Gods Sabbath

C HRIST O UR E XAMPLE

261

Christ’s Condition Deteriorates

Satan, who is a master technician, had watched with fiendish interest each step Christ took. He had held back from harassing the Saviour until the glory of God left Him completely and the long fast was underway. In the fearful struggle with the Saviour, Satan sought to take the utmost advantage from the surround ing circumstances. While he withheld his final all-out assault until the forty days were ended and Christ was reduced to His lowest physical level, he attempted to wear the Saviour down from the moment He entered the wilderness. As day after day passed without food, Christ drew nearer and nearer to death, knowing all the time it was critically important that He continue to live. He must stay alive for the work’s sake, His Father’s sake, and for the salvation of perishing millions. By the sure word of prophecy He knew His time to die had not yet come, but it was clear that, unless something was done to nour ish His emaciated body, He would never survive to accomplish His mission. Even when it is nothing more than self-preservation, the de sire to live is one of the most powerful known to humanity, but Christ was driven by a far stronger motive than that. We, who have never experienced the burden which Jesus carried, cannot appreciate how much He felt the need to live then. Later, on Calvary, He would die willingly because the time had come for the supreme sacrifice, but He knew this was not required in the wilderness. As His physical condition daily became more desperate, Christ received no indication that the Father was either mind ful of His situation or intended to do anything about it. The usu al human response to such apparent indifference is to lose trust in God as the Problem Solver, turn from Him to self, and under take the work oneself. There are often more attractive alterna tives which a person can choose. In Christ’s case, it would have been a simple matter before He became too weakened to do so, to walk back to His mother’s house. He knew that He would re ceive a warm welcome and food there. Or He could call on His di vine powers to provide for His physical needs.