Satan’s Arrogant Challenge

“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.”  Matthew 4:5-6

Satan challenged Jesus three times in an effort to diminish Jesus and His power and make himself look as if he had influence over Jesus.  The first challenge was for Jesus to turn stones into bread after fasting for 40 days and nights.  He would have been exceedingly hungry, but He told Satan that man did not live by bread alone, but by the words of His Father, God.  The third challenge was to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world (as if He didn’t already have them) if He would fall down and worship Satan.  Jesus replied and said for him to leave.  Only the LORD God is to be worshipped and served.  The second challenge is the subject of this blog.

Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple which would have been several stories tall.  Satan challenged Jesus to jump off if He was truly God’s Son.  He couldn’t throw or push Jesus off the temple roof because he didn’t have that kind of power.  Satan desired for Jesus to purposely show off His power which would have been an insult to His Father.  Matthew Henry wrote: “Whatever real mischief is done us, it is of our own doing; the devil can but persuade, he cannot compel; he can but say, ‘Cast thyself down’; he cannot cast us down.”  The devil can’t force us to sin, but he can entice us to sin.  I remember the comedian, Flip Wilson, dressed as his character, Geraldine, used to say, “The devil made me do it.”  People are always looking for excuses for their sin or attempt to find someone else to blame.  The devil is powerful, but God is all powerful.

Rather than waiting on Jesus to respond to his challenge with the word of God, Satan quoted from scripture himself except that he didn’t quote all of it.  He said, “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”.  What Satan was insinuating was that God would send angels to catch Jesus if He jumped.  However, Satan left out part of the quote which was taken from Psalm 91:11-12:  “For He shall give His angels charge over thee IN ALL THY WAYS”.  In other words, God’s protection is for all of those who keep His ways.  No wonder Satan left that out.  His evil plans are thwarted against those who keep God’s ways.  How do we know God’s ways?  We know them from His word.  To know His word, we must study it diligently.  Listening to preachers and teachers are supplemental to what we learn for ourselves when we take time to delve into God’s word to really know Him.  Digging into God’s word, eating and digesting it like a starving man is the only way to know God intimately.

Satan desired Jesus to be presumptuous of His Father’s care.  He wanted Jesus to “dare” His Father to rescue Him as He jumped from the temple.  That would be, in effect, tempting His Father, and to tempt Him to prove Himself is to not trust Him.  In response to Satan, Jesus gave another answer from scripture: “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God”.  The ancient Israelites found out through experience that tempting God is a really bad idea.  There was one time when God became so angry at them that He threatened to wipe them all out and start over again, but Moses intervened, and God changed His mind (Exodus 32:10-14).  God has nothing to prove.  Since the beginning of time, His fulfilled promises including His protection and provision have shown His power and love for His people.  To tempt God to prove Himself is an insult to Him.  Jesus was certainly not going to insult His own Father.