The Starving Messiah

May 20, 2025 |  Read and Think About Matthew 4:1-11

Being human, Jesus got hungry.  In fact, He was starving, biologically.  The devil picked a good time to come with these challenges.  Even in his God nature, the level of hunger Jesus felt made it harder to respond in the right way, I am sure. 

I’ll bet none of us have ever gone without food for many weeks in a wilderness setting, or been tempted by the devil in an actual verbal exchange.

Yet as dramatic as these events were, the temptations themselves are not that far off from the temptations we face.

• There was the temptation to “take matters into your own hands” as we would call it today.  This is what turning the stones into bread would have been.

  
  

• There was the temptation to try and force God into action, to be the one in control.  This is what jumping from the pinnacle would have been.   

  
  

• Last, there was the temptation to gain something through compromise.  This was the offer the devil made in verse 9. 

Jesus’ responses to these temptations were anchored in God’s Word.  

This account teaches the importance of having that same anchoring for our own lives. It shows the importance of doing our best to read, know, store up in our hearts, and live God’s Word, always and only with the help of the Holy Spirit.