I join in the conversation occasionally at an APU alumni site called addisonrd and here are some observations I had regarding a post by Michael Lee in his post called “Testing Faith”.

I was reading the Sermon On The Mount this morning and thought of your post. I’m with Ryan about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and have a couple of thoughts (see Matthew 4:1-11NKJV). This temptation came with Satan challenging Jesus to use his power to prove he was God. Why would Satan do that? Surely he didn’t think Jesus would bite - or was Satan so full of himself that he believed his own power was beyond that of Jesus. Since Satan was originally the highest angel in heaven and was cast out for seeking to overthrow God himself and take the throne, maybe he thought “here was another chance”. I guess what I’m seeing here is that all temptation for us, regardless of how it manifests itself, is our desire to be God and run things. The other aspect I see here is the fact that we are told that Jesus, while still fully divine, was also fully human and was tempted in every way that we are. Thus, he was enticed to prove he could best Satan, yet did not give in. Satan was pretty clever when he used quotes from the old testament as part of the temptation, but I like the way Jesus fights fire with fire and quotes even better back at him.