5 Smooth Stones

Jesus was tested so that He could be a proven advocate for us, having been tested, and advanced through victory over the trials, He can now direct us as well as have compassion for us in our proving times. Hebrews 4:15, 16 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and fi nd grace to help in time of need.” In the wilderness Jesus was not only proving Himself and being strengthened in the Spirit, but He was also already at work in His ministry, redeeming mankind for the failings of the past. Israel was tested in the wilderness, and they continually fell short of the opportunity God provided for them to advance in His ways. Psalms 106:14 says, “But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.” Jesus, as their redeemer, was also tested in the desert, but He did not test God, He proved God through His Word. Each time that Jesus was tempted by the devil He responded with words “it is wri tt en” and a passage of scripture as a correction to the temptation of the devil. But it was not just scripture that Jesus used, but in each case He quoted speci fi c scripture from the book of Deuteronomy. This book that contains the temptations of Israel in the desert. By doing so, not only was Jesus proving His own strength in the Spirit, and His authority over the subtle and tricky devil, but He was also redeeming the failings of His people while they were tested in the desert. He certainly has the authority to intercede for Israel for their failings in the desert, as He redeemed their failings while in the desert, and can forgive their sins speci fi cally. When Paul the apostle was defending his apostolic ministry to the church in Corinth, he did not list miracles or wonders done through his ministry. Rather he listed the many things which he and other apostles had endured on their behalf. This, perhaps, was another way of emphasizing what he wrote to them in 2 Corinthians 12 :12 that the fi rst sign of apostleship is perseverance. Because of this, it might be said that to call someone a “young apostle” would be an oxymoron, as Paul said one had to be proven through perseverance before having the signs of apostleship. He put it in an interesting way to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 6:6, quoted here from the New Living Translation, “We prove ourselves by our purity.” Like with the puri fi cation of precious metals, he said that their purity was proof of their having been puri fi ed or tried like silver through the fi re.

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