Luke 4:9-13 – “The devil led him (Jesus) to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”‘ Jesus answered, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”‘ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”
What part of this was tempting?
Just because the devil used scripture doesn’t mean he was telling the truth. He is the father of all lies, and partial scripture used out of context is the craftiest lie of them all, and it results in this temptation: testing God.
In this world, there are many false teachings and false prophets (Matt. 7:15, Matt. 24:24, Acts 20:28-30, 2 Tim. 4:3-4, 2 Peter 3:16, 1 John 4:1-3…) that will tempt you to test God by using the word out of context like the devil did. Our attitude towards the Father should never be a, “God, this better work,” deal. God does not owe it to us to answer every prayer and preform every miracle. It is a sin in our hearts to even expect him to, a sin that tempted even Jesus.
God has a specific will. He has a specific order. And he is a holy God.
Miracles do not come from testing God. Gifts of the Spirit do not come from testing God. Just as the word so humbly became fleash for us, let us beat our fleash into submission to the word, so as to fight the lying, crafty tempter with the whole truth: “It is written…”
