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Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist,
and then he wanted to spend time alone. He went into
the desert and stayed there for forty days and nights.
During this time, he fasted. In the traditions of that
time, fasting probably meant he ate and drank nothing from
sunrise to sunset, and didn't eat or drink very much after
dark, either.
While he was there, the devil came to
tempt him. He mad fun of Jesus and asked why Jesus
didn't just turn stones into bread if he was hungry.
Jesus replied and quoted a verse from the Old Testament,
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God."
Since that didn't work, the devil thought
he would try again. He took Jesus up on a mountaintop
so he could see all the countries in the whole world.
The devil told Jesus that the devil had been given the power
to put whoever he wanted in charge of each of them, and that
he would give Jesus whichever ones he wanted. All Jesus had
to do was pledge his allegiance to the devil!
Jesus knew that was a big fat lie.
He quoted the Bible again, saying "You shall worship the
Lord your God, and Him only will you serve."
That hadn't worked either, so the devil
thought he would try something even sneakier. The
devil quoted one of the Psalms! "for He shall give His
angels charge over you in all your ways...."
That didn't work, either. Jesus
replied "You shall not tempt the Lord your God."
The devil had tried to trick Jesus when he
was at his weakest. He'd given it his best shot, but
it hadn't work, so the devil left, promising to try again
later. He never had another chance!
After the devil left, angels came and
helped Jesus.
During the forty days of Lent, we think
about the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert and how
he triumphed over the devil who tried to tempt him.
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