19 . —We are alone, silly. Don’t be straitlaced. No one will enter. My wife is traveling. We crave it. Why should we rely on what some papers say to share what our bodies desire? What difference does it make that your husband believes you to be only his, if the only thing that matters in life is the present pleasure?
20 . We notice that the tempter appears in these temptations in a subtle progression, in an increasingly more personal and direct way. The first attack appears as a mere protective insinuation on the part of the peiradson, the tempter (Matt. 4:3). The second bursts in like a clear deceit from the diabolos, the infiltrated, “the one who gets in between” since that is the word’s original meaning in Greek (Matt. 4:5). His third assault will expose him as Satan, name that the Bible quintessentially gives to the enemy of God (Matt. 4:10).
21 . “The Lord [. . .] is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9; cf. John 3:16-17).
22 . The essence of the temptations of the desert is not to make bread from stones, to plunge from the top of a tower, or to kneel before the devil, but to benefit through improper ways, to impose something on others by means of force or to yield to the corrupt methods of despots. It is more a problem of means than ends, because, as Ghandi would say, “the ends inevitably come out of the means.”
23 . The executive position that remains open in the corporation appeals to me more than anything in the world. I know very well what I can do to get my boss to give it to me. If someone finds out, maybe they will consider me a typical social climber who flatters his superiors in order to prosper. But what’s at stake is my future. This is my time, and I will not let it go to waste.
24 . Aside from these temptations that Jesus told his disciples about, we are not aware of the others, and we can only imagine. “The last temptation of Jesus” was not the one attributed to him in any film or novel, of succumbing to the weaknesses of the flesh, although he was also tempted in that. Jesus was young and he certainly did not lack charm.
25 . The apostle James (1:13-15) explains that sin is born (or is “given birth to”) at the end of a process that begins with the enticement of temptation, and it materializes in consummated facts. Given our sinful nature, the more we move closer to that denouement, the closer we are to committing the irreparable.
26 . 1 John 2:16 Calls these seductive elements “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Innumerable forms of seduction lie in wait for us and incite us to make mistakes that distract us from what is truly important and separate us from God.
27 . “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). “It has been said that the devil’s last trick was to spread the report of his own death . . .” (Giovanni Papini, The Story of Christ, p. 50)
28 . The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in everything just as we are but that he never sinned (Heb. 4:15). Hence, we must not confuse temptation with sin.
29 . “Many look on this conflict between Christ and Satan as having no special bearing on their own lives; and for them it has little interest. But within the domain of every human heart [. . .] the enticements which Christ resisted were those that we find it so difficult to withstand [. . .] the test upon appetite, upon the love of the world and upon the love of display which leads to presumption. These were the temptations that overcame Adam and Eve, and that so readily overcome us.” (Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 68)
30 . Since we are fallen beings, our victory lies with picking ourselves up each time we fall, and better yet, in not falling again. The only way to defeat temptation is how Jesus defeated it: with the help of the divine power.“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:18).“Jesus revealed no qualities and exercised no powers that we may not have through faith in Him” (Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 433). “For unless He met man as man, and testified by His connection with God that divine power was not given to Him in a different way to what it will be given to us, He could not be a perfect example for us” (Manuscript 21, 1895) Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. Washington: 1955, Review and Herald publishing association. “With the same facilities than man may obtain, withstood the temptations of Satan as man must withstand them.” (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, June 9, 1898)
31 . “Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, ch. 11)
32 . Luke 4:13 states that the devil left him “until an opportune time.”
33 . “Temptation once resisted will give power to more firmly resist the second time; every new victory gained over self will smooth the way for higher and nobler triumphs. Every victory is a seed sown to eternal life.” (Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, 1889, p. 120)
34 . Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, Madrid: Ediciones Siruela, 2007, p. 376.
1
The Meeting
The peacefulness of the afternoon falls upon the hollow of the valley. The shadows stretch their embrace through the crossroads of the ford and slowly ascend the steep hillsides. The chirping of the cicadas begins to subside; and from the ponds—behind the oleanders in bloom—the croaking of frogs rises in clear notes.
The quavering bleats of flocks returning to their pens slowly fade. From the bramble patches and myrtles arrive the humming sounds of bees, intent on the sickly sweet remains of the last berries. Below, beyond the murmur of the sugar cane fields and the quagmires bristling with reed beds and papyruses, the Jordan meanders, loamy and green.
Two young men wait impatiently, at the crossroads, under the precarious coolness of the willows.
They have arrived at this mystical place, following many other seekers of God. It could be said that at the bottom of this depression—steeped in history, the most sunken in the world, in the void left by major cities struck down by the divine fire1—the distance from heaven pains the most; consequently, the nostalgia of drawing closer to Him is felt the most.
From their precarious observatory, the travelers spot, mounted on the last cliff of the desert, the monastery thereon built by the Essenes, facing the Dead Sea, in order to always maintain, in the monks’ sight, the accursed effects of sin, and to distance themselves from it with their ascetic rites.
If Andrew and his friend were to decide, they could knock on its door that very afternoon and request their admission in the community, giving in to recent temptations. A novice of their age, proudly draping himself in his white robe, had extolled, with a serious frown and