And [the devil], leading him up into a high mountain, shewed him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time.
The devil lifts Jesus to a high place and shows Him every kingdom on earth in one instant. Two questions follow: why does Luke place this temptation second, and by what right does Satan display kingdoms that were never his?
Luke does not follow the sequence of events. He groups the three assaults by what each one targets in a man.
The first temptation is an appeal to the need of the body. The second in Luke (not in Matthew) is the lure of the world's glory. The third in our Gospel is the religious temptation through the word of God, and therefore morally the hardest of all for one who values that word. This is why Luke leaves the actual order of events and groups them morally, as this writer does elsewhere too. So the tempter attacks the Lord Jesus first about man's life. Then about the power given to man. Then about the promises made to Christ Himself.
This display works on the eye. It stands in the middle of a threefold description of the world found elsewhere in Scripture.
The order here agrees with John's analysis of the world in 1 John 2. The first temptation was clearly designed to appeal to the lust of the flesh, the second to the lust of the eyes, and the third to the pride of life. But no such lust or pride had any place in our Lord, and the three testings only served to reveal His perfection in its details.
The same appeal through the eye had worked once before, in a garden, on the first man and his wife.
The sight of the fruit drew Eve in. But not all the glory of the kingdoms of the world could bring Jesus under the devil, or move Him from His place of subjection to God.
The phrase is more than a detail. It measures how much the tempter really has.
From a mountain top the devil shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. (In fact, the whole time these kingdoms will last is really "but for a moment.") Satan can show all he has in a moment. The Lord will take eternity to show us the riches of what He owns.
Commentators differ on how much weight to give the tempter's claim. Some say the Lord never argued with the fact of Satan's grip. They point to how Scripture describes the world elsewhere.
The Word of God sets the world before us as an organised system, with Satan at its head. The devil took Jesus up a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. His offer was this: "I will give You all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will." Of course the Son of God does not admit that Satan has a right to this rule. But He does not deny the fact either.
Others read the boast as a lie that exposes who the speaker is.
He claimed something completely untrue: that they had all been handed over to him, and that he could do with them as he chose. How the devil's true character here comes out! For rulers are God's ministers, not the devil's. The authorities that exist are appointed by God.
One writer traces the devil's grip back to the first man.
It is true enough that all these kingdoms have been delivered to Satan. He is a usurper who tricked Adam into handing the world's authority over to him.
What Christ refused from Satan, someone else will one day accept.
Christ refused the sovereignty of the world from Satan (Luke 4:5, 8); here is one who accepts it.
The refusal costs Him nothing. Who finally gets the earth was never the tempter's to decide.
Men forget that God may allow the devil, for a time, to give the kingdoms of this world to whom he will. But God has kept the final disposal of this world in His own hands. Christ has only to ask, and God will give Him the nations for an inheritance, and the ends of the earth for a possession.
- Order — Luke arranges the three temptations by what they target, not by when they happened: the body, then the world's glory, then the word of God.
- Eye — The middle attack targets the lust of the eyes, the same door through which the fruit once drew Eve in.
- Moment — All the tempter owns can be displayed in an instant; the Lord will need eternity to show His own riches.
- Claim — Commentators differ on Satan's boast. Some say Christ let the fact stand without granting the right. Others say rulers are God's ministers, so the claim was false.
- Inheritance — Christ refused the kingdoms from the devil's hand. They remain God's to give, and He will give them to His Son. Someone else will one day accept them from Satan.
And the devil said to him, I will give thee all this power, and their glory; for it is given up to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it.
From a mountain the devil shows Jesus every kingdom of the world and claims they are his to give away. Was that claim true, and why did the Lord refuse a crown that was already His?
The offer rests on the words "it has been delivered to me." Writers do not treat that as a straight lie or a straight truth.
That was false, and yet true. It was false as to title, but true as to fact; for Satan had acquired this by man's sin. As to title, he had none at all. Satan had no title to give glory to anyone. But through his craft he led man to depart from God. He attacked the first Adam and defeated him. He profits by this victory over man, and here sets himself forward as the usurper. "I have all this," he says, "and I give it to whomever I will. If you will own me as the giver" — that is what worship means here — "if you will take it from me, all will be yours."
Notice what the Lord does not say in reply. He never disputes the boast, and elsewhere He confirms it in His own words.
Of course the Son of God does not acknowledge his right to this dominion, but at the same time He does not deny the fact. On the contrary, He more than once acknowledges it. So, when speaking of His death, He says — "Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out" (John 12:31).
If someone handed this authority over, how did that happen? The answer goes back to the first act of disobedience — and to the obedience that undid it.
It has often been asked, how was it delivered to him. In the second chapter of Ephesians we read, "following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." Satan has gained power over man because man is in a state of disobedience. He has no power over an obedient man, and that is what we see in these verses. He gained his power through the disobedience of man in the garden of Eden, but the obedience of a Man in the wilderness cancels his power.
Look at the offer itself. The devil could display all he had in a single moment.
Satan can show all he has in a moment of time, but the Lord will take eternity to show us the riches of His possession. It is true enough that all these kingdoms have been delivered to Satan. He is a usurper who tricked Adam into handing the world's authority over to him. So he tries also to bring Christ under his authority by his false offer of all these kingdoms, if Christ will only worship him!
The gift had its price: owning Satan as the giver. Who has taken that deal?
Oh, is this not exactly what the powers of this world have done? They have simply taken the devil's bribe. How solemn, how awful, to think of it!
The crown belonged to Christ. He refused the road Satan offered, not the crown.
Satan has profanely taken the crown for himself. During the temptation in the wilderness he actually offered it to Him. He refused it. He did not choose that short and easy way to glory. He took the hard road that lay through death and resurrection — "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:26).
What the devil put before Christ on that mountain, he still puts before His followers.
The character of this last temptation is the world. Let us be warned: whenever this world sets something before us as a prize to chase, it is of Satan. God cannot offer us anything in a world that has cast the Son of God completely out of it. We are heirs of it with Christ. By and by He will put us in possession. When He takes possession, that will be time enough for hearts that love Him to possess it.
- Usurped, not owned. The devil's claim is false as to title and true as to fact — he holds the world's kingdoms, but he never had any right to them.
- Gained by disobedience. He got that hold through man's fall. He has no power over an obedient man, and a Man's obedience in the desert cancelled it.
- Offered in a moment. All he could show took a moment; the Lord will take eternity to display what is really His.
- Refused at the price. The crown was Christ's, but He refused the shortcut. He chose the road through death and resurrection.
- Still on offer. Anything this world holds out as a prize to chase comes from the same hand. The inheritance waits until Christ takes possession and shares it with His own.