The storm warnings are out. The nations, like a troubled sea, foam and lash against each other (Isa. 57:20). In the midst of the gale lies Eretz Israel. More fearsome waves have crashed upon its shores than anywhere else in the world.
Riding at anchor amid the Judean hills is the enigmatically named “City of Peace,” Jerusalem. And if the old ramparts raised by Suleiman were in fact an old warship, then its southeast corner would be its prow (cover photo shows the southwest corner).
Known today as the pinnacle of the temple (questions remain), it is the highest point of the wall above the valley floor. These crenelated walls stretch two and a half miles to encompass a rough square of approximately one hundred seventy-five acres. But the wall at this point performs double duty. It not only encloses the Old City, but the Temple Mount area as well. Although reclaimed by the Israeli Defense Forces on June 7, 1967, it still remains isolated from the Jewish people. For straddling Moriah’s southern flank are two Moslem shrines. These thirty-five acres, once the site of Solomon’s temple, are now known as Haram es-Sharif, “the Noble Sanctuary.”
Two hundred and fifty yards northeast of where we stand, hidden under Islam’s second most sacred shrine, is a slab of gray-black rock. Approximately fifty by sixty feet, three thousand years ago it was Ornan’s threshing floor, purchased by a repentant David and used as the site of Israel’s temples. Here Solomon stood “in all his glory” by the first temple and Titus stood by the conflagration of the last. And in between, to this very place came the King of kings.
He had been here before. But Luke 4 gives us the record of His first visit after the inception of His public ministry. It was the devil’s third and final temptation.
More than likely it was not to that which is known today as the pinnacle, but a high point on the temple structure itself, which rose one hundred feet above the Herodian platform, that Satan brought our Lord. While the priests went about their sacred business and the scribes and Pharisees argued fine points from the Talmud, the Lord Jesus gave the Devil on the pinnacle a threepart lesson in Bible study.
Satan challenged the Lord to prove His Messiahship by casting Himself off the building. If the Bible was true, he argued, then Psalm 91 would require divine intervention to keep Him from dashing His foot against a stone. The answer, in our English Bible, is eight monosyllables: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16.
First, Satan misquoted the text. With a surgeon’s skill, he excised two verses from the heart of Psalm 91. As in Eden, he abused the Word of God to infer that God cannot be trusted. Had he included the verses before, it would have declared the utter dependability of the Lord. Had he included the verse following, it would have declared the utter defeat of the lion, the serpent and the dragon. Remember the old adage: “A text without a context is a pretext.”
Second, he misused the text. Such promises as that quoted by the Deceiver were never intended to be used as weapons against God. He does not yield easily to extortion. Such was the case of Israel at Massah, the occasion mentioned in Deuteronomy 6:16. There Israel used His promise to bring them into Canaan against Him. Is it possible that the Bible is misused like this by God’s people today? We do this when we twist the purpose of a passage to escape its plain teaching (2 Peter 3:15-16). In this, we tempt the Lord.
Third, he misapplied the text. Do you think for a moment that the promise of Psalm 91 was intended to be the basis of a magic show? Is the Bible given to us for winning arguments? Or getting our own way? Like those who misapply a verse such as “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22) to excuse all sorts of practices that would have horrified the man who wrote that.
The Word of God is a mighty weapon, as our Saviour demonstrated, driving back the very devil himself. But like any sword, it must be handled carefully. We all have our pinnacle experiences. It is often then that the enemy attacks. He is armed and dangerous. We would do well not to wait until then to take lessons in swordsmanship.