Just Words?

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Reading this passage today took my understanding into mental high gear. I knew the basis of this story, but its implications  began to my brush up against my thought process. I was not satisfied until I begin to think it through.
As a man who seeks understanding, I grab on to every word that people speak to me. I not only hear it when they speak, but many more times though out the day depending on its importance to me, I may go over it many times like a cow chewing cud.
What does their words mean? What prompted their concern to verbalize their particular thoughts? Was their statement a shield or distraction sent out to deceive me and to send me in a totally different direction from the set course in which I was headed. Words are spoken thoughts.
Words express the way we feel or think.
My words that I speak to you are usually measured or weighed long before they come from my lips.
Yet there are times I may say something out of my anger that is not meant to be thoughtful, but meant as a weapon of mass destruction. My words are intended to hurt.  I want you to feel the full effects of what I am saying. I want you to know that I am hurt or really bothered by something you said. I want you to know that I have been stretched like a rubber band. These are usually the times I regret saying what I have said. Regrettably like a thrown stone, I can't take it  back. I thank God that those times are few.

Then there are the times that I say things that are thoughtful and they "are" intended to send a barrage of fire to totally devastate the misinformation  and to let everyone else know that if you invade my thoughts with what is foolishness to me, I am just not going to just sit and take it. To me it is like, another person trying to destroy the things that I have built for my survival. I don't want you to make a fool of me.  My life has been spent on trying to sort through so much propaganda of people coming after the things that I have acquired.

Strangely enough it is not always that I want to annihilate destructive thoughts that come my way from others or what I think of as foolishness. There are times that when I like to take my thoughts  captive so that I can interrogate them. To imprison them with the idea of keeping them locked away from what I consider my  sensible thoughts. With these thoughts there will come a day of execution.  It is very for us to guard our heart. Especially to those who are trying to abuse or misuse it.
Can you imagine the incarnate God of the universe be tempted by the enemy of God with deceptive words. How could Satan think that he could get Jesus to fail. The weapon that Satan used was temptation. Satan tempted him with base passions.

Toying with  and mocking Jesus as a mere man, Satan wanted to destroy   the thing that  would give Jesus the human perspective in heaven. He became a man so that he could know from a level of human experience  of God's creation and not only just all knowledge.  Being human, he had to experience  things human great and small. Satan wanted to put this human deity to the test. And the King of all creation can not be put to the test. God exercises control over all of his creation. God is sovereign.

Jesus could have spoken utter calamity and destruction on the enemy. The enemy was was using his best weaponry of temptation.  Just coming to the last moments of a forty day fast. You are hungry aren't you. Put a stone in your hand and using your  power and change a stone into bread. I know that you can do it and you know that you can do it. Let's see you do it.  You are the Son of God, right? You are hungry aren't you?

Do you see what Satan was trying to do? Coerce Jesus into obeying him by appealing to his hunger. One of the most powerful urges for man is hunger.  All the hunger 40 days without food.
Oh, in "my" flesh I could be just eat about anything at that point. The time for eating was not now,  it was about being about the father's business.

The stage is now set. The words that set all things in order are about to be stated. The words that opens the heavens; The creative word; the wisdom of all eternity; this are the words that cuts Satan into pieces. These are the words that Satan himself could not follow in eternity past. Satan's actions is the thing that caused his path to utter rebellion and eventual eternal damnation. Jesus is saying,
I live not just by putting bread in my mouth to satisfy the desire of hunger or temptation, but I live by the obedience to the words from my Father's mouth. It alone sustains all of my desires and needs. It is more to me any words you could ever speak. I act only upon what he says. His will and desire are my will and desire.

Satan, your words have no impact upon the things that God is, and God knows and does.
Perhaps, Satan would have done well to keep worshiping God and not looking at himself in pride. If only he would have waited and listened to the words that came forth from the Father. All would have been well.
All if creation is hinged upon the word of God.  If All created beings will come to this great understanding, and wait on the Father's words, all things would come into Kingdom order.
The second part of the temptation:
Satan said, All the power and the wealth of this world I will give you if you just bow and worship me. By having the history of the world in relationship to God, we clearly see that the enemy of God makes promises that he cannot fulfil. The Father above has all power and dominion over all things. Again the temptation is given to this God/man, Jesus for his imagination to take charge over his holiness, righteousness, and obedience . If Satan can get us to imagine the things of his words and start the process of not counting on the Word of the Lord. The bright lights all of the bells and whistles all of the attractions that draw us. If Satan can get us to buy those things to ensnare us, we  have been manipulated by his into his words are like the scent a food cooking on a stove. The scents will reach far and wide and pull you in. I remember seeing as a child, cartoons where the odor of food is like a finger that pulls you in even when you are sleeping.
Satan says, What if I told you I would give you the world and all the power there in because it has been given to me? What if I told you, you can have everything that was in your heart to have? For some it would do more than raise an eyebrow. For some people, all their senses will become stimulated. Right then and there their, imaginations with start counting all the things they could have. They would see themselves as ruler of their kingdom with there subjects biding there every command.  It is much like some people are drawn to the lottery think  it would answer all of their issues and all of the problems. But the truth be told, that type of thing sometimes  destroys people.
"If you would just bow down and  worship me".
Now I ask, what possessed Satan to ask that? His quest from the beginning has to been to be like Most High God. Remember in the beginning he carried the glory of God and believed that he should get the worship that was only due to God. Oh my, Satan is getting caught up in his own temptation. He is tempting Jesus but is also being tempted himself, by his own self  ambitions. He is believing is own lie.

Jesus response was, it is written you can only worship the true and living God. Only God receives worship and him only can you serve . In my mind, I can see Jesus anger been kindled against the tempter. Now he wants me to serve him too.  Jesus completely surrendered to the will of the Father.  any ambitions that could have been a spec in his mind, are no longer a temptation. This was Satan's temptation and not Jesus'.  The words of God strike a note that is heard in eternity again. We serve God by taking heed and obeying His Word. In His Word are protections. In his Word is  strength and wisdom. In His Word is provision and prosperity. In His Word there is an eternal future. In His Word there is worship and praise. To bow down to God is to humble yourself before the Lord and say you are the only wise God.

Lastly, the third and final temptation, Jesus is taken to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem. Satan says to him, if you be the Son of God, throw yourself down from this highest point  of the temple. God has given his angels charge over you to keep you least your dash your foot against  a stone. If you jump angels will stop you before you hit bottom. Before you hit the bottom they will bear you up. Jesus responded, it is written you will not test the Lord your God.
I do not know, what was in the mind of Satan. Maybe the long trip down as he was falling from heaven. To give Jesus the same fall he had from heaven. Again Jesus answers by the word of God I am NOT going to test God and you are not going to test God. Many of us fail by wanting to put God to a test. His Word says he is not to be tested. Not by our words, and not by our actions. He is not be put to the test. Again, words the Jesus speaks is heard in eternity. God is sovereign he rules heaven and Earth . The words we use are important. The words we hear are important. The words we obey are important. The word internalize are important. The words we make use of are important. It is a wonder that the Bible says, words are spirits. Our words bring things to us as well as take things away from us. The words to God uses to communicate to us are creative. The words that God uses to us are life changing, and very powerful. In the story, Jesus uses God's words to  bombard and annihilate everything Satan says. The devil is put at a loss without having anything to say. He cannot combat God's words. God's words sound  throughout eternity. He says, heaven and earth shall pass away but his words will stand. That and of itself is very powerful.
Since my blog about relationships, our words that we use toward each other are very powerful. They either build up or tear down. Words that we used to harm each other are not pleasing to God. Words that were used to build each other up are long-lasting and God is pleased. When we use the word of God in our relationships, it gives life to our relationships