Mark 1:12-13 - Satan Has No Clue

The Verses (NIV)

Mark 1:12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted[a] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.


My Paraphrase

Immediately the Spirit sent Him to the wilderness for 40 days. He was tempted by Satan. He was among dangerous animals, but angels took care of Him.


My Thoughts

(In case you are wondering why I paraphrase the verse first, it just helps me to think more about the verse if I have to write it in my own words--even if it's pretty much the same thing.)


First of all, we see complete obedience to the Spirit's command. He is baptized and He immediately goes to the wilderness. No hesitation. He had a job to do, but the Spirit wanted Him to fast and pray first--before starting His ministry. So He obeyed. I bet a huge portion of us Christians have never even thought about fasting for answers to dilemmas in our lives. I know I barely ever do. It's hard not to eat. I have a huge prayer request right now where someone dear to me is making a huge life-long mistake, and reading this verse really convicts me about fasting about it. If we want God to mean business in answering our prayers, can we not just forgo a little bit of food every now and then to show that we are totally relying on Him?

We look at His situation--no food, no human contact, in a desert--going, "That sounds awful!" especially since, not only was he being tempted by Satan himself, but there were also a lot of wild animals that could attack at any second! It's like, this poor guy can't catch a break! But that's just the point. The Spirit calls us to be dangerous, not to be comfortable.  Jesus didn't feel sorry for Himself.  We can assume that He "counted it all joy" like James tells us to, because the Father--in the prior verse--just said He was well-pleased with Jesus. The actions Jesus took brought Him (and as a result, us) joy. 

I heard a great teaching once by Pastor Dennis McCallum explaining this temptation by Satan. We take for granted that Satan knew everything about Jesus, but Satan is actually extremely limited. For one thing, he isn't omniscient, so he doesn't know everything. If we look at the facts that Satan was privy to at the time, all he really knew was that this Guy was some kind of "higher David"--another of "God's men." With that in mind, the temptations themselves make a lot more sense. For instance, if Satan knew who Jesus really was, why would he have offered Him all the nations of the world? Jesus created every nation, for heaven's sake! All Satan knew was that he had successfully tempted past "God men" with fame and glory and had made them fall. If he could just now get the greatest of them to fall, what a delightful feather in his cap! 

However, Jesus passed all tests and came forth as gold, which: brought further glory to God (glory which, incidentally could not have been brought had Jesus not had temptation); salvation to us (It's not just Jesus' death that brought us life. Every test He passed proved His perfection and the newness of life he offered.); and total befuddlement to the enemy (Satan never saw it coming, and by "it" I mean the crucifixion bringing salvation.)!


I never noticed the part about the wild animals before.  According to my Archaeological Study Bible, back in the day, there were many wild animals in that part of the world (remember Sampson and the lion carcass?). I just never thought about how Jesus had so much to deal with out in the wilderness. However, in the midst of Satan and the wild animals, we see that God did send angels to take care of Him.  I wonder if they talked or if they were invisible as they are to us today. Either way, it's worth remembering that even in our darkest times, God still sends us His attending angels. We don't need to pray to them or anything like that (Speaking to anyone invisible--except for God--is a bad idea.)! Still, it is nice to know they are there. 

In another gospel, one of Satan's temptations was for Jesus to throw Himself off a building because Satan wondered if the angels would actually save Him. Obviously, they were there and they probably would have, but that would have been showing off and Jesus isn't a show off. It would also have been indulging Satan, and. . .for obvious reasons, Jesus wasn't going to do that! Lastly, it would have been testing God--expecting God to do a magic trick in the event of doing something stupid, potentially suicidal, and disobedient.