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And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came . . . (NASB) Matt. 4:2-3a . . . for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. (NASB) Luke 4:2 It appears from Luke that Jesus was being enticed to sin throughout the forty days that He was in the
wilderness since Luke says “being tempted.” The Greek word translated as “being tempted” has
the idea of repeated testings. But the real tests appear to come at the end of the forty days of fasting
- when He was really hungry!
Matthew says that Jesus was tested for forty days and nights but Luke says forty days. Matthew
uses an idiom which refers to a period of time that lasted for forty days. Luke does not use the idiom. Those
who think there is an error must not be aware of the Hebrew idiom.
The Tempter. When the forty days were over, Matthew says that the “tempter” came.
The Greek word for “tempter” is actually a verb and could have been translated as the “tempting
one.” That is, Satan, or the Devil, is the tempting one.
Satan’s mission or purpose in life is to cause us to sin. He wants to test us, and he
hopes that we will sin. Satan is not our friend. He does not wear red clothes, carry a pitched fork, or have
pointy ears and a black beard. He is a supernatural spirit, and his goal is to cause us to sin. His goal
was to cause Jesus to sin!
How does Satan test us? 1 John 2:16 tells us that there are three major areas in our life
where we are susceptible to sin: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
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