Matthew 4:1-11 - Satan, The Expositor

This second temptation is unique in that an unlikely figure quotes Scripture. That Satan would use the Word as a catalyst to sin should lead us to be very careful when listening to teaching and preaching. I suppose that most false teachers do not know that they are false teachers. Still, whether they know it or not, they are agents of the evil one and routinely distort the Word. It is troubling to me how lax pastors have become about teaching their flocks to rightly interpret the Bible. Without having to say a word, they are convincing their congregations that all you need in order to be the church is love. And they are setting the flock up to be ravaged by wolves. Of course, love is imperative, but it's not all. We also need discernment. 24 of the 27 NT books warn us about false teaching, and yet we hear very little about this from our pulpits. It is no wonder that the Emerging/Emergent folks are growing like wildfire - their pastors are all very engaging speakers, and for those Christians who have not been warned about false teaching and are unable or unwilling to rightly divide the Word of Truth, world-class oratory is all it takes to win them over. Is a shepherd really a shepherd if he does not protect his sheep from wolves?

My goal for these posts is to hopefully help you gain some understanding of how to be careful with the Word and interpret it accurately. Now, in this second temptation, we have two Scripture quotations, one from Satan and one from Jesus. One leading to error; 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 slaps on it, and how his interpretation fits with the verse in its context.

Matt 4:6 says, "and he 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, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" (The words in caps are quoted from the OT.)

Satan is quoting Psalm 91:11-12. How do we know what his interpretation is? The answer can be found in what he is wanting Jesus to do in response to it. (And in Jesus' response, which we will look at next time.) He is telling Jesus that God has obligated Himself to save Jesus, therefore, it is okay to try Him.

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 it 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 90:11-12: "11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. 12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone."

Why would Satan omit this? 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 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 to produce sin. It is sobering to think that what Satan has done here is something that happens in pulpits all over the place every Sunday. No, the intent is not the same, but the treatment of the Word is. Many preachers are doing through negligence what Satan did on purpose. Neglect the context. Point out only what makes your point; skip over what doesn't. Make it mean whatever you need it to mean. You set the agenda.

Why does it matter? I recently heard a guy teaching from Matthew 5:39-41. This is the passage about turning the other cheek when someone strikes you, giving someone your coat when they ask for your shirt, and going 2 miles with someone when they ask you to go one. The teacher proposed that the theme of the verses was that we are to reclaim our dignity when attacked by someone else, that we are to assert ourselves when someone tries to put us in a position of weakness. He said that we should turn the tables on the other person and assume a position of strength, making that person treat us with respect. Time will not allow me to explain to you how he got that from these verses, but it was preposterous. He showed an utter disregard for the context as well as the verses themselves, deliberately ignoring certain phrases that did not fit his interpretation. He made the passage mean the exact opposite of what it said.

And it was so well received that the people in the class were asking for more resources on it.

Doubly disturbing is that this was a second generation poisoning. This teacher did not come up with it himself, but had bought it hook, line, and sinker from a sermon preached by a prominent leader of the Emergent Movement. So here we have the Emergent guy abusing the Word, a teacher who adopted that interpretation without studying to confirm its validity, and a class who adopted it eagerly.

Friends, if the people in that class act on what they learned in that lesson, they will have sinned. They will have done the opposite of what Jesus commanded in those verses in Matt 5. Because they didn't know the Word. Did the teacher intend to deceive like Satan did? Of course not. But the end result was still deception and potential sin.

If Satan had the audacity to use Scripture to try to deceive the Son of God, what on earth makes us think that he will not try the same thing on us, especially now when biblical literacy is so scarce in the pews as well as the pulpits? And yet, the average church member will accept anything with a Scripture reference under it.

If you are in a church where the messages preached do not have a central text from which the message is taken, but rather follow an outline created by the preacher and supported with random verses from all over the Bible, you are in a breeding ground for error. I would encourage you to take one sermon outline, take each verse quoted, and study each verse in its context to see if the pastor's usage was faithful to the passage. Ask yourself, is the pastor using the Bible or is the Bible using the pastor? If it is the former, the message you are hearing is the pastor's. If it is the latter, the message you are hearing is the Lord's.

Satan used Scripture to tempt. May we never be so naive as to think he has given this up.