On the other hand...

My attention has been drawn towards Matthew 4:1-11. This is the section where Jesus is being tempted by the devil at the end of his 40 days. I use to think that Jesus was fasting for 39 days and then on the 40th day the devil showed up. But in Mark 1:13 it says, "He was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by the satan..." Interesting. Could it be that Jesus was being tempted for the full 40 days? It says the same thing in Luke 4:2, "for 40 days to be tempted by the devil. If that is the case, and I now think that it is, then what we read about in Matthew 4:1-11 is satan doing everything he can to get to Jesus. For satan, it is the last few seconds of the game, fourth quarter, last period, little time left, pulling out all the stops, going to give Jesus his last and final effort to follow him. It is interesting to me to read what his best effort consists of.
1. He tempted Jesus with good things. Food, authority, protection from God. Satan just wanted Jesus to get those things apart from God. It would be to obvious to lure us away with "bad" things, "sinful" things. No, his best shot is to lure us away with GOOD THINGS!
2. "If you are the Son of God." Satan still comes at us with that one...if you are a good Christian... and then makes up something that is so difficult, oppressive etc. that no one could do it and then condemns us for not being a "good" Christian.
"If" breeds doubt.
I like what Jesus did...
1. Jesus used scripture but in one case he used scripture in a way that is very appealing to me. Here is the section that jumped up at me in verse 7: "Jesus said to him, ON THE OTHER HAND, IT IS WRITTEN." I love that. Does satan try that today? Take one or two verses and want us to focus on that and ignore the rest. Ever been in a conversation with someone and they say, "That was nice, but the Bible ALSO says..." I need that. Blog away. What else does the Bible say?
Anyway, if satan can't lure us away with things we need, he will use scripture against us and a combination of both. It is his hail Mary, last second shot, 55 yard field goal with time expired, it's all he has...deception and lies.
2 Corinthians 2:10-11
10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
Peace.