Abraham obeyed willingly even when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise. On many occasions God tested Abraham to prove his faith and to strengthen his hope in God’s promises. Likewise God tests his servants to see if they are fit and ready to be used by him.
We test airline pilots to make sure that they are fit to fly under all conditions, including times of adverse turbulence and poor visibility. The scriptural word used here also means to test in the sense of proving and purifying someone to see if they are ready for the task at hand. What compelled Jesus to seek solitude, away from his family and friends, for such a lengthy period? Was it simply to test himself and prepare for his mission? Or was he also allowing himself to be tempted by Satan? The word tempt in English usually means to entice someone to do what is wrong or forbidden. Mark states it most emphatically: “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12). Why did Jesus choose such a barren, lonely place for an intense and long period of prayer and fasting? Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us in their gospel accounts that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus was without any food in the wilderness for 40 days to prepare himself for the mission that the Father had sent him to accomplish. Elijah, after he was fed with bread from heaven, journeyed through the wilderness without any food for 40 days to the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:8). Moses went to the mountain of the Lord in the Sinai wilderness and stayed there for 40 days and nights in prayer and fasting (Exodus 24:18). This was seen as a time of purification and preparation for entry into the promised land. When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they wandered 40 years in the wilderness.
#The spirit led him into the wilderness plus
Danger from scorching heat by day and extreme cold by night, danger from wild animals and scorpions, plus the scarcity of food and water.įor God’s chosen people Israel and many of their leaders, the desert was a place of testing, encounter, and renewal.
#The spirit led him into the wilderness full
And he ate nothing in those days and when they were ended, he was hungry” (Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4, verses 1-2).Ī place of testing, encounter, and renewal What motivated Jesus to spend 40 days and nights of solitude, prayer, and fasting in the Judean wilderness? This desert landscape was largely uninhabitable and was full of dangers for anyone who dared to venture in it for long. “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil.
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