Thursday, November 28th, 2024; Happy Thanksgiving!
There are a couple of scriptures in Matthew that keep coming back to me lately, so we are going to head back there for today. We know in scripture that Jesus only says and does what He hears the Father saying and doing (John 5:19; 12:49). Sometimes I think we forget this, or we make assumptions about what Jesus could/should do based on our limited thinking. One of those instances happens for me in Matthew 4:5,8:
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
The story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting is probably not a new story for us, but the thing that my mind keeps going back to is where it says “the devil took Him up”. Again, Jesus only did what He heard the Father tell Him to do. So that means that God wanted Him to follow Satan and face temptation. When we hear this story again and again it’s easy to think that Satan just showed up and tempted Jesus where He was. But this is not what happened. Jesus followed Satan where he wanted to take him because Jesus knew it was what God wanted Him to do.
Now, I want to proceed with some caution. I am not saying that every temptation that comes before us is directly sent by God. Some temptation is simply the result of living in a fallen world. Thankfully, God’s Word does say that He gives us a way to escape every temptation. I also want to stress the fact that Jesus only followed Satan because God asked Him to. I am by no means saying that every time Satan asks us to follow him it is approved by God.
Final Thoughts…
So, what does this mean for us? For me, it’s a reminder that the challenges I find myself in have a divine purpose. God wanted Jesus to be tempted by Satan so that we would know how to respond when we are tempted. That test and trial that we currently find ourselves in will someday become a testimony we can share to help somebody else overcome the same thing we overcame. Life in a broken world guarantees that we will face challenges, but the God that we serve is too good to not use them for our good and His glory, if we allow and trust Him to. Are we really willing to follow God wherever He asks us to go?