The temptation in the wilderness raises numerous questions among Jehovah's witnesses. The first and foremost issue to arise deals with Jesus' ability to fall into temptation if He were, in fact, God. In the story of Job, God allowed Satan to tempt him, although He undoubtedly knew that Job would remain His devoted follower (Job 1:8-12). While the Society seizes the opportunity to distort the account of Job into the reason for a ban on birthday celebrations, most see the story as a prelude to Christ's temptation. God allowed Satan to tempt Job to prove to him that Job held unshakeable devotion to God. Even in times of trial, Job's temptation did not demand that he was 'tempted' in every sense of the word, but simply that Satan had attempted to cause him to sin.
Flip Wilson pleased audiences with his comedy skits back in the 1970s. On the Ed Sullivan show, he appeared to perform his now famous dress skit in which his alter ego, Geraldine Jones approached her reverend while wearing her third new dress that week. Upon recognizing the vanity and greed in her overindulgence, her reverend questioned her intentions, and she inevitably responds, “the devil made me do it!” Geraldine Jones notoriously blamed all of her shortcomings on the devil, and in the end, the reverend asks,
“how come the devil’s always making you do something for yourself? When is he going to do me a favor?”
Though this response drew much laughter, Flip Wilson uncovered a major dilemma in modern theology. The Jehovah’s witnesses often construe the reality of the devil's existence and the part which he plays in enticing the human heart in such a way which exalts him to an elevated position of power. Does the devil ever make us do anything that is not self-gratifying? How often do we disobey God without personal gain?
When God approached Eve, she said, “the serpent... it deceived me” (Genesis 3:13), though she would not have eaten from the tree had she not conceived her own pleasures within her heart. She wanted God’s knowledge, she wanted life eternal, and she did not concern herself with the reality that in following her own path, she must strive to receive these apart from God. The devil never made her disobey God, it seems more likely that he was that temptation which presented her with an excuse to follow the desires of her own lustful heart, for according to Jeremiah the prophet, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Likewise, when Jesus spoke of the extra-biblical traditions which the Jews held dear, He called the crowds near Him to say:
“'Listen to me, all of you, and get the meaning. There is nothing from outside a man that passes into him that can defile him; but the things that issue forth out of a man are the things that defile a man’… Further, he said: ‘That which issues forth out of a man is what defiles a man; for from inside, out of the heart of men, injurious reasonings issue forth: fornications, thieveries, murders, adulteries, covetings, acts of wickedness, deceit, loose conduct, an envious eye, blasphemy, haughtiness, unreasonableness. All these wicked things issue forth from within and defile a man.’” (Mark 7:14-15, 20-23)
In both the case of Job and in the case of Christ, there was no indication that either had wavered in will, power, or devotion. While the devil did indeed prowl about the earth with hopes to devour them (Cf. 1 Peter 5:8), it was not in their hearts to succumb to the temptation. Through their trials we learn that it is only wise to follow your heart if it is pure and strictly devoted to the will of the Father, and no heart is more pure than that of the Son of Man.
The Watchtower Society has implied that the temptation was not beyond what Christ could endure. Regarding the temptation of God's faithful followers, they have written:
"[God] will [allow us to be tempted], even as he did with Job. 'But God is faithful,' the apostle Paul noted, 'and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out in order for you to be able to endure it.'—1 Corinthians 10:13."[1]
While the Jehovah's witnesses commonly pose the question of whether one could tempt God, the Society notes that:
"Satan was trying to cause Jesus to be disloyal to God. But what test of loyalty would that be if Jesus were God? Could God rebel against himself? No, but angels and humans could rebel against God and did. The temptation of Jesus would make sense only if he was, not God, but a separate individual who had his own free will, one who could have been disloyal had he chosen to be, such as an angel or a human."[2]
Perhaps the Society is correct regarding Satan's motive. Perhaps he hoped to show Jesus that He could have independence from the Father. Satan does not know all things; omniscience is an attribute reserved for God, alone. Satan's ultimate downfall came from the fact that he is not all-knowing; he never even realized that part of Christ’s suffering included the shame and humiliation of dying on the cross. He must have erroneously assumed that Christ’s sufferings were limited to such things as experiencing human fatigue, hunger, weakness, etc.; but not death on the cross. Had he known that the crucifixion would bring about an end to his reign of evil and weaken his control over the lives of the people of God, then he would have undoubtedly tried to prevent Christ from going to the cross. God, in His perfect wisdom, kept this hidden from him, and even employed him to fulfill His Own Will; Satan's goal throughout Christ's life on earth was to put Him to death. He even contributed to the perfect timing of His death by entering into Judas during the Last Supper, forcing the sacrifice of our Paschal Lamb on Passover. Little did he know that it was Christ's Passover sacrifice that would ultimately render him powerless over death (Hebrews 2:14-15).
In allowing the temptation, God also arranged for the Son to meet all legal requirements of the Paschal lamb; all sacrificial victims were to be tempted and judged according to Levitical standards.[3] According to Exodus 12:5, the Paschal lamb must be without blemish or defect, free from stain. The 1984 New World Translation cross-references this verse to Hebrews 7:26 and states:
"Jesus remained loyal to God even in the face of great temptation and torture… Hebrews 7:26."[4]
It also cross-references Hebrews 9:14, which they cite to note that:
"Christ, 'an unblemished and spotless lamb,' 'offered himself without blemish to God.'—1Pe 1:19; Heb 9:14."[5]
The most compelling evidence to suggest that the Society recognizes the necessity of Christ’s tests and trials to meet the Levitical requirements of the Paschal Lamb is found in an earlier Watchtower where the author compared the temptation in the desert to Exodus 12, itself:
"Jesus went to John his forerunner to be baptized by him in the Jordan River and immediately thereafter he went into the wilderness of Judea for forty days by himself, where he was exposed to a heart-searching temptation by Satan the Devil. Proving his integrity under this test and gaining the victory, Jesus returned to John and was pointed out by John to some of his disciples as 'the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.' (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; John 1:28, 29) Prophetic dramas had foreshadowed this sacrificial lamblike One centuries previously.—Gen. 22:9-14; Ex. 12:1-28; 29:38-42; Num. 28:1-10; 1 Cor. 5:7."[6]
This temptation also teaches us that Christ is our worthy High Priest, superior to those within the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15; 7:26). Jesus took upon Himself human flesh and humanity can be exploited by temptation because the flesh has desires. He gave up His arrangement of power and Satan offered a way in which He could resume an elevated position, albeit a position far inferior to that which He had beforehand maintained in the heavens. He humbled himself, becoming lower than the angels; thus, Satan could then offer something greater than what this life has to give. In His state of sorrow and affliction, "He was tempted - in the literal sense; he was persecuted; he was poor; he was despised; he suffered physical pain; he endured the sorrows of a lingering and most cruel death";[7] yet He remained without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
The temptation has been likened to a story in which an awful downpour washed out a railroad trestle above a river. After replacing the trestle, a large train approached, and a crowd gathered to watch as it stopped on the bridge, and then backed up. After repeating this a second time, a little boy asked the workers, "why are you trying to break the trestle?" A worker smiled as he stooped down to tell the child, "the reason for this test is to prove that the trestle is dependable, so dependable that it cannot be broken." Likewise, when Satan tempted Job, God allowed the temptation only to prove Job's integrity, fully knowing that Job would remain loyal. The Society points out that:
"in time, it became obvious that Jehovah was right about Job, and Satan was proved a liar."[8]
The same, of course, must be understood of the one and only Son of God.
In observing that Satan is not all knowing, his lack of knowledge must influence his understanding of the Son. Some believe that God chose a virgin because Satan would never look there; some have suggested that he did not even know who Jesus was until His baptism. The Society is not likely to agree as they portray Satan as placing the star over Bethlehem to announce His birth to the Magi. St. Ignatius of Antioch, on the other hand, believed:
"Mary's virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world; these three mysteries worthy of proclamation were accomplished in God's silence."[9]
Satan may not have known Jesus' full identity, which seems evident in the mere fact that the temptation was a test to prove that He is "a Son of God" (Matthew 4:3, 6; NWT). Perhaps he may have even believed Him to be the Son of God, yet did not understand His weaknesses when shielded by human flesh. His choice to tempt Christ did not imply that Christ was capable of sin, it merely showcased Satan's ignorance.
This leads back to the statement, "if Jesus had been God, he could not have been tempted."[10] The first rebuttal to this statement is within Jesus' response to the temptation: "you must not put Jehovah your God to the test" (Luke 4:12). Jesus is essentially saying "you are testing God; stop testing God," and His remark renders the Society's accusation less reliable than a candle in the wind; we can tempt God. The Greek word for "test" and "tempt" is the same word[11] and applies to Jehovah in Exodus 17:7 and Psalm 95:8-9 in the Septuagint. He claims that He was tempted, statements which Hebrews 3:8-9 revisit, though this hardly signifies that He is less than Almighty. The temptations do not suggest that God was tempted with evil (Cf. James 1:13), they merely suggest that Satan wrongfully put God to the test (Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:9; Hebrews 3:9). This encounter between Satan and Christ strongly alludes to that which is revealed in a Psalm of Asaph:
"How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and made him feel hurt in the desert! Again and again they put God to the test, And they grieved the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power, the day that he rescued them from the adversary." (Psalm 78:40-42)
The response of Christ, "you must not put Jehovah your God to the test" echoes the account of Moses to the Israelite's during the Exodus. In Deuteronomy 6:16, Moses instructed the Israelite's not to put the Lord their God to the test as they had done at Massah; we tempt the Lord when we ask Him to prove Himself. At Massah, while Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelite's (misguided as they had let themselves become) began to question whether God was really with them, or with Moses for that matter. Some have seen this questioning as an effort to manipulate God into doing as they had wished; to send Moses back down to direct the people. Similarly, the devil, also misguided, questioned whether God was with Jesus; like the Israelite's, he attempted to lure God into proving Himself.
Most importantly, the tenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians offers a description of the Israelite's time in the wilderness, a time in which they tested "Jehovah." In the New World Translation, verse 9 reads: "neither let us put Jehovah to the test, as some of them put him to the test, only to perish by the serpents." The footnote in the 1984 version upon the Name “Jehovah” reveals three J references which denote that the Name was inserted because the Divine Name was present in each of the three Old Testament passages which Paul was calling to mind. However, the footnote also reveals that this same word which they have translated as “Jehovah” is elsewhere translated as “the Christ.” This word appears 569 times in the New Testament, and it is translated only as “Christ” in the New World Translation in each of the other 568 occurrences. Not only was the Son tempted before the incarnation, but in each of these instances He responded to the Name, "Jehovah." Despite this, the Society maintains that:
"not being God, Jesus could have been disloyal. But he remained faithful..."[12]
Could Christ truly have been disloyal even if He were not God? Perhaps they may wish to reconsider the choice of the New World Translation Committee in their rendition of Christ's words in the following verse:
"Most truly I say to you, the Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things that One does, these things the Son does also in like manner." (John 5:19)
The Society does teach that John 5:19 was said about His actions "on earth as a perfect man,"[13] consequently establishing that the inability to act apart from the Father must, therefore, apply to His created human nature. In other words, Jesus could not be tried or tested in the sense that the Society implies if it were true that He spoke of His human nature when stating that He "cannot do a single thing of his own initiative." In yet another attempt to prove that Christ cannot be God since He can be tempted, they state that "it is unimaginable that God could sin and be disloyal to himself."[14] However, since Jesus' temptation (if His human nature was, in fact, incapable of independence from God) is only a mirror image of the Father's actions, then the Watchtower Society is mistaken in their interpretation of Satan's foreknowledge, and in Christ’s ability to sin.
[1] The Watchtower, March 1, 1986, p. 17 [2] “Should You Believe in the Trinity?”, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, pp. 15 [3] "Life of Christ", Fulton Sheen, Image Books, August 16, 1977, p. 95 [4] The Watchtower, October 1, 2000, pp. 5-6 [5] “Insight on the Scriptures”, Volume I, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p. 339 [6] The Watchtower, December 1, 1965, p. 728 [7] Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Kregel Classics; 8th edition, June 30, 1962; Hebrews 4:15 [8] The Watchtower, November 1, 2014, p. 5 [9] Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Epesius 19:1: AF II/2, 76-80; SCh 10, 88; Cf. 1 Corinthians 2:8 [10] “Should You Believe in the Trinity?”, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p. 15 [11] “Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, James Strong, Hendrickson Publishing, 1988; #G3985 [12] “Should You Believe in the Trinity?”, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p. 15 [13] “Insight on the Scriptures”, Volume I, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p. 1185 [14] “Should You Believe in the Trinity?”, The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p. 15
Comments