Hey everybody, I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. We're in Matthew chapter 4, looking at the temptation of Jesus. And last time around, we talked about this weasily manipulative stuff the devil is doing here with this second temptation, where he's like, if you're my friend, you'll do this. Well, if you're the son of God, just throw yourself down from the top of this temple. It should totally work out. And so very cleverly, the devil takes Jesus up to either literally or in some sort of vision, this pinnacle of the temple right above where God theoretically lives amongst his people. And the proposal is make a big giant scene. This would be the equivalent today of taking somebody to Times Square in front of everybody, all these tourists, these outsiders, these New Yorkers, we're going to make a scene right here. Kind of like what happens at the high point of movies when someone is ascending to their position of power, they're learning their superpowers, and now they're going to show it off in front of everybody. It has that feel, but it's so dirty and manipulative the way he frames this thing up. There's another brand of manipulation, in addition to what we talked about the other day, that I'm pretty familiar with, having been a kid and tried out manipulative techniques on my parents who were too smart for it. And one of those techniques that we would use would be the thing where we we played the old mom and dad. And I could go to dad and be like, uh, Dad, mom said that you'd take us to Waterworld. This is a water park in Denver that we used to like to go to, but didn't get to go to very often. There's no way my dad was just going to be like, What? Well, if you say that's what your mom said, then throw on the suits, hop in the station wagon, and let's roll. Obviously, he's gonna check with mom. What did we think was gonna happen? And then he'd start to ask questions before he'd even check with mom, and he'd be like, Well, is that exactly what she said that I would take you to Waterworld? Well, I mean, basically, or whatever. Uh-huh. Did she offer any conditions? I don't know. I think she just said, do it. Yeah, let's get mom in here and talk about that. And then mom and dad start to compare notes, and to our horror, they quickly figure out what key phrases we maybe just neglected to mention that mom put out there, or maybe key qualifiers that she put out there. Things like, you know, if you mow the lawn for a month and a half and earn enough money to pay for it yourself. Oh, well, I mean, I guess. Oh, it's right, Dad. Yeah, she I guess she did say that now that you mention it. And probably every one of you listening, whether you've had kids or had parents or known someone who's had kids or been a parent, you all know this technique. And you also all know how to diffuse this technique. Well, it's this the exact same game that we're getting here from the devil when he says, If you're the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is technically written, he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. What a beautiful passage. It is so neat to see the devil quoting things from his arch rival God when it is convenient for him. And isn't that just a thing we do too? That's that's human nature, sin nature, right there. Again, you know, whether you think that every word of this document is true and that there's a God behind it, that's what I think, or whether you're somebody who's here and pretty skeptical of those claims, we have to agree. This smacks of the reality of the human experience, that we will all tend to embrace things when they are convenient, even things from our despised enemies' position when it helps suit us. So that's exactly what we're getting here. But I mean, let's just see how well he did with quoting the Bible. So this is in Psalm 91 and verses 11 and 12. Okay, for he will command his angels concerning you. Let me see, flipping back over. He will command his angels concerning you. Wow. I mean, hey, I hate to just liberally hand out props to Lucifer, Lord of Darkness, but nice job, man. That's like uh a wana level camp award-winning quality Bible quoting. Okay, so for he will command his angels concerning you, says Psalm 91.1, to guard you in all your ways. That is not familiar. Oh, that's weird. He kind of skipped that part. He'll command his angels concerning you. Yeah, he didn't say that when he was talking to Jesus. He says, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands. Okay, back over to Psalm 91, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. And he will lift you up in your hand, their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. He did a really great job on all of that quotation, except there's that one phrase that he whiffed on. I wonder if he just forgot, maybe, or I wonder, oh, conspiracy theory. I wonder if maybe he was behaving more like me as a kid when I would conveniently leave out details that are devastating to my case when trying to manipulate my parents. So, to guard you in all your ways, why would he leave that phrase out? Ah, well, hey, here's a biblical interpretation trick that we try to use to get the Bible right that we're now going to apply to the exegetical and hermeneutical, and those are the interpretive approaches of Lucifer, Lord of Darkness. We're going to use context to see how he's doing. So let's just go back to the beginning of this passage and see what we're actually talking about here. Um, Psalm 91:1. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare, from deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you'll take refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Wow, okay. So it seems like the Lucifer Lord of Darkness is mostly getting the theme right here that God is one who protects his servants. But if we go to that very first sentence of Psalm 91, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. So even if we take this poem as being a promise from God for all people, for all time, in all circumstances, which I don't, and we'll get to that in a minute, there's still a hugely important qualifier right up front. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high. Well, if Jesus does what the devil is telling him to do, he is no longer dwelling in the shelter of the most high. He's gone off to do his own thing. He's blowing off the plan of God and his purpose in taking on flesh. And therefore, none of the statements, or if some would take them as promises that come next in Psalm 91, would apply to him. What a clever move by the devil! I wonder what would happen if Christians figured out that trick, or people who want to criticize Christianity using the Bible. Oh wait, we figured out that trick very quickly. And I'll tell you who the father is of out-of-context, selectively used Bible verses meant to manipulate and generate the exact opposite result of the intended meaning on the page. It is Lucifer, Lord of Darkness. That is, frankly, a satanic approach to interpreting scripture when we weasel with the text to make it say the opposite of the thing that it is saying. Now, my friends, we got to tread carefully because I just made a pretty absolutist combative statement there, and I do want to qualify that. That is not to say that bad theology is best defined as theology that disagrees with Matt because I'm so precious and know everything. I'm not so precious, I don't know everything. Bad theology does not mean theology I disagree with. Bad theology means theological conclusions arrived at through these kinds of interpretive techniques, where you ignore the context of the passage, you ignore who is being spoken to, you ignore qualifiers, you ignore the fact that this is a poem that somebody wrote to express a place where they are at in their relationship with God and maybe not even a genre from which we can derive universal promises that can be applied indiscriminately at all times. Because I know a lot of people who dwell in the shelter of the most high and they got cancer super bad and then died. I know people who've dwelt in the shadow of the most high or the shelter of the most high, and then they got hit by trucks and they died from that, and they were dead, completely dead after that and didn't get healed, and there is no miracle or anything. Death is still part of the equation. The rain falls on the righteous and the wicked, and to disregard all of those context clues, those larger principles of the Bible, to disregard reason, to disregard little phrases right there and guard you in all your ways that point toward the qualifier all the way back at the beginning of chapter 91. That is dirty and manipulative. And what you're trying to do there is weaponize all the authority of God to our own ends by deliberately twisting what's going on here. There are techniques that are of good will when we interpret the Bible, someone else's remarks, any type of literature or storytelling, and there are interpretive techniques that are nothing more than dirty tricks, and we all know what they look like. So Satan almost quotes the Bible accurately, but he's playing some games with it to really fundamentally completely change the meaning from if you are in obedience to God, he will provide some kind of protection or care, maybe metaphorically, maybe in the case of this psalmist, maybe eternally, however you interpret that. He's trying to change it from that general encouragement to instead some kind of formula where it's like, well, pfft, whatever you do, God said he's obligated to do this. So you got him over a barrel. So let's just skip to the end and do this dramatic thing in front of everybody. Jesus answered him. It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. And next time around, we're gonna break down Jesus' counter move to the devil's aggressive sword fighting thrust here, and we'll see why it's so effective. But there's a lot to that counter move in terms of all of the material from the Old Testament that he's referencing, so I don't have time to tackle it this time around. Are you enjoying this? I really hope you're enjoying this. Because we're getting very intentionally into the super deep water here. And I know that there are probably some of you who are like, ah, come on, let's get to the next one. But I'm hoping that you're kind of understanding the pace we move at and appreciating trying to really break down each detail of this. And in this case, man, we're talking about how we interpret the Bible on a podcast where we talk about how we interpret the Bible and interpret the Bible. So we got to dwell on this for a little while and really try to wrap our brains around what maybe additional bonus lesson is maybe present for us here in terms of just how we handle the text in general while we also think about what's actually going on in the narrative and what the theological implications are. So all of that is a fancy way of saying this is gonna take a minute, and I love that uh you seem to be up for it. And last thing, little housekeeping here, I want to say thank you again to everybody who's supporting the program at patreon.com/slash the tmbh podcast. Douglas Meyer, Steve Earle, Super Blank Invisible Name Person who you didn't put a name in, but I really like you and thank you for supporting the program. Benjamin Buckmaster, Samuel Sanders, Jim Sanguine. Hopefully I'm saying that right. Just thanks a ton to all of you. Uh, at least once a week, I try to put everybody who started supporting us, try to put your name in the show notes down there, just a way to say, hey, I noticed and it means a lot. And thank you. Thank you so much once again for taking a chunk of your day and hanging out with me as we process through this. Very excited to think through with you what Jesus' response to this second temptation is all about, man. I'm Matt. This is a 10 minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do it again soon.