In Luke 4:9-12 we see the devil tempting Jesus to use His powers for Himself. Let us read.
⁹And he (the devil) led Him (Jesus) to Jerusalem and had Him stand 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 will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ ¹¹and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.'” ¹²And Jesus answered and said to him, “IT IS SAID, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
Two times satan already tried to trick Jesus into sinning, and every time he lost because answered him with scriptures. (Scriptures of which some say they are not valid anymore, because they are found in the Old Testament – we see here that that “old” sword is still pretty sharp and very useful).
Now ⁹the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “IF You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here”.
A devilish way of asking which I also saw different times on the Internet and in Christian groups.
• IF You are the Son of God…
• IF You are a Christian then…
• IF You believe the Bible then…
• IF you love Jesus then…
• IF You … then… etc. etc.
With as variation:
• Please, I need to know…
• Please, I need 100 people to type…
• Please, I need you to type amen
• Please, I need… etc. etc.
The “if” questions imply that if you don’t comply, if you don’t react, or don’t answer, you are not a Christian, that you don’t believe the Bible, you don’t love Jesus, or in this Bible verse, that Jesus is not the Son of God.
On Internet I see time and again numbers of people react to these “if” questions. Maybe because they feel manipulated, as they don’t want to give the other the chance to come to the conclusion that they are not Christians, that they don’t love Jesus, or that they don’t believe the Bible?
In the Bible we see Jesus example.
He didn’t care or less what satan would conclude.
He knows who He is, and if satan didn’t know yet, he would soon find out.
So we too shouldn’t care about to what conclusions these people may come. We too shouldn’t fall for their tricks.
And on the other questions, I a few times asked why they needed that, or what is the need to get 100 people to type a certain word or line, what if they would not reach 100, what would happen then?
Ofcourse I never got any answer. And people continued to type what they were told to type.
These type of questions, by the way, I do not allow in my own group, also not if they are hidden in longer messages.
Twice satan was already defeated by Jesus quoting the scriptures, so now he tries to catch Jesus using scriptures as well: “IF You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. ¹⁰for IT IS WRITTEN, ‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’ ¹¹and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.'”
In Psalms 91:11-12 we read: ¹¹For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you IN ALL YOUR WAYS. ¹²They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
Did you notice how satan slightly changed the text to make it fitting to his purpose, so he could trick Jesus with it?
Similar things we also often see in many groups, just a little change so it says the opposite, or so it can be explained in a different way.
This too often is not a typing error, but a demonic way, to implant wrong thoughts into you. Be careful!
These kind of questions are wrong all the way.
• If Jesus didn’t jump, de devil could conclude from this testimony that Jesus was not God’s Son, and he would use that to make people doubting.
• If Jesus did jump, and He died because of that, then He could not save the world anymore.
• And if Jesus did jump, and He did not die, then Jesus would have abused His powers, and so He was no longer without sin, and could therefore not finish his mission to set us free from sin.
But Jesus didn’t fall for satan’s tricks and ¹²said to him, “IT IS SAID, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'”
Deuteronomy 6:16 – You shall not put the Lord your God to the test
Likewise we too must use the scriptures and stand firm in our faith.
You don’t have to fall for those tricky questions, for you know who you are in Jesus. And if satan doesn’t know that yet, he is going to realize that soon!
Romans 8:37-39 – ³⁷But in all these things WE OVERWHELMINGLY CONQUER through Him who loved us. ³⁸For I am CONVINCED that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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