THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

(Part 7)

Matt.. 4:1-11

Morning Meditation 9/21/16

Verses 8-11 Say, “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

The word “again” translates “palin” and means “a renewal or the repetition of an action.” The words “taketh up” translates “paralambano” and means “to take with oneself.” It is a present active indicative verb. What is happening is allowed of God. Satan “takes” Jesus with him. Satan is using his power and authority against the whole human race and directing it toward Jesus as the God-man in order to hold on to his kingdom obtained in his rebellion against God and his successful temptation of Adam in the Garden of Eden..

The words “into an exceeding high mountain” express a place that is high enough to accomplish the purpose of this particular temptation. There is a mountain in the land of Israel that this identified as the place where Satan took Jesus to accomplish this. And there are mountains that are high enough to see the entire land. Mount Hermon for instance. Mount Hermon according to Unger was the religious center of primeval Syria. It was a place of the worship of Baal in ancient times. The Psalmist speaks of the “dew of Hermon.” It is also believed that this mountain was the place of Christ’s transfiguration. But after you have said all of that, looking at it from purely a literal standpoint, you could not see all the kingdoms of the world from Mount Hermon. You could see all that land of Israel and several surrounding kingdoms, i.e., Moab, Edom, Egypt, etc. Satan has come down to his last temptation, and in giving it all he has, he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world as a reward for the worship of himself. The “exceeding high mountain” is a place from which this can be accomplished. I will just leave it there.

The word “sheweth” translates “deiknuo” and means “to show, to expose to the eyes.” It is a present active indicative verb. This means that Satan is making a present appeal in the life of Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry and it is an offer of the kingdoms of the world without the cross. There is nothing that horrified Jesus more that the separation from the Father that He had to experience on the cross. Psalm 22 gives us a preview of what happened the day Jesus paid the sin debt: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Psa. 22:1). Satan is saying, “You can avoid this if you will only fall down and worship me.” That Jesus knew exactly what would happen that day on the cross, is brought out clearly in His prayer in Garden of Gethsemane. My wife and I stood recently in that garden in the approximate spot where Jesus prayed. The Scripture says, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Jesus knew the “cup” He was about to drink. Even the anticipation of this “cup” was enough to bring blood mingled with sweat from Jesus. No believer will ever know the depths and agony of the cross, including Gethsemane, because he will never know the agony of separation from God. Jesus came for the very purpose of redeeming us and to save us from the penalty of sin. He had to do this by suffering in our stead. Jesus loved the Father with his whole spirit, soul and body. Satan’s temptation of Christ was to avoid this. But in reality, Satan had lured Adam into separation from God by the temptation in the Garden of Eden. Jesus will not allow this to happen. He offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.” The words “the glory of them” refers to the joy of the world, the ease that one would have if he were in that position, and all that goes with extreme wealth. I have recently seen the ruins of the ancient cities in that land that were built in honor of those who occupied the position that Jesus is being offered. It is amazing as you look at the ruins of those ancient civilizations that were built in honor of those men. But you also see the tombs of these men. In Egypt the kings made all kinds of expensive arrangements to make their journey to the next life. The pyramids of Egypt were build in honor of these great kings. They buried treasures with them to use in the next world. They also buried boats with them that could be used to take them to the next world when the time came. They died without God and without hope. All their treasures have since been taken by grave robbers. What is left is put on display as a silent testimony to the lie of Satan.. Satan said, “I will give you wealth and power if you will fall down and worship me.” And when you worship Satan, he makes a complete fool of you. One of the gods, the replica of which they sell visiting spectators, is the image of a beatle. It looks like a fly. Another is a cow. Can you imagine worshiping these? And there were a lot of other gods worshiped. God’s Judgment came against all their gods at the time Moses led Israel out of Egypt. Satan must laugh when his subjects are humiliated by bowing down before a beatle or a cow. Brilliant men do stupid things when they are Satan’s pawns in his kingdom. This is the only way he can strike out against God. He attacks the one who was made in the image of God.

But when I walked in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, the tomb that Jesus borrowed for three days and three nights, He was not there. Jesus only stayed dead for three days and three nights. The FOUNDER of our faith is not dead. This is the thing about Christianity that cannot be said about any other religion of this world. Jesus gained the world by not yielding to Satan’s temptation and He did it in a way that Satan’s kingdom is permanently defeated and doomed to eternal judgment so that the Kingdom of God will never be subjected to the possibility of sin again.

Then we have the words “if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Robertson’s Word Pictures Says, speaking of the “if,” “the condition, ean and aorist subjunctive, second class undetermined with likelihood of determination, was spurned by Jesus. The second class condition is “if” and it is true.” Satan knew Jesus had the power to turn him down and WOULD. He nevertheless subjected Him to the temptation. The temptation was real even though Satan knew the outcome would be futile.

What do we learn from this? Satan tempts the believer even though he knows the final outcome of the believer will not be affected. Satan cannot by temptation affect the believer’s destiny. But he can cause much sorrow and lie to those who see us fail. One the biggest lies of Satan is his teaching of works for salvation. When he can get a believer to yield to temptation, he points to our failure and tells his subjects that what we preach (salvation by grace alone) is nothing but a lie. While he cannot do a thing to alter our destiny, he can those who see us as he lies to them about the result of our failure, i.e, loss of salvation because of the sin of yielding to temptation. You know and I know that we do not lose our salvation because of sin. But Satan’s kingdom does not believe that salvation is by grace but rather believes salvation by works. So a failure in temptation to them means the loss of one’s relationship to God. And so Satan takes them a step at a time to hell and uses us to accomplish this horrible end.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White