IT is recorded of Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew, that he was "led up of the spirit into the wilderness," and that he was there for forty days. At the end of the forty days, he had completed a wonderful demonstration. He had had a sharp encounter with "Satan," in which he had been the victor, refusing evil's suggestions of material bread and power, and remaining loyal to God. Jesus met the suggestions of material sense, silencing them in his own consciousness, with the affirmations of Truth.
It is recorded of Moses that he fled to the desert and kept Jethro's flocks for forty years. But Moses was not in the desert merely to keep sheep. He was there chiefly to learn in some measure the lesson that Jesus long afterwards mastered in forty days. Why did it take Moses so long? It may be said that he had first of all to learn the lesson for himself, which his previous experience at the Egyptian court had not afforded him, that whatever he knew of the one true God had to be unfolded in his own consciousness; and that, thereby, he was preparing for the tremendous task of leading his countrymen out of the bondage of Egypt. Moreover, he was more "as other men" than Jesus, who was the great Way-shower.
Jesus' battles with error were always short and sharp. This was because he was obedient. His spiritual armor, which was always on, rendered him invulnerable. Jesus prepared his disciples in three brief years to carry on his work, although they were not men accustomed to the task of teaching others. Their association with Jesus, their acceptance of his teaching and obedience thereto, quickened them spiritually. Moses was alone in the wilderness, working out the problem of being with his God, receiving his training, learning his lesson. Nor did he leave the wilderness until he was summoned to leave it. Neither Jesus' nor Moses' work was finished after the period in the wilderness, which was but a time of preparation for their great tasks of leading others through similar wildernesses. As Moses went back to his people, and led them through the places where he had lived so long, —through the same mental experiences,—so Jesus led his followers through the mental wilderness where he himself had challenged and vanquished error. To these great leaders the desert was no longer a wilderness; it was a place where God could be known, a place in which to manifest the power of Spirit. Thus Moses, after forty years of the wilderness for himself, rescued his people, and spent forty years with them in order to prepare them to leave the wilderness, as he had, through the power of Spirit.
