Dancer 41 Offline

55 Divorced Male from Sumter       40
         

Temptation of Jesus: What It Tells Us About the Enemy

Today, I will talk about the temptations of Jesus. I like to start off by explaining why a lesson is important. To begin with, this is only time we really get to see the devil in action.

Of course, Satan made a few other appearances, but not like when he went up against Jesus.

Adam and Eve were so naive, it was no challenge. The devil had the full approval of God before he did anything to Job. In the Book of Tobit, no details were given on the demon, nor how the angel overtook him.

But 3 gospel writers talk about Jesus in direct conflict with the devil (Mt 4: 1-11, Mk 1: 12 and Lk 4: 1-13). Mark only mentions it happened, but the others go into detail.

The details are remarkably the same, with the biggest difference being Luke switching the sequence of the temptations. This is believed to be so as to match the rest of his gospel better.

Most people focus on how Jesus responded, which is certainly a good thing. But I want to focus on how the devil acted.

In Afghanistan, several soldiers in my battalion were killed from their arrogance. By that I mean, they failed to respect the power and danger the enemy presented.

Our body armor, armored vehicles and superior weapons did not make us completely bulletproof. The enemy was patient and found our weaknesses. I believe Satan is the same way.

The difference is, when we become a casualty in an earthly war, we only die. If we become casualties in a spiritual war, then the consequences for our soul is infinitely worse.

Moving on to the study.

First of all, I want to point out the fact that this event did take place. That in itself is to be noted. The devil was not afraid to confront Jesus in the Flesh.

Makes me wonder just how concerned the devil is with confronting Jesus the Name?

I suspect the devil looks at it as a challenge, and perhaps that his victory will be so much the sweater if he can overcome it.

If this is true, then we must never assume anything is completely safe. We must constantly look at the condition of our defenses and see if he has made any inroads to it.

My other points will not be so speculative.

Next, notice how the temptations didn't take place until after 40 days of fasting. This is the devil's timing, Jesus was led there to meet him.

Jesus, who is human as well as God, would have been very low on energy.

The devil loves to attack when our defenses (in spiritual warfare, this is energy levels) are down. We must double our awareness in times of physical and emotional weakness.

We must also realize that we will lose ground at times, and be able to forgive ourselves if he does make a small gain. We will eventually come to a position of strength and have an opportunity to make good the loss.

The first temptation of the devil was a reasonable one, he tempted a hungry Jesus with food, although there was a price. Jesus would have had to abuse His power to get it.

In todays information age, this is especially important because it is easy to use information that can be leveraged against us.

The devil will attack us with things that seem reasonable, but we must be on guard against trickery. We must develop a sense of morals to help us determine which offers are legitimate and which are destructive.

As mentioned above, Mathew and Luke reverse the next two temptations as far as sequence.

Using Luke, the 2nd tempation is power and glory. I don't think Satan will limit himself to just these. The devil seeks to appeal to our baser nature.

There are many base emotions he can attempt to manipulate, and I believe he knows which ones we are most vulnerable to.

We must be aware of our own weaknesses, and take measures to ensure the devil can not take advantage of them.

We only have limited resources (ie-energy) to defend with, and it is our emotions that we are most vulnerable to. We must ensure that we are not carried away by our emotions and feelings.

In the last temptation (by Luke's sequence), the devil uses scripture to disguise his intentions. This is perphaps the scariest of all the lessons.

Just because people quote the works of God does not mean they are Godly.

We have a duty to not only KNOW what the bible means, we must attempt to understand WHAT it means. Otherwise, it will be used against us for our own destruction.

Finally, we are told the devil left Jesus "for a time" in Luke's gospel. In Christian tradition, this time was until the passion of Jesus.

Even after this loss, even after all the defeats his minions suffered under Jesus for 3 years, he still came back for one last time.

We must never forget that the devil is relentless in his pursuit of our souls. We must never take for granted that our souls are safe. We must be on guard until our dying breath.

No matter how many victories we win, there will be another challenge until we reach heaven.

I now leave the floor open for discussion
Basscaptain
Basscaptain: Excellent, loved when You added the Afghanistan incident into it, brought the discussion into present time
6 years ago Report
0
Goldy girl
(Post deleted by Goldy girl 5 years ago)