But He [Jesus] replied, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4, TLV

Test Answers.  Here’s a difficult question. Have you ever cheated on a test? Getting the answers to a test by cheating foils the purpose of a test — to see if we understand the material enough to utilize it.

The context of chapter four is when Yeshua [Jesus] was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit — for a major test. Not His most difficult test, but definitely one of the big ones.

Did you know that every test “question” — well, actually temptation — was overcome by passages in the Torah [the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy]? The enemy actually tempted Yeshua using passages outside the Torah and what was His response? A passage from the Torah. Why is that significant?

He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna—which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of ADONAI [the LORD].  (Deuteronomy 8:3, TLV)

Because those first five books of the Bible are the very foundation of our faith. Any time we need to “test” a truth, we hold it to those books, just like Jesus did.

Yeshua could defeat the temptations not just because He had memorized the Torah. No, He was the Word made flesh.

And the Word became flesh and tabernacled [temporarily lived] among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, TLV)

We’re not the “Word made flesh” but guess what? The very foundation of the New Covenant is that the Law would be written in our hearts to become a part of us.

“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”
—it is a declaration of ADONAI—
“I will put My Torah within them.
Yes, I will write it on their heart.
I will be their God
and they will be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:32, TLV, Emphasis Mine)

So, memorization is good, in fact it is important. But once we memorize it, the word has to engrave itself upon our hearts. We live it. Every. Single. Day. Because when those temptations arise today — and we know they will — we can speak against them, yes, but if GOD’s truth is engraved on our heart those temptations will be obliterated.

It’s not cheating to know the answers, it’s cheating when we don’t live them.

Thoughts?