The first 100 days are important to new governments and leaders. It signals how the rest of their term will turn out, and it is often a stressful period. What was Jesus’ first 100 days like? 

(A) Kingdom hope: Representation (Matt 4:1-2)

In our last study, we saw that Jesus came to fulfil all righteousness. In His baptism, He came to identify with mankind, and did so in a public way. At His baptism, the Triune God was present to affirm His obedient act and mark the start of His ministry. 

Matthew moves from the baptism to this opening in Matthew 4:1. Before we go on to look at this passage, a lot goes on in these verses and one of our challenges in reading this text is that we read it as a “3 tips the Devil doesn’t want you to know” article or just a “how to fight sin” guide. That’s not Matthew’s main point. Matthew’s emphasis is that the kingdom’s only hope has come. 

Matthew is drawing from the Old Testament when he introduces Jesus. We have already seen it when we read Matthew 2:15 and Matthew 3:17. One who comes representing Israel has come — Jesus. And Jesus’ life parallels Israel’s history. Jesus is conscious about what Israel was supposed to do, and failed. Matthew wants us to see how Jesus is obedient where Israel failed. 

Thus, Matthew is showing us how the promised King is here to represent His people. Having associated Himself with their failings in His baptism, He is led into war on their behalf with their accuser. This next section in Matthew 4 parallels Deuteronomy 8:2, 9:6-19. Jesus associates with Israel in their failings for a specific purpose. 

The Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness for a specific purpose (Matt 4:1). Israel failed in the wilderness and this time, Jesus has to be tested similarly. Ephesians 6:12 helps us to see that it is not just replicating the test. There is a spiritual war behind this. Our greatest problem is sin, and our greatest nemesis is Satan. There is a personal face to evil and there is one who seeks our downfall, accusing us before God. We would be naive to think otherwise and imagine that our biggest problem is evil leaders or poor housing systems. Jesus comes and shows us that there is a truer enemy that has to be defeated. This enemy is exactly who He has come to deal with, and Jesus is led head-on to deal with this in the wilderness. 

(B) Kingdom defence: Eat well, read smart, and serve with a smile (Matt 4:3-10)

The devil tempts Jesus in a series of temptation. Firstly, Jesus is tempted by the devil to use his power to satisfy his real needs (i.e. hungry) (Matt 4:2b-3). The devil was tempting Jesus to satisfy hunger on own terms. He told Jesus, “if you are”, implying that because He is the Son of God, He should act for His own good. The deeper challenge here is His status and identity as the Son of God. The baptism just established that Jesus is God’s beloved! The devil is also appealing to the natural response to serve self with strength, rather than what the baptism did — serve others’ weakness with own strength.

Jesus’ response shows us how He recognises that it is good to be realistic and Scripture also recognises that man lives by bread (Matt 4:4, c.f. Deut 8:2-5). But man does not live by bread alone, for man’s greatest reality is God. And God’s Word alone will nourish our souls to our greatest reality. Only clinging to His word in dependence will truly satisfy us. This is a Jesus who is committed to His Father meeting His needs in HIs time. He shows us what it means to grow in obedience, faith and dependence. He is committed to the Father’s will, even if it means committing His life. The Word of God illuminates our hearts and calls forth a deeper hunger for a deeper nourishment.

Thus, the first temptation shows us that the sonship of the living God is not the power to satisfy one’s own needs. Sonship is the power to obey God, and Jesus’ obedience is the grounds for our salvation. As Hebrews 5:8-9 show us, He is thoroughly committed to represent God’s people. 

Secondly, Jesus was tempted to use His identity to test God’s promises and love (Matt 4:5-6, c.f. Ps 91:11-12). Notice how Jesus was brought to the holy city and temple, and Scripture was also cited. The devil works in many cunning ways. Sometimes he works seemingly through what God has said, or our presumption of what God has said.

To overcome this, Jesus recognises that we should not test God as at Meribah (Matt 4:7, c.f. Exo 17:1-7, Deut 6:16-17). God had already provided for them abundantly prior to this event in Exodus. Our identity is known in trust and obedience. God has already given us ample reason to trust Him. We are to boldly believe in God’s promises, but we are not to demand that God to prove His goodness on our terms. His promises are given to us not for Him to follow us, but for us to follow Him. We are not to demand proof of the great things that He has promised us. 

Jesus also teaches us how we are to read our Bibles. God’s word is our weapon of warfare. Sonship rightly apprehends the Father’s word in trust and obedience. Three times the Devil tempts Him, and three times He shows that we have all we need in God’s word to defeat the foe. As Martin Luther said, “Satan is called the master of a thousand arts, but what shall we call God’s Word, which easily conquers and discomfits that master with all his wile and power?” Jesus did not just provide us reasons to trust Him. Jesus also provided all we need to withstand temptation. 

Lastly, Jesus was tempted to gain the glories of the world by sacrificing true worship (Matt 4:8-9). This temptation teaches us that worship is serving with a smile (Matt 4:10). Any worship that sees God as a means to an end will succumb to this temptation when Satan dangles power and satisfaction before us. As Deuteronomy 6:13 reminds us, if the worship of God is not the delight of our hearts, this temptation will grip our souls. This is the way Jesus overcame this temptation.

Thus, this final temptation shows us that God’s people were made to worship Him! Our works cannot substitute our worship. The Crown does not come before the Cross. As 1 Peter 5:6 also writes, exaltation is God’s work and remaining humble is ours. 

In James 1:14-15, we are shown how temptations lead to death. Satan is the tempter, and temptations are only as effective as our desires allow for partnership. Matthew 4:3 reveals to us a Jesus that shows Himself to be the King of holy desire. He identifies with sinners fully in His baptism, yet resists sin perfectly through the wilderness trial. He is our king of perfect holiness, integrity and kindness.

We need this King of perfect holiness because we are so easily led by our desires in the opposite direction. How often in the past week, day, hour have we pursued our own desires, the glories of the world instead of the worship of God? 

He is a king of perfect integrity. In our world, leaders may have a different public and private persona. But this king is unchanging and consistent. As the hymn “I hear the words of love” goes,

I hear the words of love,
I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice,
And I have peace with God.

…
The clouds may come and go
And storms may sweep my sky;
This blood-sealed friendship changes not;
The cross is ever nigh.

…
I change, He changes not,
The Christ can never die;
His love, not mine, the resting place,
His truth, not mine, the tie.

What is your hope set on today? What people, hopes, and changing circumstances are you trusting in? Reject these and see the sure and steadfast king. 

We also need this good and kind King. Three times He rejected the temptation that was before Him and chose three years of ministry. These years were marked by walking with the weak, dining with the tax collectors and sinners and healing the blind, deaf and lame. This is the path our King walked. 

Therefore, as we read about His resistance in His temptation, we can go to Him in our moments of temptation, knowing that He is able to sympathise with our every trial. Now, we may think that if Jesus is so good and holy, He doesn’t understand what it means to be us — weak, afflicted and tempted in many ways. 

C.S. Lewis helps us to see that the opposite is true: “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. There is a silly idea that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”

Christ in resisting temptation perfectly, knows the full weight it has on our soul. He has experienced it and come out of it perfect. As Hebrews 2:18 teaches us, because of His perfect holiness, He can minister to us in our temptation. 

(C) Kingdom life: No longer a slave (Matt 4:11)

Two things happen to the faithful Son after His trial. After this, the devil leaves, and angels minister to Jesus (Matt 4:11). If we resist the devil, the devil flees! And, as much as suffering is true and real, see also how God knows those that are His and provide loving sustenance. We can trust God’s weapons of warfare, and rest in His preservation.  

This section in Matthew allows us to catch a glimpse of His commitment to obey at the start of His ministry, which eventually led Him all the way to the cross later. In Luke 22:43, as He prayed in the Garden, we later read of how angels also ministered to Him. On the cross, the same insinuation that if God really loved Him, He will save Him was also thrown out at Jesus in Matthew 27:40. Jesus did not use His power to save Himself, because if He did, we would be lost in our sins. Instead, He laid His life down for sinners and remain in the cross, fully committed to His work and ministry. 

In Hebrews 2:14-18, we are told why Jesus had to do so. The author of Hebrews tells us that our greatest enemy is the devil. In all our sin, we deserve death. We live all of our life under the shadow of the end and that weight of knowing that we have not lived lives of perfect obedience. It is so crucial that Jesus represents us so that all of us who placed our life and rest in Him can know that the devil, though a roaring lion, is now a shackled one. Jesus has triumphed over sin and death. 

What aspect of your life is still lived as though you are living in sin and slavery? What aspect of your life is lived as though you are living for something else instead of the worship of God?