DayBreaks for 3/02/21 – The Bread of Lucifer

Matthew 4:1-4 – Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert 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 does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 

There are several things about this passage that are interesting.  First, “Jesus was led by the Spirit” into the desert for the expressed purpose of being tempted by the devil.  I don’t like that idea.  The concept that the Spirit might lead someone to a particular place or situation for the purpose of being tempted is scary!  I mean, if the Spirit would lead Jesus into the desert to be tempted, why won’t the Spirit do the same to/for me?  We view it in a negative way, of course, and for Jesus, it was part of his becoming able to identify with us in our temptation.  Still…it is an interesting, if not frightening, thought – one that I will have to consider and pray about.

On the surface, the temptation doesn’t seem to be that difficult.  What was Satan really after?  All he asked Jesus to do was to turn the stones into bread.  What’s the harm in that?  Well, as usual with Satan, there is more than meets the eye, and there are hidden motivations and trickery afoot any time he appears on the scene.  I think that Calvin Miller in The Unchained Soul, had an interesting insight that may be right: “Christ rejected the bread of Lucifer.  It was not the bread that he rejected so much as self-gratification.  If he makes bread out of one stone, he may create wine from the next and so on, till his self-denial is literally swallowed up in gluttony.  Christ freed himself from this material bondage to be the role model for our own self-denial.  Materialism does not always consist in what we have, but in what we hunger for.  It is not our concern about bread but our temptation to horde it that sins so against our Lord’s wilderness example.”

What if Christ gave in to self-gratification?  He was God, after all.  He could have indulged every whim that crossed his omniscient mind and no one could have stopped him.  But Jesus didn’t give in to that temptation, giving us an example to follow.  Isn’t there a lot of truth in the sentence about materialism not being what we have, but in what we hunger for?  This means that we could be materialistic, even though we may not have the things we desire, but simply because we desire them for ourselves and they consume our minds, desires and passions.  We could well be materialists if we long for things more than we long for Jesus.

PRAYER: Let the longings of our hearts be in alignment with the great command!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.Copyright 2021, Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 1/30/15 – Especially in the Wilderness

DayBreaks for 01/30/15 – Especially in the Wilderness

From the DayBreaks archive, January, 2005:

 

Matthew 22:36-38 (NLT) – “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”  Jesus replied, ” ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Think of all that Israel went through in the Old Testament.  Although we tend to think that their lives were always hard, they did have good seasons, especially during the reigns of David and Solomon and a few of the other godly kings.  And I would imagine that at the time the greatest commandment was given in the Law of Moses, it was a pretty good time, too.  And if not, at least I’m convinced that Israel found it much easier to love God above anything else in all existence when things were going well for them as individuals and as a nation.  Why do I believe that to be true?  Simply because it’s that way in my own life.

But things aren’t always great, are they?  There were plenty of times that Israel found themselves besieged by the enemy at the gates, being carted off to captivity because of their indiscretions, and punished severely.  Did they find it easy to love God at those times?  Not if they were like us, they didn’t.  At least not to start with.  They railed against Him, beat upon Him with their fists and words, assailed Him in their hearts and minds – and loved Him little, if at all, during those times.  But over time, their tune changed and they repented and fell in love again. 

Frederich Buechner wrote: To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken.  But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless.  Even in the wilderness – especially in the wilderness – you shall love Him.

I’ve got a good friend right now who is in the wilderness.  His father recently died – very unexpectedly.  Just shortly before that, they’ve learned that one of their children may have a very, very serious disease, and that the future for her may be uncertain.  Within the past year he also lost his job, moved twice, changed churches due to the move, left their friends behind in their old town.  In short, just about every major life change has happened to them in the past 12 months.  They are living in the wilderness.  The wilderness is dry, dusty and windblown.  It’s full of strange sounds, sights and creepy things that make your skin crawl.  Yet, through it all, they are loving God and trusting Him.  They have understood the great commandment – and kept it, even in the wilderness.

It’s easy to love God in the Land that Flows with Milk and Honey.  It’s hard in the wilderness – and this is where we meet our truest test, where we learn the most about ourselves, but more importantly, about our God.

Copyright by 2005 Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

PRAYER: Lord, we don’t like the wilderness and we don’t like struggle and hardship.  Teach us the lessons of the wilderness that You need us to learn that we might learn and grow.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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DayBreaks for 8/18/11 – In the Wilderness With Jesus

DayBreaks for 08/18/11 – In the Wilderness With Jesus

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. ² For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. ³ During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” ⁷ Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the LORD your God.’” ⁸ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. ⁹ “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.” ¹⁰ “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’” ¹¹ Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus. – Matthew 4:1-11

This is such an interesting story – not just because we see God being tempted by Satan (which is inconceivable in and of itself – and of course, it was the human part of Jesus that was being tempted), but for a lot of other reasons.  For example, with the first and second temptations, Satan starts out saying, ”IF you are the Son of God…”  It causes one to wonder if Satan knew who was before Him in the person of the Nazarene, or if he was using the IF as a way to mock Jesus in an attempt to get Him to respond improperly and haughtily.  It is interesting that the devil doesn’t ask the question before setting forth the third temptation.  Why didn’t Satan put the “IF” in at that point in the series of temptations?

Perhaps Satan had concluded by that temptation that Jesus was the Son of God (if he didn’t already know it – and remember that Satan isn’t omniscient, so he may have been honestly unaware of who this man from Galilee really was).  Perhaps it was the very words of Jesus in response to the second temptation, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” gave Satan the answer to the “IF” he’d posed before the first and second temptations.

I wonder if we sometimes throw the “IF” in front of our requests to Jesus: “IF you are the Son of God, please heal my child of X”, or “IF you are the Son of God, turn my finances around.”  Satan seemed to be a quick study when it came to identifying who Jesus really was.  I wonder if  we learn as quickly.

PRAYER: Help us to not doubt Your Lordship, Jesus, and not to put you to the test as Satan did in the wilderness! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2011 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

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