THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

(Part 5)

Matt. 4:1-11

Morning Meditation 9/18/16

Verses 5-7 say, “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

This is the second temptation. Lockyer says, “Christ’s temptations ranged from appeals to the flesh to the most subtle seduction of the spirit. All were met, as temptation must ever be, by the infallible Word of God, the sword of the Spirit.” This temptation goes from body needs to the need to be accepted. One of the great areas where Satan is trapping people in His hell-bound kingdom is the need to be accepted. This is the temptation of the soul, i.e., the mind, emotion and will. I pastored for almost 42 years. I have seen young people succumb to their peers in public schools and abandon the teachings of Christ in order to be accepted. They continued coming to church but any teaching that would make them different from the ones that were their companions at school went completely unheeded. They could not stand to be rejected by their peers. The whole point of being a Christian is to be changed. There is no salvation apart from repentance and repentance is coming back under the authority of the throne. Most of our peers are not under that authority and that automatically makes us different. Satan uses our need to be accepted as one of his strong points of temptation.

This temptation is the temptation to do something miraculous to obtain acceptance by His nation that was not ordered by God.. If we are to serve the Lord acceptably, we must never try to force God to keep His Word so that WE WILL BE ACCEPTED because of His coerced approval.

The words “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city . . .” introduce us to the second temptation. The word “then” translates “tote” and means “at that time.” Satan had failed in his first temptation, now, at this point, he begins the second. It follows immediately upon the conclusion of the first. The word “devil,” as has been previously defined, means “to slander, to falsely accuse.” Satan has many names.. The word devil is used here to bring out the vile intention of the temptation. Satan tempts Jesus as a slanderous opponent who has no good intention whatsoever. The words “taketh him up” translate “paralambano” and means “to take with one’s self” and is a present active indicative verb. The present tense represents continuous action and means that the devil was allowed without a break to take Jesus from the first temptation into the second. The Father allowed the temptation and Jesus was still being “led of the Spirit” during this time of temptation. Whatever the devil did, the Spirit was there. God was in Adam during the first temptation to enable him to say no. He was also in Jesus, the last Adam, to enable Him to say no. The first Adam failed but thank God the Last Adam didn’t. The words “the holy city” are a reference to the earthly Jerusalem. Remember, they are in the wilderness. This temptation is taking place not in the wilderness but in the place where Jesus became a man to be accepted. He is the Royal heir to David’s throne and this throne is in Jerusalem. Read this statement of Christ: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev. 3:21). Jesus is not on David’s throne today. He is with His Father in His throne. But He has a throne. And He promises that the overcomer will be granted the privilege of sitting with Him in His throne. His throne is the throne of David (Isa. 9:6-7). Jesus has every right to be accepted by the Jews. But His acceptance must be in God’s time. There can be not short cuts to the throne. The devil wants to obtain something over which he can slander Jesus. So he takes Jesus and “setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.”

G. Campbell Morgan says, “It is an direct attempt to force Jesus to act upon that principle of trust, which has been ministered to by the selection of this particular place. In the city of the great King, in the house devoted to His worship, at its most awe-inspiring point, exercise trust in Him by casting Thyself from this great height. Behind this palpable suggestion lay one inferred and indirect. It was the suggestion that trust most perfectly expresses itself in daring something unusual, out of the common, heroic.”

Pentecost says, “Satan’s implication was that Jesus, as Son, had a right to put His Father to a test. The one who puts another to a test is putting himself in a superior position. For Christ to put God to a test would be for Him to abandon His dependence on God . . . Any promise of the Word of God is to be claimed when the one claiming the promise is in the will of God. If one steps outside the will of God, he cannot expect that God will then fulfill what He has promised. For Christ to act in obedience to Satan would remove Him from the protection of this promise of God.”

A very sad verse is “He came to his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). There was no old sin nature in Jesus to which the devil could appeal. So he appealed to the Lord’s desire to be accepted by the Nation of Israel and reign on David’s throne and bring in the promised kingdom. Satan’s temptations are not only rational (this was his approach to Adam) but also to the emotions. Our emotions are expressed in a desire for some particular fulfilment.. What greater desire could Jesus have than to be accepted by the Nation of Israel thus paving the way for the eternal kingdom and putting Satan into the place created for him, i.e., the lake of fire? (Matt. 25:41), and doing away with the curse. This is what He came to do. But it cannot be done until He is first accepted by the Nation of Israel. This will happen. Jesus is here refusing to force His acceptance and committing Himself to the Father’s will and timing.

Next Satan says to Jesus, “ . . . If thou be the Son of God . . .” The “if” is a first class condition which is “if” and it is true. It is the same as saying, “Since you are the Son of God.” The demons recognized Jesus when they saw Him: Mark 1:24 Says, “ . . . Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” You can be sure the demons are not smarter that the devil. Satan is not questioning Jesus as to His deity. He is saying that since you are the Son of God, cast yourself down and claim the promise that God has made concerning you in Psalm 91:11. Do you wonder where the “name it and claim it” philosophy came from?

I will say more about this later but it is never right to take a promise indiscriminately and force God to keep it. We can’t force God to do anything. But you would certainly think that some people believe they can. They call it “commanding God.” I don’t want to be standing next to them when they do this. Not too long ago there was a lawyer of note in our area who was fishing with some of his friends on an area lake. There was a thunder storm on the lake a little way from them. There came a clap of thunder and lightening over on the other side of the lake. He stood up in his boat, raised his hand, and said “I am over here” in mockery to God. Well, he had no sooner said it than he was struck by lightening and killed on the spot. That story was in the Shreveport times and I met people afterwards who knew the lawyer personally. God is alive and I do not want to be in the vicinity of the man who tempts God.

I do thank God that He is a God of grace and forgiveness. Probably all of us have either tempted Him or come dangerously close. When we get near that point, it is time to use First John 1:9 for restoration.

May God bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White