You are currently browsing the daily archive for February 17th, 2008.
Check this out from ER…
Below is some teaching I’m doing this morning in our team about fasting… It’s based mostly on John Piper’s book on the subject…
Fasting :: Some studies in Matthew
1. Fasting… expresses our dependence on God and reveals our idols
Matt 4:1-4
How do you feel when you are hungry?
Are there other things without which you find it hard to function?
Read Matt 4:1-4
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus had just been baptised. At his baptism God declares that Jesus is his son, with whom he is pleased. These words echo Psalm 2:7 where David, the greatest King of Israel and her representative, is described in such a way. Not only is the representative of Israel described in this way but Israel herself is too, for instances in Exodus 4:22. God declares Jesus to be his Son, the ‘true’ Israel.
As ‘Israel’ Jesus then goes through the same testing as Israel went through in the desert. Israel spent 40 years in the desert on the way to the promised land having been rescued from Egypt by God. Jesus likewise is led into the desert and spends 40 days there. Then Satan comes to tempt him. Jesus replies by quoting the Old Testament, and more specifically Deuteronomy. In v4 he quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 8 where Israel are being reminded about their time in the desert.
Like Jesus the people were going hungry in the desert. They had no food or water. Read the rest of this entry »
