The Question Mark Man
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Matthew 4:3 NASB
If – Tiny words cause big problems if you and I don’t notice them. This tiny word is ei (if). “If you are the Son of God.” Just a little suggestion of doubt that is designed to force a display of power, a display that overturns required submission and trust.
“If you are really saved, does that little sin really matter?”
“If you know God heals, then why are you still sick?”
“If God really delivered you from your addiction, then how come you still struggle?”
“If you are a Christian why aren’t your prayers answered?”
Perhaps you can add a few question marks that have been part of your life. The role of the accuser is not to overwhelm you with evil power. It’s not to make you cower before his wrath or fear his minions. The role of the accuser is to get you to question the sovereignty and faithfulness of YHVH. If you rely completely on God’s words, the accuser will simply question your true loyalty. If you have ever been disappointed with God’s answers, the accuser will push you to reconsider God’s benevolence. If you have ever been discouraged, the accuser will suggest that God really doesn’t care about you anymore. But most of all he will remind you of your sins. He will simply point out that you have been unfaithful, disobedient and rebellious. Therefore, you don’t deserve the favor of God. Ha-satan doesn’t need to overturn the words of the Lord. He just needs you to put yourself into the ethical equation. He just needs you to feel your guilt.
Are you a failure? Of course you are! How many times have you failed to do what you promised to do? How many people have you disappointed? How many vows have you broken? How many times have you said to the Lord, “Never again,” and yet it did happen again. Don’t you know you are worthless? Who would want such a loser? Do you feel it? Do you feel how useless you are? The accuser points out that the fine exterior public image you carry around isn’t the real you. That’s just posing. “See,” he says, “inside you are still appalling. Who do you think you are? If you’re so righteous now, prove it! Tell the whole world all the things you have done and then see how much they love you!”
Now, in this moment, you must remember YHVH! Remember His mercy and grace. Remember His covenant promises. Remember His continual love. Remember Him—and rejoice that He chooses the worthless of the world, the useless, the downtrodden, the rejected, the inferior, the abandoned. He chooses what the world would throw away. The only requirement for finding God’s favor is to be in need of grace.
Write your failure résumé. Include it all. All those things that make you feel ashamed. All those things that the accuser can use against you. Write them all down. Then give the résumé to God. It is your real offering. And watch what He does with garbage.
Topical Index: if, ei, accuser, failure, Matthew 4:3
Good one!
YES! The voice of experience! Marvelously put, Skip! That accuser is also a liar! It’s his worst weakness! When he accuses us of our weakness, it is going to be a lie! Our weakness IS our strength, and that is the truth. The only thing I cannot afford is the pride that hides that weakness. The only way the devil is going to win is to get us to agree with him. To agree with a lie. I have lots of extra tee-shirts I would be more than happy to share if anybody would just rather skip going there themselves and enduring all the misery of thinking the devil has any real info at all worth listening to. Oh, what’s on my tee-shirts? “The accuser of the brethren is a fear monger and there is NO TRUTH in him.” I would write it on my forehead too but that space is already dedicated to the writing of the Truth (Torah!). Halleluah!
YES! This TW just may be the most important and most powerful word you have ever shared! He DOES choose what the world would throw away…instead He gave a Blood Sacrifice for them..for us..for each individual “throw away”…we are His precious treasures…you are a precious treasure to Him. The enemy has done it from the beginning…”Did God really say?” Being a mom can make me a bear sometimes…when I know someone has been lied to. You want to know what He says? I’ll tell you what He says – He has come..”to heal those who are brokenhearted, to announce that captives WILL be set free and prisoners will be released!!” (Is. 61) YES – make a failure list-make it clear and detailed- then burn it- because when it’s given to Him..it exists no more!
Praise Him for His Great and Tender Love!!
Good idea. Burn it. But so many times we are tempted to listen to the accusations as if they are the currency of our salvation.
I agree, this is a good one! I remember where I was sitting and who I was talking to when I realized I would NEVER deserve His favor. It is a freeing thing to stop trying to earn it.
To the first part of the post with the question that the adversary might ask you. One thing that I had to come to copes with is that everything from God is good and for my benefit. Now we (God and myself) might have a bit of a disagreement on what I think the appropriate action should be but I figure He can see around the corner and I can’t so even when I’m sick – it’s for the purpose of something maybe it’s that I need to teshuva who knows.
The other aspect that I had to get over was when things don’t go my way it’s because of free will. If God were send a lighting bolt to everyone that was, ‘bad’ in the world and just abundantly bless though that do good things, then it would eliminate free will. You wouldn’t do Torah for Torah sake but rather because you would understand the system and work it. So on that point, I have the free will to make choices, but I have to assume God is sending people and circumstances in my life to push me to make choices to either kingdom build (doing appropriate mitzvot) or kingdom destroy (not doing appropriate mitzvot). I kinda figure it’s all about kingdom status in this life – but maybe not the way that you are suppose to look at it.
Rashi has a point about this when Joseph is getting taken away into slavery, the Torah makes the point of saying there were incense on the camels. He alludes to normally the traders had horrible smelling camels but this time they smelled good. Small miracle but still a miracle. God essentially ways saying, ‘I can’t answer the prayers that you want right now, but what I can do is at least make your voyage more tolerable and peaceful – I can’t do what you want Me to do though”. So now in times that are testing or I’m being stretched with my faith I just ask myself, “Find the incense”. Helps me every time. It may be something I really “didn’t want” in the first place but it’s kind of a wink and nod that He’s there with you but can’t help you the way that you want to be helped.
Last point then I’ll stop (been learning some cool things though), anger is actually seen as idolatry. So when I’m angry at God for sending something my way that I don’t what it saying is, “IF I WERE GOD I wouldn’t do this I COULD DO IT BETTER!”.
Food for thought and things I’ve been working on keeping perspectives with my daily journeys with God. Loved the post Skip.
“The only requirement for finding God’s favor is to be in need of grace.” Thanks for helping me understand that I’m very qualified for something!
“we are tempted to listen to the accusations as if they are the currency of our salvation.” ???
the “currency of our salvation” was a way of saying that if we believe the accusations of our guilt for past sins, we will be caught in “counting” whether or not we meet the standard of righteousness, and, of course, we will fail and therefore not imagine that YHVH can really deliver us.
This TW and the comments followings are insightful. Thanks to all! Now here is something puzzling. Going back to the original verse, Matthew 4:3, I’m wondering what would have been wrong, really, with Yeshua providing bread for Himself from stones. He surely couldn’t be faulted for being hungry. I can understand not giving in to the other two temptations. Throwing Himself over the cliff, verse 6, would not be righteous behavior. Worshiping Satan, verse 9, obviously would be wrong. But…again…what would be wrong about providing for one’s legitimate physical needs?
But it wasn’t about hunger, and Yeshua perceived that. It was about manifesting power, the power to change stones to bread, a power that would have demanded YHVH perform to validate the status of the Son. That is a subtle form of idolatry, making YHVH servant to a request.
If it were about hunger, then YHVH would have provided without having to “prove” He could provide.
Good question, Thomas! The way I have come to understand it is, if we are sheep, ‘appropriating’ needs using heavenly power is never correct (but how many times have I angled for that power, and so many of those times it has been prayer: demanding, accusing, whining, panicking – treating Heaven like it was a self-serve buffet! For shame! None of it trusting my Father.). ESPECIALLY if it is in a reaction to a temptation! And what was that temptation? To ‘prove’ something in response to a direct accusation about the Father. But to react to that would legitimize the accusation. What was the accusation? That the Father was not providing, so someone else ‘needed’ to. How many times have I fallen for just that temptation! I think what Yeshua needed then even more than life was a green light from the Father. His need for bread had to take a back seat to that every Word that proceeded out of the mouth of His Father. He was in need of His Father’s Word so He could begin His ministry. That was His purpose, but what is life without purpose?
Great response. I should have read yours before I wrote mine.
Whenever I read in Scripture of how an individual grieves of his sin (David, for example), I always catch myself noticing that those individuals’ grief centers around sinning against the Lord. The reason I notice this is because when I sin, I do not have a sense of grief that I have failed HIM. I beat myself to death because I simply fall short of my own expectations, and I am afraid of how “these persons” may perceive me, or I am scared of the consequences of my willful decision to do wrong, instead of choosing to do right. “Well, you asked for it.” So I find myself seeking forgiveness but only to restore my own sense of worth, instead of restoring my relationship with the Lord because I failed
HIM.
Does that make sense? I guess what I am saying is that I am less concerned with letting the Lord down than with letting myself down and getting myself into trouble. I know that such a selfish outlook is wrong and I should be condemned for it. However, I do not know how to abandon such mindset. Hope all that makes sense.
I am sure this is a common experience. My guess is that our Western ideas of relationship to God are saturated with inner psychology, personal guilt, etc. whereas the Semitic culture is concerned with PUBLIC shame. That includes dishonoring one’s god. In the Semitic culture it really is NOT ABOUT ME, but for us, even when we seek the presence of the Lord, it still tends to be about us. It’s just the influence of the paradigm I’m afraid.
While I have felt that way before many times, your post just revealed why in scriptures their anguish seems different than mine. The answer about the paradigm of the western worldview is something I will explore. Thanks so much for your post. It has given me food 4 thought
The accuser is directing his attention at the very thing we need to have an answer for-all who are called by His name will be required to have an answer for the question of the IDENTITY of YHVH, not his faithfulness or sovereignty. Who do you say I am? All paradigms will bow to how you answer this question, and it will determine your eternal paradigm as well. Choose wisely, there are no bargains, the price is costly, in fact, it will cost more than your life, it will also require faith and courage.
Love is your bank account, humble pain and brokenness is your currency. May you be found rich when He returns!
True Love,
Sharon
I am going to copy what you said, Sharon. Thank you. I am going to lay it out on top of a lot of things, to see how they line up. If my identity is not the same as His, then He will not KNOW me. If I am not marked with His seal of His covenant, then I do not belong to Him. You are right. It goes far beyond questioning Him. It goes to the very essence of who I fear. Who I look to, answer to. Who owns me. And, no, I never have, do not now, and never will ‘own’ myself. That is the fatal illusion of the West. No such thing as ‘my
way. SIng it, Bob Dylan: “you gotta serve somebody”. Who is it?
Heschel said when we sin it is God who is alone. His invitation is to come back to fellowship with Him. All these events to distract our attention from Him are gloriously exposed by mutual relationship with Him. How great it is to live in fellowship with Him and the community.
Some very thoughtful comments!
Those who consent to enter into covenant relation with the Elohim of heaven are not left to the power of Satan or to the infirmity of their own nature. They are invited by the Saviour, “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.”
Our great need is our only claim on YAH’s mercy. May we all come to realize our great need in order that we may make claim on His mercy.
Shalom
This sounds like it’s written as a reminder for you as well, Skip. :- ) You have such hurtful stones thrown at you often, but you stood firm in resisting the accusations and the guilt.
So thankful for that. Shalom!