Temptation began in the Garden and was finished in the Wilderness! It was in both places that the schemes of the devil, the tempter, our archenemy or foe Satan were revealed and it was this: worship that is rightly due the Lord God Almighty was his main desire. Just as Adam and Jesus we face these struggles but they are not against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of evil. As we learned from the author of Hebrews, our anointed authenticated Christ is superior and is thus the one to teach us how to wield the weapons of spiritual warfare that we might be victorious over the temptations our foe offers to us. One thing we can learn from this encounter is that Satan is the master of lies and deception and will come to us in our garden or our wilderness. No matter where, Jesus teaches us the path which is this: “I AM the Way, I AM the Truth, I AM the Life.” The key to overcoming temptation is as James teaches and Jesus modeled: “resist [withstand, strive against, or oppose] the devil and he will flee from you…draw near to God and he will draw near to you.”
Again turning to Ephesians we see that we are to be clothed with the full armor of God so that we can withstand against the tempter’s schemes. Jesus was clothed and drew the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God which became his provision for the body, mind and spirit. Jesus was clothed that he might discern truth from error when the tempter misquoted the scripture from Ps 99. Jesus was clothed so that he might unclothe the true heart of Satan who sought worship more than all the earthly kingdoms that Adam bequeathed to him when he sinned in the Garden.
If we are to resist the tempter we must be clothed in the full armor of God so we can rightly divide the Word of God and able to discern truth from error. We can only do this by hiding the word in our hearts that we might not sin against him and by being a Berean to examine the scriptures carefully to see if these things are so.
Beloved, know thy enemy and his ways that you may resist him. Beloved, know thy Savior and His ways that you may be victorious.