Scripture reading: Matthew 4:1-11
There is no doubt in my mind that angels are present among us. On my family’s move from Maryland to Florida in the late 1980s, we knew from the very beginning that something was wrong with the moving truck we rented. From time to time on the trip we heard strange noises. Then during the night driving near Fayetteville, North Carolina, the engine began to lose power and sputter. My father got off at the nearest exit, however, it turned out to be a lonely stretch of road with no town or facilities in sight. Suddenly, the engine quit and white smoke billowed from the front of the truck. Once my father got the truck stopped on the side of the road, he opened the hood and discovered the engine was on fire.
We searched the truck for a fire extinguisher, but there was none. There were tense moments of helplessness as we stood by the truck, all our belongings just feet from the fire, and the family car on a trailer behind the truck. The road was not traveled, and help was nowhere in sight. We had no mobile phone and no two-way radio.
Out of nowhere appeared a state trooper who pulled a fire extinguisher from the trunk of his car, put out the fire, and called for a fire truck and tow truck. He took me and my family to a nearby town where we spent the night in a motel (it was the only time in my life I rode in a police car).
When we arrived at our destination, my mother took the time to write a letter to the North Carolina State Trooper Headquarters expressing her gratitude for the trooper’s assistance. A few weeks later, she received a response thanking her for the letter and telling her that there was no such person employed as a state trooper.
This is not the situation in Matthew 4. Satan’s temptation here would be like us parking a perfectly running truck, loaded with our belongings, in the middle of nowhere, lighting it on fire and then waiting for God to send an angel to put the fire out. It is called testing or tempting God, and that is exactly what Satan was doing with Jesus here.
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