40 days

 Back to Jesus in the wilderness.  I've been thinking alot about this the past few days and today I had a thought I've not had before.  You probably have..... but I can be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes 😀

When we read the Bible, we are reading it from the perspective of knowing what happens next.  So we read that Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil for forty days.  But did Jesus know that it was going to be for 40 days?  I suspect not.   Today I suddenly saw the similarities between Jesus going into the wilderness and Abraham taking Isaac up the mountain.  God said go.  He didnt say what was going to happen next.  Abraham trusted God in what by anybody's standards were impossibly stressful circumstances , and therefore was called His friend.  Jesus was His Son so trusted God so much more than Abraham did.  I think God said to Jesus ' I want you to go into the wilderness for a while' and Jesus went.   

So, let's imagine it.  You are Jesus and you are sitting in the wilderness talking to your Father.  You are praying about Your future mission.  God is talking to you about Your destiny.  The devil is prowling around ( as are the mountain lions) getting into Your head with all sorts of counter arguments and heretical nonsense.  After a day or two perhaps You start to think that you are a bit hungry and You don't have any food.  You ask God if You can just nip into town to get some supplies.  God says no.   You stay.

Day ten.  You are now really hungry.  Your belly is rumbling.  Because you have no carbs or protein in your system you can't sleep. It's cold at night.  By now You are feeling properly miserable.  ' Father, can I go home now?  I think I get the idea of what is going on now.  I know the plan.  You know I love you.  I'd just really like a good nights sleep'.   God says no.  He says ' Go further into the wilderness'.  Because You love and trust Him You go without question.

Day 25. You are now feeling very lightheaded every time you stand up. You have camped out by a spring so You at least have water, but it is the place where all the animals come for their water too so it is dangerous. You are really really lonely.  As a people person who has always worked in the family business and loved hanging out in the synagogue and with friends You are so missing the sound of human voices.  You miss hugs.  ' Lord I've been here for nearly a month now.  When can I go home?  Are you testing me to death?   You have said I am going to lay down my life for You - is this how it will end?  Am I going to die here in the desert?  Could You even just tell me how long I have to be here Lord?'    God is silent.  

Day 38.  You are skinny and very weak.  You spend most of your days lying in the shade of a scrubby bush silently praying.  You sing to yourself.  You wonder how Your mother and siblings are coping not knowing where You are.  You haven't seen a single soul for nearly six weeks and You know that if you die out here nobody will ever find Your body.  Your mind is playing tricks on You.  You hear the devil really clearly and can picture loaves of hot bread just out of reach. You know You are going mad.  In utter desperation you cry out to God ' How much longer Lord?'   God replies ' I am with You. Do not be afraid'   You decide there and then that, like Job, ' Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him'  Job 13:15

At which point God says ' Go home Jesus'   And two days later you emerge from the desert, tried and tested knowing that He has saved you as He saved Isaac from the altar.

Of course this is just my fiction.  But I think I have always read the story of the wilderness as being an issue of the devil tempting Jesus when really its a story about Jesus trusting His Father even unto death.  It was a trial run for what was coming three years later.  There is always so much more to learn about what Jesus has done for us. May we always be open to going deeper and knowing more.