The devil is but another name for our impatience. We want bread, we want to force God's hand to rescue us, we want peace - and we want all this now. But Jesus is our bead, he is our salvation, and he is our peace. That he is so requires that we learn to wait with him in a world of hunger, idolatry, and war to witness to the kingdom that is God's patience. 
The Father will have the kingdom present one small act at a time. That is what it means for us to be an apocalyptic people, that is, a people who believe that Jesus' refusal to accept the devil's terms for the world's salvation has made it possible for a people to exist that offers an alternative time to a world that believes we have no time to be just.
The devil's temptations are meant to force Jesus to acknowledge that our world is determined by death. Death creates w world of scarcity - a world without enough food, power or life itself. But Jesus resists the devil because he is God's abundance. Jesus brings a kingdom that is not a zero-sum game. There is enough food, power and life because the kingdom has come, making possible a people who have time to feed their neighbours. Fear creates scarcity, but Jesus has made it possible for us to live in trust....By resisting the devil's temptations Jesus has made it possible for us to live without fear.
(Hauerwas, Matthew,pages 55-6.)
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