Thursday 14 March 2013

Matthew 4:1-11

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."
{Deuteronomy 8:3} (NIV) 

The people of Israel were led by the cloud into their desert. Our Lord Jesus was led by the Spirit into His desert. 

The people of Israel went in ignorance, not knowing what would happen, nor knowing the purpose. Moses told them 40 years later that the purpose was to teach them. Not to teach them how to survive in a desolate wasteland, but to teach them to depend solely on God and not on themselves. There was no grain to pick, no animals to kill, no water to discover; nothing that they could do that would preserve their lives. They had to rely solely on God. 

Our Lord knew the purpose of the desert and He wanted to demonstrate to all of us and to Satan and the spirits, that He would rely only on God, and nothing else. So He willingly followed the Spirit into the desert and there, when He was tempted by Satan to use His own efforts to save Himself, He reminded Satan of the purpose of the desert. He declared for all creation to hear, that He, the Only Son of God, would depend solely on God for His sustenance. Friend, may this attitude of relying solely on God be ours today. May His grace be sufficient for us today.

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