Jesus in the Wilderness

Everybody seems to think that this story in Luke 4 about Jesus being tempted is given to us to teach us how to resist temptation. While there can be some clues to resisting temptation in this story (quoting Scripture at the devil is effective, seemingly, if it is the devil himself who is tempting you...which doesn't seem to happen too often these days); the clues to what the story is about center on the Scriptures he quotes.

Luke's account of Jesus' time in the wilderness mirrors the nation of Israel and their time in the wilderness. Just as Israel emerged from the wilderness ready to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land to fulfill God's mission for them, so Jesus is going to emerge from the wilderness, tested and ready to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land to fulfill God's mission for him. According to Luke, Jesus is the new Israel; God is going to do through Jesus what he always meant to do through Israel - rescue the world, restore it for good. So Jesus is re-enacting Israel's story, and this time "Israel" is going to get it right, in Jesus.

Notice how the two stories parallel each other: both Jesus and Israel were led away from the Jordan into the wilderness by God; Jesus was there for forty days, Israel was there for forty years; while in the wilderness God provided bread for the people - Jesus resist's providing his own bread as the devil would have it; The first temptation draws attention to the "manna" that God provided. The devil takes Jesus to a high place to see all the kingdoms of the world, God took Moses up to the top of Mt. Nebo to survey the promised land; the devil tempts Jesus to test God just as the Israelites tested God at Massah (when they whined for water and God had Moses hit the rock).

Notice also that all three of Jesus' quotes come from Deuteronomy - 8v3, 6v13, 6v16; the significance being several - first Moses delivered the speeches in Deuteronomy while in the wilderness, just beyond the Jordan, as they were about to cross it and enter the promised land, and so Jesus is quoting the same speech as he is in the wilderness, about to reenter it as the New Israel; second, if you read each of the verses in Deuteronomy in cotext (the surrounding verses), the whole Luke story will come alive in a whole new way as you make connections with what Moses said and what Jesus is doing with those words for his situation as the new Israel.