February 1, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be sorely tested by the devil. ” (Matthew 4.1)

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was sorely tested by the devil.” (Luke 4.1,2)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Throughout scripture we will find a literary tool used to help frame the most important word and instruction of God in a moment. Some may see it as a chiastic structure and others see it as a chiasmus. There are many poetic and philosophical adaptations of these as they appear in various genres of literature. I simply want to focus on a three-fold structuring of images or concepts where the second in the list is seen at the most important. The first and the last concepts in the list as no less important but they support the second one as the vital and most resonant teaching in that moment. Looking at Matthew’s listing of the tests Satan presented to Jesus in the wilderness we see this: food (a “supernatural use of authority to sate a physical need); power (a prioritizing and purpose-driven action to evoke an action from another entity as in moving a pawn to draw a more important piece on the board out for capture); and finally sovereignty (the exercise of an ultimate authority of one over others.) In all of these, Matthew is clear that it is Satan who is actually being put to the test. His interpretation of a righteous relationship is dependent on “might makes right.” Using one’s own power to stand contrary to the will of God is an act of sin. Jesus is presented by Matthew with consistency. As the beginning of His ministry promotes “Not My will but God’s be done” in these three tests, so it appears at the end of His earthly ministry when He submits to God’s will with the same in the Garden and on the Cross. What lies at the heart of Matthew’s “trilogy” is the subject of challenging God’s authority. Jesus responded to the three challenges in this way: man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; do not put the Lord God to the test; and worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve. In each challenge, the divinity of Christ is asked to rise above the reality of God as Lord of all. It is important for Matthew’s audience to hear the central focus of “God’s will as the critical determination of who is in control of our lives.” What we shall eat and drink becomes less important than whom and how we shall worship which is dependent on abiding by God’s will in which we shall trust leaning not on the contemplations of our own hearts.

For Luke, the three-fold presentation puts the act of worship as the central focus of the argument. Luke moves from “food” to “worship/service” to advancing God’s sovereignty as the rule of life. Following the argument before, we are able to see how Luke understands the great choices in the lives of his audience in the first century are bound by “how shall we conduct ourselves in the world spiritually and physically.” The concept of worship as service and service as worship is a common one throughout scripture. We know the responses of Jesus come from the Book of Deuteronomy. That “book” which was recovered in the days of Josiah the King of Israel as the “worship” of God was revitalized in the Temple and thus throughout all Israel, was like a renaissance for the nation as the people of God. It is interesting how that book of the Pentateuch, the Torah, had been lost for all that time. Finding it in the dark recesses of a far corner in a back room at the edge of the Temple itself becomes an allegorical revelation of what the priests and the people had done to accommodate their own lives as God’s people. Removing the lynchpin of righteousness allowed the whole of the culture and climate of faith in God to become weak and malleable. That would mean they could “eat, drink and be merry today because tomorrow we might die.” Such dualistic thinking promoted the very fraudulent practices which Ezekiel had revealed to him concerning what the priests were doing under the guise of worship in those same dark recesses. They were an abomination. Equally, the manipulation of “God’s authority” by the leadership as God’s representatives so that “their word” became law, created a tremendous rift between themselves and the people they were supposed to shepherd as well as diluting their stance against the very enemies of God who were like wolves attacking the flock. Their willingness to compromise to secure their own safety over and against that of the people demonstrated how far from honoring God in “worship and service” in “spirit and in truth” they had wandered. It would be said, “The sheep have all wandered away for the lack of a true shepherd.” (Luke 15 speaks to that very truth.)

Why was “worship and service” the lynchpin for Luke and his community of believers? Why is it still this way to this very day? It is not a denial of God’s sovereignty. Why worship anything which has no real power to effect change physically, spiritually, socially, emotionally and politically/authoritatively? The purpose of doing that moves the authority away from God and onto people. It was the very crux of idolatry which consumes the world today. God is not in control for those people or worse, the control which God exerts is seen as capricious and self-serving. God is not in it for us. God acts only for Himself. Really, if that were true then why “Jesus”? Jesus is how God revealed and reveals His true nature, character and purpose to the world. The whole world is filled with God’s people. What God desires as best for those people is a right relationship where they see themselves as “people of God.” That would mean they have chosen to serve Him and worship Him only as provider, ruler and savior from the forces which are at work against the true order of living and reduce it to chaos. A people who are at worship of the One True God are a people who no longer “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Those two images rise up out of the Old Testament witness of “turning stones into bread” and “bringing water out of the rock.” Equally true, we would see that those people who are at service for the One True God embrace and declare that their purpose and the resources to accomplish the good in the world which restores order out of chaos can only come from God and God alone. In this we hear the call of “the wilderness” concerning making paths straight (an Old Testament declaration) and the one in the safety of Immanuel, God with us, who proclaimed “I am the way, the truth and the light and by no other means can oneness with God be achieved and realized.”

Mighty ones of God, let me ask you, as I ask myself, the question of Joshua to the people of God called Israel, “As you choose this day, whom will you worship and whom will you serve?” The Promised Land awaits those who choose to worship God and serve Him only.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.