Daily Devotion in Matthew 4

Daily Nugget:
Matthew 4 contains the famous account of Jesus’ temptations. In this chapter, Satan came to Jesus and attempted to get Jesus to sin.

Although we are not usually a spiritual threat to rate Satan’s personal attention to get us to fall, we can relate to Jesus’ temptations when our fleshly desires tempt us. We all can learn from Jesus’ account with Satan when our Saviour was enticed to do evil:

• Jesus was tempted when He was physically weak. He fasted for 40 days and nights. Although His body was more vulnerable because of not eating, His spiritual relationship with God was strong. He had previously spent a lot of time in fellowship with Him. Our bodies can also be weak from exhaustion, sickness, or trials. However, we can still be spiritually resilient, as was the Saviour.
• Temptation came to Jesus. He did not look for it. Although no one desires trials and tests, they will come to us as they did to God’s Son.
• In all of Jesus’ three temptations, He fought off the enemy with the Word of God. He did not taunt Satan with clever quips or remind the enemy of his past and future. He ended Satan’s testing by quoting and relying on the Word of God. We also can fight any temptation to do wrong by doing the same.

For a saved person, it is very difficult to have wrong thoughts and have the Word of God in the mind at the same time. The darkness of sin and temptation will flee when the light (God’s Word) is turned on!

The Word of God is also known as the “two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). Learning it and memorizing it will fill our minds with defenses that, when needed, can be pulled out of the mind’s scabbard. Unfortunately, because most do not read and memorize Scripture when temptation comes and they reach for the “sword,” all they will find is an empty “scabbard.”

Everyone will be tempted to do things contrary to what God desires — possibly even today. When you meet those challenges, will you fight them as the Son of God did, or will you battle them with your flesh that cannot win a spiritual battle?

Today’s Thought: 
“God has one Son without sin, but he never had a son without trial.” — Spurgeon

Words to Understand:
Pinnacle: high point of a building; summit
Temptation: “enticement to do evil” — Noah Webster

Today’s Reading:
Matthew 4
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
12 ¶ Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
18 ¶ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.
23 ¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.