What was the Judean wilderness like when Jesus was tempted there?
The Judean wilderness was a most awful, forbidding landscape—not forested but barren desert, rugged and mountainous. Jesus was led there by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He afterward hungered, and the tempter came to Him with conditional temptation.
Les explains that unless someone has been to the Middle East, they do not really understand what wilderness means. The wilderness of Judea, where Jesus was led up by the Spirit, was the most awful, forbidding landscape—not forested, just barren desert, rugged and mountainous. It was more extreme than what Americans normally think of as wilderness. Jesus was led there to be tempted of the devil, and after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was afterward hungered. The tempter then came to Him, using conditions, and tempted Him with food because Satan knows our weakest point at any point in time.