Satan’s second temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was not far off from the first. Satan had tempted Jesus to provide for Himself, to turn stones to bread because He was hungry. Jesus refused this temptation making it very clear that the desires of His flesh were not greater than His desires for the will and presence of His Father. When Satan saw that He could not tempt Jesus to question His Father’s provision he changed his course and decided to attempt to tempt Him to test His Father’s protection.
Satan again questions Jesus’ identity as the Son of God and His relationship with His Father. He asks Him to prove His Sonship by throwing Himself down from the top of the temple. If the Father sent angels to protect Him it would prove Jesus to be the Messiah and the Scriptures to be true. In this temptation Satan does something that we all need to be aware of, he tries to use the Scriptures against Jesus. He quotes Psalm 91:11 and 12, using them out of context and removing one of the most important parts of the passage. He takes a promise of God’s protection for those that walk in obedience and tries to make it an opportunity to test God and see if He is really true to His word.
Jesus responds simply and powerfully, “It is written again, ‘You shall tempt the LORD your God.” Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, a passage in which Moses is pleading with Israel as they prepare to finally go in and take possession of the Promised Land. Moses reminds Israel that their father’s had tempted God at a place called Massah. They had run out of water and turned on Moses, feared for their lives and tested God. Exodus 17 tells us the basis of their test, “Is the LORD among us or not?” After all they had seen God do, the plagues against Egypt, the exodus as a strong nation, the Red Sea opening for their provision and then closing for their protection, the bitter water turned to sweet, the manna that fell each day from heaven, the presence of God through the cloud at day and fire by night, they continued to question His presence, His love, His provision and His protection each time they faced difficulty.
Many of us are similar. We face things we didn’t expect or that we don’t understand and instead of trusting God because of His love and goodness we test Him to see if He is for us or not. We put out a fleece, or we ask Him to prove Himself again. Jesus understood that this was a temptation that He was to overcome. When we test God we are putting our desires ahead of His promises and we are giving the enemy a place to bring confusion and doubt. Jesus didn’t have to jump off of a temple to know that His Father would protect Him, He simply needed to stay obedient to His Father’s voice. I pray today that we will understand that our provision and our protection are found in the same place, hidden in God’s presence by our obedience to His great love. Rather than giving in to the temptation to test God, I pray today that we would overcome by increasing our trust in God. He is for us, He is with us and He will hide us under the shadow of His wings as we learn to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.