Tempting God

What does it mean to tempt God? We're familiar with the term and concept of "tempting fate" but Jesus' response to the devil's temptation of "...Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Mat. 4:7) tells us something deeper than "tempting fate." First, let's examine this confrontation between Jesus and the devil, and then why it is still relevant to us today.

In Jesus' temptation in the wilderness (Mat. 4), the devil takes Jesus to a high point of the temple in Jerusalem (v. 5) and dares Jesus to provide proof that He is the Son of God:

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Mat. 4:6)

The temptation is multifaceted. One aspect of this temptation is for Jesus to show a sign for the purpose of popular acclaim by people who will have seen someone survive a fall hundreds of feet in distance. Although Jesus will go on to perform many miracles, the devil's call for such a sign is a temptation to perform this feat in place of Jesus' ultimate sign of death and resurrection - as Jesus later points out to Pharisees who ask for a sign after he's just healed a blind man (Mat. 12:38-42). So, the devil offers what sounds like a shortcut to instill belief in Jesus by the masses.

The other aspect of this temptation is found in the devil's misquoting of David's Psalm 91:11-12. The full, correct passage is "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."

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Ben McManus

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