[Pearls Ep 160: Preparing for Sunday.]
With the Gospel reading for this 1st Sunday of Lent (Mt 4:1-11), we’re looking at how our three classic enemies – our fallen nature, the world and satan and his minions – are reflected in the three temptations of Christ in the desert (click here for the Pearls video). It is the machinations of that third enemy (satan and demons) that is front and center in Jesus’ second temptation, as Matthew tells it:
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Satan is tempting Jesus to compel the spiritual forces – the actions of God and angels – to obey His commands.
We fall into this temptation when we expect God to work things according to our plans:
- God, I want this job.
- God, I want this person to agree with me.
- God, I want to break this bad habit without all the pesky sacrifice and hard work.
- God, I want to be healed from this affliction.
- God, please take this burden from my loved one.
- We can insert many our own personal examples…
The problem isn’t praying for what’s on our heart – especially for our loved ones. The problem arises if we don’t trust God’s way of answering our prayers – especially if it seems His approach is far different from how we’d handle things if we were in charge.
That’s when the pointy-tongued tempter comes in and tries to seduce us into taking matters into our own hands.
That’s exactly what the little twerp was trying to pull with his ludicrous challenge to Jesus to throw Himself from the parapet. Satan is actually quoting Psalm 91. But not all of it. Check out the little detail he omits:
“No evil shall befall you, nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you, that they guard you in all your ways.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.”
God delivers will deliver us and bear us up because we cling to Him (we trust Him). Satan, crafty PR man that he is, leaves out that part of Psalm 91.
Satan always leaves out that last part – that if we give into his temptations (for example, by getting impatient and taking matters into our own hands) – that it will only end in misery.
Jesus, of course, provides the perfect response to the pointy-tailed mashugana’s proposal:
“It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. Not coincidentally, earlier in that chapter we are told, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength.”
As always, one of the best ways we show God we love Him, is to trust Him.
As we kick off with Lent – are there areas of life where God is not responding as you have hoped, or seems to not be responding at all? Jesus’ example in the desert is a reminder to turn to Him anew and pray to the Holy Spirit for perseverance, and ask for Him to encourage us that, while we honestly pray for what we desire, we are even more able to trust that whatever God is doing in our life is exactly the best thing at that moment.
Waiting on the Lord is extremely difficult – that is why satan tempts us to try to force God’s hand.
And that is why scripture has nearly endless examples of the virtue holy patience. We can pray with King David, “I believe I shall see the LORD’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD!” (Ps 27: 13,14)
And especially we can hear Jesus’ words to Peter, said specifically to us in our circumstances and time of waiting, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” (John 13:7)
Lenten blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 4:1-11)
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards He was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.