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B) Second Test: What authority do you possess as Son of God?The next temptation is one against his authority. AThen the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, He will give His angels charge concerning You'; and 'On {their} hands they will bear You up, Lest You strike Your foot against a stone MAT 4:5.'" Here the devil tests him by taunting, if you are the ASon of God@ throw yourself off the temple and let=s see if your angels will save you according to what is written. Here the word of God is used to try and motivate Jesus into proving who he is. Jesus just got finished telling satan that what is important is the words of God as opposed to bread. So now satan uses the word of God to try and tempt Jesus to put God to the test. AJesus said to him, On the other hand, it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test MAT 4:7.'" Jesus does not deviate from the written word but uses it skillfully. Tests of our authority are sure to come. They will come A similar but very different variation of this test is when Moses was backed up to the Red Sea and all
the people complained that they would die at the hands of the Egyptians. EXO
14:13 But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! Stand by and see the
salvation of the \Lord\ which He will accomplish for you today; for the
Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.14 "The \Lord\ will fight for you while you keep silent." 15 Then
the \Lord\ said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of
Israel to go forward. 16 "And as for |
through people and
sound like this, AIf you are a man of
God you would be able to do this foolish thing without fear, for God will
protect you.@ Satan want us to put God
to the test in order to kill us or discredit us when we fail. We need to be so
secure in ourselves and our relationship with God that such temptations fall on
deaf ears.
you, lift up your staff and stretch
out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go
through the midst of the sea on dry land." This is different in that Moses
was afraid to move out in faith and was rebuked by God for crying out. His
situation was generated from start to finish by God as opposed to the test that
Jesus went through which was generated by the devil in order to destroy or discredit.
Moses failed to recognize his part to play in this situation. We like Moses need to
understand our areas of authority so that we are not seduced into doing
something that will test God and result in our hurt. We also need to step out in
faith when we have the right and authority to do so.