Satan’s Three Temptations To Mankind: PART I
The World And Its Temptations
The bible defines ‘the world’ as the lust of the flesh, the lust of they eyes, and the pride of life. It also defines Satan as the ruler of this ‘world’. These three things represent the three different worldly temptations Satan has used against mankind since the time of Adam and Eve. He is still actively tempting us today. Part of the reason that Satan succeeds in tempting us is that he pinpoints our sinful desires that are against the will of God. Notice that human history and experiences tend to repeat themselves, especially the sinful activities of mankind. This happens because humans have not learned from their previous errors. The bible states that “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
Satan has been studying human beings for centuries, so he understands our nature and what can make us blunder. He merely presents us with the same temptations over again. We unwittingly fall into his traps, because (a) we are ignorant of our sins, (b) we have no relationship with Jesus, and (c) we are unprepared for his attacks. This is spiritual warfare. It starts in the hearts and minds of each individual before it manifests in the world. Understanding these three temptations will help us understand how Satan uses these techniques against us on a daily basis. We will also understand through Jesus’ example on how to overcome these temptations. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
The Temptation of Adam and Eve
Let’s explore how Adam and Eve were tempted by these three concepts as it relates to the ‘lust of the flesh’, the ‘lust of they eyes’, and the ‘pride of life’. The Lord commanded Adam not to eat the fruit of one particular tree in the Garden of Eden or else he would die. Later Satan, in form of a serpent, approaches Eve in the garden and questioned God’s command. Eve repeats what God had commanded. It is assumed that Adam had informed her of God’s command as God did not tell Eve directly. Then the serpent claims to Eve that God lied and that eating from that tree would give her wisdom and be like God. In Genesis 3:6-7, it describes the next events:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Eve saw that the tree looked good for food and caused her flesh to yearn for it, meaning “lust of the flesh”. The fruit was pleasant to her eyes and she desired it, which is “lust of the eyes”. And she wanted to be wise like God, hence the “pride of life”. These temptations that the serpent dangled in front of Eve caused her to not only believe Satan’s lies over God’s command but also desire her own will over God’s will.
Why Jesus Had To Experience Temptation In The Desert
After His baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the desert to fast and be tempted by Satan. Why was it necessary for Jesus to experience this? He fasted for forty days away from civilization to train and prepare for His ministry. He needed to be away from distractions to get close to God, to hear His voice, to understand His instructions, and to grow in spiritual maturity. Toward the end of His fasting, Satan approached Jesus to tempt him. Satan knew Jesus was the Messiah, but that did not prevent Him from trying to get Jesus to sin and disrupt God’s plan.
It was necessary for Jesus to be tempted to exercise His faith and apply everything He learned from God during His fast before beginning His ministry. You can imagine that during his lifetime, Jesus would encounter even more temptations and challenges to His character to threaten His ministry if He sinned. So God had to train Him and prepare Him, not only to resist temptations, but to remain faithful to God’s will to sacrifice Himself on the cross for all mankind, including His enemies. This big ask would require complete humility, denial of self, obedience, and submission to God’s will over one’s own. Let us examine the three temptations Satan presented to Jesus during His fast.
First Temptation: Lust Of The Flesh
Jesus remained in close relationship and communication with God. In Deuteronomy, the Israelites heavily depended on God in the wilderness to provide fresh manna to them everyday for food (as the bread would not last till the next day). The scriptures state that God had allowed the Israelites to experience hunger to humble them and make them understand that “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). The lesson emphasized relying on God’s word and guidance rather than solely material sustenance.
Likewise, Jesus understood that the word of God was His daily sustenance for His soul. Through Jesus’ hunger, Satan attempted to appeal to the ‘lust of the flesh’ and get Jesus to sin. And while Jesus had the power to turn the stones into bread as Satan suggested, Jesus chose not to exercise that power and to instead rely on God to provide for his physical needs. Satan was tempting Jesus to take a short-cut and rely on His self-sufficiency instead of waiting on God and trusting in His power. Jesus instead responded to Satan by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3.
At first, we may wonder why it would be sinful for Jesus to turn the stones into bread. But we have to remember that Jesus was currently fasting as instructed by God. By listening to Satan, He would’ve sinned by disobediently breaking His fast before God instructed Him to do so. Jesus remained obedient to God’s command to fast and wait until GOD said He could stop fasting, thereby demonstrating how to live by “every word that comes from God’s mouth”. After Satan had finished tempting Jesus and left, then God sent his angels to feed Him.
Physical Food Versus Spiritual Food = Temporary Need Versus Eternal Need
As another example, consider the situation of Esau and Jacob in the Old Testament. Esau prioritized his temporary hunger over his inheritance when he exchanged his inheritance for a bowl of stew. This is the kind of trap that Satan seeks by tempting us through lust of the flesh. He wants us to focus on the temporary things of this world and forfeit our eternity. To exchange the extraordinary for the ordinary.
In fact, Jesus instructs us not to be anxious about what we will eat or drink, but to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will take care of your needs (Matthew 6:31-33). Jesus demonstrated this to his first disciples. They were fishing one day and were unsuccessful. As soon as Jesus showed up and instructed them to lower their nets again, they caught a bounty. They understood they witnessed a miracle and that Jesus was the Son of God. Rather than focusing on their food source (the fish) from their livelihood, they focused on “the source” of their lives. They abandoned their fishing boats and followed Jesus, who told them He would make them “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19) by capturing their hearts through the Gospel.
Later after His resurrection, Jesus comes full circle, repeating this same fishing miracle to His disciples and then serving them a meal with some of their fish. At that point, Jesus instructs Peter three times to “feed his sheep” (John 21:15-17). By this He meant that Peter should tend to the spiritual growth of God’s people with God’s Word. Again, see the metaphorical relationship between physical food and spiritual food. While the former is necessary, we must prioritize the latter and not neglect our spiritual growth. God will take care of our physical needs as we seek His kingdom first.
Connection To The Lord’s Prayer
This also puts into perspective the specific phrase in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-14) where we request God to “give us this day our daily bread” (verse 11). This is not just a request for physical food for our bodies, but also for the spiritual food we need to feed our faith and strengthen us against Satan’s temptations every day. The Word of God is our spiritual food. Note that Jesus overcame Satan’s first temptation of bread with God’s Word in a desolate desert. Contrast this with Adam and Eve who immediately succumbed to Satan’s first and only temptation with the forbidden fruit in the bountiful Garden of Eden when they doubted God’s command. It’s significant that Adam and Eve disobeyed God despite having the option to eat from many available trees in the garden. Jesus had no options in the desert and remained obedient.
The Tree of Knowledge Versus The Tree of Life
After driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance of paradise to guard the way to the “Tree of Life” that gives immortality (Genesis 3:24). This paradise is guarded from the world and only obedient, righteous persons are allowed in it. Ever since Adam and Eve had failed to be obedient to God in the Garden of Eden, mankind has also struggled with disobedience. This caused humans to lose connection with God while trying to find paradise in our dark world in other various ways. But we can only find paradise through relationship with God. Jesus defined eternal life as having relationship with the Father and the Son (John 17:3). Fortunately for us, we serve a God that restores what was lost (Deuteronomy 30:3-13, Job 42:10, Jeremiah 30, Acts 3:21, Joel 2:25).
And God has provided only one way for mankind to redeem relationship with Him to regain access to paradise. That is through Jesus Christ who is ‘The Way, The Truth, and The Life’ (John 14:6). Jesus promises that those who overcome sinfulness and hardships by obeying Him and remaining faithful to Him, He “will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7). Adam and Eve caused sin and death to enter the world by eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge to satiate their immediate gratification, their lust of the flesh. But Jesus wants to restore us to eat from the tree of life of paradise and immortality. Likewise, we see a similar connection comparing the bread of temptation Satan offered Christ to temporarily satiate his hunger, with the spiritual food of God’s word. He refused to exchange his spiritual food and eternal destiny for the temptation of temporary worldly comforts. This is why Jesus is the bread of life that anyone who goes to him will never hunger (John 6:35).
Summary and Thoughts
We summarized Satan’s first temptation to mankind, “Lust of the Flesh”, and how he applied it to get Adam and Eve to sin. We also discussed how Satan tried to also tempt Jesus in the same way and why it was important that this happened. Then we examined how Jesus responded to this temptation. We explored themes of physical food versus spiritual food in this scenario as well as other scriptural references to emphasize the importance of prioritizing the spiritual food of God in order to overcome Satan’s temptations. This does not mean physical food is not important. But believers must examine themselves to understand the ways we succumb to immediate gratification of our flesh over God’s will. We must prioritize the spiritual needs over the physical needs. We must prioritize the eternal needs over the temporary needs. Doing the opposite falls within Satan’s temptation and plan to disrupt our relationships with God and our destinies.
And we can be confident that we can overcome Satan’s temptations by trusting and relying on Jesus. We can accomplish all things through Christ that strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) because Jesus himself has already overcome the world (John 16:33). He is our Savior and our Bread of Life.
Since Satan failed in getting Jesus to choose His flesh over God as Adam and Eve had, he tried his next temptation. Please stay tuned for Part II.
