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The Desire of Ages
upon the borders of the Promised Land. So with Elijah, who had
stood undaunted before King Ahab, who had faced the whole nation
of Israel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal at their head.
After that terrible day upon Carmel, when the false prophets had been
slain, and the people had declared their allegiance to God, Elijah fled
for his life before the threats of the idolatrous Jezebel. Thus Satan
has taken advantage of the weakness of humanity. And he will still
work in the same way. Whenever one is encompassed with clouds,
perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, Satan
is at hand to tempt and annoy. He attacks our weak points of character.
He seeks to shake our confidence in God, who suffers such a condition
of things to exist. We are tempted to distrust God, to question His love.
Often the tempter comes to us as he came to Christ, arraying before us
our weakness and infirmities. He hopes to discourage the soul, and to
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break our hold on God. Then he is sure of his prey. If we would meet
him as Jesus did, we should escape many a defeat. By parleying with
the enemy, we give him an advantage.
When Christ said to the tempter, “Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” He
repeated the words that, more than fourteen hundred years before, He
had spoken to Israel: “The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in
the wilderness.... And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the
Lord doth man live.”
Deuteronomy 8:2, 3
. In the wilderness, when all
means of sustenance failed, God sent His people manna from heaven;
and a sufficient and constant supply was given. This provision was
to teach them that while they trusted in God and walked in His ways
He would not forsake them. The Saviour now practiced the lesson He
had taught to Israel. By the word of God succor had been given to
the Hebrew host, and by the same word it would be given to Jesus.
He awaited God’s time to bring relief. He was in the wilderness in
obedience to God, and He would not obtain food by following the
suggestions of Satan. In the presence of the witnessing universe, He
testified that it is a less calamity to suffer whatever may befall than to
depart in any manner from the will of God.