The Prophetic Presbyterian & His Narrow Way

In an earlier article , we looked at the Temptation Narratives as teaching modules that are useful for outlining the text of the Gospels in which they reside.    They probably aren’t intended to teach us that after Yeshua was baptized He went into the wilderness for a literal 40 days & nights.       I think they are probably intended as a segway from His baptism to His itinerant ministry.     They are summaries of His ministry & tell us something about the spiritual warfare that was going on all around Him during that period.     In Matthew, Yeshua is depicted as a Hebrew Prophet who delivers a covenantal lawsuit.     This lawsuit indicts, judges, conquers, & re-covenants Israel, and since Israel is intended to be a priestly, prophetic nation in & through which God rules the world, by & through these actions God initiates an administration of the Covenant of Grace that conquers the nations.  T...

 (Derived from Invictus by William Ernest Henley) Out of the night that covers me,       Black from pole to pole, I thank God who mighty is        I am His conquered soul. In the clutch of circumstance       I’ve neither winced nor cried aloud. Under bludgeonings of chance       My head is bloody & unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears       Looms the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years       Still finds me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate,       How charged the scroll within; I am the master of my fate,       The captain of my kin

Matthew 4:1 - 11 Shema  Then Jesus  Historical Prologue and General & Specific Stipulations & Document Clause * was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him ...