From Wilderness to Resurrection - Lent With Hope 103.2نموونە

Led by the Spirit

Jesus had just been baptised by John in the Jordan River. God spoke (Luke 3:22 NIV): ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led into the desert for the next part of His ministry. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness (desert) is a mirror of Israel spending forty years in the wilderness as recorded in Exodus. You’ll recall that the Israelites, freed from slavery in Egypt, complained bitterly about what they had to go through. When they had the opportunity to go into the promised land, they did not trust God, but were afraid, and so He had them wander in the desert for 40 years.

Read Deuteronomy 8:1–5 where Moses reflects on Israel’s time in the desert. Note verse 2: ‘Remember how… God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands’ (NIV).

Jesus was led into the desert, where He was hungry and tempted by the devil for forty days. The hunger is not surprising. The tempting of Jesus is the heart of this. Will the Son of God succumb to the wiles of the devil because He is weak, at His most vulnerable, and His resistance is lowest? Will He keep God’s commands? This week’s series looks into these questions and how Jesus was obedient to God through it all. We can take full confidence from Jesus.

Written by DAVID BARKER