Tuesday, January 31, 2023

January 31, 2023

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1-11

Devotional

The Bible has many stories of people who were faced with a choice between sin and faithfulness. Only one turns out well.

Adam and Eve were faced with a choice at the Tree of Knowledge and caved right in, choosing to do as the serpent said and not what God had asked of them. The only thing they were asked not to do, they did. A cavalcade of bad decisions rolled out of that first wrong choice. The eating of the fruit led to the murder of Abel, the exile of Cain, the pridefulness of the Tower of Babel, the widespread violence and sin before the Flood, and so on and so on.

In Jesus’ temptation, all the Scriptures used to answer the devil come from the story of the wandering in another wilderness that Moses and the children of Israel endured. Jesus was in his own wilderness, thinking about that long-ago wilderness time and all its failures. As God liberated the Hebrews from slavery and pointed them to their own Promised Land, they were living the greatest act that God had done up to that point for His people. Yet, faced with God’s great act on their behalf, both the people and Moses struggled to make right choices. It’s no accident that the texts Jesus used to answer the devil came from this very story, because, as NT Wright says in his book Matthew for Everyone, Jesus was the true and faithful Israelite. Jesus knew how to choose the right in this new wilderness.

How did he do it? Jesus showed us that when we are tempted, we should stick closely to God, to our relationship with Him, and to his Word. Wright says when we are tempted, “We are entitled to use the same defense as the Son of God himself. Store Scripture in your heart, and know how to use it. Keep your eyes on God and trust Him for everything. Remember your calling, to bring God’s light into the world. And say a firm ‘No’ to the voices that lure you back into the darkness.” We have a much better likelihood of resisting the evil one when we stick to Jesus’ plan.

For Reflection

What does it mean to you that Jesus successfully resisted the tempter?

Does it help you to know what his plan was, according to NT Wright?

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to remember that every wilderness has its end. Help me to cling to you and to the Word when I am tempted. Help me to remember my calling is to share the light of God with others. Thank you for showing me that giving into temptation is not inevitable! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Rev. Vicki Franch

Pastor for Pastoral Care

404-842-2571