Jesus knew that what the people wanted was just what Satan wanted, a worldly, wicked kingdom, built out of war and blood and the killing of all who would not submit to it. But that would not be the Kingdom of God. It would be the Kingdom of Satan, as so many kingdoms and nations have been in the past. To do as Satan wished him to do would be just the same as if he bowed down before Satan and worshipped him as his Lord and Master. This he would not do; and his last words to the tempter were: "Go away from me, Satan! It is written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve!'" Jesus saw plainly that in making this great choice to please God, he would not please his own people, the Jews. He knew that the rulers and the priests and the scribes, those who were the leading men of the time, would be against him, would refuse to follow him, would try to stir up the people against him and would try to kill him. But Jesus was ready to die in serving God, rather than to live in doing the will of Satan. When Satan, the wicked spirit, found that he could not persuade Jesus to do his will, he left him. And afterward, angels from heaven, sent by his Father, came to him in the desert and gave him all the food that he needed. The gospels of Matthew and Luke, which tell the story of this meeting with Satan and of Jesus' victory, do not say just where it took place. All we know is that it was in the "desert" or the "wilderness." But near Jericho stands a mountain where it is thought by some that Jesus stayed during those forty days. This mountain on that account is called by a name which means "forty days"--Mount Quarantania. [Illustration: Mount Quarantania. Believed by some to be the mount where Jesus was tempted.] [Illustration: Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, who gave him a new name, "The Rock," or Peter.] The Earliest Followers of Jesus CHAPTER 17 AFTER HIS forty days in the desert, Jesus began his work of winning men to the Kingdom of God. This plan was, at first, to talk to men one by one, until he could gather around him a little company of those who would believe in his words as a teacher, and follow him as their leader. The men who would be best fitted to become his first followers were some of those who had been already taught by John the Baptist. So from the wilderness Jesus turned his steps northward once more, and walked up the well-trodden road toward Bethabara, where nearly two months ago he had been baptized. At Bethabara with John the Baptist was a group or company of young men, who were known as John's "disciples," that is, men who stayed with him to learn his teachings after the crowds had gone home. Some of these were fishermen from the Sea of Galilee who had left their nets and their work that they might listen to John.