Devotion for February 15, 2016

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry (Luke 4:1-2; NIV).

            Thinking on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, the first thing I notice is that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into that wilderness. Matthew adds the wrinkle that the Spirit led him into the wilderness specifically to be tempted.

            Now, James declares that God tempts no one (James 1:13), and that is true. However, in that context, the idea is specifically that God tempts no one to evil, that is, to sin. On the other hand, the word that we translate ‘tempt’ can also be translated ‘test.’ And that might be another thing altogether.

            For God does test us. The prophets talk about God removing Israel’s dross (Isaiah 1:25) and purifying her with fire (Malachi 3:2-3). And that happens through testing.

            Sometimes our testing is severe; sometimes it seems more than we can handle. And perhaps that’s the point: to recognize that finally there are things that we can’t handle, things that leave us dependent on God alone (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9). It’s true of us; it was true of Jesus in his state of humiliation. He endured the test by the power of the Holy Spirit who had led him to the test and by the power of God’s words, on which he stood when he himself was hungry and exhausted.