Continuing Trial C

On this final day of the First Big Trial with Jesus, we carry on with spiritually quickened feet, in our Lenten Enlightening Trials.  

We are now reminded of the Scripture verses. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4: 1 – 4

We noted that, as with a river or sea, there can be many tributaries stemming from one ocean. In this one Sea of Trial, we have already been through two tributaries, as it were, Trial A and Trial B.  Now we are ready for Trial C.

Trial C - The Holy Spirit led Him to face the torments of the evil one, while He was in a most vulnerable and weak human state.

Jesus has not eaten for forty days and forty nights and as should be, He is hungry. The clever devil knows all that the Spirit teaches to His followers. He knows, as Jesus Himself has taught, when there is faith, one can speak to one’s mountains and they will obey. Jesus has told this to His disciples. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17: 20b. The knowledgeable deceiver knows all this. He knows well and knows that Jesus is not lying nor deceiving His disciples, when He tells us, even of mustard seed faith, to speak to your mountain, talk to it and tell it to move away from you. So the cunning trickster, comes to us as he came to Jesus, Son of Man, in His raw, human state and tells Him to do just that, use His faith to remove His mountain.

Let’s go slowly here. Jesus teaches that one can tell one’s mountain, whatever it may be, to move away from you, free you and get away from you. Listen to Satan. He tells Jesus, who is facing His mountain of hunger and human weakness, to speak to His mountain. Satan knows that Jesus has the faith. Satan knows that Jesus has the words. Satan knows that Jesus will be victorious in removing the stones before Him and making them bread to eat.

This is where we are dealt a huge blow in this temptation, this trial, for as people of faith, we want only and always to do as Jesus our Master has told us. The unconscionable devil, waits until we are feeling the pains of our humanness, and hits us on our faith. Needless to say, that if we are anxious to show that we have faith as our Master taught and do as He said, we will surely fall prey to the unscrupulous deceiver’s snare. But thank God for Jesus, who was not taken in, in the least bit by all the good words coming out of Satan’s mouth.

Where are you personally? Thank God for discernment. He shows us that all His good, right and true words are not always spoken by Him. Remember Paul and how that possessed young girl was following him and speaking only truth about him and the other evangelists with him? Paul was not deceived by the good words. He saw the evil who was speaking the good words through an innocent soul and brought it to ashes, as it were, through the powerful fire of the Holy Ghost.

Remember Peter, one of Jesus’ top Three and how, thinking that he was being good, kind and caring to Jesus, spoke some platitudes to Jesus. Listen to Peter in his human goodness and see if we don’t see ourselves here as daily users of sick platitudes. Jesus has been showing and appraising His disciples of His imminent suffering, death, and resurrection in Jerusalem. But Peter does not want his Master and Lord, to speak in that manner. This is the Person about whom he was given Divine revelation, to speak and say that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the Living God. How could Peter stand back and allow the Son of God to claim such defeat, to admit to the experience of such grave trials in His Divine Life? Peter, with the greatest love-intentions in the world takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him for speaking so negatively. Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You! Matthew 16: 22b NKJV

This is the biggest trial for us in this First Big Trial. Be forever humbled and always believing that the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. As long as you trust Him, He will show you that every person who comes to you preaching and speaking God’s truth, is not of God. Trust His discernment implicitly. Rejoice that God the Holy Spirit is Omniscient. Overcome Trial C and be steadfast, strong and sealed in who you are in Jesus.

Having come to the end of the First Big Trial given in this our Lenten Enlightening Trials, we listen to how Jesus convincingly overcame this Sea of Trial, with all its tributaries. Jesus, in His weak human state, was strong in Mind and Spirit, and made this reply. It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4: 4b. NKJV

May the Holy Spirit ever make this real and alive in us that we who believe will live on every single word that comes from the mouth of God and not from other mouths. Amen!