under the power of God; a manifestation that is all too common today, and totally alien to the scriptures.  Today the “glory of God” is manifested invisibly, even though every time it was manifested in scripture, it was visible.  Today we have new “manifestations of the spirit,” such as laughing in the spirit, roaring in the spirit, barking in the spirit, oinking in the spirit, that make both God’s people, and God, look foolish.

If we are wise, we will “prove all things” by means of the standard of God’s written word, holding fast to that which stands the test.  The apostle John warned us:

I John 4:1.

1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

This applies not just to spiritual words, but to spiritual activities as well.  Any spiritual activity that does not pass the test is not just outside the scope of God’s word and will; it is demonic in origin, and needs to be dealt with accordingly.