Tuesday, Oct. 8
Matthew 3:1 – 4:25 Read it here
Matthew covers a lot quickly in chapters 2 and 3, skipping directly from the days of Jesus as a young child returned from Egypt with his family to his baptism by John.
After the baptism, Matthew turns to the time of temptation in the wilderness.
The number 40 should already be familiar to you from the flood (when it rained for 40 days and 40 nights) and the 40 years the Hebrew people spent wandering in the wilderness.
Each of those has several things in common with the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness.

-They were “in-between” times. In each case, the time before and the time after were very different—and the time in between was not like either. Sometimes, change requires giving up what was before receiving—or even knowing—what is to come.

-They were times of intense communion with God.

-They were times of testing and temptation. For Noah, his real test came at end, and for the Hebrews much of the testing was early in the journey. With Jesus, we don’t know how most of his time was spent during those 40 days, but we can imagine it was spent in prayer and meditation, gaining the strength for the temptation to come.
Unlike Noah and Moses, Jesus passed his test and resisted his temptation.
It is easy, though, to underestimate what an accomplishment that was. Often Christians, out of a sense of misplaced reverence, assume that Jesus wasn’t really tempted; that he was just going through the motions for our benefit.
Rather than showing respect for Jesus, that attitude trivializes his sacrifice. We read in Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
If Jesus wasn’t really tempted, his righteousness is artificial, and his claim to be one of us is a lie.
In his temptations, Satan strikes at the deepest desires of human beings: the need for our hunger to be satisfied, the need to feel safe, and the need to be in control. Each time, though, Jesus chooses to be faithful to his calling. Each time he resists sin, he becomes stronger.