There He was, forty days without food or water. In the wilderness, alone and malnourished, desperate for the voice of His Father, and seeking to know for sure His purpose in this world. Jesus then endured a trial that many of us have never experienced and never will. You see, we often say that the devil is tempting us, or that satan is attacking us, and although I do believe that satan is real and that he does have power to tempt and is seeking to devour us all, I would say that none of us has actually ever been tempted by the devil himself. Satan has demons that do his bidding for him (so to speak), and we deal primarily with them and not satan himself.
See, unfortunately we sometimes give the attribute of Omni-presence to satan which is only unique to God Himself. Satan cannot be everywhere at once! Only God can do that. So if I am tempted right now, and you are as well, then I believe that it would be a wrong assessment to say that we are both getting tempted by satan at the same time. Now there are many demons and each is “on assignment”, so yes there is a spiritual realm and there are many rulers of darkness in that spiritual realm that impact our lives, there is no doubt about that. But I do feel that what Jesus experienced in the wilderness when satan tempted Him was a far greater temptation than we will ever fully realize. Yet, He did engage with satan and won that battle in the wilderness through the Word of God, even in His weakened and fragile position! This is important to understand because we are going to discuss the reality that we have a High Priest that is able to sympathize with our weaknesses in today’s post.
I love this story because it gives us hope as we endure through Spiritual battles too. We can and will defeat the enemy of our souls through the Word of God. Jimmy Evans says that in the Spiritual world the Word of God is Nuclear! Nothing has more power than God’s Word in defeating our Spiritual enemies, and I believe that to be true as well.
In our passage today we see a truth that is very comforting and encouraging at the same time. Jesus Christ is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, and He is able to give us access to the Father through His victory over satan!
Let’s look at these three verses in Hebrews chapter 4 and discuss the reason we can have comfort and encouragement through them!
Hebrews 4:14 (NET)
14Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
Jesus is our High Priest. A High Priest was responsible for meeting with God and atoning for the sins of the people that he was representing. If we are confessing Jesus to be our Savior, then we have Him as the High Priest over our lives, making perfect and acceptable atonement for our sins before the Father. He carried out His responsibility to cover our sins before God the Father and to present a perfect sacrifice in Himself that would perfectly please God’s righteous demands upon us, His sinful people. Thank You Jesus!
Hebrews 4:15 (NET)
15For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
It is comforting to know that God is compassionate! He is able to sympathize with us. Think about that for only just a brief moment and you will begin to wonder how? How could a perfect God who doesn’t commit sin, a holy God who is righteous in all His ways, a pure God who is good through and through, possibly understand and sympathize with us and our weaknesses (sin)? The only reason I can come up with is that He chooses to. God chooses to put Himself into our place and makes the declaration that He remembers that we of the dust, He remembers our form. Look at what it says in Ps. 103:13-14, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. For he knows what we are made of; he realizes we are made of clay.” God chooses to relent based on His heart of compassion over us! That is incredible to me, and it provides much comfort to me and I hope to you as well! When we think that we are the only ones who understand our current plight, or that we are alone in our struggles because no one will be able to understand, this Scripture should help us to put that lie to rest and to run to Him in all of our trials! Which leads us to the next verse.
Hebrews 4:16 (NET)
16Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
I think one of the many unfortunate things that we experience as Christ followers is the lack of confidence we all have in approaching our God in our times of need. Why do we wait? Why do we hesitate to run to Him with every and all of our needs immediately and with confidence that He is listening to us?
Also, I love the picture of His throne – the throne of grace! Do you understand the meaning of grace? Unmerited favor, undeserved blessing! Here is an acronym – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. I love that and I hope that it encourages you as much as it does me to continue to persist in prayer for myself and others!
I do not approach the Father because of my goodness, or my anything for that matter. I only approach Him with confidence knowing that it was my perfect Savior who made a way for me to gain access to the Father, and I go to the Father based one His goodness. In John 14:6, Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to the Father but through Him!
God is our Savior, Deliverer, Redeemer, Hope, Peace, Healer, Comforter, Truth, Holiness, Friend, Brother, Helper, Wonderful Counselor, Provision, Source, and so-on. Of which of these are you in need right now, and what is stopping you from crying out to Him while you look for that attribute of God to fill a need in your life? He is calling to you and telling you that it is ok to come to Him at all times to find grace in your times of need. So, go to Him and seek Him for the mercy and grace that you are in need of right now! He loves you and is sympathizing with you!
Oh I hope that this is rising up worship in your heart right now! I know it does for me each time I am reminded of this Truth. God so desires to meet our needs, but we must go to Him for those needs to be met.
Remember that James tells us we have not because we ask not (James 4:2-3), and that when we ask we do not receive because of our impure motives. I think it is important to remember that God is not a genie that is just waiting to answer our three wishes. No, He is still pure and all knowing, and His will supersedes our requests, so it is important not to get caught up in the wrong assumption that He is going to answer me with whatever I ask of Him! This should in no way dissuade us from pursuing Him though, because God’s ways are much higher than our ways and we must entrust Him to take our imperfect requests and cause them to work out for good for all of us who love Him (see Romans 8:28), and if that means to deny me of my requests then I will choose to trust Him.
It should also make us consider what it is that we are asking of Him before we do ask it. We pray in Jesus’ Name, so that means whatever I am asking right now I am willing to say that I believe Jesus would pray the same thing (have you ever thought of that?). If that bothers you, then maybe you may want to either re-word your request or just drop it altogether- haha.
The main point I want to make is this: Go to God with all of your needs because He has given you access through our Savior Jesus Christ, who is our High Priest making atonement for us, and given us access to God the Father through that atonement. Worship Him with all of your heart as you reflect upon this truth!
God bless you!