Day 79

Numbers 30:1–31:54; Luke 4:1-30; Psalm 63:1-11; Proverbs 11:20-21

IN LUKE’S GOSPEL today, we read of Jesus’ return from His baptism at the Jordan River near Jericho back into Galilee to begin His ministry. Jesus’ journey took Him through vast, empty swatches of the Judean wilderness before the land transitioned into the fertile lushness of Galilee. This is a notable parallel with the children of Israel in the Old Testament. The wilderness is formative in the Scriptures because it is formative in our own lives.

Full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, and while there, He encountered temptation. As Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, notice the soft spots he was going after: temptations of the physical body, temptations to worship lesser things, temptations to test God —all with the promise that everything would get immediately better if Jesus would simply give in to the temptation.

Isn’t it interesting that our wilderness experiences are so very similar? In these times, we see our utter dependence on God, but we also thrash about, trying to find a way out of the difficulties. This is when we experience the same kinds of temptations Jesus did. Certainly, we can look to Jesus’ responses to provide us with strength in the face of Satan’s assaults in our own lives, but let’s notice that the assault on Jesus didn’t end in the wilderness. When He returned to Nazareth, victorious over Satan, He went to the synagogue and announced Himself and His fundamental mission:

The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.

Ultimately, the response to this proclamation was rejection, because Jesus claimed to be fulfilling the prophecy. The angry mob surged in on Jesus, intent on launching Him from a cliff but —this is the good part —“he passed right through the crowd and went on his way” (Luke 4:30).

Like Jesus, we have the authority to resist the evil one. But often, our victory only leads us to rejection, isolation, and even outrage against us. We must not only imitate Jesus’ victory over temptation in the wilderness. We must also be willing to pass right through the voices that would discourage, reject, and intimidate us, and go on our way, knowing that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us and has anointed us to do the same work Jesus did in this world.

WORSHIP:

Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.