The first example that comes to mind when thinking of testing in the wilderness is the story of Jesus’ time in the desert. The books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all mention the testing of Jesus in the desert. In this “wilderness episode” Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist and led into the wilderness by spirit. While in the desert, He was tempted by the devil and fasted for forty days. At the end of His forty days, being hungry and weak the devil came and tempted Him in three ways. First he tempted Him to turn the stone into bread, then he tempted Jesus to take power of the kingdoms, then the devil told him to test God by commanding the angels to catch Him. These tests are traditionally described as a temptation for him to prove his son-ship by way of power, reveal his son-ship by dramatic design, and to endorse accepted ideas of son-ship. Jesus was forced to choose not to sin, the quality of his son-ship was tested, and through it He demonstrated the implications of being a servant of the Lord.
The fact that Jesus was tempted in the desert is of high importance to the gospel. It proves that Jesus was human in that he was tempted in the same way humans today are. Hebrews 4:15 states “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every war, just was we are—yet was without sin.” This shows that Jesus’ temptation allows him to identify with us in a way that he could not have if he had not been tempted. He also exemplifies the importance of scripture in this episode as he answers each of the Devil’s temptations by directly quoting Deuteronomy. Christians often refer to scripture as a sword used in battle against temptation. Jesus’ interaction with Satan here is a real example in the Bible in which scripture is used as His sword and exemplifies to Christians how valuable knowing scripture is when facing temptation
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