¹² When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. ¹³ He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Caper­naum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebu­lun and Naph­tali. ¹⁴ This ful­filled what God said through the prophet Isa­iah: ¹⁵ “In the land of Zebu­lun and of Naph­tali,beside the sea, beyond the Jor­dan River,in Galilee where so many Gen­tiles live,¹⁶ the peo­ple who sat in dark­nesshave seen a great light.And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow,a light has shined.”

Ful­filler of Prophecy

Near the begin­ning of this focus on Matthew, I wrote about how incred­i­ble the odds were that one per­son could ful­fill all of the prophe­cies in the Bible con­cern­ing the Mes­siah. And yet, Jesus does exactly that. It’s one of the strongest proofs that he truly was the Son of God.

Matthew is writ­ing to Jew­ish peo­ple, which is why we find him often mak­ing the con­nec­tion between an Old Tes­ta­ment prophecy and Jesus. He does so again in today’s pas­sage. Matthew under­stood his read­ers and I’m sure that more than a few were amazed each time they read of another prophecy being ful­filled through the life of Jesus.

Sure it’s amaz­ing that Jesus ful­filled all the prophe­cies. But you know what I’m blown away with today? That hav­ing his Son come into the world, live life among us, then die on a cross, wasn’t a sur­prise to God. It wasn’t a “plan B” that he came up with when other things didn’t pan out. He knew far back in his­tory that the day would come when Jesus would need to “move into the neigh­bour­hood.” And so, he began prepar­ing peo­ple for that day through the prophets.

You know what that means? God isn’t sur­prised when some­thing hap­pens to us. Sure, it may seem to come out of left field to us, but for God, he knew all along that we would face what­ever cir­cum­stances we might be fac­ing. He knew exactly where you’d be at this very moment.

That’s why it’s so impor­tant to trust him. He knows what’s going on today. He also knows what will hap­pen tomor­row. And he just might be set­ting into motion some­thing today that we won’t fully under­stand until some time in the future. The key is trust­ing him when we don’t under­stand what’s going on.

So, take some time to reaf­firm your trust in God today.

My prayer: Lord, thank you that noth­ing comes as a sur­prise to you. You know every­thing about me, includ­ing what I am fac­ing today, what I will go through tomor­row, and how they con­nect. And so, once again, I remind myself to trust you. You can be trusted, and I choose to put my faith in you. Amen.

Until tomor­row.

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⁸ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high moun­tain and showed him all the king­doms of the world and their glory. ⁹ “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and wor­ship me.”

¹⁰ “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scrip­tures say, ‘You must wor­ship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

¹¹ Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Temp­ta­tions #3: Lust of the Eyes

The final temp­ta­tion of Jesus had to do with an area that most of us strug­gle with. How­ever, it might not be what you think.

We read the word lust and we imme­di­ately think sex­ual lust. And while that is part of it, there is so much more to this temptation.

Jesus is tempted with what he saw. Satan showed him all the king­doms of the world and sug­gested that if Jesus changed his plans, and bowed to Satan, that he would be given all the king­doms of the world.

Now, some the­olo­gians have sug­gested that Satan was offer­ing some­thing he couldn’t give. I don’t agree. At the time of this temp­ta­tion, the king­doms of this world were under the author­ity of Satan. That’s exactly why Jesus had to go to the cross: to break the power of sin. (Again, it’s a deep the­o­log­i­cal dis­cus­sion that requires far more space than we have in this devotional).

Suf­fice to say, Satan offered Jesus what­ever he looked upon and desired.

We often fall into the same trap. For some, it might be a per­son we lust over. For oth­ers, it might be a motor­cy­cle, a car, a gad­get, etc.

We see and we want. And we don’t care how we get it.

How does Jesus respond? By quot­ing a Scrip­ture that speaks about the value we place on things. Specif­i­cally, the value we must place on God. He should have the place of high­est worth in our lives. The place of high­est value. When we do that, other things become less impor­tant, and the power of “stuff” is broken.

My prayer: Lord, you know how much I lust after things. I see and I want. Give me the strength to place you first in my life. I want to wor­ship you more than any­thing else. In doing so, help me to resist the things I see and crave. Amen.

Until tomor­row

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² For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

³ Dur­ing that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

⁴ But Jesus told him, “No! The Scrip­tures say, ‘Peo­ple do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Temp­ta­tion #1: Lust of the Flesh

I love how obvi­ous the Bible can be at times. The pas­sage tells us that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights and became very hun­gry. No kid­ding. I skip a sin­gle meal and won­der how I’m going to survive!

The­olo­gians have spent a lot of time dis­sect­ing the temp­ta­tions of Jesus. Do a search and you’ll be amazed at how much there is on the sub­ject. But I love the sim­plic­ity of how one of my Bible Col­lege pro­fes­sors explained the temp­ta­tions. He sum­ma­rized them in three cat­e­gories, show­ing us how almost all temp­ta­tion can fit into one of the three cat­e­gories. By doing so, he proved that while Jesus didn’t face the exact same temp­ta­tions as we face, he did bat­tle with the same kinds of temp­ta­tions.

The first cat­e­gory has to do with per­sonal com­forts. In the case of Jesus, the temp­ta­tion was there for him to use his super­nat­ural power for per­sonal needs. Jesus could have turned stones into bread. Any­time he was thirsty, he could have snapped his fin­gers and had a tall glass of ice water in his hands. Heck, he didn’t even need to have the water. He could have sim­ply not ever felt hunger or thirst. Again, he was God.

But if Jesus had used his super­nat­ural power to look after his own per­sonal needs, he would have been unable to relate to you and me. He would cease to be fully man. He had to sub­mit him­self to the same laws that we are under when it comes to these things.

It’s easy to be tempted to care more about per­sonal needs than oth­ers, isn’t it? 

Jesus answer to the temp­ta­tion should be our answer. He knew that per­sonal needs were sec­ondary to liv­ing out God’s pur­pose. Some­times, we will suf­fer when we do good. Some­times, we will go with­out in order to live out God’s call­ing. The temp­ta­tion is to worry more about our own com­fort than ful­fill­ing God’s call on our life. 

Lust of the flesh could include any­thing that ele­vates per­sonal com­fort to the high­est priority.

My prayer: Lord, far too often I am more wor­ried about my own com­fort than I am about oth­ers. I want my needs met and don’t worry about what oth­ers may be fac­ing. Help me to be more out­ward focused and be will­ing to go with­out some things in order to help meet the needs of those around me. Amen.

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