“And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’” (Matthew 4:3)
Jesus was led away by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil for forty days. It was a time of preparation for His ministry.
He ate nothing during those days and finally, when those 40 days were over, He became hungry. Weakened, He looked around to see if there might be something to eat in the desert.
At that moment, the devil came with an insidious question, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
The devil was trying to sow doubt. He attacked Jesus at the moment when He was weakened. But full of the Holy Spirit, He was able to resist the devil by answering him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
With these words, Jesus referred to Deuteronomy 8 where the Israelites were reminded of the Lord’s faithful care. In this physical trial, Jesus placed His firm trust in His Heavenly Father.
This history teaches us that in our most difficult circumstances we may look to Jesus, who was tempted in everything in the same way as we are, but without sin.