Part 1: When the Fruit Looks sweet; Temptation (the Wilderness horizon)
I have been gathering material for this for about a month, because I didn't want to rush what God wanted to reveal through me (and that was hard as I was so eager to put a message out there). My writing originally was based solely on Luke 4: When Jesus was tempted for 40 days in the wilderness. But then I thought and then realised: Jesus isn't also known as the second Adam for no reason, and the more I delved, the more revelation rose to the surface. So i'm first going to guide you through Jesus testing, and then draw between the parallels and meanings of both Luke 4 and the fall in Genesis 3. I've recently decided to make this a series, in which I'll delve into food and fruit in the Bible, starting with The Fall and Jesus in the wilderness, but possibly branching out to Israel in the Wilderness on the journey to the promise land, The fruits of the spirit, and soo much more 😁
in Luke 4:1-2, the word says: Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. What Many forget or fail to notice is that Jesus did not enter the wilderness of his own will: he was led by the spirit. In the previous chapter, Jesus was Baptised by John, and only then the spirit descended on him like a dove. It says in Luke 3:23: "Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry[.]" , meaning that his ministry had not begun before this point. Only until scripture was fulfilled, and the holy spirit was inside of him, and the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness had passed, only then his ministry began. "what does this mean?"you may ask. Well for context, Jesus didn't do any miracles up to this point. No blind eyes where opened, no lame men healed before he was baptised by John. Why? Because he submitted to authority, both from God, but also to John. He then immediately, or at least the next thing we are told after this is that he was led by the spirit. Now to us that may make no sense. Like, the spirit had descended, he had submitted to his father's and human authority. Surely his ministry starts here, right? No, because although his submission had been tested, his faith had not been.
Faith is so paramount, because when miracles after this where performed, faith was at its root. Your breakthrough is hinged on faith and therefore the word, as without it you have already set yourself at a disadvantage with a negative confirmation bias. Don't believe me? May I present to you the miracle of the centurion's servant in Luke 7, where a Centurion comes to Jesus about a highly valuable servant that he owns that is sick and says to him in verse 7, That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. and the word says 9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. He had faith so great, that Jesus didn't need to lay hands on the man, or come to him. He (the centurion) submitted under Jesus' authority and had the faith to follow.
Before I get to carried away, let me guide you through this passage, before then shifting back to Genesis and see where we end up.
1. Fruit identification: Jesus is the word.
In John 1:14, It says:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. and in Galatians 5:22-23 it says: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [a]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (NKJV). Meaning? Jesus didn't know the word: He was, is and always will be the word. John says the Word became flesh, not Jesus became the word. Galatians talks of the fruit of the spirit. See fruit comes from a tree, and is part of a tree, but made for consumption. Just think about that. the fruits of the spirit, Love, Joy peace etc. was made for our consumption, but comes from and is a part of the spirit. Therefore when you're tempted, seek God and ask him to point you to the word. ( If you haven't already, look at my other post Wisdom Application, it's all about this.) Jesus also had the spirit inside of him, and the scripture actually says that he was full of the spirit. Look carefully what the Amplified version says in Luke 4: 1 Now Jesus, full of [and in perfect communication with] the Holy Spirit...".
In perfect communication means many things, but in this context means that it was a relationship, and everyone knows that most relationships have boundaries, and carry out what is best for the other participant. That's why Jesus never asks the spirit to guide him, he asks the Father; Because he doesn't need to ask what's already inside him, if he's already in perfect communication. A good example of this is before Jesus resurrected Lazarus in John 11:41-42: 41: Then they took away the stone [d]from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me...”. Before the miracle, Jesus consulted The Father before it was allowed to take place. Therefore you need to know the word, and also Know the Identity of Jesus and the Holy spirit, because Jesus is not a representative of the word, and the Holy spirit is not a representative of peace, kindness faithfulness etc, that's part of who they are. SO when you're tempted, seek Who God is, not who you think he represents. If you say "I want to accept joy from you", the only way to truly do that is to accept God.
2. Fruit Wisdom: Temptation is not always obvious.
When people think of temptation, they think that it has to be some seemingly extravagantly obvious, when (in reality) temptation can be (and often is) understated, and the best response is Godly wisdom and perception. As an analogy, If you look at one side of an apple, and see that it looks great, then you only have one perspective of it. But if you examine it carefully and see that it's bruised then it's obvious. But sometimes bruising happens under the skin, and only when it's opened, do you see its contents. What am I saying? Ask for God's wisdom to show you where he isn't, because there are decisions that you pass by all the time that are not of God and cost you further down the line. Any decision without God is an ungodly decision. Doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad one, but just because it's not sin, doesn't mean that it's not bad for you. You could be fully within the law of God, but a relationship, a job, an app, that isn't actually sin can still be bad for you. All i'm saying is be careful what you let your soul consume, so that it doesn't consume you. I'm not condemning every decision you've ever made, because if you've ever done good things without God, they're still good things, but not necessarily God's things. You have to be self aware, and one with the spirit to be able to ask God so that you can listen on how to proceed, as Jesus was led by the spirit out of the wilderness, God can move you out of yours if you have the faith to trust God that he will lead you to AND through your wilderness, and that can only come through the Spirit, as John 16:13 says "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future."
3. Fruit Biology: The Devil Was Logical.
You know the Devil's best trick? Isolation. And this is where the parallel's between this instance in Luke 4 and the fall in Genesis 3 start to converge. When both of them where approached by the devil, they were alone. Jesus because he was led by the spirit, but Eve, because the serpent found her when she was alone. Why? because he knows that he cannot plant and manifest a seed if others are constantly uprooting it. If he plants it in the right way, you will go and manifest it on your own. But with the spirit inside you, the word in your mind and your godly community around you, there will be opposition , but the seed will never have any soil to be planted, let alone manifest. And this for me isn't some hypothetical jargon that i've never experienced, this is where I was not too long ago, and i'm telling you that if you make an active decision to stay silent and not venture out and be open with someone you trust, you then have to carry that weight. One of the biggest differences between Jesus and Adam, is that Jesus knew that God was enough, and because of this, was not affected by these prompts. And it makes no sense, because Jesus had all the more reason to give in to temptation. He was in a barren place, full of the holy spirit, but also full of hunger, and HE stood steadfast. Adam and Eve had all they could ever want, and chose to focus on the "could have". The devil lies in Genesis 3:5, saying “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, ...” And isn't that the premise of the world, better yet some of our lives? Having God around us, knowing the spirit is inside of us and choosing to focus on the "could have"? Ask yourself, what's your could have? and that's not a one-stop shop, because there are long-term could-haves, like ungodly relationships that you're constantly tempted with. And there are daily temptations, like to get angry when someone gets on your nerves. It's only to distract and detract from the correct path, and the longer you focus on ungodly things without consulting God, the more you get pulled away from the promise.
4. Sliced Fruit: Age Old Tactics
This is a parallel that was profound for me, because if you look at both events, when the devil tempted both Eve and Jesus, he used situation and disposition. For Eve, The devil preyed on her prospected want to be more - to be like God. On the Flip side, the devil preys on Jesus's authority, and recognised his authority, and tried to make him give in that way. The first time while I was studying this that I read both of these passages, I thought to myself, "This is really unfair on Eve. I mean, it was alright for Jesus, he's full of the spirit and He's the Living word. And because he was in perfect communication with the spirit, he had back up. The Bible says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and as he is the living word, No way he's able to be overcome by temptation with backup... right?" Rather quickly, I began to actually realise that it's the other way round. Because, yes Jesus is the living word, The word made flesh, but life is so much more complex for him than it is for Adam Eve. Think of it this way. Jesus's purpose as the son of God was to be a Saviour for the world. Within that, he was going to go through persecution, hardships and an unruly burden of responsibility and at that current time starving in the wilderness. Adam and Eve's purpose in comparison is pretty simple: Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. And it's not a burden, rather a blessing from God. And there's only one commandment for what they cannot do: Don't eat fruit from one tree. One tree. If we compare those two commandments, and lay their lives out in this way, it becomes so obvious that Adam and Eve are in a much more comfortable position. But somehow what seems watertight is the one that fails, and Jesus (the Second Adam, as often referred) didn't give in. Why? because of his wisdom. Eve had one commandment, but when her values were questioned, she didn't stand by God's command. So? Therefore The more wisdom you ascertain, the less the devil can prompt you. Furthermore, the devil will deal with you often at the level you're at. Imagine if the temptations were switched round. It wouldn't make sense The devil tempted Jesus saying you will be like God, because Jesus is the son of God, and therefore tempting him about being like God makes no sense. On the flip side, the devil's first words are "If you are the son of God" and Eve is not a son, let alone the son of God. Your temptations are tailor-made to your disposition, and the only way to rise above them is to have wisdom in the word and faith in God.
5. Adored Root: Worship Him.
The devil to Jesus offers all of the kingdoms of the world in return for worshiping him, the devil, and Jesus refuses, saying In Luke 4: 8:"It is written and forever remains written, You shall worship the LORD your God, and serve only Him. (AMP)" Jesus knew what his sure foundation was, and that God is, was, and always will be worthy of all praise. I believe part of the reason why Eve and Adam fell is because they got comfortable in their blessing (of which I am guilty, especially my gifting). They were so blessed that they didn't see grace in god's gift of sufficiency towards them. Therefore when something more was presented to them, they fell. This is the premise of the world to this day: Nothing will ever be enough. So many people pursue financial success as their fulfilment, so when you reach one goal, instead of being satisfied they just widen the goal post of what they need, better yet think that they deserve. But we need to know that we have an all sufficient, all sustaining grace-giving God, who deserves our praise, and it's not enough to just say it, it has be to an action, as you can't passively worship God. Later on in Luke it talks of some followers praising God in Luke 19:38-40: "Shouting “Blessed (celebrated, praised) is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory (majesty, splendor) in the highest [heaven]!”
39 Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples [for shouting these Messianic praises].”40 Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these [people] keep silent, the stones will cry out [in praise]!” (AMP)
Worship could be through your lifestyle, that could be through prayer, and doesn't necessarily have to be through song, but make way to know that you need to praise God, because if it had not been for the grace of God, you wouldn't be where you are now, and you might not know it, don't believe it or choose to ignore it, but it's immutable (unable to change), and therefore will be there when and if you come to that realisation.
6. One-Way Consumption: The Test Is Mono-Directional.
When the Devil took him to a high temple, and tempted him to throw himself off to prove himself, he said "it is written, You shall not test the Lord your God." This never used to make sense to me, because I said to myself, "If God can do it, he can prove it. I mean, the Bible says, what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, so I have authority. SO therefore if I test God, he cares enough about me to heed to my own test." But then I realised, that means that you think God is under your authority, just because he's loving enough and giving enough to provide for you. But you forget the one who created you, and think that now you're self-sufficient because "God approves of all you do".
If you think you can test God, then you completely discard the idealism of faith, because Testing God bypasses your faith for him, of which is a fruit of the spirit. It's also great that the test is one way, because that means that we don't always get what we want. God has things prepared for us, but in the wrong season could destroy us. If God answered your prayer to be a millionaire straight away without having to work for it, then you would be consumed by pride and an unhealthy self-sufficiency to have God on speed dial. Therefore you would think that it's Okay, or even God's will to be lazy, because "he will provide for his children." Never approach God like the devil does you. Don't say, surely God if you're enough, you would have given me this house by now, surely God if you're enough I would be married by now et cetera et cetera. Instead ask God why he's placed you in the season you're in, and how it, and he can further you, and the spirit can guide you rather than yourself through your own works.
7. Internal Seed: Truth and Obedience at the Core.
After Adam And Eve sinned, the scripture says in Genesis 3:7: "At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.(NLT)" What came first after they had disobeyed God was a realisation, but not of their sin, of their exposure, and then, through self-sufficiency they covered themselves up. meaning the fruit of temptation consumed then before they even came to terms with the fruit. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Run from sexual sin!..." But I implore you in the same vein, RUN from all sin into God. Because the problems only arose when they disobeyed. Do you know what a lot of the time is better than God bringing you through the consumption of temptation? Avoiding it altogether. As we go on, it says in Genesis 3:8: "When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.(NLT)". And in this way this reflects what most of us do when where tempted. When you hide from God when he wants to restore you from your wrong. We need to learn to come to God in truth, rather than let him find us.
God tests their Obedience in verse 11, saying “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” This confused me for a long time. I thought that either one of two things was happening: Either God was guilt tripping them, Or God didn't know they sinned. God's not petty, and He's also omniscient, so both are wrong. He's trying to look for honestly, and to let them come to a realisation and acknowledge their faults and take responsibility, but instead, both Adam and Eve play the blame game, because even after their sin, they recognise God's authority. And i'm sure that there's much argument that if they had come clean and repented before God that God would have restored them, but either way, because of a deflection of responsibility and of course the initial sin, a curse comes on Eve's head, and they're cast from the garden. I hope because of this that you see the importance of obedience, truth and responsibility; Obedience to follow God's call on your life, and truth to be told in taking responsibility for your faults and allowing God to use all things to work together for the good of those that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
8. GM Fruit: Grace-Manifested Fruit
God gave us grace, which is the undeserved, unearned gift of unconditional love from God (I hope Amazing grace makes more sense now.) Adam and Eves Sin and Fall was necessary for Jesus' Grace to come to pass and therefore for us to be here today. It may not have been the blessing that God intended in they were to make the right decision, but Jesus' sacrifice only came to pass because of them. We aren't entitled to grace, but we need to understand that God loves us unconditionally, and functionally that can be tough, but whether or not you understand it, it is and you can receive it IF your heart is open to it. If God wasn't himself boundless grace, we would suffer the wages of sin (eternal death.)
9. Seed distribution: Scriptural parallels
There are many opposites and parallels to be drawn between Genesis 3 and Luke 4, some simple one's being Jesus was in the wilderness, Adam and Eve were in an affluent garden, Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God the Father, at the time Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, God was in the midst of Adam and Eve, Jesus wasn't naturally in the midst of the father (though the Spirit was inside Jesus and He is the Living word) etc etc. One thing that they are both faced with is this notion of being tempted with food. For Eve, this food is natural, within sight and grasp, and for Jesus, through his power he is initially able to turn stones into bread. several things can be drawn from this.
i) The Devil Recognised Jesus Power.
I've already outlined this, but will again: The devil tries to prey on Jesus's disposition as the Son of God. If the Devil can recognise his power, How much more... just sayin'.
ii) The Devil was dependent on both of them.
The devil couldn't actually force either of them to do anything. Therefore, initially he actually had no type of physical power over them. For Eve we know that the serpent was a physical entity, but for Jesus, for all we know, this could've all been an internal battle, and the devil was just speaking into his mind. Either way, the devil was external to both of them, meaning he was not a part of them, and tried to manipulate the situation to push them into temptation. See, God's Unchanging, who was and is and is to come. But the Devil IS situational, meaning he's temporal, and doesn't hold the qualities of God being omnipresent, certainly not omniscient, definitely not omni-benevolent and so on and so forth. But even though he could push them towards a prospected hunger. Because Eve would have never addressed a want for power if the Devil hadn't pushed her, and Jesus was literally hungry. Therefore...
iii) Satiation: What's your hunger?
Where back to this age old question. Adam and Eve were surrounded by sufficiency. Jesus was surrounded by desolation. They fell, he didn't. Why? Because Jesus knew that he would rather suffer than give in to his hunger and fill a legitimate need illegitimately. Jesus' Love for God the Father superseded his material hunger. Originally, I thought that the fruit didn't matter, because I thought it was just a device of temptation, and it doesn't matter what form it comes in, which is true in some regards. But When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they came to a realisation of their insufficiency, and tried to meet it illegitimately. So in a way, the fruit doesn't matter, whether you'r tempted to be prideful, angry, judging, rude; that's just the fruit, the repercussions of your decision to receive satiation from something other than God are almost certain to occur. But you have to be aware what those are, what you run towards when you're spiritually hungry. Phillippians 4:19 says "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.(KJV)" It should be God the supplier, but we often fill that hunger with worldly things, and every-time you do, the more a habit is developed through that substitution. I leave you with one thing today: If you're feeling tempted whether on a small or large paradigm, RUN from it to God. Have the faith to trust him that he IS greater than whatever comes your way, that his grace is sufficient, that his word is your hiding place, and that the Devil cannot plant a seed, if God uproots it before it has time to flourish, so that you don't reap a bad harvest.
If you want to hear more about the fruits of the spirit, i'll put below a Sermon Series that I found after concluding my studying, and just saying... mindsets for me where shattered in full understanding 🤩.
God bless.
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