Luke chapter 4

vs 1

Now here's an interesting question: was Jesus' baptism for our benefit, or was he not full of the Holy Spirit before then?

Well, he's full of it now, and it's leading him into the desert! A lot of Israel's history has been worked out in the desert, so it's less surprising than we first think.

vs 2

Ok, so was he tempted by the devil for 40 days, or was it after the end of the 40 days that he was tempted? I guess most people would say both, but just that we either don't have a record of what happened in the first 40 days, or the story is written out of order.

vs 3

Later, Jesus will turn bread into more bread. God turned dew into manna, and brought water from stone. Sounds reasonable, for God anyway.

vs 4

Jesus does not do it, though. Instead, he quotes some Scripture.

vs 5

Obviously this not some particular mountain where you can see everything in the world. So the devil is using a multimedia presentation or something.

vs 6

Is the devil lying here? Or is the world really just gone to hell, as it were?

vs 7

But of course, these things don't belong to Satan, but to God. So Satan wants what he really doesn't have and is offering what is not really his.

vs 8

That is good news! Worthy of taking notice of.

vs 9

I am sure there is something important about it being on the roof of the temple, but really it's probably just because it was big. I mean, really big. I wouldn't want to jump off it.

vs 10-11

And here we see the Devil happily quoting Scripture for his purposes. Now, does this mean that what the Devil is quoting isn't true? Not at all. In fact, I think his verse is relevant. But He's seeking to use it for evil purpose. Trying to push Jesus to sin. As we are so often told, it only takes one sin to separate us from God. Jesus being separate from God would cause some sort of nerd-singularity-continuum Star Trek problem, and Scotty wouldn't have the power to save us from that one.