There are three wilderness experiences that are absolutely fundamental to the understanding of redemptive history. The first is the wilderness experience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Most of us are familiar with the story in Genesis 3; there is a provision in the wilderness that of all the trees in the garden "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." This was a wonderful provision, for the two could eat any fruit from any tree in the garden which God had made, with the exception of one tree. But in spite of God's generous provision, the two rebelled in the wilderness. God's word was questioned. "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" Satan asks. Notice how Satan adds to God's prohibition of eating from the one tree to eating from "any tree" in the garden. Eve gives her own addition to the word of God in responding to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." Both Satan and Eve wind up making God a stricter God than he has revealed himself to be. How many times have we seen this tendency.
We sin by adding to the word of God our own doctrines, our own opinions, or our own rules which God has not commanded. And many people rebel because they have gotten themselves to believe that this God is worthy of mutiny, this God who would withhold provisions and basic pleasures from them. God's word is undermined in another way in this text, but this time by subtraction. "Did God really say…" Satan asks. How many times do we hear this question today, "Did God really say such and such was a sin?" "Did God really say that Jesus is the only way to heaven?" Then finally there is the full scale rejection of God's word in Satan's words, "You surely will not die." You see, Satan cunningly started with subtle legalistic additions to the word of God, then by liberal subtraction, and now by outright rejection. Eve was deceived when she listened to the devil's advice and looked upon the fruit of the forbidden tree. "When she saw that it was pleasing to the eye and desirable to make one wise she took the fruit and ate…" Instant gratification! If you eat this fruit you shall be like gods, and you can have it all now! Adam and his wife would have been offered fruit from the tree of life if they would have obeyed God's command during the probationary period there in the garden, but Satan says in a sense, no…you can have it now, you can be like gods, you can have glory now instantly, without having to wait. Sound familiar? It sounds like an ad we might see on television today doesn't it? "Have it your way… Act now and make no payments till…."
So there is provision in the wilderness, rebellion in the wilderness, and now judgment in the wilderness. "Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked." I ran across a poem that expressed this kind of awakening:
I have taken the pill, I've hoisted my skirts to my thighs and dropped them to my ankles. I've rebelled at the university, skied at Aspen, lived with two men, married one, earned my keep, kept my identity, and frankly, I'm lost.
That is the modern spirit. There is a sense, perhaps as never before, that the more we rebel against God the more alienated we become. We know that we are naked, our eyes are opened but we are no wiser, just more ashamed. We're running from God, hiding, sewing together fig leaves of our own making to cover up our shame and nakedness. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have been running away from God, not seeking him. We want to "seek God" about as much as a wanted criminal wants to find a policeman. But as Paul states, "there is no one who seeks after God." Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame by leaves they had sewn for themselves. We do the same. Sometimes even church can become a way of doing that. We come to church squeaky clean with our best Sunday suit and cheerful smile, but for many of us, this is just an attempt to cover our shame. There is something else here in the wilderness, however. There is a promise. If you remember, God tells them, "Satan will bruise his heel, but your seed will crush his head." And then God sets out to cover their nakedness and shame with an animal he himself sacrifices to provide the covering, pointing forward to the final rest through the body and blood of Christ, sacrificed for Adam and Eve's rebellion in the wilderness.
The second wilderness experience is recorded in Ps. 78. The background for this Psalm is the remembrance of God's deliverance of Israel from the slavery in Egypt. Even in the middle of the wilderness, God gave his people manna from heaven, and water from a rock. But there was rebellion in the wilderness:
They forgot what God had done, the wonders he had shown them. He did miracles in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan. He divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand firm like a wall. He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers. But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High. They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? When he struck the rock, water gushed out, and streams flowed abundantly. But can he also give us food? Can he supply meat for his people?" When the LORD heard them, he was very angry; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance. Yet he gave a command to the skies above and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. He let loose the east wind from the heavens and led forth the south wind by his power. He rained meat down on them like dust, flying birds like sand on the seashore. He made them come down inside their camp, all around their tents. They ate till they had more than enough, for he had given them what they craved. But before they turned from the food they craved, even while it was still in their mouths, God's anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel. In spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror. (Ps. 78:11-33)
They did not remember what God had done, the Psalmist said. They refused to trust in God's deliverance and trusted in their own strength. They refused to live by God's word, for they put God to the test by making demands. They demanded the food they craved. Nothing has changed much has it. The people of God are still like this today. As long as God is sending the manna we are happy, but the instant something goes wrong we complain. And so we become cynical about God's provision, "What, is God going to spread out a table in the wilderness?" Then there is judgment in the wilderness. While the food was still in their mouth, God struck them dead. The Psalmist says he ended their days in futility (like the curse in Eden) and their years in terror. Once again Paradise is lost. The Kingdom of God is taken from a physical location back up into paradise. Just as the people of God lost their place of rest in Eden, so too, the people of God lost their place of rest in Israel.
But there is also salvation in the wilderness. Just a God promised salvation to Adam and Eve after their rebellion, so too there is a promise of deliverance in the midst of all of this:
He sent [the ark of] his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. He gave his people over to the sword; he was very angry with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep. Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, as a man wakes from the stupor of wine. He beat back his enemies; he put them to everlasting shame. Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved. He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever. He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. (Ps. 78:61-71)
God did not let an entire generation enter his rest. The generation in the wilderness that demanded the food they craved and would not trust his deliverance. It did not matter that they were Jews, God struck them dead and barred them from Paradise as he did Adam and Eve. And God swore in his wrath that they would never enter his rest. But to the remnant of Israel, God sent David to be a shepherd over the people.
And then finally we come to the last temptation in the wilderness, the temptation of Christ:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
Instead of feasting in the wilderness, as in the fruit of the garden of Eden, or on the bread as in the desert, Jesus chose fasting instead of feasting. The food Christ craved was the word of God. In this temptation in the wilderness, Satan again appeals to that which is pleasing to the eyes, and also to instant gratification, the short-cut to glory. Satan says, "Look, if you will just bow down and worship me, look at all the kingdoms you could have. I could make you the emperor of the world! And I will give all of this to you, immediately! You can't really know whether or not God will reward you at the end of your life, you've got to take things into your own hands. If you want it done right you've got to do it yourself. Let me give you instant happiness. I can give it to you now…why wait."
Instead of putting God to the test, Jesus responds to the devil by saying, "It is written: 'Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.'" Instead of twisting Scripture, he simply submits to it. Again Satan offers instant divinity, "I will give you the kingdoms of the world and all their authority and splendor." Jesus was of course divine, but he was also human, and there is no doubt that this was a real temptation of our Lord. But Jesus remembered that his mission was not to rule the kingdoms of this world, for his kingdom was not of this world. Though he sovereignly rules the world through providence right now, his kingdom is not identified with any earthly kingdom. When he returns, all of the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and once again Paradise will not only be a heavenly rule, as it is now, but will be a new heaven and a new earth. But Jesus responds with the commandment, "You must worship God alone…" This second Adam, this second Israel refuses to accept Satan's offer of instant gratification. No short-cut to glory for this Adam, for he will go all the way to the cross. At last an Adam that would not cave in to the lie!
How does Christ's victory over temptation help us in our own struggle? Hebrews records the following:
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (2:18) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin. (4:15).
Now think about that. Jesus Christ really did endure real temptation. He was tempted in every way. He was tempted sexually, he was tempted in terms of greed and power, he was tempted just as we are, yet without sin. So what is our response to this. Do we see this primarily as a moral example for us to follow: "If Jesus did it, we can do it, too?" No, Jesus did not fulfill obedience in this temptation as a moral example chiefly. He fulfilled it as our substitute. Don't you see, Jesus is the true Israel. Jesus Christ is the second Adam. He lived for us. This Adam successfully made it through his probation in the wilderness and won for us the right to eat from the tree of life, which is his own flesh. By trusting in Christ, all men are co-heirs of the promise together with Israel according to the apostle Paul. Jesus is the tree of life in the paradise of God for he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life…" Jesus is the bread in the wilderness for he said in John 6, "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But I am the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." He was the rock that broke open in the wilderness out of which water flowed for the people there. 1 Cor. 10 states, "They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ." He is the sabbath rest and the promised land. He says, "Come to me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest." Even though there is no earthly paradise no land of Canaan until Jesus returns, there is still an eternal rest into which we can enter. And we enter that rest by faith. Jesus is the Joshua that leads us into the promised land. He is the Davidic king. He lived for us and he died for us. He was the sacrifice whose righteousness covers our nakedness and shame, the lamb of God foreshadowed in the sacrifice God made to cover Adam and Eve, and in the sacrifices of Israel. He was the final sacrifice for sin. All who trust in his atoning death are declared not guilty. Paul says he was crucified for our sins and raised for our justification. We do not achieve justification; he did by rising from the dead. We do not submit to it, we do not let him subdue us, we do not get into the flow, we do not live the victorious Christian life.
Jesus Christ has accomplished the highest form of perfection and victory for all Christians, though we suffer, fail, and struggle with sin in innumerable ways. He also prays for us. Right now at this very moment, and at moments when you are engaged in giving into temptation, you have a defense attorney at God's right hand in the heavenly courtroom pleading your case, showing the Judge his nail scarred wrists for you.
Paul said the gospel is a stumbling block to the Jews because they are looking for "signs and wonders." That sounds like a contemporary preoccupation. He said the gospel is foolishness to Greeks because they are looking for wisdom. But because we are in Christ, we do not set our hopes on what is pleasing to the eye, we do not look to our own strength or to our own righteousness but to God's infallible word which promises us things we do not see. We stake our confidence and place our trust in things we do not feel. Now we can endure temptation and suffering, not in order to win the prize of salvation, but because someone has already won it for us, and we share that prize by virtue of our union with him through faith. In view of Christ's successful probation in the wilderness experience, let the dying embers of your faith be fanned into a bright, warm, and cheering flame. Let us turn our eyes from seeking our salvation, our happiness and joy in perishable things, fixing our eyes on Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. And let us cast aside those sins that so easily set us back in our journey through the wilderness content to feed only on Christ, God's living word, the tree of life, the rock of living water, the bread from heaven, whose blood is the wine of heaven that washes away your failures to resist temptation in the wilderness.
