- The temptation of Y‘shua proved Him qualified for His work on the crucifixion stake. Only a sinless,
spotless ―Lamb of God‖ could take upon Himself the sin of the world. Y‘shua‘s sinlessness stood out when
tempted by the master deceiver. - The temptation of Y‘shua prepared Him to be a merciful High Priest: ―For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin‖ (Heb 4:15).
Y‘shua‘s temptation ―in every point as we are‖ enables Him to be a sympathetic High Priest (cf. also Heb
2:17-18). While His temptation proved Him sinless, it also made Him sensitive to our weaknesses. - The temptation of Y‘shua was a test of submission. Underlying the entire temptation was a
solicitation to set aside submission to the Father and act independently of YHWH. This was the cause of
Satan‘s fall. It is interesting to ponder the fact that Satan had no idea of the actual program YHWH had
devised to bring about his destruction through the work of Messiah (Gen 3:15). If Satan would have ever
realised that the crucifixion stake was his defeat, he would never have instigated the crucifixion through the
instrumentality of Judas (John 13:2). Satan‘s strategy was to entice the Son to act independently of the
Father. By undermining the submission of the Son to the Father, he could attain his own purposes just as he
had done in the garden. YHWH‘s order of authority (chain of command) was man, woman, creature; the
order of the fall was creature (serpent rebelling against creator), woman (acting independently of her
husband), man. Satan always attempts to overturn YHWH‘s order. G. Campbell Morgan draws our attention
from Deuteronomy to this same process of reversal in the sequence of temptation as compared with the
Y‘shua‘s replies:
―These answers of Jesus reveal the order of the attacks. First bread, then trust, and then worship. If the
references in Deuteronomy are now observed, it will be discovered that they are quoted in opposite order to
the way in which they occur in the book. In answer to the temptation concerning bread Christ uttered
words to be found in Deuteronomy 8:3. In replying to the temptation directed against trust, His
quotation was from Deuteronomy 6:16. While in replying to that in the realm of worship, the
quotation is from Deuteronomy 6:13. In the law of God, the order is worship, trust, and bread. That
order the devil inverted, and his temptations proceeded as to bread, trust, worship‖. G. Campbell
Morgan, The Crises of the Christ, p. 201. - Because Y‘shua could not sin, He bore the burden of the temptation to the full. When Adam was
created, he was made able not to sin. When Y‘shua, the last Adam, was begotten, He was not able to sin.
Some have concluded that the perfection of Y‘shua would diminish the victory of Y‘shua over Satan; but, in
fact, it intensified the victory:
―In this way the sinlessness of Jesus augments His capacity for sympathy: for in every case He felt the full
force of temptation‖ (in loc.). And Westcott remarks at Hebrews ii. 18: ―Sympathy with the sinner in his trial
does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin,
which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain.
If we bear these considerations in mind, we shall realise that the Saviour experienced the violence of
the attacks of temptation as no other human being ever did, because all others are sinful and
therefore not able to remain standing until the temptations have exhausted all their terrible violence
in assailing them‖.
It is written
These words refer to the Tenach: "Tenach‖, as previously stated, is an acronym formed from the first letters
of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible:
Torah (meaning: instruction, revelation or teaching) The first five books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
N‟vi‟im (prophets) Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & the "minor prophets‖.
K‟tuvim (writings) Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther,
Daniel, Ezra, Chronicles, Nehemiah.
In Jewish studies, the entire Tenach is sometimes referred to as "Torah‖, as it is all YHWH's revelation. In
the same sense, the entire Bible (with "New Testament") is "Torah‖.
It is interesting to note that Satan tempts Y‘shua with three categories of sin mentioned in 1 John 2:15-17,
and Y‘shua quotes the Torah to resist Satan all three times: Deut 8:3; Deut 6:16; Deut 6:13.
(15) ―Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
(16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world.
(17) And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever‖.
(1 John 2:15-17)