Jesus begins his ministry with a forty-day fast in the wilderness,
paralleling the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness
after their rescue from slavery in Egypt. They faced many trials in
the wilderness. They found themselves tested by God, and they
barely passed. God miraculously provided for their care. Nevertheless,
while Moses busied himself on Sinai with receiving the
Ten Commandments, at the foot of the mountain the Israelites
busily made a golden god to worship.

In the Bible many stories of new beginnings include God’s
testing of the people and the leaders to determine their commitment.
Adam and Eve failed outright when they ate from the
forbidden tree. God tested Abraham, the father of the Jewish
people, by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, his son of the
promise. So it does not surprise us to find that Jesus, who will
serve as our new head, also faced testing in the wilderness.

Temptation and testing point to the same hard reality of life.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus himself tells his disciples to ask God
not to lead them into temptation or to put them to the test. The
events of Jesus’ life and death tested their faith.

From Jesus’ temptations, we gain key information about the
kind of messiah Jesus would be and whether or not we can trust
him. Our understanding of that relationship provides support in
our own times of temptation.

All these stories—about Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jesus’
disciples—teach us that when we fail our inevitable tests and
give in to our temptations, God does not abandon us. After
failing in the desert, the people of Israel still entered their new
land. Upon leaving the Garden, Adam and Eve received God’s
care. And in spite of our failures, God loves us still.