12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. 13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
As soon as He gets glory, Satan wants to destroy it. Satan is our great enemy. As soon as you get saved He attacks. As soon as a saved person gets closer to God, Satan tortures him. Read the Book of Job to see what God can allow in your life to try you. But, the book of Job tells you that Satan can’t do anything to you without God’s permission.
Revelation 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Forty days was a time of testing for Moses on Mount Sinai, the mount of God;
Exodus 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 9:9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
Deuteronomy 10:10 And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also, and the LORD would not destroy thee.
Forty days was a time of testing for Elijah on the same mount of God;
1Kings 19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb* the mount of God.
*Exodus 3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
*Sinai is another name for Horeb and the two are used interchangeably. If you do a Bible computer search you will see this. Sinai is an area with Horeb being the specific mount as can be seen by examining these two names.
Exodus 16:1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai ….
Exodus 19:1 ….the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 19:2 …..and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness….
Jesus is with the wild beasts here, literal animals. A spiritual application for us would be devils. For instance, every one of us has their own wilderness experience where we were alone in a time of testing with our own thoughts, fears, and temptations. They only thing that could comfort us, even if we weren’t aware, were the angels that God sent (Isaiah 63:9) and the malignant spirits that were around us tormented us. For those more worldly minded and steeped in modernism just imagine your faith in God sustaining you while malicious emotions and negative feelings of doubt assaulted you. Your child is sick, maybe dying, you’re losing your marriage, your job, maybe your freedom. You are alone in a desert place, a place of testing, tempted by Satan, who hates you with a fury because you no longer belong to him.
Here, at the Cross;
Psalm 22:12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
Here, at the Second Advent;
Isaiah 34:7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. 8 For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. 9 ¶ And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. 11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
Know any literal owls capable of living in a lake of fire?
See how birds are likened to the devil;
Mark 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
Mark 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
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