Luke 4:11–12

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?

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.

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 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.

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).

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.

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 first temptation is an appeal to the need of the body. The second in Luke (not in Matthew) is the enticement of the world's glory. The third in this Gospel is the religious temptation, made through the word of God. That makes it the hardest of all for anyone who values that word. This is why Luke does not follow the actual order of the events. He groups them by moral weight, as he often does elsewhere.

The object of the tempter here was to separate two things that God always puts together; that is to say, the end, and the way to get to it. Satan separates them here. He separates the end from the way by leaving out of the psalm he quotes the very words that make up the way to the end. What were those words? "To keep you in all your ways." Mark that: "in all your ways." He dares to cut out part of the Scripture. He leaves out the words that would have exposed the temptation and shown it for what it is.

The faithful man can count on God's help while walking in His ways. The enemy wanted the Son of man to put God to the test, instead of counting on Him while walking in His ways, to see whether He could be trusted. That would have been a lack of confidence in God, not obedience. Or it would have been pride, presuming on its privileges instead of counting on God in obedience... People often quote this passage as if it forbade trusting God too much. In fact it forbids the opposite: distrusting Him, and testing whether He is faithful.

Putting God to the test does not mean some ordinary sin of the flesh, as many suppose. It means doubting Him, as many — indeed all of us — are apt to do. The true Israelite does not need to put God to the test. Suppose you think a dishonest man is working for you. You may test him by marking a coin, to see whether he steals it. Am I then going to mark something for God, to see whether He will keep His word? I know God will do it.

He was not going to leave the path of duty to prove God's care of Him. In this He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on God's protecting hand when we are treading the path of duty. But suppose we are walking in a path we chose ourselves, seeking our own pleasure, our own interest, our own ends. Then to talk of counting on God would be wicked presumption.

Notice that in each case Christ does not only quote Scripture, He quotes it as Scripture. Each time He says, "It is written." And it is very striking that the Lord drew all His answers to Satan from the book of Deuteronomy. The Lord gained the victory in every instance by the Word of God. It was the outcome of His simple dependence on God, and of having the Word of God in His heart.

Have you never found your heart attacked in this way: "Now let me see whether God is as good as His word"? Is that trusting Him? Is that resting in Him? ... You are not sure, then, are you? You are trying whether God will be as good as His word. That is putting Him to the test. But faith, confidence in God, says, "It shall be done."