The Sermon On The Mount & Testing
Posted by Melody on June 16th, 2008
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.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I’ve often pondered what could be Satan’s motivation for continuing his rebellion, and by extension, what was going through his head to think that he could get Y’shua, Son of G-d, to either, A: Join in his rebellion, or B: disenfranchise him?
The only thing I can conclude is that Satan must be trying to frustrate G-d to the point where G-d abandons earth to Satan, and restarts somewhere else…that is Satan’s only hope, his only shot…anyway, it’s fun to ponder it, but for me it’s all speculation.
June 18th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Satan is all ego. He wants to keep as many of us from spending eternity with God as possible. Sort of a retaliation for losing? I think in this case pride is continuing after the fall.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I like that line, “Pride is continuing after the fall.” If that’s original with you, do you mind if I borrow it occasionally?
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 am
Please feel free to quote me. Finally I am to be quoted as saying something other than, “huh?”
December 14th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
What a great blog, you really put a lot of effort into this site.