Sat.’s Devo - The Temptations

Read: Numbers 30:1-31:54; Luke 4;1-30; Psalm 63:1-11; Provers 11:20-21 A man was never allowed to break a vow he made because the man represents both Jesus and God and they never go back on a promise. The young woman represents a new believer who says presumptuous things and promises things she can not keep and does not mean. The Lord, as her father watches over her vows and decides which ones will stand. Once she is married, she had made Jesus her husband and He watches over her words to decide which ones she will be responsible for. If a woman’s husband is dead or she is divorced she has no one as her head watching over her words so they will stand as spoken. This refers to a person who is not saved but she or he is not serving the devil either. She or he will be held responsible for every idle word that comes out of their mouth. The Lord told the people to take revenge on the Midianites who led them into idolatry. When Balaam couldn’t curse the Israelites, he advised the Midians to infiltrate their Isaraelite camp with their enticing women to lead the Israelites into their idolatry and sexual perversions. They sent a thousand warriors from each tribe and the ark and trumpets and attacked Midian. They killed all the men and all five of their kings. They kept the women and children as plunder along with anything of worth. God was not pleased that they let the women who had enticed the men to sin. Any of he plunder that was made of metal that would not burn had to go through fire to be cleansed and anything that would burn had to be washed in water. The men who fought also had to be quarantined for 7 days and wash their clothes before they could return. The plunder was split in half and half of it given to the army. From the army’s half they were to give one of every 500 prisoners and animals to the priests. From the half given to the people, they were to give every 50 of the people and animals to the priests. Not one of the men who went to battle was killed so the generals and captains offered their share of the plunder of jewelry to the Lord to thank the Lord for their lives. Moses and Eleazar brought the gold to the Tabernacles as a give to the Lord as a reminder that the people of Israel belonged to him. In Luke, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There, Jesus was tempted by the devil for 40 days. Satan tempted Jesus to turn rocks into bread, to give him the glory of all the kingdoms of the world and authority over them and he took him to Jerusalem to the highest point of the Temple and told him to jump off and angels would hold them up and not let any harm come to him. With every temptation, Jesus answered with the Word, turning everything back to God. When the devil realized he couldn’t tempt Jesus with selfish ambition, he left. Jesus went back to his hometown and went to the synagogue that Sabbath. He read from the scroll laid out for the day and went to the particular part he wanted to emphasize. It was Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah and what he would do. He proclaimed that over himself. He then explained why he would not be able to do many miracles there like he had done in Capernaum, a Gentile area. He used two examples from Elijah’s life. Both had to do with miracles done to Gentiles and not Jews. This made the people so mad that they forced him to the edge of the hill to throw him over but he passed right through the crowd and left. Lord, thank you for your grace and your watch over us. Thank you that you never go back on your Word but you watch over it to perform it.