Jesus tempted in the wilderness
Hi friends, today we discover insight from Luke 4: 1-13 – the temptation of Jesus. This section covers Jesus in the wilderness, his temptations and his faith in God. Jesus travels from Jordan into the surrounding wilderness.
It sounds like this passage happens directly after Jesus baptism, around the time of he was 30 years of age. It says that he was led from Jordan. There was an area that was called Jordan River Valley, north of the Dead Sea and east of Jericho and it had the Jordan river flowing through it. According to the Bible, the Israelites crossed it into the Promised Land and Jesus of Nazareth is baptized by John the Baptist in it.
He doesn’t eat for 40 days and the devil attempts to get him to sin by tempting him three times. The first is with food, the second is with worship, and the third is with power. Jesus refers the devil to the word of God each time. He uses the old testament since that’s all there was at the time. Jesus refers to Deuteronomy 8:3 (food), 6:13 (worship) and 6:16 (power). Jesus knew God’s word very well but he followed it too, and the devil gives up.
The Bible says that Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness where he didn’t eat for 40 days. After he all that, he then is tempted by Satan. It’s pretty hard to say no to food after a few hours for most of us.
Imagine being able to make whatever you want by thinking about it but not doing it, even if you are starving. Amazingly, all the Bible says is. “where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.” Luke 4:2
