Greeting Fellow Saints,
Today, let’s take a look at the temptation of Jesus and what He teaches us about how to counter the temptations we face in life:
Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
— Mark 1:12-13
Following Jesus’ baptism, we see Him being led up into the wilderness. The important thing to note here is that He went to the desert under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not simply go into the wilderness by chance; it was not by luck or any other unplanned event that led to Him ending up in the wilderness. Mark, as well as the other authors of the Gospels, explicitly mention that Jesus going into the wilderness was under the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit.
As Christians, we need to understand from this that the God we serve is Sovereign and that there is no such thing as luck or accidents. In human terms, we often attribute certain events to ‘chance’ and ‘luck.’ It is common even for us as Christians to find ourselves casually using phrases such as ‘…luckily, something happened…’, ‘I’m so lucky I caught the bus…’, or ‘fingers crossed,’ and other such phrases that are common in the world we live in.
In this passage, we see that this was not the case for Jesus. Jesus did not go into the wilderness by chance or by luck. This was a foreordained cosmic event that was meant to happen exactly as it did. Such is the sovereignty and foreknowledge of our God. An interesting quote by R.C. Sproul captures this idea beautifully:
“There are no rogue atoms in the universe.”
— R.C. Sproul
As believers, we need to always keep this in mind: we serve a powerful God who knows everything that goes on in the universe, and every molecule in the cosmos is accounted for by God. This means there are no events that happen by accident, but that everything that comes to pass has been foreordained by God Himself. It is our responsibility as believers to seek out and see God’s glory in everything that comes to pass.
Next, we see that just as the Holy Spirit takes responsibility for leading Jesus into the wilderness, He also has a purpose for leading Him to this remote place. The reason is quite surprising when you think about it, for the text tells us that the Second Person of the Godhead was led by the Third Person of the Godhead in order to be tempted.
This is a strange statement, especially considering other texts, such as the one in the book of James, where it is stated that God does not tempt us:
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
— James 1:13
In this particular case, it seems like these two texts pose a contradiction, and therefore further study of the context is required to understand what the text means when it says the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. The best way to view this is to closely follow what the text says, where we see the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness in order to be tempted by Satan. In other words, the one doing the tempting is Satan, not God the Holy Spirit. In this way, the text harmonizes with what James says in his epistle: it is true that God is not tempted to sin, and He does not tempt anyone to sin.
We see a very familiar scenario in the story of Job, where Satan is permitted to go and attack Job:
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.
— Job 1:12
What we see here is that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for Satan to tempt Him. As believers, we need to understand that there are certain times in our lives when God will allow certain temptations to come upon us for the strengthening of our faith. This is the perspective that James shares with his readers:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
— James 1:2–3
This joy that James speaks of can further be examined in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians when he assures them that God is indeed aware of the temptation and suffering they are enduring, but God is faithful to always provide a way of escape so that they can endure the temptation:
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
— 1 Corinthians 10:13
Mark references the duration of Jesus’ time in the wilderness. He says: “And He was in the wilderness forty days.” This could be a reference to the journey of the Children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, as they journeyed 40 years in the wilderness, facing all kinds of temptations. This reference is further solidified by how Paul mentions that Christ was actually in the wilderness with the Israelites during their trek across the desert:
and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
— 1 Corinthians 10:4
This subtle nod that points us back to the children of Israel should also serve as a reminder that even when we as believers are going through seasons of drought and temptation, Christ is still a Rock to us as He was a Rock to the people of Israel.
Finally, we see Mark stating that Jesus was with the wild beasts and was being ministered to by angels. With this, we see yet another juxtaposition of details that reminds us that despite the environment around us, God’s watchful eye hovers over His servant, the One in whom He says He is well pleased.
Just like the baptism of Jesus, His temptation is meant to show the humanity of our Lord. While He came forth from God and is in essence God Himself, yet, He put on flesh to atone for the sins of all those who would believe in His divine name. This brings us back to the ability that our High Priest has to sympathize with us:
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
— Hebrews 4:15
Our Lord would never fall into the temptation of sin, and yet the Spirit led Him into the wilderness so that Satan would tempt Him. This was so that all that we experience, He also gets to experience in order that He can sympathize with our situation, all the while seeing the hand of God Almighty watching over Him throughout this whole discourse.
I pray that as we read about Jesus’ time in the wilderness, we are reminded that God is faithful and will always watch over us, and that regardless of what temptation comes our way, we are to remember that God will enable us to endure it.
Be strong and courageous, dear friends.
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