Protective

9:30 a.m. Wednesday November 30, 31F/0C.

White. Frost crystals adorned the old green truck like sparkly jewels early today. The air was cold enough to freeze laundry that was hung out at at dawn. There it is, frozen stiff, all billowed out, swinging like playful children on the line. All at once, the birds cry out at each other, “eerup-eerup, craw-craw,” and a final “cheep-cheep-cheep”. Crows are the ones on the lookout. Well-scolded, the golden cat runs back from the dense brush to the cabin porch. He can hunt better when the crows aren’t looking. A patch of white and golden fur runs from the porch to the shadow of the truck. He’s looking to try again.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter four

Heavenly Father, guide us please as we walk through the stories of Yeshua and your people. In the name of our savior, we ask. Amen.

Then Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

It took Yeshua a bit of walking from Nazareth to find John the baptizer. Then, as soon as he came up out of the water, filled with the visible Holy Spirit, he went out on his own into the uninhabited places. He went to be tempted by the false accuser, the devil, and he who hates God.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Purposefully, Yeshua went out on his own, eating no food, only taking in what was spiritual from his heavenly Father. I will offer that he likely did drink water, or in the desert, dew. In this manner, he purged himself of all uncleanliness that might have come into him from foods or from associations with spiritual influences. This was not a repentance from sin, but a cleansing.

As a younger person, I did fast for as long as five days and found that after a certain time period, about three days long, food no longer mattered. So, there is a period of time between three days and forty, when the body can function quite well.

However, it was still a very long fast. The devil can be patient, as a spider who waits to catch a fly. The supernatural being of light, who was beautiful and cunning, waited until Yeshua’s strength left him at his weakest.

And then he leapt.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

That suggestion would not have been a challenge for the man who was able to multiply food and drink. Surely by then, Yeshua knew that whatever he asked of his heavenly Father, that his heavenly Father would do.

It was no more than a suggestion. From a devil. Had Yeshua done as the devil suggested, he would have set a precedence. The devil would have been his advisor at the most ill-sought times.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Yeshua quoted scripture and re-determined himself to eat only after his battle with the devil was done. His reference came from the torah, from Deuteronomy 8:3.

[God] humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

The accuser continued.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou thy foot against a stone.

Two could play the “quote scripture” game. The tempter quoted Psalm 91:12.

In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Again, the accuser’s suggestion was just a suggestion, and a safe one at that. Yes, the angels would have caught Yeshua, and kept him from fallling. That wasn’t the point. At his weakest physical moment, he could not accept temptation.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Yeshua responded with “I will not,” when he quoted Deuteronomy 6:16.

You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.

The accuser will pay for this. It IS already in his future.

Life in the hollow, Wednesday

I’ve come to think of Yeshua in a protective way, as if he is a good friend or close family member. I don’t like reading this story. No. I don’t like it at all.

He is certainly capable of taking care of himself and billions of others all at the same time. Does anyone NOT protect that which they love?

But I used to wonder why Yeshua taught in parables, kept back certain information about God before the general public, only revealing specifics to his disciples. He truly loves his heavenly Father. A small distinct bit of his personality must be the desire to protect what he most loves, his heavenly Father, even when his Father is most capable of complete self-protection.

In Luke 10, Yeshua was recorded as saying the following.

…no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

Yeshua revealed his heavenly Father only to those whom he loved most. Protective.

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