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Category: The Life of Messiah

The Messiah Tempted

Tags:  Day of Atonement, fasting, temptation, Yom Kippur

By D. Thomas Lancaster

And while Abraham was proceeding along toward Mount Moriah with Isaac, "Satan came towards him and said to him, 'Would you allow me to have a word with you?'" (b.Sanhedrin 89b)

After His immersion in the Jordan, Yeshua left the water and went out into the Judean wilderness west of Jericho; it was a dry and waterless place. There He fasted forty days. From those heights, He could clearly see the Jordan River and the plains of Moab where Moses had delivered the words of the book of Deuteronomy to all Israel. Perhaps the Master meditated upon the words of Deuteronomy throughout His fast, preparing for His showdown with the devil.

The Forty Days

Yeshua's forty-day fast is a reflection of Moses' forty-day fast on Mount Sinai. Messiah, the ultimate redeemer, comes in the pattern of Moses, the first redeemer. More than that, the forty-day fast and confrontation with the adversary may be an allusion to the forty days of repentance that precede the Day of Atonement.

The Jewish tradition of forty days of repentance beginning on the first day of the sixth month, the month of Elul, are observed in remembrance of Moses' second sojourn on Mount Sinai. After the sin of the golden calf, Moses returned to Sinai and was "...there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water" (Exodus 34:28). Meanwhile, Israel was camped below the mountain in a state of mournful repentance.

The annual forty days of repentance before the Day of Atonement relive this story from the Torah. It is customary for the extra-pious in Judaism to periodically fast and recite prayers of repentance throughout these forty days in preparation for the Day of Atonement.

It seems unlikely that we can date this particular custom to the days of the Master with any confidence, nor can we assume that the story of the temptation actually happened during the forty days before the Day of Atonement. Neverthele...

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© 2009 First Fruits of Zion. All rights reserved. We encourage you to share this material with your friends for further personal study. However, This material may not be republished, in print, electronically, or any other form without our prior permission. Adapted from Messiah Magazine #97 .

For more information about this issue, click here.

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