| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 8 |
Page 5 |
At once Jesus disappeared from the Jordan. “Immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness.” There seems to have been haste — the word “immediately” indicates this. His going from the Jordan into the wilderness was not merely a pleasant saunter of his own for recreation, or to get away from the crowd. The Spirit of God put the impulse into His heart. Notice, too, the strength and urgency of the impulse — “the Spirit driveth Him,” away from the Jordan into the wilderness. The word “driveth: shows the tremendous divine pressure that was on Jesus as He hastened from His baptism and the Father’s declaration of His Messiahship. He must pass now instantly to the first step in His preparation.
“He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan.” Why must He be tempted? The answer seems clear. He had come into the world that He might destroy the works of the devil. He must meet the leader of the works of darkness, first of all, and enter upon His conflict with him. If he could not overcome Satan, He could not be the world’s Redeemer. The conflict was fierce and terrible. All the power of evil was marshaled for the great battle. Matthew tells in fuller form the story of the method of the temptation and describes the complete victory which Jesus won. Mark gives details which the other Gospel writers do not give. One is that Jesus was with the wild beasts. It was in the wilderness that He spent the forty days and nights, and the wilderness was the home of beasts. The fact added to the terrors of the temptation. No doubt Jesus was kept in perfect safety in the midst of the wild beasts. Not one of them would harm Him.
Mark also makes special note of the ministry of angels to Jesus. His words would seem to indicate that the angels attended Him through all the forty days. Matthew in his account of the temptation puts the ministering of angels at the close, after the period of tempting. But the worlds imply repeated ministration, as if they had come to strengthen Him at different times, between the several assaults of the tempter. This agrees with Mark’s statement, which implies continuous ministry throughout the forty days. Heaven’s eye was upon Jesus during all the time of His trial, and help was sent in every time of stress. It is the same with us when we are in any struggle or any need. God watches that we shall never be tempted above what we can bear, and that help shall always come at the right moment. We are never left alone in any need or danger.
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