<p>4:8 <i>And Jesus answered and said to him: It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve</i>- The record of the Lord&rsquo;s wilderness temptations is almost certainly a reflection of <i>His</i> self-perception; He spoke to the &lsquo;devil&rsquo; / personification of sin which was within Him, He saw Himself as two people, and His spiritual man triumphed gloriously against the man of the flesh. He understood that we can only serve two masters: God or the flesh (&ldquo;mammon&rdquo; is another personification of the flesh, similar to &lsquo;satan&rsquo;). He saw His own flesh, His own internal thoughts, as a master begging to be served which He must totally reject. His words are a quotation from Dt. 6:13, which warns Israel to serve Yahweh alone and not idols. He perceived His own natural mind and desire as an idol calling to be served. When the Lord explained what had happened in the wilderness to the disciples and thereby to the Gospel writers, He opened His heart to them. He gave us all a window on how He perceived Himself, as He sought to explain to men the internal struggles of the Son of God. Bringing it all back home, I must ask firstly how much we even <i>struggle</i> with temptation? And as and when we do, would we not be helped by the Lord&rsquo;s example of talking to ourselves, and personalizing Scripture as He did? &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t want to do <i>that</i> Give up your place in the Kingdom, for that... drug, that girl, that job? Of course not Come on. There <i>is</i> a way of escape; Paul told me God won&rsquo;t try me beyond my strength, He will make me a way of escape&rsquo;.</p>