As
we saw in Matthew 4 last Sunday, the second temptation that Jesus endured
entailed an unlikely figure quoting Scripture. That Satan himself would use the
Word of God as a tool of temptation should lead us to be very careful when
listening to teaching and preaching. Whether or not false teachers believe they
are false teachers, they are out there. 24 of the 27 books of the New Testament warn us about
false teaching, and a component of recognizing false teaching
is to understand how the Word should be handled, that is, how to interpret the
Bible correctly.
This
second temptation, found in vv5-7, offers us an opportunity to see the
preeminent false teacher at work. There we find two Scripture quotations, one
from Satan and one from Jesus. One leading to error and one leading to truth. This
post will concentrate on Satan's quotation. It will be very instructive to look
at what Satan says, what interpretation he gives it, and how his interpretation
fits with the verse in its original context.
Matt
4:-56 reads, Then the devil took him to
the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
and said to him, "If you are the Son of
God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels
concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you
strike your foot against a stone.'"
Satan
is quoting Psalm 91:11-12. How do we know what his interpretation is? By what
he is wanting Jesus to do in response to it (and by how Jesus responds, which
we covered on Sunday). He is telling Jesus that God has obligated Himself to
save Jesus, therefore, it is okay for Jesus to test God.
Sounds
logical, doesn't it? God has said He will do this thing, so why not try it out?
If God wasn't willing to do it, He wouldn't have made this promise, right?
Satan has Scripture to back him up, doesn't he?
Pretend
for a second that this isn't Satan, but rather a blond-haired, blue-eyed man
with an engaging tone showing not Jesus, but you, from Scripture that some
random act is acceptable and encouraged. I'm afraid that many people wouldn't
bat an eyelash. Why? Because he's using Scripture.
So
how does Satan's interpretation fit with its original context? The first
problem is that Satan omits an entire phrase from the quotation. Psalm
91:11-12: For he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your
ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot
against a stone.
Why
would Satan omit this phrase? It is inconvenient for his purposes. This phrase
implies a general protection over all of life. But Satan has presented it as a
warrant for a specific act, taking a nosedive off the temple: if you jump, God
has promised to have angels catch You. The phrase he has omitted doesn't lend
itself to that interpretation, so he leaves it out.
Second,
the larger context of the Psalm 91, will not allow Satan's interpretation. I
don't want to reproduce the whole chapter here, but I would encourage you to
look at it. The gist of the chapter is that God is a shelter from danger. The
writer mentions a number of things from which God will protect him: snares,
pestilence, terror at night, arrows by day, lions, and cobras. All of these are
dangers that bring themselves upon the writer. They are not dangerous
situations into which the writer can throw himself and expect protection. This
chapter is not an invitation to live recklessly or to test God. It is simply an
assurance that God will shield from danger the one who trusts Him. It is
certainly not a mandate to intentionally put oneself in danger, demanding that
God come to the rescue.
That
Satan quoted Scripture should be striking. It should be even more striking that
he is using it in an attempt to produce sin. It is
sobering to think that what Satan has done here is something that happens all
over the place every Sunday. No, the intent is not the same, but the treatment
of the Word is. Many preachers and teachers are doing through negligence what
Satan did on purpose. So we need to be discerning as we listen to preaching and
teaching.
But
there is a second reason to take note of this. Most of us are regularly in a position to speak the truth to family, friends, and neighbors. We may use
Scripture to encourage, comfort, or admonish each other. When we do this, in a
limited sense, we are teaching.
Accordingly, we need to be very careful to not take Scripture out of context or
mold it to fit some particular set of circumstances.
May
the Lord build us up in His Word and in the knowledge of how to handle it
rightly, so that we will not fall prey to false teaching or pass it
on to those we love.
Posted by Greg Birdwell
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