for it is written, He shall give charge to his angels concerning thee to keep thee;
In Luke's account the tempter's last approach is his most religious: he sets Jesus on the highest point of the temple and hands Him a verse to act on. The words are real Scripture — Psalm 91 — but Satan cuts a phrase out, and the whole trial turns on what is missing.
Satan now quotes Scripture himself. He reads out Psalm 91 — but not all of it.
Satan did not quote the whole of the verse. He left out those four words "in all your ways." How crafty the enemy is. To the blessed Lord he suggests, in effect: "The Scripture is plain that that promise applies to You. Now is Your opportunity to show that it does apply to You." He suggests that He should fling Himself down from the highest point of the temple. That would prove that the Scripture applied to Him, and would make Him an object of great interest to men.
The angels are charged to keep him — but the psalm says "to keep you in all your ways." Cutting the phrase leaves the promise floating free of the path it belongs to.
The object of the tempter here was to separate two things that God always puts together: the end, and the way to get to it. I believe you will find these two things constantly put together in God's own mind. Satan separates them here. He separates the end from the way by leaving out of the psalm he quotes (Psalm 91) the very words that make up the way to the end. What were those words? "To keep thee in all thy ways." Notice that: "in all thy ways." He daringly suppresses part of the Scripture; he leaves out the words that would have left the temptation open and unmasked. That is exactly what you find him doing at the present time.
The Lord does not deny the promise. He refuses to test it, because He was already sure of God's care.
Here the devil would separate the way from the end, leaving out this part of the psalm he quotes. The Lord replies with the saying in Scripture, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." To trust Him and count on His gracious ways is not to test Him. The Israelites put the Lord to the test by questioning whether He was among them or not. They should have counted on His presence, His help, and His care. Jesus did not need to prove God's faithfulness to His own word; He was sure of it and counted on it. He knew that the Lord would give His angels charge over Him, and this not outside, but to keep Him in all His ways.
The phrase is widely misunderstood, and it is often turned upside down.
To cast Himself down from the highest point of the temple was no part of God's ways, for Him or for any man. In those ways He knew God too well to need to test Him to see whether He would be as good as His word. So His simple answer was, "It is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." So we also learn what testing God means. People say that we test Him if we do not do the best we can for ourselves. But this is the absolute opposite of the truth: we test God when we do not trust Him fully in everything.
Jumping from the temple would look like great trust. Commentators call it the opposite.
Third, false security or presumption; it is really unbelief. It shows itself in doubting the Lord's promise. It often shows itself in demanding that God step in, to give unbelief its proof. Satan seeks to make us act on our privileges independently of the life of faith. On the whole, it is a presumptuous claim on our part to God's interventions. He promised them to His people, but we treat them as though they belonged to our will.
If a promise can be twisted like this, are the promises themselves less sure?
You may ask, what do we make of the promises of God? I answer, they are infallible. But the true servant of Christ, who has the Scripture and the truth, keeps them before his eyes — and has all the rest of the word too. So he does not apply them wrongly. Satan applied true promises to Christ without reference to obedience. He used the rest of the word to show that His part was to walk with God, and that He would surely have all that God had promised to the true believer.
He never claimed the promise; He received it.
Satan departs from Him, and the angels come to carry out their ministry towards the Messiah. He is the Son of Man, victorious through obedience. What Satan would have had Him test God about, He has in full. They are ministering spirits for us also.
- The way — Satan cuts "in all your ways" from Psalm 91, splitting God's promised end from the path God appointed to reach it.
- The word — a real verse, quoted only in part, becomes a trap; the answer is the whole of Scripture, not one text.
- The test — testing God is not trusting Him too much but too little. It is demanding proof instead of resting on His word.
- The walk — the promise of angelic keeping runs along the road of obedience, not off the edge of it.
- The proof — Jesus would not force the promise, yet He received it. The angels came, and the same ministering spirits serve believers still.
and on [their] hands shall they bear thee, lest in any wise thou strike thy foot against a stone.
The words in this verse are not Satan's invention. They are God's own promise, taken from Psalm 91 and spoken over the Messiah. So why does a true promise become a trap in the tempter's mouth?
Satan chooses this text because it belongs to Jesus.
The Psalm which Satan quotes (Psalm 91) is a Messianic Psalm. He takes Him to the Holy City, Jerusalem, and upon the pinnacle of the temple, because this temptation attacks Him as the Messiah. Standing upon that high place the people below must have seen Him and recognized Him; Satan was hid from their view. Suppose He had come down slowly, the laws of gravity set aside. He lands unharmed on His feet before the astonished crowd. What a test and proof of His Messiahship! Would they not at once accept Him?
Satan stopped quoting one clause too soon.
The object of the tempter here was to separate two things that God always puts together: the end, and the way to get to it. Satan separates them here. He separates the end from the way by omitting from the psalm which he quotes (Psalm 91) the very words which make up the way to the end. What were those words? "To guard you in all your ways." Mark that: "in all your ways." He boldly suppresses part of the Scripture. He leaves out the words that would have made the temptation obvious and unmasked.
With the clause restored, the promise covers a path God appoints, not a leap a man invents.
Scripture did not say, "Cast yourself down, because God has given His angels charge concerning you, lest you strike your foot against a stone." The Lord would not turn aside from Scripture because Satan had misused it. He shows us, in the most instructive way, that we must not leave our stronghold just because the enemy may turn it against us.
The lesson reaches past this one occasion. Satan handles all of Scripture this way.
The devil, as you see here, can quote Scripture, and he can suppress Scripture; he can also pervert Scripture. How solemn to think of the subtlety of the great enemy of God and man! This is how the crafty foe deals with Scripture. He takes it, as it were, in his own hand. He seeks to put out every part of Scripture that would shed its own light on the subject he wants to attack.
Refusing the leap cost Jesus nothing of the angelic care this verse describes. He had that care again and again, at every stage of His life.
An angel announced His birth to simple shepherds, and a multitude of the heavenly host united to tell His praise (Luke 2:8-14). In the wilderness, when tempted by Satan, "the angels were ministering to Him" (Mark 1:13). In the agony of Gethsemane "there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him" (Luke 22:43). At His grave the angel of the Lord was on guard (Matt. 28:2). And in that last scene that closed His path on earth, when He was taken up to heaven, two angels were standing by (Acts 1:10).
Most people get the idea of tempting God backwards.
To cast Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple was no part of God's ways, for Him, or for any man. In those ways He knew God too well to need to test Him to see if He would be as good as His word. And so His simple answer was, "It is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" This too teaches us what tempting God means. Men say that we tempt Him if we do not do the best we can for ourselves. But this is the absolute opposite of the truth: we tempt God when we do not trust Him entirely in everything.
He refused, not because He doubted the promise, but because He would not act without a word from God.
Satan quotes to Him a promise, but Christ will not abandon the position of obedience... We have indeed the whole word of God, as a means to gain the victory over Satan; but it is in the most simple obedience that we find strength. If Christ has not a word from God, He does nothing.
- The way — God joins the end to the way that reaches it. Satan cuts the two apart by dropping "in all your ways."
- The gap — a quotation can be accurate and still be a lie by omission; the enemy can quote, suppress, and twist the same text.
- The test — tempting God is not missing a chance to help yourself. It is failing to trust Him where He has spoken.
- The kept promise — angels did bear Him up, from the shepherds' field to Gethsemane to heaven. They never came because He jumped.
- The strength — without a word from God, He would not move. Obedience, not spectacle, won the victory.