Deception

 

Matthew 4:1

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Satan knew Who he was dealing with here. He knew that Jesus was his ultimate adversary, and therefore he decided to bring out his most effective weapons against Him, strategies that were proven to work successfully against mankind throughout the thousands of years before that day in the desert. At heart they all boil down to deception - to make men believe something that is not truth but certainly looks like it, a hidden lie. This he typically accomplishes through outright lies; omission; or distorting facts.

The first attempt was an appeal to the lust of the flesh. 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.” This was a hidden test for Jesus to use God’s gifts for selfish purposes to prove that He is the Son of God, ignoring God’s timing and will in all things. The deception lay in the fact that Satan did not ask Him to create wealth or precious things out of stones, something spectacular that would impress all who heard about it later and greatly enhance Jesus’s reputation- a suggestion that was so obviously deceitful that it would immediately be rejected by Jesus. Oh no. He suggested that Jesus create only that basic necessity which would satisfy the hunger pangs of a starving man, namely bread. Presuming that Jesus would see that this was a very legitimate action and only to His advantage. But Jesus deflected this test by quoting Deut 8:3 “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”, turning the whole bread trap against Satan himself by showing that the words from the mouth of God should be much more important to us than the bread we eat.

The second test was an appeal to the pride of life. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “’He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” He was misusing a passage from Ps 91 here, omitting the words “to keep you in all your ways”. It distorts the meaning of the original which means that God will keep the righteous on their journey as they refrain from tempting God with needless and uncommissioned recklessness. Satan tried to trick Jesus into ‘forcing’ the Father’s hand to rescue Him with a supernatural event. He thought that this would bring about an attitude of pride in Jesus because this act would publicly show that the Father approved of Him. Jesus recognized this ploy as Satan trying to deceive Him into a spectacular act of self-promotion, to test God’s love for Him, as His answer shows: Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

The third test was an appeal to the lust of the eyes. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” This plays into what Jesus essentially came to do – to win all the nations back from Satan. Satan is offering them all to Jesus here, deceitfully only highlighting their splendour and hiding their sins, holding out a very enticing proposition. He offers Jesus a shortcut to what He wants to accomplish and asks only that that Jesus fall down and worship him in return. And Jesus, even while knowing about His coming crucifixion and the horrors He had to face, still resisted Satan and replied Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Pearls to ponder:

Will Satan’s lies, omissions and distorting of facts deceive you? Will you be able to recognize that he is misquoting Scripture, or misrepresenting truth? The only way to discern these things is to read and meditate on your Bible faithfully, and to practise hearing the voice of Holy Spirit. Be a doer of God’s word, and not a listener only.

Temptations

God's unfailing love

 

Ps 103:17

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—

We have all experienced a moment in our lives where we doubted that God could still love us – maybe after we had sinned against Him; or experienced a time where we felt that He was far removed from us; or even during a time where we were so focused on our own busy lives that we started ignoring our time with Him, and guilt set in.

The word for love used here in our verse above is Khesed – a rich Hebrew word in the Old Testament describing God's covenantal, loyal love, combining steadfast kindness, mercy, and devotion. It implies action-oriented, unconditional loyalty rather than mere emotion, often translated as "steadfast love" or "loving-kindness".

‘From everlasting to everlasting’ implies a faithfulness that few of us have experienced from people during our lifetime. But think about what this is also saying – His wonderful love for you is also from everlasting – this means that He loved you before you were even born. He has loved you for an eternity already, and will keep on loving you through all eternities ahead, and because He promised this for all who reverence Him, we can be absolutely sure that His loyal love for us will never cease, no matter what!

And this is why Paul can promise us in Rom 8:39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This does not mean that we will not go through some rough patches in our lives. We have His assurances that He will be with us through all the trials life may throw at us. Indeed, Paul names a few circumstances that we may be asked to face in Rom 8:35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? And the answer to this question is of course, NO, He always loves us!

Pearls to ponder:

Think about what this loyal everlasting love of God means in your life, and adjust your attitude about the difficult situations you are facing both now, and those in your past. Are you blaming God for them? Do you think that you are being punished for something, or that God has stopped caring for you, or that you are somehow not good enough for God to love you? Live humbly before your God, bask in His love and see how He lifts you up above your circumstances!

Unfailing Love

Feet for Danger

 

Habakkuk 3:19

The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places.

Hinds are known for being highly agile and sure-footed, capable of navigating steep, craggy and dangerous mountain terrain. I recently watched videos of how they cross steep slopes, where there seems to be no secure footholds for anything to be able to jump or stand on – and yet they do! They can jump great distances over treacherous chasms and land on the other side on some ridiculously thin piece of rock – amazing to see!

They have a unique hoof structure to help them do this – two-toed hooves that can spread to provide a better grip on uneven and slippery surfaces. Also, when climbing, a hind places its back feet exactly where its front feet have just stepped, ensuring that the back feet land on stable footing already tested by the front feet.

This is the picture the prophet Habakkuk had in mind when he had to make the choice of how to react to the dire circumstances surrounding him then, and also facing him in the future. He lived in a society that was full of wickedness and injustice. Faced with this ever-increasing corruption, he started doubting that God was hearing his pleas for help. God answered the prophet and said that He was not passive in this situation, He was going to use the Chaldeans to judge Judah.

Habakkuk than presumed to question God on His decision to use such a wicked nation as an instrument of discipline. God reminded him that He controls the destiny of nations, and that He would in the future greatly punish the Babylonians for their arrogance and greed against Judah.

The prophet knew that the coming invasion of the Chaldeans would lead to utter desolation and famine, and this was the moment when he made his choice on how to react. He modelled for us how we are to manage the three things that we can control when circumstances around us turn hostile:

1.      Who we trust – Habakkuk chose to trust God unconditionally, and this choice initially caused him great anxiety.

2.      Our perspective - He chose to believe that God knows best, and his subsequent decision to wait patiently for things to develop, filled him with great peace.

3.      What we do – Habakkuk chose to write a psalm, which is recorded in chapter 3. It is set to wild, enthusiastic and triumphal music – he is rejoicing in Who his God is, in what He has done in the past, and in the fact that the future will lead to redemption!

Which brought him to the image of a hind, and the feet that it has. We cannot control our circumstances which are ever-changing and give us no stability, just as the deer cannot control the terrain that it has to speed over when running from its enemies. But when we joyfully put our complete trust in the Lord our Master and Covenant God (the meaning of the names Adonai and Yahwe which Habakkuk used) – we develop hinds’ feet, specialized to keep us safe from slipping or falling on high places.

Pearls to ponder:

The song that Habakkuk wrote was a way for him to remind himself that he had decided to put his unwavering trust in the Lord his God. Sing his song every time you feel uncertain or fearful of the future, to remind yourself also!

The God of my salvation