GodSprings - 23, March, 2018

What Am I Clinging On To Resist Temptation?

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Matthew 4:1,11

 
The traditional method used to catch monkeys is quite amusing. A bottle is taken and something sweet is placed inside the bottle. The bottle is then tied to the ground. Then when a monkey comes along and sees the sweet he places his hand inside the bottle. But with the sweet enclosed in his palm his fist is too big to get back out of the bottle. The monkey will pull and push in an effort to get that sweet out, but he will not let it go, not even as those coming to catch him approach. And the monkey is caught with his hand in the bottle.

In the same way to be tempted or not depends on us. What we are clinging on to decides whether we will fall prey to temptation or have victory over it.

Before Jesus was tempted we see that Jesus spends forty days in fasting. Numbers have always had a symbolic meaning in the Bible. Israelites spend forty years in the wilderness. Symbolically it could mean that Jesus spent one day for each of the forty years his nation Israel had spent in the wilderness.

There is no doubt that wilderness is something none of us want to go through or be in. The conditions are stark, desolate and barren. Does wilderness have anything positive? The positive thing about wilderness is that it is never a boring place because there is always action in the wilderness.

Wilderness is always a battle scene. Here also we see it is a battle scene. There is a struggle and Jesus shows how we can overcome this. The whole of our life time is a wilderness journey as each day we too have to fight the battle with the Spirit and the Devil.

When we look at all the temptations Jesus faced and came out victorious, we see that it is the victory over “if and then conditions” that we usually fall prey too. Devil easily pulls us into wanting outcomes for our faith. All the three temptations – If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread (Mat. 4:3); If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down (Mat. 4:6) and All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

I am sure most of us have said, “God if you get me out of this then I will believe you and trust you.” Jesus presents a life of faith that does not make faith conditional on happy outcomes.

It is easy to have faith in/to God when things are going our way and well. But when there is unrest and things are not in order at our end, will we keep walking? Will we still be faithful to God then? 

For Jesus the “word” was a lamp unto his feet (Psalm 119: 105). The right understanding and knowledge of the Scripture allowed Jesus to be on the right track when tempted.

We all fall prey to temptation each and every moment. Jesus victory over the temptation provides hope for us that if we too take hold of the Word of God and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit we too will be able to overcome any temptation and any wilderness that we are driven into. Clinging on to the Word is the answer to all our problems.