Today is just another one of those days when I am super introspective. On these days, I think about how the events of my past have led me to who I am in my character today. So, of course, this leads me down a rabbit hole in remembering all of the past events, the decisions I made – good or bad, and the hurts that I have been exposed to. I think about the various people I have come across in life, and the interactions we have had. Then, inevitably, I look into the Bible for direction on which way to go or what way to handle the various things I have going on currently.
In the fourth chapter of Matthew, the chapter starts out with Jesus being led up by the Spirit into the wilderness “to be tempted by the devil”. The whole purpose for Him to be there in the wilderness is given to the reader instead of us trying to infer what is going on. It specifically lays out this reason so that there is no question as to why He is walking in the wilderness. He is led by the Holy Spirit, which shows us that the Holy Spirit is Who we are to follow regardless of where. We will question why He is leading us to a place during the travel, and it may seem like we are going the wrong way. But if we hold on to Him and follow Him truly, the area we enter will not be wrong.
God uses this time of testing our character to strengthen us, as He did bringing Jesus into that time of the wilderness. This time in the wilderness for Jesus was difficult to say the least. He was hungry, thirsty, tired, and alone. And after forty days of this, He was at His weakest. That is when the devil (Greek = diabolos, meaning slanderer, accuser) came to test Jesus. He came to try and lure Jesus away from His purpose and ultimate goal.
We, too, are tested and lured away from our purpose and ultimate goal. The devil intends to mess up God’s plan and purpose for us, but God uses this time to strengthen us for later events. In full transparency, I am going through some testing. My main testing thus far was from 2016 to 2019. Cancer was quickly taking my life, my marriage, my relationships with others, and my career. The purpose I thought that I had was being blown away with the wind.
Looking back on all of that, I realize that I had been looking to nursing as my purpose and goal for fulfillment. My source of identity at that time was my career, my work. I wrapped myself in everything nursing, which pushed out everything else in my life. My marriage was only holding on by the income that I produced. My children missed seeing me because I worked all of the time. When I wasn’t working, I was at church in the nursery with the little ones. I worked all of the time. So I had invested all of myself into working for others but neglecting those who I loved the most and lived under the roof that I worked to support. I wasn’t seeing it at that time. And in working for others all of the time, I wrapped my identity and purpose up into something that was self-driven and self-focused. I wasn’t relying on God, but I relied solely on myself. Looking back on this, I clearly was not following the Holy Spirit, but myself. I was not giving glory to God, nor was I leading anyone to His amazing grace and sweet mercy. I was putting attention on myself as the “one who does it all.”
Back to Jesus’ temptation. The devil was tempting Jesus and testing Him, trying to get Him to turn away from His purpose and ultimate goal. All the while, Jesus in His humanity was so weakened and tired, and that made it easier for the devil to tempt Him. However, God used this experience to strengthen Him for the upcoming mission He was to accomplish. Jesus knew that in order to be strengthened, He had to bring up God’s Word, which is stronger than the devil by leaps and bounds. Satan, the devil, tempted Jesus with the natural urges and needs. However, Jesus brought out the equipment of the Word of God to defend Himself against the attacks of Satan.
Jesus was hungry – really hungry. Satan tempted Him with changing stone into bread. Jesus replied with what was written in Deuteronomy 8:3, “…man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” So Satan tried a different tactic. He took Jesus up to “the holy city” (Jerusalem) and brought Him up to the pinnacle of the temple, which was probably about 300 feet above the Kidron valley and 140 feet above the street surrounding the temple on the southeast corner. Needless to say, it was pretty high up there. Just as a current example of how high that is, the Big Ben in the UK is 310 feet tall. 300 feet is the approximate height of about 90 stories high. And if that wasn’t enough, Satan told Jesus to jump off of the pinnacle, and he twisted the Word of God in an attempt to manipulate Jesus. Jumping from this height unharmed would have been a spectacular display, and it would have caused many to follow Him. But this would have messed up God’s plan and purpose for Jesus. The Father’s messianic and redemptive plan of suffering and proclaiming the Kingdom of heaven would have been misinterpreted and altered.
Jesus went back to the tried and true Word of God to defend Himself rightly. This reminds me to interpret God’s Word correctly. If I just take what someone else says that kind of sounds like God’s Word instead of following the Holy Spirit’s rendering of His Word, then I am setting myself up for doom and becoming a slave to sin again. Seeing the example of Jesus, who is sinless and perfect, I learn that I need to rightly read the Word of God and apply it to my currents circumstances correctly within the context of the whole of scripture. This is exactly was Jesus did when He replied back to Satan with Deuteronomy 6:16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Testing God is an act of disobedience and a lack of trust in Him. And this was Satan’s whole character – to lie, steal, kill, and destroy.
As his last attempt, Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and showed Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Then he said in Matthew 4:9, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Oh my! That was the last straw for Jesus! Jesus told Satan to get out of there, “Be gone, Satan!” And He recited to him Deuteronomy 6:13, which says, “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.” Jesus refused to bow down to Satan, which demonstrated that He was God’s perfect Son, whereas Israel in the wilderness tests failed to keep true to God. Today, I learn from this that God reigns supreme in my life. Following Him is my choice, but also the best path to walk down. It is the only path that leads to fulfillment, joy, perfect love, and perfect peace eternally.
In this account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, I have learned to rely solely on God (as the trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Jesus has lived the perfect life. And I can rely on His actions and reactions as a guide for what I am to do. In hardship and utter devastation, I can look to Him for guidance. I can figure out what step to take next when everything is chaotic and appears to be out of control. God gave us the written Word to help us remain strong in the faith. Praise be to God for all that He has done and continues to do in and through our lives!
Gotta go fill up my cup…..
Coffee with Candee 