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Why does Jesus spend forty days in the wilderness, confronting public enemy number 1 (Satan, the accuser of the people of God), immediately after he has been declared Son of God (echoing Psalm 2) at his baptism?

I know that one answer is that it relates to the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness. Jesus must be faithful at the exact point at which they failed.

But could it also relate to 1 Samuel 17:16?

“For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.”

Don’t know.

After Saul failed to follow the Lord’s instructions (to destroy Amalek totally, together with their livestock), the Lord rejected him as king. The incident is related in 1 Samuel 15.

Saul’s excuse was that they spared the livestock in order to offer sacrifices to God.

“But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” (1 Samuel 15:21)

Samuel’s reply is:

“ ¹ Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ² For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. ³ If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. ⁴ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

“What’s new about the new covenant?”

A really good question that a friend of mine kept asking, from lots of angles, of lots of people, while we were at college together.

David Field’s post entitled Covenantal category confusion, disconnect, denial, and abstraction is a very helpful contribution.

Next weekend, I’m on a training weekend run by Lichfield Diocese as part of my CME. The theme is preaching, and here are the instructions for the prep (quite encouraging really)

Before the weekend you are asked to sketch out the shape of three sermons: one expository, one all-age and one evangelistic.

Peter Leithart is characteristically rich in his Pentecost Homily from yesterday.

Jam Cary’s post on Evangelicalism and Art is well worth reading.

Rough Table of Contents.

• Trends in modern, Western, conservative evangelicalism. Things that modern, Western, conservative evangelicalism has absorbed from various influences… Things which make modern, Western, conservative evangelicals suspicious of art.