Was There A Good Reason For Temptation?
Any analysis of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness must be considered not only within the context of His life as both God and man within the same body but it must also take into account His ultimate purpose in living as a human in the first place. The supreme purpose of Jesus’ life on earth was to give His life in sacrificial payment for my sin debt and yours. It is only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection that redemption and reconciliation to God is possible for all people of every time everywhere – all that needs be done is for one to place his or her trust in Christ, but before He could sacrificially offer His life Jesus had to be proven a worthy sacrifice, worthy to die on my behalf and yours by living a perfect life uncontaminated by sin. His entire life – every moment from supernatural conception until His last breath and heartbeat as he died on the cross of Calvary – then becomes important for us to consider. The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was necessary for His benefit since during His ministry it was always His stated intent to offer Himself as a sacrifice for every person. It worked to our benefit because we can look upon His strength, victoriously exemplified even at His weakest moment. Jesus also knew He had to prove Himself flawless and to demonstrate His perfection to all men so that we might recognize our own imperfections. If we look to Him as the One who is able to redeem us and believe on Him we will receive life everlasting.
To die for one’s own sin is an easy enough thing to do since all a person has to do is live until his or her last heartbeat. It is then that things turn seriously tragic, for that person who physically dies as a non-believer is spiritually and eternally separated from God, forever and continually paying his or her own debt for sin but forever behind in the balance in the second death described in Revelation 21:8. If you, Dear Friend, are that person who dies rejecting Jesus you’ll be in hell, the eternal lake of fire. Period. That isn’t the end God desires for mankind as a whole or for any individual, and it is precisely the end Jesus lived and died and rose again to help all of us avoid when He willingly and willfully left heaven, came to earth and died not only for the overall condition of human sin within the world but for every sin ever committed by any and every human who has ever lived. Overcoming temptation in all its forms was to His benefit because it accomplished the purpose of making Him worthy to die on behalf of every person as payment for their debt. Because Jesus lived in the flesh as a complete human we thereby spiritually benefit from the trial He endured. By proving He is truly the Son of God and the true Savior of mankind, we reap the benefits of deliverance from the penalty of sin that only Jesus can offer.
Jesus Before His Baptism
In Hebrew society – that in which Jesus lived under Roman domination – the age of majority was thirty years, and that was the age at which Jesus was baptized, endured the wilderness trial, and the record of His public ministry begins. By the time I was thirty I’d lived a lot of life, come close to dying more than a few times in a faraway land, gotten married and had children, had a career… you get the idea. When we think of Jesus’ life we must think along similar lines, as thirty years is thirty years after all. Because Jesus’ life is the model after which we are to pattern our lives His temptation in the wilderness provides some important examples we can follow as we live, serve God, face Satan’s wiles, and resist temptation in its various forms. I’m led to a question – was His confrontation with Satan in the wilderness Jesus’ first encounter with temptation? Let’s think on that.
Consider that when at the age of thirty Jesus stepped into the Jordan River to be baptized (Greek batptistheis or fully immersed) by John the Baptist (baptistEst or one who fully immerses) it was the first step toward Jesus’ public ministry on our behalf and His first recorded act as an adult. It was a step He could never retrace, and what an important step of obedience to God it was! Wouldn’t Satan’s demons have tempted Jesus not to make a public profession of Himself at that time? By portraying His own coming death, burial and resurrection through baptism Jesus was showing in an irrefutable way that the Old Testament had forever thereafter become the New Testament. A voice from heaven then declared Jesus to be the only Son of God and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove; He was forever thereafter publicly identified as the Christ of Old Testament prophecy come to live among mankind. Only one crucial step then remained before Jesus’ ministry could move forward – the step He took in allowing Himself to be led into the wilderness by the Spirit for the purpose of enduring everything Satan could throw at Him at the time. While He was there Jesus was full of the Spirit, fasting in meditation and prayer, and it was in that desolate place that He faced the devil and overcame the temptations offered by Satan himself, surely the most intense temptations you or I could imagine. From a human point of view we may think that was the end of the matter, and therein we find a point to ponder. There were doubtless a number of subsequent times when Jesus was confronted with temptation, as Scripture points out and we’ll eventually explore. What makes me believe that? The Scriptures for one thing and a little speculative thought about the context of Jesus’ life for another, so again I’ll pose the question: was the wilderness experience Jesus’ first encounter with temptation in some form or other? Mightn’t He, having knowledge of His future, been tempted to forego the ridicule, the pain and suffering and the agony of death He would experience, choosing instead to live a long and quiet life before dying a natural death in old age?
Relatively little is said in the Bible concerning Jesus’ early life, and that fact alone speaks volumes about it. The so-called ‘silent years’ that follow the events recorded in Matthew chapter 2, and particularly the eighteen years or so following His teaching in the temple, are the years that may ultimately draw us nearest our Lord in everyday life; from a human point of view they were as important as any others. Although various secular histories attempt to fill the gaps they are unable to offer many firm facts so let’s forego delving into those to consider what the Bible says on the subject.
The Birth Of The King
Human life begins at conception when the reproductive constituents of a man and a woman are united. It is in that instant of time that the eternal spirit occupies the human body and the child is thereafter a living soul. Jesus’ human life began at exactly the moment when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Highest overshadowed her (see Luke 1:35). We further know He was alive in the flesh from that moment because a little later on in Luke chapter 1 we find the pregnant Mary visiting her pregnant cousin Elisabeth, and when the women greeted each other the child in Elisabeth’s womb “leaped… for joy (Luke 1:44)” in the presence of Messiah. That leaping baby was John the Baptist, whose spirit undoubtedly recognized Jesus as the promised Christ and King. The Savior’s entrance into human history was imminent and John the Baptist must have known on the spiritual level even prior to birth that he would someday herald our Deliverer. Elisabeth recognized Jesus as well, was “filled with the Holy Ghost,” and boldly proclaimed the Lord’s identity (Luke 1:41-45).
In addition to His spirit occupying flesh in Mary’s womb did Jesus’ human intellect even before His birth somehow know He would be born to face crucifixion on behalf of mankind? Indeed, He certainly knew, just as He had always known all things in eternity. Before creation God knew that He would give Adam the choice of obedience and that Adam would choose sin instead. God knew that thereafter we would all inherit the nature to sin, and that without a plan of redemption mankind could never have the eternal communion God desires with us. God’s plan was to manifest Himself in human form to sacrificially pay a debt we could never pay for ourselves. In eternity Jesus knew His role in the plan and He knew it while He walked the earth.
Were Angels Present At Jesus’ Birth?
This writer thinks so. “And suddenly there was with the angel (who had announced Jesus’ birth) a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God…” (Luke 2:13). The word “host” in this passage by Luke is στρατιά (transliterated stratia), a word that in classical Greek denotes a strong army, a large company of soldiers or, in other words, a fighting force. Just as angels ministered to Jesus immediately following His wilderness trial might they, under God’s direction, have been present to provide a ‘wall of protection’ around the only Son during Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’ birth? Given our consideration of angelic activity in the previous article I believe they must have, but only up to an ever-diminishing point as Jesus’ life progressed. Given that Jesus “…was in all points tempted (put to the test) like as we are… (Hebrews 4:15)” would Jesus have been so shielded that demons at Satan’s direction could not have offered temptation? “…God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you (us) to be tempted (1 Corinthians 10:13) above that ye (we) are able (to bear)…” but He does “suffer” (allow) us to be tempted, even at an early age. In preparation for His “feeling of our infirmities” (again, Hebrews 4:15) and to nurture the strength required for His human life and ministry, death and subsequent resurrection I propose that temptations were made available to Jesus throughout His lifetime, just as they are put before us throughout our lifetimes.
Let’s recall from our prior treatment of the subject that Satan has many demons in his evil service and that both he and they are quite busy roaming the earth in search of souls to destroy and lives to shatter. Also to be remembered is that Satan’s ultimate goal is in direct opposition to God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Is it possible that even Satan himself was present at Jesus’ birth? I believe he may have been, at least as an observer if for no other reason than to size up the competition. Is it possible that Satan’s demonic agents were in attendance as well? I think it likely, since they are at Satan’s service. At what time might destruction of the Son and disruption of God’s redemptive plan have been easier than when Jesus, having taken on human form, was so defenseless as a newborn?
So, were ministering angels present in a barn in Bethlehem 2000 years ago? I cannot speculate otherwise, particularly in light of my opinion regarding the ministry of angels to mankind as stated in the previous article. They were probably keeping Satan’s demons in check, because if he could have somehow destroyed God’s only Son at such a tender age Satan’s desire to utterly destroy mankind would have immediately become realized. Also of note is the possibility that at least some of the angels present had opposed Lucifer’s failed insurrection and “fought” in the “…war in heaven…” of Revelation 12:7-9. If that is the case they had already overcome Satan’s forces once before and if those angels were present at Jesus’ physical birth they could have again defeated any demonic onslaught against the defenseless babe.
The Biblical record says little of Jesus’ birth other than that it happened. As a father I have personally been present at the moment of my children’s birth and as a paramedic been present at several others. The sound of a baby crying as it takes its first breaths brings joy to the heart and praise to God, and because the Bible says so little about the event I speculate that it was in all human ways normal. But what might life for the newborn Jesus have been afterward? Surely when a human baby is born there is a measure of perceived pain and there is an involuntary anxiety response over the drawing of those first critical breaths. Crying is a natural reaction to both of those things, and Jesus was God in the flesh so that in response to the physical pain and in order to fill His lungs with air He surely cried.
Now, I know a few things about babies and I know a few things about human nature, and one of the things I know is that babies lie. Hebrews 6:18 affirms that it is “impossible for God to lie,” so it seems to me the first demonic temptation of Jesus’ life could have been offered shortly after those crucial first breaths and even so near the moment of birth – the temptation of the lust of the flesh to cry in demand for unwarranted attention. If you are a parent or have ever been around babies for very long you know that babies cry when they have a legitimate need – when they’re hungry or their diapers require attending or when they don’t feel well. That’s how they communicate what’s going on in their world. It’s likely you’ve also noted there are other times when babies cry because they want attention – when they’re what my mother used to call ‘fussy.’ There isn’t anything wrong with them other than they want to be picked up, held, rocked or talked to. Given the Biblical record concerning Mary and Joseph as Jesus’ earthly parental influences and assuming God’s unfathomable love for His Son I can only imagine that Mary and Joseph were loving, nurturing parents. Jesus probably cried when He needed attention but I have serious doubts that He would have cried just because He wanted attention and was ‘fussy.’ Do you recall the words of the Christmas carol Away in a Manger,‘…the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes…’? They may be more true than we often pause to consider.
If demons were present at Jesus’ birth did they attack Him at that time? Maybe (see my comment above concerning lies). Remember 1 Corinthians 10:13, “…but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” God does not allow us to be tempted beyond the point of withstanding the temptation – in that regard there is a ‘wall of protection’ around us, too, and a way of escape. Perhaps at His birth and at other times during His infancy Jesus’ “way to escape” was to remain silent until it was appropriate for Him to ‘speak.’
Silent Years
One point of view to consider is that God shielded Jesus from all temptation until the age of majority (thirty years in Hebrew culture) and the incident of His wilderness temptation. That is, however, not a point of view I can support or to which I subscribe, because for God to have built such an impregnable wall around His Son would likely have been to leave our Lord completely unprepared for His future and the incident of temptation that was to come.
What leads me to say that? Being fully human as well as fully God, Jesus’ physical development would have followed the same natural course as that of any other child through proper nutrition, physical growth, and exercise. He’d have learned to walk and run just like any typical little boy. So, too, would His intellect have grown as He learned to talk, to count, and to perceive the world around Him in ever-more complex ways. Just as our children do not ‘magically’ appear as adults, neither did Jesus. Luke 2:40 gives us this insight: “And the child (Jesus) grew (physically, emotionally, etc.), and waxed strong (Greek ekrataiouto, or was staunch) in spirit, filled (plEroumenon, a form of plErEs, the word used in Luke 4:1 in reference to Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit) with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” We as parents teach our growing children right from wrong, how to share with others, to care about the feelings of others and, hopefully, how to stay out of trouble. We monitor their development from birth to adulthood. We teach them responsibility and assign household chores, see to their education and do a great many other things in addition to providing food, clothing and four walls under a roof. Failure to do those things would be neglectful of our parental responsibilities and our children’s legitimate needs, and as a result they would never become well-rounded adults. As Jesus’ heavenly Father, God surely would never have failed to see to those needs as Jesus was prepared for His ministry, so it is therefore unimaginable to me that God would entrust Jesus’ human upbringing to less-than-responsible parents who would in any way fail to fulfill their roles. When our children are born they are helpless and we do everything for them, building a wall of protection, but as they grow older and are entrusted with greater responsibility we, as parents, begin to dismantle that wall so that our children can learn and grow and become the people God created them to be. I believe that was the case in Jesus’ life.
The Silence Broken… Temporarily
Luke 2:41-50 recounts an incident that briefly breaks the silence regarding Jesus’ human development. Along with Mary and Joseph and a “company” of others Jesus had at the age of twelve traveled about ninety miles southward from Nazareth to Jerusalem to observe the feast of the Passover. In our modern society such a distance would in no way be difficult, but considering that travel for the Jews was by foot and that the “company” had to carry everything they needed for the trip – food, portable shelter, water and the various necessities of daily life – this amounted to a journey of nine or ten days. Such a journey would have been long and tiring and progress would have been slow. Jesus may have been tempted to give in to natural physical fatigue, boredom, or to sound off for any reason our own children complain on a long road trip. If so, it was a temptation He overcame.
After observing Passover the family and troupe with whom they were traveling set out northward toward Nazareth and home. By this time Jesus was a lad of twelve, a normal boy in all ways but one, which we’ll consider further in a moment. It took a full day’s travel of nine or ten miles on foot for Mary and Joseph to become aware that Jesus was not among the group. Does that mean Mary and Joseph were in any way neglectful or that Jesus in some way had been rebellious? I think not; instead it means they probably thought Jesus was traveling with the extended family or under the supervision of some adult friend, perhaps walking with a group of His boyhood pals. When Jesus didn’t arrive at their campsite for supper and they couldn’t find him among their acquaintances Mary and Joseph then retraced their steps to Jerusalem, searching for Jesus all along the way. Following three days of inquiry concerning Him they found Jesus in the temple, sitting among and in discussion with the learned scholars of the Mosaic Law. To the astonishment of all, it was Jesus, a boy of twelve, who was teaching them. How was this possible? Remember that in verse 40 of chapter 2 Luke states that before this incident “…the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.”
Like any disquieted mother Mary then asked (my paraphrase here), ‘Jesus, where have you been and what have you been up to? Why did you disappear like that? We’ve been worried sick and we’ve been looking everywhere for you!’ Jesus’ reply in verse 49 was brief but straight to the truthful point: “How (why) is it that ye sought me? Wist (know) ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Jesus is not expressing Himself as a rebellious child here but instead speaking of His larger spiritual view and the reason for His occupancy of human flesh and living a human life in the first place. Some may disagree, but this writer believes this brief record is actually the first recorded account of Jesus’ earthly ministry on behalf of mankind. Luke 2:50 says “And they (including Mary, Joseph, the scholars and teachers) understood not the saying which he (Jesus) spoke unto them.” Do we, even having the completed Bible at our fingertips, fully understand Jesus’ earthly ministry to us?
The Record Goes Silent Once More
Luke 2:51-52 says that after the family’s return to Nazareth Jesus was “subject (obedient) unto them (Mary, Joseph and others in authority over His upbringing) and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” The very essence of Jesus identity was as a Son to His heavenly Father and His obedience to the will of God the Father. He would not, therefore, have acted independently of the Father’s will, which during these years would surely have been to deport Himself in subjection to the earthly parents to whom God had entrusted Him. Jesus knew that the Spirit had led Him to the temple but He also knew that in the eighteen years to follow – as in the preceding twelve – He was in all ways to subjugate Himself to the earthly parental influences God His Father had placed over Him. In so few words as two simple verses we find that Jesus in all ways grew up to be an adult strong in all ways while earning the respect of His peers.
What does that mean? It means that as Jesus grew from infancy to adulthood God would, one by one, remove the bricks of that ‘wall of protection’ considered earlier in this article and that Jesus was proven to be fully human; it means that Jesus would have taken a few tumbles before He took His first steps and that He would have had to take some steps before learning to run, just as any other normal boy would. It means He would have made a lot of incomprehensible sounds before forming His first word and that He would have been tempted, like His contemporaries, to pay less-than-full attention to the lessons of the Mosaic Law while daydreaming of an afternoon spent playing stick-ball with His buddies. He would have been tempted to protest His mother’s admonition to ‘pick up your room and straighten your things’ but He didn’t yield to it. It means that while working as an apprentice in Joseph’s wood shop Jesus probably could have waved His hand and swept the sawdust and wood chips away but He didn’t, instead grabbing a broom as instructed and doing what He was told to do without protest. Jesus could have been the most outstanding of athletes, the most talented of musicians, the most artistic craftsman or the best at whatever undertaking He chose if He had wished only to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life or coveted the most beautiful of possessions in response to the lust of the eyes. Instead Jesus chose humility, and in that way may have at least in some ways been looked upon as ‘just one of the guys.’ It is likely that He was viewed by His contemporaries as unassuming and in no way presumptuous or condescending. He was always obedient, never rebellious and didn’t complain.
There are some other more aspects of Jesus’ development to assess that are important to remember as we think on Jesus’ early years. He was first a child, then a young man, then an adult man living in a physical and totally human body. That means He had all the same chemicals and hormones coursing through His veins as any other man, all the same curiosities and urges to excel, all the same tendencies toward complacency or slothfulness. Women are no different in those respects, which is to say that Jesus – at least in the flesh – had the same urges and carnal curiosities as any other person of His maturing age. Did that pretty young maiden just show a little extra ankle by chance, or was that a temptation offered by a demon for Jesus to fulfill the lust of the eyes and/or flesh? Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to wave a hand and have all things in the wood shop back in order? Why not spend the afternoon hanging out with ‘the guys’ over a flask or two of wine after a hard week’s work?
While the culture in which Jesus lived was far more conservative and far less provocative than the one with which we are familiar (or perhaps because it was less provocative and more conservative), wouldn’t Jesus have had every human desire or curiosity to satisfy some form of lust, and wouldn’t those desires and curiosities have been at least as strong as ours? His human intellect was like ours in all fundamental ways just as His body was in all ways like ours. He experienced the human range of emotions as deeply as we. This leads me to believe that although temptations were presented Jesus kept His focus upon the “business” of His “Father” as described above. Perhaps a ‘wall of protection’ existed, but as He grew older and in order to prove not only His total divinity but His total humanity as well, the ‘wall’ had to come down brick by brick and Jesus had to face such carnal temptations as the devil or his demons might present to any youngster as He “…increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” And then, as Jesus rose from the waters of Jordan, as a voice from heaven declared His divinity and as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, the silent years ended forever.
A Private Ministry
If Jesus’ first thirty years prepared Him to begin His public ministry – and I believe they did – then it seems likely He was engaged in a private ministry every day. In the living of a sinless life He was setting examples for those around Him all the time, even when He may have remained silent. We likewise minister to those around us, even in our silence. How might that work?
Let’s say we’re in an airport prepared to travel alone and far from home for a few days. We board the plane and there in the seat pocket in front of us, left behind by a prior passenger, is a pornographic magazine. The cover art looks inviting, the title is enticing. Slip it into our carry-on so we can peruse its content in our hotel room later? Not a good idea, because we know that isn’t what God wants us to do; He never wants us to fall prey to the lust of the eyes or any other associated lusts and resultant sins. So, maybe just leave the magazine in the seat pocket? Also not a good idea, because all we’d be doing is leaving a source of temptation for someone else. A better idea might be to slip it into an air-sickness bag and toss it into the lavatory trash bin. That will give us the chance to live as Paul admonished in Romans 12:1-2 – “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Although this brief passage is packed with sermon material my point here is that if we submit to the will of God and seek first to serve Him, our priorities and our thoughts about those priorities will be favorably altered or renewed. The individual thoughts of our minds will change because the way we process those thoughts will have been changed. As we continually submit to God through presentation of our lives to Him our conformation to the ways of this world will diminish while our transformation into the person God wants us to be will flourish. So, leave that magazine in the seat pocket? No, because by making a choice of will to trash it we are actually choosing submission to God and in the process thwarting Satan’s plan to shatter someone else’ life as well as our own. There are times when the practical way out is to make a conscious choice to remove the source of temptation from our presence or the presence of someone else.
That’s what young king Josiah did. Most of the story is found in 2 Kings chapter 22 and on, but I’ll briefly summarize: By the time eight-year-old Josiah inherited the throne in Jerusalem God’s people had strayed far from service to Him. They worshiped and made offerings to Baal and other false gods, much of their energy was spent in associated commerce, and permissive immorality in its various forms had long been the order of the day. When Josiah was a teenager he sent one of his servants named Shaphan to visit the high priest Hilkiah for the purpose of counting the money offered there and to facilitate repairs to the temple of God. The high priest, having discovered the long-forgotten “book of the law” that had been filed away out of sight and out of mind, in 2 Kings 22:8 presented it to Shaphan. This was likely the book of Deuteronomy at the least but probably the entire Pentateuch. When Shaphan read the “book of the law” to Josiah he recognized not only the intrinsic value of the book but the eternal value of its content as well. The young king repented toward God. Josiah wanted to do what was right in the sight of God not only for himself but for his nation as well, and since he couldn’t remove the people of the land from the source of their temptations and sin he chose to remove the source of idolatrous temptation from the presence of the people. He personally read the “book of the law” to the elders and ordered the destruction of iconic statues, ornaments, vessels and all accouterments associated with the nation’s idolatry. He restored the God-ordained order of worship. It was quite a reformation before all was said and done, sparked by an understanding of God’s word and one influential young man’s determination to follow it. Although he couldn’t have known it at the time Josiah was exemplifying a principle we’ve discussed already: in chapter 4, verse 7 James wrote, “Submit yourselves, therefore, to God…” Removing the source of temptation from our presence or the presence of someone else will work for us just as it did for Josiah in the case cited above. By ensuring the removal of a source of temptation we have ministered to those who will board the plane after us even though we may never say a word to anyone about it.
What If I Can’t Remove The Temptation?
Do you recall from an example put forth in the previous article that when we walked away from the water cooler gossip we removed ourselves from a source of temptation that would otherwise have gratified the lust of the flesh and the pride of life? That’s how Joseph dealt with some significant incidents of temptation, and although the story of his life may seem to involve a lot of calamity God, as we’ll see, was with him every step of the way and had a much larger purpose in mind. As Joseph’s long story begins in Genesis chapter 37 and continues through chapter 50 (the end of the book) I’ll begin a brief summary by positing that Joseph’s life exemplified a precept later penned by the prophet in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” One way to paraphrase this verse in its context from Hebrew might be, ‘God says: Although you may not yet understand, be assured that the plans I have for you are good. They are plans for your peace and prosperity, never for catastrophe. I offer to the faithful a sure hope and a favorable outcome for the future.’
Joseph, the youngest and most-favored son of Jacob, intelligent and handsome and a servant of God, was seventeen when God began to speak to him in dreams. He shared those dreams with his family and was reviled and ridiculed for it. When jealousy prevailed in the hearts of Joseph’s brothers they threw him into a deep hole in a remote location without food or water, conspired to lie to their father, and would have left him to die there except for an opportunity to gain monetarily by selling him to traders. Joseph eventually landed in Egypt as a slave in the house of Potiphar, a captain of Pharaoh’s guard. Because God was in fact blessing Joseph everything went well enough for him until Potiphar’s wife made a very demanding pass at the attractive young man. Although she isn’t named or otherwise described I can imagine that she was a very beautiful, prideful and headstrong woman. When Joseph turned away from her and successfully resisted the lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh she, in her pride, lied about the incident. Joseph found himself falsely imprisoned, but while he was there God continued to bless him and Joseph became the chief trustee.
Eventually Pharaoh had a troubling dream and word came to him that Joseph could interpret it, so he called Joseph from prison. Standing before the ruler of the land who held life and death in his hands Joseph didn’t hesitate to acknowledge God as the giver of interpretive ability when, in Genesis 41:16, he said, “…It is not in me; but God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” The dream? One of coming bounty followed by terrible famine. Pharaoh’s solution to the problem? Joseph was promoted to a position of authority second only to Pharaoh himself, and charged with the responsibility of preparing for the imminent cataclysm. On Joseph’s authority storehouses were filled with grain as crops flourished and everything Joseph ordered was blessed by God; Egypt would survive not only as a nation but with surplus to sell to the hungry nations and tribes around her. When the famine struck, Joseph’s hungry brothers were sent by Jacob to Egypt to purchase food. Unbeknownst to them they besought their own brother for sustenance in accordance with Joseph’s dream of decades before, the very dream that had gotten him pitched into a pit in the first place!
Recognizing his brothers although they didn’t recognize him after many intervening years, Joseph not only saw to their immediate physical needs but got his father and the extended family to travel to Egypt. Why? The answer is found in three key verses after Joseph had revealed his identity to them. Genesis 50:19-21 says: “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not; for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now, therefore fear ye not; I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto them.” Because Joseph as a handsome and virile young man did not yield to the lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh with Potiphar’s wife or to the pride of life although entrusted with great wealth and influence, and because he remained humble before God the lineage that would eventually give birth to Jesus our Lord was preserved.
Joseph couldn’t have foreseen the results of his actions at the time but he knew obedience would always lead to a more favorable outcome than self-indulgence. He was thus able to minister not only to his own family but to countless thousands of others as well.
The Giving Of Our Hearts And Minds In Ministry
Even though we may never face the kinds of dire circumstances Joseph did we can recognize many tempting opportunities like these in the broken world in which we live, and we encounter them everywhere. There are times when the solutions exemplified above may not at first seem very practical, but if we are genuinely seeking the way out of temptation while seeking to do the right thing God not only provides a way to escape but, when asked in prayer, points us toward it. Still, it is always our responsibility to choose the way out. By first giving our hearts to God in faith through Jesus the Savior and then submitting to His will day by day and moment by moment, by keeping His will at the fore of our priorities in life just as Jesus surely did, we fulfill a private ministry to those around us. The people around us observe our examples even when we think they do not; perhaps by removing a source of temptation or by stepping away from it we will have the opportunity to lead someone to Christ.
In the next article we will begin to consider Jesus’ public ministry and the times during it when He experienced temptation. Until then I close this article with an admonition not only for you but for myself, penned by Paul in Romans 12:1-2 – “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”
Be blessed –
Tom