Stones to Bread
Have you ever gone for a long time without eating? Your stomach begins to hurt, you feel very weak, and every food sounds good to you—even spinach! And that happens when you miss one or two meals. What if you did not eat anything for a whole week? Can you imagine how hungry you would be? Now, think about the fact that Jesus fasted and did not eat anything for 40 days. That is over five weeks without eating anything!
After those 40 days, the devil came to Jesus to tempt Him to sin. Satan first tried to tempt Jesus to turn stones into bread. He said to Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Just think how tempting it would have been for Jesus to use His power to make something to eat—like nice, warm, buttery loaves of fresh bread. It makes your mouth water just thinking about it, and you have likely eaten plenty in the past few days. Imagine how good that bread sounded to Jesus.
Satan is very good at tempting people to sin. He knew that Jesus had not eaten for many days, and that He was very hungry. But think about what Satan was doing. He was trying to get Jesus to obey him instead of trusting in God. If Jesus had turned the stones into bread, then He would have been doing exactly what Satan wanted Him to do. Also, God had taken care of Jesus and given Him everything He needed to live. If Jesus turned the stones into bread, He no longer would be trusting in God to take care of Him.
The devil was using the same trick that some of the Jewish leaders used against Jesus when they asked Him for a sign that would prove He was God’s Son. The devil was basically saying that the signs God had given Jesus to do were not good enough proof. Satan was asking for another sign from Jesus. But Jesus did not give in to Satan’s temptation. He said: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus was telling Satan that there are things that are much more important than food (or other physical things). Obeying God’s Word is the most important thing.
Today, many people do the same thing Satan did to Jesus. They say that God has not given enough evidence to prove that He really exists. However, these people refuse to look at the design in the Universe or the inspiration of the Bible. God has given us plenty of evidence to prove that He exists and that He will take care of those who obey Him. Let’s be like Jesus and trust God.
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