Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Mark 1:13b says that Jesus was “tempted of Satan.” However, Mark does not detail these temptations as Matthew and Luke do. The specifics of a second testing, for example, are found in Matthew 4:5-6: “Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city [Jerusalem], and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, ‘If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, “He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”’” Jesus’ response, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, is pithy and unanswerable: “It is written, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God’” (verse 7). It is no surprise that Satan quotes Scripture, for he is a master masquerader who can mimic “an angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14b). It is also no surprise that he willfully emits part of Psalm 91:11-12 in his quotation, leaving out the crucial phrase “to keep Thee in all ways.” Obviously, no one can ask God to be kept while flouting His perfect will. Jesus points out that Satan is guilty of misusing the Word of God and thus of testing God Himself. May we be extraordinarily careful in our handling of the Bible, “rightly dividing the Word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15c).