Wednesday: Another Temptation
The first temptation parallels the Exodus but had its roots in the Fall. By placing a priority on faithfulness to God, instead of giving in to appetite, Jesus recovered the ground that Adam lost at the tree of knowledge. However, to completely bridge the gap from where the human race had descended since the time of Adam, Jesus had to be subjected to two more temptations.
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According to Matthew, the second temptation involved Satan taking Jesus to the highest part of the temple, presumably the southeast corner that overlooked a steep ravine. Again came the taunting statement, “‘If you are the Son of God,'” which showed that the tempter was no friend of Jesus.
What is Satan really getting at here? Would it have proved anything if Jesus did jump? (Matt. 4:5-7).
Jesus was not interested in cheap theatrics. His trust in God was genuine, not something contrived to impress others. Jesus’ complete trust in His Father was manifested in His leaving heaven and becoming a human being, suffering the indignation, the misrepresentation, the public humiliation, and the injustice of His death (see Phil. 2:5-8). This was His destiny, and He was fully prepared for it. His mission was to reclaim the world that Adam and his descendants lost. In Jesus, all the covenant promises were to be fulfilled, and the world would have an opportunity for salvation.
Again Jesus responds with “‘It is written,'” again quoting Deuteronomy, and again linking His experience to the Exodus: “‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah'” (Deut. 6:16, NKJV). Massah was the place where the Israelites bitterly complained about lack of water, and Moses struck the rock to provide it. In evaluating this experience, Moses stated that the people had “tempted the LORD, saying, ‘Is the LORD among us or not?'” (Exod. 17:7, NKJV). Jesus, of course, knew better and didn’t fall for the trick, even though this time the devil threw the phrase “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 6) back at Him.
It’s not always easy to see the boundary between trusting in God for the miraculous and being presumptuous in regard to what we expect from the Lord when we pray. How have you learned to know one from the other? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath.
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My faith isn't something to be displayed about,but I have to live it in my life rooted on my love for Jesus.Being obedient to the Lord will give me the strength to be humble and a heart that will always want to do and be good all the time.I'll will always want to glorify God in my life,
by being obedient and humble,like Jesus did when He came to redeem you and I.
Satan quotes the scriptures, then twists the contents to suit his cunning ideas. Jesus knew who He was and did not need to prove it, since that was not His mission. The devil is still using the same tactics to mislead Christians who just browse over the verses of the Bible.
We need to know who and whose we are so as to give the devil no room to create doubt in our minds.During these times of the last days,some people have allowed the devil to deviate them from the truth. We now have preachers who preach the gospel of fame and prosperity. They say that a true Christian should not lack anything that is good. There are a number of fellow believers I know, who have left their true faith and followed this modern gospel.
May God create in us the love for searching the scriptures and give us understanding of the true meaning of each verse that we read.
Please be encouraged to show your Faith...in doing so that Faith will be strengthened. Jesus had a strong Faith based on a Thus Saith The Lord! His firm understanding of God's word...learned from a young age...gave Him the knowledge to see through the devil's deceptions. The devil did quote parts of scripture when he decided to temp Jesus..Praise the Lord He had hid the word in His heart. "Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee." Psalms 119:11 He overcame for us...so we might have a right to the tree of life.
There is nothing we can do to pretend to be a true Christian, the fruits of being a true Christian will show when we truly have a relationship with Christ. Self will die and Christ will live in us when we fully surrender all. We will not care to pretend a character that we do not posses, our only desire will be to please him and him only and as a result we will love and care for our neighbors as ourselves.
We as Christians are going to have the same temptation that are " Common to man". They just happen. If it happens in the world, we are part of what is going on in the world, and these things affect us unavoidably. But Glory to GOD that in his WORD he says,1COR 10:13- There hath No Temptation, taken you but such as is " common to man". But GOD is Faithful, who will not suffer you to be Tempted above that ye are able;But will with the Temptation also make a way to Escape, that ye maybe able to Bear it. So, GOD is saying that he will provide " THE WAY OF ESCAPE," Implying that there is one right way out of each trial. There maybe other optional ways, But Paul is stressing that there is "a way" AND "the way." We want " the way", the one GOD PROVIDES FOR US. AMEN!
I do believe that Christ was also warning Satan that if he didn't quit, His Father would force him to quit or distroy him sooner than later. Look at the text before. Don't cause the anger of the Lord your God to be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 6:15 NKJV
Beloveds in our own strength it is impossible for us to deny the clamors of our fallen nature.
Our strength is the word of God. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted.
Genuine faith has it's foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures
Let us find refuge in Christ because He overcame the devil temptations. Satan trembles and flees before the weakest soul who finds refuge on that mighty name. HALLELUYAH!!!!
GOD is doing all He can save us. Never can the cost of our redemption be realized until the redeem shall stand with the Redeemer before the throne of God.
May God bless us all. AMEN
Our prayer should be; Lord I can't picture You without Me. Now some may think that a request like that is twisted. Read it over again. It is a miracle to put me, or you for that matter in a picture with Christ. Let the Lord put you in the picture. Zechariah 3:5. Did you picture the last phrase of the verse? "And the Angel of the Lord stood by." Praise the Lord He will put us in with Him. Just Ask, Believe, and Claim the promise. Remember last Thursday's lession, Nehemiah claimed God's promises, and the Lord came through for him.
Although Jesus came and shows us how this enemy works. It is still hard for us to see, or understand how deceptive Satan is.
Jesus demonstrated in the three great temptations and throughout His life on earth, that there is a lot of POWER in "It is written" when we totally and unreservedly surrender to God, trust Him and rely on Him for our deliverance! I want to say - thank you Jesus, for winning so that I can win too. We all are guaranteed this same overcoming power if we "trust and obey." Let's determine in our hearts to use Jesus' words "it is written" whenever we're tempted by the enemy.
I think we are being presumptuous when we manipulate our circumstances. Those who preach prosperity are manipulators of God and His word. God promised to take care of us in every way and He does without any help from us.
Satan is tempting Jesus to depart from genuine faith through human reasoning and presumption. Isn't this always his usually successful tactic? The only thing it could have proved was Satan's claim that God's law was impossible to fulfill. But didn't the unfallen angels and obedient worlds already disprove this false accusation?
In all these temptations, Satan is exposed as a liar and deceiver, working to cause others to fail in order to alienate them from their Creator.
If it is not easy to see the boundary between trusting God and being presumptuous it is because we have departed from His revealed will. Only pride, disobedience and covetousness will blind our discernment. Doesn't the testimony of Jesus' incarnate life reveal this? He saw the boundaries clearly, and lived as our example of what is possible through faith.
Is it possible that we tend to overstate how easy it was for Jesus to overcome the temptations in the wilderness?
I believe that each of the temptations were very real temptations for the Son of Man, and that the Devil crafted them in such a way as to target Jesus in His "weakest" areas. Oh yes, it is true -- by faith He was able to push each temptation aside. He didn't dally with any of them. But still, I would suggest that elements existed in each temptation that made them very powerful.
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"When Jesus entered into the wilderness, He was shut in by the Father’s glory. Absorbed in communion with God, He was lifted above human weakness. BUT THE GLORY DEPARTED, and He was left to battle with temptation. It was pressing upon Him every moment. His human nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him. For forty days He fasted and prayed. Weak and EMACIATED from hunger, worn and haggard WITH MENTAL AGONY, “His visage [i.e. His look] was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Now was Satan’s opportunity." (Desire of Ages p.117-118.)
Jesus really was hit hardest when He was at His lowest!
I think it likely that we have little real appreciation of what those battles with temptation were like. Yet He met the Devil head on, and overcame!
Very well, no temptation is easy. Everyone of them is designed to destroy anyone it is for. But to get the son of God to sin, you and I will never understand how much pressure was involved
It’s not always easy to see the boundary between trusting in God for the miraculous and being presumptuous in regard to what we expect from the Lord when we pray. How have you learned to know one from the other?
How often have you trusted and prayed for a certain job and you failed to get it. As farmers we trust God that my crop or animals will be spared of plagues and drought but the crops will also wilt and animals die. We prayed for sick friends and relatives with cancer for miracles but they still die.
Our prayers should not be mainly of things of the life of this earthly world but we should pray for our names to written in his heavenly books. We should seek him first and definitely everything else will be provided in our heavenly homes