Again the devil takes him to a very high mountain, and shews him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory,
Two attacks have failed. Now Satan carries the Lord to a mountain top and spreads the whole world before His eyes. The question is simple. Will the King take His kingdoms from the enemy's hand, or wait for them from God's?
By now the enemy has dropped his disguise.
The third temptation, the pride of life, comes in its proper place. The last two show the evil one unmasked. Jesus has the will of God alone in view, and Satan takes Him — so He is not led. A very high mountain is the place. The kingdoms of the world and their glory are the scene.
The display was no trick of the eyes. What Satan offered was in his hands, but he held it as a thief holds stolen goods.
The third temptation was from the viewpoint of an exceptionally high mountain. It is again miraculous that Satan was able to show the Lord all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory. We must not forget that he is able to work miracles, but his purpose is always evil. His appeal this time was to the human desire for power and wealth. That desire is a strong motivating influence in people generally. The cunning of Satan's offer is plain. These had been handed over to Satan, a cruel usurper, through man's sin.
One writer asks us to feel what this hour was for the Lord Himself.
What anguish of spirit must have been His as He allowed Satan, for a moment, to carry Him to the top of this very high mountain! What sorrow of heart must have been His as He looked at the outward glory of the kingdoms of this world! He knew full well that they were sunk deep in their sin of refusing God and His truth and ways.
Satan offered a throne at once. God's road to that throne ran another way.
He was a King of a different kind, of another moral order, and He would neither receive the kingdoms from the enemy's hand nor rule over a people who were subject to his rule. The path that led up to the throne led Him first to the cross, so that the foundation of the Kingdom might be laid and those redeemed who were to have a place in it. As the Son of Man He will receive the Kingdom from God Himself, "the Ancient of days," and then the kingdoms of this world will become "the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ."
Luke's Gospel lists these three tests in a different order. Matthew and Luke arrange them on different principles.
Luke clearly gives us the temptations in moral order and not historical order. Matthew gives us the historical order… 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 appealed 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. The three testings only served to show His perfection in every detail.
Satan dangled the kingdoms in front of Him; he never put them into His hand. The world still works on us the same way.
Luke adds, "for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will" — not as a possession, but as an object to attract the heart. This last temptation has the character of the world. Let us be warned. Anything in this world presented to us as an object to chase after is of Satan. God cannot offer us anything in a world that has completely cast the Son of God out of it. We are heirs of it with Christ. In time He will put us into possession.
The Lord's answer was final. But the offer came round again, to others.
He knew that He was a king. Then Satan came and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Satan offered to give them all to Him if He fell down and worshipped him. The Lord utterly rejected it all. But Satan, so to speak, repeated the offer to the church, and in time she accepted it. In seeking the glory of the world, she has sought honour where Satan is the prince.
- Unmasked. On the mountain the enemy shows himself. The appeal is bare — power, wealth, and glory.
- Usurped. What he displayed was real, but held as a usurper who gained it through man's sin, not as an owner with a right to give it.
- Shortcut. The road to the throne ran through the cross. Christ would take the kingdoms from no hand but God's.
- Offered, not given. Then and now Satan dangles the world before the heart as bait. He never hands it over.
- Refused, then accepted. Christ rejected the bargain outright. His people later took what He refused.
and says to him, All these things will I give thee if, falling down, thou wilt do me homage.
On a high mountain, with the world's kingdoms spread out below Him, Jesus hears the boldest of the three temptations. Everything is offered, on one condition — and that condition forces the tempter to say out loud what he has wanted all along.
Up to now the tempter has worked by suggestion, even quoting Scripture. One writer notes what happened when he named his price:
The Lord knew very well who it was that was tempting Him. But He does not say so until the devil fully shows himself by saying, "If you will fall down and worship me." Then He calls him Satan. "Devil" means the accuser, "Satan" the adversary. The Lord in no way refuses the testing.
The word "worship" here is not about a religious ceremony. It is about who gets credited as the giver:
That was false, and yet true. It was false as to title, but true as to fact; for Satan had gained this through man's sin. As to title, he had none at all. Satan had no right to give glory to anyone. But by his craft he led man to depart from God. He attacked the first Adam and defeated him. He now takes advantage of this victory over man, and here sets himself up 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 shall be yours."
The kingdoms were to be His anyway. What Satan offered was not the prize but a shortcut to it:
The enemy failed to deceive that obedient heart, even by hiding himself behind the use of the word of God. So he shows himself in his true character. Now he tempts the Lord a third time: to spare Himself all the sufferings that awaited Him. He does this by showing Him the inheritance of the Son of Man on earth. It would be His once He had reached it — but only by all those paths the Father had marked out for Him, paths that were hard, yet necessary to the Father's glory. All would be His now, if He would acknowledge Satan by worshipping him, the god of this world. The kings of the earth have in fact done this for only a part of these things. How often men have done it for some trifling vanity! But Satan offered Him the whole.
What decided the matter was not the size of the offer but the hand holding it out:
Fallen man would like the gift and would long after the gift. The more glory it had, the more it would attract him. But the Lord Jesus — the perfect Man — thought of the giver. He thought of who it was that offered it. His heart was in perfect tune with the heart of God. So He says, "You shall worship the Lord your God." He would not take an empire or a kingdom from anyone else. He would not take glory, pleasure, or honour from Satan. That is what the poor world is doing right now. Satan comes with his glittering bait, and men swallow it eagerly.
One writer turns the same offer toward us:
Let us be warned: if anything in this world is held out to us as a prize to chase after, it is certainly of Satan. God cannot offer us anything in a world that has completely cast out the Son of God. We are heirs of it with Christ. When He takes possession it will be soon enough for hearts that love Him to possess it. He will never separate us from Himself. When He takes the inheritance of all things in heaven and earth we shall take it with Him. Now He calls us into the lowly path of His rejection. He gives us His obedience, His dependence and His absolute refusal of the world, to be our pattern in it.
He won without one stroke of divine power:
Perhaps nowhere does the perfection of manhood shine so brightly as in the temptation. For Satan to fight against Godhead would be folly. But here is a Man — one who was hungry too, and who in His conflict used no means beyond the reach of anyone. He simply quoted the written word of God, and that was enough. Here was a Man perfectly governed by the Word, and for such a one Satan was no match. The strong man was bound by the stronger.
- The bait — the kingdoms and their glory, offered as a shortcut so the Lord could "spare Himself all the sufferings that awaited Him."
- The price — one act of worship, meaning: own Satan as the giver. He had no title to give, only what he had gained through man's sin.
- The mask — the demand for worship is what unmasked him; only then does the Lord name him Satan.
- The refusal — the perfect Man weighed the Giver, not the gift, and would take glory from no hand but God's.
- The inheritance — refused from Satan's hand, it comes in God's own time. Those who walk the lowly path now will take it with Christ then.