The Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4:6 “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.”
for it is... Note that Satan also quoted Scripture (Psalm 91:11-12) – but utterly twisted its meaning, employing a passage about trusting God to justify testing Him. A misquotation of Psm. 91:11-12. And this time the Devil quoted Scripture (out of context), in order to get Him to sin and ultimately to shake His faith in the Word.
If thou be... In verse 6 here, the devil again asked whether Jesus is the Son of God. He even went so far as to quote a Scripture to get Jesus to tempt God the Father as noted above.
So many times today the enemy will come to us, using passages from the Scripture to make us believe that we are not of God. The devil never changes. It is the same devil, and the same tactics.
Satan was saying, in essence, “Why don’t You do what the people are expecting and make some marvelous display? After all, the Scripture says His angels will protect You and You won’t even hurt a foot as You come down.” Satan may have thought if Jesus could quote Scripture to him, he could quote it too. However, he purposely did not quote Psm. 91:11-12 accurately. He left out an important phrase, “in all Your ways.” According to the psalmist, a person is protected only when he is following the Lord’s will. For Jesus to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple in some dramatic display to accommodate Himself to the people’s thinking would not have been God’s will.
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