And [Satan] brought Him into Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written: He will give his angels orders to protect you.” Luke 4:9, 10
Here it is...the ultimate fraud...Satan quoting scripture. What are the odds he got it right?
This is the familiar narrative of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. He hadn’t eaten for 40 days and Satan believed Jesus was hungry and vulnerable. So he said, “if you’re the Son of God, turn this stone into bread.” Jesus could have done it. I don’t believe there is anything sinister about Jesus using His divine power to sustain Himself, if necessary.
But...that’s not the point.
The point is...what sustains us is not food, or water, or air...or any other material thing. And Jesus, saturated with the Word of God, knew this regardless of how hungry He might have been. According to the account in Matthew’s gospel Jesus replied “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”
Satan was merely trying to distract Jesus from the truth...to dupe Him into believing He had to take matters into His own hands.
Satan tried again...offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world...if He would bow before Satan. Again, Jesus recalled the Word of God; “Worship the Lord, your God, and Him only.”
The Devil is no fool. He thought “two can play this game” so he quoted scripture right back at Jesus. The devil *took Him along into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he *said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throwYourself down; for it is written: He will command His angels to guard you.” Now, this is sinister. This is the Devil quoting scripture to test Jesus...to get Him to do Satan’s will rather than God’s will.
This Wiley old Deceiver still does it He will use scripture in an attempt to convince us God can’t be trusted to provide for our needs. I’ve heard people justify fornication, pornography, stealing, violence and many other unbiblical behaviors by quoting scripture and proclaiming “it doesn’t mean what you think it means...let me tell you what it really means.” They proceed to offer a strained construct that justifies their prurient desires. It sounds a lot like the Devil in Genesis...”did God really say?”
You and I are vulnerable. We are filled with desires that can be satisfied in either biblical or unbiblical ways and the Devil will help us twist scripture to send us down the wrong path. I suggest we take great care. One good test is to simply ask ourselves this question; am I using God’s Word to justify what I want to do or to pursue what God wants me to do?
Live boldly out there today...
