Tested by the Devil A fresh look at the Gospel of Luke 4:1 13 on the Daily Bible refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller.

Hello good people.

Welcome again to Daily Bible Refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller.

I just so thrilled that you're with me as we continue on our mission of getting the audible voice of God into 2 million ears.

That's a million people by the end of 2028.

And you can do that by joining me here every day here on voiceofgoddaily.com that's our website.

It's also the home of the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

Here is where we take an individual reading of the Scriptures, a New Testament reading so selected for this very day from the Revised Common Lectionary.

We're in year C right now, the Lenten season.

We make that reading understandable and as we read from the message version of the Bible, relatable by giving you a couple of points to ponder and applicable by giving you an action step.

And we do all of that in under 10 minutes or so with a prayer.

So let's continue with our reading today from Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 1 through through 13.

Tested by the Devil Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild.

For 40 wilderness days and nights he was tested by the devil.

He ate nothing during those days.

When the time was up, he was hungry.

The devil, playing on his hunger, gave him the first test since your God's Son command this this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.

And Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy, it takes more than bread to really live.

For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth and on display at once.

Then the devil said, they are yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure.

I'm in charge of them and all, and I can turn them over to whomever I wish.

Worship me and they're yours.

The whole works.

Jesus refused again, backing his refusal with Deuteronomy.

Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God.

Serve him with absolute single heartedness.

For the third test, the devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the temple.

And he said, if you are God's son, jump.

It's written, isn't it, that he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you.

They will catch you.

You won't so much as stub your toe on a stone.

Yes, said Jesus.

And it's also written, don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.

That completed the testing, the devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.

Well, let's talk about it.

Let's talk about this passage of scripture about resisting the temptations of the empire.

And we're talking about here, Jesus's temptations in a wilderness experience, in a place that speaks powerfully to indeed our own contemporary struggles with power and consumption and spectacle.

So let's look at some points to ponder here.

There's the politics of bread and hunger.

Food.

The first temptation isn't just about personal hunger.

It's about how we respond to to systematic poverty.

Jesus could have solved his own hunger, but he chose solidarity with the hungry instead.

This challenges our individualistic solutions to collective problems.

How often do we settle for personal comfort while leaving systems of inequality intact?

A true godlike divine power works for collective liberation and solution to problems, not just individual satisfaction.

The second point is the empire or the devil's seductive bargain.

The second temptation reveals how the empire maintains power through compromise and co adaption.

The devil's offer of all the kingdoms represents how systems of oppression often try to neutralize resistance by offering seats at the power table.

We see this today when corporations or government entities offer token diversity without structural change, or when institutions invite marginalized voices in without ceding any actual power.

One more point, the spectacle of religious performance, the temple temptation part of the story here speaks to how religion can become a spectacle rather than substance.

In our social media age, this might look like performance activism or viral charity videos or religious leaders building personal brands.

And real transformation often happens in quiet, unglamorous spaces of solidarity and resistance.

Let's talk about some action things that you can do based on this scripture.

I would just invite you to have temptation awareness and identify some areas in your life or your community where perhaps you've been tempted by or tempted to do something such as solve collective problems with individual solutions or accept the seat at the table without challenging the table's structure where others are uninvited if you're invited.

Or turn justice work into performance, try to make a spectacle of it and then choose some concrete action then that resists these temptations.

And this might mean such things as joining some sort of an aid network instead of just kind of providing some individual charity.

Be a part of the solution.

Decline a diversity initiative that doesn't include actual diversity and actual structural change.

And do justice work without posting about it on social media.

I invite you to think about and take action on these things.

We're going to pray about all this in just a moment.

But I did want you to know that something I do want you to do, an action I do want you to take, is to get involved with us here at the Daily Bible Refresh by going to our website, voiceofgodddaily.com and there you'll find a place to receive our resource for you, our Bible study resource, be called the ABC 123 Bible Study Guide.

It's going to help you every day to read the Bible and to make it a part of your life.

Use that in coordination with your Daily Bible Refresh.

It will help you.

It will.

And we hope that you'll do just that.

Let's pray.

Oh, God, you are a divine presence in the wilderness.

When we're tempted by quick fixes to deep problems, remind us that real change requires collective action.

When an empire offers us comfortable compromise, give us courage to stay true to a pathway of liberation.

We're drawn to turn from our faith and turn it into spectacle.

Ground us in humble solidarity.

Help us recognize the subtle difference temptations of our privileged positions, our desire for easy answers, our attraction to power's bargains.

So in a world hungry for real change, make us brave enough to choose the long path, sometimes of transformation, the harder way of collective liberation, the quiet work of true solidarity.

Guide us through our own wilderness times, not around them until we emerge more deeply committed to your ways of justice and love.

Amen.

We love for you to be a part of what we're doing here at Daily Bible Refresh.

Help us to accomplish our mission of getting the audible word of God into two million ears, a million people, by the end of 2028.

You can help us to do that by joining us again tomorrow here on the Daily Bible Refresh.

And bring a friend and share the word in your world.

Until tomorrow, friends, this is Dr.

Brad Miller encouraging you that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love doesn't dry up.

It's created new.

Every morning Sat.