Here we focus on the second temptation of Jesus. This time, the devil took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to tempt Him to test God by asking Him to leap off the pinnacle and have God rescue Him. Again, Jesus quoted Scripture, this time from Deuteronomy 6.
Earlier we learned that a “test” was an earthen vessel for assaying metals. Here we see the verb “test” indicating “to examine the correctness of; put to the proof." So we see the Devil tempting Jesus to have God “prove it” -- that Jesus is God’s son.
Matthew 4:5-7
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
The devil then brought Jesus to Jerusalem and to the pinnacle of the temple. This was likely the high, flat-topped corner of Solomon’s porch that sat on the southeast corner of the temple complex and overlooked the Kidron Valley some 450 feet below him (see image below center ). Or stated for our modern ears, “the devil took him to the top of a 45 story building, or the top of the tallest rocket ship in the world, and said jump off and see if God catches you.”
From Top to ground, each of these images below is approximately 40 to 45 stories tall.
When you stop and think about it this is just another way of stating “I don’t believe you God!”
The devil took a page from Jesus’s own playbook: he quoted Scripture. He chose Psalm 91:11-12, which states, “For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways. They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” However, the devil intentionally omitted a phrase that is key to the verse: “in all your ways.”
By omitting the key component of the verse, Satan was asking Jesus to test God’s faithfulness and ultimately His position as Son by creating a situation that would require God to act in a certain way—to force Him to intervene. This temptation is not uncommon today. We are constantly being manipulated to put God into a box where we expect Him to act a certain way.
Jesus rejected the temptation and once again quoted Scripture, this time from Deuteronomy 6:16. His response was straightforward. It would not be right to “test the Lord your God” and then expect Him to bail you out when you are disobeying His will.
The ability to do what He was being tempted to do was not in question. It was primarily just a tempting to MAKE God “prove it.” It is still the opposer’s old method: God said XYZ, but is that really true? Why don’t you just do ABC and have him “prove it.”
Jesus’ refusal to take matters into His own hands came because the Scriptures forbid putting God to the test. The original context of Deuteronomy 6:16 recalled an episode when Israel rebelled against Moses and the Lord at Massah and Moses intentionally disobeyed God's directions to him.
In both the case of the Israelites and Jesus in the wilderness of temptation, the demand was for miraculous protection as proof that God cared. It is important to learn from this text the necessity of knowing Scripture, because there will be times when people twist the Bible in order to manipulate us into doing something contrary to God’s Word.
Deuteronomy 6:16-19
16 Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah.
17 Carefully observe the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you.
18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors,
19 by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.
Testing the Lord refers to the practice of placing demands or requirements on God that display a distrust of God.
Can you imagine verbalizing “God, I don’t really trust you. I know that you said X, but I don’t trust you. I want you to do Y for me and PROVE to me that you are a God of your word.” No one in their right mind would dare to challenge the Most High God in such a manner.
When we choose to trust and obey His Word we are choosing an intentional lifestyle that aims at godliness. It is not natural to put one’s trust completely in another. We are conditioned to look out for ourselves and not to trust anyone too much.
God’s original promise to Israel’s forefathers was unilateral and without condition. God had promised the land to them. Subsequent generations of Israelites could obtain those same blessings through faith and obedience. In other words, future generations would be required to walk in covenant faithfulness if they were to receive the covenant blessings.
Think of it as “God says your inheritance is the land. Your people already have it. IF you continue to follow God’s lead then you will continue to have it. If you don’t, then you are subject to being evicted, just as Adam and Eve were evicted; just as the Samaritans were evicted; just as the Hebrews were evicted. We can see this being played out throughout the Old Testament, particularly through the era of the judges and with the exile to Babylon. You might summarize it as “Do right and live well. DON’T do right and you are on your own and subject to eviction.”
Moses also says that WE are responsible for teaching the subsequent generations
Deuteronomy 6:20-25
20 “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’
21 tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.
22 Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household,
23 but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors.
24 The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today.
25 Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
Descendants of those who have been through special events must be consistently reminded of them so that the faith will pass from one generation to the next. God even specified the manner in which this was to be done. He decreed a sort of sacred storytelling where the answer to the children’s question would be recited in story form, detailing all the formal, legal, spiritual, and covenantal aspects.
The parents should be specific with their children about stressing the value of keeping the Lord’s commands. The Lord commanded them to keep the statutes “‘for our prosperity always and for our preservation.’”
The laws of God are for righteousness. It is easy to absorb many of the world’s ideas, namely that we are to look out for ourselves and try to make our own way, and that anything goes as long as it makes us happy. This ungodly wisdom directly contradicts the lesson Moses was teaching. He urges us, instead, to understand and teach subsequent generations that true prosperity comes only when we keep the statutes of God.
We must teach those that follow after us that we are to trust God without putting Him to the test; without putting conditions upon our love for God.
Who DOESN’T want to make themselves look good, especially in front of others? Who doesn’t enjoy getting the recognization of praise? Who doesn’t like it when YOUR plans come together in flawless execution. Everyone does. We delight and can be joyful when “things go right for us.”
But this study shows us that the greatest joy comes from exalting God rather than ourselves.