The Battle In The Desert (Part One)

THE BATTLE IN THE DESERT (part one)

Matthew 4:1-7

There have been some famous battles fought in desert regions. One was the Western Desert campaign (Desert War) of WWII that took place in the deserts of Egypt and Libya in June, 1940. A more recent example was Operation Desert Storm that took place during the Gulf War in 1990. But there was another desert battle that took place long before these-the one between Jesus and Satan. Let's take a look at what is referred to as the temptation of Jesus.

1) Testing ground.

Vs. 1, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil."

We see this chapter starts out with the word, then. What happened before this was Jesus' baptism, after which his public ministry started. But, before he would start his ministry he was put to the test by being led into the desert to be tempted.

Why did this need to happen now? Jesus was about to embark on three years of intense ministry. Passing this major test would play a major role in preparing him for all of what he would need to endure. Jesus may not have dealt with this level of temptation again until the end of his ministry when he was in the garden of Gethsemane.

Whenever we're put to the test and come away victorious it prepares us for the challenges that lie ahead. This is important to understand because when we see that it was the Holy Spirit that led him into the desert to be tempted we might be a little confused. You would think the HS would lead us away from temptation, not toward it.

Yes, but in this case, God had a purpose in it. It was a test. And this test involved resisting temptation. We might think this wasn't fair. However, these temptations were used by God to train and prepare Jesus and reveal his pure devotion.

Jesus would no doubt have to deal with temptations like these throughout his ministry. He would be tempted to use his power for his own purposes. He would be tempted to test God. He would be tempted to compromise his mission for worldly desires. It was good for him to go through this now so he would be better prepared later when Satan would try to get in the way of what he was trying to accomplish.

When we are victorious over temptation we give ourselves a better chance of not getting sidetracked and slowed down when we are doing God's work. There are many things that can hinder us from fulfilling our calling. Keeping in step with the Spirit involves not getting tangled up in sin.

Jesus' ability to do everything he needed to in these three short years was helped by passing this major test in the beginning so he could be prepared to move at the speed of the Spirit.

"Into the desert". Why was Jesus led into the desert? First of all, when we think of desert we think of nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. That's not the situation here. The Greek word for desert can mean a remote, solitary place. Other translations say wilderness.

But even though Jesus wasn't in a place like the Sahara desert, it still wasn't a prime vacation spot. Sure, there may have been some trees and shrubs here and there, but it was still a dry, arid place.

The main point was that Jesus was alone, far from any town or village. The Greek word for desert can also mean lonely place. Think about it-if you've been deserted you've been left all alone. Well, you can't spell deserted without desert.

So, when I think of Jesus being in a lonely, deserted, remote place, the word that comes to mind is vulnerable. Satan loves to visit us when we're vulnerable. When are we most vulnerable? When we're alone; especially when we're not only alone, but lonely too. When we're alone with our thoughts; when we're without companionship, feeling unprotected, it's at these times we're most vulnerable to Satan's attack.

Jesus being led into the desert was no accident. God allowed him to be in the most vulnerable position he could be in to face these temptations. Again, this was about preparation. When Jesus was arrested, Matt. 26:56 says everyone deserted him. Jesus was left to deal with his unethical arrest, unjustified trial and crucifixion by himself. I wonder how much this battle in the desert helped to prepare him for that?

How many times has Satan tried to take you down when you were by yourself? Everyone is by themselves sometimes; we can't be around people all the time. Some of us are by ourselves more than we want to be. That can open the door for Satan's attacks all the more. What can we do about it? We'll, let's take a look at how Jesus handled his temptations in the desert.