Temptations, Israel, and Adam

 I was recently reflecting on the temptations of Jesus in light of reading N.T. Wright and seeing Israel’s fulfillment in Jesus actions and message. One of Wright’s contributions to the way I read the Bible, and especially the New Testament, is to think about how Jesus is embodying what Israel (and Adam) could not do. Abraham (and thus Israel) was called to do what Adam failed to do. Israel also fails and thus the need for one who will succeed.

The temptations of Jesus are recorded in two places, Matt 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. The last two temptations are swapped between Matthew and Luke, almost certainly because Luke places special emphasis on the temple in his Gospel and ancient biography would vary ordering within stories for emphasis [1]. The temptations involve hunger (bread), casting oneself down from the temple (testing God), and the kingdoms of the world (worship). As his response to all three temptations, Jesus responds by quoting passages from the Torah, namely, Deuteronomy.

Israel failed at all three of these in the months following what the Old Testament considered to be God’s greatest work of salvation, the Exodus! So does Adam in the garden, having walked with God.

The first temptation is bread. Jesus is hungry and Satan tells him he should turn stones to bread. Jesus is in the wilderness (like Israel in the Exodus), hungry, surrounded by stones. Jesus quotes Moses’ commentary on the provision of manna in Dt 8:2-3, where Moses tells Israel that God let them be hungry and fed them with manna so they would know “man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The temptation in the garden of Eden was regarding fruit from a tree and the word that had proceeded from the mouth of God— “did God really say?” asks Satan (Gen 3:1). Sadly, both Israel and Adam did not learn this lesson.

The second temptation takes places at pinnacle of the temple, but it involves testing God. Something that Israel was great at, much to God’s displeasure (Num 14:22; Dt 6:16b). Jesus responds with a quote from Dt 6:16, where God commands Israel not to put him to the test, “as you tested Him at Massah.” In Ex 17:7, it says Israel tested God to see if He was really with them. Bad idea, unless you want a bunch of people to die. Adam in is the garden of Eden, considered by many scholars to be an implied temple—it is a place where you meet with God. Why not test this “you shall surely die” statement of God? Billions of deaths later, it still stands.

Finally, Satan comes right out and demands Jesus worship him—in exchange, he’ll give Jesus the world. No cross, no suffering, here it is. Just a little worship. Jesus responds again with Dt 6:13 that you shall worship God only. Think back again to the Exodus story. While Moses is up on the mountain receiving the ten commandments, the people make a golden calf and worship it (Ex 32). Barely a couple of months (if that) earlier, they had been delivered from Egypt after ten plagues, seen a large body of water part and walked across, and saw Pharaoh’s army drowned. In the Garden of Eden, Satan’s promise to Adam is that he will be “like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5) No need for Him once you know everything. Instead, Jesus knows kingship will not be found through Satan, but only through submission to and worship of the one true God.

Jesus does what Israel could not do. He does what Adam failed to do. He is the embodied Israel and the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45).

[1] Craig S. Keener, Christobiography: Memory, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2019), 138-42.