The Most High Way

It's common advice we should "take the high road" in conflicts.  No matter what people do or say to us, it is best for us to choose the path of righteousness.  The life of Jesus provides an example.  When Jesus was hungry, Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread.  Jesus answered with the unbreakable Word of God in Matthew 4:4:  "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"  Then Satan was especially crafty.  His next temptation was backed with the word of God!  Matthew 4:5-6 says, "Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶  and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  How treacherous and evil, to use scripture to pressure Jesus into sin!

I suspect Satan's recall of scripture is quite sharp, especially when it concerns his advantage.  The other day I read the same passage to which Satan referred in Psalm 91:11-12.  If I had been in the position of Jesus with His immaculate recall (and praise God I wasn't), I might have directed him to continue his recitation with the following verse (Psalm 91:13) as a taunt and ask him for a brief exposition concerning his certain future:  "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot."  But instead of dangling Satan's ultimate defeat before Him, Jesus took the "high road."  Matthew 4:7 tells us the response of our Saviour who is altogether wise:  "Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  God's ways and wisdom are higher than ours, and with a simple sentence Jesus diffused the smokescreen of scripture Satan employed.

Jesus did more than take the high road because He is the Most High, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  His interactions with satanic temptation in the wilderness are insightful and instructive of how we should deal with conflict by the use of scripture properly applied.  There are many who may use the Bible to justify their own sin, and it may provoke anger and indignation.  They aim to accuse, provoke, and confuse us, and they will say anything to lure us into their trap.  Yet we see a calmness exuded by Christ who could have resorted to many fleshly tactics against his hypocritical foe, and shined the light of a simple sentence of scripture to turn aside every attack.  Praise the LORD that we too can take the Most High Way and are equipped by the Holy Spirit to walk in victory.