Luke 4:9, commentary and pictures

Satan seized and set Jesus on a pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and challenged Him to prove He was the Son of God by casting Himself down, the second temptation in the threefold wilderness trial after His baptism and forty-day fast. He urged the leap as proof of Sonship and the Father's care, backing it with the promise of angelic keeping while omitting its limit to keeping in all right ways. The heart of the verse is the line between faith and presumption: faith trusts God in trial, while presumption chooses needless danger and then demands that God intervene. Jesus refused to test the Father, to use divine power outside the Father's will, or to seek display before Satan, meeting the assault with Scripture alone and yielding not even in thought. His victory, won where Adam fell under a hundredfold stronger assault, decided the destiny of the race and left the pattern that safety lies in not parleying with temptation and not presuming on mercy.

Setting and Wording

The verse describes the adversary carrying Jesus to Jerusalem, setting Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and daring Him to prove His Sonship by casting Himself down from that height. The challenge is prefaced with doubt about His Sonship, authority, mission and divinity, demanding the leap as a sign and proof of who He is and of the Father's protecting care. It is backed with the written promise that angels would be given charge to keep and bear Him up so He would not strike His foot against a stone, quoted to make disobedience look faithful while omitting the limiting words about keeping in all ways. Jesus did not accept the doubt, did not act presumptuously to risk His life, and would not use divine power outside the Father's will before the time to display it had come, answering with Scripture and overcoming so that others also may become victorious. His refusal showed unwavering confidence in God in peril and left a perfect example, for He could be overcome only by His own consent to depart from His Father's will, and Satan could tempt but could not force Him to sin.

Satan dared to face, tempt and taunt Jesus, having power to take Him in his arms and carry Him to the pinnacle of the temple, just as he carried Him up into an exceeding high mountain. That act reveals his real power, subtlety and strength, retained from when he was an exalted angel and not destroyed when his rebellion shut him out of heaven, since turned against the government of heaven and grown more artful in tempting men. Because he could do this to the Lord, who is far superior in wisdom, he will exercise that same power to a wonderful degree upon the present generation, who are far inferior in wisdom and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength. He will use that power in every generation to tempt and harass people, affecting in a marvelous manner the bodies of those naturally inclined to do his bidding. The high place also recalls the temptation in which Satan offered Christ the world's glory in return for worship.

The event belongs to the threefold wilderness temptation before the beginning of the public ministry, borne in behalf of those He came to redeem and carrying practical lessons on temperance and self-denial. After baptism in the Jordan, where He bowed on the banks pleading for strength, heaven opened with descending glory attesting His divine character and the Father's voice declaring close relation to the Infinite Majesty, He was led by the Spirit into the desolate wilderness for this express purpose. There He fasted forty days and nights of long fasting and prayer, physically weakened and in severe conflict, while Satan concealed his real character and as an angel of light and heaven-sent friend sought by every device to overcome Him and offer an easier way than trial and suffering. That wilderness trial was the decisive test in the work of human salvation, and His resistance and victory mean people need not be overcome but through strength from Him can resist every assault and overcome. In this ordering the pinnacle temptation is counted as the second temptation, the refusal to presume on mercy by forcing providence on His own account manifesting perfect confidence and trust in the Father. Those who held it to be the third temptation counted it likewise as the temptation to presumption on the pinnacle at Jerusalem, met and overcome by Scripture.

Satan's Tactics and Deception

Satan opened the pinnacle demand with feigned doubt about whether Jesus was truly the Son of God, challenging Him to settle the question of His divinity, mission and authority by casting Himself down as a visible proof of Sonship and of the Father's protecting care. The leap was pressed as a required sign, a bold display of divine power by which He would prove His identity and win the people's confidence through spectacle. Behind that urging lay the claim to be a heaven-sent sympathizer sent to relieve suffering, with the suggestion that God required only willingness to endure and not the actual path of self-denial and hunger, as when Abraham's hand was stayed from Isaac. In that guise the tempter presented himself as the angel who had stayed Abraham's hand, now come to save Christ from starvation and to shorten His painful work of salvation.

To make disobedience look like faithfulness he backed the demand with Scripture, quoting the promise that God would give angels charge to keep Him and bear Him up so that He would not strike His foot against a stone. The quotation was deliberately partial, omitting the limiting words about keeping in all ways, so that a reckless, self-chosen act could appear justified by a divine promise. By that misuse he tried to make the temptation seem good and benevolent and to overthrow Christ under cover of obedience to the written word. Such handling shows that a scriptural appeal alone does not make a teacher trustworthy when the promise is detached from its conditions.

He concealed his real character throughout, coming enshrouded in light and clothed in the livery of heaven as an angel of mercy and a Heaven-sent friend. He professed sympathy for Christ's suffering condition, offered flattering inducements, and proposed an easier way to gain His object than the path of trial and suffering He had entered. Evil was thus disguised as good, presented as friendship and help in bearing the work of salvation, while its aim was to rob Christ of His integrity as the Son of the Infinite. Flattering himself that his assumed angelic character could not be discerned, he feigned doubt all the more because of Christ's emaciated appearance and unpleasant surroundings.

The assault was timed to extreme weakness, after forty days and nights without food, when hunger, emaciation and mental suffering made the ordeal most severe. Satan took advantage of that suffering humanity, showing his knowledge of the weak points of the human heart and putting forth his utmost power to exploit the humanity Christ had assumed. He surrounded Christ with deceptive influences under pretension of angels from heaven with seducing attractions, presenting wily insinuations against God as he had to Adam and Eve. Keeping the mind on constant strain, as if reading unspoken thoughts as with Eve, he urged Him from point to point and sought one clue to allure Him into controversy.

Faith Contrasted With Presumption

The challenge on the pinnacle draws the line between perfect faith and presumption. Faith trusts God through trial and peril, while presumption deliberately chooses needless danger and then demands that God intervene. To throw Himself down at Satan's urging would have been presumption, not an act giving glory to God, because it would have placed His life in unnecessary danger and followed the enemy's suggestion rather than fulfilled His mission. He faced temptation where humanity would face it and refused to put Himself in peril, preserving a perfect example of trust in God and showing people how to act in like circumstances. If He would not presume to tempt God, fallen people should not yield to Satan's suggestions or take a course that separates them from God's help, but everyone can become victorious as He answered Scripture with Scripture and overcame.

To leap unbidden at Satan's suggestion would have tested the Father's protection and love rather than demonstrating faith. It would have put the Father's faithfulness and love to a needless trial by presumptuously experimenting on His providence. It would have been forcing providence on His own account, placing Himself in peril that would force the Father to display power to save Him, which is daring presumption. Such an act crosses the line lying close beside perfect faith into presumption, and would show not strength of faith but weakness of human nature. Yet He wavered not from integrity and held perfect faith in His Father's promised care, knowing God could indeed bear Him up if required, and His refusal showed unwavering confidence in God during peril and left a perfect pattern that man's only safety in all trials and perils is firm trust that does not demand miraculous deliverance.

God's promises are not a license to rush into danger, break the laws of nature, or ignore prudence and sound judgment. Faithful trust does not presume on God's protection in a danger one has needlessly chosen. Satan used a promise of God to encourage a reckless act, urging reckless reliance on divine protection, but the temptation was met and resisted. Christ overcame this temptation, showing that His followers can overcome presumption rather than expose themselves needlessly to temptation, and meditation and prayer help them avoid dangerous situations.

The leap would not have honored or glorified the Father, since only Satan and God's angels would have witnessed it. It would instead have displayed God's power to gratify Satan and humbled Jesus before the foe He came to conquer. Satan wanted to delude Christ into one bold move manifesting divine power, creating a sensation and surprising all by a wonderful display of His Father's power in preserving Him from injury. He suggested that Christ appear in His real character and by this masterpiece of power establish His right to the confidence and faith of the people that He was indeed the Saviour of the world, seeking popular confidence through spectacle. God's power should not be called on to win against enemies unless there is a special purpose that directly honors and glorifies God, so Christians should follow Jesus' example by bearing temptation and disputed rights patiently rather than demanding that God display His power for their victory.

Using miraculous power to escape difficulty would have broken His agreement with the Father to live as a probationer in humanity on behalf of the race. He refused the challenge and would not use His divine power outside the Father's will, for His time to display that power had not yet come. Satan quoted the promise of angelic protection while omitting the words about keeping in all ways, urging a presumptuous act and a public display to compel people's confidence in Him. This was presumption, not intelligent faith, and yielding to prove His identity and win the people's confidence through spectacle would have broken the contract made with His Father.

Christ's Refusal and Victory

Jesus would not risk His life to prove His identity, and He did not accept the doubt about His Sonship with which the demand was prefaced. Set in extreme difficulty and peril and dared to cast Himself down to prove His claim to His Father's protecting care, He wavered not from integrity and held perfect faith in His Father's promised care. He refused to yield on a single point, resisting without yielding even in thought, and He would not obey the suggestion to throw Himself down unbidden at Satan's word. Flattering inducements of honor, riches and glory could not bribe Him to acknowledge Satan's claims, and He gained the victory also upon the point of appetite.

Satan could tempt and solicit but could not force sin, control the will, or contaminate the soul. No earthly or satanic power could force Jesus to depart from His Father's will, and He could have been overcome only by His own consent to do so. His will stayed submitted to His Father's will through forty days of buffeting, and He did not yield to the will of the enemy for a moment. He may be distressed and caused agony by the tempter, but distress is not defilement and no one is overcome without consenting.

Every assault was met with Scripture alone, for argument and reason are of no use against Satan. The answer was "It is written," which repulses him and puts the tempted one on solid, immovable rock, since all things written in the law and in the prophets are true and carry their proof in themselves. He overcame by relying on God's word and holding to it, showing the power of God's word, whose failure to change people comes from their choice to disobey and not from any lack of power in the word. He knew God could indeed bear Him up if required, and He trusted that His Father would not allow Him to be tempted beyond the strength given to endure.

His refusal left a perfect pattern of firm trust and unwavering confidence in God in all trials and perils. That safety lies in not parleying with the enemy and in a faith that does not demand miraculous deliverance, does not create needless danger, and does not force providence to intervene on one's own account. To leap unbidden would have tested His Father's protection and love rather than demonstrating faith, turning perfect faith into presumption. Satan's object was to produce human weakness and destroy that perfect pattern, thinking that if Christ failed there could be no redemption.

The conflict was the severest test, endured through forty days and nights of fasting without food or drink and of long strain. The battle was so severe that Christ was faint and apparently dying, yet He repulsed the enemy and forced him to depart for a season as a conquered foe, to the joy of heaven. Then angels came and strengthened Him with food, ministering grace and strength to Him. Though He appeared to be alone, angels also surrounded Him unseen during the assault, as they minister to people under the enemy's attacks.

Cosmic Stakes and Redemption

The pinnacle temptation belonged to the wilderness conflict over Satan's claim to rule the world and over allegiance to God, in which Christ stood loyal to show that humanity had not passed wholly under Satan's control. That conflict revealed a kingdom opposed to God's kingdom, and prophecy had foretold that the Prince of Heaven would establish a kingdom on earth not by earthly triumph, worldly honor, or display. That foretold kingdom would embrace all kingdoms and bring Satan's rule and power to an end.

The destiny of the human race was at stake in that severe conflict, and Satan's success against the Son of God would have meant victory over the entire race and, as he thought, the establishment of his own life and kingdom. Christ was conqueror there, and the tempter left Him for a season, but the leaving was only temporary. Satan returned for a last fearful conflict in Gethsemane, having prepared for that final trial during the three years of Christ's ministry, when everything was still at stake. If Satan failed there his hope of mastery was lost, the kingdoms of the world would finally become Christ's, and Satan himself would be overthrown, bound, and cast out; but if Christ could be overcome the earth would become Satan's kingdom and the human race would remain forever in his power.

In the wilderness Christ passed over the ground where Adam fell, placing Himself in the sinner's stead and enduring the test Adam failed to endure. He bore the pressure of Adam's guilt and that of his posterity, met the test on the point of appetite after fasting forty days and forty nights, and by that victory redeemed the disgrace of Adam's failure and fall. The assault in the wilderness was a hundredfold stronger than any temptation ever brought or ever to be brought against the human race. Yet He bore every test imposed upon Him, resisted in the same manner every tempted soul may resist, and came off more than conqueror as the tried stone who never disappoints those who trust Him.

His victory was won for humanity in the decisive test of the work of human salvation, and through His divine power joined with humanity it raised humanity's moral value before God. It broke the power of appetite and temptation and formed a righteous character people could not form for themselves. Repulsing the challenge to cast Himself from the temple, He won on behalf of His followers what makes it possible for them to conquer sin and Satan through the strength He gives. That victory provides fallen people both pattern and divine power to resist evil and overcome in His name, yet it benefits no one unless each person also overcomes temptation individually for himself.

The pinnacle deed showed presumptuous boldness in bearing Christ to the temple pinnacle and malicious intent in urging Him to cast Himself down from the dizzy height. It was part of cruel warfare upon the world's Redeemer during His earthly ministry, together with bearing Him to the mountain summit, demanding homage, hunting Him from place to place, and moving priests and people to reject Him and cry for His crucifixion. By that warfare the character of the great deceiver was unmasked and revealed to the loyal universe. The unmasking uprooted Satan from the affections of the heavenly angels and the whole loyal universe, exciting their amazement and indignation.

The wilderness defeat did not end opposition, for after failing to overcome Jesus directly Satan continued seeking other ways to oppose Him during His ministry. He fixed a new strategy of working through human agents in the religious world, turning them against Christ to thwart His work and discourage Him. That strategy included blinding minds with envy and unbelief, hunting Him from place to place toward crucifixion, and renewing confrontation through possessed sufferers. The tempter in the wilderness was the same personal evil spirit, though assuming another form, later met in the demoniac at Capernaum who recognized Jesus and in the men from the tombs, and because Jesus had conquered that arch-enemy in the wilderness He could with calm authority command him and wrest the captives from his grasp.

Pattern for Overcoming Temptation

Christ's wilderness trial is a practical example of self-denial, showing how to act where humanity is tried and how to resist devices suited to each person's circumstances in order to overcome in His name and merits. To leap unbidden from the pinnacle at Satan's urging would have been presumption rather than faith, placing life in needless danger and following the enemy's suggestion instead of fulfilling the mission, and since He would not presume to test God, fallen people must not yield to such suggestions or take a course that separates them from God's help. His refusal displayed unwavering confidence in God amid peril and left a perfect pattern of firm trust for His people in trial and danger.

His victory does not benefit anyone unless each person also overcomes individually for himself. Victory comes through continual resistance, by joining human weakness to His enduring strength and resisting in His name, because people cannot overcome sin in their own strength even after fasting and prayer but can overcome through faith in Him who triumphed on humanity's behalf. All remain personally exposed to the very same temptations that assailed Christ and must individually overcome, though His failure of Satan over Christ provides strength in the all-powerful name of the great Conqueror who continues as adversary to the end of time.

Tempted people must meet the enemy as He did, without parleying, answering only with what is written. Argument and reason are of no use against Satan; Scripture alone repulses him and puts the tempted one on solid, immovable rock, for all things written in the law and in the prophets are true and carry proof in themselves, with Scripture explaining Scripture. Those who follow Him must store these lessons of the Word in memory's hall, using spare time to commit Scripture to memory instead of worthless reading and foolish stories, then resisting the besetting enemy with the written Word and baffling him by speaking timely words of Scripture to those around them, thereby becoming strengthened and perfecting character fitted for transfer to future immortal life where there will be no danger of being overcome.

Believers must not presume on mercy by recklessly putting themselves in danger, breaking the laws of nature, or ignoring prudence and sound judgment, for God's promises are no license to rush needlessly into danger or to demand that God display power. They should bear temptation and disputes over rights patiently, avoid dangerous situations through meditation and prayer, and call on divine power to win against enemies only for a special purpose that directly honors and glorifies God, preserving integrity rather than grasping worldly advantage or humbling themselves before the foe. The leap would not have honored the Father, since only Satan and angels would have witnessed it, but would have tested God and displayed divine power to gratify Satan.

Scripture itself can be misused to support temptation, for Satan used a promise of God to encourage a reckless act and sought to overthrow Christ by a subtle temptation appearing good and scripturally supported. He disguises himself as an angel of light and as humanity's friend, making evil appear benevolent to win confidence, so an appeal to Scripture or an elevating appearance alone does not make a teacher or message trustworthy. Christians must reject such suggestions by relying on God's word rightly used.

The threefold wilderness temptation carries practical lessons on Christian temperance, showing the great work of the Redeemer in carrying out the plan of salvation through denial of appetite and victory over its power. By His forty-day fast and victory on the point of appetite He redeemed the disgrace of Adam's failure, broke the power of temptation so people can cooperate with divine help and be free from slavery to perverted appetite and passion, and elevated man in the scale of moral value. Through the power He brings and through His name, strength and merits, people can practice self-denial and temperance and overcome appetite and passion, by which even the liquor and tobacco inebriate can break the slavery of habit and become victor.

Christ's victory on the pinnacle, one of His fiercest and most subtle conflicts fought in behalf of humanity, makes it possible for followers to conquer and should inspire courage to fight manfully against sin and Satan. No one can be overcome without his own consent, for the tempter has no power to control the will or force the soul to sin; he may distress but he cannot contaminate, he can cause agony but not defilement, and Christ gives strength to all who seek it. Yet all who seek to follow Jesus will be brought into conflict with this relentless foe, and the more nearly the Christian imitates the divine Pattern the more surely he makes himself a mark for Satan's attacks. Satan dared to face, tempt, taunt and transport the Lord, taking Him in his arms to the pinnacle and to an exceeding high mountain, revealing real power, subtlety and strength retained from his exalted state, and that same power he will exercise to a wonderful degree upon the present generation, who are far inferior in wisdom to their Lord and almost wholly ignorant of his subtlety and strength, to tempt and harass and affect marvelously the bodies of those naturally inclined to do his bidding.