Judea: Jesus Entered My Wilderness
Luke 4:1-13
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Though we did not really see the Judean Desert on my recent trip to Israel, we did on our last tour there twenty years prior. The primary reason was there is a new highway skirting the edge of it and more comfortably connects the South to the North. However, when Jackie and I were last there, our tour bus took the old tortuous road that winded its way through and barely stayed on the edges of the Judean hills.
At points it was downright terrifying as we made hairpin turns over sheer cliffs hundreds of feet high. We never saw another vehicle, just Bedouin goat herders on foot and an occasional camel. And as far as one could see there was no other sign of life, water, or vegetation. Besides the Bedouins, the only other evidence there had been life there at one point were the abandoned monasteries carved into the hills. By the Byzantine Period (6th century A.D.), there were 65 monasteries, many of which were established by Sabas, for whom the one pictured below is named.
But God did much for us in this desert. It was there God protected David from Saul’s cruel pursuit. Through David, God produced many Psalms that comfort us by their assurance that he protects us because we are in Christ, David’s Greater Son (Ps. 63). In this desert, John the Baptist preached repentance and prepared the “way of the Lord” (Lk. 7:18-35). He was the last Old Testament prophet, the last link in the chain proving the entire Old Testament pointed to Christ.
But the greatest work God did for us in the desert was to lead our Savior there by the Spirit so he might obey in our place. Jesus submitted himself to the Spirit throughout his ministry to show us how to live. In this instance, he taught that the Spirit sometimes leads us into the place of temptation, though he never tempts us himself. A
nd Jesus exhibited how we will conquer when the devil attacks. It is by dependence on the Spirit through the application of the Scriptures. Perhaps Isaiah was looking at flowers in the desert, like these below, which spring up for a short time only to be cooked by the oppressive sun, when he said, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever” (Is. 40:8).
However, Jesus did more than give us an example. Everything he did in his life was for our sake. This service was his “active righteousness,” which is also imputed to us in salvation. That means, in addition to the righteousness he gained for us on the cross, he perfectly obeyed in our place.
So Jesus entered our wildernesses of temptation by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life in order to defeat them for us. When Christ defeated Satan in these areas, he caused us to be victorious as well. So even when we fall to these temptations, Christ’s active righteousness is imputed to the event and justifies us. God’s grace in Jesus Christ is so great that it makes streams to flow even in the desert (Ps. 107:35; Is. 35:1).
