21/3/18 – Numbers 11:4-35, Numbers 12, Numbers 13:1-25 – Luke 3:23-38, Luke 4:1-13 – Proverbs 7:21-27

Numbers 11:4-6

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Ah, the rabble. When people start complaining as a group, it can really get out of control. (If in doubt, just look at twitter for longer than 5 minutes)

How quick we can be to forget the goodness of God. Every single day God brought them manna, miraculously. And the miracle becomes the focus of the complaint.

As long as we are looking back to all we’ve had in the last, in our life in slavery to sin – there will be times we get nostalgic about it and forget where God had brought us.

Look ahead.

Look at what God is doing.

Don’t romanticise the past.

Num 11:27-29

And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”

God had told Moses that to choose elders and that the Spirit that was on Moses would be shared with them. Then these guys started prophesying. Isn’t that amazing?

They had one leader with a special connection to God and then… they have more.

You’d think they’d be delighted. But actually they didn’t know how to cope with the concept! They’d invested so much in Moses that they had limited God.

And Moses responds so well. He’s not a jealous leader – he wants other to experience the Spirit of God.

Let us never be jealous of Gods anointing on another. The more people filled with the spirit the better.

Moses even says, he’d love it if everyone was a prophet. Don’t jealously guard the anointing – let the anointing grow in others.

Luke 4:1-2

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

Jesus was not just tempted with the three temptations Satan brings later in this chapter. Those three come at the end of the 40 days, but here Luke tells us that Jesus was tempted during the whole 40 days.

It’s not until the 40 days are over do we get the temptations that we have details on.

Temptation every day for 40 days… you can fit a lot of temptation into that amount of time. What form did those temptations take?

We do not know. It seems Jesus did not share that information.

But we know Jesus was tested in every way. In those 40 days everything came at him.

In whatever way you have been tempted. Jesus understands. He’s dealt with it. And he’s dealt with it without sin. We worship a God who understands the struggles we have, not from a distance, but as one who has faced them Himself.

Luke 4:13

When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

The devil likes to do this. You can experience great victories over him and He will flee.

He will go and lick his wounds. But he’s patient.

With Jesus and also with us, he waits for the opportune time. Don’t give place to him. Don’t give him opportunity. Don’t give him a foothold.