For a description of the Year 2 (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Luke 4
How did Jesus respond to temptation, and how does that affect the way you respond? I always had it in my head that Jesus’ spent His 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying and that the temptations or testing from the devil only came at the end of the 40 days. But reading the NIV translation it says, “for forty days He was tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:2a). I looked at a few other translations as well and most of them at least implied the same. So, while I’m sure Jesus did indeed spend the 40 days fasting and praying, it sounds like He may have endured far more testing than what is noted in the text.
I don’t know if there was additional testing or if the devil came at Jesus with these three things continuously. What I know is that resisting a temptation once is pretty do-able most of the time. But holding up under the pressure of constant needling is a whole ‘nuther thing. When we remain in the presence of the temptation, the likelihood that we will cave in to it increases. Jesus, of course, didn’t. Instead, using scripture, He focused on God instead of His own needs, He countered Satan’s lies with God’s truth, and He kept His heart humble. What a great example of how to apply God’s word to our day-to-day lives!
Gen. 7-8
What did God see in Noah that He found him “righteous in this generation?” Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark. Did he not have more than three children? Did his three sons not have children? Why just these eight people? Were there more who simply weren’t mentioned or were these the only eight God considered worthy of saving? Interesting though evidently irrelevant questions. God gives us what we need to know. Though we know very little about the rest of Noah’s family, we know that Noah’s righteousness stood out to God. Why? The only real clue we have is in Genesis 7:5. “And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.”
I noticed an interesting thing about Noah’s obedience to God’s command. God actually did a good part of the work. “Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.” (Gen 7:8-9). I want to remember that when I am faced with doing something that seems far too great for me. If God asked me to do it, all He needs is my willing heart. Once He has that, He will take care of the hard part.