The Spirit of the Lord and Temptation

Temptation and the Spirit

Here we are and I'm a month behind again. That makes this weeks lesson even more apt.

The week of Feb 4-10th  in Come Follow Me is titled "The Spirit of the Lord is With Me"

Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both contain the account of Jesus being tempted in the desert. Luke 5 contains remarkable accounts of faith, healing, doubt and the Pharisees accusing Jesus of breaking Gods law. I highly encourage not setting aside Luke 5 because there are amazing lessons that we can learn. I however am led to the temptation of Jesus in the desert.

We know from the accounts that Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray - he stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights. I am unable to mentally comprehend the reality of 40 days and nights of fasting.

Luke 4:2  Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

 We, I believe can safely assume that He did drink water during that time, which to this day is a common rule for fasting.  I think also that "he hungered" might be the ultimate understatement. In addition let me point out that many of the stories about this time in Jesus life portray the devil showing up at the end of the fasting. Instead its "Being forty days tempted of the devil" he was being tempted the whole time, we are only told of 3 specific temptations.

1) Luke 4:3-4
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

This is the temptation of the body. We see this prevalent through our culture. It is becoming nearly a worship of food. And do not get me wrong, great food is just that - great. When you have a plate of amazing food that has a fantastic presentation should be appreciated. What it should not be is glorified and essentially worshiped.  The old phrase eat to live, not live to eat comes to mind. Be healthy and nourish your body,  plan meals and enjoy the act of creation that cooking brings. Learn new cooking skills,  but don't place food above all else. 

The way that Jesus answered the temptation with the scripture is remarkable. He acknowledges food is necessary, but so are the scriptures. Both the mind, spirit and body must be nourished.

2) Luke 4:5-8
 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

This is the temptation of power.  In the world we are encourage and even pushed to "try and get to the top". And again moving your career along is not in and of itself evil.  Coveting and worshiping the power and position is the issue. When you worship the power the act and idea of getting to the top over takes every aspect of your life, pushing aside family, charity, and of course God.  Another point is that Satan was offering Jesus that which he already owned. Jesus created the world under the direction of his Father. (Ephesians 3:9)

And again Jesus answered Satan with the scriptures -worship the Lord only and him only shalt thou serve.  If your talents lead you to being in a position of power- fantastic but don't worship the power use it to serve God in all things. Be the light that all around you can see.

3) Luke 4:11-12
 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:  And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

This is the temptation of pride. Pride in who Jesus is - he is the Son of God, His only begotten. Satan is essentially saying "prove it". It is important to note here that Satan knows the word of God just as well or better than anyone on earth. He twists the words here to tempt Jesus.  

Jesus returns the answer with another scripture -don't tempt the Lord.

The sin of pride - beware of being overly proud, beware of false humility. Be proud of the work and effort as you put forth your best effort. However never forget that even your best effort is due to our Heavenly Father. He gave you the talent, He put the people in your life to help you succeed.  All things work to the Glory of God is the shortened form of Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose

The conclusion...

Luke 4:13 

And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.  And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

Jesus passed through temptation and the Spirit was with him as he taught.  There are lesson we need to understand. First and foremost in my mind Jesus answered with scripture and did not debate the devil. To answer temptation with scripture we must of course read and study the scripture. In addition songs based on scripture are fantastic ways to remember scriptures.

Secondly, the temptations are common and widespread.  The Catholic church lists "the Seven Deadly Sins" as lust, gluttony,  greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Satan tempted Jesus with three of these.

We as children of God will not be perfect, we will succumb to temptation we will falter. What we can do to arm ourselves against temptation is to recognize it, to pray, and to learn our scriptures. Don't debate about it with the tempter, recognize, resist and give it to God.

Walking the Fine Line ... and Falling off: Balak and Balaam

Walking away from Temptation

When we meet Balaam in the book of 22^nd Chapter of Numbers he is a man who knows the Lord and appears to be trying to follow Him. Balak, the King of the Mooabites, has seen the Children of Israel enter his lands and was afraid. There were a lot of them and he wanted Balaam to smite and curse them with the power of the Lord. When Balaam came before the Lord he had his answer, the Children are blessed and the Lord will not curse them. He gave this answer to Balak’s people who told him and sent higher ranking princes to ask the same. However, what Balaam didn’t do at that point was leave or refuse to take this any further.  The book of Numbers doesn’t say so in exact words but it appears that Balaam may have been enticed by the lifestyle or by what Balak could do for him.  At this point he was not a complete loss because he was still trying to walk the line between the Lord and Balak, telling them he could only do what the Lord said, the Lord said if they asked he could go with them, he went with them without them asking. The Lord sent an Angel to block him.

Many of us walk this same line today. We want both the Lord and the world. We want to serve him and have the good things that the world can offer. We must remember two things, we cannot serve two masters and the admonition to care not for what we will eat or wear. That last part is so hard for me. I like to plan everything out.

A few chapters later we find that Balaam is still with Balak who was able to provide alters and rams (the best sacrifices that a rich man could offer) in three different locations, yet none of this swayed the word of the Lord, Balaam knew this and still stayed with Balak. Balaam had been taken out of his world and was being shown the world of the King and it tempted him yet he did not want to disobey the Lord. He was still trying to walk the line between the two.

The last we hear of Balaam in the book of Number is Chapter 31 and it is that he was slain, he was guilty of causing the children of Israel to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor and Eleazar the priest was living with the Children of Israel. Balaam is remembered in by Peter in 2 Peter and John in Revelations as a man who led the Children of Israel astray by teaching them to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.

It is obvious from this that Balaam lost his balancing act and fell away from the Lord and led others astray when he did so. Temptation gained the upper hand with him and led him to disaster.