Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we dig into the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, which Mark briefly mentioned yesterday.

After his baptism, Jesus spends 40 days in the desert fasting in preparation

for the start of his public ministry. As his fast is coming to a close, the devil shows up on the scene.

The word used for devil here is an adjective, not a noun, and it describes someone who falsely

accuses, which is exactly what's happening here. Remember the baptism of Jesus where God the Spirit descends on God the Son, and God the

Father says, this is my beloved son?

The father pronounced the son's identity, and in the very next scene, the false accuser

comes to bring that identity into question.

His whole aim is to derail God's plan for redemption.

The enemy wants to get Jesus to give things up now instead of go to the cross.

Satan is more afraid of the cross than Jesus is because he knows it means his eternal defeat.

But Jesus fights his lies with Scripture, speaking truth to the false accusations.

Something interesting to note here is that Scripture is also the enemy's weapon of choice,

twisted scripture.

He pulls verses out of context, making them mean what he wants them to mean, making promises

he has no power to fulfill.

The enemy knows scripture and knows how to use it to his advantage.

That's another reason why what we're doing

here is so important, taking in all of the Word of God, seeing how it all fits together. So we'll

be less likely to believe the lies the enemy tries to craft out of Scripture to tempt us.

The beginning of this text says the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted.

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