
Gospel According To The Rock
How to last in the greater scheme of things. Sometimes things don't change.
Gospel According To The Rock
Throw Yourself Down or Come With the Clouds
What Jesus Gained by Speaking Right Words
produced by static force llc sometimes things don't change.
Title: Throw Yourself Down or Come With Clouds
Subtitle:
#GospelAccordingToTheRock
Throw Yourself Down or Come With Clouds
by Eric Engelmann
All content © 2025 Static Force, LLC
WHEN ARE WE? The beginning of Jesus' Ministry. He's being tempted by the devil.
WHERE ARE WE? Right now, we're at the top of the temple of Jesus' day. It's called Herod's temple and Herod's family still rules this area. It's in Jerusalem.
HAVE WE BEEN HERE AND NOW BEFORE? Yes. The Gospel According To The Rock has already visited the temptations of Jesus.
WHY ARE WE HERE NOW? I want to compare the Devil's temptation to Jesus coming with the clouds.
BY WAY OF BACKGROUND
About 1446 BC,
Moses wrote -- both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy -- about not tempting the Lord. The peoples' situation at the time? They had followed the Most High and had come to a place where there was no water.
They could have remembered Pharaoh covered in the sea. Or the fire from heaven that shone by night; or the cloud by day that may well have been present while they were complaining about having no water.
But they beleived they were running out of options. So they complained to Moses and it looked like they got ready to *stone* him.
After the ordeal, Moses emphasized God's command: do not tempt the Lord your God. See Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 6.
When I search the Bible for the phrase, "coming with the clouds" I believe there are two major events represented. One is Jesus coming with the clouds of heaven to His Heavenly Father. The other is Jesus coming from His Heavenly Father back to earth.
In this episode, we'll compare Jesus' future "coming to earth with the clouds" to the temptation the Devil gave Jesus to jump from the top of the temple.
Skipping ahead to the start of Jesus' ministry,
about 26 AD,
we find John the Baptist saying Jesus is the Lamb of God. We later find Jesus being taken up to the top of the temple by the devil as mentioned earlier. Jesus doesn't appear to have a lot of options in front of Him, but He does have the power of uttering the word of God -- something the wandering Israelites also had but didn't do.
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 4
Verse 5 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.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
Matthew 4:5-7
That's the end of the passage.
Jesus overcame that temptation.
The irony is Jesus turned down the opportunity to not even hit his foot against a stone to instead face numerous crowds who wanted to throw stones at His whole body.
Here's a comparison of what Jesus was tempted to do versus what Jesus chose:
Jesus trusted He would make a greater descent than having angels carry Him in their hands.
Jesus chose His Father's Command vs. His own whim.
Jesus chose every eye to see him vs. Jerusalem only.
If Jesus had jumped from the Temple, as Satan tempted Him to do, the audience would be local — only those in Jerusalem, especially those entrenched in Temple-based religion.
And given the history of Israel and Jerusalem, more and bigger signs would have been demanded in the future.
Jesus chose a new covenant vs. Prolonging the Old. Jesus is the lamb of God who has given a covenant for the whole earth.
By refusing to jump, Jesus rejected a shortcut — a miracle that would have impressed without transforming. He chose the cross, the resurrection, and then the glory of His ascension. From heaven He gives His Spirit and the power to transform people.
And in the future, we will all see that He chose to return.
All content © 2025 Static Force, LLC