“Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…”
4:5
Then
The word “then” indicates sequence in Satan’s temptations.
the devil took him to the holy city
The “holy city” is Jerusalem. The devil took Jesus from the wilderness in Judah up to Jerusalem for the second temptation.
and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
The devil took Jesus to the highest point of the temple (Solomon’s Porch) towering over the Kidron Valley. It was on the very precipice of the temple overlooking the valley. It was about 300 feet above the Kidron Valley.
4:6
and said to him,
The devil gave rational for Jesus yielding to temptation.
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,
The devil again assumed that Jesus was the Son of God. The words “Son of God” is a title of deity. The word “if” makes an assumption of fact that Jesus is the Son of God—“if, and you are.”
Satan tempted Jesus with the use of His deity: “Prove that you are the Messiah in a spectacular fashion!” This temptation was for Jesus to create His own temptation. The peril did not exist before, but Satan wanted Him to create the peril Himself. This is presumption. Putting God to the test is not trust in God. It is the manipulation of surprise by stupendous sensation.
PRINCIPLE:
Man-made sensation ultimately produces bizarre results.
APPLICATION:
Some people today approach Christianity with man-made sensation. Today’s sensation is tomorrow’s commonplace event. The thrust is to attempt greater and greater sensation. This carries some people into bizarre forms of Christianity.
i was reading a devotional and have a question-
"Satan uses his best stuff on Jesus. He starts by saying, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
IF? Of course He is God's Son. The Father just finished declaring, “This is My Son, whom I love.” But Jesus had left heaven where He and the Father shared perfect intimacy, and Satan hoped that the man Jesus wouldn't be so sure of God's Fatherly love. Perhaps he could trick Jesus into getting defensive and trying to prove Himself through miracles.
yet. Wouldn't you be itching to try them out? Poof, turn something into something else! See what you've got! Satan hoped that Jesus would let impulses drive the use of these powers, because here on earth, Satan can rule impulses"
What does it mean, "Jesus had just been given very powerful spiritual gifts – and He hadn't used them yet"?
Was there a point in His Life he recieved His Power, or did he have it from birth and waited to use it until after this "point"?
Marie, note that Satan assumes as a fact that Jesus is indeed the Son of God (deity). The "if" in the Greek is an assumption of fact (first class condition). The temptation of Jesus was to get Him to prove His deity with a miracle. It is important to recognize that Christ was undiminished deity and true humanity existing in one person. Jesus was never "given" His divine attributes but possessed them from eternity in an undiminished fashion. The issue of Jesus' temptation was in His humanity. The Devil wanted Jesus to do a miracle of throwing Himself down from a very high place to prove He was God. Jesus did not bite on this temptation to produce a sensation. All this was Satan's agenda but Jesus did not operate on Satan's agenda in His humanity.
To your point: no, Jesus never received or was given any gift or attribute from God because He had them from all eternity. Philippians 2:5 says that Jesus lay aside the voluntary use of His undiminished deity in His humanity to maintain His humanity. He never operated as God in His humanity, that is, He never confused His deity and His humanity.
Dr. Grant,
I have another question, from the same Muslim website that I mentioned the other day. Essentially, they were using Psalm 91:11-12 to "prove" that Jesus was not crucified, since the verses say that God will protect Him from harm. Also, they said that Jesus acknowledged that this chapter pertained to Him by saying that Scripture "also says this", referring to "you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." I'm curious, does this entire passage in Psalm 91, especially the part about God protecting His favored one from any harm, hold any water concerning the overall life of Jesus, or is this just a generalization statement, like some of the Proverbs? Thanks!
Jakob
Jakob, Satan, in tempting Christ, quoted 91:11-12 (Matt. 4:6), which shows that even God’s most marvelous promises can be foolishly applied and also misquoted.
This is the verse the devil quoted as part of his temptation of Jesus Christ, recorded in Matthew 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–13. It is the only verse of Scripture actually quoted by the devil but he misquoted it! He left out "in all your ways"—that is, in the ways marked out for us by God and not our own willful ways. For that was the very essence of the temptation; he wanted Jesus to go his own way rather than trusting God. Jesus was willing to trust God even if it meant going to the cross. Jesus did not bait God by putting Him to the test (Mt 4:7 quoting Dt 6:16).
The devil wanted Jesus to test God by jumping off a pinnacle of the temple, trusting his Father to send angels to bear him up so he would not be dashed to pieces when he fell and thus impress the people. Jesus replied rightly, saying, "It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’?" (Matt. 4:7, quoting Deut. 6:16). Testing God by jumping off a pinnacle of the temple would not be going in the way God had given him to go. It would be the very opposite of trusting God; it would be "baiting" him or "putting him to the test."
The Lord’s trust in his Father also resulted in Satan’s defeat, another part of the psalm the devil omitted (v.?13). The psalm tells us that if we go in God’s way, trusting him to uphold us, then we will "tread upon the lion and the cobra"; we will "trample the great lion and the serpent." The Bible elsewhere describes Satan as "a roaring lion" (1?Peter 5:8) and that "ancient serpent" (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). Jesus triumphed over him by trusting God. Likewise, in Christ the righteous will be victorious over Satan too.
When Jesus replied to Satan, he rejected the temptation to jump from the temple, trusting the angels of God to keep him from being killed. For after Satan had completed his temptation we are told God’s "angels came and attended him" (Matt. 4:11). In other words, God upheld Jesus even in the temptation.