And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the edge of the temple, and said to him, If thou be Son of God, cast thyself down hence;
Satan's third test moves from the desert to Jerusalem. He sets Jesus on the high point of the temple, and this time he comes armed with a Bible verse. So what is the difference between trusting God's promise and demanding that He prove it?
The Gospels give the three temptations in different orders. Commentators explain Luke's order as a moral one. He keeps the hardest test for last.
The first temptation is an appeal to the need of the body. The second in Luke (not in Matthew) is the inducement of the world's glory. The third in Luke is the religious temptation, made through the word of God. That makes it morally the hardest of all for anyone who values that word. This is why Luke departs from the actual order of events. He groups them morally, as he does elsewhere in his Gospel.
Readers naturally ask where exactly Jesus was standing.
The word translated "pinnacle" has the definite article. It points to one particular raised part of the temple, which is now unknown.
The challenge picks up words spoken a short while before. The Father had declared Jesus to be His beloved Son. The tempter now turns that title into a question.
At the end of Matthew 3 the Father proclaims Him His Beloved Son. At once the tempter comes forward with the challenge — "If you are the Son of God."
The promise Satan reads (from Psalm 91) is real. What makes it a trap is what he leaves out.
Now, you see, the tempter's aim here was to separate two things that God always puts together: the end, and the way to get to it… He separates the end from the way. He does it 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 guard you in all your ways." Mark that: "In all your ways." He boldly cuts out part of the scripture. He leaves out the words that would have shown the temptation for what it was.
Put the missing words back, and the whole suggestion collapses. A leap from the temple was never one of God's ways.
He could quote Scripture too. He could even apply a psalm about the Messiah to the Messiah Himself, though only to twist its truth. But he left out the key condition of such care: "In all your ways" (Ps. 91:11). To cast Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple was no part of God's ways, for Him, or for any man.
The idea offered a spectacle no one had ever seen. It could also look like perfect trust in God.
You may catch attention by some amazing feat that no one has heard of before. "Throw yourself down." To do this might seem to be handing Himself over completely to God. In reality it was distrust — tempting God. It meant that an outward act was needed to show His care. No true confidence in God calls for that. Instead there is an inward peaceful trust.
The Lord's answer names the sin, and people often turn it upside down. Older translations use the word "tempt" where the ESV says "put to the test."
Satan takes up scripture, and says, "It is written," to make Him do His own will. But He says, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." People abuse this often; they use it as the very opposite of what it is. When people talk of "tempting God," they mean trusting Him too much. Satan says, "Throw yourself down, to see if God will be as good as His word." "I have no need to throw myself down. I know He will do it when the time comes. Of course His word will be fulfilled. Why am I to see if it will be?"
The sequence in Luke is not only about Christ. It maps the way pressure comes to anyone.
Luke's moral order gives us first of all a personal temptation, then the worldly temptation, and lastly, the spiritual temptation. That is the way Satan gets at us. He knows how to tempt us on the personal side. If he cannot get at us that way, he will tempt us on the worldly side. And if he does not succeed there, he will tempt us on the spiritual side… the spiritual temptation was to test the truth of God's Word, and he gives Him a text.
- Placed last — Luke groups the temptations by moral weight. The religious one comes last because it is the hardest for anyone who values God's word.
- Quoted — Satan can quote a real psalm about the Messiah and still use it against the truth.
- Cut — he dropped the words "in all your ways," splitting God's promised end from God's appointed way.
- Exposed — the leap would have looked like total surrender. In truth it demanded outward proof of God's care.
- Answered — Jesus would not test a God He already trusted. "Tempting God" is not trusting Him too much; it is wanting Him to prove His word first.
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.
And Jesus answering said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt [the] Lord thy God.
Satan's last attack in Luke uses Scripture itself. He quotes a promise from Psalm 91 at the highest point of the temple and invites Jesus to jump, so that God will have to prove His care. The Lord answers with one line from Deuteronomy, and those few words are easy to misread.
Luke does not tell the three temptations in the order they happened. He groups them by weight.
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.
Satan quoted Psalm 91 accurately, apart from one short phrase. Leaving it out was the whole trick.
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.
So what does this command actually forbid? (Older translations read "you shall not tempt the Lord your God.")
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.
Setting up a test for God treats Him the way you would treat someone you suspect.
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.
With those words cut out, Satan's offer asked the Lord to claim God's protection in a place God had never sent Him.
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.
Jesus does not argue. Luke records His answer as "It is said," and all three of His answers come from one book.
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.
The same test comes to us in everyday words.
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."
- Placed last. Luke groups the temptations by moral weight. The attack made through Scripture comes last, because it is the hardest for anyone who loves God's word.
- Cut short. Satan quoted Psalm 91 but dropped "in all your ways." He split the promised end from the path God gave to reach it.
- Not caution. The command forbids distrust, not strong trust. Testing God to see if He is faithful is unbelief dressed as boldness.
- Path or presumption. You can count on God's protecting hand in the path of duty. Claiming it in a path you chose yourself is presumption.
- Word answers word. Every reply came from Deuteronomy, quoted as Scripture. The victory went to a Man who depended on God and kept His Word in His heart.