Monday, July 2, 2007

Daily QT: 07/02/2007

The Book of Mark
Chapter 1 (NIV)

12At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
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4 comments:

Sue Jin said...

These forty days in the desert remind me of the 40 years that the Jewish peole spent in the desert. After being physically freed of slavery in Egypt, it took them forty years to become psychologically freed from slavery and ready to enter the promised land. They were dependant wholly upon angels and God in the desert, and they were continually tempted and failed. Here Jesus is also cared for by angels and tempted by Satan in preparation for his ministry.

Forty days was also the number of days that the rains came down during the great flood. This number seems to represent a cleansing, a test, a preparation.

July 2, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Won-Min Lee said...

At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. (John 1:12-14)

Why did God test himself as Jesus was sent into the desert to go through all temptations? I think these verse serve as a message of hope for all of us weak human beings. Through these verses, He shows us that He was able to overcome the temptations/ struggles of this life (hunger, fear, solitude…). Since Christ was able to do so, we can do so too.

July 2, 2007 at 10:28 AM
recreationalgolfer said...

I get the impression here, without having an in-depth knowledge of timelines, that getting baptised was the turning point in Jesus life. Baptism signalled a new stage in His life -- not longer was He just a woodworker, He was now the Savior of man. I'm not sure but I'm guessing that spending time in the desert was a known purification-type ritual in biblical times. Was there also a testing component to this?

It is fascinating to consider the spiritual (Satan's temptations) and physical (wild animals) challenges that Jesus faced in the wilderness (which is symbolic in itself). But though He was alone, He had not been abandoned by God -- angels were "attending" (NIV) and "ministering" (NKJV, NASU) to him.

July 2, 2007 at 4:50 PM
M said...

Number 40 in the bible does seem to have a great significance as Suejin pointed out. Even in the book "Purpose Driven Life" mentions the significance.

Everyone gets tempted and no man is free from it. There are no exception when it comes to temptation, not even Son of God... no matter what age, gender, status, environment, etc a person is, he/she will always be tempted throughout his/her entire life.

Fighting temptation even when I'm in a great physical/mental condition with lots of spiritual help is still very difficult but if I imagine myself fighting temptation for 40 days in the dessert/wilderness with no food... I'm not sure how I'll survive.

Even a slight difficulty in my life shatters my ability to fight off temptation... and also I often forget when I'm tired that just because I'm at rest doesn't mean that the war is on pause. Satan will never leave me alone just because I'm in certain condition. This teaches me a great lesson that I have to keep my prayers up and seek God's guidance especially when I'm in a tough situation. As RecGolfer mentioned before, we must make a greater effort to keep our daily QTs, prayers when things gets tougher.

Lastly, that we are not fighting alone. Like EBS fellowship group have said I agree that the term "hope" can be used here as in we Hope in the Lord. Because we know and believe Jesus overcame temptation, we can hope in him that through him we can also overcome it.

July 3, 2007 at 11:38 AM

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