“And
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the
Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” (Luke 4:2)
“Do not love the world or the things in
the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of
the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the
world. And the world is passing away
along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)
So I
was thinking about the various temptations Satan brought to our Lord in the
wilderness. Jesus had been fasting for
forty days and was hungry and Satan tempted him to end his fast miraculously by
turning stones into bread. Then Satan “took
him up” somewhere and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and offered him
all riches and power. Finally, Satan
transported Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and tempted him to
jump and force God to save him with an intervention of angels. It hit me!
“Make these stones bread”; desires of the flesh. “It will all be yours”; desires of the
eyes. “Make God save you”; pride of
life. It really amazed me to see that
John’s “categories” of temptation paralleled the temptations of Jesus
exactly. Just a little reflection should
show us that we can actually anticipate the kinds of temptations Satan will
throw at us! We can be prepared!
Speaking
of being prepared… Did you notice the first clause of Luke 4:2? “And
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit…” As
Jesus walked out into the wilderness he was filled with the Holy Spirit! Think about that a second. The Son of God filled with the Holy
Spirit! This tells us something about the
humanity of Jesus. He was able to be
filled with the Spirit and he experienced temptation as a human being, depending
on the Spirit. How are we best prepared
to meet with temptation? Be filled with
the Spirit, as Paul says.
Just
a note… Many people seem to think that Satan came and tempted Jesus three times
at the end of his forty-day fast. If you
look carefully at the text you will see that he was being tempted throughout
the forty days. The three temptations
mentioned are only three that he endured.
Can
I just add one more reflection? Luke
records Satan’s departure from Jesus in 4:13.
“And when the devil had ended
every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” This verse further demonstrates the broad
extent of Satan’s temptation of Jesus.
It says, “When the devil had ended every
temptation.” Also, Satan left Jesus
to wait for an opportune time. Ah
ha! Satan looks for opportune times to attack his targets! It would be foolish for us to think that this
only applies to the temptation of Jesus!
He looks for opportune times to tempt us too! What are those opportune times?
In
answer to that question, something very interesting occurred to me. Satan must have thought that he was coming to
Jesus at an “opportune time.” Apparently
he was unable to see that Jesus was “full
of the Holy Spirit”! It seems that
Satan can’t tell if we are filled with the Spirit. He may be able to see what we do or neglect
to do. He may be able to see if we are
praying or reading our Bibles. But he
doesn’t seem to be able to look into our souls and identify the working of the
Holy Spirit in us. He thought he had
Jesus in a good place and misread the situation. All the more reason for us to carefully seek
to be in step with the Spirit!
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