Recently I have been discussing my favorite Bible verse.  This verse  is the one where God states that Jesus is His beloved Son, in whom He is pleased.

Right after Jesus was baptized he encountered the temptation of the devil.

As I continued on in my reading I was disturbed by something. In Matthew, the New King James version says He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. In Mark the Bible states that the Spirit of God drove him into the wilderness.

Why would God do such a thing?

How else could Jesus understand how it was to be fully human if he was not tempted as we are in our weaknesses?

He had no food for forty days. God could have slipped him some food but He didn’t. He gave Manna to the Israelites but He didn’t give a crumb to His own son. Really?

Satan tempted Him with food and Jesus refused, stating that God’s word was sustenance enough for Him.

Satan then tempted Him to do something foolish, jump off a pinnacle.

I wonder if after forty days of not eating and standing on a pinnacle if the knees of Jesus trembled and if He felt faint?  It would have been understandable if he would have stumbled and fallen off of the pinnacle or even jumped. He surely didn’t have much strength to stand upright.

Furthermore if Jesus  took a jump or fell  then He would have been caught by God and God would have been given the glory right?

Not so much, because in that act He would have been obeying Satan and not God.  Jesus was wise enough  to know that God’s power is not to be misused.

Satan was not to be undone. He then led Jesus up on a mountain and showed Him the glory of the world.

The world is in Satan’s grasp and He could have handed it on a silver platter to Jesus.All Jesus would have had to do is to serve Satan.

I wonder how much oxygen Jesus’ brain was getting. Forty days without food would leave a body in severe malaise and very anemic. What good was God if Jesus died of hunger?

Don’t we many times look at those who have partnered with the devil and who have become wealthy  and wonder just where God’s measure of justice is? If living for God is not a productive venture then why engage in it? Why not instead serve the devil who rewards in this life?

At this point Jesus had had enough. He banished the devil from His presence saying that the only one He would worship was the Lord.

Friends, Jesus knows how we feel when we are tempted. It is important for us to draw near to God to receive wisdom and power to withstand the temptations of the Devil. It is never more so important as today when Satan’s rule is so broad and ingrained in every facet of society.

In James 5:7-8, the Word of our Lord says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

If Jesus could resist the devil and we have His spirit in our hearts through our belief then it is not impossible for us to do the same.