After the Mountaintop
Matthew 4:1-11
Illustration
by Don M. Aycock

Have you ever noticed that almost every mountaintop experience in life is followed by a valley experience? You graduate from school with the great expectation of making your mark in the world, but you find out that the world doesn't exactly welcome you with open arms. You get married with the full expectation that your new spouse will relieve your loneliness and solve your problems, but you find out you are still you. Life's high moments are often followed by low times depression and bewilderment.

If we knew our Bible a little better, these experiences would not surprise us because this happened to Jesus, too. He had gone to John the Baptist who immersed him in the Jordan River and baptized him into away of life which was to change the world. The heavens opened and Jesus saw the form of a dove descend upon him and heard the voice of God say, You are my son; I am well pleased in you. What a grand and high moment! But looked what happened next: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil.

CSS Publishing Company , God's Most Unmistakable, by Don M. Aycock