Title The Devil's Easiest Soother
“And the devil took him to a most high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms under the heavens and their glory, saying, “All these things I will give to you if you fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan. Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came and ministered to him” (Matthew 4:8-11).
Even when the devil is tempted, believers can overcome with faith just like that once or twice. But if you do it two or three times, it's very hard in the end. The weakening of human will is also a problem, but that's because the devil's temptations are persistent and varied. However, even with these seemingly diverse trials, there is a certain and simple pattern, which is revealed in the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. As the devil, wouldn't he have mobilized the essence of his strategy to deal with Jesus?
In the first two times, the devil started the test by saying to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God,” he said. While talking with Jesus, he has not yet revealed his true identity. Furthermore, Jesus did not throw a sweet bait to reward him when he did what he asked for. Turning a stone into a loaf of bread or jumping out of a city and not hurting anyone is just the result of what Jesus can do directly through His own power.
It means that the devil does not have to come out on his own, but only need to let Jesus, who came as the Savior, satisfy the lusts of the flesh and make them proud in this life. It is great satisfaction if we just make people believe that the Son of God did not go to the cross and came to fulfill the prosperity and satisfaction in reality.
In other words, in order to prevent people from believing in Jesus, the devil can satisfy the lusts of the flesh and make them proud in this life. The devil was trying to trick Jesus into doing what he was doing and was supposed to do, and that it was what the Son of God was supposed to do. You don't know what a clever trap this is.
But after two failed trials, he blatantly told him to worship him. It means that the devil hid the fundamental purpose of the test the first two times, but now he has completely broken it down. Also, unlike the first two times, he threw a very powerful and colorful bait to give all the glory of the world.
Someone in the woods of a state park in the United States saw a sign saying Devil's Soup Bowl and went to see what it was. It was like a deep lake that had run out of water, and the land was full of trees and weeds. In a word, there was nothing. In other words, the name was given as a satire on the fact that the devil eventually gives nothing.
The third bait that the devil threw at Jesus was also in vain. Like the first two tests, the glory of all the nations under the heavens that I showed when I went to a high mountain is just a lie. It is a mirage that will disappear instantly the moment Jesus catches the bait. The only thing the devil, the father of lies, can do is lie. To put it bluntly, it's a lie if you keep your mouth shut.
In short, it means that when humans fall into the devil's temptation, they are deceived. Lie means you will never do what you say. Even when the devil tempted Eve, he hinted that if he ate of the forbidden fruit, he would resemble God, but what he actually got was the opposite, wasn't it?
Likewise, the devil stimulates the believer's inner self, which is always conflicting and troubled, in the beginning, such as desire for honor, pride, selfishness, inferiority, faults, wounds, and guilt. The things in the believer allow the believer to snare himself. “You’re a believer, but you can’t even do that? No, is a believer doing something like that? Can you say that you are a believer?” It is a blatant lie that makes you completely forget that you have been completely forgiven of your sins in Jesus Christ and that you have a noble status overlaid with the power of the Lord.
However, in the Gospel, after a believer “guards his heart above all else” (Proverbs 4:23) and overcomes the temptation several times, the devil always reveals his true nature and puts material temptations and worldly prosperity ahead. Among them, it shows the righteous works that contribute to human society, the religious achievements for God, and the rewards after achieving such works.
Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days to begin his ministry as the Messiah. But the devil put a temptation in that very prayer. The purpose is not to obstruct prayer, but to make them pray, but to hinder the work of God. Jesus came to this earth to heal the weak bodies of human beings, but the devil fell on that very calling. Even through Jesus' prayer, he is trying to twist the direction of God's work. If Jesus had not started the work of God, the devil would have stood still.
Even believers will be tempted by the devil when they try to get close to Jesus and devote themselves to His work. And the only way to overcome it is through prayer, but there is no way that the devil will go away if we just pray. Rather, the devil said in prayer, “Do the very great work of God. I love the way you have planned and decided now. Great success will surely follow!” However, it never reveals the truth, “Then you will be popular with the world, and your name will be exalted above the glory of God!” Rather, it conjures up only a pink image of the holy and righteous that will result in the success of the work.
Believers should pray to see through this very true lie of Satan and go the other way. It does not mean that we should pray until we fully confirm the certainty of success in God's work that seems to have a high probability of success. It is to pray and kill him completely so that his greed and boasting do not interfere even with the work of God.
Believers often mistakenly believe that the devil only tests ethical sins or prosper in reality, and when he does God's work, he can't even come close. Rather the opposite. What is clearly revealed as a sin can be overcome with a basic conscience and basic faith even if the believer does not fast and pray. There are many times when the actual success is also the result of the believer's own greed and not the devil's temptation. In other words, since ethical sins are quickly recognized by believers, the devil does not often touch them, and even if the individual greed of a believer is left alone, the believer stumbles.
Of course, the devil's greatest enemies are servants of the Lord who do God's work and ordinary believers who want to get closer to Jesus. But among them, the first prey they aim for is the servants of the Lord who do the work of God but want to exalt their name, and the believers who draw near to God with the purpose of the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life.
This is so that only the God who covers the God of the cross and covers the God of the cross in front of the world and in the church, turns into a loaf of bread and does not get hurt even if he jumps from a high place, so that only the God who makes all the glory under the heavens can be witnessed The devil who can only lie is presenting a false God, but rather trying to make him appear more like a real God.
The time when the devil does not tempt is when a believer is not approaching God and is going the other way around. And when it is impossible to take the test at all, it is when a believer completely kills himself every day and only takes up the cross and follows the Lord. On the other hand, if you stay away from the world and be zealous in the church, but do not carry the cross, you can easily become the devil's plaything at any time.
After Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, the devil did not even come near him for three years, while he went to Golgotha. On the other hand, the Jews, who pursued only the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and waited only for the Messiah to satisfy them, fell into the temptation of the devil, mistakenly thinking that it was a very righteous work for God, did not even God Himself crucified?
5/22/2006