Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

At the end of Matthew chapter 3, Jesus identified with sinners by being baptized – even when He didn’t need to be baptized for His own sake. Now, in Matthew 4, the sinless Savior will again identify with sinful humanity, this time in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.

It was a remarkable contrast between the glory following Jesus’ baptism and the challenge to be tempted by the devil.

– Then, the cool waters of the Jordan; now the barren wilderness.
– Then, the huge crowds; now solitude and silence.
– Then, the Spirit rests like a dove; now the Spirit drives Him into the wilderness.
– Then, the voice of the Father calling Him “Beloved Son”; now the hiss of Satan the tempter.
– Then, anointed; now attacked.
– Then, the water of baptism; now the fire of temptation.
– Then, the heavens opened; now hell seemed to open against the Savior.

Yet it was all necessary and led by the Spirit. Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.

The Holy Spirit cannot tempt us (James 1:13), but the Holy Spirit may lead us to a place where we will be tempted. This is not to prove something to God (who knows all things), but to prove something to us and to the spiritual beings observing us.

Temptation is a certainty for everyone. Yet Jesus’ temptation was more severe. It was more severe because He was tempted directly by the devil himself, while we contend mainly with lesser demons. It was also more severe because there is a sense in which temptation is “relieved” by giving in, and Jesus never did yield. Therefore, He bore levels of temptation we will never know by experience.

This event is commonly called “The Temptation of Jesus.” Yet many commentators believe that isn’t accurate, because the word translated tempted here is better understood as tested. We can say that every temptation is a test, but not every test is a temptation. Here, Jesus was both tested and tempted. He was tested by His long fasting in the wilderness and tempted by Satan’s enticements to do evil.

Dear brother or sister in Jesus Christ, you will be both tempted and tested – and will likely experience these until you graduate to glory. If our Savior endured these for the glory of God, it should not surprise us when we must endure them as well.

As you read on in Matthew 4, you will see how Jesus answered when the devil tested Him. Jesus answered with the power and wisdom of God’s word. When the devil tempts, you may also answer him with the power and wisdom of the Bible!

Click here for David’s commentary on Matthew 4

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:23)

This verse refers to the boyhood of Jesus, explaining that after Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt to escape the murderous jealousy of Herod, Joseph did the unexpected – he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, their hometown. It was remarkable because Nazareth was an unremarkable town, and because it was the place where everyone knew Mary and Joseph and the strange circumstances surrounding their birth of their son.

Nazareth was an unwalled, unprotected town with a somewhat bad reputation; Nathaniel wondered if anything good could come from Nazareth (John 1:46). Every region has some place that is somewhat despised and made fun of. There is always some city or town where the people are mocked by others, made the objects of jokes and scorn. The people of these cities and towns are thought to be uncultured, behind-the-times and not very smart. That was the kind of place Nazareth was.

Wouldn’t it be better for the Messiah to grow up in Jerusalem, in the shadow of the temple and surrounded by the smart and suave people of His day? Yet in God’s plan, Jesus came from small, insignificant place that, if it had any reputation, it was a bad. There, Jesus grew up and matured into adulthood.

Think about it: He shall be called a Nazarene. In God’s plan, the Messiah grew up in the somewhat despised town. Indeed, Jesus would become known as “Jesus of Nazareth” and His followers “Nazarenes.”

When Jesus revealed Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus – obviously after His resurrection and ascension and seating at the right hand of God the Father in glory – He introduced Himself to Paul saying, “I am Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 22:8). He was still the Nazarene.

In Acts 24:5, the prosecutors of Paul said this to his judge: “We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” Believers were still identified by their association with the Nazarene.

Growing up in Nazareth, Jesus would mature in boyhood and become a young adult. He would fulfill the responsibilities expected of an eldest son; and then at some time Joseph disappeared from the scene and Jesus became the man of the family. In Nazareth, Jesus worked His trade, supported His family, loved His God, and proved Himself utterly faithful in a thousand small things before He formally entered His appointed ministry.

Yet no one would be intimidated to meet a man from Nazareth; the tendency would be to immediately think oneself better than a person from that despised town.

So that you and I and everyone would freely come to Jesus, He took a despised title and made it something glorious in its humility: He shall be called a Nazarene.

Click here for David’s commentary on Matthew 2

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20)

After their father Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were afraid he would use his power and prestige in Egypt to get revenge against the brothers who had sold him as a slave, essentially leaving him for dead.

From a human perspective, Joseph had the right and the ability to get revenge against his brothers, but he knew God was God and he was not. Such retribution belonged to God, not Joseph’s.

Yet, Joseph did not romanticize the wrong his brothers did. He plainly said, You meant evil against me. Although this was true, it was not the greatest truth. The greatest truth was God meant it for good.

Every Christian should be able to see the overarching and overruling hand of God in their life; to know that no matter what evil man brings against us, God can use it for good. Joseph did not have the text of Romans 8:28, but he had the truth of it: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Sadly, some of us who have the text do not have the truth.

Ultimately, our lives are not in the hands of men, but in the hands of God, who overrules all things for His glory.

There was an old minister who had a unique gift to minister to distressed and discouraged people. In his Bible, he carried an old bookmark woven of silk threads into a phrase. The back of it, where the threads were knotted and tied, was a hopeless tangle. He would take the bookmark out and show the troubled person this side of the bookmark and ask them to make sense of it. They never could. Then the pastor would turn it over, and on the front were white letters against a solid background saying, “God is love.” When events in our life seem tangled and meaningless, it is because we can see only one side of the tapestry.

There was an immediate good in the situation: to save many people alive. If this large family did not come to Egypt and live, they would have perished in the famine. Had the family barely survived, it would have assimilated into the surrounding Canaanite tribes. Only by coming to Egypt could they be preserved and grow into a distinct nation.

The evil done by Joseph’s brothers became part of a chain of events that led to the survival of the Jewish people, and the eventual coming of Jesus the Messiah according to God’s plan.

Thankfully, the sin others do against us never is the last word. God has the last word, and believers can therefore forgive those who sin against them. Can you say it? “God meant it for good.”

Click here for David’s commentary on Genesis 50

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.” (Genesis 48:21)

When Israel (Jacob) told Joseph, Behold, I am dying, he understood a transition was underway. The torch Israel held for so long was now given to Joseph and his brothers. Israel was the last of the three great patriarchs to walk the earth, but God’s work would continue.

Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of Victorian England, understood this principle. “If Abraham dies, there is Isaac; and if Isaac dies, there is Jacob; and if Jacob dies, there is Joseph; and if Joseph dies, Ephraim and Manasseh survive. The Lord shall never lack a champion to bear his standard high among the sons of men…. God will keep up the apostolic succession, never fear of that. When Stephen is dying, Paul is not far off. When Elijah is taken up, he leaves his mantle behind him.”

It’s true. Sometimes when we see great men and women of God die, we despair. Who will carry on God’s work? The answer is simple: God will carry on His work. He will choose, call, and train His servants as it pleases Him.

Israel gave Joseph hope for the future, planted in a valuable promise: God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. If the patriarchs no longer walked the earth, God would still be with His people. God would also keep His promise to give the land of Canaan (the land of your fathers) to the descendants of Israel.

Israel’s declaration, God will be with you and bring you completes a collection of phrases connected to his life that illustrate the believer in various stages of spiritual maturity.

The phrase, I am with you (Genesis 28:15) was God’s promise to be with young Jacob (Israel) in the present moment, the “right now.” This shows that God gives the young believer every possible assurance of His presence and grace.

The phrase, I will be with you (Genesis 31:3) was God’s promise to Jacob of His future faithfulness, to be seen in coming days. This shows that God expects the growing believer to trust He will be near, even when he only has the promise of His presence.

The phrase, God…has been with me from Genesis 31:5 was Jacob’s wonderful testimony that God had fulfilled the promises of His presence. This is something a mature believer will declare. The mature believer can tell others how God has been with him, even in difficult and testing times. 

Finally, the phrase here in Genesis 48:21, God will be with you shows that God gives the mature believer the opportunity to encourage others with the promise of God’s presence. It was as if Israel could say, “Joseph, God has never forsaken me. God has been with me, and I can confidently say He will be with you.”

Which of these four stages best describes your spiritual condition?

Click here for David’s commentary on Genesis 48

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.” (Genesis 46:1-4)

God had it all arranged. Israel (Jacob) and his large family found refuge from a widespread famine as Israel took all that he had and went south. He came to Beersheba – the southernmost outpost of Canaan on the way to Egypt, and there he honored God with sacrifices.

Beersheba was an important place. Both Abraham (Genesis 22:19) and Isaac (Genesis 26:23) stayed there. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba many years before and there he called on the name of the Lord (Genesis 21:33). There, Isaac received a special promise from God and built an altar, calling on the name of the Lord (Genesis 26:24-25). Here Israel sacrificed, remembering what God had done before. As Israel connected with what God did in the past (by sacrificing at Beersheba), he was assured of God’s plan for the future.

At that time, God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night. More than 40 years before, when Jacob was about to leave the Promised Land, God spoke to him in a dream (Genesis 28:12-17). Now, when he was about to leave the land again, God again brought assurance through visions of the night.

As Jacob led his family into this foreign land, he did not know what the future held. At the same time, he knew the future was in God’s hands. God had a promise for Israel: I will make of you a great nation there. God told Israel what His purpose was in bringing this large family or clan down to Egypt. Because of the exclusive, segregated nature of Egyptian life, Israel’s descendants could grow as a large, distinct nation there. Egypt became like a mother’s womb to Israel as a nation, where they grew from something small to something full size.

God also promised, I will also surely bring you up again. The great reason Jacob did not need to fear the journey to Egypt was that God promised to bring him back to the Promised Land. This would be fulfilled after Jacob’s death, but it would be fulfilled – Egypt would never be the permanent home for Israel and his children.

We can learn from this. Connect with what God has done in the past, especially at the cross of Jesus. Then, receive God’s assurance for both the present and the future. You don’t need a special vision in the night – just receive what God has already done.

Click here for David’s commentary on Genesis 46