NOTES for Mat 4:7

During the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus answers the tempter Satan three times with quotations from Scripture, thereby showing us as well how one can resist the devil's schemes: simply by not departing from God's will, from His commandments. But this temptation, the second according to the Gospel of Matthew, may be the most unusual: Satan himself, while tempting Christ, quotes Scripture. And in effect he proposes that Jesus test whether the words from the psalm correspond to the truth.

Does this not remind you of another scene, described in the third chapter of Genesis, when the same tempter asks Eve: "Did God really say: Do not eat from any tree in paradise?" Of course it does. The same approach: test the truth of God's Word. Satan is not a creative being: it worked once, so he has to try again.

Where is the trick here? It is very simple: testing is the opposite of trust. Either I trust God, that He is the truth, or I place myself in the position of controller over God. I repeat: over God. By yielding to this temptation, the human being fell into slavery to sin. But Jesus does not yield; He breaks through the cunning temptation by His refusal: "I will not! I will never test what God has said. Either testing or trusting!"