Luke 4:9-12

The third temptation: V. 9. And he brought Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence; v. 10. for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee; v. 11. and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. V. 12. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God.

The attempt to excite care and worry for the body in the mind of Jesus having failed, and an effort to instill cupidity, greed, and ambition for power in His heart having met with equally poor success, Satan endeavors to arouse pride and foolish daring in the Lord. Having brought Him to Jerusalem, therefore, he placed Jesus on the pinnacle of the Temple, probably on the roof of one of the porticoes, from which one could cast a look that made him dizzy, into an incalculable depth, as Josephus relates. Now the cool demand of the devil was that the Lord cast Himself down from there, into the depths of the Kidron Valley, before the eyes of the assembled congregation, who would be sure to rush out of the nearest gates to see how the foolhardy jump had succeeded.

The devil's temptation has in reality two objects: Christ should demonstrate His divine Sonship; He should, in this manner, gain a great number of disciples, probably the entire populace, at one bold stroke. The devil even quoted Scripture to accomplish his purpose, Psalm 91, 11. 12, omitting, however, the very essential words "to keep thee in all thy ways," which are practically a norm for the proper understanding of the entire passage. Compare Matthew 4, 5-7.

But Jesus was fully equal to the occasion. Without going into the matter of falsifying Scripture in his own interest, He tells the devil that there is a passage which reads: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God, Deut. 6, 16. Any attempt to reach the ground below by any means outside of those suggested by a correct understanding of nature's laws would be a challenging of God's protective care, for which there is no promise in the Bible.

Note: In a similar way, the devil is always attempting to make us presumptuous, daring, foolhardy, without the promise and command of God. It is the pride of our hearts which he intends to incite, together with the feeling that we are in no need of God's protective care. But the one effective way of meeting all the attacks of the Evil One and vanquishing him quickly and surely is to use the words of Scripture as weapons of defense and offense. Before these powerful onslaughts the devil must give way and be routed completely.