Matthew 4:1-11
Jesus in the Wilderness
1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
God who during creation created the Garden of Eden, a most beautiful, peaceful and beautiful place...But God also created the wilderness...A quite different place...The wilderness is not near as pleasant as the Garden of Eden...
And we learn that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the evil one...What an odd thing for the Spirit to do...Why did the Spirit take Jesus and go to the wilderness to be tested?...Do we get this wilderness test in our lives?...Is our life part of a wilderness experience?...Are we tested by the evil one in our lives like Jesus was in the desert?...
We also know that years earlier God's people had to pass through the wilderness...They had their own wilderness experience for forty years while going to their homeland...Faith sometimes just needs to and has to endure, like the people of Israel found out in the desert...Job had a wilderness experience...Job suffered in his wilderness experience and needed to hang on to his faith...Job endured...No doubt the people of Israel traveling to the Promised Land took away valuable lessons from their time in the desert...They also endured through these times...
We see that after Jesus was tested by evil, the evil one left Him, and the angels came to Him...This is a good lesson that we should not give in to temptation, but Trust n the LORD...
So maybe Jesus gives us hints and guidelines for our wilderness experiences that we will have ready when we get tested by temptation and the evil tempter...God will provide, when we believe in Him and His Word...Jesus wants us to know this...The evil one wanted Jesus to test God, but He would not test God...And we are to worship only God, as Jesus teaches us in His last test in the wilderness...And while going through these wilderness tests Jesus endures His time in the wilderness and remains calm and of strong faith...
We know the wilderness can be a lonely place, where we might feel alone...But we are not alone...To gain a stronger faith and set ourselves apart from this world the Wilderness Story is one that shows us we can become stronger in our Spirituality and in our faith...Jesus certainly shows us the Way and how He overcame the evil one...We might bet that when we go through our wilderness experiences throughout our lives the evil one is right there asking similar question to us about this and that...We might also know the God and His Son are right there with us as we endure through the troubles of life in our wilderness experiences...