Simplify, Like Jesus...

Last week we spent some heart-time with Jeremiah, the "Weeping Prophet," who was enduring a most tragic and horrific experience, being carried away along with his people, the Jews, into captivity.  The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, had invaded Judah and the capitol city, Jerusalem destroying towns, ravaging and laying waste to their lands, herds and people.  Nebuchadnezzar's army laid siege to Jerusalem cutting off water, and food starving the inhabitants.   After breaching the protective wall, the soldiers destroyed and fired the city, dead bodies lay in the streets: men, women and children; both young and old, poor and the powerful, status and wealth did not save a soul.  Many nobles along with the citizens still alive were put in chains, and force marched to Babylon where they would live as slaves, dependent on the care of the Babylonian empire (See Lamentations).

Jeremiah, under extreme duress, exclaims:

"My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city."  (Lamentations 2:11)

Just totally beat-down, then God meets him in his despair:

"The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lamentations 3:25-26)

We find Jesus in a hard-harsh place, the wilderness, right after God the Father, spot-lighted Jesus at His baptism by John the Baptist, identifying Him publically as, "heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased" (Luke 3:21b-22).  Jesus, the PROMISED Messiah, king of the Jews, the Rescuer and Deliver of the Jews and the Hope of All humanity - gentiles, the non-jews.

God the Father's mission was now squarely resting on His Son's shoulders; right into the FIRE!  The wilderness, a wild and dangerous place; not someplace you want to be alone in, or even spend the night in; but Jesus led by the Holy Spirit (God), entered the wilderness willingly, after 40 days and nights with nothing to eat, Luke says Jesus was, "hungry," (Luke 4:2).

Then the TEST of tests...

"The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'  Jesus answered, " It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:3-4)

Just like Jeremiah before Him, Jesus speaks the TRUTH that has resounded through the ages and has been tested and tried and found to be ROCK SOLID, life isn't about food, physical sustenance alone, but instead it is found in the Words that "flow from the mouth of God."

There is something to grab hold of here, Jesus hungry, after fasting, temped by the Tempter exactly at his point of need, declares resoundingly, "Man does NOT live on bread alone."  Jesus' hope in that moment of hunger, is not bread, but His Father, His Father's Words.  Just as Jeremiah waited on the Lord's salvation in Lamentations 3, so Jesus makes know, to us all, our salvation is in the Lord, and His Words, he alone satifies our true HUNGER and NEED, now tha's simplicity and a point of focus that brings LIFE in ways bread canNOT.  

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