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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

Deuteronomy 7–11: Having a Messiah-like heart for God’s words

Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Christ) gave three answers to HaSatan (the devil) after His 40 days in the wilderness. What was Yeshua trying to say with, “Man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4)? In His refutations of HaSatan while being tempted, Yeshua quoted heavily from the Torah reading עקב Ekev/Eikev (“consequence,” Deuteronomy 7:12–11:25.

What did Yeshua want His disciples to learn from this account, recorded in Matthew 4:1–11? Anytime Yeshua cited scripture, He seemed to referred to the entire context of that verse, not merely the verse itself. Yeshua’s apostles taught in the same manner. They cited a reference, expecting their disciples to go to scripture and read it in context.

When Yeshua confronted HaSatan, He pulled from much of Ekev, not just the small snippets He quoted.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 4:1–13 — temptation of Yeshua for 40 days parallel the testing of Israel for 40 years

In this next chapter, Yeshua travels away from His anointing at His baptism and is sent “by the Spirit” to the wilderness to suffer temptation at the hands of the Adversary. These temptations, His reaction to them and how He overcame them were a crucial training ground to prepare Him for His final mission of crucifixion and resurrection.