The King was set at the pinnacle of the temple. It was a long way down. Yet the word did say that angels were at his command and they wouldn’t even let his feet be damaged by the fall. He could do it. Just do it.
The King’s response to this situation was reference to a principle of relationship that He lived by. Just because things could happen for Him, He knew it was not for Him to put God to the test.
The principle was borne out in the relationship that God had with Israel back in the wilderness years. There they persistently moaned and grumbled and put God to the test. Where’s the food? Where’s the drink? Why are we even in this wilderness? Where is Moses? Is God really with us or has He brought us all out here to just die in the desert?
Time after time they put God to the test with their lack of faith and lack of trust in the same God who had shown them that he was greater than Egypt. He had proved to them in no uncertain terms that He was able to deal with those who had kept them in captivity. He rescued and He provided. In that position it was not in their interests to question God in such a persistently testing manner.
For Jesus the issue was just as much about being presumptuous in the relationship with the Father as if the Father was at His beck and call. Here the enemy was challenging His identity by expecting the Father to just do His bidding.
Jesus highlights elsewhere that the way the dynamic with the Father worked was that He only did what He saw the Father doing and only said what He heard the Father saying. He was submitting to the will of the Father at all times. It was not about expecting and demanding the Father to be available to His whims.
If this is the example of the King, it should be no surprise that this is the dynamic He expects from those who are subjects of the Kingdom. Can you hear the taunts and temptations of the evil one to expect God to bail you out of a situation? Can you appreciate the way the evil one looks to subvert the dynamic of our relationship with the King? Can you understand how presumptuous it can be and in this time of entitlement how easy it would be to throw around scriptures as though God should show up whenever you call and do whatever you want?
The evil one questions the identity of the Son of God and unsurprisingly in the same way He looks to challenge the identity of the children of God. Are you a child of God? Well why don’t you get God to do this or that for you? If you are a child of God, or maybe you’re not, which is it?
What is our understanding of the relationship we have with God? Do we appreciate what it means to acknowledge King Jesus for who He is? Do we live by the dynamic of doing what the Lord instructs us to do? Will we look to ourselves and our whims and let them have mastery over us?
Or will we hear, obey and teach others to observe what King Jesus says?
(Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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