LUKE 4

After His baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by Satan for forty days. In that time, He ate nothing and was hungry. Satan tempted Him: "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Jesus replied, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' "

Satan took Jesus to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, offering them to him  if He would bow down and worship him, but Jesus rebuked Him and said: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."

Lastly, Satan brought Jesus to Jerusalem, high upon the pinnacle of the temple, and provoked Him to throw Himself down. Satan twisted Scripture and misused several verses; but Jesus replied, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' " 

After that, Satan left Jesus until a later time. 

News spread of Jesus, and all who heard him teaching in the synagogues glorified Him. One day He read from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And He closed the book and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Then they could not believe that He claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus told them that "...no prophet is accepted in his own country." And the people were filled with wrath, and they sought to throw Him off a cliff, but He evaded them.

Then Jesus cast demons from a man in the synagogue of Capernaum. The demons cried out: "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are - the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked the demon and commanded him to come out, and the people were amazed that He had authority and power to command unclean spirits. 

Next, Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law. Many others came to Jesus to be healed, and "He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." Also He also cast out many demons, many saying: "You are the Christ, the Son of God!"

And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.

COMMENTARY

Why was Jesus tempted? To demonstrate to us that He was sinless -- to prove that all power had been given to Him. Satan wanted Him to PROVE to man that He was the Savior by "throwing Himself down..," which "is not faith but presumption. Faith is quietly waiting upon God, doing His will." Faith is not seeing, but believing. Also, keep in mind, the doubters would have still not believed because they were always looking for a reason to disbelieve.

Satan tempted Jesus in every way: to turn stones into food, to satisfy the body (physical); to offer the kingdoms of the world, to gratify the desire for power and control (psychological); and to throw Himself down from the temple, to bypass the cross and suffering (spiritual)..., but each time Jesus rebuked Satan with TRUTH! Jesus was faced with every temptation and wrestled with the basic earthly problems of mankind, and He was victorious for mankind. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. When man is faced with  temptations, he needs to be armed with TRUTH and the Holy Spirit, too. 

When Jesus read from Isaiah in the synagogue and proclaimed the Scriptures fulfilled in their hearing, He did not continue to the end of the passage (sentence): "...and the day of vengeance of our God." He only read up to the portion of Scripture that had been fulfilled that day, because the remainder of the sentence  will not be accomplished until His second coming. That is a day of vengeance -- the Great Day of the Lord.

credit: Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness - James Tissot

  

Obadiah 1

The Word of God came in a vision concerning Edom (descendants of Esau). God had ordained the enemies of Edom to rise up against her. Edom was a prideful nation, and God said he will use her enemies to bring her down. 

The pride of your heart has deceived you, You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, Whose habitation is high; You who say in your heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'

Other offences God had against Edom: they had done nothing to help Jacob (Israel) in the day of her calamity; they rejoiced over her downfall; they plundered the city afterward; and they prevented the escape of the fugitives. 

For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head. For as you drank on My holy mountain, So shall all the nations drink continually; Yes, they shall drink, and swallow, And they shall be as though they had never been. 

But...

...on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, And there shall be holiness; 

In the Millennial Kingdom, there shall be a reversal, in which "the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame; But the house of Esau (Edom) shall be stubble; They shall kindle them and devour them, And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau," For the Lord has spoken. Judah will destroy Esau. 

And when Messiah sets up His kingdom, the boundaries of Israel will expand to include the land promised to Jacob in his dream, supporting God's promise to Abraham. Israel will be huuuuge.

And the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

COMMENTARY 

Just for reference, Edom is made up of the descendants of Esau, and the Israelites are made up of the descendants of Jacob. Esau and Jacob were twin brothers, sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 

Question: why did God hate Esau? The little book of Obadiah tells us. 

Esau represents the flesh, the old nature; and Jacob represents the spirit, the new nature. We had to wait until Esau became a full grown nation in order to understand why God hated Esau, which was not expressed until Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament. What caused God to hate Esau? Pride.

Pride of the heart is the attitude of a life that declares its ability to live without God.

God has put Esau (Edom) under a "microscope." 

How are the things of Esau searched out! Come, look! Look through the Word of God and look at this man. I hate him. Why do I hate him? It is because of his pride of life. He has turned his back on Me and has declared his ability to live without Me!

Sadly, even when he was one man, Esau chose a bowl of soup over a relationship with God. 

Another reason God hated Esau: Edom became enemies with Israel, and they betrayed them. 

THE DAY OF THE LORD

The day of the Lord begins with the Great Tribulation period. Currently we live in the day of grace (or the day of Christ). In this period, the Holy Spirit is with us, and He shows us the things of Christ. After the removal of the church (believers) from the world, which we call the Rapture, the Day of the Lord will begin, which will be a time of darkness and judgment. After seven years of tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to the earth to establish His Millennial Kingdom. 

Jesus is going to judge the nations of the earth (see Matthew 25). According to McGee, Edom will become a nation again, just as Israel became a nation in 1948. Although God has judged Israel, they have not been completely removed. But according to the book of Obadiah, Israel will be restored, and Edom will be destroyed by Israel. 

At the end of Obadiah, there is the description of how wide the boundaries of Israel will be during the Millennial kingdom. God keeps His promises, and He promised to Abraham a land about 300,000 square miles! 

Finally, Jesus says: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). McGee adds:

Which way are you going...Down the way of pride, pessimism, unbelief, and rebellion...? You who were made in the likeness of God can be restored. You will have to lay aside your pride and come in helplessness to this Savior. He can lift you.

Joel 1

THE DAY OF THE LORD

The Word of the Lord came to Joel: 

Elders, listen! Has anything like this (devastation of the land) happened in Israel before? Tell your children, that they may tell their children, and subsequent generations. The locust will leave nothing behind.

Wake up, you drunkards! Weep because you are being cut off from the wine. The locust have laid waste to the Lord's vine and ruined His fig tree. God calls for Israel to repent.

The day of the Lord is at hand. 

COMMENTARY

Joel introduces us to the term: the day of the Lord. 

During Joel's time, Israel was experiencing a great locust plague. He told the people to tell their children and so on, that they may know the mighty works of the Lord. Joel had asked the elders if they had seen anything like this before in Israel. 

Jesus had asked His followers the same during His Olivet Discourse, in Matthew 24, while speaking of the Great Tribulation Period. He told them there has never been anything like it before, nor will there be anything like it afterward. This is very true. There will never be anything like the Great Tribulation Period. 

Joel is explaining that the locust plague is unique to their history because there had never been anything like it; however, there is a day coming, called the day of the Lord, which will open up the Tribulation period, and it will be a frightening time to be alive. 

Now, the locust plague in Joel 1 is considered to be a natural plague, not like the plague that the Lord sent upon Egypt, as judgment. But God is using this natural plague to warn the southern kingdom of God's coming judgment. The locust are described as an invading army.

Joel told the people to lament and mourn, "like a bride who has lost her husband..." The people were cut off from making sacrifices because the economy has been severely impeded due to the plague. There are no grapes, olive oil, or grain. Even the land is to mourn the loss. 

The people were to be ashamed and "gird themselves. There was no meat or drink offering. Granted, God wanted them to know that it was not the sacrifice itself that He sought -- it was their hearts. This is also what God wants of us: a clean, pure, and right heart attitude. Furthermore, the people were to sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders, and cry unto the Lord. 

The day of the Lord is coming! Right now we live in the time of the Gentiles, or in man's day. "Humanism abounds!" But the day of the Lord is the day Jesus will take His church out of the world and the church will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Then begins the period of tribulation, which is a time of darkness, and will open like the locust plague described in Joel (the four horsemen of the Apocalypse). Finally, the day of the Lord will end with the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, and His people will enter into His presence, with light and rest. 

McGee summarizes: 

...there is man's day, the day in which we are living now; the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He will take the church out of this world; then the Day of the Lord beginning with the Great Tribulation Period.