Episode 1623: Mercy on the Wilderness Road

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,623 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Alan Cox: Hey, I'm Alan Cox. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to live a more fulfilling and mentally healthy life is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my good friend Scott Matter.

Scott Maderer: We're like that horse or mule without understanding, but we don't have to be. We can trust in that presence. We can rejoice in that support. We can lean into the loving arms of God and trust. [00:01:00] That they have been there all along.

Alan Cox: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired

Scott Maderer: Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that

Alan Cox: you can impact the world.

Scott Maderer: In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Psalm 32 and Matthew chapter four, verses one through 11. I share how the Psalm calls for us to find a source of happiness and joy. In God, and I also share how we are called to recognize that God is with us always. Even though to us, he often suddenly appears.[00:02:00]

Psalm 32 says, happy are those whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes. No inequity in whose spirit There is no deceit. While I kept silent, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my inequity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let all who are faithful offer prayer to you at a time of distress. The rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. You are hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with glad cries of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be like a horse or a mule without [00:03:00] understanding whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle else. It will not stay near you.

Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast loves, surrounds those who trust in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Oh, righteous and shout for joy. All you upright in heart, Matthew chapter four, verses one through 11 says, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil.

He fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered. It is written, one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written.

He will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot [00:04:00] against a stone. And Jesus said to him again, it is written. Do not put the Lord your God to the chest. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory, and he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve only him. Then the devil left him and suddenly Angels came and waited on him and suddenly angels. That's the end of that passage from Matthew, and that's an odd phrase, don't you think? I mean, an odd image.

Angels suddenly just appearing around Jesus, and I'm not sure what to do or think about that, but there aren't many lines in the Bible that are just throw away lines. So we're supposed to hear something, or see something or think [00:05:00] something, but I'm not always clear what it is. Frankly, this whole temptation in the wilderness story kind of feels a little out there, maybe a little surreal.

Matthew says, the tempter came to Jesus in the wilderness, but it was at the end of 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, so maybe Jesus was weaker, hungrier, and worn out, and therefore a prime target for temptation. I don't know about you, but I find when I'm worn out, when I'm at the end of my rope is often when I make the worst decisions.

I don't know how you envision this encounter and it really probably doesn't. All that matter all that much, where these questions inside Jesus' own head and heart was there actually someone physically present, someone whispering in his ear. Was it a hallucination? Was it an in the flesh visitation? Can we even be [00:06:00] sure what it was or what we're supposed to take from it?

And does it even matter? Maybe not. Most commenters focus on the nature of the temptations, and I think that is where we're meant to pay the most attention. These particular temptations are unique. And for Jesus alone. But if you think about it, they could also be broadened into the ones that we all face.

I dunno about you, but I can't turn stone into bread. But I do find myself often thinking about my own needs before I think about the needs of others. I certainly can't survive being flung from the top of a really high building. But I, again, I think we can focus on that and how it could happen and tempt us as well.

None of us can rule all of the nations of the world, [00:07:00] but we can look and be tempted towards power that comes from shortcuts. Are these temptations, the temptations of Jesus, or are they the temptations of ours? And I think yes is the right answer. And then turning to Psalm 32, the Psalmist experience sounds a lot like a wilderness wandering.

There's suffering and wasting away, and there's testing as well. But if you notice, the source of the suffering is identified in verse four as the God of justice and judgment. The happy ones at the beginning of the Psalm are those who are not deceitful. Those with no inequity, those who are forgiven, that is the source of happiness.

The source of suffering is the hand of God laid upon the one who is wasting away, but that same God is the source of [00:08:00] happiness and healing. When confession is made, God is called a hiding place, a protector, a deliverer. And again, I don't think Psalm 32 is meant to explain everything and all suffering, but it does lift up the right relationship with God as God is the source of the joy that we find in living.

God is merciful. God is loving, and it is in God's mercy that reconciliation happens. That transparency is valued, that forgiveness is shared. That is the source of the celebration that the Psalm presents, and then towards the end, the speaker changes. God begins to promise, to instruct, to exhort, to be present.

My eye is upon you. That may sound like a threat, but it really isn't. We receive it as such sometimes, but it's really a promise of companionship. And support. God is [00:09:00] with us in our struggle, in our wandering, in our suffering, in our confession at all times. Maybe angels didn't suddenly appear at all. Maybe Matthew got it wrong.

Maybe that presence of angels was not sudden and it appeared when temptation was defeated Instead, maybe those angels were there. All along, but Jesus or rather us were distracted by the ordeal and didn't notice or lean onto the support that was there all along. We often are surprised by God, not because God suddenly shows up, but because we finally take the time to notice that God has been there all along, and we finally invite God into the conversation.

All too often when we start to figure out what's going on, we turn to God and go, I've got it. Now. [00:10:00] I'll take over. Instead of leaning into it and going, I finally see that you're here, and I welcome you. We're like that horse or mule without understanding, but we don't have to be. We can trust in that presence.

We can rejoice in that support. We can lean into the loving arms of God and trust that they have been there all along. Thanks for listening.

Alan Cox: Thanks

Scott Maderer: so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to [00:11:00] facebook.com/inspired stewardship.

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