This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased

Day 3 of 49

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

God spoke those words to Jesus and immediately the Spirit led or drove him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. I don’t know about you, but this was unexpected. Jesus received high praise, God was pleased with what he had done so far…but then, he had to go and face his adversary for 40 days…without eating. 

The Spirit took him into the wilderness. I don’t consider my wilderness experiences to be Spirit led. Those are times of isolation, confusion, and feeling far from the face of God. Usually caused by my own sin…like the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years.

But it could be, the battle in the wilderness takes place after we have been successfully obedient, seeing God display his power in our lives or the lives of those around us. I’ve seen it happen in my life and in others. Satan wants to steal the joy and memory of God’s work in our lives, and discourage us from moving forward. 

He definitely wanted to remove the momentum that Jesus just received. God called him Son and said that Jesus pleased him. He did not want Jesus to continue his work on earth.

While we don’t know everything that happened in the wilderness, we receive insight into three battles that Jesus faced. Two of them began with a statement of doubt, “If you are the Son of God”…reminds me of Eve in Genesis, “Did God actually say…?”. 

If Satan can get us to doubt the goodness of God, the truth of the Gospel, the work of God in our lives, or God’s desire to be in relationship with us, then he may succeed in neutralizing us for a time…but God is greater than Satan and won’t allow us to stay down.

First Battle: ( Matt 4:1-4; Luke 4:1-4) Jesus was hungry, he had not eaten for 40 days or nights. His human body needed food.

“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 

Jesus did not deny that he was hungry, and he could have easily made the stones into bread. But the issue was not the hunger, it was the conditional ”If” .

Do you believe that you, a human being, are the Son of God? 

Did God really call you his Son?

Why would God choose you?

Who do you think you are?

Jesus answered: “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Mt 4:4. 

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 

3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deut 8:1–3.

Jesus knew that obedience to God took precedence over all other things in his life, even his food intake. He knew that God called him Son. He knew that he would have enough to eat because God would fulfill his promises to Israel. Later, at the well in Samaria, Jesus tells the disciples that he has food to eat that they don’t know about (Jn 4:32). He understood that God provided all that he needed.

Second Battle: Mt 4:5-7; Lk 4:9-12. (Side note, in Luke this is the third battle) 

Satan took him to a pinnacle on the temple in Jerusalem, “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 answered, “Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” 

For he will command his angels concerning you 

to guard you in all your ways. 

12 On their hands they will bear you up, 

lest you strike your foot against a stone. 

Ps 91:11–12.

Jesus didn’t deny that what Satan said. Jesus answered to the test, to put himself in danger to prove that God was his Father and cared for his well being. 

The Israelites in the wilderness did this a number of times, whenever things got rough, they’d bring up how God was letting them down, questioning if God really cared, could he really provide everything they needed in the wilderness. 

No matter how many times God proved himself, it was never enough. Like Israel, too often I have asked: Does God really care for me? Sure he’s come through in the past, but will he this time? I’m hurting. Where is God? 

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 

2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 

3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 

4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 

5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 

6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

Ex 17:1–7.

Third Battle: Mt 4:8-10; Lk 4:5-8. 

This test has nothing to do with Jesus’ identity, but everything to do with the ultimate plan of God through Jesus Christ.

Satan promised Jesus authority over all the kingdoms of the world, because Satan held them in his hand and had the authority to do so. 

Jesus had a choice, God’s way or the easy way out…no death on the cross, no years of dwelling with the limitations of man, glory and honor just by bowing down to Satan. 

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

And God spoke all these words, saying, 

2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 

5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 

6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 

Ex 20:1–6.

Everyday we have that choice, God’s way or the easy way. God’s way may be more difficult, but the easy way is laden with unrecognized traps.

• God’s way of integrity, or the easy way of compromise.
• God’s way of loving others, or the easy way of demanding honor for ourselves.
• God’s way of generosity, or the easy way of holding onto what we have.
• God’s way of mercy, or the easy way of judging others in their sins.
• God’s way of forgiveness, or the easy way of holding others accountable to us.
• God’s way of worship, or the easy way of just going through the motions.

And after all that, Satan left until a more opportune time. (Lk 4:13).

Thank you Lord for loving us enough to put yourself into a human body so that you could experience our struggles on earth. Thank you for choosing to honor God with your life on earth, demonstrating to us how much you love us. Help us to choose to wait on your provisions in our lives, to choose to walk in faith and not doubt your love, to worship you and only you.