#084 “The Pinnacle of the Temple: How Satan Uses Setting” (Matthew 4:5)

"Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple." (Matthew 4:5)

In Matthew 4:5, before Satan tempts Jesus with words—he chooses a place. He takes Him into the holy city and sets Him on the pinnacle of the temple. And that detail changes everything.

In this episode, Kate uncovers why where a temptation happens can be just as revealing as what is said. Jerusalem wasn’t a random backdrop—it was the city where God placed His name, where God's people and God's presence met, and where Jesus Himself had grown, worshiped, taught, and wept. To be tempted here—at the highest edge of the holiest place—was intentional and personal.

As we trace the story from Eden to the tabernacle, from Solomon’s temple to Herod’s towering platform, we see a pattern emerge: God meets His people in holy places—but the enemy exploits elevation for the fall he knows well. High places can magnify trust…or subtly invite us to test God instead of trust Him.

This episode brings the wilderness scene into everyday life by helping you identify your own “pinnacles”—platforms, successes, securities, or vulnerable seasons where dependence on God quietly shifts into self-reliance or spiritual performance. Kate offers practical, Scripture-anchored wisdom for learning how to stand firm when footing feels narrow or temptation is high.

Above all, this conversation anchors us in gospel hope. Jesus stood where we slip. He refused the counterfeit ascent, humbled Himself in obedience, and climbed the hill of Calvary. Because He overcame, His Spirit now steadies us—whether we’re standing in valleys or on ledges. If you’ve ever felt exposed by success, shaken by visibility, or tempted to demand proof of God’s care instead of resting in His Word, this episode will help you see temptation more clearly—and Christ more beautifully.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage In Matthew 4:5

Kate 0:00

Hey guys, this is Kate from Abidible.com, and you're listening to the Abidible Podcast. I'm just a regular wife and mom who's had my life transformed by learning to study the Bible on my own. If I can, you can. On this show, I help you know and love God more by abiding in Him through His Word yourself. See what a restless, unwearied adversary the devil is. If he fail in one assault, he tries another. That's Matthew Henry. Today we're in Matthew 4.5, and here we have the devil coming at Jesus for a second pass. Let's take a moment to remember where we are in this wilderness temptation story. In Matthew 4.1, we saw that the Spirit led Jesus up into the wasteland that is the Judean wilderness for a very specific purpose to be tempted by the devil. During that 40-day period, Jesus fasted and was hungry. In the first temptation, the devil challenged Jesus' identity as the Son of God, trying to get Jesus in his hunger to turn stones into bread. It didn't work. Jesus responded with scripture from Deuteronomy 8: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Satan has failed, but he's not done. If one thing doesn't work, he tries another. We have a change of setting for the second temptation. In today's verse, Matthew 4 5, we read, Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. You may be surprised to learn that I'm only going to deal with this verse in today's episode. What I've just read may not feel like enough content for an entire episode. In fact, I initially thought the same thing and even considered combining verses four and five for today's episode. I thought I should probably keep going. The devil took him to the holy city in the pinnacle of the temple and did what? Said what? What did the devil say to him? How did he tempt Jesus next? But we're not going to find out till next week. Thankfully, the Lord slowed me down this week and told me to stay camped on just verse five. And I'm pretty sure I understand why. Here it is. The setting of our temptations can sometimes be as relevant as the words said to us by the tempter in the temptation. And that's absolutely true for what's happening to Jesus in temptation number two. So that's why today we're going to be specifically looking at location, the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city. But first, real quick, do you want to be a part of what God is doing here at Abidible? For just a few dollars a month, you can support our mission to help people know and love God more by abiding in Him through His Word. Check out the link in the show description to learn more. Satan failed his first attempt, but he's not done. Now he has Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple. What temple? Where is the temple? What holy city are we talking about? Which part of the temple is the pinnacle? How did Jesus get up there? What does it mean that Satan took Jesus there against his will, violently? Or did Jesus go willingly? Does this location have significance? And if so, what is it? Questions. My favorite. Did you feel any sort of pull to skip past verse five and jump right into six to find out what Satan says to Jesus next? Did you, like me, almost assume that everything we see at face value in verse five is all there is to see, and that the important part is what the devil says or does once he gets Jesus there? I hope by the end of this episode we'll all be reminded and encouraged in beautiful ways about just how valuable it is to slow down and ask questions, because location is very significant. What do you know about the holy city? About the temple? Are you ready for a nerd dive? We'll start with the holy city and then move on to the temple and what is potentially meant by the pinnacle of the temple. The holy city, as you probably already guessed, is Jerusalem. I'm confident that you knew that already, but do you know why it's called the holy city or what makes it so special? This phrase, holy city, is used throughout Scripture to describe Jerusalem, along with terms like holy hill, city of God, holy habitation of God, the most high, and holy mountain. This word holy in the Greek can mean most holy thing, sacred, consecrated. That's more than just special. When we see the phrase holy city in the Old Testament, the Hebrew for holy is similar. It can mean apartness, sacredness, separateness, a consecrated or dedicated or hallowed place or thing. The very first place we see this word used in the Bible is Exodus 3 5, when God tells Moses to remove his sandals, because the place on which Moses is standing is holy ground. What made it holy? The fact that God was there. Moses was in the presence of the holy God. So what made Jerusalem holy? The same thing. The fact that God was there. Imagine how much Satan hated Jerusalem, the dwelling place of his holy enemy. Here's a little biblical history about the city of Jerusalem, the most sacred, holy place on the face of this earth, the place most important to our holy God, and yes, land and cities are important to God. Side note, did you know that the most repeated noun in the Old Testament, Aretz, the Hebrew word for land or earth, is used over 2,500 times? If you look at the topography of Jerusalem, you'll see that it really is a city on a hill. It's about 2,500 feet above sea level. Geographically, it is a mountain, the mountain of God, because it's set high on a plateau in the hills of Judah. Nowhere in the Pentateuch do we have mention of the city of Jerusalem. By that I mean that in the first five books of the Bible, the word Jerusalem is not mentioned. But the mountain Jerusalem is built on is named Mount Moriah. Does that name ring a bell for you? If it doesn't, let me help. Mount Moriah is the mountain mentioned by God in Genesis 22, 2 as the place where he tells Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, the son of promise, Isaac. But Abraham doesn't end up sacrificing Isaac because God provided a substitute. Abraham named the mountain the Lord will provide, because on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. Remember that. It's important. Mount Moriah is the mountain that would later be the location for Jerusalem. And it is the mountain where God provided a substitute for Abraham's only son. Going back a little bit further, the first time that we see this city on the mountain with a name, again, it isn't actually called Jerusalem. It's known as Salem, pronounced Shalem, which means peace. We see this in Genesis 14, 18, where Salem is named as the home of King Melchizedek, the priest of God most high who came out and blessed Abram. Later it's named Jebus and it's home of the Jebusites. The Jebusites are partially driven out by Joshua when the Israelites enter the Promised Land around 1400 BC, but some Jebusites remain. We don't hear much about this location again until the time of King David, close to 400 years later, around 1000 BC. David has sinned and must build an altar to the Lord to make a plea for forgiveness. The place he is told to build this altar by the prophet Gad, as we read in 2 Samuel 24:18, is the threshing floor of Aruna, or Ornan, the Jebusite. This story is also confirmed in 1 Chronicles 21, 18. So David builds an altar to God on this threshing floor and says in 1 Chronicles 22:1, Here shall be the house of the Lord God, and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel. Now, David never gets to build God's house. He wants to, but God says that privilege will pass to Solomon, David's son. David does conquer the Jebusites and establish his throne, palace, and kingdom in the city of David, or Jerusalem, which essentially means foundation of peace. So that's a very brief overview of the most important city on the planet. You certainly can do more research on your own if you'd like. I always encourage you to keep digging. Now let's talk about the temples. Yes, temples, plural. The pinnacle Jesus now stands on does not belong to the original temple. In fact, before there even was an original temple, there was a tabernacle, a tent of meeting. And before the tabernacle, there was the garden. Ezekiel 28 refers to Eden as the holy mountain of God. In all of these places, God has made his desire clear. The holy God wants to walk in fellowship and close relationship with his created image-bearers. As God is giving instructions to Moses for the first temple, which is really the tabernacle, he says in Exodus 29, 43, there I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell with them. I am the Lord their God. The Old Testament is filled with ways in which God made that communion possible. First, again, as we just saw in the wilderness, God gave Moses very specific instructions for the tabernacle or tent of meeting. The tabernacle was God's dwelling place within the camp. It was meticulously created in order to be able to contain his glory and holiness so that he could stay near to his people. They were nomadic and the tabernacle was assembled and disassembled. This continued for the forty years that they were in the wilderness. God remained with them in their midst. When the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the promised land, God's presence dwelt or was established in different places. One was in the city of Shiloh, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. The temple at Shiloh housed God's presence in the form of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant housed the Ten Commandments and some other holy relics and served as one of the central symbols of God's presence with his people. It was stored in the Holy of Holies, an area only the high priest could enter, and he could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. The ark and God's presence were moved around throughout the different time periods of the Israelites in Canaan, or the Promised Land, to Shechem and Bethel and Beth Shemesh and to Kiryath Eurem in the house of the priest Abinadab throughout most of King Saul's reign. King Saul, the first king of Israel, set up his capital on Gebea of God, an adjacent hill. When David became king, he relocated the ark to a tabernacle in the newly established Israelite capital of Jerusalem. This tabernacle was still a temporary dwelling place for God. This location is where David desired to build the temple of God. And Mount Moriah is where the first Jerusalem temple was indeed built by David's son Solomon. I say first because there have been two, and because there is much prophecy about a third temple that will be built in the end times. The first temple was Solomon's, the second was Zerubbabel's, which was later renovated and expanded upon by King Herod, and is the temple that stood during Jesus' time, meaning that Herod slash Zerubbabel's temple is the very one with the pinnacle the devil now sets Jesus upon. And then there's the third temple, which is yet to be constructed, but may be built very soon. More on that in a bit. Let's briefly touch more on each temple. What can we learn about this first temple? The one built by King David's son Solomon. Second Chronicles 3:1 tells us the where. Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Solomon took seven years to build the temple, completing it somewhere around 960 BC. We need to understand the incomparable beauty of Solomon's temple. Nothing has been built like it before or since. Modern estimates put the construction cost in the hundreds of billions, that's blah-blah-blah billions, with a B to even over $1 trillion. The value of gold alone in today's market, based on the weight listed in the Bible, would have been around $300 billion. The other materials were extensive and expensive, including cedar, cypress, and precious stones. Think about the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, or St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, or the Notre Dame in Paris, or St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, or the Duomo in Milan. Combine them all. Even the high-end estimates, if I total all of that together with modern-day construction costs, again, all five of those cathedrals, it's only around $55.5 billion. That's still a lot of money, but that is one sixth for all of them of the cost of just the gold in Solomon's temple. The most expensive single building that the internet could give me is the great mosque of Mecca or the Majid al-Haram, which in today's dollars would cost around $120 billion. So get it, guys. This temple was glorious. That's my point. And then on top of that, God filled it with his Shekinah glory. When Solomon dedicates the temple in 1 Kings 8, he asks God to keep the covenant that God spoke to David, his father, that David's house, throne, and kingdom would be established forever. And then Solomon prays, But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, My name shall be there, that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place, and listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, and listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. The temple was the dwelling place of God as well as the location that housed the altar for sacrifice. Sacrifice was necessary for atonement. Man could not be made right with God without the shedding of blood. So the temple, just as the tabernacle had been, was central to maintaining right relationship with God. The temple was a means to an end. Worship and relationship with God was always the end. However, the temple itself was not meant to be worshipped in place of God. Jeremiah warned the people that if they trusted primarily in the temple instead of the Lord, that the Lord would destroy Solomon's temple. God specifically tells them in Jeremiah 7 not to use the temple as a lucky charm while they continued walking in disobedience to his commandments. The temple was always a means to an end. The place where heaven came to earth and where God's presence could be in the midst of his people. It was about relationship. And there are many beautiful examples of the temple being used rightly for worship. Just look at the Psalms. Though the Holy of Holies was reserved for the high priest and even the holy place for just the priesthood, the people would gather in the temple courtyard for prayer and sacrifice all throughout the year. At times, Israel rightly realized that it was by God's grace alone that he consented to dwell with his people in this way. While no temple could truly house God as Solomon had realized in his prayer, the idea of God being near in a place where he set his name and in a place that he filled with his glory truly made the temple in Jerusalem the center of life for all Israel. Sadly, Israel did not listen and rebelled against their God, breaking his commandments and statutes and ignoring warnings from the prophets. They did not heed God, despite even a vision from Ezekiel in chapters 10 and 11 of his book, a heartbreaking vision that Ezekiel saw of God's presence departing from the temple. Under each new king, more wicked than the last, Israel did not turn back to their God. So judgment fell as prophesied in the form of a Babylonian invasion. Around 400 years after Solomon finished the temple, Jerusalem was plundered and the temple was destroyed by fire by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel had prepared a remnant not only for this destruction of Solomon's temple, but also for a return from exile and a promised future rebuilding of the temple. The second temple was built by the leader of the tribe of Judah, Zerubbabel. This was permitted by decree through the favor of the Persian king Cyrus, who had conquered Babylon, where the Jewish exiles were originally held in captivity. God moved Cyrus to appoint Zerubbabel governor of Judah and to allow some of the Jews to return home with him from exile. Cyrus sent them with the important temple vessels that had been plundered by the Babylonians and with permission and aid to rebuild the temple. Despite much opposition and some major delays and stopped work, a new decree by Persian king Darius enabled the Jews to complete the project, and the new temple was completed in 516 BC and dedicated with great joy. This part of the story is primarily told by Ezra and Nehemiah and Haggai. Now a ton of history happened between the completion of Zerubbabel's temple and the renovated temple Jesus now stands atop, including the intertestamental period, the 400 years of silence, in which the world was being conquered by Greece and then Rome and certainly had many impacts on Jerusalem. But for now, we'll jump to 37 BC when master builder Herod the Great and Wicked came into power. In an attempt to please his Jewish subjects as well as show off and get glory for himself, Herod dramatically renovated the temple platform, expanding it drastically. He also added to the temple itself, built magnificent porches, including the royal stoa along the southern wall, and impressively reconstructed and renovated the whole temple complex. This is an appropriate time for me to pause and explain. The potential options for the location of the pinnacle of the temple mentioned in our verse today, Matthew 4.5. Extra biblical texts tell us that the main sanctuary building of the temple itself was maybe approximately 150 feet tall. Getting to the top of the temple itself, however, was complicated, especially for Jewish man like Jesus, maybe even impossible, because his access would have, ironically, been restricted to only the temple courts. The sanctuary or holy place, the inside of the sanctuary, and especially the Holy of Holies, was restricted for Levitical priests only. So there would have been no way for him to climb up or access the roof. That's part of the reason why some scholars posit that the pinnacle of the temple refers to a different location within the temple grounds, namely the southeast or southwest corners of the wall. Now, without a proper visual, hearing me say that Satan sets Jesus atop this pinnacle, meaning the corner of the Temple Mount platform or wall, sounds a little anticlimactic, right? I need you to write this down or at least remember it. Go watch Expedition Bible's YouTube video titled The Temple Mount. I'll link it in this episode's description as well. The whole video is fascinating, but if you just want to see the height of what biblical archaeologist Joel Kramer calls the highest place in the compound, then skip to about 23 minutes. Your head will spin and your stomach will flip to see just how high that corner of the platform sits above the Kidron Valley to the east. Some say that before modern roads, this was a drop of potentially up to 450 feet. I trust Joel Kramer. So if he says this was the highest point on the Temple Mount, then I think we have a very good case for the southeast corner being the location of the second temptation of Jesus. Speaking of Jesus, let's see if he had any personal connections to the temple. Is this moment Jesus standing on the pinnacle of the temple at Satan's request the first time Jesus had been on the temple mount? Trick question. Let's be more specific. Was this his first time on the temple mount in the flesh? No. Jesus came to this temple as a baby. He was circumcised there, and Joseph and Mary made an offering at that time. He was also greeted and recognized by prophets and prophetess, Simeon and Anna, as the long-awaited Messiah right here at the temple. He made pilgrimages there as a boy with his family, including the time his family lost him. I love that story. Do you know it? It's from Luke 2, 42 to 49. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress. And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? Jesus loves this temple. He also taught there as a man, once he'd begun his ministry, and he cleansed the temple before his death. In Mark 13, 1 through 2, coming out of the temple, one of Jesus' disciples said to him, Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings. And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. In 70 AD, after the Jewish revolt of 66 AD, nearly forty years after Jesus' death and resurrection, the Roman emperors Vespasian and his son Titus would crush the Jews and sack Jerusalem. All of the buildings on the Temple Mount were destroyed, and the stones thrown down off the platform. Not a single stone was left upon another. You can still see the enormous fallen stones today, including the places where their fall broke parts of the street into. This coming destruction was in fact what Jesus saw when he wept over Jerusalem during his triumphal entry. As Jesus comes down the Mount of Olives to enter Jerusalem from the east, as he prepares to lay his life down as a sacrifice on the mountain known as Moriah, as God provides his son as a substitute, remember, for the people's sin. Jesus looks over Jerusalem, looks upon the Temple Mount and the house of his father, and grieves. It says, And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you, and hem you in on every side, and tear you down to the ground, you and your children with you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. Jesus laments because they missed it. They missed him. God had come yet again to dwell, to tabernacle among his people, this time in the flesh. Isaiah predicted it, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Matthew clarifies for us that this means God with us. And John repeated the sentiment. And even though he weeps upon entering this holy city, he keeps coming. He enters the city and lays down his life for the joy set before him. He has come in the flesh so that all who hadn't missed his coming might become the new dwelling place of God. God sends his one and only son to die on Mount Moriah, where Abraham was prevented from ultimately offering Isaac. But this time God would not spare his son. God's son would be a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin to make us right with God in order that he might permanently make his home within us. Jerusalem is the holy city because it's the city God chose. God's response to Solomon's prayer of dedication for the temple was, I have heard your prayer and your plea. I have consecrated this house that you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. Later in 2 Kings 21, this is described as the Lord having said, In Jerusalem, I will put my name. At first this may feel and seem confusing because for a time God did dwell in the temples, but the people kept messing that up, and then judgment fell, and the temple Solomon prayed for was destroyed. Jesus came during the second temple period and he did love his father's house, but that love also manifested itself in the form of zeal. At Passover, when we see Jesus with the whip of cords dumping coins and flipping tables, we realize that the prophecy of Psalm 69, 9 has been fulfilled. Zeal for your house has consumed me. Jesus cleansed the temple of the corrupt practices of the religious leaders who had turned the temple from a house of prayer and worship into a place of commerce, charging exorbitant rates for sacrifices and making it expensive and difficult and even impossible to pray to access God. Outraged by Jesus' behavior, the Jewish leaders demanded a sign from Jesus in order to prove that Jesus had the right to do what he'd just done. Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he, Jesus, was speaking of the temple of his body. God destroyed the need for the temple, raising his son's body three days later, thus making a way for God to indwell his people. We become the temple of God. He lives in us. This is how Jesus can now promise Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Jerusalem is where the incarnated God died, but the story doesn't end there. It will also be where the third temple is built. Prophecy in Daniel 9 and 2 Thessalonians 2 tell us there will be a third temple. We can know this with confidence because we are told that halfway through the seven-year tribulation, which is the final week or seven years of Daniel's 70 weeks, the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, will reveal himself. He will stop sacrifices in the temple. He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called God or object of worship and take his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. This is the abomination of desolation Daniel writes of in chapter 9, verse 27. In Matthew 24, 15, Jesus affirms that this prophecy will be fulfilled when Jesus says of the signs of the end of the age. So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. For sacrifices to stop, they have to be occurring in the first place. For Jews to sacrifice, they need a rebuilt temple. For the man of lawlessness to take his place in the temple, sitting down and declaring himself to be God, there has to be a temple. You may be wondering what in the world all of this has to do with Satan bringing Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, but stay with me. I really felt led by God to get you all of this information in a comprehensive manner, and it does tie into what is happening with Jesus and his temptations in ways I'd never before even seen and considered, and that we're going to continue to flesh out in this series. I have been reading and studying a ton, and I'll send you off on this rabbit trail if you'd like, but you need to know that certain Jewish organizations are prepared and ready right now to build the third temple. This is not opinion. I'll give you just a taste, an overview. You can find this on the internet yourself on official sites like the Temple Institute. First, you have to know that since Israel declared independence and proclaimed statehood in 1948, there has been all kinds of controversy as we know. The Temple Mount, home to the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, has had a long-standing quote status quo agreement in which Muslim worship is allowed on the site, but non-Muslims are restricted and can only visit as tourists. Jewish prayer in particular has been forbidden. Additionally, many rabbinic traditions have prohibited prayer on the Temple Mount because the presence of the dome and mosque make it ritually impure. So it just hasn't happened until the last several years with things dramatically ramping up recently. We're talking like two weeks ago recently. On January 21st, 2026, Israeli police allowed Jewish worshipers to ascend the Temple Mount, not just to pray, which is a big deal, but to pray with printed prayers. Hear me. In the past, this would have been a major violation of the status quo agreement between Israel and Jordan, moderated by the Jerusalem Islamic Walk If. If caught praying on the Temple Mount, these visitors would have been ejected or detained. But increasingly so over the past three years, this policy has been relaxed. Now police are making statements that stress the importance of enabling freedom of worship and visitation to the Temple Mount for all religions and communities. The number of Jews visiting the Temple Mount has surged over 92% since 2009, breaking records that have been established since the Six-Day War of 1967. 2024 and 2025 saw close to 60,000 Jewish visits per year, and this despite the very limited hours that Jews are even allowed to visit the Temple Mount. Now, behind the scenes, in preparation to build the Third Temple, certain groups have created over 40 to 90 consecrated ritual objects, including the Golden Temple menorah, made of solid gold, and musical instruments for the Levites. JNS.org, the Jewish News Syndicate, an independent but conservative leaning news agency, says that an exact replica of the Ark of the Covenant has been made and has been touring important biblical and military sites in Israel and even the U.S. They've been training Kohanim, which are members of the priestly line, for years in preparation to resume service. They've even created the priestly garments for service. They've secured the final, unblemished, of age red heifer candidates necessary for purification rites and have even done a practice sacrifice to collect ashes. They've got blueprints and detailed architectural plans. They have a stone altar ready to be moved to the site. The Sanhedrin has been re-established to deal with the legal and religious requirements of the temple, including the resumption of sacrifices. But the Sanhedrin has also established temple forests, which was reported on as far back as 2017 that are dispersed around Israel to meet the needs of the future Third Temple, including cedars of Lebanon and pomegranate trees, as well as plants needed for the temple incense. Educational and virtual models for the exact location of the temple on the Temple Mount platform have been created, and educational and social media campaigns have been organized to increase awareness about this project. I believe, based on what I've read and everything else happening in the world, that the construction of the third temple could maybe begin at any time. And if it does, we can be confident that we are in the end times. While no one knows the day or hour but the Father, Jesus did tell us what the signs of the end would be and to remain alert and watchful. He used phrases like stay awake and be ready in Matthew 24, 42, and 44. What is happening in Jerusalem with the third temple is a critical sign that we are potentially in the last days. Our Savior could be coming very soon. And that is an incredibly exciting promise. The future hope that we will dwell with God forever. And what is central to that prophecy? Jerusalem, the holy city. What does John say at the end of Revelation? He sees the new heaven and a new earth and the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And John says, I heard a loud voice. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation promises that God's people will live in the holy city of New Jerusalem, and that God will, in this new heavens and new earth, establish his permanent dwelling place with man for all eternity. There are a few really powerful points Randy Alcorn makes in about Jerusalem in his book on heaven. First, he points to Isaiah 11, 9 through 10, saying, There will be no harm or destruction in Jerusalem, and the Messiah will stand as a banner for the peoples and the nations will rally to him. Think about him now standing on the pinnacle of the temple, being tempted by the devil. It says his place of rest will be glorious. This is down here on earth, on the new restored earth. And listen to Isaiah 62. It says, As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. Pass through, pass through the gates, prepare the way for the people, raise a banner for the nations, see your Savior comes, see his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. This sentiment is repeated by Jesus himself in Revelation 22 when he says, Behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. And then listen to Isaiah 65 that says, Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. That's what's coming. So can you see why the devil brings Jesus here to Jerusalem, the holy city, and to the temple? We'll be right back after this message. 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And now back to the show. Why is Jesus brought to the pinnacle? We'll certainly learn more as we look at what the devil actually says to him next week in verse 6. But based on everything we just learned and reviewed about this city and the past and future temples on it, why would you say that the devil sets Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city? I will give you one hint. And this will also apply to the setting of the third temptation, which is a high mountain. Think about the high places we read about in the Bible, both good and bad. We've established that God often met with his people on mountains, but what else happened on the high places? Do you remember? The gods of other nations were worshipped. It was the high places of these demonic gods that Israel was commanded to destroy when they came into the land of Canaan. Here's just one example of one such command from Deuteronomy 12, 2 to 3. It says, You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. And here's what we ought to take away from the two distinct purposes or uses of high places. God humbles to raise up. Satan brings high to cast down. I got this idea from Matthew Henry. Think about it. God has a very different purpose for high places than Satan. God humbles or brings his people, even his son, low. So that they can be raised up or exalted. Let's read the full context of the verse that we keep discussing from James 4, 7. Remember it? It says, Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The verse right before that says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And just a few verses after it, James writes, Humble yourselves before the Lord, and what? He will exalt you. That's the upside-down kingdom of God. Jesus, we're told in Hebrews 2.9, was made lower than the angels for a brief moment so that he could be raised up, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. Satan hates all of this. He hates the humility of Jesus, of Emmanuel, God with them. The condescension of God in the flesh is the extreme opposite of what Satan tried to do when he attempted to claw his way to a position equal to or higher than the Most High. God uses high places to meet with his people. Satan wants to try and use them to cast God's people down, to entice them to the heights and then throw them off, so they can experience free fall like he did. What does that mean for us? It means that we need to be hyper alert about where we set our feet. Where we are can always be a part of how Satan tempts us. Matthew Henry says it this way There is no city on earth so holy as to exempt and secure us from the devil and his temptations, meaning there's nowhere on earth we can go to get away from his temptations. The first Adam was tempted in the holy garden, the second in the holy city. Let us not therefore in any place be off our watch. And then Henry focuses in particular on the height of the pinnacle and issues a warning. High places are slippery places. Advancement in the world makes a man a fair mark for Satan to shoot his fiery darts at. We see that Satan brings Jesus to the highest point, the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city. Probably inwardly, Satan is even mocking Christ, wondering if this will be the moment. Can he get the Son of God to fall like the other fallen sons of God? Will this be the day another joins their unholy ranks? Consider Jesus' humility and even allowing himself to be led to this place like that. This is similar to the language in the Old Testament of a lamb being led silently to the slaughter, right? That prophecy about Jesus, or it's reminiscent of Jesus' clarifying statement to Pilate that we read in John 19, 11, that Pilate had no actual authority over Jesus except that which had been given to Pilate by God. How submissive is our suffering servant Savior, that he would allow himself to be tempted and to suffer in this way, to be brought to such a position. Henry points out that he might let Satan do his worst and yet conquer him. Christ allows Satan to let loose his worst against him and still comes away victorious. Listen to Psalm 24, 3. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? I guess Satan missed that one. There is only one who perfectly earned the right to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in God's holy place. And we're looking at him right now. There he is, on the pinnacle, fully aware of the history and symbolism and future of this particular location on planet Earth more than any of us ever could or will be. And he looks out and readies himself for the next temptation, the next lie, the next accusation. Here's the big idea in all of this, you guys. Pay attention to where you're standing. Know your Bible, know your savior, know your enemy. Know the history of this great battle and the ways that it is still playing out and will play out in your life while your setting is still this earth. So I think an important question to close with would be: what are some modern day, or what might some modern day pinnacles look like for us? Sometimes they might look obvious, like positions of influence or visibility, a promotion that quietly begins to whisper, you don't need to depend on God anymore, or like you used to. It might be a leadership role in ministry where we begin serving reputation instead of Christ. It might look like a growing platform where applause and followers and likes become louder than obedience. But then other times our high places may not look that impressive at all. They might simply be places where we feel exposed, elevated, or pressured. Pinnacles might be the curated world of social media where comparison tempts us to perform instead of abide. It might be financial security, where comfort invites us to trust provision more than the provider. A pinnacle might look like intellectual confidence where knowledge quietly drifts into pride or spiritual success, like answered prayers, deep study, ministry fruit, where Satan whispers, you're standing because of you. And sometimes the pinnacle might be a place of deep vulnerability rather than visible success. This could be a painful season where the enemy urges us to test God's love or a lonely moment where he invites us to grasp control or reach for something instead of trusting the Father's timing. This could be like a place of suffering where he says, if God really loved you, he'd prove it to you right now. We gotta know the enemy doesn't just tempt us in dark valleys. It's not always just gonna be an obvious pinnacle. He loves holy places and sacred spaces. He loves trying to use moments when we feel close to God and cause pride or presumption or self-reliance to grow if we stop watching our footing. Where we stand can become part of how we're tempted. But there is gospel hope, and this is where the story always turns. Satan tried to manufacture a counterfeit high place in his way and his time, hoping to cast Jesus down from it through temptation. And while we haven't yet looked at that verse or at Jesus' immediate response, what we do know is this Jesus would ascend a different nearby hill, not due to pride and not to make a spectacle, but to walk out obedience in the form of suffering, humble suffering. He climbed Calvary, he descended into death, and then God raised him up. The one who stood firm on the pinnacle would later ascend the true holy hill, victorious over Satan, sin, and death, and now we know he reigns at the right hand of the Father. And because Jesus stood firm, we are not left standing alone. Hebrews tells us we have a high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, one who was tempted in every respect as we are, yet was without sin. And because he conquered, his spirit now strengthens us to resist. Yeah, the devil still whispers, and as we see and will see next week, he still invites us to climb for our own glory and to test God's love and to stand on unstable heights. But thank God that Jesus finished work means that our security is not found in where we stand, but in who stands for us. So whatever you're setting, whether you find yourself on a platform or in obscurity, in success or in suffering, in confidence or in fear, you can stand firm because Christ has already ascended the holy hill. And one day we will stand with him in the new Jerusalem on the new earth in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Pay attention to where you're standing, yes, but even more, remember who is holding you fast. And that's it for this episode. If you know someone who would be blessed by what you just heard, please share the Abidible podcast with them. Keep spreading the word so we can make much of the word. Drop us a review, tell us what you love and what you're learning. Check out the link to learn more about partnering with us by buying us a coffee one time, by joining our Abidible Plus women's membership community for $10 a month, or by becoming a monthly supporter. For those of you following along in the workbook, go ahead and begin working on our next verse in the series, Matthew 4.6, on pages 32 to 35 in your study workbook. Ideally, you would have this section done before you listen to the next episode, number 85. In that episode, we will finally see and discuss what the devil says to Jesus once he has him on the pinnacle of the temple in the holy city for this second temptation. Matthew 4, 6 says, He said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. Next week we'll see that Satan isn't done going for identity, but we'll look at a little more of family history and the alternate use of son or sons of God. We'll better understand Satan's reference here to angels, as well as his use, or shall we say, misuse of scripture. It's going to be a big, important, and perhaps even shocking episode. We may be talking about things that you've never learned before. I can't wait to meet you in episode 85 and see what the Lord has in store for us. I'll pray for us and then close us out with our memory work for verse 5. Father, you are the Lord of every city, every temple, every high place, and nothing is hidden from your sight. We thank you, Jesus, our faithful Savior, who was brought to the pinnacle and yet did not fall. Thank you that when the enemy sought to test you or twist your word and cast you down, you stood firm in truth and perfect obedience. Lord, we confess that we often climb places we were never meant to stand on. We might seek recognition or security or control and proof instead of humble trust. Forgive us for the moments when we listen to the enemy's whispers more than your voice. Teach us to watch our footing. Make us alert in every setting, whether high or low, visible or hidden. Guard our hearts from pride when we are lifted up and from despair when we feel exposed. Help us remember that Jesus has already ascended the true holy hill, that he reigns right now victorious, and that because we belong to him, the enemy has no final claim over us. When Satan tempts us in order to test you, please, God, anchor us in your word. When he tries to elevate us so that he can cast us down, keep us humble under your mighty hand. When we feel alone on the pinnacle, remind us that Christ stands with us and intercedes for us even now. Strengthen us by your spirit to resist the devil and to stand firm in the gospel today, tomorrow, and in every place our feet may go. We trust you, we follow you, and we worship you through Jesus Christ, our victorious King. Amen. Let's close by doing our memory work together. I'm going to repeat Matthew 4 5 five times. Say it out loud with me or quietly to yourself. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. Matthew four, five. Remember, you are able to abide in the Bible. We'll see you next time. Until then, let's abide.