Jesus Passes the Wilderness Test

BibleProject

BibleProject Podcast

Christianity, Old Testament, Torah, Theology, New Testament, God, Demons, Tim Mackie, Bible Study, Angels, Bible, Jesus, Spiritual Beings, Jon Collins, Religion & Spirituality, Spirit, Satan

4.8 • 18.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Wilderness E9 — After Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tested for 40 days. The exodus generation spent 40 years in the wilderness, so we’d be right to expect parallels with their experience. But why does Jesus need to go through this wilderness test? And what does it mean for his followers? In this episode, Jon and Tim look at Jesus’ three wilderness tests, discovering the long-awaited faithful human who is ready to enter the garden land.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The wilderness is a place of struggle and turmoil.
0:07.8	It's a season that's dangerous and lifeless.
0:11.7	The wilderness is the reality that we're not home yet.
0:15.4	In the story of the Bible, God meets his people in the wilderness.
0:19.0	And in his creative generosity, he uses the tragedy of the
0:22.9	wilderness as an opportunity to prepare us for future garden life. The whole goal is to transform
0:29.2	you through the hardships of the wilderness into the kinds of people who can truly inhabit the
0:35.3	garden and not replay the failures of our ancestors.
0:40.0	This brings us to the story of Jesus.
0:42.5	In our last episode, we saw how Jesus in the wilderness was baptized as an act of repentance.
0:48.0	Jesus has nothing to repent of, but he joins us in our repentance,
0:52.6	because on our own, we can't repent and turn to God,
0:55.8	but Jesus can. And from heaven, God declared that Jesus is his divine son and whom he's well-pleased.
1:02.2	He was marked out in his baptism as the one who's ready. Jesus is called to live out in his own
1:09.3	experience, the sonship that should have characterized Israel.
1:13.2	After this, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested.
1:18.3	Jesus doesn't eat or drink for 40 days, and then the Satan shows up with three tests.
1:24.7	Each test, linking back to the ways Israel was tested in the wilderness. And where Israel
1:29.8	failed, Jesus succeeds. Jesus trusts that God will provide for his daily needs. He also chooses
1:36.8	not to force his father's hand. He also trusts that God will fulfill his destiny as the divine
1:43.3	son to become the ruler of the world.
1:46.2	Now, Jesus is inviting us to join him so we too can pass the test in the wilderness.
	...

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