We will be tempted like Jesus in the end days

Mt. Temptation in Jericho

In 2017 I co-led a team to Israel and Jordan and we called it the “Spy out the land” tour.  Pictured above is when we spied out Jericho.  We took the cable car up Mt Temptation which looks across the Jordan Valley to the mountains.  You can just make out the hazy mountains on the horizon some 25 km or so away to the east.  Behind you, as you view the picture above is the Judean wilderness and Jerusalem another 25 km to the west.  So Jericho is about halfway between Jerusalem and Mt. Nebo in the Rift Valley between the two mountain ranges.

This shows us the path that will most likely need to be taken when God’s people escape to Jordan in the wilderness at the mid-point of the seven-year tribulation once the Abomination of Desolation is seen.¹  But the amazing thing is that each one of Satan’s three temptations 2000 years ago in the nearby Judean wilderness is a possible picture of the three types of temptations that Christians will face right at the end.  We will need to successfully navigate these temptations in the very last days in order to be safely across into Jordan and hiding for the 1260 days as promised in Rev. 12:6. Tradition has it that the mountain of temptation which I visited in 2017 in Jericho and took this photo facing out towards the Trans-Jordan mountains, may very well be the same view that Jesus saw when He stood there in early AD 29 when shown by the devil in Matt. 4:8 minus the cable car of course.

Jesus’ three temptations

Let’s go through each one of Jesus’ three temptations and how it will relate to us in the end.

1. “Tell these stones to become bread”²

   Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and was very hungry. So the devil took the opportunity to appeal to Jesus’ human physical needs by trying to tempt Him to take a shortcut by using His power as the Son of God to turn the stones into bread.  Of course, Jesus passed the test wonderfully by answering with Scripture.  Note that we need to not only know the Scripture but to know it in its context and understand what it means and the concepts behind it.  The thing is in the end, the beast will also offer us a shortcut–a way out of our hunger and famine.  In the first 1260 days the whole world, including Christians, will be subject to many hardships including famine and hunger, war, pandemics, pestilence, asteroids, poisonous waters etc so if someone can offer us the promise of food and water and all we have to do is to take his identifying mark then it will be incredibly tempting.  The thing that we will have to realise is that we don’t just operate by listening to our human appetites.  Our faith will have to be stronger.  The Word of God is going to need to be a much stronger survival mechanism than our stomachs.  One provides eternal life, the other allows us to live physically for a little bit longer.  Don’t be tempted by the bread/food that is offered by the beast!

   “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down”³

   Jesus was taken to the highest point of the temple—the highest man-made structure on earth at the time, 150 m above the Kidron Valley below.  This would be equivalent to a 40-50 story skyscraper today.  Another test to see if Jesus really was the Son of God as if He needed to prove that anyway.  Satan had learned his lesson this time by quoting Scripture from Psalm 91:11-12.  But it was misapplied.  Psalm 91 is the wilderness or refuge psalm, I believe a picture of the safe place when the woman or church takes refuge during the last half of the Great Tribulation.  I look at this psalm in the blog “What will it be like in the safe place for 1290 days?”  So here is indisputable evidence that links Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness to the end times and the kind of temptations that we will be faced with to try and make us fail.  We will need help in getting to this place and most likely angels will help us in getting there and help us in the safe place as well.  Angels are ministering spirits and we will need lots of help.  We may have great doubts about how we are actually going to get there as the passage and travel will be difficult.  We will be scared for our safety and the temptation will be to remain behind and not leave the comfort of our own homes/country.  The devil tried to tempt Jesus to throw caution to the wind and jump because He will be kept safe by His angels.  That is just testing God and unnecessary.  We go by faith and we don’t need to take unnecessary risks—God has our backs.

   “All this I will give you if you bow down and worship me”⁴

   Jesus was shown all the kingdoms of the world on Mt Temptation near Jericho and He was offered them by Satan if only He would bow down and worship him.  And it is important to note that it was in fact Satan’s to offer at that point because he has been the ruler of this world⁵ since Adam gave him that right at creation.  It will be Satan’s until it is taken back by Jesus at the end, at the seventh trumpet.⁶  This third and final temptation by Satan is a prototype of the temptation that Christians will also be faced with when the beast arrives on the earth at the halfway point.  We will be asked to give our allegiance to the beast and his prophet and to bow down and worship his image.⁷  We will be offered the world so to speak if we only do this one thing.  We will be deceived by all sorts of signs and wonders.  My guess is that there will be both the carrot and stick approach.  The carrot is that we will be offered the right to buy and sell and be offered a kind of peace and safety if we worship him.  The stick will be that we won’t have any rights and we will become a non-person and invisible and the only course of action will be to be ultimately beheaded.  And how will we respond to this mega test?  Hopefully, the same way that Jesus did in Matt. 4:10.

Note how in all three temptations Jesus was in the Judean wilderness.  This reminds us how the woman of Revelation 12  too will need to flee and escape to the mountains in the wilderness of nearby Jordan.  Note also how each one of the three temptations is indicative of the three kinds of temptations that we will be faced with at the end: we will be tempted to take the mark of the beast so that we can satisfy our physical hunger and operate in society; we will be encouraged to stay ‘safe’ in our comfort zones out of fear of the dangerous Middle East and not trust the Lord who promises to guard us in all our ways and to lift us up when we fall;⁸ and we will be given a false vista and shown what we could have—we will be offered the world if we only bow down and worship the Antichrist by taking his mark.

How can we prepare?

The temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 really does in a way prepare us for the kind of ways that we might be tempted at the end.  So how can we prepare?  We need to know the Scriptures like Jesus but we also need to correctly apply the Scriptures and really believe them.  One thing about the end is that there will be massive deception, propaganda, and peer pressure just to do what everyone else is doing.  Remember, God will provide for us, God will keep us safe and God will richly bless us.  We don’t need to be tempted by the devil’s trinkets and the things of the world.  Don’t stay on the mountain too long looking out and thinking about what the devil can offer you.  Notice how Jesus swiftly dealt with the situation and commanded the devil to depart from Him.⁹  No time to waste.  We need to get moving where we will be safe.  We live in perilous times.  Those Christians left behind at the halfway mark will be in clear and present danger of failing the test.  They will take the mark so they can eat, they will stay put where they perceive themselves to be safe and they will bow down and worship the image of the beast.   If not they will have to die for their faith.