Whatever the Lord God did for ancient Israel, He has done all the more so for you. And all that has been written concerning His people of old has been written for your instruction and edification.
God has brought you out of Egypt by the mighty hand and outstretched arms of Jesus Christ. And He has brought you through the waters of your Baptism — through the Red Sea and the Jordan of your Baptism — into the Good Land that He promised, into His Holy Church. And here it is true that Milk and Honey flow, the pure spiritual Milk of His Word, which is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. And as God the Father has not withheld His only Son but given Him up for you, there is no good thing that He withholds from you; for He is your Father, and you are His child.
Along with the preaching of His Word, He provides all that you need for body and soul, now and forever. To this day He has not allowed you to perish, and He continues to feed and clothe, shelter and protect you. He surrounds you with good gifts and with people who love and care for you.
Offer to Him in return, therefore, the first fruits of His gifts to you. Not as though to buy Him off or bribe Him (as if you even could), but in order to give all thanks and praise to Him who loves you, to confess your faith and trust in Him, and to entrust yourself to Him in whom you have life.
As His first and best gift to you is His Word, offer the first fruits of that sacred gift by the prayer and confession of His Word. Use His Name rightly, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism. Call upon Him in every trouble. Pray, praise, and give thanks. Confess what He has spoken.
Seek Him in the place where He causes His Name to abide with you in Peace. Seek Him in His Holy Church, in the preaching of His Gospel, in the remembrance of your Baptism, in the Body and Blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ. And from the priest whom He has called, ordained, and given to you, hear the Word of Christ by which you believe and pray and are saved.
And so also with the material gifts that God the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship — with the money that He has provided, with the abilities that He has bestowed upon you, and with all the means that He has placed into your hands — support His Church and Ministry on earth to the glory of His Holy Name, not only for your own benefit, but for your neighbors’ benefit, as well.
Thus do you worship the Lord your God, just as it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him; not only with your thoughts, words, and deeds, but also with your stuff, and with your whole body and life. Refrain from every kind of evil, and be quick to do good to your neighbors, to your family and friends, to the Levite, stranger, and alien, and even to your enemies on earth.
Receive what God has given to you, whatever it may be, and use it to glorify Him by loving and serving the people He has set beside you. Live where He has stationed you in charity and peace.
Do not take or even covet what the Lord your God has not given to you, but be content with your own place and purpose and possessions, and live in love according to your calling as a Christian.
Do not test the Lord your God, but do fear, love, and trust in Him, according to His Word and all His promises. Worship Him in the beauty of His holiness by living in holy faith and holy love. Give all glory, honor, thanks, and praise to Him, because He has shown His mercy to you. That is your life, even here and now on earth, as you live with God in Christ Jesus by faith in His Word.
Yet, even so, although you live with Him in His Kingdom by such faith in the Gospel, there is still this wandering in the wilderness between the Red Sea and the Jordan, between your Baptism and the completion of your Baptism in death. And this wilderness can be scary. It is a trial, and there are many tribulations. There are temptations on all sides, within and without. And there is the constant threat of danger to life and limb, body and soul, possessions and reputation.
Still, God does not lead you through the wilderness in order to destroy you. It is rather the place of repentance and catechesis, wherein He teaches you to call upon His Name, to trust in Him and rely upon Him, and to live by faith in His Word and promises, even when you go without bread. He disciplines you in the wilderness, as a father disciplines a child in love, so that you might live.
But the devil tempts you in the wilderness; certainly not because he loves you, but because he hates you and despises you. He is furious that God has redeemed you, and he hates the promises that God has given you. The devil knows no mercy, but he will do anything to hurt and destroy you.
To that end, the devil tempts you to doubt and despair, and he tempts you to idolatry, in which you find not life but only death. The devil tempts you to take what God has not given you. But as he masquerades as an angel of light, so does he disguise his temptations to appear good and right.
The devil tempts you to make gods out of the things of this world, whether by coveting what you have not been given, or by devoting your body and life to whatever you have been given, putting your trust in those things, as though they were the source and substance of your life and salvation. Thus would the devil turn you away from the Lord and His Word to the perishing things of earth.
He tempts you to reckless bravado in doing such things as the Lord has not given you to do, while tempting you to cowardice and negligence in those duties and responsibilities that God has given; so that, far too often, you do what you should not, and you fail to do what you should.
Repent of all such ways in which you have fallen prey to the devil’s temptations. Rather, resist the devil, firm in the faith of Christ, as the Scriptures have taught you, and he will flee from you.
Indeed, the Holy Scriptures have taught you to put on the full armor of God, that is, to arm yourself with His Word, that you may stand fast against the assaults and the accusations of the old evil foe. Thus do you resist his temptations, as often as they come; and where and when you do fall into sin, the gracious Word of the Gospel heals you, defends you, and raises you up to new life in Christ.
Thus do you fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith. And thus do you live and abide in the place where the Lord your God causes His Name and His Glory to dwell with you in grace, mercy, and peace — that is to say, in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.
For one thing, you do find a good example today in your Lord Jesus Christ; for He has lived perfectly in faith and love, and He has left you an example, that you should follow in His steps. In His refutation of the devil’s temptations you find a sure and certain way to proceed in your resisting of the devil’s temptations. The Lord Jesus relies upon the Holy Scriptures, He relies upon the Word of His Father, in order to know the Way He is to go, and to avoid the way He is not. And He trusts the Word and promise of His Baptism, even when His experience may seem to deny it.
His Father has declared, “You are My beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.” So, that is what Jesus believes and clings to. He will not listen to the devil’s “if.” He listens only to His Father.
And all of this, you should also do. Hear and heed the Word of your God and Father, and trust the promises of your Baptism; for you are His beloved son in Christ, and with you He is well pleased.
But do not kid yourself! You are no match for the devil. On earth is not his equal. He is stronger than you, to be sure. As a creature of God, he was a holy angel before he fell, and he retains the powers that God has given to him. So, if you consider what the holy angels can do, you know the strength of Satan. But his strength is not his greatest trick. It is his craftiness and cunning, his lies and deceits. It is by such words that he seeks to destroy you; for the devil is not the Creator, but he can only mimic the Creator. As God does all things by His Word, the devil uses words, as well, and in this way he twists, distorts, and perverts what God the Lord has said and done and given. Satan will even quote the Holy Scriptures, selectively, in order to trick you and trap you.
Notwithstanding all your best efforts and good intentions, you will not survive the wilderness on your own. You’ll not go toe-to-toe with the devil and win. “On earth is not his equal.” Thanks be to God, therefore, that your dear Lord Jesus Christ is far more than just a good example. He is your Savior and Redeemer, your merciful and great High Priest, and your own great Champion.
Remember that Jesus has taken His stand with all the people in the waters of the Jordan. He has bound Himself to you there in His Baptism. And He has bound you to Himself in your Baptism.
It is for your sake that He is out in the wilderness. It is for your sake that He is led by the Spirit and tempted by the devil. It is for you and your salvation that He remains faithful and steadfast as the true Man, even unto death upon the Cross. He does not give in to the devil’s temptation, but rather submits Himself entirely to the good and gracious Will of His Father. All that He does, He does it all for you in love, to the glory of His God and Father, to the praise of His glorious grace.
He hungers after forty days of fasting in the wilderness; so His Body knows hunger like yours, and His tummy has rumbled for the food that is needed to survive. And yet, He hungers far more to do the Will of Him who sent Him; which is the good and gracious Will of God for your salvation.
He proceeds in perfect faith on the Way of the Cross, and He will not turn aside, neither to the left nor to the right. He goes where God has called Him and sent Him, and nowhere else. And He worships the Lord, His God and Father, with all His thoughts, words, and deeds, with all His stuff, and with His whole Body and Life. With everything He is and has, He offers Himself up as the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the world.
And by His death He crushes the devil’s head, because He thereby atones for the sins of the world and shatters all the power of death. Those are the devil’s two greatest weapons — sin and death — but Satan is now utterly stripped of both. For Christ has atoned for all your sins, and Christ has trampled death beneath His feet. The Lord has gotten this great Victory for you and for all people
Relying on His Father, praying to Him and trusting that He would be able to save Him out of death, the Lord Jesus receives the promise of His Father in His Resurrection from the dead. And having by His Cross reconciled the world to God, He rises from the dead as the First Fruits of the New Creation. In rising and ascending to His Father, He brings you also to the Father in Himself.
How is it that His Victory, Life, and Salvation become yours? And how do you go about putting on the Armor of Christ Jesus and His Cross and Resurrection? It is by the prayer and confession of His Word. And that is not beyond your grasp. It is true that by your own reason and strength you could neither know nor believe His Word, nor could you pray it and confess it. But the Lord has spoken and revealed His Word to you, and with it He has opened up your lips to show forth His praise. Indeed, His Word is not far away from you; it is drawing near to you even now.
It is in this very preaching, this preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, that His Word of Life is very near you. It is in your heart and in your mouth, because it is first of all in your ears. And as you hear His Word, so do you believe. And as you believe, so do you confess and pray.
The Word has drawn near to you in the Person of your Lord Jesus Christ, as He has drawn near to you by His Incarnation and Holy Nativity, by His Baptism in the Jordan River, by His Fasting and Temptation, by His Agony and Bloody Sweat, and by His Holy Cross and Passion. And so does He also continue to draw near to you within the Liturgy of His Gospel in Word and Sacrament. He draws near to you, and He abides with you, and He shall never leave you nor forsake you.
With this Ministry of His Gospel He offers you up to His Father as the first fruits of His Salvation. That is how St. Paul speaks of his ministry to the Gentiles, namely, that by his Gospel he offers them unto God. And so, by this Gospel, Jesus offers you to His Father, that you may have Life.
You are no longer a wandering Aramean. You are no longer a stranger or an alien to God. But you are a member of the Body of Christ, His Church, a member of His Family and a resident of His Household. And here you also rejoice in the Good Gifts that your own dear God and Father showers upon you in Him who is your Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, your Lord.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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