TEMPTATION 2: FROM THE TOP ‘Then the devil … set Him on the highest point of the temple’ Matthew 4:5 NIV In the second of Jesus’ temptations, satan takes Him to the highest place in the region and tells Him to throw himself down because, well, whatevs, God will just click His fingers and, ‘order His angels to protect you’, right? (v.6) Here satan, a true legalist, quotes Psalm 91, a poem of faith in God. He turns what God wants to be a simple matter of trust into a twisted test. Surprise! - Jesus knows better. His Father isn’t there to be toyed with. So He answers, ‘The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God’ (v.7) Jesus isn’t denying that God could or even would save Him, but He knows God’s bigger picture. This story reminds us that we need to look at who God is (and what He is promising us) from the top - knowing that God is King, above and against us, not as our own one-trick pony with the sole purpose of getting us out of tight corners. First and foremost He is the Lord our God, who exists above His creation. In a beautiful, baffling way, He decides to come down to the level of choosing to trust us and let us trust Him with even the smallest parts of our lives. It would be a mistake, and satan’s aim, for us to take one promise out of context and forget (or never learn) who God is from the rest of scripture. God is not just, well... some life-saver dinghy. What now? The answer to this threat is to know more of your Bible, more. Flip to Psalm 91 and read the original Psalm that satan misquoted. What overall picture of God does the psalm give us?
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 23:05:39 +0000
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