“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
I am tempted to show you an image of the monastery of Temptation high on the mountainside above the ancient city of Jericho, but I haven't located an image in the public domain.
This is the third temptation: to depend on something, anything, other than God.
The same temptation that the Israelites crossing the desert in Exodus confronted, time after time, and time after time they failed.
But God was faithful to them. As he is to us.
In this extended enforced Lent - or Easter as no other - we may still be stuck in thinking of our sins, even before the matzo runs out.
The people in the desert of Sinai worried that they would run out of food or water - but they never seemed to worry that they would run out of God's favor.
Not that he was always happy with them. The message was always the same: rely on the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of bondage, the one who saw Israel to the promised land. The one who redeemed through Jesus the whole of creation. The one who works through him working in us the salvation and healing and making holy of the world.
Not a tall order. Because he is with us. And he will send us a Comforter.
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