Tempted

In His Name Devotionals
TEMPTED

“Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” (Matthew 4:1)

His temptations were all in connection with His work as the Messiah; and ours are like them because it is in view of our own future course of life that our temptations come, and our choices are made.

Jesus had to meet the question regarding how He should accomplish His work as the Messiah. His goal was plain, but by what way should He reach it? The popular expectation was of a great and glorious worldly kingdom, of which Jerusalem should be the capital, and the Jews the rulers. With their victorious armies they would conquer Rome, and subdue all nations. The prophets depicted the Messianic age as one of the material prosperity, political emancipation, and imperial dominion for God’s chosen people, though always conditioned on obedience to God, which condition the people were apt to overlook. What course should Jesus take? Should He seek first this glorious outward kingdom, or give Himself up to making the people good, with outward glories far in the distance. All the temptations were concerned with this choice. Jesus had a battle to face, against temptation. He could have yielded; He had the same possibilities as we have. Whatever else our Lord shall be to us, He shall not be a counterfeit man, exposed to counterfeit fire, a mere stage fire, a man played upon by harmless sheet lighting, and never moving amid the dreaded bolts and forked flame. His shall not be the sham fight, and ours the actual struggle, or He can be no leader for us. He Himself suffered being tempted. He felt the real heat of the fire, the fascination of the real seduction. Jesus of Nazareth had the real devil to meet and the real battle to wage, and the garlands on His noble brow were noble won.

The moral battles are just as real as the visible clash of arm between great armies; and they require the same qualities in order to gain the victory, and call forth the same virtues which are admired in them.