Welcome to this daily PBJ devotional. Read Genesis 4, Ezra 4, and Matthew 4 today. This devotional is about Matthew 4, especially verses 1-11. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. But Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written. He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus replied, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory. All this I will give you, he said, if you will fall down and worship me. Away from me, Satan, Jesus told him, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then the devil left him, and angels came and ministered to him. When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. From that time on, Jesus began to preach, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. And at once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat, and their father, and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds followed him, having come from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. This is God's word. Having been identified by God as his son in Matthew chapter 3 verse 17, Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert here in chapter 4 of Matthew. The purpose of this trip was, according to verse 1, to be tempted by the devil. Apparently, the devil was patient and waited until Jesus was physically depleted from having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, as we saw in verse 2. Because Christ did not have a sin nature to appeal to, Satan waited until Jesus was starving, then tempted him to use his power as God to create food for himself from the abundant stones that lay around them. We saw that in verse 3. It's not immediately obvious that what Satan was tempting Jesus to do was actually sinful. Didn't Christ create all things? Aren't all things created by Him and for Him, as Colossians 1.16 says? Yes. So, would it be wicked for the Son of God to sustain His human life by adapting what He created to serve Him in His moment of physical need? The answer is that it would not be a sin for Christ to change stones into bread. He did miracles like this to feed others without being guilty of sin. No, it wasn't sinful for Christ to use his divine power to meet human needs. But it would have been sinful for him to do for himself what other humans could not do for themselves. People die of starvation routinely somewhere in the world. it is part of the human condition. But because it is part of the human condition, Christ, who was fully human, had to be subject to that aspect of the human condition too. In other words, it would be inappropriate and selfish for him to satisfy his human desires just because he had the divine power to do so. Because human salvation was dependent on Jesus living a fully human life, it would be wrong for him to make living as a human easier on himself by using his divine power to cheat. Although you and I don't have the power to satisfy our desires supernaturally, we do understand the temptation to live outside of the Father's will. Many sins stem from a desire to exempt ourselves from the struggles of the human condition. For instance, those who steal are looking for an exemption from the command to work for a living. Those who commit adultery are looking for an exemption from the marriage covenant they made before God. Those who lie are looking to evade accountability about something or to make themselves look better than they really are. So in what ways are you tempted to sin and then justify it by the extraordinary circumstances you think that you're in? Remember that Christ has felt the pull of that temptation too. So look to him and ask him for grace to do what you know is right. Then do what is right because you trust God's word more than your human desires. And if you found this devotional helpful, please go to my website dailypbj.com slash subscribe and enter your email address. And then every day for free, these devotionals will show up in your inbox and that will cue you to be in God's word every single day. Please consider becoming part of my financial support network so we can keep making video content like this and more. Go to dailypbj.com slash support if you're interested in being part of that mission. Maybe share this with someone who might grow in their faith by it. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.