Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12, 13; Luke 4:1-13.
Is not the wilderness a figure of the world—this present evil world, which, though shone upon and watered from above, brings forth nothing but briers and thorns; bears no fruit for God? The waste, howling, terrible wilderness, in which were pits and scorpions, through which Israel of old passed, and in which they wandered forty years, was surely to them a figure of the world: in it no rest for the sole of the foot could be found; and water out of the. smitten rock in Horeb, and manna from heaven must be given, or they would perish. In the wilderness, alas! they tempted God, asking meat for their lust, and, despising the good land, did so provoke God, that He aware in His wrath, “They shall not enter into My rest.” They forgat The Rock that begat them, and corrupted themselves—a solemn lesson to the saints. Israel became a wilderness; Israel became the world, “Ye are from beneath;” “Ye are of your father the devil;” “Ye are of this world.” Israel had become as the nations: the vineyard of the Lord, a wilderness. “Lo Ammi,” not My people, was truly written upon them. But for a very little remnant, they were become as Sodom and Gomorrah. Unclean spirits, deaf and dumb spirits, legion in name, inhabited Jacob, the lot of God’s inheritance. Fallen and turned away from Jehovah, Satan had got his throne amongst them. The Holy One of God is led Up of the Spirit into the wilderness (the literal a figure of the spiritual) to be tempted. Surely the wild beasts have another signification, and not that of lions and bears merely. Is not fallen human nature bestial? (Rom. 1). Is not the position of the saint in the world very similar to that of our Lord in the wilderness? Does he not find the world a wilderness, the scene of Satan’s power, and where he is assaulted with temptations, according to the pattern of Him who is the Captain of our salvation? but does he overcome, as Jesus did; or fall, after the example of the unbelief and disobedience of Israel of old? Jesus says, “I have overcome the world,” its prince, and its god. Can you, in My victory, withstand, overcome, and stand? Do you realize your position in the world to be such as Mine in the wilderness? What was there for Me there, save temptation; or for God, but dishonor, and not glory? The wilderness produced nothing for Me or for God. What do you find for yourself in it? Surely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life make up the wilderness now—the world which lieth in the Wicked-one, incapable of ministering aught to the saint: in it he must hunger, and learn that he lives “not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, for He was not of this world. His prayer for us to the Father is, “Not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Satan, that roaring lion, may indeed desire to have the weakest and most exposed saint as a prey, but Jesus has prayed for such a one that his faith fail not; and this is the victory that overcometh the world—the wilderness, its weary journeys and watch-lags; its hungerings, through inability to supply aught that is good according to God; its trials and temptations—even our faith. Doubtless there is more in the passage, but I have only sought to make a spiritual and practical application of it.