For the past 1500 years the church has begun the Lenten Season by reflecting on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. Luke 4:1-13 teaches us what happened there. The Bible points out in this passage of Scripture three major temptations. The first one happened after Jesus had spent 40 days praying and fasting. When they had ended and Jesus was extremely hungry, the Bible tells us the devil came to Him and said, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." What would be the sin if Jesus turned the stone into bread? Jesus and Satan both knew He could turn the stone into bread instantly. It would be a sin because He would have demonstrated that He did not trust God to provide for His needs. He would have trusted in Himself. He would have misused the power given to Him by God for His own personal needs rather than listening and obeying His Father, God.
The second temptation followed, "Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, 'All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.' " Jesus answered the devil by saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " What would be the sin here? It would be a sin if Jesus were to accept this authority and power because the Bible tells us that to worship before Satan would be to deny the one and only true god.
The third temptation followed, "Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you, and, in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God." What would be the sin here? It would be the sin of presumption which suggests an overstepping of bounds. The devil had quoted Scripture to Jesus from Psalm 91:11-12, however, he left out "in all your ways" which is translated "in all your ordinary ways." Jumping off the pinnacle of the temple and landing safely would be about a 350 foot fall which would not be considered "in all your ordinary ways." That would clearly be extraordinary and supernatural. The word tempt basically means to put to the test, to try, to prove. It is God's privilege to test human beings. It is not the right of human beings to test God.
Jesus quoted Scripture to the devil when He was tempted. He used the word of God as the sword of the Spirit to do battle with the adversary. Hebrews 4:12 tells us: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
To live by the word of God and to be able to use it as an instrument against evil is to understand that the word of God is our daily bread. It is our manna from heaven. The word of God, the Bible, is for us to read every day and digest the living word of God so it becomes alive in our heart. That's why we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." God keeps all His promises and He promises that if we stand firm in the power of the word that He will be with us always. We do not battle evil on our own willpower. We just stand on the word and let God do the work. That is how we use the word of God for our healing, our hope, our nourishment in life, and how we engage the enemy in spiritual warfare. We stand firm in the word of God. We quote Scripture the way Jesus did and the adversary will be defeated.
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