What is Life According to Matthew?
Recently I have been studying Matthew and the Lord opened my eyes to Jesus’ wording according to Matthew 4:4, "But Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” The literal translation is “by every word coming out of the mouth of God.”
How Does the OT Illuminate Jesus’ First Temptation in the Wilderness?
This wording interested me because many scholars see Matthew’s temptation contrasting Jesus with Adam. Jesus is being led into the wilderness* to be tempted by the devil as Adam was also tempted, but unlike Adam Jesus resists the tempter. In Matthew 4:2-4, the devil specifically tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread. This temptation echoes the garden temptation in that Adam and Eve forsook God’s words in favor of the tempter’s promise; they forsook the sustenance God provided them in the garden for the forbidden food the tempter offered.
This temptation also points to the temptation of the Israelites of the Israelites who also wandered in the wilderness for 40 days like Jesus. After the Israelites’ deliverance from Pharaoh and the crossing of the Red Sea, they complained to Moses about being thirsty and the Lord provided them with drink (Exodus 15). Afterward, the people “grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the Land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3).
In reality, when the Israelites were in Egypt they cried out to God to deliver them from slavery in Egypt God answered by sending Moses. Moses guided them through the plagues God sent upon Pharaoh and the Red Sea. But once they reached the wilderness, their thirst and hunger led to grumbling against Moses and Aaron (and in effect against the LORD). Still, in his mercy, God responded to their grumbling by promising to “rain bread from heaven for them” (Exodus 16:4). However, they were not to hoard the bread, but rather collect it each day so they would learn how to trust in God’s promise- his word. Adam and Eve were unable to rest in God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Israelites were unable to rest in God’s promise to provide food and water in the desert.
Adam and Eve’s “hunger” led them into the slavery of death and sin.
The Israelites’ “hunger” led them to long for the slavery of Egypt.
Jesus’ hunger led him to hunger for the words of God in Deuteronomy 8.
“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing what was in your heart, whether you will keep his commands or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs. . .a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. . . And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you” (2-7a, 9a, 10).
What is Life According to Matthew?
Through this temptation, Matthew is communicating to us that Jesus is now doing what no man has been able to do- to understand that God’s words are our source of life! That “man lives by every word coming out of the mouth of God.”
According to Genesis, Adam and Eve were created by God’s very breath, by his very command (Genesis 1:26-27). Therefore, humanity’s created life comes from his very word. In addition, humanity’s sustained life comes from obedience to God’s words for Adam and Eve experienced death when they disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the same way, in the wilderness, God was trying to teach the Israelites that he was their daily source of food and water in the wilderness, but they did not trust his word; that is his promise to provide for them.
In Matthew 4:1, we see that the Spirit leads Jesus in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and in verse 2 we learn that he had been fasting for 40 days. If the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, I believe we can also assume the Spirit led him to fast, perhaps as a form of worship (Luke 2:37; Acts 14:23). Therefore, I believe we can also conclude that the temptation to turn the stones into bread would be an act of disobedience. Unlike the Israelites, Jesus is not trusting God for daily physical sustenance, but for the strength to remain obedient to his fast (a denial of physical sustenance through reliance on spiritual sustanence). In this situation, unlike Adam, Eve, and the Israelites, Jesus understands that God’s commands provide sustenance that physical food cannot.
Life Redefined in Jesus
In this testing, I see John redefining what brings life. Rather than food, God’s breath- his words, his promises, his commands- bring us life.
Do you see this as well?
If so, how does this affect our relationship with Christ?
How does this affect our attitude toward the words and commands of God?
Do you believe obedience to God’s words give us life?
If so, how should this affect our perspective on obedience?
Jesus, who is the word of God, existed with God from the beginning and was involved in creation (John 1). In the gospels, Jesus, is born into creation as a human being but also as God. Just like you and I, he lived and died. However, unlike us, he resurrected. It is through the resurrection that Jesus invites us to join him in resurrection after death so that we can experience a new kind of life- eternal life. Unlike Adam, who Brough death to all of humanity, Jesus Christ offers anyone who enters into relationship with him eternal life. Without Jesus human life ends in death, but through him we receive eternal life both now and in eternity to come. The very breath of God created all things, and the very testimony of Christ provides our opportunity for us to come alive eternally.
1 John 1:1-4 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us- that which we have seen and heard we also proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
What are your thoughts?
Have you ever thought of Jesus as the “new Adam” - that while Adam gave into the tempter in the garden, Jesus resisted him in the wilderness?
How does this connection speak to you?
Have you ever connected Jesus’ wilderness experience with the Israelites wilderness wanderings- that Jesus was able to trust God to literally provide spiritual rather than physical strength in the wilderness but the Israelites found it difficult to trust God with their daily bread.
How does this connection illumine your understanding of Jesus?
How do these connections help your faith to believe in Jesus’ ability to help you overcome?
I hope this blog has provided you with some little secrets for your big breakthrough in your faith! Until next time…..Sharie
