the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Matthew 4:1-11
Endued with the power of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus was ready to fulfil His ministry. But, as with every servant of God, it was necessary that He should first be put to the test. Thus He has to deal with the great Enemy. In order to lead a man of God away from the path of obedience, Satan uses two main tactics: he presents fearful obstacles on the road (for Christ this was particularly the agony of Gethsemane), or on the other hand, he offers attractions by the roadside. And this is what the Devil does here.
But let us notice that in quoting Psalms 91:11-12, he takes good care not to add the following verses which refer to his own downfall: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." The adder is the Serpent, of whom it was prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that his head would be bruised by Christ, "the seed of the woman". When he was in Eden, lacking nothing, the first Adam suffered a threefold defeat through the lusts of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life. The perfect Man triumphs in the wilderness over the old serpent through the sovereign Word of His God (1 John 2:16; Psalms 17:4). And "in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." (Hebrews 2:18).
