The second temptation listed by Luke is the devil's offer to turn over the kingdoms of the world, with all the authority and the glory of them, to Christ upon the condition that the Lord would fall down before Satan and worship him. In Luke 4:6-8 we find the account of this temptation. Here we are told that Satan caused all the kingdoms of the world to pass before the eyes of Jesus in a moment of time. The fact that Satan did this is proof that he had mighty power. Just how he performed this miracle, the record does not say. Did he present it simply to the mind of Christ, as something within Him? Or did he present the kingdoms of the world in a great panoramic form out before Jesus? In other words, was this a subjective vision which Satan presented to Christ, or, did he present it as a great moving picture out before the physical eyes of the Lord? Of course, it is impossible for us to state which method was used. Should I be permitted to express an opinion, I would say that it would be the latter. The reason for this judgment is that it does not seem appropriate that God would allow the defiled and sinful being of Satan to cross the sacred threshold of our Lord's holy being and thus present this vision to Him subjectively. If this is sound reasoning, then we come to the conclusion that it was an objective presentation to Him, something like a panoramic spiritual moving picture show.

In the vision which Satan presented appeared "all the kingdoms of the world" with their glory. This expression evidently includes all the kingdoms of all the centuries. This he could present by the power and authority which he still retained. Since Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, we may believe that he presented the very best and most attractive portions of the kingdoms of the world to our Lord. There is a certain glory and a strong appeal which human governments have to the minds of men. Especially is the pull of the right to exercise authority and power over others like a great magnet. Allured by the terrific pull of the privilege of exercising authority and power over others, men, even many great and wonderful men, have been led to sell their very souls for the glory of being crowned ruler over an empire or a kingdom. The thought of reigning over the world kingdom in the end time will have a terrific spiritual and magnetic pull over the Antichrist, who will wade through blood in order to seize the imperial purple. But every earthly kingdom, with all its glory, like the fading flower, declines and passes away. Such is the temporary and illusive nature of everything temporal. The glory of these kingdoms had no appeal nor attraction whatsoever to the holy, pure soul of our Lord.

To our Lord the devil said, "To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them; for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it," Satan made a bona fide offer to Christ. He fully intended to give all the kingdoms of the world to Him if He would only accept them from his, Satan's, hands. Satan can mean business and tell the truth whenever it serves his purpose. There is nothing that he would have liked more than for Christ to accept his offer. He knew why the Lord Jesus Christ had come into the world -- to destroy the works of the devil, to snatch the kingdoms of the world away from him. Thus Satan offered to Christ a short-cut. Instead of His pursuing the regular way of doing the will of God and going to the cross to suffer death for the human family, Satan offered to Christ an easy way, a short-cut. The devil's logic was this: You have come to seize the kingdoms of the world and to become King over all nations. Why go the hard way? All this authority is mine, and I will turn it over to you without any resistance whatsoever, if you will only worship me. For Christ to do that would be for Him to abandon the plan which He came into the world to execute.

Were all the kingdoms of the world in the hands of Satan? Was it in his power to give them to whomsoever he would? The answer is a strong affirmation. Satan is called the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4). The Apostle John said that the whole world lieth in the evil one (I John 5:19). But doesn't God rule and overrule? Yes, He does. And He gives the kingdom to whomsoever He, the Almighty desires (Jer. 27:5-11). At the same time, Satan "farms out" the world and its authority to those who will fit into his plans and purposes and allow them to forward his plans. Satan, therefore, did not make a bogus claim and promise. He can act only as the Lord, the Almighty, grants him power. On this point, study Job, chapters 1 and 2, particularly.

In meeting this temptation our Lord again took His stand upon the Scriptures by saying, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." One must worship God, in whom we live, move, and have our being. To no creature or mortal shall man give any worship. Thus to render divine homage to anyone other than God is to ignore facts and to go contrary to truth. To God we owe all the allegiance of our souls and the worship of our spirits.

The last temptation mentioned by Luke occurred when Satan accompanied Jesus up to Jerusalem and went to the wing of the Temple--probably on the east side of the Temple enclosure. Below, the brook Kidron appeared as an abyss. Satan therefore told Him: "If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence ..." The devil said to Him that He should rely upon the promise found in Psalm 91:11,12, which states that the Lord will take care of Messiah, lest He dash His foot against a stone and injure it, and that to the angels He would give charge concerning Him. An examination of Psalm 91 shows that that portion of it which Satan applied to Christ was interpreted correctly. God had promised in that psalm to take care of the Son of God and to commission His angels to protect Him. One should study Psalm 91 in the Revised Version and note the language carefully. Verses 1 and 2 state the general truth that God will protect anyone who trusts in Him. Verses 3-8 were addressed by the writer to the faithful Jews living in the time of the Tribulation, promising them exemption from disaster and protection through the terrible ordeals of that future time. But verses 9-16 are addressed to Jehovah the Son, who, when He came the first time, made God His refuge and the Most High His habitation. Thus we see that, when the verses which Satan quoted are studied in the light of the original context, it is clear that Satan did not warp the Scriptures, nor did he force an unwarranted interpretation upon them. God promised the Saviour in Psalm 91:9-16, protection and deliverance. Satan, knowing that Jesus accepted the Word of God at its face value and depended upon what was written, correctly interpreted the verses which he quoted and thought that, by so doing, he would lead the Son of God to make trial of the Almighty and thus violate the Scriptures upon which He depended so very completely. God had promised full protection and complete deliverance to the Son of God. The Lord Jesus took His stand upon those promises and enjoyed the benefits therefrom. But what Satan wanted Him to do was to claim this protection. At the same time He would be putting God Almighty to a test. Jesus refused to run into the trap which Satan set for Him. This promise of Psalm 91 did not instruct the Lord to create an unnatural situation and then call upon God to deliver Him by so doing. If the Lord had done that, He would have been putting God to the test. Such an act would have been a lack of faith and would have been a violation of the spirit and the letter of the promise in Psalm 91 and the prohibition against putting the Lord to a test. While Satan did correctly apply the passage, he did not quote the passage in its entirety--as many people do today. We should never take a text apart from its context, for if we do, we make a pretext out of it.

With this final temptation Satan went down in utter and complete defeat. The Lord Jesus had each time taken His stand upon the infallibly inspired Word of God. He trusted God to fulfill every promise that He had made. The Lord never failed Him. Jesus came off victorious. He was even victorious in His dying, because He came for that purpose. Each one of us will do well if we will trust the Lord to the very limit. We may not be able to see how God will bring deliverance and protect, but He can do it by His omnipotence and omniscience. Satan is a conquered foe. We are to resist him, strong in our faith, and he will flee from us. God watches over His Word to perform every promise that He has ever made: "Then said Jehovah ...I watch over my word to perform it" (Jer. 1:11,12).

When the devil had completed every temptation, he left the Lord, but only for a season. He kept coming back from time to time. Satan will never be discouraged. Though he is routed and suffers defeat, he will come back and renew his attack. He will come back in a different way each time, adopting different tactics and approaching one in a new way. He, as Paul said, will transform himself into an angel of light to deceive. He will appeal to one through "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life" (I John 2:16).

There is no other way to fight Satan than by the use of the sword of the Spirit. One must believe God implicitly and trust Him to fulfill the promises. May the Lord bless us and enable us to take our stand, as our Lord did, upon that which is written. And even though we cannot, at times, see how our God can bring the deliverance, may He enable us to trust Him to do so. Prayer brings victory; prayer changes things.

"0 Thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way;
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod;
Lord, teach us how to pray!"