The Triune God: The Son IV

Leaping from the temple roof at hugh noon,
In full view of many hundred Jews;
Angels wafting Him softly down; could soon
Jump start Jesus' crusade spreading good news!
That's just how Satan next tempted God's Son,
Quoting scripture, "Angels will care for you!"*
Jesus parried fast, not to be outdone,
"Testing God unneeded, no one can do!"**
To go to the temple Satan desired;
The Son acquiesced, for His mission's sake;
All weakness gone, for this duel, He's affired,
Knowing the import its outcome would make!
He would use Godly pow'r only to heal,
Not this victory over Satan steal!

*Paraphrase of Psalm 91:11-12
**Paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:16

The second temptation Satan tried on the Son was again challenging His pride in proving He was the Son of God, and it was a lot more inducive than turning a stone into bread; It was to jump from the roof of the temple in Jerusalem to the outer court among hundreds of Jews surrounded by real and visible angels. By so doing, He would gain an immediate status and notoriety among the religious leadership of Israel; they could hardly deny His claim to be the Messiah after a stunt like that (See Matthew 4). This time the devil quoted scripture, showing he knows the Bible verbatim as well as Jesus, but He was having none of that carnival stunt. How they got from the desert to the temple 50 miles away is not given; Matthew says Satan "took" Him there. I doubt if Jesus would allow the devil to take Him anywhere; they both used their own supernatural powers. We'll be able to do things like that in our new bodies in heaven.

You would think that the healing miracles Jesus performed in public would have been sufficient proof of His Messiahship, but the stubborn religious leaders were accustomed to fake messiahs and their fake miracles; they determined to kill the Son early in His ministry, and nothing would change their minds. The real reason Jesus did not accept the devil's challenge, however, is that, again, it would have been sinful for Him. He answered Satan's scripture with scripture, which tells everyone it is a sin "to test" God. For example, God will forgive all your sins, past and future, if you sincerely repent and ask Him to forgive you. After doing this, it is plausible that you would be tempted to sin again, on the knowledge that He has already forgiven you. That is "putting God to the test", and it is definitely wrong for you to continue sinning deliberately; you must exert all your will power to eliminate doing the old sins after He has forgiven you.

There is another reason that Jesus did not resort to spectacular feats of supernatural power to convince Israel to accept Him. It is that He did not want them to accept Him during this first coming. I know that sounds sacriligious, but remember Israel looked down on all Gentiles because God had already done so much for them. They considered that God was theirs and no one else's. Big signs at the temple doors warned Gentiles not to enter the temple or they would be killed. God, however, is God of the whole world; He had already decided to dull Jewish spiritual insight so they would not recognize Jesus when He came (See Isaiah 6:9-10). That's why Jesus taught in parables---so that without spiritual insight they would not understand the truth. Jesus promised us that He would return, and God told Isaiah that He would restore Jewish insight on His Second coming.