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Temptation in the Desert - Part 2

3rd March 2012

We remembered last week that, after He was baptised:

Matthew 4v1-4
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Jesus chose obedience to God over personal comfort.

But Satan wasn't done with Him. Next, he tried a different approach:

Matthew 4:5-6
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

Again, Satan starts with "If you are the Son of God" and he does the same with us. When things are particularly difficult, and our prayer lives seem dry, and our Bible reading seems fruitless, and we feel lonely or confused, or we're suffering illness, or unemployment, or persecution, Satan asks us "Are you sure you're really a child of God, really a Christian? If you were a Christian, God wouldn't let you suffer like this, would he? Were you really born again, or did you imagine it? Did you really repent? Look how sinful you still are! Have you really got faith in God? What good is it? Is it real, or were you just fooling yourself?".

And then the temptation comes, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'". And, for us too, the temptation comes: "You think God loves you? You think you're his child? Then prove it! Do something really stupid (like jumping off the top of the temple) something that will do a great deal of harm (or even kill you) if God doesn't intervene. If God saves you then, yes, you've proved that the Christianity stuff is real, and if he doesn't, well, so what? You're life's not worth much anyway - look at the mess your in!".

I know some Christians who've reached the point where they've said "If God loves me then he will heal me, or get me a job, or fix my marriage" or whatever. They've made it a test of God: "If God does what I ask, then He's real and He loves me. If He doesn't do what I ask, then either He's imaginary, or He's real but He doesn't love me". But what happens if God doesn't do what we ask? We make a shipwreck of our faith, and of our lives.

Matthew 4:7
Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

We should never test God! Who do we think we are? It's not right for a created being to run experiments on his Creator! We're not called to test God, we're called to trust God. Sometimes, that's extremely difficult. But that's what we're called to do.

Job reached the place where he said:

Job 13:15a
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him

Child of God, your Heavenly Father has given you genuine faith in Him. That faith is sometimes tried severely but never beyond what you can handle, though it can feel like it when the going gets rough. He will hold on to you, and you can hold on to Him. He is trustworthy, and He will bring you through your time of testing.