Jesus and the Fall from the Pinnacle of the Temple

June 29, 2016

What's my default response to situations in which I'm feeling the pressure and it seems that the Lord is nowhere near?

Luke 4:9-12 (NKJV)

⁹Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.

¹⁰For it is written:

     ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you, and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

¹²And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”

Note:  This temptation, notable because Satan quotes Scripture, is an appeal to the pride of life.  I think I'm still working on what "pride of life" as a sin actually means, but I think it has something to do with the idea that "I want to live the Christian life, but I want to do it on my terms, my way."  When Satan quotes Scripture to Jesus, he speaks of Psalm 91:11-12.  It involves the promise of God to those who make the Lord their refuge, and I guess that holds true especially for the Messiah.  The implication seems to be that Jesus could leap off the temple, and survive without injury to the fall to the pavement below.  The resulting spectacle would add tremendous credence to His claim that His is Messiah.  It probably would have worked, but Jesus will not go for it.  He responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.

Deuteronomy 6:16 "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah.  This refers to a specific place and event.  Exodus 17:1-7 records a water crisis in Horeb, near Mount Sinai deep in the Negev in which the people threatened to stone Moses for leading them out into the desert to die.  Moses called out to the Lord, who instructed him to strike the rock (which rock?) in Horeb in the presence of the elders in Israel and water would flow out and keep the people from dying of  thirst.  Moses interpreted their contention and complaints (verse 2) as "tempting the Lord", and, indeed, the event has a bad reputation.  On one side, the people apparently complained a lot, and seemed to ignore that their refusal to go to battle for the promised land is what put them into the Negev in the first place.  On the other side, how long would I be able to refrain from complaining if I was out in the desert and I didn't know how to get any water?  That's a recurring theme when I read the Scripture, I read of the people of God acting badly and I try to imagine myself in their situation and I don't see myself acting better.  If I was out in the desert with no water, I think I would complain as well, and not do any better than the children of Israel in that situation.  God wouldn't be any happier with my lack of faith than He was with theirs.  What am I to do?    

Psalm 95:6-11 gives commentary and a corrective to this failure.

Psalm 95:6-11 (NKJV) ⁶  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. ⁷  For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: ⁸  "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹  When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. ¹⁰  For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.' ¹¹  So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' "

My take on this is that praise and worship prepares one to stand strong in the "day of trial", which I imagine comes for us all in one form or another.  Can I train myself to enter into prayer as worship-prayer that honors the Lord for who He is rather than asking for anything-instead of bitterness and complaining when it appears that God has abandoned me?