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!
