(Read Deut. 6:4-9; also verses 13 and 16.)
I THINK you have not forgotten to find out in what part of the Bible those words, with which the Lord Jesus answered Satan when he asked Him to command the stones to be made bread, are written.
The reason why I have asked you to read some verses in another chapter of the same Old Testament book is because we there find other words which Jesus used to answer Satan, when He said to him again and again, "It is written.”
The Jews were in the habit of teaching their little boys to learn by heart passages from the Book of Deuteronomy, and the verses from the sixth chapter which you have just read (from the fourth verse to the ninth) were often written down. The paper was then rolled up tight, and put into a little box, that it might be always worn tied to the arm, or across the forehead. This was done because the eighth verse says of God's words, "Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.”
Many a Jew, when our Lord was on earth, wore the words of God thus shut up in a box; the blessed Son of God kept them in His heart, where, as you read in the sixth verse, God would have His word kept.
Now, find the fourth chapter of Matthew, and read again the fifth and sixth verses.
Jerusalem is called the "holy city," because God's temple was there. This was not the beautiful house which King Solomon had built, but the last of all the temples; it was built after the others had been thrown down. A pinnacle means a very high place, stretched out like a bird's wing when it is flying. The temple had pillars of white marble, and the roof and pinnacles were of gold, so that it has been thought that it must have looked from a distance like a mountain of snow; while the sun shining upon the pinnacles would make the little points glitter like stars in the clear blue sky. It was to such a high place as this that the devil took the Lord Jesus, and again he said, "If Thou be the Son of God"—, Satan wished to make Jesus prove that He was indeed the Son of God by throwing Himself down from that high place, for he said, "It is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”
Christ had answered Satan by God's word, and now Satan himself dared to use the very word of God in tempting Christ. The Lord Jesus had said, "It is written," and now the devil said "It is written," too. But Satan kept back a part of what God had said. I will read you exactly what is written about the Lord Jesus in the Psalm, part of which the tempter repeated to Him.
“He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways.
“They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.”
"To keep Thee in all Thy ways"—these were the words which Satan left out.
When Eve, in the Garden of Eden, repeated God's words, she did not say them just as God had spoken them, but put in some words of her own, and also changed what God had said. Eve said more than God had said, and Satan said less than God had written.
Remember, dear children, that we must always repeat God's words exactly as they are written for us in the Bible, not add any words to them, or take any words from them. Suppose some one should try to persuade you to go into some great danger—not to help or save anybody; for no good reason at all—and that person tempted you to do it by saying, "You are your father's child; you need not be afraid, he will take care of you, and not let you suffer or be hurt.”
What would you say to the person who could be so wicked as to tempt you in such a way? Would it be really trusting in your father's love and care to go into the danger and see whether he would not come and save you? I think the child who best knew how his father loved him and cared for him would be the very last to treat him in such a way.
The Lord Jesus knew His Father's love and care for Him, and He would not try that perfect love. He answered Satan in those words which you read just now from the sixteenth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy: "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again the Lord Jesus answered Satan by the word of God.
All this time the Lord did not speak to Satan as Satan; but at the last temptation, when the devil, who is the prince of this world, tried to make the blessed Son of God fall down before him and worship him, Christ called him by his name. Satan means "Adversary"—for an adversary is one who is against another, and tries in every way to cast him down and trouble him. Satan has always been the adversary of God and of all who belong to Him.
So, when the devil took Jesus up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said unto Him, "All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me," Jesus said, "Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”
Three times the Lord Jesus had answered Satan by words from God's book; and now the great adversary was conquered and silent. So we read, “Then the devil leaveth and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him." God who did indeed" give His angels charge over " Him, sent those happy "ministering spirits," who "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word," to serve and wait upon the Saviour in that lonely place, where, for our sakes, He had endured the temptation of the devil.
Here are two verses for you to learn, dear children about God's word. This verse—
“Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee";
And this—
"By the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.”