Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his
angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a
stone.’”
Jesus answered
him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test. (Matthew 4:5-7)
Do not put the Lord your God to the
test as you did at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:16)
As has been noted many times, Satan doesn’t
have to flat-out lie. He can quote Scripture, but it tends to involve luring
the victim to doubt God. In this case, it could also lead to the victim
doubting himself. It’s like those “Share if you’re not ashamed of Jesus”
challenges on Facebook. The thought process goes something like this: “…yes,
Scripture does say that, so if I don’t throw myself off (or share the post, am
I showing that I don’t believe God’s Word? I almost have to throw myself down
or I don’t trust God.”
Jesus’ answer is cool – so cool. First, it us
drawn from Deuteronomy 6, but it refers to Exodus 17 when the Israelites didn’t
trust God for water at the start of their journey from the Red Sea to the
Promised Land. So the setting in His response is similar to the setting mentioned
in the source from which He quoted.
The second way it’s cool is that Jesus identified
the temptation and used Scripture to answer about what He would not do. He
would not put God to the test.
The third way is the godly double entendre in
Jesus’ answer. There is a not too subtle threat in what Jesus says to Satan. “Do not put the Lord your God (Me) to the
test.” I can’t help but think of the
folks who think they can get a selfie taken with a bear or a buffalo. They take
that one step too many… Satan seems here to have his foot poised to follow
their poor example, and wisely decides to err on the side of caution.
But, returning to the theme of imitating
Christ, the first idea that comes to mind is that we should imitate Him in being
so tied to Scripture that it is our answer to any question or any challenge. I
know some people who can quote Scripture and give references. I tend to be
familiar with Scripture, but I can’t quite quote it in some version or
combination of versions. As for knowing where to find it, that’s what computers
are for. I need to work on that.
There’s something else to consider, though.
There are times when the idea of laying on hands, or somehow doing the sort of
things that Jesus and the disciples did comes to mind. There are times when I
think in terms of taking a big step of faith. I hesitate because (I say) I don’t
want to put God to the test. I suspect the real reason is more likely that I’m pretty
sure God will say “no” and that I’ll be embarrassed.
So how do we imitate Christ here? How do we
know when God is calling us to call on Him to do something – to take a step of
faith, and when are we being tempted to put God (or ourselves) to the test? I
don’t have a complete answer to this, but one thing you’ll notice when you read
through the gospels is that every time someone said, “Show us a sign” or “Prove
you are the Christ,” Jesus refused to cooperate. If this isn’t the situation, then
it’s probably time to ask God for guidance.
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