Jesus: A Real Man

 ¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 ⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

   “‘He will command his angels concerning you,
   and they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

 ⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

 ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

- Matthew 4:1-11

I picked up my bible todayy and was reading out of Matthew and came across this passage and it caught my eye. I had read it so many times before but I looked deep into it this time instead if just glossing over the text. It really just put Jesus as a real man in perspective.

Right off the bat you see Jesus going out into the wilderness and fasting for 40days! Now thats what I call a real man. I know I couldn't survive 24 hours without food. But he lasted 40 days!!!! I bet Matthewwent up to Jesus and gave him a high five and chest bump after that one.

You also see Jesus willingly going out into the wildnerness and facing only he knows what. He was led by the Holy Spirit and had the power of the Holy Spirit. Thats takes a real man to goand do that. And after 40 days when he's hungry, probably running on only fumes of energy, he's tempted by the Devil. I don't know if he was tempted while he fasted, which because he's a man he probably was, or if the Devil tempted him more than just what the bible says. Only a real man can do that!

The way he quotes scripture and how knowledgeable he is of the scripture speaks volumes to me. He had to be prepared and ready for the tempation or he would have failed. Thats one of the huge lessons I took from reading this passage. Its full of things a real man needs to know.

I know what you're probably thinking, Ian get to point of this.

We need to stop following other fake examples of real men like Donald Trump or Hugh Heffener. Those men are poor, perverted examples of men. We need to start following the real man: Jesus. He sets the real standard for us men. Just look at this, passage, his life, his death, his love and try to be like him.

" Be Holy, because I am Holy." - Leviticus 11:44

Thats what we're called to do, so lets stop being defeated by sin, stop giving into temptation and start being real men.