Today’s chapter is Luke 4

Tom writes:

I don’t know about you, but one of my big three temptations has never been to jump off the top of a building to force God to catch me. What’s going on here? Jesus’ temptations only make sense when we realise that the Wilderness is where Jesus confronts Satan over the destiny of the earth. Jesus goes into the wilderness a bit like David goes to Goliath; mano-a-mano to fight for the land. Jesus has - just like David - been anointed as King and has - just like Israel - been commissioned to release salvation to every family across the earth. This brings Jesus into unresolvable conflict with earth’s current landlord; Satan. Satan uses three tactics to try to avoid the battle he knows he can’t win. The first tactic Satan uses is to try to convince Jesus there isn’t a battle to fight at all. Forget this fasting lark; just tuck into some food and enjoy the fruit of the earth. Jesus bats that away by quoting from Deuteronomy; God’s people have a mission to follow and if it takes some pain; let it be so. In the second temptation Satan pushes Jesus to agree to a “win-win” truce; Jesus gets most of what he wants as long as Satan gets to stay in post. Again Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy. God must be the only King of this earth. No power-sharing deal can even be considered.

And then we get to this weird temple temptation. Perhaps the most subtle temptation of all is for us to fight the battle against Satan but to do it our way. If the devil can tempt Jesus to jump from the top of the temple he will “kind of be doing what God wants” (face death in Jerusalem) but he will be doing it in his own, easier and quicker way. This is the temptation to say Jesus is your King but then to pursue life in whatever way you think best. If Satan can make us think we are doing something good, even while he is drawing us away from how God wants us to do it, then that actually is a victory for Satan; he has prevented the King of the Kingdom from being fully in charge here on earth. What Jesus fights for in the Wilderness is intimate obedience to the Father in every single thing. The key to Kingdom expansion is intimate obedience to the Father. And so this chapter shows us that the biggest fight of your life will be whether you can persist in loving obedience to God even when times are tough. Satan will try to take you anywhere but loving obedience to the Father, because he knows that in loving obedience God becomes your King. And when God becomes King, Satan’s head will be crushed and his reign will be no more.

Question for reflection

What would greater loving obedience to the Father look like in your life?

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Luke 4 - Thursday 4th January