Then says Jesus to him, Get thee away, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt do homage to [the] Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.
The third attack drops all disguise. The tempter shows Jesus the world's kingdoms and asks for worship in exchange. Jesus answers with a command and a line of Scripture. Together they settle who owns worship, and on whose terms the kingdoms will be His.
The Moment Tolerance Ends
Twice Jesus had answered without sending the tempter away. What changed was the demand itself.
Satan first tried to turn Him from the only true place of man — obedience to God and dependence on Him. The Lord kept that place perfectly, and Satan was baffled at both points. So he set the world before the Lord. He offered Him all its kingdoms and their glory, if He would only worship him. Now the tempter had come out in his full character, claiming divine worship for himself. That is when the Lord says: "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.'"
The wording matters. Jesus later says something similar to Peter, but not the same thing.
The Lord did call Peter Satan. But He did not say, "Be gone," as He did to the enemy himself (Matthew 4:10). He said, "Get behind me." … It is well worth seeing how the Lord deals with the flesh in a believer who, out of kindness, claims a higher grace than the Spirit. We may and should treat it as Satan's work, as the Lord did in Peter.
The Bait: A Crown Without A Cross
The kingdoms were already His. What was wrong was the hand that offered them, and the hour.
These kingdoms all belonged to Jesus. But God's way — the only way He could secure them in everlasting righteousness — was suffering and death. "You shall have them," said the tempter, "by an easy way. I will give them to you if you will only worship me. Acknowledge me as greater than yourself and God. Take them from my hand, and all shall be yours." But those glittering kingdoms had no attraction in that hour for the holy One of God. He would not take them from any hand but God's hand.
Refusing meant choosing the longer road on purpose.
He refused it. He did not take that short and easy cut 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).
Why Deuteronomy
All three answers come from one book, and the choice was deliberate.
Deuteronomy tells of obedience. So the One who had come to be obedient — obedient even to death, the death of the cross — went to that book of obedience. He used it to show how He submitted to His Father's will, and to defeat Satan by it.
That same book is in our hands.
Notice that the Lord answered Satan each time with "It is written," quoting from the book of Deuteronomy. That book shows Israel about to enter the promised land. The Christian has the same weapon, and it is called "the sword of the Spirit." Scripture also says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
Worship And Service Cannot Be Split
Jesus answered from the place He had Himself taken.
The Lord Jesus had taken "the form of a servant." In that place He glorified God to the fullest, for He was Jehovah's Beloved Servant, and the prophets of Israel gave full witness to Him.
The other side of that is simple:
Bowing to Satan cannot be combined with serving God.
Where This Touches Us
The same trade is still on offer today.
All the kingdoms of the earth will be Christ's in God's own time, and the Lord is waiting for that. Yet how many people, sad to say, have bowed to Satan in some way for scraps of worldly glory or property!
Trench goes further, and gives a test:
Let us be warned: as surely as anything in this world is presented to us as an object to be pursued, it is of Satan. … Now He calls us into the lowly path of His rejection, and gives us His obedience, His dependence, and His absolute refusal of the world, to be our pattern in it.
The Enemy Retires
Jesus met every attack with the Word alone, and the enemy was left with nothing.
So Satan was utterly powerless. He could not advance a single step. Defeated at every point, he had to withdraw, baffled and beaten. And he is as powerless today as he was then, when met in the same way. He cannot touch an obedient, dependent man.
Summary
- Claim — The devil asks for what belongs to God alone. The moment he demands worship, Jesus stops answering and orders him out.
- Cost — The kingdoms were already His, but only by way of suffering and death; He would take them from no hand but God's.
- Weapon — Every reply comes from Deuteronomy, the book of obedience. That same word is the sword in our hands.
- Wholeness — Worship and service go together. No one can bow to Satan and serve God.
- Conquest — The enemy retires beaten. He stays powerless against anyone who meets him the same way: obedient and dependent.