Notice how the devil tried to deceive Jesus. He attempted to place doubt into His mind about who he was, 'If you are the Son of God.' Jesus had been in the desert for 40 days and nights. he must have been cold, very tired and extremely hungry. Don't forget that Jesus was in His human form and subject to what happens to all human beings. He could easily have started to doubt when the devil said this. It may only have been down to interpretation; the 'if' may just have been, 'since.' However, Jesus was struggling. We see this from the following:"Then the devil, went away and angels came and took care of Jesus" (Matthew 4:11) Therefore, Jesus could well have fell to the devil's lies and deceit, but He didn't!
Next, we see that the devil used Jesus' hunger to tempt Him to turn the stones into loaves of bread. William Barclay writes, 'In the desert around Jesus, was many round stones that looked remarkably like bread. Perhaps this is why Satan caused Jesus to look at them.'
Jesus was more than likely very hungry and as he looked at these stones, the devil hoped He would be tempted to change them to bread. You know, the devil is so predictable. He did very similar to Eve in the Garden of Eden:
"The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and it's fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it."
Genesis 3:6
The devil used similar tactics on Jesus and he will do the same to you as well, if you allow him to. The more we look into the face of temptation, the harder it is to resist; and before we know it, we are in deep trouble.
The word 'Deception' means:
'Those measures designed to mislead the enemy by manipulation, distortion and falsification of evidence to induce the enemy to react in a manner prejudicial to the enemies interests'
The devil uses deception quite often and we are his enemy. He will do all he can to lead us off the path to Jesus. He has wrecked many lives and he wants to wreck yours too, if you allow him to. This is why we need to be alert:
"Stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8
Don't let it be you!
Copyright 2019 Grahame Howard
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