What do you picture in your mind when you think about the wilderness? I picture an arid, desolate place. No green pastures, nothing beautiful in particular to look at. I see brown terrain with tumbleweeds blowing across the dry fields. No refreshing springs of water to look upon or to relieve my parched lips. I see cloudy days instead of sunshine. No crowds of people hustling to and fro with their many and varied tasks. It's just a lonely, unappealing picture in my mind.
In Matthew 4:1-11, we are told that Jesus was “...led up of the Spirit into the wilderness.”
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and His ministry, mission, and purpose down here on planet Earth were clearly confirmed by the Spirit of God descending like a dove lighting upon Him, and a literal voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Then Jesus has a wilderness experience. He was tempted in an arrogant, overbearing kind of way by Satan himself. Satan was trying to destroy His anointing and faith in the validation He’d received from heaven by the Father Himself. It wasn’t all in Jesus’ mind. He literally heard from God. Then Satan tried to destroy His confidence in the Father through the three means that Satan often uses to tempt us and destroy us: through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and through the pride of life as noted in 1 John 2:16,17.
Lust of the Eyes
Through the lust of the eyes, Satan took Jesus up onto a very high mountain and showed Him all of the beautiful kingdoms of the world (the world which, by the way, Jesus Himself had created in all of His glory), and offered to give Jesus what He already had dominion over. That is bizarre. But Satan is a master craftsman in distorting truth and weaving lies.
Lust of the Flesh
Another temptation was through the lust of the flesh. Jesus had fasted for 40 days. He was famished. His flesh was likely crying out for nourishment. Here comes Satan tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread. “Use your divinity, Jesus!” “Deliver yourself in this wilderness experience!” “Don’t trust your Father—trust in yourself!” That is what Satan was insinuating through His temptations.
Pride of Life
Then, finally, the pride of life. Egotism. Satan basically tells Jesus, “Hey, if you are who the Father in heaven confirmed you to be, if your Father approves of what you are here to do, why not prove it to me and to yourself by casting yourself down from this high pinnacle? Just jump, Jesus! For surely your Father in heaven will send angels to deliver you!”
Pride always precedes presumption. These are Satan’s tactics very often. But what this passage ultimately illustrates is that Jesus takes authority over all of Satan’s lies and resists every temptation with the Word of God. Finally, Satan has to go and leave Jesus alone just like James 4:7 reminds us: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
The most beautiful reminder for me in this passage is that after having to endure such oppressive temptation, derision, and hardship by the devil in His wilderness experience, “angels came and ministered” unto Jesus (Matthew 4:11). Praise the Lord!
A little further along in Matthew 4, after Jesus was ministered to by angels He goes to Capernaum and begins His powerful ministry. Matthew 4:12-17 says that those who sat in darkness saw great light through Jesus as he began to preach, heal, and point people to the Kingdom of God.
Your Own Wilderness Experience
So, what is the point for us today? Truth be told, all of God’s precious children will go through their own private wilderness experience. Barren times. Unanswered (in the time or way we think is best) prayers. Losses of all kinds. We may be on a spiritual high where we receive all the indications that God is with us. He has validated our purpose, our mission, our calling, and then—out of nowhere—we seem to be in the wilderness. We can’t see nor hear from God. We are tempted to doubt the purpose of our very existence. The pain is so great, where is God?
The good news is that God always uses people who push through the times of wilderness. For those who can hold on and trust God when they cannot trace Him, who resist the devil through prayer and through the study of the Word of God, and who use the promises of God to shoot the enemy down… these will be used in a mighty way!
Call to Action
Do you feel like you are in a barren time in your walk with God? Be encouraged that before God uses many people in the Bible, they were taken through the wilderness. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. God used him to lead His people in a marked and mighty way. The beloved Apostle, John, was on the isle of Patmos all alone, yet God allowed him to see a revelation of Jesus Christ and used him to give us the book of Revelation for our knowledge, instruction, and encouragement in these last days.
There are many others who could also be cited. So let us, too, hold on to God through our wilderness experiences knowing that He has bigger blessings in store for us.
All scripture taken from the King James Version.
