Matthew 4 -- from the GV study group

The first section of chapter 4 regarding the temptation of Jesus is a bit confusing. "led by the Spirit" leads us to believe that God intended Jesus to go into the desert for the purpose of being tested, but why would he do this? If Jesus is the son of God, why would God have any expectation for Jesus to be tempted, why would there be room for error? Is Jesus more human than we think? In the NIV study bible there is a reference note comparing Jesus' test to that of Moses and the Israelites -- we see the number 40 in both of these events and Jesus even makes reference to Dt 8. It then goes on to explain that his test allowed him to better relate to his future disciples and followers. Is this what God wanted or was it to give him this human experience so that people would accept his teachings and give them a model of how to overcome temptation?

It's interesting that in the second section of chapter 4, Jesus begins his ministry with the same message as that of John the Baptist, "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." To quote Lynette, it seems as though John truly was the "forerunner to Jesus". Thoughts?

The third section, the calling of the first disciples, is particularly amazing. Can you imagine just working outside with your father on a boat and this guy comes up and pretty much just says "follow me" and you drop what you're doing, leave your father and do it?! Jesus certainly must've had some sort of obvious divine presence for someone to blindly follow him. Did they do this purely out of their own free will, or does God "mess" with free will for our own good sometimes?

This chapter certainly raises a lot of questions about God's intentions for Jesus and his ministry, were all of these things done for the benefit of Jesus so that he could better relate to us, or were they done for our benefit so that we could better relate to him and be more willing to follow his teachings?