Matthew 4:8-9

THE THIRD TEMPTATION, Matthew 4:8-11.

8. Again Satan is twice defeated. He could not persuade Jesus to distrust his Sonship, nor presumptuously to assume it. He will make a third effort. He will offer Jesus a Messiahship and a royalty beyond all possibility of doubt, and beyond all limitation. He will first authenticate his power by miracle; he will then show the splendor of the prize; he will then declare on how easy terms, and under what allegiance, Jesus can be a Satan’s Messiah, lord of the world under “the god of this world.” An exceeding high mountain Arriving like a thought at his destination, Satan lays no hand upon him; all is done, as we may suppose, by the power and with the quickness of a volition. And as the Saviour’s bodily eye took in the limits of the prospect, his perceptive faculty, out-reaching its material organ, acquiring the sweep of Satan’s own vision, beheld all the kingdoms of the earth and around the globe, with the glory thereof, in an instant of time.

Yet, after all, it is not said that our Lord really beheld the world’s kingdoms. It only says that Satan showed, that is, pointed them out, for the word asserts nothing more. Yonder, eastward, lies Persia; down southward is old Egypt; and, lo! far to the west, beyond the Mediterranean, is imperial Rome, where Tiberius now rules the world. Thou shalt possess his throne and more. And Satan points with his hand, and paints with his tongue, and offers him a warranty of all that goodly parcel of land. Why should he prefer a doubtful Messiahship to a certain universal monarchy?