Luke 3-4, Ecclesiastes 2

After being baptized by John, who is the prophet who prepares the way for the Lord in the wilderness, Jesus enters the wilderness where he fasts for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus is hungry, as you might expect, and it is then that the devil comes to tempt Jesus. These forty days and these temptations are a parallel to Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. However, where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds, resisting those temptations to rebel against God the Father in order to honor and glorify himself. Later, Jesus returns to his hometown where he begins to teach in the synagogues, and while they are amazed at his teaching, they are infuriated at the suggestion that God might work wonders for foreigners instead of for them.