Reflections On Luke 4

REFLECTIONS ON LUKE 4

                In the previous chapter (3) of Luke, we see Yahusha Mashiach immersed by Yahuchanon the Immerser. Chapter 4 begins by telling us that Yahusha, after having been immersed, received the Ruach HaQodash. It says that He was full of the Ruach and returned from the Jordan; that He was LED by the Ruach into the wilderness. He was tested and tried during His wilderness experience.

(2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days, He ate nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.)

          He did not yield, in any way, to the temptation unlike the rest of humanity. We see that the manner of subtility the devil employed is the same as was used on Chuwah (Eve) and A’dam in the beginning. He used reason, logic and the word of Yah, twisting it to fit his narrative.

          As I reflected on the proceeding verses, I noticed the different levels of mastery Yahusha exhibited while being tempted by the devil. These are merely my take-aways after surveying the scriptures.

          When I read about the devil provoking Yahusha to turn the stones to bread in order to satisfy His hunger, I saw that the enemy was trying to entice Yahusha to use His powers and abilities to satisfy His flesh. To do what the devil suggests, Yahusha would need to use His power to change the function of the stone. Would changing the stone from its intended purpose for the sake of His own desire, in order to consume it, make it dysfunctional? Yahusha didn’t come to change the nature of what was already functional, but to deliver His people from disorder. Yahusha is all about the order and function of His Father’s Kingdom.

When the devil says, “If you are the Son of Yahuah, command this stone to be made bread,” he is trying to appeal to one of the weaknesses of humanity, which is to prove oneself by the demonstration of power. But as the Son of Yah, Yahusha could simply ask bread of His Father and it would be given in abundance. We know this to be true because we see what happens when He and His Talmidiym feed the multitude with a limited number of fish and loaves of bread. He blessed it and it increased in His hands.

Yahusha, in His answer, proclaims that a person is not only sustained by bread, but also by the words and the declarations of Yahuah. It is Yah who commands life to the living. That is the true sustenance of life, that the Father bids us, by His own words, to live. He is the giver of life. Bread is not.

Next, I notice something interesting in verse 6; something I’d never noticed before. It says that the devil took Yahusha “into a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, in a moment in time.” My first thought was: What kind of mountain is this that he has taken Him into? What’s in there? Are there screens? How had he shown Him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant? Does that include future kingdoms? This brought a slew of questions to mind. It goes on to say that the devil tells Yahusha, “I’ll give You all the POWER and Glory (which we know to be AUTHORITY) of the kingdoms of the world, for it has been given to me and to whoever I will give it to.” He tells Yahusha that he will give it all to Him if He worships him. I’ve always heard it taught that the devil offered Him those kingdoms as in the possession of them. What he offered Yahusha was the power and glory of them. (Spoiler Alert: Yahusha will take back the power and glory from the kingdom of darkness by obedience to Yah. He will declare and teach his disciples to pray, “…Yours (Yahuah’s) is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever…”)

As I try to imagine what the devil must have shown Yahusha in that mountain, I think the kingdoms of the world probably looked amazing and glorious. The devil was, in essence, telling Yahusha he’d give him control and rulership over the kingdoms that were to come on the earth, if He’d only worship him. Worship, from the Ivryt perspective, is the ceding of one’s will, power, strength and reverence to one who is above him or her. Bowing is the symbol of worship, because it is the literal lowering of oneself to the lowest position before One who is deemed greater. It is reverence. Those who are higher and more powerful than someone, do not bow to them.

Imagine, with me, that a Great King has a Son. That King’s Son is under His Authority and Power. The Son may have power to operate in the authority of the Father, but ultimately, He knows that the Authority belongs to the One who is Higher than He. If that King’s Son goes and bows to another, coming under the headship and authority of one who is not only lower than the Father, but also lower than Himself, that would be dishonoring to His Head, which is the Great King, but also to Himself. For the One who is Higher to yield to the lesser one would be absurd. If the Son does what His Father has told Him NOT to do, at the behest of one who is lower than both of them, He would be operating in dysfunction, removing His rightful authority and replacing it with a corrupt authority. That is what the devil was trying to get Yahusha to do; to replace His Father’s headship with that of a lower, corrupt and perishing authority. If Yahusha had bowed, yielded and reverenced one who is lower than Himself and His Father for the sake of receiving a temporary authority, He would have been saying He didn’t believe His Father’s Kingdom was at least as amazing and glorious as that of the world. He knows His Father’s Kingdom is greater and far more marvelous!

As I pondered this, I wondered why the devil thought the Son, having left the side of the Most-High for a season, would forsake all that Authority for the world. I figured it must have been made to look splendid and incomparable. He thought he was presenting Yahusha with an offer He couldn’t refuse. Then the thought occurred to me; What if Yahusha, because of His life in the flesh, hadn’t remembered all that was in eternity. He was in every way human, after all, right? He was born a baby and then He grew up, like us. None of us remembers eternity, yet we come from it, somehow. Apart from our temporal bodies, we are soul and ruach which existed before we were born. Our bodies were made animate by soul, spirit and the breath of life. Think about the creation of A’dam. His body was prepared from the earth. He was inanimate until Yah breathed into him the “breath of life”. The breath of life came from Yah. THEN he became a living soul. The life in him existed in Yah, first…in eternity. Yah is eternal. Yah did not create A’dam’s soul when He created his body. His soul existed already and was placed into him after his body was made.

(Side note…Then my thoughts went to CPR; how it is administered to people who are no longer breathing, in an attempt to restore them to life. In this procedure, one person literally breathes into another, sharing their life’s breath with the one who needs it. This further proves that Yah is the source of life and that He created life. He sets the first example of how to give/restore life.)

Back to my reflection on Luke 4…

 As I imagine this scene on the mountain, I wonder if the devil knew that those born of the flesh were ignorant of eternity. Perhaps the devil, supposing Yahusha had forgotten eternity, thought that showing Him the splendor of the world would entice Him the way it had A’dam and his descendants. But Yahusha learned obedience to Yah, first and foremost, in eternity and all throughout His childhood, until He came to that moment of choice. A’dam received instruction in righteousness early on in the garden, but he still relinquished his dominion, power and authority when he was tempted with a way that seemed better to him. The same devil who tempted A’dam and Chuwah also tempted Yahusha.

But Yahusha was prepared to come and take back the authority A’dam had yielded. Yahusha came to retrieve the dominion and power stolen through the deception of temptation. Yahusha had been given power to overcome every inclination of the flesh. He walked the earth as the ultimate King, though the world did not perceive His rulership. The world was under the influence of darkness; the same darkness the devil was trying to deceive Yahusha with. Yahusha was born to defeat the corruption of the flesh, not to be overcome by it or made subject to its deeds. This was something A’dam, was unable to accomplish, though it was meant to be one of his functions. Yahusha gained power over the flesh and diverse ruach’s. The original man, A’dam was meant to have dominion over them too, but he yielded his authority to darkness through the deception. He became lower than it and was thereby under its authority. Yahusha, in His overcoming it, took back the dominion A’dam had mistakenly given away.

When the devil tried tempting Yahusha with the power and the authority of the kingdoms of the world, he was attempting to keep control of creation by stealing the heritage of the Father, by convincing His Son to come under his authority. The devil understands the appointed time. He is permitted to employ tricks and tactics to try and prolong his time, though he cannot actually do it. But he tried. The appointed time had come for the begotten Son of Yah to appear and redeem His Father’s inheritance from the kingdom of darkness. It had been stolen, but now it was time to take it back. Had that appointed time been missed…who knows what the future would have held. But obedience to the Father by the Son made it possible for the appointment to be kept. Therefore, and thereby, those held captive by darkness were set free–free to come into His marvelous light of truth.

Yahusha responds to the devils offer with these words of wisdom. “Get behind me, enemy. It is written, ‘You shall worship (bow, surrender and yield oneself to) Yahuah your Elohiym and Him only shall you worship.’”

Next up, we read that the devil brought Yahusha to Yarushalayim and sets Him on the high point of the Temple. The devil might have said (to himself), If he wants to quote scripture, I can quote scripture too. Until that moment, Yahusha had been the One to speak the words of Yah to the enemy. The devil realizes he has failed to tempt Yahusha the way he had successfully corrupted mankind. He knows that the Son of Yah has come to earth and put on flesh for the purpose of defeating him; to gain victory over him; to rescue the captives who are helplessly in darkness. He may be thinking that he can’t let Yahusha walk away without getting Him to submit to the order of darkness and to the kingdoms of the earth. So, he uses the word of Yah to try and confound Yahusha. He says, “If You are the Son of Elohiym, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge over you, to guard you; and in their hands they will bear you up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone.’”

Had he been successful, he might have gotten the Son to end His own life before His works were finished or to cause a disruption in the plans of Yah, at the very least. Yah does everything in decency and order. If one intentionally throws himself down from a high place, then that person must fall. Angels (Malakiym) protect and guard Yah’s chosen ones from dangers seen and unseen, but if anyone is willing to throw his or herself down or dash their own foot against a stone, that’s on them. Choosing to do such a thing would be dysfunctional (dysfunction is the definition of evil). If anyone chooses dysfunction, they will have their part of it. The angels might not run to the rescue of someone who made that choice, thus leaving them to experience the outcome of it. I don’t believe that the function of the angels is to run around rescuing people from their fool-heartiness. That would mean man control the system of the Most-High instead of the Most-High being in control of creation. The angels have been given charge over us, to keep us from the perils of life, but not from the results of willful disorder. Throwing oneself down from a high place is not a normal function of life…so the angels might not be expected to intervene.

Yahusha spoke the word of truth back to the enemy, telling him, “It is written, ‘You should not put Yahuah your Elohiym to the test.”

Imagine with me, what might have happened had Yahusha done it. Perhaps the malakiym would have come to rescue Him. He is, after all, the ONLY begotten Son of the Father. The malakiym would likely come to His rescue if He prayed to the Father and asked for them. Think ahead, for a moment, to the betrayal. In Matthew 26, we see that they’re in the garden and Peter has just cut off the guard’s ear. Yahusha restores it and tells Peter to put the sword away. Yahusha said, “Do you think I couldn’t pray to My Father and right away, be given more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled…” If twelve legions of angels come, there will be a massacre. Suppose he, because of the temptation of the devil, summoned the angels of the Kingdom of Yah to come down and contend with the devil and his dark kingdom. They would likely have brought destruction with them. But we know that Yah has set the time in which He will summon the kingdoms of the world to come out and do battle against Him and His elect…after the remnant is sealed and separated unto Him. It is not at the time chosen by the enemy, but by Yah, that darkness will be destroyed. If Yah’s malakiym came down to rescue the Son before He got the chance to accomplish His redemptive work, the great and terrible day might have been hastened. If destruction came before repentance, redemption might not have come to the lost ones. Though the devil and his kingdom would certainly have been defeated, the captives would have been destroyed with them. Transgression and iniquity would have been the final estate of the prisoners who were bound by sin. They’d be destroyed along with the kingdoms of the world, which are all enemies of Yah. Prior to redemption, we all belonged to the kingdoms of the world, the rulership of darkness, because of iniquity and transgression of all flesh. If this battle took place before the redemption, wouldn’t death, sin and unrighteousness have been the final state of those whom Yahusha came to redeem. The choice would not have been given to humanity, to come out of darkness into the marvelous order of Yahusha. The lost sheep would have been eternally lost and destroyed with the kingdom of darkness…because we were born into it and needed One to come and set us free from it. Yah’s inheritance, His heritage, the apple of His eye would have been destroyed before darkness could be rebuked. Had the destruction of darkness come prematurely, redemption would have been impossible because all flesh dwelled in darkness prior to the great light of Yahusha being shed abroad in the hearts of men. Though not subject to it, Yahusha submitted to live in it for a season, while he ministered the good news to those in darkness. Had He not even begun to minister redemption and salvation, much less completed the work, no one could have accepted Him and therefore been returned to the order of Yahuah.

Getting Yahusha to throw Himself down from that pinnacle would have served the enemy’s plan. Remember! He is subtle, cunning and deceitful. That means he’s calculating, a gamesman. In suggesting this one thing, that Yahusha throw Himself down from the highest place, he was attempting to trigger the zeal of a Son to prove the truth, faithfulness, ability, strength and power of the Father. Most sons after the flesh might fail the test; they’d fall for it (pun intended), knowing that their Father was the Strongest and Most Capable to save them. But Yahusha didn’t come to be saved, but to bring salvation. Not to mention that He might have unleashed the battle of the ages, thousands of years too soon. Having the Ruach of Truth, Wisdom and Life within Him, He overcame the tempter. He rejected that temptation and won.

Even if Yahusha’s actions (had he chosen to put Yahuah to the test by throwing Himself down) didn’t cause the premature destruction of the whole world, He would have at least been guilty of following the suggestion, instruction or command of the enemy. Then the world might have been back at square one.

Realizing he could not tempt Yahusha, the enemy departed, having exhausted his opportunities to tempt Yahusha before the start of His ministry of redemption.

The prayer Yahusha taught His Talmidiym in Matthew came to my mind as I reflected on this story. When asked how to pray, He told them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in Heaven, exalted is Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it is in the heavens. Each day, give us our daily bread. And forgive us our transgressions as we forgive those who have transgressed against us. And do not lead us into temptations but deliver us from evil.’”

We can see the heart and mind of the Savior as we read His prayer. He acknowledges that salvation (which is redemption, victory, help and provision) was established by Yah, in the heavens. He knew that the Kingdom of Yah and His will was to come to earth, as it was already done in Heaven. He tells the disciples to pray, asking to not follow after the wicked inclinations of the heart (lead us not into temptation) and to be delivered from dysfunction, which is called evil.

Matthew’s account of this prayer goes on to say, “For thine is the Kingdom, Power and Authority (glory) forever.”

As I reflect on the temptation Yahusha endured, I recognized that He took the dominion and the Authority of the kingdom of darkness when He refused the temptation. That’s why He instructed the disciples to pray those things, because they claimed and affirmed the redemptive work of Yahusha. Yahusha was telling them to declare that the He had successfully restored the order of Yahuah to the chosen; that He had secured what was lost and stolen, restoring it to its rightful place. He took Power and Authority over the kingdoms of the world. Now the kingdoms of the world have become the Kingdoms of Yahuah and of His Mashiach. And He will reign forever over them all, forever, as stated in Revelation 11:15. These things were accomplished by the obedience of Yahusha unto the perfect will of the One Who sent Him to do that miraculous work.

My thoughts then went to the first man, A’dam. A’dam and Chuwah were dysfunctional in that they transgressed the original command, forsaking their first estate, choosing to submit themselves (worship) to that which was lower than them. They were tempted by the devil, and they yielded to it. This resulted in them being cast out of the garden; out of the presence of Yahuah. They were cast into outer darkness, in a sense.

Where A’dam failed to walk in the dominion he’d been given, Yahusha succeeded, and He has given us power to do the same. The kingdom of darkness is now shaking and soon falls. It has been thrown down, violently, by Yahusha’s obedience. He had to be obedient, even unto death, in order to take back all of the Power and Authority once seized by darkness, because of iniquity. Death was the last power to be defeated. Yahusha took back authority over it and emptied it of its sting. There is no more power in the kingdom of darkness over those who are Yahusha’s. 

Those who are in Yahusha were His from the beginning…from eternity. And He has not lost any that were His. He will not lose them; they won’t be taken from Him, but He will deliver them, secured, to Yah and the Kingdom of Righteousness on the last day. These have been secured while within the world, yet set apart from it, as we await it’s end and the emergence of the world without end. Jude 1:24 “Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, to the only WISE POWER, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever…So be it.”

Eternity is the past, the present and the future. Eternity is ever existent. But until time is fulfilled, we must endure. He will uphold us. We can do all things through Him because He strengthens us.

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