Page 30 - The Mark of the Beast

compare themselves with one another rather than with God Who is the true measure of
what man was created to be. I would therefore like to set Christ as the standard and reveal
what His attitude was regarding consumption and the fulfillment of natural appetites. In
looking at Christ we will see clearly what is of the beast nature and what is divine.
Immediately after Christ was baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Spirit led Him
out to the wilderness where He fasted for forty days. Another way to say this is that Christ
consumed nothing for forty days. After these forty days we are told that Christ was hungry,
but He did not yet eat. Satan then came to tempt Yahshua and the very first temptation was
related to consumption. Satan said to Christ, “If you are hungry, turn these stones to bread.”
What Satan suggested seems very reasonable to the creature part of man. If you have
an appetite that is clamoring to be satisfied, then it seems normal to satisfy it. After all, God
created man’s body to be nourished by food, and even Christ said “food is for the body,” but
see here a remarkable manifestation of the divine nature. Christ responded to Satan by
saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.’”
What Christ declared was that doing the will of the Father is more important than
satisfying the natural desires of the body. The Spirit had not yet released Christ from His
fast, and God had not yet manifested how He would meet His Son’s need for food. Yahshua
was so submitted to the Father that He would not consider doing anything of His own
initiative to satisfy His need for food. He was not worried that His Father would let Him
starve to death. He knew that if He sought the Father’s will above all else, that the Father
would take care of the necessities of life.
Christ refused to be driven by His appetites. He refused to give Himself over to the
beast’s urging to consume, even when He was hungry. He subdued and ruled over the beast.
He buffeted His body and kept it under subjection. We are told that after Satan left Yahshua
that the angels of God came and ministered to Christ’s needs. God already knew how and
when He would provide sustenance for His Son, and the Son had such peace and confidence
in the Father’s love for Him that He was willing to wait, knowing that the Father’s will is
always the best and highest good for us.
Let us now look at another event in the life of Yahshua. During the entire span of His
ministry Yahshua never owned a house. He never had a ministry center, and He was content
to sleep wherever the Spirit led Him to sleep. Sometimes He slept in the open fields.
Sometimes He slept in the stern of a boat on a pillow. At times He slept in a bed in
someone’s house such as in the home of Lazarus and Martha and Mary. When a man
approached Yahshua and said that he desired to be His disciple, Yahshua responded in this
way:

Matthew 8:20
Yahshua said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

I think it is significant that Yahshua contrasted His divine way of life to that of two
beasts, the foxes and the birds. Beasts demand some type of home. They want a nest to live
in, or a nice den in the earth. So too do many men and women demand such things. They
may say to God, “I will be your disciple as long as I can have my nice home and furnishings.
As long as I can have my nice bed to sleep in at night I will follow you.” But look at the
words of Christ to one who would be His disciple. He said that He could promise no such