My hands have been at rest for a while now. Reading a few of my previous posts I wonder why I have taken this long break from writing. I would be hesitant to call it writer’s block. Whatever it may be, tonight I am inclined to put down a revelation that dawned in my spirit a couple of days ago. It started with reading scripture about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. I had just received a wonderful revelation from a speaker in a devotional video. She spoke about how Jesus decided to live by God’s word rather than the word of the evil one (i.e. satan). It was put like this, “Jesus’ decision not to turn stones to bread was simply Him telling the devil that He chose to live according to God’s will rather than the desire of His flesh (satisfying His hunger). Let me share the scripture here with you.

Matthew 4:1-11 or Luke 4:1-13.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. ² For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. ³ During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
⁴ But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, ⁶ and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’
⁷ Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’
⁸ Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
¹⁰ “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’
¹¹ Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus

As I lay on my bed and mulled this over, I compared the temptation of Jesus with another temptation story in the Bible that some of us may know well. The infamous fall of Adam and Eve (See Genesis 3). For those who do not know the story, satan, disguised as a serpent, deceived Adam and Eve to eat a forbidden fruit God had instructed them not to eat. Therefore, they sinned.

With this background, I decided to explore the two scenarios.

The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Jesus is the last Adam. The perfect Adam. A life-giving Spirit. I compared these two Adams and their temptations. I have, on one hand, ‘first Adam’. First Adam was living in a beautiful and perfect garden. It had everything good. A beautiful woman (in my opinion, everything God made was good so I believe Eve was beautiful). In the garden, there were trees that produced all kinds of fruit which he could eat to his fill. He was in a fruitful green blossoming garden. Birds chirping. A beautiful breeze. A gentle brook. Colorful swimming fish wiggling their fins. Every kind of animal you can think of living in harmony and eating plants. No predators or prey. Perfection. (See Genesis 2).

Then I take a look at Second Adam (Jesus). He was in the wilderness. Dry, hot, and dusty. Barely any green trees to be seen for miles not to talk of fruits. No pretty birds chirping. No harmless plant-eating wild animals. Rather there were probably those who would readily have him for breakfast, lunch or supper. A blazing hot sun. Buzzing flies and biting bugs. Thorns and thistles. Snakes and scorpions. And hunger. His cousin John had previously been eating locusts from the same wilderness.

These two Adams find themselves in divergent circumstances. One (the first Adam) was in a place of plenty and the other (Jesus) in a place of want. The first was in a very comfortable place, and the other in a place you and I wouldn’t go for a holiday vacation.

We also have a third person in both pictures, “the snake” (the devil), who comes to tempt them. Now, something we need to take note of is that the snake is very deceptive (Genesis 3:1). His job is to twist the true picture of any circumstance as long as it makes God look like the bad guy. He is good at it. We have a multitude of people in the world today who have fallen for that deception. The Bible tells us not to be ignorant of his wiles (2 Corinthians 2:11).

The first Adam had so much! You and I can agree on that. He lived in plenty but in the garden of all that abundance, the snake deceived him so well that he overlooked all the plenty he had. He saw what He did not have. He only saw the one thing he could not have among the others that were readily his to enjoy. This picture was a lie. A fraud. A hoax. The first Adam had God as his father. He had everything because God is the source of everything. Yet God was transformed in first Adam’s eyes. Transformed into a wicked God who did not want to give him the best he deserved. So first Adam believed and accepted the lie and fell from his place of sonship because he trusted in the words of the devil over the word of God. He failed a test that ideally should have been easy to pass.

Now, this crafty serpent again shows up in a completely different scenario and this time around changes his narrative. He doesn’t show up as a lying snake this time. He comes as himself. For forty days he was on ‘Mission Temptation’. For forty days he attempted to get Jesus Christ to repeat the mistake of the first Adam. In his temptations, he tried to make Jesus, the last Adam believe another lie. Using the same modus operandi. The falsehood he was perpetuating was that even though Jesus had the right to plenty, God was making Him live in lack. Therefore, he incited Jesus to do something about the situation. Just as he did in the garden, he again comes with his word (a lie) to challenge the word of God (the truth). Luke 4:1-13.

Satan’s wiles:

a. Why was Jesus hungry from unnecessary fasting when He already had the power to turn stone into bread. I mean God was asking too much wasn’t He?

b. You are the son of God. Why have you allowed yourself to be limited and belittled as a mere man here? Show God that as His Son you deserve better. you don’t deserve to be treated this way.

c. If your Father won’t give you what you truly deserve, I will. Just turn Your allegiance to me. Make me your god. I have what it takes to make you rule.

These are the same lies he sells to man over and over again and many fall for it.

But where the first Adam failed, the second did not. Where the first Adam was weak, the second was strong. Where the first Adam was deceived, the second Adam untangled the web of lies.

Jesus could see the value of God’s word beyond the present circumstances. That God would not withhold any good thing from him. Because as the Bible says in the same chapter, the Spirit of God led Him to that place of hardship. For Jesus, it was the will of God, and if it was God’s will, then it was good. He saw God’s love and faithfulness in lack and hunger. In a dry place. In a difficult place. He saw a garden of goodness in the word of God which He had heard and absolutely believed. He was sure of His place as the Son of God. He had nothing to prove of Himself except to trust His Father’s word and to do only what the Father had asked Him to do. Where the first Adam chose to live by the bread (the forbidden fruit) rather than the words that had proceeded from God’s mouth, the second Adam made a better, higher choice which set the pace for the redemption of mankind. Redemption towards a place where we can see plenty in the driest wilderness. He established Himself as one who gives life by upholding the truth unconditionally. Where God’s word is enough to sustain us whether we are in plenty or in want. For the word of God is what we need to live.

Jesus made a choice for truth. He believed in God’s word. His circumstances gave Him every reason to doubt, yet He trusted God in spite of it. He overcame the devil by the word of His testimony of who He believed God to be. True about His words.

So dear reader, it is not about plenty or the want. It is not about the circumstances you find yourself in. It is all about whom you believe. There is the truth, and there is the lie. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He alone knows it, and it is through Him that we know it too. In this world full of falsehoods and deception. We need truth to hang on to. A foundation that does not quiver so that we can build our existence. Just like the two Adams, a choice is always available. And whether we like it or not, it is either truth or lies.

My fervent hope and prayer is that you would choose the one who is able to lead you into all truth. Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.