Good Morning Friends,
Everyone who has experienced God in their lives, in personal fellowship, also acknowledges the great value of this life with God, perhaps even in fear of losing this joy. And just resting on the Sabbath, as I did yesterday can be a joy of soaking in the presence of God that is greater than yes even the American Dream. This kind of fast that affirms the reality of God is greater than our own. And yet the unreasonableness of the beliefs that underlies this Christianity we promote presents us with an intellectual difficulty. We experience God but, desire intellectual assurance of the foundations of our faith. In addition, we all must face trouble. And we all are tempted to deny God’s authority. These are formidable obstacles to our faith. Can We Face Satan’s Old Tricks In The Form of New Temptations?
Scripture: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)
And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:13 (NRSV)
All our steps are ordered by the Lord; how then can we understand our own ways?
Proverbs 20:24 (NRSV)
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned– sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:12-19 (NRSV)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ‘ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
Genesis 3:1-5 (NRSV)
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Numbers 21:4-9 (NRSV)
Message: The Bible is filled with stories of people who were tempted and how they fared. Of course, the temptations of Adam and Eve as well as the one of Jesus, in today’s scripture, are the most notable. But we also have the temptations of Joseph who handles them with amazing grace, worthy of our admiration. It is interesting to compare the temptations of Jesus and Adam. One takes place in paradise and the other in a wilderness. One is about feasting and the other about fasting. Pairing this reality with our desire to know God and the Lord’s prayer reveals to us that God does not do the tempting—he does not put evil desires in our hearts, but he does bring us into the presence of many tests and temptations on the journey. In fact, every step we take is a step into the presence of temptation. There is no moment in our life that is not a moment of temptation, a moment when unbelief and disobedience is not a possibility. That is what life is about and it all hinges on the choice between belief and unbelief, obedience, and disobedience. And sometimes we want to yield and step inside the temptation denying God. You see, the greatest obstacle to our seeking faith can be suffering. But the very fact that we have so many questions and that the variety of answers keeps developing indicates the importance of the question itself. So, perhaps I do not need proof God exists to avoid yielding to temptation, but I do need to affirm God for the answer to the ultimate question to be revealed. Will I be loved by God? If we have a creed of No God, then all we are left with is our own minds and how pathetic is that…. No, we need to believe in something greater. We were made for this purpose and that is why we must face temptation and win. Friends, we are invited to dance of faith believing that there is truth out there somewhere beyond the evolution of human thought and beyond a foundation of the logic of rules. And if we run the race with patience, we might learn to believe that Jesus will perfect our faith for he too knows what it means to be tested by the evil one.
And So, today we look at the prescribed method whereby we must be saved from temptation…saved by God through the means of looking with faith to Jesus on the cross. The method might at first seem odd or maybe even crazy. But it really amounts to denying ourselves so we might follow Jesus. So today we face our sin and connect the Bronze Serpent of Moses and the Cross of Jesus with an offer of salvation. Ok, let us face the problem we have with this story. We do not like comparing Jesus the man and Jesus our Lord to a snake. Our idea is of the snake in the garden with Adam and Eve and we reject this idea, at least at first, of linking Jesus to the snake…to sin. But Jesus compares Himself to a snake and for that reason alone we need to pay a little more attention to this story. To make sense of it we need to put it in the spiritual and historical context of Moses on the journey to the Promised Land and us on our journey as well. Perhaps then it will seem less bizarre. You see both the Hebrews in the desert, and we today are the beneficiaries of a God who gives and gives and gives getting in return whines and whines and whines. I think we can and should relate to that reality. What we deserve is punishment and that is what we are going to get if we do not learn from God’s response and solution. Sure, God could have just taken the snakes away, but instead He offers a better way that gives us the dignity of choice. God provides a way for people to survive the bite of the apple…the bite of the snake and live. God offers a simple and merciful way to save us from our sins…from death. We are to look up and live. Here it is not the law but an act of faith. If we want the grace of new birth, we must look on the Son of Man on a cross. Jesus becomes the curse so that we might be rescued.
Pray we understand the message of the serpent and the cross…of life…mercy… forgiveness and love. Pray we raise our eyes to the offer of salvation. Pray we face our deliverance. Pray we repent. Pray we look to Jesus and ask forgiveness. Pray that the poison leaves our system, and the healing begins. Pray we take up our cross…His will for us… and choose to follow Him out of our desert. Pray we not try God’s patience. Pray we have faith. Pray we realize that the love of Christ is proclaimed on the cross. Pray we realize that Jesus became our sin to defeat death. Pray we realize that this is what had to happen so the wrath of God would be satisfied. Pray we realize this event was what released the power of the Holy Spirit to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven. Pray when we are tempted, instead of denying God, we deny ourselves. Pray we realize that there is a hole in the Gospel that each believer is to help fill. Pray we are moved by our gratitude for all those who have gone before. Pray Jesus help us to live victoriously as a witness to the reality that with Jesus we can face evil. Pray we have an appetite for God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 