CreationFoundation -- Home Page/Contents

15 -- THE THIRD TEMPTATION OF JESUS

 Luke 4:9-13 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him 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 shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,' and, "In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone."'

And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, "You shall not tempt [test] the LORD your God."' Now when the devil had exhausted every kind of temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Having failed to secure the obeisance of Jesus, the devil now, quite logically, wants him dead. However, since he would not have been permitted by God to harm him directly (Job 1:8), he adopts a different tactic -- that of inducing self-destruction as the result of a kind of misguided religious mania.

An important principle in business and marketing is that of finding ways of turning apparent weaknesses into strengths, but what the devil has done with many "other worldly" and "religious" people over the centuries is just the reverse -- namely beguiling them into turning the strength of their faith into a fatal weakness.

Here, for example, the devil urges Jesus to demonstrate and test his manifest faith in God by throwing himself from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, where he had apparently transported him -- and he does so by quoting the scripture that reads: He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you . . . In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-12).

The quotation is accurate, but its whole context concerns praying and seeking and receiving God protection from evil, not deliberately exposing ourselves to danger to see if God can save us in order to demonstrate our "faith".

The very next verse, for example, mentions poisonous snakes, and it is interesting that today there are cults who foolishly set out to demonstrate their "faith" in God by deliberately handling such vile creatures, doing so on a warped understanding of a passage at the end of Mark's gospel (Mark 16:17-18) which in turn appears to be based on this particular Psalm.

Jesus, however, responds by citing a higher principle, again from Deuteronomy, saying: You shall not tempt [test] the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 6:16).

At this point, the devil departs, defeated, but ready to return another day.

CreationFoundation -- Home Page/  Contents