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| Comfort & Counsel |
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| The Great Bible Story #92 |
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After Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at Jordan, He was led by the Spirit into the desert areas to spend time alone with the Father. He was there for forty days, without eating anything, and at the end He was very hungry. Satan spotted this as an opportunity and suggested to Him in His mind that as the Son of God He could easily turn one of the stones into bread and satisfy His hunger. But Jesus countered it by deciding that there was more to life than eating. He was determined to do everything according to the directions which the Father gave Him. Another idea Satan suggested to Him was that if He would go to the top of the temple and jump down, the angels would carry Him down safely and then He could show everybody who He was. But Jesus knew that jumping like that would be to put God to a test, instead of doing what God wanted Him to do. Satan made another attempt to pull Jesus down. He knew that Jesus had come to save the world, and so he offered to give all the kingdoms of the world to Him without Jesus having to make any effort if He would just bow down to him. When Adam and Eve sinned, they had handed over the dominion of the world to Satan. In that sense he felt he had the right to offer the world to Jesus. But the way God was planning to redeem the people of the world was through the sacrifice of His Son. So Jesus was not willing to take 'the easy path'. At this point Satan left Him for a while, and some angels came to minister to Him.
These were not the only temptations Jesus faced in His life, because He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sinning. But these were some strong temptations He had to face just before He could start on His public ministry. The way Jesus dealt with these temptations demonstrated the knowledge of God's word and the insight He had to use the appropriate word in every situation. Knowledge of God's word and the leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us are the means we need to have to face our own temptations. We read how Jesus also spent much time alone with God, praying for help and wisdom so that He could triumph in all situations and do the Father's will. We can be sure that the Devil would have attacked Jesus with his strongest tricks, knowing that this was the Son of God, and that if he could make Him trip up even once he would win. God watches the measure of our own temptations and He will not allow us to face anything that might be too much for us. |
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