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But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

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Of course a similar things takes place in the first 3 chapters of Job.  In Job, Satan tells God that Job only worships him because Job has been blessed in every way.  God allows Satan to remove the various blessings and job is tested to see if he will truly worship God.  The same sort of thing is going on in Matthew 4.

The tempter comes and tests Jesus while he is alone in the wilderness to see if he will remain faithful to God, and furthermore, God allows this testing to happen.  God led Jesus to the place where he would be tested.

If we are listening to God and doing what we are asked to do, then there will be times when God leads us into a time of testing.  When we find ourselves in such a time we need to follow the example of scripture and concentrate on prayer and scripture.  Jesus prayed and fasted for forty days; Jesus rebutted the arguments of the tempter with scripture.  Prayer and scripture are our greatest allies during times of testing.

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