The Hour of Temptation

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I recently had a question asked, “What if the last part of the Tribulation (Pre-Wrath) follows Yeshua’s ministry timeline starting with His baptism? Once Yeshua is baptized starting his 3 ½ year ministry he then goes into the wilderness for 40 days and faces HaSatan. What if this correlates with the testing of the followers of The Way and is started after anti christ blasphemes God in the Temple and the tempting period (believers of The Way being persecuted by the indwelt anti christ) is cut short from 40 days to 30 days (your midst of the week calc) then the Bride is called up leaving behind the tares.”

I don’t think I’ve made the 3 ½ year ministry connection with Christ’s ministry before. Perhaps it is not so much a cutting short of the time, but rather the keeping of a promise. In Matthew 4:1-11, it is at the end of the 40 days that the 3 temptations came.

He was hungry and was offered bread, but He responded that we live by the Word of God. Yeshua called Himself the bread of life. John 6:31-71 It’s interesting that this passage reveals it was hard for many to hear and some stopped following Him at this point. The temptation was temporary sustenance of the physical body in place of eternal sustenance of the soul.

He was tempted to use His status as the Son of God to essentially prevent any harm from coming to Him, but He responded not to tempt the Lord your God. Yeshua knew His role as He mentioned in the above passage. He came from heaven to do the will of His Father, who gave His only begotten Son that whoever believed in Him, though they were dead, would live. His whole mission coming to earth was the opposite of what the devil was offering Him. The temptation was the salvation from death.

He was shown the kingdoms of the world and offered by the devil to be given them if He bowed down and worshipped him, but He responded that it’s written we shall worship the Lord God and only serve Him. This is of course the goal of the devil where he will give his power to the antichrist and persecute the believers while expecting worship from all those on the earth.

So the temptations seemed to have to do with temporary reprieve from the physical, like Esau giving his portion to Jacob for stew, or worshipping the beast to be able to buy and sell and participate in society and eat. It’s also about rejecting God in the midst of this to worship the antichrist.

Revelation 3:10
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

I’ve typically assumed this to be speaking, due to my pre-wrath view, of salvation from the wrath of God. However, this is starting to make more sense and still would seem to fit with the idea of the 40 days being cut short, although not quite the same way.

If my thoughts are correct that the abomination of desolation and the exact days framework places an approximate 30 day window before the 6th seal and our gathering to the Lord. Matthew 24:15-31 and Revelation 12:9-17 really does speak to an initial focus on Israel and Judea for the dragon’s wrath, only to be spread globally after the woman is protected from the dragon for the remainder of the 70th week of Daniel, then that might shine a whole new light on Revelation 3:10 and our promise to be kept from the hour of temptation.

Perhaps it isn’t equating temptation to God’s wrath, but temptation to capitulate to Satan’s wrath and save our own skin, worshipping the man of sin and rejecting God. Because the 5 wise virgins are already prepared, “keeping the word of my patience,” they are caught up before the time of the devil’s temptation spreads globally and saved from that hour of temptation while the 5 foolish virgins have the door to the wedding shut on them. Matthew 25:1-13.

So while we are still promised to escape the wrath of God, we will also not be tempted because we will be going to the wedding as the bride while the earth is both tempted to reject God for temporal things and the wrath of God is poured out on the children of disobedience. Ephesians 5:1-16 | Colossians 3:1-17