Knowing and Trusting

Matthew 4:1-11

This passage of scripture deals with trust and identity.  Jesus, in this passage, was lead into the wilderness, by the Holy Spirit, after being baptized by John in the river.  On a side note, from a human perspective, after a voice speaks from Heaven and a dove landing on your shoulder would seem to be the perfect time to launch out into ministry.  Jesus chose to follow the leading of the Spirit and head into the wilderness.

Once he arrived He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.  This would have been difficult for His human body.  Most of us struggle with fasting for a day or two, much less going for 40 days and nights without eating.  I can imagine His physical body would have been screaming for food.  After not eating for that long of a time His physical body would also be tired.

He was tired and hungry, two conditions that are not always conducive with rational thought or right decisions.  How many times have we used the excuse of just being too tired, when we do something we know we should not have done?  This is the backdrop for Jesus' temptation in the desert, by the devil.

I want to look at each temptation separately, with two possibly three different posts, so that we can learn to reject temptation when it comes.  The first temptation in vs. 3 was trying to make Jesus question His identity.  Satan starts out with the big IF, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread."  Notice he is challenging Jesus' identity, after all if Jesus were really God's son then commanding stones to become bread so that He could eat should be really easy. 

At the same time it also tempts Jesus to eat now instead of being obedient to God.  If Jesus was lead by the Spirit, then fasting must have been what He knew He was supposed to be doing.  Satan was also telling Jesus to take matters into His own hands, instead of trusting in His Father, and then eat.

First of all, Jesus knew exactly who He was.  He knew He had the ability to do what satan was asking, Jesus does not even address that question in His answer.  Just like Jesus, we need to know who we are in Christ.  The Bible tells us we are God's children, the bride of Christ, His friend, His beloved, His chosen, and too many other things to list here.  God loves us, His thoughts toward us are more than the sand in all the seas.  Our identity as believers is wrapped up in Christ and what He did for us.

Do not let anyone tell you differently!  The second issue was a matter of trusting God enough to obey,   knowing that His Father had His best interests at heart.  Jesus said, "It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  Obedience to God was more important than food.  He already knew that God knew he would need food to survive.

In fact later on in scripture Jesus told His disciples not to worry about what they would eat, drink, or wear, because God already understood that they needed those things to survive.  He also pointed out several examples in nature that God provided for and that we were more important than any of those things.

Through this first temptation we learn that we must know who we are, in Christ.  We also have to bury the knowledge of who God is deep down inside of us.  God really is a good God.  He really does have what is best for us.  Many times we may not understand why things happen, but we can trust in who God is.

For now that is enough to really chew on.  Thank you for reading, and may your knowledge of God grow deeper.

May,


"The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace."