136:7.1Having made his decisions regarding such matters as food andphysical ministration to the needs of his material body, the care of thehealth of himself and his associates, there remained yet other problemsto solve.What would be his attitude when confronted by personal danger? He decidedto exercise normal watchcare over his human safety and to take reasonableprecaution to prevent the untimely termination of his career in the fleshbut to refrain from all superhuman intervention when the crisis of hislife in the flesh should come. As he was formulating this decision, Jesuswas seated under the shade of a tree on an overhanging ledge of rock witha precipice right there before him. He fully realized that he could casthimself off the ledge and out into space, and that nothing could happento harm him provided he would rescind his first great decision not to invokethe interposition of his celestial intelligences in the prosecution ofhis lifework on Urantia, and provided he would abrogate his second decisionconcerning his attitude toward self-preservation.
136:7.2 Jesus knewhis fellow countrymen were expecting a Messiah who would be above naturallaw. Well had he been taught that Scripture: "There shall no evilbefall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he shallgive his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shallbear you up in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone."Would this sort of presumption, this defiance of his Father's laws of gravity,be justified in order to protect himself from possible harm or, perchance,to win the confidence of his mistaught and distracted people? But sucha course, however gratifying to the sign-seeking Jews, would be, not arevelation of his Father, but a questionable trifling with the establishedlaws of the universe of universes.
136:7.3 Understandingall of this and knowing that the Master refused to work in defiance ofhis established laws of nature in so far as his personal conduct was concerned,you know of a certainty that he never walked on the water nor did anythingelse which was an outrage to his material order of administering the world;always, of course, bearing in mind that there had, as yet, been found noway whereby he could be wholly delivered from the lack of control overthe element of time in connection with those matters put under the jurisdictionof the Personalized Adjuster.
136:7.4 Throughouthis entire earth life Jesus was consistently loyal to this decision. Nomatter whether the Pharisees taunted him for a sign, or the watchers atCalvary dared him to come down from the cross, he steadfastly adhered tothe decision of this hour on the hillside.