The moral compromise. The unhealthy habit. The enticing
addiction. The allure toward sexual impurity. Do you think their
uncanny ability to show up when you happen to be exhausted
or hungry or lonely is just coincidence? Don’t you detect some
design at work in the timing, the placement, the package?
Look at what we know from Satan’s temptation of Christ in
Matthew 4. The devil came out into the wilderness where Jesus
had been fasting for forty days, a time when (physically
speaking) the Lord was hungry, alone, tired, depleted. What
better setup and situation to make the suggestion of, well...
bread? I mean, I don’t know about you, but slide a warm roll in
my direction, topped with a smear of soft butter, and I’m a
goner. Even when I’m not hungry. But that’s the enemy’s way.
Precision, personalization, and persistence. He’s always
scouting for what Luke’s Gospel describes as the “opportune
time” (4:13)—the moment when a well-placed temptation is
most likely to be its most irresistible.
So again I ask—the devil’s temptations, the ones he picks
out and personalizes for you... coincidence? Uncalculated?
Just happenstance?