Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Parallel
Text: Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12,13, and Luke 4:1
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
The wilderness is the place where Jesus’ cousin spent his time. John the Baptist lived and preached in the wilderness. Often the wilderness is a place we don’t want to go. In the wilderness we encounter loneliness, isolation, wild animals, danger, and our survival skills are tested. We hope to be well prepared in advance before we trek into the wilderness. We pray for the Spirit to lead us places but are we ready for where He wants to lead us? Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The wilderness is the end of the earth. You know when you have reached the end of the earth because there is nothing there. It doesn’t look like home. The wilderness was neither home nor a comfortable place to rest. When we find ourselves in the wilderness we find ourselves in the midst of a fight we can barely see. We meet the boss. We get tempted by the devil and we get dirty when we trek through the wilderness.
To be tempted by the devil.
The devil is the prince of this world. He is the boss in the wilderness and his territory extends beyond the wilderness. He owns a lot of land. Why would the Spirit lead Jesus to the devil? Wouldn’t he lead Jesus out and away from sin and out of the possible clutches of death that lurked nearby? Isn’t the face off not suppose to be until later on at the scene of the cross? Wouldn’t the Spirit be leading Jesus away from Satan rather than right to the enemy? No. He leads the Son of God right into the path of His biggest opponent to face our biggest and largest horror called διαβόλου which in Greek means slander, accuser, and is named the Devil. When we follow the Spirit into the wilderness, most of us think about something more along the lines of Psalm 23:3. We are expecting and awaiting the description: “He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name sake.” Instead, Jesus’s refreshing of his soul was a 40 day and 40 night fasting in which that right path that He never wandered off of took him through the valley of the shadow of death where Satan himself tested, tempted, and opposed Jesus. Jesus was not deterred from a complex that I often struggle with: Am I in the wrong place or around the wrong people? I envisioned following the Spirit and in my world, I think, "Where we ‘are’ going was described as ‘Point B’ when we were leaving ‘Point A’. However this doesn’t look like Point B so perhaps the wilderness is the backup plan called ‘Point C’. Maybe we’ll return to ‘Point B’ later on if we survive ‘Point C’." Yet, Jesus steadfastly knew who led Him into the wilderness and even with knowing He was going to be facing His biggest opponent and our biggest fear, He did not try to escape the situation. He knew not to fear His enemy because God is greater. When God sent His Son to the earth with a mission concerning His plan, He sent Jesus fully capable and equipped to face anyone or anything that was set up to deter Him from completing God’s plan and from starting and finishing the work that God gave Him to accomplish. What was Jesus’ work? John the Baptist describes his work in Matthew 3:11-12: I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus [after he was baptized by John] was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Τότε ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνήχθη εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος, πειρασθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου (Matt. 4:1 BYZ)
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