Jesus Whipped The Devil As A Man, Not As God

I saw a video clip from my friend Joe McGee this morning, and I'm going to borrow from him in my blog today. If you would like to see Joe's video, click here and you can watch it.

You know the story, how that God had prophesied that there would come a day when His Son would arrive and bruise the devil's head. (Genesis 3:15) The devil cannot read thoughts, nor does he know everything. So he spent the next several thousand years trying to figure out when Jesus was going to show up.

He killed off a whole bunch of children in Egypt when Moses showed up, because he thought that might be who God had been talking about. And then the three wise men showed up looking for the King of the Jews, and the devil moved on Herod to kill all the children two years old and under. (Matthew 2:16)

Then John the Baptist shows up and begins to tell everyone that the Messiah is coming. You know that had to cause the devil's ears to perk up, and he was there watching John waiting to find out who the Messiah actually was. The really cool thing about God is that he didn't leave the devil wondering once it was time for Jesus to start His ministry. John baptizes Jesus, and as soon as He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) rested upon Him and then God speaks from Heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Did you get it? God just pointed Jesus out to the devil. The devil didn't know who the Messiah was, and then God goes and points Him out and says basically, "Hey devil, here He is." And it is immediately after this that Jesus went out into the wilderness and began his fast. (Matthew 4:1 - 11) The devil followed Him out there, but notice he didn't attack Him at first. He's just watching Jesus, and on the fortieth day (when Jesus is physically at His weakest) the devil shows up and begins to talk to Him.

Matthew 4:3 - 4: ³And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. ⁴But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Boom! Jesus spoke the Word of God and you know it felt like a two by four upside the devil's head. Nobody had ever spoken God's Word to the enemy before. So the next time the devil figures, Jesus uses the Word, I'll use the Word, so he says,

⁵Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, ⁶And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

But Jesus comes back at him with the Word, in the correct context and says, ⁷Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

So the devil thinks, I know I'll offer to give everything to Him, that is what He's after after all, and he tries again, ⁸Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; ⁹And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

At this point, the devil has tipped his hand and Jesus has had enough, so He says, 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And Scripture says that the devil left Him, for a season. He had to leave, he just got whipped. And then the angels came and ministered to Jesus. Now go with me here, I'd like to embellish that part of the story a bit, so bare with me here.

The angels show up, and they bring food and water to the Lord. And the conversation might have gone something like this.
Jesus: "Did you see that?"
Angels: "Yes Master, we were waiting for You to call on us for assistance." (Because there are more angels than we can count.)
Jesus: "No, did you see what I did?"
Angels: "Yes Master, You defeated the evil one."
Jesus: "But did you see how I did it?"
The angels just stood there looking at Him.
Jesus: "I defeated him as a man, not God. Don't you see, I defeated the enemy with God's Word as a man, not as God. And soon there will be millions and millions just like Me that will be able to do that too!"

Man I don't know about you, but I think it's time we rise up and start putting knots on the devil's head with God's Word. This is why it is imperative that we put God's Word down in our hearts. The devil is not afraid of us, he's afraid of God's Word in us, coming out of our mouths. I love that Joe said, "I used to tell kids all the time that those aren't horns on the devil's head, they're knots from the beating he took from Jesus."

I want to get out there and whip the snot out of the devil, who's with me? Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!