Why was Jesus 40 days in the desert?

Hmm since John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Elijah, it is possible it is related to that, but Jesus was fulfilling so many prophecies at once.

Moses did something similar, but he went 40 days without food or drink.

further questions .. what does the food mean? what does the drink mean? what does the 40 days mean?

Messy2 said:

I know: to be tested by the devil, but why only 40 days?
I have the feeling I put my tent there and made it my home.
I think because He didn't fail the tests. The Israelites could have walked to the promised land in 40 days I once heard.

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In order to save the world, Jesus had to succeed where Adam and Israel had failed. Jesus was led by God into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights in order for Him to go through what Israel had experienced in the wilderness throughout 40 years. The evidence for this is seen in the response of Jesus to the first temptation.

The First Temptation:
In quoting from Deut 8, Jesus was referring back to Israel’s wilderness experience. (See Deut 8:1-6) He was pointing to the similarities between His and Israels experience. Israel failed, Jesus succeeded.

With Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the whole world fell into sin over appetite. It was more than Adam and Eve just being hungry though. The serpent tempted them to doubt God's Word. God had told them if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die. Satan contradicted God. (Gen 3:4) Satan also convinced them they could become their own gods. (Gen 3:5)

After escaping Egypt, Israel refused to trust God for their daily bread.

In the wilderness, Satan was tempting Jesus to take care of His own needs, to provide His own food miraculously because He was hungry rather than allowing God to supply Jesus' needs in God’s own time and in God’s own way. Satan was tempting Jesus to doubt His Father’s sufficiency just like Adam, and the Israelites, doubted God’s sufficiency.

The nature of this temptation is lust. Lust is wanting what you want when you want it. Lust means you can't wait. It includes but is not exclusive to sex. It's a drive for fame or fortune and excluding the more important aspects of life. It's living beyond one's means, wanting what you want when you can't afford it.

In the First Temptation, Satan was tempting Jesus to,

1. doubt He was the Son of God,
2. to distrust His Father’s promise to “supply all His needs,”
3. to lust for something that He wanted before God was willing to give it to Him and in doing so, to become His own “God.”

Adam and Eve, and the Israelites, failed on the sin of life’s necessities, specifically appetite. Jesus succeeded where they failed. And He made very clear that spiritual food, devouring God’s Word, is just as important to life as is physical food

The Second Temptation:

The devil took Him up to a holy city and set Him up on a pinnacle of the temple.

Satan said, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, He will command His angels concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Satan is attempting to put doubt into the heart of Jesus that he really is the Son of God.

The second temptation is one of trying to control and manipulate God. If Jesus had jumped God would be forced to protect him.

Scripture tells us that God is sovereign, God is in charge, and we are not. We cannot manipulate or control God, He controls us. (Eph 1:11) Jesus did not have to jump to prove God's word, He demonstrated it.

How many times do Christians say, "If you do this for me God, then I'll know that you love me"?

Satan was seeking to disqualify Jesus as Messiah. Had Jesus put God to the test it would have been sin and He would be disqualified as Messiah.

Satan was tempting Jesus to try to manipulate God, to save Jesus unnecessarily, almost to perform a trick, or magic. This is the sin of presumption. Often Christians say about a particular problem, “Well, it’s in God’s hands” yet they have not spent the time and energy to do what needs to be done so the outcome will be appropriate. Somehow they think God will work it out for them without them having to do anything.

Others take unnecessary risks, that put the person’s life in danger with the remark, “Well, if it’s my time to go, then I can’t do anything about it.” That is the sin of presumption – purposely putting oneself in harm’s way with the response, “Whatever will be, will be.”

Living recklessly, whether financially recklessly or physically recklessly, puts God to the test, and becomes the sin of presumption. We want God to save us from ourselves. But He will not do it. We will have to reap what we have sown.

Jesus’ answer to Satan, “Thou shalt not tempt (or force a test) on the Lord, thy God” was a quote from Deut 6:16 which referred to the test at Massah. The word Massah means testing, whereas Meribah means quarrel, provocation, strife. In Hebrews, God refers to Israel’s time in the wilderness as the rebellion or provocation. Obviously, God was not happy with Israel’s attitude.

In Hebrews 3:7-11 God says "do not provoke me as they did in the wilderness" How did Israel put God to the test? See Ex 17:1-7.

1. They saw God provide for them continually, yet when they did not see it immediately they moaned and groaned and complained and cried and wailed in fear.

They did not know God's ways and He swore to them they would not enter into His rest. The same as He does in Hebrews 3:7-11.

Putting God to the test is wanting now what God has planned for us later. Impatience and demanding that God "hurry up". (Isaiah 5:18-19)

It is often in times of adversity that our tendency to put God to the test becomes evident. We may very well place conditions on God, things that He must do for us in order for us to acknowledge that He is present with us, and for us to worship Him.

Following God and His Word can lead us into danger as it did for Daniel (in the lions’ den) and his three friends (in the fiery furnace). But faith is not foolishness attributed to trusting God, it is trusting God and forsaking folly.

The Third Temptation:

Satan said, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.”

Satan was tempting Jesus to “save the world” in an easier, far less humiliating way than death on a cross. Satan was offering the Lord a “Quick Fix.” If Jesus would just bow down to Satan He would not have to go through the severe beating and blood loss, the crown of thorns on His head, being nailed to the cross as a common criminal, being ridiculed and abused by the Roman soldiers, or the derision and mockery of the crowd. Jesus would not have to die! But the price for Christ would be, to sell His soul to the devil, and lose the authority to save the world. It would appear to be a benefit for the short term, but in the long term it would be a complete failure. Jesus answered "“Go, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

What did Israel do?

In the wilderness, when Moses was on Mt. Sinai getting the Ten Commandments and other instructions for worship, the Israelites became impatient.

“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him,

“Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Exodus 32:1.

So Aaron told them to bring their gold earrings and other jewelry and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Exodus 32:4

Why was the golden idol made in the form of a calf?

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. “The Egyptian Apis and the Phoenician Baal were both pictured as bulls, a common representation among many peoples of that day for fertility and strength. And Idolatry was accompanied by sensual, lewd dances that formed a part of the fertility cult” (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary) probably much like the lewd music and lewd dances that are so plentiful today.

The Israelites had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left their hearts. “The Egyptians had a bewildering conglomeration of deities. It is impossible to list all the gods sacred to this people. Every aspect of nature, every object looked at, animate as well as inanimate, was viewed as indwelt by a spirit that could select its own form, occupying the body of a cow, a crocodile, a fish, a human being, a tree, a hawk, etc. In their hieroglyphic inscriptions and their tomb paintings ancient Egyptian artists have left impressions of literally thousands of deities. The Pyramid Texts mention some 200. The Book of the Dead catalogs 120.” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary)

The response of Jesus at that time is just as accurate today, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

Jesus told satan to leave and he did. Then angels came and begin to minister to Him.

Jesus went to the desert because the Spirit led him there.

Michael Collum said:

further questions .. what does the food mean? what does the drink mean? what does the 40 days mean?

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You're barkin' up my alley now, Michael..... I love parable-style interpretation like this.... sometimes we find riches we couldn't have imagined were there......
#40 - the rule of Jesus was being measured/weighed, and found acceptable; he ruled over his own flesh and over the devil....
bread - life - He was not taking in anything to support his life, other than what he heard from God, evidently (Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God).
The Bible doesn't say whether or not Jesus drank water, so I'm not considering that.....

He had to be trained in order to be sent.

Messy2 said:

but why only 40 days?

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40 seems to the number of complete testing.

Michael Collum said:

further questions .. what does the food mean? what does the drink mean?

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4 levels of interpreting Hebrew texts:

Peshat - simple - the literal meaning
Remez -hint -implied meaning
Drash - search -a teaching from the text
Sod - hidden - prophetic or mystical meaning

All are true at the same time; even if they conflict with each other.

DaveW-Ohev said:

4 levels of interpreting Hebrew texts:

Peshat - simple - the literal meaning
Remez -hint -implied meaning
Drash - search -a teaching from the text
Sod - hidden - prophetic or mystical meaning

All are true at the same time; even if they conflict with each other.

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Yeah, I tend to apply that to the possible strongs translations and make all true at the same time. It's a solid way of looking at it.

40 is the number of judgment. But that may in all honesty have nothing to do with anything, I think the Bible says He was there 40 days simply because He was there 40 days. You try fasting that long and see how you are.

Sometimes we miss the obvious while looking for the hidden.

Agree with the previous comments, just to add that 40 days fasting would be approaching the limit that a human could fast for?