Matthew 4:5

II. THE SECOND TEMPTATION.

5. Then the devil taketh him into the holy city.

What way the devil took him, whether bodily or in spirit, to the temple we are not told, and it would be in vain to inquire. Whichever be true it was doubtless. suggestion that for the Lord to cast himself down thus, in the holy city, in the presence of the multitudes, would at once establish his mission.

On. pinnacle of the temple.

The only portion of the temple that seems to answer to the context was the lofty porch overhanging the valley of the Kedron. Josephus says that from the apex to the valley below at this point was 600 feet. The devil's first temptation, like that addressed to Eve in Eden, had been intended to awake distrust in the Father. The second goes to the opposite extreme and asks for such an excess of trust as to provoke rashness. One extreme of sin is to distrust God; the opposite extreme is to refuse to employ proper industry and precautions and to tempt God. One sin is to distrust providence and tile other is to presume upon it.