4:9-13
This time satan tempts Jesus to “prove” that the Father is looking after Him. This time he quotes from Scripture as well! The devil can and will (mis)use Scripture. Just because some teacher or other is quoting from the Bible does not mean their teaching is correct. False teachers can, and do, quote the Bible. The verses used by the devil come from Psalm 91:11,12. This Psalm is about our absolute security in God, when we commit our ways and our life to Him. There is a good general teaching point here on understanding the Bible. Individual verses can be good, but we also need to grasp the whole tenor of a passage, and indeed of the book, and the Bible as a whole.
Jesus answered the devil with another verse, again from Deuteronomy (Deut 6:16).This is the same passage as previously used by Jesus. In that passage God is warning them not to act like they did at Massah (Ex 17:2) where the people complained about a lack of water. There was indeed a lack of water, but that did not mean that God would not provide. The promises about God’s provision and protection are trustworthy and true, and we are to live our lives in the light of them. We will then experience His care at the right time, we can be completely confident. We do not need to “ prove” God in that sense.
This was not the end of the testing in Jesus’ ministry, but the decisive battle was over and had been won. It is all too human for us to think that if we give in this one time it won’t really matter. It would be far better for us to think if we resist this one time there will come a time when it will really matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment