Christ Our Only Hope
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heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”
(
Matthew 3:17
). It was directly after this announcement that Christ
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Mark says: “Immediately
the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the
wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts”
(
Mark 1:12, 13
). “And in those days he did eat nothing” (
Luke 4:2
).
Meeting Temptation
When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted, He was
led by the Spirit of God. He did not invite temptation. He went to
the wilderness to be alone, to contemplate His mission and work.
By fasting and prayer He was to brace Himself for the bloodstained
path He was to travel. How should He begin His work of freeing the
captives held in torment by the destroyer? During His long fast, the
whole plan of His work as man’s deliverer was laid out before Him.
When Jesus entered the wilderness He was shut in by the Father’s
glory. Absorbed in communion with God, He was lifted above human
weakness. But the glory departed, and He was left to battle with
temptation. It was pressing upon Him every moment. His human
nature shrank from the conflict that awaited Him. For forty days
He fasted and prayed. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn and
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haggard with mental agony, “his visage was so marred more than any
man, and his form more than the sons of men” (
Isaiah 52:14
). Now
was Satan’s opportunity. Now he supposed that he could overcome
Christ.
There came to the Saviour, as if in answer to His prayers, one in
the guise of an angel of light, and this was the message that he bore:
“If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”
(
Matthew 4:3
).
Jesus met Satan with the words, “Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (
Matthew
4:4
). In every temptation the weapon of His warfare was the Word of
God. Satan demanded of Christ a miracle as a sign of His divinity. But
that which is greater than all miracles, a firm reliance upon a “Thus
saith the Lord” was a sign that could not be controverted. So long as
Christ held to this position, the tempter could gain no advantage.