HEAR the Word Wednesday – February 25, 2009
“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.’” Luke 4:1-4 (ESV)
Today is Ash Wednesday, signaling the beginning of Lent. From what I can tell there are multiple theories as to the history of Lent and where the 40 day period before Easter originated – in the hopes of a bit of enlightenment on the subject, I turned to the lovely wikipedia.com and found that some some say it comes from the 40 days Moses spent on Mt. Sinai or the time Elijah spent traveling to Mt. Horeb, etc…, but most believe it comes from Jesus’ 40 day retreat into the wilderness.
During this time, as we read in the fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus was tempted by the devil – and being perfect as He is, he resisted this temptation.
Now, I have to think about the fact that at this point, Jesus was indeed a human and although He was completely without sin, He was NOT without hunger. What is unique here is that if you ignore the temptation of the devil, it was completely within His power at any time during those 40 days to create, find, acquire – however you want to put it – food. But He didn’t. Jesus knew that the food offered by the devil would not satisfy.
You and I need to learn how to experience such a wilderness as this, so that when the devil tempts us with his unsatisfying food, and he will tempt us, we will be equipped and prepared to resist and wait for God’s nourishment – because it will come!
So in this season of Lent, where many choose to voluntarily experience some form of wilderness, (whether that be fasting from sweets, tv, laziness, meat, etc…) we all must be aware of the reason WHY we intentionally deprive ourselves – and that is because the things of this world will never satisfty the way our Good God does.
My prayer for us all is that we will seek God in every wilderness we find ourselves wandering in, be comforted by the fact that Jesus has gone the path before us, and hold-fast to the Spirits guidance as we firmly and confidently say no to the bread of this world that comes from the evil one.
Blessings,
Dirt
