Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!

And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Luke 4:12)

I was told this verse is evidence that Jesus is god.  How did my Christian friend come to this conclusion? Well this misunderstanding came through the context. Satan challenged Jesus by asking him to jump from the top of the temple to see if he really was the son of god. If he was then the angels of God would save him. In response Jesus replied “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Here’s where he misunderstood the entire saying, Jesus said “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Quoting from Deuteronomy. The sentence finishes by saying “the Lord thy God” indicating the person who is speaking is that God, as in referring to himself. Wrong!

Let’s examine this statement, Jesus used to defend himself from jumping off the temple. The actual statement found in the book of Deuteronomy goes like this Do not try the LORD your God, as you did at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:16)

When Jesus quoted the verse he didn’t complete it, rather left the most important part so people don’t think he was claiming to be God. Notice the verse finishes by saying “as you did at Massah “. This is because the Israelites quarrelled with Moses if the lord was with them.

So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" (Exodus 17:2)

We can see the response from Moses was, Why do you put the LORD to the test” this was emphasised in the book of Deuteronomy, specifically mentioning the name of the place where it all happened  “Massah”. Rashi and Ibn Ezra  make mention of this

במסה IN MASSAH, when they went forth from Egypt: that they put Him to the test in respect to water, as it is said, (Exodus 17:7) that they asked, “Is the Lord amongst us or not?". (Rashi Deuteronomy 6:16 commentary)

in Massah the name of a place , as in “He called the name of the place Massah…” [Exodus 17: 7]. There I explained the meaning of the name [comment on Exodus 17: 2]. People were questioning whether “God is among us” [Exodus 17: 7]: If so, we will worship him. But there is no need to put God to the test. Simply keep his commandments; and if you do what is right in His sight, He will grant you every good, and (Ibn Ezra Deuteronomy 6:16)

it’s clear when Jesus was quoting the Old Testament to Satan, he was reminding him of what the Jews said to Moses, not that he was claiming to be God.  In fact we have statement from Yahweh where he speaks the contrary

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. (Malachi 3:10)

Notice how Yahweh is saying “Test me in this” if putting the lord to test was forbidden, then why did Yahweh make mention of it on Malachi? It makes no sense. It’s obvious when the Jews were quarrelling to know if the Lord was amongst them, a sense of disbelief came from them. ." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" (Exodus 17:2)

We can conclude, Jesus made no claim that he was God when he said to Satan “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Luke 4:12).  To be frank we can destroy this argument by Jesus’s next encounter with Satan, found in the book of  Matthew.

"And he (Satan) said to him (Jesus), "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:9)

If Satan already knew Jesus is God why would he offer him a piece of land? Think about it, does God not already own the whole universe. how could Satan offer God something he already owns unless Satan was stupid, which highly unlikely in this case.

Can Satan say to God "fall down and worship me" use your brain, can he!