Luke 3 ends with Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river. A powerful and beautiful moment that is immediately followed by Jesus being led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Chapter 4 begins there, with Jesus being led around the desert by the Holy Spirit.
Luke 4:1-2 HCSB - Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by (under the influence of/in) the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
I have read this passage many times, yet the other night one thing in it stuck out to me. Verse 2 starts by stating that FOR forty days Jesus was tempted by the devil. Reading this in the past I jumped to the conclusion that it was at the end of the forty days that the devil showed up and tempted Jesus. It hit me in that moment of reading the passage again that it was over the course of the entire forty days that Jesus was tempted, not just at the end.
In that moment I realized that Jesus wasn't just sitting around doing nothing, or sitting around praying the whole time. He spent that forty days being tempted the entire time. Never once in the following verses does it say that it was at the end of the forty days when the devil showed up to torment Jesus, it just says that the devil did tempt Him. Jesus wasn't just tempted when He was hungry, He was tempted the entire time, and we are given only 3 examples of how He was tempted.
HELPS Word-Studies gives this interesting thought on the forty days.
 |
| (Link) |
As I was studying this a few things went through my thoughts. The devil, as we know, tries to steal, kill, and destroy; often in the very midst of God revealing His love to us, or more deeply to us, depending on where we are at.
You see, what God approves, the devil tries to steal or destroy. The devil attacks us, in that moment of closeness with God, in order to hurt God. His goal is to hurt God as much as he can in his war against God, using us like pawns to inflict hurt and harm, in order to win the war.
The devil is a narcissistic manipulator. He lies and manipulates. He twists everything to confuse and trick us. He warps and twists every word to entangle and mislead us to the point where we think down is up and are left wondering how in the world we became so confused and lost. Outsiders in that moment, looking on, staring in rightful confusion, wondering how we got in that place of such confusion. The devil comes into that moment of closeness with God and tries to lie and manipulate us into letting go of or giving away what is rightfully ours.
The devil will never receive God's blessing so he tries to steal ours instead. If he can't steal it he will do his best to make us miserable. The saying goes that misery loves company and so does the devil. He will do whatever he can to drag as many as possible down with him.
During these forty days that Jesus was in the desert He was tempted by the devil the entire time. Given that details of this are in the Bible, I can only come to the conclusion that Jesus either told His disciples about it or the Holy Spirit revealed the details to the disciples after the fact.
We are only given 3 examples of the temptation that Jesus went through in the desert. I find it interesting what was chosen to share with us.
Jesus was tempted in His flesh by bodily hunger. The devil taunted Him, mocking His physical hunger by trying to get Him to eat rocks. Yes, Jesus could turn the rocks into bread, but in the natural humans are not able to transform rocks to bread. The devil didn't truly believe that Jesus was the Son of God. He was testing to see if this was true. Either way in that moment the devil would have thought his victory sure. If Jesus wasn't the Son of God, had He given in to the taunts, He would have been eating rocks. Yuck! The damage that would have done to His body in that moment would have been a victory for the devil. Had Jesus turned the rocks into bread He would have been giving into the devil and taken 1 step down a slippery slope of listening to the devil instead of to God, becoming easily taunted into disobedience. Jesus ends up doing what the devil didn't expect in that moment and speaking truth into the face of manipulative lies.
Jesus was then tempted in His pride. Jesus knew that He was the rightful ruler of all the earth, He was there at creation, and knew that in finality all the kingdoms of the earth would bow before Him. The devil throws the temptation for immediate gratification at Him. The devil offers rulership and the gratification immediately to Him, if only He will serve the devil. The devil appeals to His pride in His identity. Satan in that moment attempts to twist Jesus's previous quotation of scripture back on Him. Tangling scripture in a very narcissistic manipulation of Truth. Twisting scripture trying to make himself the worshipped instead of God. Jesus doesn't fall prey to confusion, holding to Truth as one lashing themselves to a solid foundation in the midst of the chaos of a hurricane. He refuses to bow to the devil, seeing through the manipulation to Truth.
Jesus was finally tempted in His identity. The devil couldn't confuse Him into idol worship so He attacked His very identity. Jesus was taken to the very top most parts of the temple in Jerusalem. He is taken to the very seat of God's throne on this earth. The center of worship of God, the place where God's Spirit rests among men. Where God meets with men and speaks. Where atonement is made regularly for sin and offerings made daily to God. In this place Satan mocks Jesus, and in reality mocks God's ability to protect and save His creation. The devil isn't just tempting Jesus at this point, he is flat out sending the message to God that God isn't stronger than him and saying that all of mankind is his for the destruction. Perhaps at this point it was starting to dawn on the devil that just maybe Jesus was the Savior. In that moment the very temple erected to worship God was also the tempting ground and a place of battle for Satan and Jesus. They stood toe to toe in that moment sizing each other up, getting a measure of their opponent. One trying to assess the success of the coming battle, the other knowing the outcome of the battle. Jesus stood toe to toe with the devil, and took a swing. Jesus lifted the full weight of scripture, and hit Satan with it. Sending Satan reeling backwards to gather himself, reassess his strategy, and plan his next attack.
Satan had his forty days of attacking Jesus, assessing Who Jesus was, testing his merit against Him, and ultimately failing. Satan spent not just the finality of those forty days attacking Jesus, but the entire time. Unbeknownst to Satan in that moment, he inadvertently further enabled Jesus to relate to the very people Satan sought to destroy; and thereby gave us an advocate against himself to equip and enable us for victory.
Not only was Jesus tempted in those forty days but he also passed through that refining period as one passing through fire, emerging fully ready for victory. What Satan intended to use to tear down Jesus was used to sharpen and equip Him for battle. Jesus left that desert fully knowing and understanding God's approval of Him. He became the victorious battle champion, honed and ready to win every battle forever more.
No comments:
Post a Comment