Read: Luke 3.1-4.13
Verses chosen for reflection
Luke 4:1-13
4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
to guard you,’
11 and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Reflect
Three times Satan tried to tempt Jesus out of His mission to set humanity free. Three times he failed due to Jesus relating to the Scriptures.
The first attempt was to tempt Jesus to forsake His dependency on God. While Jesus was on earth, He was like any other human being, totally vulnerable to pangs of hunger, death and other physical needs. As fully human (and yet fully God), Jesus was to depend on the will of the Father to fulfil His mission on earth.
While Jesus was without food for forty days, He did not give in to Satan's temptation. For the evil one was not concerned at all about Jesus' welfare. Satan was trying to cause Jesus to commit the sin of dependency on self rather than God. Jesus did not give in and quoted the Scriptures that man do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The truth was spoken not just from memory but with power and true conviction. Because of this, the devil gave up the attempt.
The second attempt was to tempt Jesus of His sense of mission. Did Jesus come to earth to claim authority of the world and overthrow the political system of the day? Did Jesus come to earth to enjoy the riches and power that can come to Him with ease, if He would just say the word? No. Jesus did not come for any of these. He came with the single minded focus of fulfilling what the Scriptures say long ago about how the Saviour would come and die for the sins of many. Again, when the evil one offered him the world if He would bow down to his kingship; Jesus quoted the Scriptures remind the created fallen angel; that everyone should only worship God.
The third attempt was to tempt Jesus of His identity. If Jesus was indeed the Son of God, He could throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and God would save Him. Jesus was sure that God would save Him. Yet, why should He do that? Why should He obey Satan and test God? He is indeed the Son of God and there is no need of further proof. Hence, Jesus quoted Scriptures again to defeat the evil one of his wiles.
Relate
The spoken word of God declared in conviction is powerful against all forms of temptations that Satan is able to hurl at us.
The challenge would be to learn from Jesus, who was so ready to declare the word when met with temptations. Not only do we need to memorise Scriptures, we need to have the faith and love for God to declare the word against temptations.
Quite often, we may have the words to say; but entertained sin so much so that we cannot even say anything. Until the deed is over and bore much bad fruit; we feel guilty and seek God for forgiveness. That can put us into a vicious cycle of thinking that as long as we say sorry to God; we can sin all we want. If that is what we are thinking, we are dead wrong. For the day will come, when our hearts can be so hardened by the weight of sin that we can no longer or want to seek God for forgiveness. By then, we can be totally lost.
Or, we think we can avoid or run away from sin as we want to. But temptations are powerful hooks devised by the craftiest and most wicked being on earth. What makes us think that we can have it that easy? We will not win with our own strength and will. However, like Jesus, we can win by speaking forth God's word in faith. To do so, we need to spend time with God and knowing His word. If we do this on a daily basis, we can prepare our minds and hearts to be ready to battle against the schemes of the evil one; and every time, we will win.
Rest
Lord our God, give us the grace to walk with you on a daily basis. Convict us of the importance of knowing and applying Your holy word. This will keep us away from evil and even when the evil one tempts us, we know how and what to do to gain complete victory. This we pray in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Jason
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