Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, 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 shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you,’
11 and,
‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
Dear Jesus,
Thank You for enduring harsh temptation throughout Your ministry. Certainly, this first recorded round of temptation must have been especially crushing. I wonder what it must have been like to have heard you give a firsthand account of Your temptations to Your disciples around a campfire in the Galilean countryside.
Satan's taunts were not new to You. You had observed Lucifer's service and rebellion. You knew him in eternity past from the moment Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had launched his angelic presence into being. Then he turned. Lucifer rebelled. "Son of the morning" became Satan. Each interaction with him must have been a knife to Your heart.
You refused Satan's order to turn the stones to bread. He has distracted the church throughout the centuries with bread making. There is nothing wrong with feeding the hungry. You did so Yourself. You command us to give food and water to the hungry and thirsty, but that alone will not change the world. "The task of Christianity is not to produce new conditions, although the weight and voice of the church must be behind all efforts to make life better for men. Its real task is to produce new men; and given the new men, the new conditions will follow" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 39).
You refused Satan's temptation to bypass the cross in favor of an easier way. You resisted the temptation for the easier way, a temptation that I face daily. "It is a constant temptation to seek to win men by compromising with the standards of the world. G. K. Chesterton said that the tendency of the world is to see things in terms of an indeterminate grey; but the duty of the Christian is to see things in terms of black and white. As Carlyle said, 'The Christian must be consumed by the conviction of the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin.'" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 39-40). Your cross would be that dividing line.
I know the temptation to do something foolhardy, dramatic, and sensational. You refused to become the sensationalist depicted in Satan's driving assaults. "Jesus saw quite clearly that if he produced sensations he could be a nine days' wonder: but he also saw that sensationalism would never last. The hard way of service and of suffering leads to the cross, but after the cross to the crown." (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 40).
Thank You for enduring temptation. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Grant me victory over the temptations with which the enemy attacks me today.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, my Lord,
Amen.
You refused Satan's temptation to bypass the cross in favor of an easier way. You resisted the temptation for the easier way, a temptation that I face daily. "It is a constant temptation to seek to win men by compromising with the standards of the world. G. K. Chesterton said that the tendency of the world is to see things in terms of an indeterminate grey; but the duty of the Christian is to see things in terms of black and white. As Carlyle said, 'The Christian must be consumed by the conviction of the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin.'" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 39-40). Your cross would be that dividing line.
I know the temptation to do something foolhardy, dramatic, and sensational. You refused to become the sensationalist depicted in Satan's driving assaults. "Jesus saw quite clearly that if he produced sensations he could be a nine days' wonder: but he also saw that sensationalism would never last. The hard way of service and of suffering leads to the cross, but after the cross to the crown." (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 40).
Thank You for enduring temptation. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Grant me victory over the temptations with which the enemy attacks me today.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, my Lord,
Amen.
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