Please respect my religion if you don't believe in any of it because I want to let everyone out there know i respect theirs.
2007-06-17 03:34:43 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the desert fasting and praying. 40 days is very signifigant in the bible. A generation is 40 days. Moses wandered for 40 years.The cycles of his life were also in 40 years. It is a sign of completeness.
After Jesus spent 40 days alone with God fasting and praying, he was taken up to the mountain with satan. Satan tempted him with everything, the whole of his kingdom. Even though Jesus was physically hungry he was spiritually fed. He was able to withstand the temptation put before us.
I believe that he withstood every temptation that we have today so that he can pray with empathy for us. That nothing is new to him. He is teaching us fortitude and power in prayer and fasting. To have desert time, so that we can have victory in the battle.
2007-06-17 03:43:02 · answer #1 · answered by 2ndchhapteracts 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ok, this metaphorical story is very important.
40 days and 40 nights is a symbol for "It was a long time, we don't know how long, we lost track of the days." Happens all the time in the Bible---Noah's Ark, etc.It is still a common Yiddish expression, usually used with exasperation, like how long it took to get a car fixed.
The desert, or the wilderness, means that Jesus was not among his own people. Therefore, this passage suggests that Jesus travelled. There are many traditions about Jesus being abroad, perhaps in India or Turkey or elsewhere, and there is certainly a lot of missing time in the life of Jesus that is not recorded in the Gospels.
That he did not eat or drink means that he did not eat any food that was unclean, or that violated Jewish dietary laws, and did not drink liquor.
The temptations are three---he was tempted by Satan, (which I believe to be symbolic of our own lower instincts, I do not believe in a Prince of Darkness with horns and a pitchfork) to do three things---to turn stones into loaves, to throw himself off a mountain, and to rule the world. This suggests that Jesus could have done any of these things, but would not.
So what this passage illustrates is that Jesus was tempted in ways that all people are tempted, and that the TEMPTATION WAS REAL. Otherwise it is meaningless.
Be glad to discuss this farther, but please understand that I am hugely busy today. Remember, these stories are symbols, metaphors, but a metaphor can be as real as a fact.
e-me if you like---all the best, Brian
ignore the athiest hyenias. they gather like vultures to mock believers. if you ever figure out why they gather here at R&S and are always the first to answer honest questions, let me know. but they DO have a good time, it seems.
now I'm going to the psychology section to tell someone to kill themselves---just kidding
2007-06-17 03:52:56 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the nation of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus spent 40 days. The nation of Israel was continually unfaithful. Jesus was faithful, rebuking Satan's 3 temptations.
2007-06-17 03:40:33 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because a time of retreat, of quiet contemplation without distractions is important when you want to sort out issues in life. 'Getting your head around' things needs peace and quiet not the busy clatter of everyday life. Jesus was about to engage on the greatest challenge of his life. He sought the open spaces to make a start on this.
2007-06-17 03:42:57 · answer #4 · answered by John G 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He did this just before he started his ministry - he fasted and prayed and dealt with Satan to prepare for what he was going to do.
Jesus still practiced the spiritual disciplines even though he was God (remember, he was a man also). He prayed, fasted and taught.
This is a model for us. When we are facing a challenge, or any day for that matter, we should seek God and draw close to Him.
It gave Him strength and empowerment, and it does for us also.
Very good question.
2007-06-17 03:40:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is the way prophets attune to God. This is the way prophets are tempered to be worthy of Gods presence. Moses, Daniel, David, Solomon and all God's men do it for the sins of their people.
This is how Gandhi freed India. This how Aquino freed the Philippines. Men who do this kind of fasting make impossible things to happen.
2007-06-17 04:05:08 · answer #6 · answered by PabloSolutin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is symbolic of the forty days and forty nights the israelites wandered in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land...a day for each year, as an atonement for their sin.
2007-06-17 03:56:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hello!
He spent 30 years among people, including his parents.
He had to live alone, to grow as for his human side and to meditate and clean, before he sterted teaching! There are many who believe he went East to get lessons and different ways!
2007-06-17 03:39:52 · answer #8 · answered by SuSaiQi 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my opinion is god wanted to show christ's committment and purity for a length that could be deemed as long enough to convey that. also this is something no other man had accomplished again showing christ's purity and glorifying the father as he should be. this act i believe was not so much to show his committment to the father (the father already knew he was pure) but to show his holy pure being to mandkind so he could be accepted as one in being with the father for those who believed in him
2007-06-17 04:56:53 · answer #9 · answered by flazzmaster 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Religious belief is emotional. Evidence for it is not needed, and evidence against it is not appropriate.
Just let your religion make you feel good, and you don't need any spicific answers about why Jesus did what where.
2007-06-17 03:38:54 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋